Soulweaving Witch Isolde

The prompt lit up, and everyone in the Banquet Hall seemed to stop breathing for a beat.

Zheng Chuan had just crawled out of the pile of shattered wood. When he saw those words, his voice cracked.

"There's a second phase?! This dungeon never intended to let anyone survive!"

Meng Yinyin's hand, clutching her staff, had been trembling nonstop.

Her magic was nearly depleted, and bloody marks left by corpse hands covered her body. The faint gentleness she usually put on had long since vanished without a trace.

She took a step back, her frantic gaze sweeping toward the Banquet Hall exit.

"We can't keep fighting. If we do, we're all going to die!"

Luo Qi was even more desperate than they were.

His arm was still bleeding. The wound Isolde had cut into him burned fiercely, but compared to the pain, he wanted to strangle Isolde far more right now.

She had said she could kill Valen.

But now, that madwoman who claimed she could kill Valen could not even move herself.

"It's all her fault!" Zheng Chuan suddenly broke down and roared, pointing at Isolde. "It's all that damned woman's fault! If she hadn't tricked us into coming here, how could we have run into a monster like this?!"

Meng Yinyin's eyes reddened. "I said something was wrong with her! I told you so from the start!"

The girl in the white dress dropped to her knees. The dark red contract mark on her chest seemed to come alive, fine patterns spreading beneath the fabric and strangling her heart.

Her face was deathly pale, cold sweat rolling down from her temples drop by drop. Her fingers were stiff against the floor, and even moving them was difficult.

Valen paid no attention to the three prey who had already been scared out of their wits.

His enormous body slowly pressed toward Isolde.

The newly stitched corpse flesh was still writhing. Rotten arms hung from his back like an entire living forest of corpses.

At the third vertebra, the Silver Core was exposed deep within the rotten flesh, shining with a blinding light.

Valen lowered his head. His bloated human face split open, revealing densely packed teeth that opened and closed.

"Isolde, why did you betray me?"

The contract's suppression tightened around Isolde's throat, making even breathing difficult.

Valen looked down at her, his gaze furious and confused.

"I adopted you, taught you, and gave you the right to witness perfection."

"You should have been my useful child."

"Why?"

Isolde knelt on the floor, her fingertips slowly digging into her palm as she began to laugh softly.

Valen suddenly froze. His murky eyes gradually narrowed, as though he had finally sensed something deep within the contract.

"No." His voice sank. "You are not Isolde."

The three of Zheng Chuan's group froze at once, completely unable to understand what was happening. Had they come here to clear a dungeon, or been forced to perform in a family melodrama?

Valen stared at her intently, decay lingering around him like ghosts waiting for an opportunity to strike.

"Who exactly are you?"

Isolde slowly raised her head. The pain had reddened the corners of her eyes, but there was not the slightest hint of pleading on her face.

The last trace of weakness in those eyes had completely faded, leaving only a cold, gleaming ferocity.

She tugged at the corner of her mouth and spoke with difficulty. "Is that really important?"

Valen's gaze sharpened.

Isolde's voice was hoarse, yet every word was incomparably clear and filled with rage.

"Right now, I don't want to know who I am. I only know that I want to live!"

"I want to reclaim my freedom!"

"I want power!"

"I want everyone who ever hurt me to pay the price!"

She raised her eyes, smiling with icy madness.

"As for who I am—"

"I'll think about that slowly after I accomplish all of this."

As soon as she finished speaking, her stiff fingers suddenly clenched around the last bone nail.

Valen seemed to sense something, and his expression changed drastically.

Isolde gave him no chance to react.

She gripped the nail in reverse and aimed at her own chest, driving it down with all her strength.

The bone nail pierced through her dress and sank into flesh, stopping just an inch from her heart.

Agonizing pain exploded through her.

Isolde's vision went black, and she nearly fainted on the spot.

But in the next instant, a burst of laughter suddenly sounded beside her ear.

Sharp, frenzied, and excitement twisted almost beyond recognition.

