Chapter 1 That Monster

Of course Lily hadn't forgotten that monster. She'd caught it shortly after leading the team into the Black Forest. A disgusting thing that could parasitize a victim's mind, manipulating hearts through dreams and illusions, looking like a lump of black flesh constantly belching smoke. Kalasuss had named it "Nightmare Shadow," but Lily preferred to call it Smoked Brisket. Whatever the name, it was a disgusting and stubbornly resilient piece of bad luck. If she hadn't planned to save it as a trophy for the landlord, our pack leader would have torn it to shreds and fed it to the wolves.

Because the monster possessed tricky and dangerous abilities—its mental parasitism was an almost instant kill for those with weak wills—Lily had kept it under strict surveillance for days, establishing a meticulous monitoring procedure: a dreamless bear monster guarded the monster, ensuring it was locked in a cage made of Imprisonment Stones twenty-four hours a day. Ordinary soldiers were forbidden from approaching the cage in a mentally unstable condition. If the monster's status needed to be checked, three teams had to be present simultaneously: the first team approached the cage, the second team observed the first team from a distance, and the third team, armed, monitored both the first and second teams from further away. If anything went wrong, they were to be killed on the spot. These strict monitoring procedures left the monster's powers useless, and it was safely imprisoned until today.

But this time, something seemed amiss?

Lily shot to her feet. "What's wrong?"

Duke Ulysses beside her also looked tense. He'd learned about the origin of the beast tide and the situation of the Holy Domain investigation team within it these past couple of days, and naturally he also knew about the "Nightmare Shadow" captured from the Chaos Storm. As a logical Colossian, he was extremely wary of anything from the depths of Chaos. To be honest, if he could beat the pack leader, he would never have agreed to let her imprison that thing in the dungeon beneath his castle...

"Don't worry, it hasn't escaped. In fact, quite the opposite..." Kalasuss wore a puzzled expression. "It seems a bit weak."

"Weak?" Lily was taken aback. "It was full of energy all the way here. How could it suddenly weaken?"

"It might be related to the light just now," the High Monk guessed. "That light contained a powerful force, seemingly high-level Order Divine Power. Although I don't know what triggered the miracle, it probably has an effect on Chaos power."

Lily blinked, feeling that the strategist made sense, and slapped the table. "Then let's go. Take me to see what's going on."

Duke Ulysses hurriedly pried his precious 157-year silver goblet out from under Lily's hand, only to find it had been flattened into a pancake...

Kalasuss nodded, but before the pack leader moved, he brought up another matter. "Pack Leader, there's something else I need to tell you."

Lily turned to look at him. "Speak."

"My subordinates and I should be leaving in a few days," the High Monk said frankly.

"Leaving?" Lily was surprised. "Isn't the food good here?"

"Cough, cough..." The High Monk immediately coughed. The pack leader was good in every way, except that her brain's nine turns and eighteen bends often left people unable to react. Following her train of thought could sprain your back nine out of ten times. "That's not the issue. We have a mission in Ansu. We dare not neglect the important task entrusted to us by His Holiness the Pope. Besides, we said when we joined the team that after reaching the Order Kingdom, the investigation team would act independently."

As he spoke, a strange expression appeared on the High Monk's face, and he whispered a reminder: "We also paid money when we joined the team..."

The implication was that the Holy Domain investigation team had paid for their meals while eating and drinking in the beast tide, and they weren't indentured servants...

After being reminded, Lily suddenly understood. The husky girl scratched her chin. "Oh, you're right. Well, then, I can't stop you from leaving. Anyway, I'm going to start looking for my landlord in the Kingdom of Taros, and I probably won't have time to take care of you then. By the way, when are you planning to leave?"

"No rush, no rush," Kalasuss waved his hand. "I'm just telling you in advance. The investigation team's destination still requires crossing most of the kingdom. We can still travel together for a while."

"Nightmare Shadow" was temporarily detained in the Black Crow Fortress dungeon.

