The tip of the Flourishing Nature Sword touched the ground. Green light flashed and engulfed everything. It showered the dull air with lush colours, the grey dust with lives, and the barren surrounding with grasses. Countless trees and flowers sprung from dead cracks, which filled the dry ground and sunken rocks.

The Monster Girls around Flamira retreated, apprehensive of her terrifying aura. They and the Walkers temporarily stopped fighting, all trying to escape the centre of the impact. Only Serinda, Artium, Kurion, and Noviscar stayed near Flamira.

Iona shot towards Flamira and stabbed her claws at Flamira's abdomen. Her blade-like bones narrowly avoided the Flourishing Nature Sword, twisted around Flamira's body, and pierced through her membrane, approaching her core.

Flamira gritted her teeth and tilted up the Flourishing Nature Sword, pushing its tip at Iona's head. Iona slid backwards, arching on her back, and withdrew her claws. The Flourishing Nature Sword missed her neck but found her chest, cutting open her carapace, leaving a clean wound on her pale breasts.

Neon-green blood leaked out. Iona grasped her chest and frowned, feeling embarrassed yet anxious. Her flesh and carapace quivered, and countless twisting green threads appeared at the wound. They connected her severed tissues, reformed her shattered carapaces, and healed her muscles. Throughout the process, she focused her attention on the injury, but nothing strange happened.

Is there really nothing? Is it an invisible, slow-acting poison?

She observed the swarm of locusts fighting Flamira. They divided into multiple groups, flying around each other, attacking Flamira from multiple fronts at once. Though they held the initiative, most of the locusts were ordinary toxic insects. Aside from the few exotic locusts, their attacks did no permanent damage to Flamira.

She was annoyingly good at manipulating her core. Compared to other Slime Girls, she was reckless and had handled her core multiple times, while other Slime Girls would not risk practising such a method.

"Iona, are you slacking off?" Juin walked Iona. "Are you, Iona, the proud, bold Iona, afraid of a mere Transformation Phase Slime Girl? If others know this, they’ll laugh until they choke to death, but their humiliation will still be lesser than yours."

"If you wish to fight her to the death, do it yourself." Iona licked her claws, tasting the sweet, flavourful slime. "My claws were ever so close to her core, but she expressed not despair. In her eyes were only madness. She fears no death, and that is someone whom I must not underestimate."

"If you are too afraid to fight her, then go take care of the other, especially the two which are trying to ascend." Juin opened his mouth and vomited another black mist of locusts. "My children will stall this suicidal Slime Girl for you."

"I hope you can keep your words." Iona stared at Juin. "But I must warn you. That sword, its aura . . . is not of the Transformation Phase."

Iona bent down and rushed around Flamira, trying to get to the Monster Girls behind. Her action prompted the retreating Walkers to halt their movement before flooding back in with endless frenzy. They approached the Monster Girls and blocked their paths.

Flamira couldn't stay still. Her right hand let go of the Flourishing Nature Sword and reached forwards, creating a series of chains around her. Her bluish-purple slime gained dark shades as the spectral chains coiled around her body, fending off the locusts, shooting towards the running Iona.

The chains set ablaze in black flames. The power of decay permeated the atmosphere with a rotten stench. It intercepted Iona, forming a wall of blackness in front of her while the chains rapidly blocked all her paths except her back.

If she didn't want to take any damage, she had to retreat the way she came.

Despite the power of decay, Iona reached out and tore the air in front of her. The fabric of reality twisted and folded onto itself, skipping the space where the black walls remained. She immediately jumped forwards and relaxed her claws. The fabric of reality unfolded, and the chains clashed into the dark particles.

Smiling, Iona locked onto Artium, her eyes gleaming with bloodlust. Her claws sharpened as her aura intensified, depraving the colours from her surrounding, leaving only blood red. She leapt forwards. Vines and flowers around her tried to stop her advance, yet a graze from her aura melted them into puddles of bloody ooze.

As she reached Artium, a streak of lightning flashed and struck her, burning her carapaces. The pain made her anger boil. She quickly backstepped, reached her hands out, and grabbed onto the magic lightning. Her claws trembled as the electricity shocked her mind. She gritted her teeth and threw it back at Flamira.

At the same time, Flamira flapped her four pairs of mechanical wings, generating a sphere of electricity, roasting all the locusts around her. For a moment, she broke free from the confinement. With the chains in her left hand and the sword in her right, she rushed towards Iona, throwing the chains at Juin.

"Take my strike!" Flamira headed straight towards Iona. The lightning landed in the middle of her body, vapourising parts of her slime, giving her core a few noticeable cracks. "Either I die before you, or I die with you."

"Are you crazy!" Iona looked at the Flourishing Nature Sword, then at Flamira's unhinged eyes.

I have to retreat. I can't risk it. That sword is too deadly. How can a Transformation Phase Monster Girl have such power!

Iona raised her claws forwards. She hit the ground below her and ripped a small hill out, creating an instant of concealment. Though it immediately shattered when Flamira struck it with her lightning, it bought enough time for Iona to escape the confrontation. She stood farther from Flamira, yet not too far from the other Monster Girls.

"Flamira, if you want to protect them so much, then allow me to massacre them." Iona giggled. "This game of tag is my favourite."

