33~ The Rule-Breaker Will Ultimately Suffer the Backlash
“Use gold coins to fill up this well???” Aistride’s action caught the attention of the others, and soon everyone’s gaze shifted to the line of small characters on the well wall.
“Below, there’s another line of words meow!” Due to Wenfu’s small size, she noticed the writing others had to crouch down to see.
“When the gold coins pile up to the well’s mouth, one may leave this well.” In Tillysha’s eyes, this was a sentence written in standard Elvish, but for the others, it appeared in a language they could understand.
It wasn’t a line of text but a symbolic implication presented in a way that any race could comprehend.
“Seeking gold coins?” Princess Filisia glanced at the heap of gold coins piled at her feet, then looked toward the upper end she couldn’t see. “How many gold coins would we need to return to the surface??”
“Can we only use gold coins? Can’t we use something else to pile up?” Wenfu didn’t understand.
“I think, if we use anything else to stack, we’ll never reach the end of the well’s mouth in our entire lifetime.” Tillysha mused, looking at the excessively neat characters on the wall.
“But where would we possibly find that much gold?” Princess Filisia furrowed her brows.
They had come to explore, not to shop around, so why would they carry gold coins? Even if they were here for tourism and shopping, it was impossible to gather that much money.
“Of course, it’s impossible to follow its orders and ‘pay the tax’.” Tillysha adjusted herself and looked upward. “I think we’ve arrived at the entrance to the next Demon Race realm.”
“Is this the entrance? Just like the earlier sandstorm and that forest??”
“That’s right.”
“Then, how will we pass this level without actually gathering all that money?”
“We don’t need to gather money; we simply destroy it.” Breaking boundaries isn’t possible? Break those who set the boundaries.
Tillysha transformed her Bloom Longsu into a willow wood sword wrapped in flying flowers and broken leaves, with a bladed flame roaring, and she chopped downward toward the well opening.
With a crisp and thunderous sound, the inner wall of the well cracked.
“Did it work meow?!” Everyone thought it seemed feasible, but in an instant, Tillysha’s expression changed. She maintained such a stance, slowly withdrawing the blade.
“What’s wrong? Can’t the wall be destroyed?”
“No.” Tillysha shook her head. Though challenging, destroying the inner wall would be effortless to her.
But she couldn’t destroy it.
When she had cut her blade into the inner wall just now, she perceived something through the tip of the blade. They might not be in Ruglien or Caleburn anymore but in a space of illusions.
If the well wall were destroyed, these illusions would overflow into the well. The concept of time and space here would then be lost, and they would be torn apart by the primordial flow and merge into it.
The wall mustn’t be destroyed.
“Can we try to climb out then?” This method, though crude, was still seemingly viable at the moment.
“We could try, but the wall is too smooth for us to climb.”
“No problem, use this.” Tillysha attached the sprout she held to the gold pile on the ground. Once it absorbed the nutrients, the sprout quickly grew into a branch-like structure suitable for climbing.
“Let’s see if we can climb out.” After speaking, Tillysha was the first to grab the branch, stepped on a large leaf with her feet, and started climbing using both hands and feet.
Aistride and Princess Filisia followed closely, leaving Yimi and Wenfu, lacking enough stamina to climb, behind.
“Hey, Tillysha-nee?”
“Hm? What’s wrong?” After climbing for quite a while, hearing Wenfu’s voice, Tillysha felt something was off. Looking down, she was taken aback to discover that Wenfu and Yimi had not changed in height at all.
“How come… you two are also up here?”
“Huh? We, haven’t moved at all?” Wenfu blinked, shaking her head.
“But for some reason, even though you keep climbing, we feel your height hasn’t changed.” Wenfu looked baffled, while Yimi, standing on the gold pile, seemed to be deep in thought.
“It’s not you walking on the spot; it’s the gold beneath you climbing as you ascend.”
“I think the distance to this level’s exit directly corresponds to the height of the gold pile.”
“As long as the amount of gold doesn’t increase and we aren’t supported by gold coins, we’ll never reach the exit.”
