“Little Ji, are you… going into hibernation too?”
Inside the warm little house, Elawen held the Scout Puji in her arms, puzzled as she poked its soft body.
These past few days, Little Ji had stopped running around. At first, she secretly rejoiced, thinking the Puji just wanted to spend more time with her.
But soon she realized something was wrong. The Scout Puji just stayed on top of her head, dazed all day long, sluggish, looking exactly like a sleepy child nodding off.
“When Pujis hibernate… where do they usually go?”
In the end, she carefully carried the seemingly “senile” Scout Puji into the back room, gently placing it on a soft bed and tucking the blanket snugly around it. After settling her companion, she wandered back into the courtyard, staring blankly at the gray sky.
“So boring… isn’t there anything exciting to do…”
——
Boom! Boom—!!!
Deafening explosions raged ceaselessly within and outside the walls of the Arctic Fortress.Eighteen Resonance Cannons and countless Artillery Pujis wove a symphony of destruction, accompanied by dying wails, desperate screams, and frenzied shouts of killing—unceasing for even a heartbeat.
Below the wall, a strike team of half-demons led by several senior warriors, tasked with breaking through, ran into unexpected resistance.
“Gins?! Is that you, Gins! Why… why is this happening?!” A half-demon senior warrior stared, eyes wide with shock and anguish, at the figure blocking his path—once his comrade in arms.
Now, Gins’s body was deeply entwined and fused with pale mycelium, his features almost unrecognizable. He turned his gaze aside, avoiding his friend’s eyes, and silently raised his staff, lightning sparking dangerously at its tip.
“I… had no choice.” Gins’s voice was hoarse, full of helplessness.
Those words shattered the last of the warrior’s hope. Tears in his eyes hardened into grim resolve, his jaw clenched. “Fine, Gins! Then let us… finally settle this!”
Steel clashed with lightning through several fierce exchanges. With astonishing agility, the half-demon warrior evaded deadly bolts of thunder again and again, until at last he seized the opening between Gins’s spells and rushed forward!
A blinding electric net burst from Gins’s body, forming a raging cage of lightning around him.
But the warrior roared and charged headlong, tearing through the arcs with his own flesh! The stench of burning flesh filled the air as he forced his way into the cage’s heart!
His blade thrust straight at Gins’s throat!
But in that fateful instant, his hand instinctively faltered. Years of fighting side by side betrayed his will—the blade only grazed Gins’s neck, drawing a thin line of blood.
The next moment, Gins’s fully charged thunderbolt slammed into the warrior’s abdomen!
Bang!
The half-demon was blasted into the air like a ragged sack, crashing heavily to the ground. Blood gushed from his mouth and nose, his body convulsed—unable to move again.
Gins staggered, his staff trembling in his grip, while his other hand unconsciously touched the warm wound at his neck.
“Pah!” The warrior spat blood, eyes filled with bitter self-mockery and fury. “Damn… habit! Do it, traitor!”
“No… I can’t…” Gins’s hands shook violently. Staring at his friend’s pained face, he found himself utterly unable to unleash another spell.
The warrior struggled to speak, urging: “Gins, turn back! Come with me to the Empire! There must be a way to break your chains—there must be…”
Splurt!
A gray-white mushroom suddenly burst from Gins’s right palm, the one gripping his staff. The agony wrung a scream from him, his staff falling to the ground.
“Gins!” The fallen warrior’s eyes nearly burst with grief.
“Ah… comrades forced to fight, what a heartbreaking sight.”
A Voice Puji had appeared between them, its sticky voice dripping with false sympathy. “Look at Gins—enduring such torment, yet still unwilling to harm you…”
It turned to the half-demon warrior, voice thick with pity. “Can you really bear to watch your dearest friend die in such pain? Lay down your weapon, join us! Redeem your sins, and freedom will be yours again!”
“Shut up, you demon!” The half-demon snarled, mustering his last strength to drive a dagger into the Puji’s body!
But at once, another identical Voice Puji rose from the Mycelium Carpet behind him, continuing smoothly: “Demon? You’re the invaders! If you won’t surrender, then fight as you wish.”