Flamira frowned and rushed forwards, but more swarms of black locusts emerged around her, binding her to her location.

After his first mistake, Juin had gotten serious and more solemn, commanding his locusts to be even more punishing and suicidal, trying their best to exhaust Flamira, giving her no chance to rest.

Iona laughed as she sped past Flamira, looking for a feeble, panicking Monster Girl. It didn't take long before Iona found her target. An injured Monster Girl was battling against a few Walkers. She was of the latest batch of Monster Girls Iris redeemed and thus had no artefact.

Iona discreetly reached forwards and pulled the fabric of reality, skipping the distance, landing behind the Monster Girl, who remained so focused in her battle that she couldn't notice a new presence behind her.

A claw descended; a head rolled.

The Monster Girl's eyes widened, yet she could not see anything. Her head detached from her body, her vision falling, her consciousness sinking. She witnessed the world moving upwards, slower, slower, until stretched on and on, and then stopped.

Iona grabbed the head and looked at the shocked expression, appreciating the confusion within that pair of dead eyes. Her other claw dug into the eye sockets and took out the eyes, pulling them in her mouth. Her sharp teeth crushed the brittle spheres into pastes, her tongue shimmering in the sour, salty, sweet, exhilarating taste.

During the entire process, Iona deliberately did it so slowly, so loudly, that Flamira could not ignore it. The thought that Flamira was watching made it even more pleasurable to her. It was the thrill of dancing between life and death, of angering her enemies to reckless abandon.

"Why," Flamira said. Her arms violently trembled. Her strikes became more ruthless, more reckless. "Why!"

Juin felt the intense hatred and retreated farther from Flamira, yet his control over his locusts remained firm, not giving Flamira any chance to break free. He knew that this was the best way to fight a berserk. He had to exhaust Flamira instead of trying to suppress her.

Not long after, another muffled noise resounded. Another head rolled. This time Iona didn't even taste the corpse. She just crushed the head with her hands and moved on, still keeping her eyes on Flamira.

What will you do, Flamira? Will you go crazy and get killed by Juin, or will you successfully suppress your despair, your anger?

Can you feel our hopelessness? Can you understand it?

Iona pierced her claws through another Monster Girl's abdomen and swung upwards, cutting her body into two pieces. A rain of blood descended, painting the grasses crimson. Still, Iona remained calm, like a maiden walking in an average downpour.

Flamira was shouting, so Iona smiled and snapped another neck. Flamira tried to break away from the locusts, yet she could not stop Iona from mutilating two more Monster Girls.

Every time Iona killed a Monster Girl, her smile grew bigger and bigger, her laughter louder and louder, until she came to an abrupt stop.

Flamira had returned to silence. Her expression became dull, unresponsive. Her searing anger vanished without traces. Even her movement and strike remained united. The switch inside her mind flipped.

Her pair of azure eyes shifted to blackness as deep as the abyss. Her uncanny presence disturbed the locusts, making them go against Juin's control. They struggled to get away from Flamira, fearing her from the depth of their souls, their instincts.

"Flamira, have you gone mad?" Iona said. "Or are you reconsidering my suggestion? The offer still stands, my Cute Little Slime."

"Something is wrong, Iona!" Juin summoned more locusts, but they didn't want to listen to him. "I can't hold her off for long. She's doing something dangerous. The locusts won't listen to me."

Even without Juin's words, Iona could deduce it as such.

"Tell me, Flamira, do you think that you'll be able to delay until those two can break through?" Iona licked her lips. "I suddenly crave their flesh."

Flamira's black eyes gleamed as she increased her pace, attacking faster, stronger, yet firmer than before. Unlike the chaotic mess of style when she was angry, this rhythm dictated the flow of the battle, playing with the swarms of locusts, directing them under her control.

Juin sweated as he desperately added more locusts, even some known for their commanding power, yet he still failed to take back the flow. Every time Flamira stepped towards Iona, the locusts immediately followed her, unable to retreat nor pull her back. Her chains and sword would intercept any attempt, ruining the formation or annihilating the escapees.

Behind Flamira, myriad arms rose from her membrane, carrying various weapons. With each swing, she unleashed all kinds of magic, moving closer to Iona, controlling the size and speed of the locusts.

Her movement looked slow, yet she kept up to Iona's speed.

What the hell is this! Iona shivered. Is this . . . is this really what a Slime Girl could do? This control, this majestic presence, it's almost like the situation was in her hand.

Where did all those despairs go? Where did all those uncertainties go?

How can you overcome the impossible odds? How did you?

No! I refuse to believe you can stop me!

Frustration rose in Iona's heart. She disregarded Flamira and rushed towards the gigantic white lotus. She didn't even spare a glance at Serinda and Artium, who could not do anything. Those who weren't like Flamira. They were weak, like what the Transformation Phase Monster Girls should be.

Reaching the white lotus, Iona turned around, but Flamira still kept the same dull expression, the same unwavering pace. She would not catch up to Iona's top speed, yet she remained calm, irrationally calm.

As Iona looked at Flamira, resentment burst out of her heart. Her body seared with burning jealousy.

"Flamira, let's see how you're going to deal with this!" Iona raised her claws. "Your lingering hope, I'll stomp it to the ground!"

The claw fell and hit nothing.