“Slaanesh? Me?”
Winnidith pointed at herself, bewildered, wondering when she had acquired such a name.
“No, he must have mistaken you for someone else. Just like how you used spiritual power to control the elves bound by the Sacred Tree.”
Isabella took a deep breath.
“Slaanesh must be the name of the Sacred Tree…”
“!!!”
Before Isabella could finish her sentence, her brain was suddenly flooded with a twisted melody.
It was a rhythm that defied all musical theory, manifesting directly inside her mind.
Like the sharpest blade scraping against the inner wall of her skull, it gave her the illusion of biting down hard on glass.
She seemed to catch a glimpse of a sinuous, mysterious female figure.
As that figure appeared, the world around her, and she herself, began to dissolve.
She watched as the steel beams supporting the dome dripped like molten candle wax, only to congeal in mid-air into thorny vines.
Those thorns were not dripping with blood, but with a nauseating rose-colored grease.
The odor filling the air was indescribable—it was a lover’s breath, freshly baked bread, and the putrid sweetness of a corpse bloating and bursting under high heat.
What is this?
What is this!!!
Indescribable terror instantly flooded Isabella’s heart.
A flood of information violently assaulted her brain, as if intending to shatter her soul entirely.
Isabella screamed in horror, only to realize that, at some point, her body had transformed into a giant tree covered in reproductive organs.
“AH!!!!!!”
Isabella’s expression had never been so twisted.
Her torso and limbs had long since turned into the mottled genitalia of various creatures.
These countless, disgusting masses of fat and flesh were kneaded together, eventually forming the grotesque shape of a smiling face.
Its hollow gaze met Isabella’s terrified eyes, and the arc of its mouth seemed to widen even further.
“AAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!”
“Bella! Bella!!!”
Winnidith grabbed her arm, feeling Bella’s body trembling in absolute terror.
But why?
Was it just because of that name?
They had all heard it, yet why was Bella the only one who had changed like this?
“SLAANESH!!!”
The elves, already driven to madness, continued to cry and laugh, their noise igniting a fire of irritation in Winnidith’s heart.
“SHUT UP! BE SILENT!!! MY NAME IS WINNIDITH! WINNIDITH TRENTON! I AM NOT SOME SLAA-NESH!!!”
She roared at them, her voice echoing through the empty courtyard.
Perhaps frightened by her intensity, the elves actually stopped screaming.
Even the manic expressions on their faces began to fade slowly.
“Winnidith…”
“Trenton…”
“Winnidi… SLAANESH!!! YEEEEE-AAAAHHHHHH!!!!!”
They clutched their heads and screamed again, but this time their sound waves seemed to carry a strange magic, each note deafening Winnidith.
What is happening now!
Winnidith covered her ears tightly and looked closely.
She finally saw the anomaly with her own eyes—there was a transparent seed inside their heads!
That seed was pulsing actively, as if consuming all its stored strength to sprout!
Sprouting!
Winnidith understood immediately what had happened to Bella.
She hurried to look at her, and sure enough, she saw a flow of transparent energy madly boring into Isabella’s brain.
It was rapidly combining and deforming, appearing to take the shape of a seed.
“Little thing! Get to work!”
She quickly awakened the spiritual power sleeping within her.
Since it could consume even the spiritual power that had sprouted in Evian’s head, it could certainly devour these energies that hadn’t even finished forming into seeds yet!
The spiritual snake, suddenly awakened, poked its head out from Winnidith’s body in a daze.
Upon seeing the abundant “buffet” outside, its eyes lit up.
Without waiting for a prompt, it coiled around Isabella’s golden hair and began to feast.
The scene looked terrifying—a snake the size of a palm gnawing at a young girl’s brain.
In a realistic style, this would be an R-rated image that couldn’t even be censored, but the scene was illusory, and its food was illusory as well.
To Leah and Arns, who did not understand the situation, the transformation that took place in those brief moments was completely beyond their comprehension.
First, the elves had collectively shrieked, then Isabella had screamed suddenly, followed by Winnidith shouting twice.
Then, Isabella’s expression had slowly softened, her body stopped trembling, and she went limp in Winnidith’s arms as if she had lost all her strength.
They wanted to ask Winnidith what had happened, but they dared not speak, fearing that if they opened their mouths, Isabella would return to that state of madness.
‘She’s just asleep from the immense mental pressure, thank goodness.’
Winnidith checked her body and finally exhaled once she confirmed she was completely unharmed.
