Volume 8, Chapter 42 – Chaos Nest

By the time Fia, supporting the awakened Lucitine, returned to the kingdom of the dead, night had already fallen. Although the undead were quite surprised as to when Fia and Lucitine had left the kingdom of the dead, the queen’s private affairs were not for them to meddle in. So they only cast curious glances and didn’t approach to ask, saving Fia the trouble of explaining.

As for Lucitine’s condition, after sleeping, she was much better. The red glint symbolizing madness was gone from her eyes. Apart from Lucitine still wanting to eliminate Chaos first, her other behavior was normal.

Now, after resting for a while on the throne, Lucitine stood up. Her expression indifferent, she waved her sleeve at the Thirteen Attendants below.

“You go to the front lines first. Fia and I will come shortly.”

“Yes.” A maid-attired attendant bowed. “But Your Majesty, we haven’t yet dug through the rock wall created by Lady Fia, and the ghosts haven’t found any trace of Chaos either. A battle shouldn’t be possible in the short term. Your Majesty can rest a while longer. Once we locate the Chaos, you can take action.”

“No need. Fia has already agreed to cooperate with me. With her help, we’ll find the Chaos soon.”

“With Lady Fia’s help… understood.”

Without further hesitation, the Thirteen Attendants, including the maid Afla, left the hall together. Only Fia and Lucitine remained in the palace.

Fia, standing by the throne, finally spoke. She was still wearing that emerald-green elf traditional attire, adorned with pure white knee-high socks, looking pure and sacred. However, her expression now held only concern.

“I agreed to help Lucitine eliminate Chaos, but we don’t have to be this urgent, right? Lucitine should rest first. The first Venex’s emotions clearly affected you. During the day, if I hadn’t reacted quickly, you might have directly attacked me for refusing.”

“Ugh… sorry, I don’t know how to explain it. Maybe I was indeed affected by the first Venex’s emotions, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing at all. Eliminating Chaos is a righteous cause. Whenever I think of Chaos, hatred wells up inside me uncontrollably.”

Although Lucitine’s slightly lowered brows showed she knew she was being a bit impatient and was embarrassed about it, she still hadn’t given up on the idea of eliminating Chaos.

Fia had heard similar words from Lucitine before. The context then was when she took Lucitine to Blossom, and the various wonderful things in the living world made Lucitine exclaim that the rich and colorful world temporarily made her forget her hatred of Chaos, her heart no longer filled with constant anxiety.

Now the situation was reversed. Hatred of Chaos had overridden her longing for the living world.

Generation after generation of Venexes had accumulated hatred for Chaos. When Lucitine stepped into the immortal sanctuary and contacted them, these strong obsessions invaded Lucitine’s mind, affecting her too…

As she followed Lucitine out of the hall, Fia reviewed the morning’s chaotic scene in her mind. At first, the first Venex and the others’ behavior was at most eerie. But after Lucitine transmitted her memories to the first Venex, the first Venex went mad, speaking of hating Chaos.

Fia could understand the first Venex’s hostility. The first Venex had an obsession with eliminating Chaos, and Lucitine’s memories contained scenes of fighting Chaos. So when the first Venex saw that, the hatred for Chaos in her heart was awakened, and she went mad.

But there was one thing Fia didn’t understand. The other Venexes hated Chaos because Milan and his group actively attacked the undead, creating enmity between them. But the first Venex’s hatred of Chaos didn’t make sense timeline-wise. When Milan and the others dug underground into the kingdom of the dead, the first Venex had already been replaced. The two sides hadn’t had contact.

Just in case, Fia asked Lucitine.

“Lucitine, when Chaos invaded underground into the kingdom of the dead, which generation of Venex was in power?”

“Why does Fia ask that?”

“Just answer.”

Lucitine tilted her head, her queenly face showing confusion.

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“Hmm—probably the second me? Although the first me lived a long time, Chaos came under the kingdom of the dead quite late.”

So they were indeed out of sync.

Fia pondered again.

Since the first Venex had never seen the Eye tribe people, why did she harbor such intense hatred for Chaos? It was puzzling.

Ultimately, since the first Venex extremely hated Chaos to the point where even after ten thousand years, the obsession to eliminate Chaos remained in her consciousness, how could she have soberly set the rule of ‘replacement’ back then, instead of stubbornly insisting on eliminating Chaos before dying? It was baffling. One had to remember, hatred was the strongest driving force for survival.

Recalling that the first Venex had exclaimed, “I’m alive?”—could it be that the Venex had actually once been a living person, and only later died and became the Queen of Death?

Only by seeing the first Venex again could she know the answer.