"HAHAHAHAHA—"

The laughter seemed to crawl out from her bones. She thought she saw a woman in black hair and a black dress standing at the end of a blood-red corridor, tilting her head and giving her a cruel smile.

Isolde's pupils suddenly contracted as excruciating pain surged through her.

Her entire body trembled in pain, yet she could not stop herself from laughing. She could not even tell whether she felt disgust or excitement.

Zheng Chuan and the other two felt their scalps go numb from her laughter.

Meng Yinyin unconsciously retreated several steps. "She... she's gone mad..."

The sight before him made Valen freeze completely.

For that instant, it was as though he saw the Isolde from the past again.

But the look in her eyes now was not admiration. She was looking at a prey already within her grasp.

"You—damn it!"

Valen suddenly stretched out a corpse hand, intending to end her insolence once and for all.

But the instant the bone nail pierced the Main Contract, the dark red patterns over her chest abruptly erupted.

[Warning!]

[The Main Contract has suffered a purification impact.]

[Contract suppression abnormality.]

[Subordinate Contract Chain breaking—]

Isolde suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood.

The blood fell upon her white dress like a crooked flower blooming.

[Main Contract suppression shattered.]

[Soul Contract holder: Lia. Movement restrictions lifted.]

By the wall, Lia's fingers, which had been lying motionless on the floor, suddenly twitched.

The next second, she rapidly rose to her feet and burst toward Isolde.

Just as Valen was about to touch Isolde, Lia picked her up and narrowly dodged the fatal strike.

Lia carried Isolde to the edge of the center of the Banquet Hall and gently set her down. Her lifeless pupils fell upon the crimson-stained dress.

"Miss, you are bleeding."

Isolde clutched her chest, blood pouring through the gaps between her fingers.

The pain made her vision darken in waves, yet that frenzied laughter still echoed in her ears.

So damn noisy.

She cursed inwardly.

Isolde braced herself against the floor and stood up. Her body swayed, but she forced herself steady again.

She raised her head and looked at Valen, whose face was now filled with shock and fury, then shouted at the three terrified tools.

"What are you standing around for? Keep attacking!"

Zheng Chuan's eyes widened. "You want us to fight now?!"

"Obviously." Isolde gritted her teeth and smiled. "If we don't, are you waiting for him to stitch you into his stomach for a family meeting?"

Meng Yinyin's lips trembled. "But..."

Isolde suddenly raised her hand. A Soul-Binding Thread grazed past Meng Yinyin's cheek and nailed itself into the wall behind her.

Every word Meng Yinyin had left caught in her throat.

Isolde stared at them and said, one word at a time.

"Whoever tries to run now, I'll kill first."

She was covered in blood, her white dress in a miserable state, half a bone nail still embedded in her chest. Yet her eyes shone with a madness that was almost demonic.

Zheng Chuan cursed and charged forward, dragging his axe. "I've really had rotten luck for eight lifetimes!"

Axe light, arrows, and magic crashed toward Valen at once.

Valen had only just recovered from the shock of Isolde piercing her heart to break the contract when three attacks struck him, making his massive body lurch.

He roared and swept his tail, corpse hands flailing wildly as he tried to tear apart those three troublesome prey first.

But this was exactly the moment Isolde had been waiting for.

She raised her bloodstained hand and said softly.

"Soul-Binding Thread."

Fine threads tore through the shadows and wrapped tightly around Valen's body from the ground, forcing him to expose the spine behind him.

[Duke Valen has received abnormal status: Soul-Binding Thread.]

[Target is in a weakened, corrupted, and terrified state.]

[Binding duration doubled: 3 seconds]

Valen's movements abruptly stopped. His entire Corpse Giant Serpent body was pinned in place, rotten arms struggling madly as the eyeballs embedded in the seams of flesh burst one after another.

Isolde's body swayed, and the blood from her chest flowed even more fiercely.

She knew she could not hold on for much longer.

