Even though she had hastily treated the wound, it was certainly not going to heal overnight. Carrying such a severe injury, Vina Alice could not walk very fast.
Even so, she stubbornly refused Laya's assistance, turning down her loyal follower's offer to support her.
The two stumbled along like this, navigating paths covered in loose stone and moss, passing through one ruin after another that still reeked of smoke and blood.
Finally, they arrived at the side of a ruined, moss-covered, palace-like structure. Only a few towering walls remained, leaving its original shape completely unrecognizable. There, Laya, clad in her black robe and utterly devoid of the breath of life, halted.
Pressing her side flat against the wall, she made a shushing gesture to Vina behind her, then bent down and carefully peeked around the corner.
After assessing the situation, the loyal guard, who had been turned into an undead, waved her hand to signal her lady to come closer.
Vina, also dressed in a black robe, clutched her flank. Enduring the sharp, tearing pain that flared up with every step, she gritted her teeth and made her way to Laya's side.
Mimicking her guard's posture, she also leaned down and carefully peeked outside.
When she saw what was happening in the large clearing that had been deliberately swept clean, the former Saintess's eyes widened, and her mouth stretched into a silent “O.”
Her yellowish-brown eyes reflected a scene of unspeakable, brutal sacrifice—
Across the cleared ground sat a series of crudely crafted iron cages.
Locked inside were none other than drow—the “fallen elves” known for their long, pointed ears, obsidian skin, and alluring beauty.
These captives had likely been rounded up when their city was destroyed. Their tattered garments were stained with filth and dried blood, and every single drow emitted a sickening, sour stench.
It wasn't just because they hadn't bathed in ages, but because their own waste had accumulated at the bottom of the cages, caking their feet, hands, and even the strands of their hair.
This left these peerless beauties looking like the starving refugees of Earth—no, they were in an even more wretched, stomach-turning state.
Yet, despite being trapped in such squalor, the drow showed no signs of resistance. Their expressions were utterly vacant as they huddled in the corners of their cages, as if they had lost all sanity and resigned themselves to being treated like livestock waiting for the slaughter.
And guarding—or rather, supervising—these pitiful drow was a pack of... mermaids with obvious signs of mutation?
No, perhaps “hideous fishfolk” was a more fitting description.
The reason was simple: the upper half of these monsters consisted of fish, while their lower half featured human-like legs.
There were at least a hundred of these creatures. They possessed limbs, but even before their mutation, these amphibians—known as Kuo-toa—were covered in thick slime and fish scales. They could not be further from the concept of a mermaid.
Now, having mutated, their appearance was even more grotesque. Their eyes bulged like a frog's, almost entirely exposed outside their sockets. Their backs were swollen into unsightly humps. Between the gaps of their black scales grew dense, hair-like tiny tentacles, and the webbed digits at the ends of their limbs had become bloated and swollen.
This bizarre anatomy forced these fishfolk, who would normally walk upright, to crawl on all fours.
Under the watchful eyes of Vina and Laya, several mutated Kuo-toa slithered toward one of the cages.
The previously catatonic drow immediately panicked as the Kuo-toa drew near, scrambling frantically into the far corners of the cage.
But their struggle was futile. Amidst the desperate wails of the drow, one of the Kuo-toa opened its mouth.
What should have been its tongue had transformed into a slimy, pink tentacle as thick as a human arm. It was exceptionally long, thick, and prehensile.
Its swollen, hump-like back seemed to serve as a housing for this disgusting appendage.
The tentacle deftly unlocked the cage door. Seeing this, the other Kuo-toa shot out their own thick, elongated tongues. Working in tandem, they wrapped the slimy appendages around the legs of a screaming drow, dragging her out of the cage as she shrieked in despair.
The cage door was immediately slammed shut behind her.
Under the terrified gazes of her caged kin, the dragged drow struggled violently, but more Kuo-toa shot out their tentacle-like tongues to pin her limbs. They used every appendage they had to roughly tear away her filthy, tattered clothing.
The pitiful drow was hoisted into the air by the mass of tentacles and carried over to a bottomless pit.
The Kuo-toa who had gathered to watch fell back with eerie coordination, forming a wide circle around the pit. Only five of the largest, strongest fishfolk remained at the edge, their tentacle-like tongues coiled tightly around the naked drow's limbs and neck.
“Ga-wu-ga!”
One of the mutated Kuo-toa let out a harsh cry, and the surrounding fishfolk immediately dropped to all fours, slamming their heads heavily against the ground in unison.
Riiip!
Amidst a horrific shriek of agony, the drow suspended over the pit was torn limb from limb as the five fishfolk pulled in opposite directions.
Like a brutal drawing and quartering, her body was ripped into bloody pieces by the retracting tentacles.
The tentacles instantly released their grip, letting her mangled limbs and organs plunge down into the darkness of the bottomless pit.
With the bloody sacrifice complete, the mutated Kuo-toa slumped back onto the ground and closed their eyes.
They fell back into a deep slumber.
They would wait a while longer before performing the next sacrifice...
“This is truly... sickening...”
Vina Alice withdrew her gaze, clutching her chest as she fought back the urge to vomit. Her stomach was churning violently.
Her mind involuntarily drifted back to years ago, when she had plotted against that lich named Sarthas. On the day she first beheld that city of corpses, she had reacted with the same wretched weakness.
“Your Highness...” Laya asked with concern, “are you alright?”
“I'm fine.”
Vina took a deep breath, forcing her expression to harden. “To reach the next level down, is this the only path?”
Seeing Laya nod silently, the fallen Saintess's face paled further. She hesitated for a few seconds before seemingly making a decision.
“We should find a place to rest and recover first. I'm injured. If we get bogged down by these disgusting fishfolk and that green-haired bitch catches up to us, we're finished...”
With that, Vina turned around to backtrack.
But before she could take more than two steps, the ground suddenly began to shudder. She looked up to see stone stalactites plunging from the ceiling in the direction they had just come from, accompanied by the muffled sounds of battle.
In an instant, the hairs on the back of Vina's neck stood on end. She froze, slowly turning her head back around.
Through the gaps in the ruined wall, she could see the mutated, hideous Kuo-toa. Every single one of them had turned their heads, staring directly toward their hiding spot.
Their bulging, sickly green eyes burned with unbridled malice and chaos.
They had been awakened...
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