Having already delved deep into the anthill with Lucitine, Fia stopped dwelling on the past and instead became vigilant. During the day, while Lucitine was asleep, she had noticed that Lucitine would likely request her help to eliminate Chaos as soon as she woke up. So she had previously teleported to the second Nursery and the Hall of Reverent Light, coordinating with the Eye tribe to set up a trap, arranging a large number of simple facilities within the anthill to mislead Lucitine.

Now they just needed to follow the script.

Silent advance.

Until they reached another football-field-sized cavity, Lucitine abruptly stopped.

“Wait, Fia.”

Lucitine raised her eyebrows, her expression as if facing a great enemy. She drew the scales sword from the void, her gaze firmly fixed on an ant tunnel in the upper left corner of the cavity.

“What’s wrong?”

Fia asked knowingly. She knew there was a Ninth-Tier blue-eyed Chaos hiding in that upper left ant tunnel, and she had also used the same method to lure away the Thirteen Attendants, who had left earlier. The Eye tribe wasn’t unable to enter the intricate ant tunnels; they just believed that delving deep into the ant tunnels would deprive the ‘minerals’ of growing space. In reality, delving deep into the ant tunnels was easy for them.

“Shh, there’s Chaos there, and not weak.”

As she spoke, Lucitine instinctively used the undead’s investigation magic. The result was her field of vision flooded with blinding white light like the sun. She clicked her tongue. Now she knew this was the consequence of having Fia beside her—being too strong wasn’t always good.

Fortunately, Fia reminded her.

“I can sense it’s Ninth-Tier Chaos. But I sealed off the large cavity. How could Ninth-Tier Chaos enter the anthill?”

“There might be secret passages in the anthill we don’t know about.” Lucitine lowered her center of gravity and said solemnly. “This Chaos was probably sent out as a scout. Let’s follow it. Maybe we can find a secret passage leading to their hiding place.”

“Okay.”

Everything was going according to plan.

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Fia breathed a sigh of relief. Originally, her plan was that if Lucitine didn’t notice, she would suggest they should lie in ambush first and follow the Chaos to its lair. But Lucitine was smart enough, saving Fia the trouble of explaining.

“Let’s hide up ahead first.”

“No, I have a plan—”

Before she could finish, Fia turned to look at Lucitine. She noticed a critical problem.

According to her plan, she would use [Cloud Moon of the Illusory Sea] here to hide herself and Lucitine, quietly following the lead Eye. This would allow her to keep Lucitine under her control throughout, preventing any rash actions. But to use [Cloud Moon of the Illusory Sea] to hide them, Lucitine would need to be pressed tightly against her, and quite intimately at that—at least to the point of embracing each other.

So a problem presented itself.

Having Lucitine hug her while moving forward—with the height difference between them—would definitely be very troublesome.

But she couldn’t have Lucitine hug her while moving forward either.

How could I have forgotten to consider the height issue…

“What does Fia want to say?”

“Nothing. He’s running. Follow him!”

“Shh, keep your voice down.”

Lucitine, quite into the role, made a shushing gesture. Fia grabbed Lucitine’s wrist and flew straight into the ant tunnel the Eye had fled through. On the surface, the Chaos was fleeing because it was startled. In reality, this was all scripted. No matter how much noise Lucitine and Fia made, the Eye would only run back along the predetermined route.

The chase proceeded through the narrow, dark, rugged ant tunnels. During this process, another unexpected situation arose. Keeping up with the Eye wasn’t difficult given their strength, but Lucitine was too cautious, to the point of losing track of the Eye multiple times. Fortunately, Fia had a photographic memory and remembered which fork in the road to take. Otherwise, they would have had to turn back.

Lucitine’s reason for being cautious was fear that chasing too closely would make the Eye lose the will to flee and stop to fight to the death. Although eliminating a Ninth-Tier Chaos would be a huge gain, compared to finding the Chaos nest that had remained undiscovered for ten thousand years, it would be a massive loss.

After passing a corner, Lucitine pulled Fia back again.

“Wait, Fia. We’re chasing too fast.”

“We’ve been chasing this close all along, and he hasn’t reacted. We can chase to the end. Losing him is more troublesome than being discovered.”

“Doesn’t Fia say she has a special way to track him? That’s how we followed him at forks before. Since that’s the case, we shouldn’t be too hasty.”

In the dim light, Fia caught the pleading look on Lucitine’s face and didn’t know what to say for a moment.

“Are you the Queen of Death, or am I? I feel like I’m more anxious than you.”

“Being cautious is the normal choice, right?”

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“…Okay.”

From Lucitine’s perspective, it was indeed the right thing to say. Fia had to temporarily agree with Lucitine. As a result, the two nervously chased for a full quarter of an hour.

“It’s accelerating.”

