"How could Harvest have such a powerful priest!"
"Who exactly are you!"
The second-rank swordsman let out a questioning roar toward the tall, elegant figure amidst the plants.
However, only a deathly silence responded to him.
Sharp wooden branches continuously opened wounds on his body; he could only feel death descending step by step.
The scent of blood filled this botanical shura field.
Thick vines, like snakes catching the scent of blood, twisted and approached from the surroundings.
He would die.
He was going to die!
Death felt like countless slimy tongues licking his entire body.
It made his skin crawl.
The walnut hilt, inlaid with silver, cracked under his grip; under the threat of death, he cast aside all illusory senses of security.
In this instant, everything in the surroundings became slow.
His vision seemed to pull back to a very high position.
He could see it!
"Aaaah!!"
He let out a roar, forcing every last bit of air from his lungs as if to lighten his body.
The threat of death was the best secret medicine for an extraordinary breakthrough!
His figure burst from the spot, his eight-sided Sword Qi tearing through the surrounding vines and branches like swimming dragons.
The twigs on the ground were crushed into powder beneath his feet.
His lunging form tore through the air, letting out a roar like a demon's.
With the roar, his eyes turned blood-red, and veins bulged across his skin.
"Die!"
He charged at Zeno!
His longsword, shrouded in heavy Sword Qi, tore through everything in its path as it slashed toward Zeno!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Explosive dust filled the entire space shrouded by plants!
Extremely fine wood chips flew like countless tiny blades, swirling and cutting again and again.
Fete, slumped on the ground, widened his eyes, his exposed skin sliced by the wood fragments.
Yet he did not look away, staring fixedly at the place where the dust had exploded.
The dust slowly dissipated.
Wood chips drifted down.
A figure gradually became clear.
Tall, elegant, beautiful.
Unchanged.
Where was the swordsman? Where was that powerful swordsman!
Fete hurriedly looked around, and then his pupils constricted as the fear known as power weighed down on his heart.
The swordsman's head was held in that beautiful woman's hand, while the swordsman's body, maintaining its slashing posture, slowly fell to the ground before her.
It made a faint, insignificant sound.
Thud.
Just what... just what...
Just what happened!
Fete, lying on the ground, wanted to speak but found himself unable to.
The sense of dominance and pressure still swirling in the surroundings made him feel from the bottom of his heart...
Until the woman before him spoke, he...
He had no right to speak!
Zeno slowly dropped the head, and it rolled across the ground.
Those wide, bloodshot eyes were now pointed directly at the unfortunate Fete.
This caused Fete's body, which had just struggled to crawl up, to collapse back to the ground in humiliation.
Zeno slowly turned her head and looked at Fete.
Though the metal head-armor prevented Fete from seeing Zeno's eyes hidden beneath, he could feel a cold gaze scanning over him.
"Return to the previous floor. Do not leave as you please."
Zeno issued the command in an icy voice.
Fete wanted to respond, but as soon as he opened his mouth, he only let out heavy, rapid, and trembling gasps.
It was the relief of a survivor, as if receiving a judgment; his body instinctively and greedily inhaled air, thereby greedily feeling the sensation of being alive.
How pathetic.
Fete shamefully used the wall for support, his legs trembling as he climbed to his feet.
Being alive was better than being dead.
"You..."
"Who are you?"
Fete asked in a hoarse voice.
Zeno did not want to pay any mind to the human's question; if it were any other question, she would have ignored it directly.
But.
But...
The name her master had bestowed upon her—she wanted others to know it!
This was a noble gift from her master, a proof of his favor.
It was the highest honor of the Well of Eternal Imprisonment!
She wanted to show it off; even the rationality added by her master when he created her could not suppress the impulse in her heart.
As the guardian of the Well of Eternal Imprisonment...
When someone asked for her name, she should announce this gift from her master.
"Zeno."
Leaving behind that final word, Zeno vanished from the spot.
The surrounding plants also quickly disappeared from Fete's sight, and the corpses that had attacked him vanished along with them.
Everything felt like an illusion.
However, the marks left on the surrounding rock walls clearly told Fete that everything just now had been real.
Zeno.
He had never heard this name in the Northern Territory.
How could such a powerful and terrifying existence be unknown?
Moreover, she was a woman who wielded such immense power.
The name was also quite terrifying.
Recalling Zeno's appearance carefully, Fete realized that although the upper half of her face was hidden by the head-armor...
She possessed a pair of pointed, long ears that were completely different from a human's.
This made Fete think of a race almost never seen in the Northern Territory.
The elves.
Specifically, the elf race.
The elf race lived in the extremely distant south and was said to be beautiful and powerful.
They were born with the lifespan of high-ranking extraordinary beings.
But legend said elves had blonde or green hair.
Yet Zeno had long black hair. A half-elf?
What was such an existence doing in this remote Northern Territory dungeon?
Could there be something in this dungeon that could attract such an entity?
And why did she save him?
Why did she want him to stay in this dungeon?
Fete gave a bitter smile; what could he, a weak alchemist, do to resist?
He would just go with the flow.
If she wanted him dead, he would have been dead long ago anyway.
Zeno.
Fete deeply remembered this name that symbolized misfortune and calamity, yet was so powerful.
...
Everything was as usual.
Having finished her unexpected mission, Zeno looked down over the entire fourth floor from the tallest magic tree.
Conspiracies.
Alarms.
Struggles.
They brewed and occurred in this dungeon as always.
However, all these conspiracies...
Were watched by the supreme existence of the Well of Eternal Imprisonment as if watching a series of comical plays.
Perhaps to the master, these humans were merely seasoning in the tedious process of expansion.
Like a bored castle lord letting a few clumsy thieves into the castle to toy with them.
When a clumsy thief amused the master, the master would grant a little something as a reward for the entertainment.
If a clumsy thief annoyed the master, he would swat them like a fly.
Just like this time.
Rate on N.U.
