Alfea’s voice was choked with sobs, her eyes instantly reddening.
“I… I can’t help Fan Zhuo anymore… You… do you… not want me anymore?”
Glittering teardrops slid from the corners of her eyes, rolling down her flawless cheeks.
Fan Zhuo’s heart ached. He hurriedly reached out, gently wiping away her tears with his fingertips.
“Nonsense, how could I ever…”
Halfway through his sentence, he suddenly stopped.
The teardrop he caught with his fingertip didn’t fall, but instead, the moment it touched his skin, it transformed into a pure, faintly pink-tinged energy, silently merging into his body.
Fan Zhuo could clearly sense that the lake of holy power within him—a reservoir fused with various powers—felt as if it had just been cleansed by the purest Holy Ritual Spell after absorbing this energy.
The trace of chaos and restlessness that had come from forcibly fusing the power of the Mother Tree and Night Sakura was instantly soothed.
The entire lake became clearer and purer than ever before, and even… gained a quality called “gentleness.”
***
Bang.
The cell door was pushed open.
Old John appeared at the doorway, gasping for breath. His usually despairing face finally relaxed a little when he saw Fan Zhuo.
“I… I’ve been looking all over for you! Knew it… Knew you’d sneak off here again!”
Old John had intended to complain loudly.
But when his gaze landed on Alfea, blushing and snuggling in Fan Zhuo’s arms like a docile kitten, all his words got stuck in his throat.
His expression was complicated—impatience, helplessness—but the wariness and disgust he once felt toward the Slime Queen had clearly faded a great deal.
“Hurry up and come with me! There’s trouble in Block B!” He tossed out the words and stood by the door, waiting.
Fan Zhuo glanced down at the Alfea in his arms, soothing her as he prepared to let go.
Yet, the moment he moved, Alfea only hugged him tighter.
“Don’t…” she mumbled, burying her face in Fan Zhuo’s chest.
“Be good, I have something important to do.” Fan Zhuo coaxed softly, patting her back.
“No way.” Alfea raised her head, a trace of slyness and grievance in her pink eyes.
“You haven’t come to see me for so long. This is your punishment.”
Saying that, though a bit shorter than Fan Zhuo, she rose on tiptoe, her soft body deliberately and slowly rubbing against him.
Fan Zhuo’s body instantly stiffened… then bent…
“Hmph~” Alfea let out a satisfied hum, finally letting go and taking a step back, a mischievous smile of victory on her face.
Fan Zhuo felt thoroughly unsettled, a wave of heat rushing to his head. He had to hunch over to hide his body’s all-too-honest reaction.
He nearly staggered out of the cell, arms and legs moving awkwardly, his posture bizarre.
“You brat…” Old John eyed his strange posture suspiciously. “Pulled your back?”
“…I’m fine.” Fan Zhuo forced the words through gritted teeth, straightening up and hurrying to follow Old John. “What happened?”
“That inquisitor found a holy power anomaly in Block B, pulled almost everyone from Block C and B over there. Now the whole Block B is sealed off.”
Old John grumbled as he spoke, “Now it’s our turn for bad luck—the prison’s Holy Power Monitoring System is malfunctioning, and we desperately need hands for maintenance!”
Hearing this, Fan Zhuo’s heart skipped a beat.
Lucien had taken the bait, after all.
“Holy Power Monitoring System?” Fan Zhuo asked, feigning confusion.
“It’s the holy power monitoring equipment… Ah, all the same!” Old John waved a hand without looking back. “Hurry up! I’ll explain on the way!”
They strode quickly through the deserted corridors. Old John’s breath was a little ragged, but he spoke rapidly.
“This island can hold so many high-risk monsters not because of a few lousy walls, but because it’s shrouded in the ‘Holy Power Mist.’ This entire system is the core of the Holy Power Mist.”
They didn’t head for the prison’s upper or lower levels, but instead turned into a deep corridor that stretched toward the island’s center—a path they’d never taken before.
The walls on either side were no longer cold alloy but some sort of black, breathing stone, inscribed with countless complex and ancient Holy Symbol Runes that glowed faintly.
The air was filled with a damp, sacred aura.
“This whole setup combines our Sacred Theocracy’s most advanced mechanical technology and… the ‘big guy’ sleeping beneath the island,” Old John lowered his voice a notch, a hint of reverence in it.
“The system draws energy leaking from that big guy as he sleeps, converting it into pure holy power and creating the Holy Power Mist. The mist is harmless to us clerics, but to monsters, it constantly suppresses their powers, preventing them from breaking out.”
Converting the sleeping “big guy’s” energy into holy power… and using it to suppress monsters…
The first half of this facility’s theory seemed a lot like how I converted holy power myself…
Could it be… this facility was designed by that “senior” who became a woman?
That would mean she has a deep connection to this prison, maybe even… is here herself?
They reached the end of the corridor, where a massive round stone gate stood.
Old John pressed his palm to the door, channeling holy power into it. With a heavy rumble, the stone gate slowly opened.
The scene beyond made Fan Zhuo’s breath catch.
It was a colossal underground cavern, the vaulted ceiling so high it was out of sight, like a mountain turned upside down.
The cavern was filled with a thick, milky-white luminous mist—the very “Holy Power Mist” Old John had spoken of. Unlike the ever-present fog on the island, this mist was even purer, even holier.
And in the center of the cavern stood an enormous Mechanical Apparatus that defied description.
Countless thick metal pipes, like blood vessels, converged from all directions to a huge sphere made up of crystal lenses and brass gears.
Below the sphere, innumerable intricate supports stretched deep into the earth, as if drawing the planet’s lifeblood.
The entire apparatus emitted a low hum; with every pulse, the surrounding mist throbbed in rhythm.
“Right now, because of the burst of ‘Heretic’ energy in Block B, the whole monitoring system is experiencing violent Energy Feedback.” Old John pointed to the pipes flashing with red light.
“The mist density is out of control, energy readings are a mess. If we don’t handle this, once the system overloads, all the monsters in the prison will break free together!”
Fan Zhuo looked at the web of pipes and instrument panels, scalp tingling.
“Wait… something this complicated—just the two of us? How are we supposed to fix it?”
“Of course it’s not just us.” Old John grinned mysteriously and called out toward the center of the cavern.
“Hey! Time to get to work!”
As soon as he finished, a metal cabinet near the Mechanical Apparatus—square, like an old refrigerator—suddenly lit up with a blue glow.
“Ka-cha… ka-cha…”
Around the cabinet, several flexible mechanical arms, made up of countless hoses and joints, extended outward. At their ends were all kinds of precision probes and clamps.
Next, a semi-transparent, alluring female hologram—identical to the one in the terminal—appeared above the cabinet.
“My, my, which grumpy old man is disturbing my beauty sleep?”
The seductive woman in the cabinet stretched lazily, her curvaceous figure rendered in light and shadow, an alluring contrast to the bulky “refrigerator” body beneath her.
Soon, her gaze landed on Fan Zhuo.
“Oh-ho~ Isn’t this the little priest who just said goodbye to me?”
“What, missing big sister already? You even chased all the way into my ‘room’?”