Chapter 306: Chapter 306

Hermes clenched his fists, and the crimson threads tightly bound Mrs. Andersen with no gaps constricted further.

Before their eyes, thick black liquid began oozing out from her body. The more Mrs. Andersen struggled, the tighter the threads coiled around her—like a fish thrashing helplessly on dry land, her frantic movements only made her restraints dig deeper.

Liam cheered joyfully, "Amazing, Hermes!"

He looked like he could burst into a cheerleading dance immediately.

Hermes ignored Liam’s outburst. His pitch-black eyes suddenly turned bright red, and as though his blood had been poured into them, the flickering scarlet threads around Mrs. Andersen now gleamed with a vivid, blazing crimson—burning fiercely in everyone’s sight.

"Whoosh!" Flames suddenly erupted from Hermes’s fingertips, racing along the threads and igniting Mrs. Andersen’s entire body!

Groans and the stench of burning flesh filled the air. Fresh blood flowed freely as Hermes’s face grew paler and paler.

Mrs. Andersen’s body convulsed violently—then smaller and smaller... until it seemed she might finally be reduced to ash.

Just as everyone thought this nightmare was over, a thunderous explosion suddenly rang out!

Mrs. Andersen’s head, bound tightly into a grotesque lump, burst apart. The threads remained intact, but didn’t have time to tighten again!

Her throat—like a gaping, grotesque pipe—was suddenly exposed before them, horrifyingly distorted and aimed straight at the group.

"Run!" Hermes roared, but it was too late.

A piercing shriek burst forth, shaking the entire mansion. Everything around them trembled and collapsed; the soundwave blew back Hermes and the others. Agonizing pain ripped through their skulls, their heartbeats hammering so violently it felt as though they might explode at any moment. Their organs churned inside them, quivering under the force of the monstrous sound.

Being the closest to the creature, Hermes took the full brunt of it. His face twisted with pain, blood streaming from his ears and nose, his eyes completely bloodshot.

Yet he still clenched his fists, refusing to release his grip—determined to keep the monster immobilized.

Earthen walls surged up again, but they couldn’t hold for long. Mrs. Andersen didn’t stop—not even for a moment.

Alice seized the brief chance to heal the others, but they knew this couldn’t happen.

"We can’t even get close to her!" Liam muttered, his brow furrowed. If they approached even a little, her horrifying scream would make them explode on the spot.

At this point, Mrs. Andersen’s body had been constricted by Hermes’s threads until it resembled a dried corpse. Rotten flesh and unidentifiable fluids seeped out from between the strands, while only her elongated throat remained intact—refusing to be crushed.

She no longer even had a head, yet she continued to scream. There was no doubt now—she was a monster. A true monster.

Mrs. Andersen’s ear-splitting shriek continued to echo. The mansion’s walls could no longer withstand the force; they began to quake violently, cracks spreading in every direction.

"This place is going to collapse—we must get out!" Hermes shouted. He exerted force, and the crimson threads immediately flung Mrs. Andersen’s body far away, piercing through the mansion wall.

The group seized the opportunity to dash outside. Behind them, the mansion collapsed with a thunderous roar—but the nightmare wasn’t over yet...

Austin smashed apart a massive chunk of debris flying toward them, while Liam kept conjuring barrier after barrier. Finally, they managed to escape beyond the mansion’s collapse zone—though they hadn’t yet entered the forest’s depths.

"She’s coming..." Alice murmured.

From within the rubble, slithering sounds echoed eerily, directionless—like countless unseen monsters slowly crawling out from the ashes.

In the forest’s darkness, crimson eyes blinked open simultaneously, gleaming with bloodlust as they fixed on the cornered humans.

There was nowhere left to run.

"Damn it, how the hell do we get out of this cursed place?" Liam muttered frantically. "Last time, Luis and the others were pulled into places , too, right? What did they do—how did they get out?"

Hermes asked Alice, "What did you all see before this happened?"

Alice’s expression hardened as she recounted everything as quickly as possible—from when they saw Mr. Andersen dealing with the woman holding the black cat, to when Finn suddenly transformed.

Hermes frowned. "That still doesn’t explain Mrs. Andersen’s rage."

They hadn’t even seen what Mr. Andersen had done to her.

"Could it be that what Mr. Andersen did to that woman made Mrs. Andersen furious?" Liam speculated.

"If that were true, then Mrs. Andersen wouldn’t have been terrified when she saw that woman," Alice said softly.

"We also can’t rule out the possibility that they were all acting," Hermes muttered. "But Mrs. Andersen kept talking about betrayal..."

Hermes murmured to himself. None of them could think straight—or perhaps their minds had already been scrambled by Mrs. Andersen’s screams. Otherwise, how could everything before their eyes seem so chaotic and hazy?

There was a greater scheme at play—one they couldn’t yet comprehend.

"Mr. Andersen... where is Mr. Andersen? Mrs. Andersen is right in front of us, the woman with the black cat’s been reduced to minced flesh—but where’s he?" Hermes muttered suddenly.

And then, from beneath the rubble, another mangled body began to emerge.

Mrs. Andersen’s mutilated form was rapidly regenerating at an impossible speed. Torn flesh knit itself back together like time were reversing, and her body began to swell and expand grotesquely.

It was already too late...

"Flowers... are those flowers?" Alice suddenly spoke up in confusion.

Everyone instinctively lowered their gaze—indeed, delicate blossoms sprouted from the ground—pure white lilies, faintly translucent, shimmered with a soft greenish glow. Tiny motes of light, like fireflies, drifted outward endlessly.

Before they could even react, the flowers spread rapidly, blanketing the area—not only surrounding them, but also enveloping Mrs. Andersen and the ruins of the mansion. Soon, everything was covered in a field of ethereal blooms.

"What is this..." someone whispered, too afraid to guess.

Mrs. Andersen let out another furious shriek, yet the sudden appearance of the flowers seemed only to enrage her further. Her long, serpentine body writhed violently, crushing everything around her.

"You poor girl, don’t cry."

[What the—what is happening?!]

[That effect—never seen anything like it!]

[Who just made such a calm and direct entrance like that?!]

[It’s Prophet, hahaha!]

[Please, Prophet doesn’t grow flowers!]

[Aaaaa, wait—don’t tell me another fan club’s about to join the fandom war?!]

[That voice was so gentle though, sob sob sob...]

[Everything’s happening so fast, I wasn’t mentally prepared for this!]