“What, then what should we do?!” Wenfu feared the dark and didn’t want to stay in this pitch-black gold well too long.
Although there were so many gold coins here, she couldn’t spend a single one.
“If we can’t leave, will we have to stay here forever?!”
“No, not forever.” Aistride corrected her. “When our food runs out, humans and demi-humans can only last seven days before starving to d*ath, so we won’t stay forever.”
“d*e, d*e of hunger?!” Wenfu sat down on the pile of gold coins, utterly disheartened. “Wenfu, Wenfu doesn’t want to starve to d*ath waaaah…..”
Aistride paused slightly, wondering if she had said something wrong again.
She was only stating the obvious.
Emotions are contagious. Even though most of the people present besides the mascot Wenfu were experienced, Wenfu’s crying seemed to affect everyone’s mood, leaving them feeling not so great.
“…… I should have left a will before coming out.” Yimi patted her head. “Before breaking into Ruglien, I never thought about this. It was shortsighted of me.”
Tillysha remained calm but glanced subtly over her teammates.
Since she had suggested bringing them along, she was responsible for their lives.
At this thought, a void-like energy gathered in her hand. She had to do this, even though she had gradually realized the side effects of Holy Oblivion as she used it more, she still had to.
Otherwise, they would never leave this place of endless darkness.
Even though it had been only five days since the last time she used Holy Oblivion, Tillysha intuitively sensed she could activate it again. The so-called restrictions seemed irrelevant now that she knew who she truly was.
But no one knew the consequences and backlash if she did so.
Whether Holy Oblivion could destroy the well and the illusory space outside it, Tillysha didn’t know, but it was worth a try. Otherwise, they might be trapped here for life.
“Tillysha, are you going to…?” Aistride, upon seeing this, showed a flash of astonishment and complexity in her eyes.
Currently, only the miraculous, unbeatable weapon in Tillysha’s hand could possibly break the deadlock, but…
Even Aistride could sense something was off about that weapon.
Although she couldn’t pinpoint exactly what, she didn’t want Tillysha to use it excessively, if she could help it.
But now, there was no other choice.
“Everyone, step back a little, please.” A black spear solidified in Tillysha’s snow-white hands, filling the narrow well with destructive energy, as if an invisible claw had grasped everyone’s throat.
Aistride and the others instinctively retreated to the edge of the wall, leaning against it.
Tillysha lightly tapped on the leaf with her feet, swinging the spear from top to bottom, cutting through the air with a deep, ominous black line.
The well walls crumbled like paper under the tangible force of ‘destruction’, disintegrating upon contact.
Under the well walls, a pure black current surged forth, as if it wanted to engulf everything into nothingness.
This was a force from the concept level. Any object it touched would be decomposed and reassembled, ultimately swallowed.
The black line she unleashed indiscriminately cut through even the conceptual force, like a gateway to the realm of d*ath, which even the concept couldn’t resist—it granted ‘destruction’ to all.
The surging blackness attempting to engulf everyone was all swallowed by Holy Oblivion, pouring wholesale into the definitive line of d*ath.
Aistride felt the earth quake, the coins violently shaking and the walls’ tiles twisting, collapsing into a vortex absorbed by the black streak.
The vision suddenly brightened as light squeezed through the cracks, illuminating their “jar”.
The impenetrable darkness faded. Wenfu, sensing the bright light, covered her eyes with her hands, then gradually opened them. She found herself amidst the ruins.
“Huh??” In a panic, she looked around for her teammates, sighing in relief only after confirming they were all present.
As always, she hadn’t improved at all.
“Did we… get out?” Princess Filisia, holding her head that was still dizzy from the shaking, slowly opened her eyes, finding it hard to believe.
Aistride wasn’t paying attention to whether they were out or not. After realizing this challenge had been forcibly passed by Tillysha again, she glanced worriedly at Tillysha.
The blonde Elf girl stood there, silent, showing no signs of distress, appearing perfectly normal. But no one knew exactly how she was feeling.
