Cursing silently, Afrodite grit her teeth and made a decision.
She raised her hand, ignoring any delicate control, and forcefully condensed the unfamiliar Holy Radiance within her into a dull light sphere that wasn’t dazzling, then hurled it fiercely toward the monster!
Her target wasn’t the monster itself—she was well aware that her current strength couldn’t inflict real damage, so she switched tactics.
“Get lost!”
The light sphere smashed onto the ground not far in front of the monster, exploding into a flash of weak light and a shockwave, kicking up a cloud of dirt.
This attack had no killing power; it was purely meant to create chaos and attract the monster’s attention!
Sure enough, the sudden light and flying dirt made the monster pause.
Its several tentacles waved wildly, and the grotesque mouths on its torso hissed angrily.
Taking this chance, Afrodite dashed beside Alice.
But she didn’t touch her directly—judging from the earlier situation, that slime probably had a paralyzing effect.
In desperation, she tried covering the surface of her palm with a faint layer of Holy Radiance as a barrier before bending down to grab Alice’s right arm, which was still free of slime.
However, the time gained from this feint was clearly not enough for escape!
Without hesitation, Afrodite’s empty left hand once again condensed a light sphere—this time, she aimed directly at the monster’s ugly “face” covered with monstrous mouths and slammed it hard!
“Bang!”
The light sphere exploded just within reach of the monster! Though still limited in power, the sudden attack clearly caught the monster off guard!
The blinding light and shock made it recoil sharply.
Several tentacles instinctively guarded its front, and it emitted an even more frenzied and chaotic hiss!
Now was the moment!
Seizing the monster’s brief confusion and distorted defense, Afrodite immediately unleashed the pitiful amount of Soul Power she had.
A dim gleam flashed, and an invisible force swiftly lifted the paralyzed Alice, suspending her by Afrodite’s side.
Run!
Without a moment’s hesitation, Afrodite turned and ran!
Yet reality was merciless.
Her Soul Power was already extremely weak after the self-detonation, and now she had to divide her focus to maintain Suspension Magic, keeping Alice from falling.
Worse, her vision was still blurry and distorted; the world before her eyes was a shifting blur of colors and outlines, with only tree trunks and uneven ground barely discernible.
She stumbled forward, nearly tripping over exposed roots several times.
Her speed was impossible to increase.
Behind her, the monster’s angry hisses sounded like worms gnawing at her bones!
The sticky tentacles scraped the ground with a “rustling” noise, smashing gravel with a sharp “crackling” as they rapidly closed in, accompanied by a nauseating stench and an icy, piercing murderous intent that almost penetrated her back!
“Dead, dead, dead! At this rate, I’m definitely going to get caught!”
Afrodite could almost feel the monster drawing nearer, the revolting breath nearly spraying onto the back of her neck!
At the same time, the monster seemed to lose patience.
It suddenly let out a sharp, piercing hiss, and several slick tentacles, like coiled venomous snakes, shot straight out with a whoosh, aiming for her back and calves! Their speed was terrifying!
Boom!
The expected searing pain never came!
At the exact moment those deadly tentacles were about to pierce her body, the ground beneath their feet suddenly collapsed without any warning!
Not just a small patch, but a large area opened wide like an invisible giant mouth swallowing them whole! The soft soil and humus layer couldn’t bear their weight and formed a black pit several meters wide!
“Waaah—!”
Afrodite barely managed a short scream before her feet lost footing! She instinctively tried to grab something, but only clutched at damp soil and empty air!
She and the suspended Alice fell defenselessly and straight into this sudden abyss of darkness!
Dust and broken leaves billowed upward like a waterfall! The pursuing monster screeched to a halt at the pit’s edge, dragging frightening claw marks across the ground as it paced anxiously, growling low.
It peered into the deep darkness but ultimately did not jump down after them.
The sudden sensation of weightlessness seized Afrodite.
The wind howled past her ears.
She and Alice were plunging down into the bottomless darkness below!
Again?!
Afrodite wailed silently in her heart.
What’s been going on lately?
Why is it all life-or-death situations?
First, she fell into a Trap during a mission that forced her to self-detonate.
Then she was inexplicably abducted here as free labor.
And now this—falling again.
This was just too unlucky!
Complaints aside, her survival instincts instantly suppressed all other thoughts.
At this falling speed, forget the half-dead red-haired girl in her arms, even Afrodite herself would turn into an unrecognizable, mangled mess.
Her original power system had collapsed after her Demon Physique exploded, leaving her completely unable to access it.
In desperation, an idea flashed through her mind.
Although Afrodite knew nothing about the Holy Radiance and controlling it was extremely clumsy, she couldn’t care about that now!
“Don’t care anymore! Work… please!” Afrodite almost screamed instinctively, focusing all her willpower on that strange and gentle power.
She had no idea how to control this power, so she resorted to the clumsiest and roughest method—desperately spraying that power downward into the void, trying to generate recoil to counter the falling momentum!
Hum—!
Unstable, even somewhat scattered, platinum-colored glows hurriedly exploded beneath her feet.
However, this not only failed to steadily slow them down but made them spin and wobble wildly in the air, barely reducing their fall speed.
“Cough… cough!” The violent magical backlash brought a metallic sweetness up her throat.
No good!
This was completely ineffective!
Too unfamiliar!
As the blurry dark shapes on the ground rapidly grew larger, Afrodite made a final decision.
“All in!!”
Clenching her teeth, she unleashed every bit of power she could muster from this body—including the faint remnants of Origin—without reservation!
This time, she didn’t spray downward but transformed the power into a somewhat clumsy yet wide and thick cushion, forcefully spreading it beneath them!
Pfft!
It felt like crashing heavily onto a huge, highly elastic gel.
The terrifying kinetic energy of the fall was forcibly absorbed and neutralized.
The massive impact still made Afrodite dizzy, but she held the fragile energy barrier tightly.
After a few seconds, the barrier shattered and dissipated under the immense pressure, but their fall had finally slowed to a safe speed.
Splash!
Afrodite clumsily landed on the soft, damp soil at the bottom of the pit, clutching Alice.
Though battered and bruised, she was alive and on solid ground.
“Cough… cough cough…” She coughed violently, feeling pain radiate through her body like it was falling apart.
Looking up at the hole above, now just a small point of light, she finally exhaled a long, long breath.
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