The little creature had vanished the moment it finished eating the spiritual energy from Isabella’s brain, but Winnidith was in no mood to wonder where it had gone.
She looked at Isabella in her arms.
Even now, the lingering remnants of fear and pain remained on her face, making Winnidith’s heart ache with every squeeze.
Although she didn’t know what Bella had experienced, in the final analysis, she had suffered this pain all because of her.
“Miss Winnidith, what exactly did the Princess just experience?”
Arns could no longer bear the internal torture and asked anxiously.
As a Royal Knight, if a royal family member were killed in front of him, he would have no choice but to die to atone for his failure.
His voice pulled Winnidith out of her guilt.
She checked Isabella’s body once more and, after confirming she was fine, signaled for him not to worry.
“Bella is just asleep. Let’s keep our voices down and let her rest for a while.”
“Should I make a bed, then?”
Leah felt awkward doing nothing.
After receiving Winnidith’s permission, she began searching the garden, eventually finding plenty of dry branches and thatch.
They fashioned the thatch into a simple bed and used the branches to light two separate piles.
One was placed next to Isabella to ward off the cold and let her sleep more comfortably.
Winnidith also ordered Iseriel to protect her.
The others started another bonfire further away.
It was then that Winnidith shared her speculations with them.
“The name Slaanesh must link to something, and once that connection is made, it triggers terrifying hallucinations. That must be how Bella and those elves fell victim to it.”
Winnidith toyed with the transparent snake.
Having finished its “buffet,” its size had visibly increased by a lap, and it was now lazily curled around her hand, taking a nap.
Fortunately, it had no weight, so her hand didn’t get tired regardless of how large it grew.
Winnidith let it be.
‘Link to something? Could it be that Slaanesh is actually the Sacred Tree’s…’
“Ah!”
Arns’s stinging pain came and went in a flash.
He only saw a blur before his eyes and then looked up to see Winnidith staring at him with a deadpan expression.
“That is why thinking too much can sometimes be fatal.”
Winnidith looked at him speechless.
Luckily, she had been prepared and had sent the spiritual snake out the moment Arns started to connect the dots; otherwise, he would have definitely passed out.
There was no extra thatch left to make him a bed; if Arns passed out, he’d have to sleep on the cold ground.
“Then why am I fine?”
Leah pointed at herself.
Even a fool could see who Slaanesh referred to, but she had learned the same information without seeing the same hallucinations as Isabella.
“Perhaps it’s because Light Elves are essentially offshoots of the Sacred Tree. You are its offspring, so naturally, you remain unaffected.”
Winnidith pointed at herself.
“As for me, I have spiritual power, so I remain unaffected even when I know these things.”
“Oh… the Sacred Tree really is terrifying.”
Leah shuddered.
To be driven to absolute madness just by knowing its true name—if they were to become its enemy, the difficulty of the battle was unthinkable.
Winnidith had considered that, too, which meant they couldn’t waste a single moment.
“Don’t worry about the elves for now. They were controlled for longer and will take more time to wake up. Let’s find a way out of here.”
Reminded of their goal, Leah and Arns remembered why they were there and headed in three different directions to search for an exit.
“Strange. The Water Element is so dense here, so why isn’t there any water in sight?”
The courtyard was not very large, and Winnidith finished searching her assigned section quickly.
Curiously, no matter which direction she moved, the concentration of the Water Element never changed.
All she could see were some collapsed stone pillars, and the patterns on the pillars seemed somewhat familiar.
Just as Winnidith prepared to examine the patterns on the broken pillars more closely, she heard an explosion, followed by Leah’s startled cry.
“Winnidith! Winnidith! Come here quickly!”
What happened?
Winnidith immediately left the pillars behind and ran toward Leah with all the speed she could muster.
She saw a large hole in the wall next to Leah.
Arns arrived just at that moment, and seeing Leah standing in the middle of a broken wall, he asked doubtfully:
“Lady Leah, what have you discovered?”
“I can’t explain it in a word or two. Come over and see for yourselves.”
Leah waved them over.
When they arrived, both were stunned by the scene before them.
The ceiling of this room was not made of stone; it was water!
Endless, boundless water, stretching as far as the eye could see!
There was a river above their heads!!!
This palace was actually built underneath a river!
Winnidith quickly analyzed how that was possible.
But before she could figure it out, she was drawn to the light source of this new room.
This is…
Winnidith’s expression turned subtle.
She finally understood why the carvings on the pillars had seemed so familiar.
This was the same palace where she had obtained her spiritual power!!!