Volume 5, Chapter 98 – You Look Like… You’d Be Pretty Tasty Too

Inside the refinement hall,

The rumbling of the furnace echoed lowly, red firelight reflecting off the stone walls like the heart of hell slowly beating.

In this scorching and oppressive air, a silver-white figure sat quietly in front of the furnace.

It was a silver-haired elf girl with a slender frame and nearly transparent skin that shimmered with a soft luster under the firelight. Her legs were curled up, bare feet on the cold stone surface, tightly holding something in her arms that she was gnawing on.

That… was an orb emanating pale golden light.

The elf girl’s expression was serene and focused, her small mouth taking bite after bite of the golden orb—with each bite, countless golden light particles scattered like fireflies, merging into the air before being absorbed back into her body. The scene was both eerie and strangely beautiful.

Gripping her longsword tightly with furrowed brow, Isabelle slowly circled around from beside the furnace, her footsteps so light they were almost soundless. But when she clearly saw what the elf girl held in her arms, her breathing suddenly stopped—that “energy ball” was none other than the ‘energy core’ that their House Solrog had painstakingly refined from sacred artifacts!!

The energy core meant to stabilize Lord Astral’s power!!

—”This elf is actually gnawing on the energy core??!! What kind of joke is this!!”—

Isabelle couldn’t help but roar inwardly.

You have to know, the sacred artifacts contained The Lord’s power within them.

After refining over a dozen sacred artifacts, the condensed energy core undoubtedly possessed immeasurable energy.

The intensity of this energy was far beyond what Divine Departure Realm experts could bear.

Perhaps only Lord Astral, who had reached Divine Graced Realm, had the ability to absorb it.

If anyone else tried to absorb it, they would likely explode and die instantly.

However?

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This girl was treating the energy core like a snack, taking bite after bite??

What was going on??

For a moment, Isabelle’s pupils contracted sharply, cold sweat sliding down her neck. A strong ominous premonition immediately spread like a virus through her heart.

At the same time,

The silver-haired elf girl, who was eating happily, seemed to notice Isabelle’s gaze and looked up slightly. Her eyes, interwoven with azure blue and sea blue, were pure and flawless, with a smile reddened by the firelight at the corners of her mouth.

Tilting her head, the elf girl slowly spoke, her tone gentle and adorably dreamy.

“Are you… hungry too? Want to… have some?”

The girl even made a gesture as if wanting to share the energy core with Isabelle.

“Wh-what?”

In this instant, Isabelle’s heart almost stopped beating.

Under the dancing shadows of flame, the elf girl’s innocent face now seemed more terrifying than any monster.

Moreover,

Isabelle suddenly realized that she had seen this elf girl before! Wasn’t this the Divine Departure Realm elf that Angerson had shown her earlier?!

Why would she appear here?

Hadn’t she already ordered him to…

No, that’s not right.

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That guy had already been emotionally manipulated by Ulutiel, so naturally he couldn’t follow orders. Considering that Angerson might have already been controlled by Ulutiel at that time, this elf… should also be a vassal disguised by Ulutiel, right?

Clearly a monster, yet creating such an exquisite appearance… truly disgusting.

—”Scram.”—

After coldly giving this response, Isabelle, surrounded by white spiritual power, instantly flash-stepped to kill the elf girl.

The air violently shook due to her sudden acceleration, blazing white spiritual energy tearing a dazzling trail behind her.

The elf girl seemed to have no time to react before the golden energy core in her arms was forcibly snatched away, causing her to bite at empty air. In that instant, the flames deep in the furnace seemed to be drained, the temperature of the space plummeted, and the surrounding light dimmed considerably.

The girl stared blankly at her empty hands, her vacant yet innocent expression having no time to change before seeing a cold gleam flash across her vision.

“—Crack!”

The sound of a blade piercing flesh was clear and brutal.

The sword directly penetrated through her chest, violently sending her petite body flying.

Violent spiritual energy impact instantly erupted, accompanied by a deafening roar, hurling the girl’s body like a meteor through the stone wall behind her. The first wall cracked, the second shattered, the third turned to dust—the sword’s momentum didn’t stop, dragging her all the way into the underground depths.

“Boom—!”

An incredibly muffled explosion tore through the underground. Brilliant white light gushed from the cracks in the earth, violent energy sweeping the entire furnace area, even the lava being stirred up into waves dozens of feet high.

Obviously, after realizing the opponent’s possible identity, Isabelle had launched an attack without reservation, trying to eliminate her in one decisive strike.

The energy core refined from sacred artifacts was extremely important to Lord Astral and absolutely could not be allowed to fall into the hands of Corrupted Beasts.

“Good thing, the amount that was gnawed isn’t too much…”

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Looking at the still relatively intact energy core in her arms, Isabelle breathed a sigh of relief.

Then she planned to leave this place with the energy core and deliver it to Lord Astral.

However, just as Isabelle hugged the energy core tightly and prepared to quickly depart, footsteps unexpectedly came from behind the shattered wall, directly causing Isabelle’s brow to furrow.

“Hm?? How, how is this possible??”

Suddenly turning around to look at the crack where the elf girl had been sent flying, Isabelle’s face was full of bewilderment.

You have to know, to kill with one strike, her previous attack had held nothing back. Massive amounts of purifying power and disintegrating spiritual power had been directly transmitted into the elf girl’s body through her sword. By logic, it should have directly annihilated her body, but the result?

She was still alive??

At this moment, slight footsteps continuously came from behind the shattered wall.

The sounds were crisp and slow, yet seemed particularly eerie in the deathly silent air. Isabelle’s pupils contracted as she saw the silver-haired elf girl who had been blasted underground actually walking out step by step from the shadows of the ruins.

Her body was covered in cracks and burn marks, her torn clothes barely hanging on, large patches of snow-white skin emanating an eerie cold light under the firelight. At her chest, the longsword that should have pierced through and killed her was still deeply embedded, the blade penetrating her body, dripping blood sliding down the sword tip, pooling into crimson marks.

However, there was not a trace of pain on the girl’s face.

Her originally azure eyes had now completely darkened, as if swallowed by some dark entity, becoming an unfathomably deep void, appearing utterly hollow.

After turning her gaze toward Isabelle and the energy core in her hands, the elf girl tilted her head, revealing an expression so eerie it was bone-chilling.

—”You… want to… steal my food?”—

?!!

At these words, Isabelle instinctively felt a chill down her spine, cold sweat continuously sliding from her forehead.

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Wrong!

Wrong! This guy is very wrong!

Isabelle roared inwardly.

At this moment, the silver-haired girl’s gaze instantly shifted from the energy core, focusing on Isabelle’s face. After several seconds of eerie silence, the elf girl slowly revealed a terrifying smile.

—”You look… like you’d be pretty… tasty too.”—

“?!!”

No!! This is bad!!

The moment she was locked onto by this gaze, Isabelle felt her soul freeze, as if she were a little white rabbit spotted by a predator.

Guided by instinct, Isabelle immediately mobilized her spiritual power, hugged the energy core tightly, and tried to rush toward the treasury exit.

However, just as she attempted to flee, the silver-haired elf’s small mouth opened slightly.

Then,

The earth beneath Isabelle’s feet twisted without warning, the steel-reinforced ground transforming into countless black mud, and the black mud reshaped into a massive abyssal maw that directly bit off Isabelle’s legs…

—”Ahh!!”—

In an instant, piercing screams echoed within this narrow space…