“Tillysha?”
“Hm? Aistride-classmate, is there something wrong?” Upon hearing Aistride’s call, Tillysha turned around and smiled at her, business as usual.
“No, nothing,” Aistride swallowed her words—”Are you alright?”—especially since she probably couldn’t help anyway if something was wrong with Tillysha.
“I guessed correctly; the volcano crater is the entrance to the next Demon Race domain.”
“Now, we should be deep within Ruglien.” Tillysha said, looking at the moss-covered ruins.
Wenfu opened her mouth but said nothing.
Being spared from certain doom was something to celebrate, but she realized a serious fact: how would they return to Caleburn, back to Coleman Academy, after traveling so far?
But obviously, asking this question might upset everyone.
It seemed everyone had realized this and didn’t bring it up.
Thinking about this, Wenfu shut her little mouth, choosing not to be the one to bring up the topic.
“Boom! Boom!” Before they had time to dwell on their own thoughts, a series of loud explosions interrupted them.
Broken pillars collapsed, hitting the ground with a heavy thud, causing the ground to tremble.
“Tch, this is not letting us rest easy,” Princess Filisia groaned. Her condition had already deteriorated since the start of the journey. Elves can stay awake for several nights, but humans can’t. One sleepless night isn’t a big deal, but after several nights without rest, people become irritable, with their mental state plummeting and their reactions slowing down, making it hard to control their bodies well.
From fighting through the Werewolf domain to here, Princess Filisia hadn’t slept for three nights straight. The three Elves were still fine, and even the demi-human had a lower requirement for sleep compared to humans. So, the one most affected by these sleepless nights was naturally Princess Filisia, who grew even more irritable.
The pillars shattered and smashed through, a towering figure about three meters high breaking through everything in this ruinous place.
At first glance, this was a tall, robust humanoid creature, its pale pink flesh wrinkled and sagging, like a corpse that had been submerged in water for too long, with no hair.
On the creature’s forehead was a red string tied to a red cloth, covering its face. The most conspicuous feature was the gold coins sticking out from the creature’s headband.
Above the red cloth, there were a few gold coins jammed into the creature’s headband for some unknown reason.
This monster was not documented in the demon race manual.
Everyone got ready for a fight.
“Boom! Boom!” Another loud noise sounded. Another monster appeared at the other end, cornering them between the two.
Emitting guttural resonance-like sounds, these monsters seemingly lacked the organ of a mouth.
They charged toward the Brilliant Sun and Moon group at the center, all fours on the ground, each step creating vibrations on the ground that sent stones flying, showcasing formidable strength.
Then…
Under intense tension, as everyone braced for impact, these two monsters didn’t seem to see the group at all—they charged toward each other.
Tillysha and the others looked baffled as these two monsters engaged in a fierce brawl, rolling over and smashing into walls and pillars.
What was this about?
Everyone had the same thought.
Only after observing how deadly these two monsters were with no hesitation, did they confirm this not as any sort of demon race ritual or greeting method—it was them truly trying to k*ll each other.
The level of mocking outsiders was apparently less significant than mocking their own kind.
These monsters seemed completely indifferent to them, focusing solely on beating each other.
This made the situation awkward for them.
Everyone exchanged glances, continuing to observe the dual monster battle.
Soon, the stronger one gained the upper hand. The weaker one not only had an arm broken but was grabbed and slammed onto the ground. The stronger one then mounted the other, pinning its head and repeatedly pounding it. Each punch made the ground shake, and the punches continued even after the other monster completely stopped moving.
After delivering dozens of head-shaking punches, the other monster’s head was smashed until it became a sandy bag, completely motionless.
Satisfied, the victor finally stood up and claimed its spoils — the few gold coins belonging to the dead monster.
Stuffing these coins into its headband, the monster was content and finally turned its attention to the group.
Everyone thought the danger was imminent, but the monster simply shook its massive head like a rattle drum, indicating that they lacked something it sought, deciding not to bother with them and walked away.