This border fortress was a bridgehead against Chaos invasion. In peacetime, the Black Crow Fortress and the surrounding vast wasteland and forests were all part of the kingdom's territory, with villages and settlements of all sizes scattered around the fortress. At that time, the Black Crow Fortress served as the capital of the territory, and its dungeon was mostly used to detain outlaws within the territory. However, after the outbreak of war, the population of the territory would immediately migrate towards the kingdom's interior, and the Black Crow Territory's political and economic center would also shift to another city closer to the inland. The fortress's dungeon would then be vacant. In most cases, only a few soldiers who violated military discipline would be imprisoned here, but the Black Blade Legion and the Black Crow Guard were strictly disciplined, and the soldiers were well-trained, so violations of military discipline were rare. Therefore, during the ten years of the Chaos Tide, the entire dungeon area would be almost empty.

This empty dungeon was perfect for imprisoning a nightmare monster that shouldn't be easily approached.

At least that's what the pack leader thought, but it seemed the Black Crow Fortress commander, Duke Ulysses, wasn't too happy about it...

The dark dungeon was built with solid granite, with molten copper poured between the giant stones for reinforcement. Torches burned fiercely on the stone walls every few meters, and the flickering firelight made the entire dungeon even more eerie and terrifying.

Nightmare Shadow was located on the deepest level of the dungeon, where there was only a single cell. The circular cell was lined with an extra circle of iron bars, and Kalasuss hung more than a dozen Imprisonment Stones on the iron bars. These stones were said to be enough to suppress the most ferocious monsters in Chaos.

The dark, smoking lump of flesh lay on the ground in the center of the cell, looking listless. Lily led her henchmen and Duke Ulysses, along with Monk Kalasuss, into the dungeon, and she immediately noticed the anomaly in the lump of flesh.

It looked at least a third smaller than before, and the black smoke that constantly billowed from its interior had also greatly diminished, almost thin enough to see the entity inside the smoke. The tentacle-like things extending from the monster were also shriveled and withered, as if they had lost moisture, lying limply on the mat, looking like they were about to die.

Lily stepped forward, transformed her paws, and poked the lump of flesh. "Hey, hey, wake up. What's wrong with you?"

The lump of flesh wiggled twice, and many pairs of dark red eyes within the black smoke opened slightly, but then closed.

This wasn't in line with its usual style. Normally, it would be cursing at Lily.

"Was it really suppressed by that light just now?" Lily's ears twitched, and a glowing question mark seemed to appear above her head. "I think it's just hungry. That's how I usually feel when I'm hungry."

Kalasuss's mouth twitched. "This monster doesn't eat at all. It doesn't even have a mouth. It's a magical creature. It should live by devouring the primordial magical energy floating in the air. Magical energy is everywhere in Coloss, so how could it be hungry?"

"Oh," Lily stroked her chin and continued to poke her "Smoked Brisket" with her paw. "Then stop playing dead. I'm not starving you. If you keep playing dead, I'll poke six holes in you with my claws!"

The monster twitched again, and several eyes opened slightly, emitting a weak voice from a cloud of smoke: "Didn't you... say... five holes last time?"

Lily was stunned. Even with her train of thought, she didn't expect the monster to discuss this with her, but she instantly reacted. "I can poke you one more separately--just because you talk too much!"

The monster didn't speak, but gathered all its tentacles together, constantly rolling and twitching, looking extremely painful.

"Hey, hey, hey! Don't scare people!" Lily immediately became nervous when she saw this. She wasn't afraid of the monster attacking her, but she was afraid that it would really die, and then she wouldn't be able to show off to her landlord. "I'm still saving you to trade for ribs with my landlord!"

"Don't worry, I won't... go back for now..." The monster suddenly quieted down after a violent spasm. At this moment, everyone suddenly realized something: this strange creature from Chaos was now showing reason and a tendency to communicate!

What it said was very organized, and it was actively communicating with Lily!

After realizing this, Kalasuss immediately wanted to remind the pack leader, but before he could speak, the cloud of smoke monster had already turned its gaze over. "That little guy over there... Are you from the Holy Domain? A church monk? Bishop level?"

Kalasuss stared at the lump of flesh on the ground, its current state utterly bizarre. "You... how did you know?"

"Go remind your Pope..." The monster didn't seem to hear Kalasuss's words. It just spoke to itself, a hoarse, gloomy voice coming from the smoke, "Lok'ma'don... is climbing out of the Forgotten Abyss. The jailers of the ancient era have already been corrupted..."

Kalasuss's eyes widened, and he looked at the monster with almost horrified eyes. "You... what exactly are you?"