If this dragged on, Valen would not even need to kill her. She would collapse from blood loss first.

So she raised her head and looked at Lia.

"Lia."

Lia had already risen. The bandages over half her face had come loose, exposing the pale, rigid Puppet skin beneath.

"Throw me over there."

Lia did not hesitate. She rushed to Isolde's side, one hand supporting her waist and the other gripping her shoulder and back as she began sprinting toward Valen.

Zheng Chuan's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

"What is she doing? Is she insane?!"

Luo Qi's voice was hoarse. "She's always been insane."

Valen also realized what she intended to do. For the first time, real panic entered his voice.

"Isolde, you wouldn't dare!"

Isolde lowered her head and drew out that bone blade again. She wiped the blood from her lips and smiled.

"Father. Haven't you always wanted a more perfect body?"

Lia exerted force with her arms and violently hurled Isolde into the air.

"Only a dead body is perfect."

The wind tore past her ears. Valen's massive body rapidly expanded in her vision, the stench of rot crashing over her and making it almost impossible to breathe.

She stared fixedly at that spot of silver-white light, the smile on her lips deepening.

Valen struggled wildly. One Soul-Binding Thread after another snapped, and a corpse hand brushed past Isolde's shoulder, tearing open a large swath of fabric and flesh.

The pain made Isolde's body go numb, but her smile only grew madder.

She landed on Valen's back, her knees slamming heavily into the rotten flesh as she nearly became trapped by writhing meat buds.

Valen roared, and every chandelier in the Banquet Hall exploded completely.

"I am a Demigod Candidate! You cannot do this!"

Isolde gripped the bone blade with both hands and drove it viciously toward the Silver Core.

"Demigod?" Her eyes were terrifyingly cold. "Unfortunately for you, Demigods are exactly what I kill."

The bone blade plunged into the Silver Core.

Crack.

A crisp shattering sound rang through the Banquet Hall.

Valen's roar came to an abrupt halt.

The next instant, silver-white light burst from the cracks, like moonlight trapped deep within rotten flesh finally tearing through filthy blood.

[Weakness critical hit.]

[Silver Core damaged.]

[Duke Valen's HP has reached zero.]

Isolde knelt on Valen's back, both hands still gripping the bone blade tightly.

The next second, Valen's enormous body collapsed with a thunderous crash.

Countless chunks of rotten flesh, bone fragments, and severed limbs fell like sludge that had lost its support. Black blood flooded over the floor tiles, while silver-white light slowly rose from the center of the corpse.

A prompt appeared before the stunned trio.

[Duke Valen has died]

Zheng Chuan pushed himself up with his axe, and his eyes instantly lit up.

"Loot dropped!"

Luo Qi no longer had the mind to be afraid. He stared at that mass of silver light, greed nearly written across his entire face.

Meng Yinyin bit her lip and forced herself to speak. "Miss Isolde, we helped you kill the villain, so the rewards should be ours, right?"

Isolde slowly turned around.

Black blood was splattered across her white dress, and she still held that bone blade soaked through with blood.

"Yours?"

She gave a soft laugh.

The next second, system notifications popped up before all three of them at once.

[Warning]

[Isolde Faction Status Updated]

[Current Identity: Castle Heir]

[Castle Authority Forced Transfer in Progress...]

The dark red formation patterns on the ground abruptly lit up, and the chandeliers in the Banquet Hall burst into flame.

Zheng Chuan's expression changed drastically. "What is it this time?"

Isolde raised her hand and grasped the cluster of silver-white light in her palm.

[You have obtained: God-tier Item · Valen's Silver Core]

[You have obtained: Top-tier Skill Fragment · Corpse Throne]

[Detected that you possess the Soul Stitcher identity]

[Skill fusion requirements met]

The screen before her eyes refreshed frantically, while a line of blood-red text appeared on all three players' panels at the same time.

[Attention: The master of the Castle has changed]

[A new dungeon BOSS is being generated--]

[Soulweaving Witch · Isolde]