Mingyue’s hair moved slightly in the pressure, but her body did not move.

Alex stood still. The pressure hit him and broke apart.

Lena’s many eyes trembled.

Alex looked up at the monster. "Even after mutating this far, you still do not understand. The Sovereign behind you sent you here to die."

Lena screamed, ignoring Alex’s words.

Her wings spread. Hundreds of blood threads shot out.

Each thread carried a soul face at the tip.

They rushed toward Alex and Mingyue from every direction.

Mingyue stepped forward.

Frozen lotuses bloomed under her feet. She swung both swords.

Space lines spread like a net.

The first wave of threads hit the net and split apart.

Frozen blood fell to the ground. But the broken threads turned into smaller worms and crawled toward them.

Alex raised one hand. Green fire rolled out in a circle.

The worms burned. The soul faces inside them turned to ash.

Lena roared and slammed one giant claw down.

Mingyue met it head-on.

CLANG!!

The claw stopped above her swords. The ground under Mingyue cracked.

Ice spread up Lena’s arm.

Lena’s other claw stabbed toward Mingyue’s side.

Alex appeared beside it and caught the wrist with one hand.

The giant claw stopped. Lena’s eyes widened. Alex’s fingers dug into the corrupted flesh.

Green fire entered her arm.

"You were sent here as bait to entrap me and Mingyue. Just give up. I will help you."

The arm began burning from the inside.

Lena screamed and tried to pull back. Alex held firm.

"As you said, we were never there for you. But we’re here now."

Mingyue cut upward.

SHRKK!!

The first arm was severed at the elbow. Alex crushed the second wrist and tore it down. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

CRACK!!

The monster staggered. Black blood poured from both wounds.

But the faces under Lena’s skin opened their mouths and swallowed the blood back.

New arms began growing.

Mingyue clicked her tongue. "Annoying."

Alex’s eyes stayed on the core. "The core is the key."

Lena heard him. The faces around her chest shifted and covered the core.

Then the monster bent down and opened its mouth.

A beam of blood and soul force shot out.

Alex and Mingyue moved in different directions.

The beam tore through the space behind them.

The corridor wall vanished. Beyond it was a black void filled with floating bones.

Mingyue appeared above Lena and drove both swords down.

Lena’s wings folded over her body.

The swords pierced the wings and froze them. But Lena’s chest opened.

Dozens of small mouths appeared around the core. They spat black needles upward.

Mingyue twisted in the air. Most of the needles missed.

A few touched her ice barrier and turned it black.

Mingyue frowned and cut away the corrupted layer before it could spread.

Alex appeared in front of Lena. A flame rune had already formed in his palm.

Lena’s many eyes turned toward him.

She tried to retreat. But ice lotuses bloomed behind her.

Frozen space locked her path.

Alex pressed the rune into her chest.

BAM!!

Green fire exploded.

The faces covering the core screamed and burned.

Lena’s monster body shook.

Mingyue landed behind her and crossed both swords. "Frozen Rift."

A cross-shaped slash cut into Lena’s back.

Ice and space entered the monster’s body.

Lena screamed louder. Her wings shattered. Her back split open.

For a moment, the core was visible again.

Alex’s hand shot forward. But before he could grab it, Lena’s head turned one hundred eighty degrees.

Her mouth opened.

A woman’s voice came out. "Do not touch that."

Alex stopped for less than half a breath.

The core pulsed. A black symbol appeared on its surface.

Mingyue’s eyes sharpened. "Another one?"

The symbol released a wave of force.

BOOM!!

Alex and Mingyue were pushed back.

Lena’s body recovered at once.

The broken wings regrew. The severed arms finished forming.

But now the monster looked less like Lena. Her face melted into the body.

The many eyes moved across its head.

The mouth became a vertical split from forehead to chin.

The voice that came out was layered and rough. "Progenitor... enemy... consume..."

Alex looked at the black symbol on the core. "They really didn’t give her any hope of surviving."

Mingyue raised her swords. "Can’t you find her soul? At least we can save that."

"Not while she keeps moving."

"Then I will hold it still."

Mingyue vanished. The monster reacted and swung four arms at once.

Mingyue appeared between the attacks. Her body turned into afterimages.

Sword lights flashed around the monster.

One slash took an arm. Another opened its side.

Another cut through the blood threads around its neck. But every wound started closing again.

The monster rushed forward and tried to swallow her with its chest.

The soul nest inside opened wide.

Mingyue stepped into the air.

A lotus bloomed under her foot.

She rose above the mouth of the chest and stabbed both swords down. Ice spread into the core.

The monster thrashed.

Alex moved at the same time. He drew runes with both hands.

Green fire formed a chain.

Then the black light inside the flame came out clearly.

The flame chain shot forward and wrapped around the core.

Lena’s monster body went still.

The black symbol on the core flashed.

A force tried to cut the chain.

Alex’s eyes turned cold. "You are not leaving."

He pulled. The core shook.

The monster screamed.

Mingyue drove both swords deeper and froze the surrounding space.

Now the core could not shift away.

Alex pulled again.

CRACK!!

The core cracked. A flood of memories burst out.

Lena kneeling among other vampires.

A sealed planet covered in ghost fog. Ghost Valley cultivators drawing soul formations.

Vampires pouring blood into black pools.

Children crying inside glass tubes.

A voice promising rebirth and revenge.

Then the memories were cut off. The black symbol burned itself.

Alex frowned. "Insanity."

The core pulsed violently.

Mingyue did not wait. She crossed both swords and cut.

Space split around the core.

Alex’s flame chain tightened. The two powers crushed the core from both sides.

Lena’s monster body let out one final roar.

The core shattered.

BOOM!!

Blood mist exploded through the collapsing corridor.

Alex raised a flame barrier.

Mingyue spread frozen space over it. The explosion hit the barrier and rolled around them.

The black void folded inward.

When everything settled, Alex and Mingyue stood floating in the void.

Alex quickly drew more runes. Scattered soul fragments started to gather on his finger. At first, it was just an ember, but soon it grew into a sphere the size of a basketball.

The sphere was cracked, and its color was dull gray.

"Is that her soul?" Mingyue asked with a frown.

She had never seen such a gray soul before. It was like it was not living at all.

"It’s too contaminated. At the end, she even burned her own life force to increase her strength."

"So can you save her?"

Alex closed his eyes, then grasped his palm. The soul dispersed, then he shook his head.

"No. That soul is completely blank, without any color of her ego at all..."

"I see... In that case, let’s leave first."

Mingyue turned her gaze toward the black space around her.

Purple light gathered around her sword as she cleaved forward.

But the result baffled them.

The space stayed solid. It did not even get cut at all.

"Can you find a way? Seems we overestimated ourselves," Mingyue asked.

They already expected a trap, but not to this extent. It could even seal them.

"It will take time."

Meanwhile, outside, Beatrice and Rovan were running for their lives.

"I knew it! We should have stuck with them!" Rovan said while carrying Beatrice on his back.