Play a Little Game

The journey deeper into the forest was unexpectedly easy.

In Vivian's imagination, they should have encountered more and more ambushes from the Fire God Cult, but none appeared. No—in fact, they hadn't even seen a single person from the Fire God Cult.

Big Watermelon and Melee God of Magic, the two hanger-on players, secretly marveled. As expected of a Witch—the moment she made a move, even the Fire God Cult was scared off.

Even Vivian herself had fallen into the same illusion.

But Liao Zixuan alone knew very well that the truth probably wasn't so simple. The Fire God Cult in Terror Claw's lair definitely hadn't stayed away for the simple reason that they were "afraid."

After all, from that Fire Mage named Shal, Liao Zixuan had learned that the leader directing the Fire God Cult's operation this time was...

Bishop.

Eugenia.

That woman who had truly been "possessed"!

When Liao Zixuan first heard the name "Eugenia" from a Fire God Cult mage, he hadn't reacted. He had only felt that it sounded vaguely familiar.

But after coming back to his senses and rummaging carefully through his memories, he suddenly understood. Little Wolf slapped his thigh with his tiny wolf paw. Huh? That seemed impossible for a wolf to do.

Forget it. It didn't matter. Liao Zixuan naturally wasn't slapping himself, but the little girl!

Don't worry about these irrelevant details.

What truly mattered was—

Good heavens!

So it was this woman!

A character Liao Zixuan would call "this old lady" could never be merely a small Bishop of the Fire God Cult in Huodian City.

Note that the word "small" in "small Bishop" was from Liao Zixuan's perspective. In reality, anyone who could become a city's Bishop was definitely a significant figure in Fall of the Gods.

But if even someone like that didn't qualify as "this old lady," then just how immense was the true old lady's background?

The answer was—

Witch!

She was completely different from Vivian, whom he had "packaged" into a low-quality—or no, not even low-quality, merely a crude imitation toy of a—fake Witch.

This one was genuine, authentic, the real deal. Well, perhaps she was the original, but not the real owner.

After all, Eugenia's body truly belonged to Bishop Eugenia herself, but the soul inside had long since been switched out and replaced with that of a genuine Witch.

The Thousand-Faced Witch—Bella.

Throughout the long storyline of the game in his previous life, countless players had been thoroughly screwed over by this woman. What this old lady loved most was disguising herself as NPCs from various other factions, then...

Casually and openly wearing her disguise to go around stirring up trouble!

And the Bishop of the Fire God Cult in Huodian City was precisely the first disguise of Bella that players encountered!

In his previous life, this part of the storyline wouldn't have been triggered until some time after the game's launch. Yet unexpectedly, he had encountered this old lady right now.

Still...

Born from the same roots, why turn on each other so viciously?

Hopefully, for the sake of them both being Witches—even though their Vivian was still only a Witch in name—she wouldn't make things too difficult for them.

That was one of the reasons Liao Zixuan had encouraged the girl to confront the Fire God Cult head-on. After all, even the opposing Bishop was an infiltrator. How could they possibly lose this fight?

But as the saying went, it was better to prepare for the worst.

If that old lady on the other side really happened to be having an episode, no one should try to measure a Witch with an ordinary person's logic. Liao Zixuan had another card up his sleeve.

This brought them to the second source of his confidence.

Actually, it wasn't anything complicated. It was very simple.

Liao Zixuan knew the strongest method of Witch Bella. By an incredible coincidence, he, Dark Flame Wolf, happened to counter it completely!

As long as Bella dared to use that...

Heh.

"We're here!" After traveling along without the slightest obstruction, a huge opening leading underground soon appeared before them.

This was undoubtedly the lair of Terror Claw, the Magic Tyrannosaurus that ruled Claw Forest.

It was also where the Fire God Cult was currently conducting its growth ritual.

Vivian looked at the deep, dark cavern and tightened her grip on the sickle in her left hand. Incidentally, even Liao Zixuan couldn't quite understand it, but ever since the girl woke up and discovered this sickle, she had kept clutching it.

This Vivian couldn't fight in close combat at all. The sickle was completely useless to her.

To the girl, compared with a weapon, the sickle seemed more like... a talisman?

The little girl lightly rubbed the sickle's handle with her fingers. Then, determination appeared on her face as she led the way into the cavern.

Drip.

Drip, drip.

When they first entered the lair, the surroundings were utterly silent. The only sound was the occasional dripping of water from the rock walls.

Although they were underground, the passage wasn't dark. The Fire God Cult had already come here ahead of them and planted torches everywhere, which made things much easier for Vivian and the others.

There was just one problem.

They still hadn't encountered a single member of the Fire God Cult.

Even if there were no assassins lying in wait to ambush them, there should at least have been people in the main camp. Surely there wasn't not even a single guard post?

Unless the entire Fire God Cult had withdrawn.

But was that possible?

Obviously not.

Then all these strange circumstances could only mean one thing.

A trap.

Or rather... a conspiracy.

"Welcome, welcome." When Vivian and the others finally reached the lowest level, applause came from above, breaking the silence that had lasted all this time.

"You certainly made me wait a long time. I nearly thought you weren't coming."

Vivian raised her head and turned her gaze toward the source of the voice.

It was a woman dressed in an ornate Bishop's robe.

Her position was at the center of the entire underground lair, atop the head of a gigantic tyrannosaurus that lay sprawled there, seemingly hypnotized and asleep.

"Little girl, will you tell me your name?" Eugenia asked, smiling as she sized Vivian up.

With her legs crossed and her body leaning forward, she sat with one leg raised on Terror Claw's head, which was taller than a building, looking down at everyone from above.

"Vivian, Bishop."

The girl met the eyes of the woman atop Terror Claw's head without looking away.

Though she appeared calm and composed, the way her grip on the sickle grew tighter and tighter betrayed the nervousness in her heart.

"Bishop, could I ask you to stop this ritual?" Though she knew it was a pointless question, Vivian still tried asking.

Following the usual pattern, if it were a hot-tempered villain, she would curse you with a "Get lost!" before attacking outright.

If it were an intelligent villain, she would roll her eyes at you and then engage you in a battle of words.

If it were an infiltrator-type villain, then she would...

"All right." The woman atop Terror Claw's enormous head smiled and nodded.

If it were an infiltrator-type villain who was also insane, then she would—

"However..."

"You have to play a little game with me."

As she spoke, Eugenia snapped her fingers. Then, the Fire God Cult's followers pushed out a huge iron cage containing more than a dozen people.

Beneath the huge iron cage, they also pushed out a massive brazier filled with terrifying magma that bubbled and churned at an intensely high temperature—enough to completely swallow the iron cage above it.