[Parasitic Fusion]
The Voice Puji melted back into the mycelium. At once, Gins’s screams tore into an inhuman shriek!
Gray-white mushrooms erupted from his body in relentless bursts, mycelium and flesh fusing in grotesque proliferation.
Finally, with a wet crack, a mushroom forced itself from his left eye—then all fell silent.
“Gin…s?”
No response.
“Gins” bent stiffly, like a puppet on strings, to pick up the bloodstained staff.
Magic gathered at its tip once more, now aimed squarely at his fallen friend.
His eyes, once alive with wisdom and emotion, were empty now, veiled in mycelium and death.
…
This scene of the strike team’s failure was observed from afar by Paine.
Though the distance blurred details, the outlines of the interceptors were unmistakably half-demons and Lizardmen—their missing scouts, no doubt!
Charm? Puppetry? Necromancy?
Several possibilities flashed through his mind.
Either way, relying only on Diamond-rank warriors to reach the wall was clearly futile.
His gaze shifted to the half-demon chief beside him. “Bastardos, what are you waiting for? I’ll cover you with magic—make the push!”
Bastardos’s expression shifted darkly.
Breaking through quickly to destroy those magic weapons was indeed the key to victory.
But the Demonkin surely knew this too. He couldn’t believe there weren’t traps waiting inside.
Worse, Paine’s words all but shoved him into the fire, while he himself stayed back at a “safe distance” to “cover” him…
On the wall, the oversized Puji in its ridiculous red cape rambled on with amplified magic, endlessly listing their “crimes.”
As Bastardos hesitated, one among them snapped.
“Disgusting creature! Shut your mouth!”
Uniel’s shrill voice sliced through the battlefield. At once, the blood of countless corpses surged and condensed into a colossal, dark-red spear. It screamed as it split the air, streaking straight for the Marshal Puji atop the wall!
Its size covered every escape route.
But the Marshal Puji didn’t even try to dodge.
All the Pujis on the wall poured out power, stacking three massive magical shields before the wall.
The blood spear pierced two layers with ease.
But at the third, it finally collapsed, bursting into a rain of stinking gore that drenched the Marshal Puji red.
“Too weak! Too weak!” The Marshal Puji swayed proudly, dripping with blood. “That decrepit hag who feeds on blood to survive—this is all you can do?”
“I’ll tear you apart and boil you into soup!!!” Uniel roared, raising her arms high, summoning more blood for a cataclysmic strike!
But this time, her forming spear convulsed violently, twisting—then shattered!
Someone was fighting her for control of the blood!
There was another blood clan among the enemy?!
Who?!
Her crimson eyes locked instantly onto the tall figure among the Pujis—Louisa.
She didn’t recognize her, but sensed her power at once.
“Well, how rare!” Uniel narrowed her eyes. “It’s been years since a noble-blooded traitor appeared among the vampires, and today I stumble on one!”
The fortress itself no longer mattered in her eyes. “Once I rip off your head, I’ll make sure to find out which family birthed such a stain!”
She clenched her hand, wrenching blood that Louisa had been controlling, forcing it into a swarm of razor-sharp blades around herself.
In single combat, higher rank crushed lower rank—her mastery over blood left no doubt.
But this was not a duel.
Just as she was about to unleash her blades, they convulsed again and fell apart!
Uniel’s face changed instantly.
Not ten… but dozens of vampires were struggling for the same blood!
Individually weak, but in such numbers, they kept her from wielding it freely!
And the strangest part—their presence all traced back to the hopping Pujis around Louisa!
???
“What’s wrong, Countess?” Louisa licked her fangs, slashing her wrist to let her own fresh blood gush forth, forming a blood orb in her palm. “Weren’t you coming for my head?”
On this battlefield, torn blood could not be controlled.
Only blood born of one’s own body remained loyal.
“You think without borrowed blood, I can’t kill you?” Uniel snapped, pricking her finger to summon her own blood, which spun into a scarlet rose with razor edges.
“Fight! Do it! I love watching women fight!” The Marshal Puji cheered, wriggling gleefully—while secretly adjusting several Resonance Cannons, seeking the perfect moment to “break it up.”