Promi slept deeply by the campfire, the burning flames crackling in a never-ending rhythm.
Lita glanced at the slumbering girl, gently patting her own cheeks to quickly shake off the drowsiness that had just begun to creep in.
All right, time to get down to business.
Lita picked up her Sword and walked slowly out of the cave.
The sky was already growing brighter. The not-yet-risen sun cast flickering shadows through the leaves, and the stench of decay in the air was even heavier than when Lita first arrived at the cave.
She kept walking, leaving the woods behind, heading toward the border marked by a ribbon of beguiling Spiritual Power that shimmered like pink flames.
Beyond the boundary, countless beetles crawled restlessly, yet not a single one crossed the line.
Such strong territorial instinct—they actually know better than to take a single step past the boundary.
It was fortunate that these brainless things had such a keen sense of territory, refusing to cross into her domain. That was what had given her so much time to rest.
Lita weighed her empty palm, then formed a fist.
The band of Spiritual Power erupted like a broad-bladed landmine, and fragments of Spiritual Power shot out like buckshot, slamming into the swarm with a booming crash.
The beetle horde fell as if mown down, while the remaining bugs, their compound eyes spinning, turned toward Lita.
Not as powerful as I’d hoped.
Still, compared to that night when she parted with Valfis, she had become much more adept.
Flexing her fingers, Lita strode boldly toward the swarm. Spiritual Power rose like a giant hand, smashing the approaching beetles to powder.
Boom.
The ground caved in as a massive beetle, four or five meters long, burst out from below.
And then another followed—the very Siye Commanders that Promi had taken so much effort to kill. Now, two stood before her at once.
[Human, found you.]
[Kill, kill, kill—]
Two consciousnesses surged into Lita’s mind, and the swarm instantly erupted into chaos.
Lita had noticed a pattern: these beetles didn’t use voices, but communicated through consciousness. Yet that consciousness had a transmission range, and any being with a mind could “hear” it. In essence, it was no different from talking.
Whatever. It doesn’t matter anymore.
Lita sighed, her black wings slowly unfurling behind her.
Sunlight poured down, shining on the corpses of beetles scattered everywhere.
Lita strode toward the Siye Commander, who had only two legs left. Her talons seized its bladelike forelimbs and snapped them off.
As expected, using the Dream Demon’s Power was far more satisfying than wielding a Sword.
Her recent training and two real battles had proven their worth. She no longer fought on mere instinct—the efficiency of her combat had increased tremendously.
The Siye Commander’s consciousness trickled into Lita’s mind in broken fragments, like a scrambled radio wave. Yet she still understood its meaning.
[Dream Demon, why attack us?]
“There’s not always a reason for everything. When you attacked me, did you need so many excuses?” Lita curled her lip.
She just needed to clear out the nearby bugs, then bring Promi back safely. That was all.
There was no need to waste words on the dying—or the dying bugs.
Creak!
The Siye Commander let out a pained shriek, and something burst from its body, flying straight at Lita.
It was fast, intangible, but left a faint trace.
Lita had seen this before, so she knew exactly what it was.
The curse a Siye Commander unleashed at death’s door, burning both soul and life as the price.
Having been struck by it once herself, and caught in the subsequent shockwaves of the Siye Lord’s attacks, Lita could now see the ethereal trail of this Spiritual Power.
Maybe she’d just been lucky before or there was some other reason—she didn’t know. But she wasn’t about to stand here and let it dive into her mind.
Just as it was about to hit her, Lita sharply raised her hand and caught the orb of Spiritual Power.
Strictly speaking, “caught” wasn’t quite right—her hand appeared empty to anyone watching. But Lita could feel something in her grasp.
With her fingers clenched tight, she crushed the Spiritual Power along with the Siye Commander’s soul.
Yet at the same time, something different seemed to flow into Lita’s mind.
Darkness overtook her vision, and she cursed silently.
Don’t tell me I got hit this time?
But then, out of the darkness, a new vision appeared.
Beetles. Countless beetles flooded her sight in an instant.
A vast tide of Siye Sacred Beetles carried stones of every size on their armored backs, their limbs making a rustling sound in the sand. They converged from all directions, a dark torrent.
Their destination was a gate—a massive, hollow stone gate so large that Lita couldn’t even judge its true height. It seemed to pierce the sky and shake the earth.
Beneath the gate were twisted patterns, incomplete but oddly familiar—Lita was sure she’d seen something like them before.
But the true horror was above the gate, not below.
The stone gate, once gray, was now crawling with beetles, its entire surface turned black as obsidian.
The beetles moved tirelessly up and down. Their former weapons, once used to slaughter soldiers, now served as their best tools.
Sharp claws carved the stone, cutting it into blocks of the right size. The blocks were carried up in turns, and the beetles’ acidic secretions glued them together, every piece fitting perfectly.
Then Lita noticed the only figure among the swarm who was different.
She was black, too—her body wrapped in black clothes that couldn’t hide her striking figure.
She stood beneath the stone gate, feet planted on strange markings, gazing up at the massive frame.
No mistake—she wasn’t a beetle, but a human.
The vision abruptly dissolved, snapping Lita back to reality as if waking from a long dream.
Had she just lost consciousness?
How long had she been out?
Countless questions crowded her mind, but no answers came.
Yet one thing was clear.
Those beetles were building a gate. Just from its appearance, Lita knew it was nothing a beetle could have designed—assuming beetles had any architecture at all.
If she guessed right, this was what Valfis had called the greatest crisis.
Better not to dwell on it for now. Promi was likely still asleep in the cave—she needed to hurry back so they could return to camp together.
With that thought, Lita beat her wings and soared toward the cave.
As she flew, strange noises caught her ear nearby.
Voices—human voices, a man and a woman.
“The disturbance should be coming from this direction.”
“No mistake. Someone must have fought the swarm here, you can still smell the acidic stench on them.”
Lita recognized the voice instantly—Momoka!
If they could join up, the four of them would be much safer returning to camp, and could exchange information as well.
Lita was thinking this when a wave of heat suddenly surged toward her.
A spear shot out of the woods, aimed straight for her chest.
She dodged aside, but a figure leaped from the trees, grabbed the burning spear, and spun with a sweeping blow that forced Lita to retreat further.
Before she could regain her footing, a chill shot up her spine—without thinking, she dodged to the side.
Right where she’d just been, Arber’s Twin Blades slashed through the air. If she’d hesitated a half-second longer, the consequences would have been dire.
Momoka and Arber landed on a tree branch, one in front and one behind, their gazes locking onto Lita as she hovered mid-air, wings spread.
“It’s her! The pink-haired Dream Demon Lita told us about!”
“I know. If she’s here, she’s definitely involved in all this.”
They spoke, but neither moved.
Nor did Lita.
Lita dared not move first—any rash action would only expose more weaknesses. Momoka and Arber had no need to rush; all they had to do was wait until Lita couldn’t hold back anymore.
She’d been flying in plain sight all along, making herself an easy target. It was only natural that she’d be discovered.
Fortunately, she’d already dyed her hair pink in anticipation of encountering others, and given her clothes to Promi for bandaging. She didn’t carry her Sword, and most of her identifying items were gone.
Lita didn’t want to fight these two. The meaning behind that massive stone gate was still unclear, and infighting would only waste energy and strength.
However, escaping under their watchful eyes would be much harder than dealing with the beetles.