Lucitine shouted softly. The Eye ahead suddenly fled at an unprecedented speed. A hint of urgency appeared in her voice. She even wanted to use a slowing magic on it. But before she could even start chanting, the Eye disappeared from her field of vision.

What?

Lucitine’s heart leaped into her throat. This had never happened before—Chaos disappearing from her field of vision.

A trap to lure them in deep?

Without warning, Lucitine’s heart skipped a beat. She abruptly stopped and pulled Fia, who was about to chase further, into her arms.

“Fia, there’s a trap ahead!”

“We’ve chased this far. What nonsense are you talking?”

Fia gently pushed away the two soft things pressing against her face. Internally, her heart also skipped a beat, just like Lucitine’s. She was momentarily uncertain, beginning to suspect if she had been too obvious, if the plan was exposed, if Lucitine had seen through her.

She was clearly overestimating Lucitine. The latter said seriously.

“Chaos have no intelligence, but they’re not this stupid either. Maybe he’s deliberately leading us to a pre-set trap. Ultimately, having a Ninth-Tier Chaos act as a scout—that in itself is very suspicious.”

“Are the two of us afraid of traps? If danger comes, I’ll protect you. Let’s follow.”

“Hmm…”

With that, Fia forcefully pulled Lucitine forward. Lucitine didn’t refute anymore. Fia’s assertive attitude made her feel as if she’d been pierced through the heart by an arrow. Of course, the arrow here was Cupid’s arrow. She couldn’t find words to refute Fia. Even her urgency to eliminate Chaos diminished. Her heart raced. In her eyes, Fia’s figure became majestic. It seemed she, the queen, had turned into a clingy young girl, while Fia, much smaller than her, had become the savior rescuing her.

This role wasn’t bad either.

Fia was an elf who could head-on withstand over ten golden beams. I should trust Fia’s judgment.

Comforting herself like this, even knowing there was danger ahead, Lucitine silently followed. She shyly glanced away, lest Fia see her inappropriate blush.

Feeling Lucitine’s rapidly rising body temperature, Fia instinctively looked back. She happened to catch Lucitine’s shy face—the expression of a young girl in love, no different from Nola back then.

This girl…

For some reason, an idea popped into Fia’s head. Maybe she didn’t have to go to all this trouble deceiving Lucitine. She could just make Lucitine genuinely fall for her, then be completely open with her, and easily resolve Lucitine’s hatred for the Eye tribe.

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But this method was too despicable, and if it failed, there would be no retreat.

Pretending not to notice, she stopped at the tunnel’s end. Her ruby-like pupils contracted.

What appeared before them was a massive cavity. At their feet was a several hundred meters high, vertical cliff face. Since the cavity was pitch black, neither Fia nor Lucitine could see what was inside. But they could hear a massive amount of slimy wriggling sounds and the noise of fighting in the distance. The foul air assailing their faces made them frown repeatedly. Lucitine instantly understood how the previous Chaos had disappeared—it had jumped into the cliff.

The scene before her was all too familiar. It was identical to the large cavity Fia had sealed with [Blessing of the Mother Goddess]. The vast underground space was filled with Chaos. If any undead stepped inside, they would be instantly swept away by the tidal wave of Chaos.

Who was fighting the Chaos?

“Lucitine, wait here. I’ll go down and take a look.”

Saying this, Fia tried to push away Lucitine’s hand. But Lucitine didn’t let go; instead, she held on tighter.

“No. We go together.”

Fia hesitated for a moment—of course, deliberately.

“Okay.”

With that, Fia raised her right hand high by the cliff.

[Light]

Blinding white light like a flare instantly filled the underground cavity. Lucitine could now see its full scope. Then, her expression froze.

She had to retract her earlier judgment.

This wasn’t a battlefield like the large cavity. This was a Chaos nest. The ground covered in Chaos was just the basics. On the opposite side of the cliff where they stood, dozens of huge stone pillars supported the underground cavity. The pillars were covered in dense, hair-raising holes, like breeding chambers for larvae. Chaos constantly flowed out from them, mixed with Antler Chaos with golden eyes.

And in a far corner, extremely distant from the stone pillars, the thirteen attendants were struggling to hold on under siege from Chaos. Some of their clothes were corroded, their bodies damaged, barely able to maintain balance—clearly unable to hold out much longer. Even without the golden-eyed Chaos taking action, just the tidal wave of ordinary Chaos crashing against them made their magical barriers totter.

The Thirteen Attendants had been lured here by Chaos.

The Chaos nest was actually here!

“Fia!”

No need for verbal communication. One look at each other and they knew what to do. Lucitine gripped the scales sword tightly and, with a stern expression, flew straight towards the thirteen attendants.

Sweep away all the Chaos here. Leave no hidden danger.