Chapter 1768: A Cursed Pet?
Chapter 1768: A Cursed Pet?
"All right, let us move then," Max said to everyone there.
With his words, everyone began moving toward the entrance of Witch God Valley.
Caroline was still injured, but after using her light energy to stabilize her wounds, she refused to slow the group down. Jessica walked beside her with a tense expression, while Nancy stayed near Max, her senses spread outward as much as possible in the cursed mist.
Max took the lead without hesitation, and because of what they had already seen from him, no one questioned his position. Even Caroline, who was older than him and had survived years of imprisonment, hunting, and factional conflict, found herself silently following his pace.
It was not because Max had demanded obedience. It was because his presence created a strange sense of certainty, as if the path ahead would open as long as he walked first.
The cursed mist of Witch God Valley still moved around them like living breath, and from time to time, strange whispers echoed from the twisted trees, but none of them dared to attack recklessly. The roots beneath the ground twitched several times, yet the faint black flame aura still lingering around Max made them shrink back into the wood before fully emerging.
A few shadow beasts watched them from behind broken stone pillars, their eyes glowing green in the fog, but the moment Max’s gaze swept toward them, they vanished into the darkness without making a sound.
After a short while, they met up with Jessica’s group.
The four injured elves were waiting near the place Jessica had left them. Their wounds had been treated roughly, and although they were still pale, they had recovered enough to move.
The moment they saw Caroline returning alive, their eyes filled with relief, and two of them immediately stepped forward as if they wanted to kneel, but Caroline raised her hand and stopped them before they could do so.
"There is no time for that," Caroline said, her voice still weak but steady. "We are leaving Witch God Valley."
The four elves nodded quickly, but their eyes soon moved toward Max with awe and disbelief. Jessica had no need to explain much. The aura around Max, the absence of Lumine’s group, and Caroline’s survival already told them enough.
Their gazes toward him were no longer the gazes one gave a stranger. They looked at him with shock, reverence, and a kind of fragile hope that had not appeared in their eyes for a very long time.
Max did not pay too much attention to those gazes.
"Stay close," he said calmly. "If anything attacks, do not scatter."
Everyone nodded.
With Max still leading, the group continued moving toward the entrance of Witch God Valley. The closer they got to the outer boundary, the more oppressive the atmosphere became. The ground beneath their feet changed from cracked black wood to pale gray bark covered in vein-like green lines, while the cursed mist gathered in thick layers around the path ahead.
The valley seemed unwilling to let them leave. The air grew heavier, the whispers grew sharper, and occasionally, distant cries rang out from behind them as if something hidden deep inside the valley was watching their departure with hatred.
But no matter how strange the surroundings became, Max’s speed did not slow.
Caroline walked beside Jessica and quietly watched Max’s back. She still had countless questions, but she held them back. The truth about Caelira, the Celestial Thorn Abyss, the Divine Son Aurelian Lareth, and the Divine Daughter Selene Vaeloria had already opened wounds that could not be healed in a few words.
For now, survival came first. They needed to leave Witch God Valley, return to a safer region, and prepare for whatever the second faction would do once Seraphine, Fin, and Lumine revived outside with news of what had happened.
Soon, the entrance came into view.
It was a wide gap between two enormous curved branches, and beyond it lay the downward path leading along the Witch God Tree toward the lower region. From there, they could eventually return to the area below the tree, where Max had already expected the second faction to prepare a welcome.
However, just as they were about to step out of the valley, everyone stopped.
Something was blocking the entrance.
It was a huge spherical creature floating silently in the air.
Its entire body looked like a monstrous eye, round and swollen, covered in dark red veins that pulsed across its surface like living roots. Around the main body were several smaller tendrils that moved slowly in the mist, each one ending in a tiny blinking eye.
But the most terrifying part was the enormous eye at the center of the creature.
That eye was wide open, blood-red and black, with a vertical pupil that seemed to contain a deep abyss of deathly light. It did not breathe. It did not roar. It only floated at the entrance, watching the path like a guardian left behind by Witch God Valley itself.
Jessica’s face changed. "What is that?"
Caroline’s expression became grim. "A cursed pet of the witch who once ruled this world. I have only heard of them. I did not expect one to appear at the entrance."
The moment she spoke, the huge spherical eye shifted.
Its vertical pupil locked onto them.
Max’s Dimensional Sovereign Body reacted first.
Before the others could even feel danger, before Jessica could raise her sword, before Nancy could draw her weapon, before Caroline could form a light barrier, Max’s spatial senses screamed inside him. The space in front of the giant eye twisted, compressed, and focused into a single deadly point.
The attack had not yet been released, but Max had already seen its path. It was aimed directly at the center of their group, and among those standing in that line, Jessica was the first one it would strike.
"Move!" Max shouted.
But his voice was slower than the eye’s attack.
A beam of deadly red light shot out from the massive pupil.
It was too fast.
To the others, it looked as if the world flashed red for an instant. They could not follow its movement. They could not react. They could not even understand that an attack had already been launched. Only Max, through the perception of his Dimensional Sovereign Body, saw the beam cutting through space toward Jessica with terrifying speed.
Dragonheart appeared in his hand.
Max stepped in front of Jessica and swung the sword horizontally.