The moment the warning appeared, everyone in the banquet hall stopped breathing.
Grant had just climbed out of the wreckage. When he read the notification, his voice cracked.
“There’s a second phase? This dungeon was never meant to let anyone out alive!”
Mina’s hand trembled around her staff.
Her mana was nearly depleted, and bloody scratches from the corpse hands covered her body. The gentle facade she usually wore had vanished completely.
She backed away, her frantic gaze darting toward the exit.
“We can’t keep fighting. We’re all going to die!”
Rowan looked even more desperate.
Blood still ran from the cut Isolde had made in his arm. The wound burned, but right now, he wanted to strangle her more than anything.
She had claimed she could kill Valen.
But now the madwoman who had promised to kill him couldn’t even move.
“This is all her fault!” Grant suddenly roared, pointing at Isolde. “That damned woman tricked us into coming here! We never would’ve run into this monster otherwise!”
“I told you something was wrong with her!” Mina’s eyes reddened. “I said it from the start!”
The girl in the white dress had fallen to her knees.
The dark red contract mark over her chest seemed to come alive. Fine lines spread beneath the fabric and tightened around her heart.
Isolde’s face had turned deathly pale. Cold sweat rolled down her temples, one drop at a time.
Her fingers were frozen against the floor. Even moving them slightly took all her strength.
Valen ignored the three terrified prey.
His massive body slowly pressed toward Isolde.
The newly grafted pieces of corpses still writhed across his body. Rotten arms hung from his back like a living forest of dead flesh.
At the third vertebra of his spine, the Silver Core shone brightly through the exposed rotting flesh.
Valen lowered his head.
His swollen face split open, revealing rows of tightly packed teeth that opened and closed as he spoke.
“Isolde, why did you betray me?”
The Master Contract tightened around her throat, making every breath a struggle.
Valen stared down at her, both furious and confused.
“I adopted you. I taught you. I granted you the privilege of witnessing perfection.”
“You were supposed to be my useful child.”
“Why?”
Kneeling on the floor, Isolde slowly dug her nails into her palms.
Then she began to laugh.
Valen suddenly went still.
His cloudy eyes narrowed, as though he had finally sensed something hidden deep within the contract.
“No,” he said, his voice turning cold. “You are not Isolde.”
Grant, Mina, and Rowan stared at them in confusion.
Had they come here to clear a dungeon, or had they been dragged into some twisted family drama?
Valen glared at her.
The force of decay circled him like restless spirits waiting to strike.
“Who are you?”
Isolde slowly raised her head.
Pain had reddened the corners of her eyes, but there was no plea for mercy on her face.
The last trace of weakness vanished from her gaze, leaving behind a cold, gleaming ruthlessness.
Her lips twisted into a strained smile.
“Does it matter who I am?”
Valen’s eyes hardened.
Isolde’s voice was hoarse, but every word came out sharp and clear.
“Right now, I don’t care who I am.”
“I only know that I want to live!”
“I want my freedom back!”
“I want power!”
“And I want everyone who ever hurt me to pay!”
She looked up at him with a cold, unhinged smile.
“As for who I am…”
“I’ll figure that out once I’ve done everything else.”
The moment she finished speaking, her rigid fingers closed around the final Bone Nail.
Valen seemed to realize what she was planning.
His expression changed.
Isolde gave him no time to react.
She gripped the nail and drove it into her own chest.
The Bone Nail pierced her dress and sank into her flesh, stopping less than an inch from her heart.
Agony exploded through her.
Her vision went black, and she nearly lost consciousness on the spot.
Then she heard laughter.
It was shrill and manic, twisted with almost unbearable excitement.
“Hahahahaha!”
The laughter seemed to crawl out from inside her bones.
For an instant, she saw a woman in a black dress standing at the end of a bloodred corridor.
Long black hair framed the woman’s face as she tilted her head and gave Isolde a cruel smile.
Isolde’s pupils contracted.
A fresh wave of agony tore through her.
Her entire body shook from the pain, yet laughter escaped her lips.
She could no longer tell whether she felt disgusted or exhilarated.
The sound made the three players’ scalps crawl.
Mina stumbled back.
“She’s… she’s lost her mind.”
Valen froze completely.
For a moment, it was as if he were looking at the old Isolde again.
But there was no devotion in her eyes now.
She was looking at him like prey already within her grasp.
“You deserve to die!”
Valen thrust out a corpse hand, intending to end her defiance once and for all.
But the instant the Bone Nail pierced the Master Contract, the dark red lines across Isolde’s chest erupted.
[Warning!]
[Master Contract has suffered a purification impact.]
[Contract suppression destabilized.]
[Subordinate contract chain breaking.]
Isolde coughed up a mouthful of blood.
It splashed across her white dress like a crooked flower.
[Master Contract suppression has been shattered.]
[Soul Contractor, Lia. Movement restrictions removed.]
Beside the wall, Lia’s fingers suddenly moved.
The next instant, she sprang to her feet and rushed to Isolde’s side.
Just before Valen’s corpse hand could reach her, Lia swept Isolde into her arms and narrowly avoided the killing blow.
Lia landed near the edge of the banquet hall and gently lowered her.
Her lifeless eye settled on Isolde’s blood-soaked dress.
“Miss, you’re bleeding.”
Isolde pressed a hand to her chest.
Blood streamed between her fingers.
Darkness pulsed at the edges of her vision, and that manic laughter still echoed in her ears.
Shut up.
She cursed silently.
Isolde pushed herself to her feet. Her body swayed, but she forced herself to remain standing.
She looked at the furious, stunned Valen before shouting at the three useless tools who were still frozen in place.
“What are you waiting for? Keep attacking!”
Grant’s eyes widened.
“You want us to fight now?”
“Obviously.”
Isolde smiled through clenched teeth.
“Or would you rather wait for him to stitch you into his stomach and hold a family meeting?”
Mina’s lips trembled.
“But…”
Isolde flicked her hand.
A Soulbinding Thread grazed Mina’s cheek and buried itself in the wall behind her.
The rest of Mina’s words died in her throat.
Isolde stared at them.
“Anyone who tries to run dies by my hand first.”
She was covered in blood. Her white dress hung in tatters, and half a Bone Nail still protruded from her chest.
Yet her eyes burned with a light that bordered on madness.
Grant cursed, then dragged his axe forward.
“I must have the worst luck in the world!”
Axe light, arrows, and magic struck Valen at once.
Valen had barely recovered from the shock of Isolde stabbing through her own contract when the three attacks hit him.
His enormous body staggered.
Roaring, he swung his tail and lashed out wildly with his corpse hands, trying to tear apart the three irritating prey first.
That was exactly the moment Isolde had been waiting for.
She raised her bloodstained hand.
“Soulbinding Thread.”
Fine threads tore through the shadows and wrapped tightly around Valen’s body from below, forcing him to expose his spine.
[Duke Valen is suffering from the abnormal condition, Soulbinding Thread.]
[Target is Weakened, Corrupted, and Afraid.]
[Restraint duration doubled, 3 seconds.]
Valen stopped moving.
His entire corpse serpent body was pinned in place.
Rotten arms thrashed wildly, and the eyes buried between the seams of his flesh burst one after another.
Isolde swayed.
Blood poured even faster from her chest.
She knew she couldn’t hold on much longer.
If this dragged on, she would collapse from blood loss before Valen even had the chance to kill her.
She looked toward Lia.
“Lia.”
Lia was already on her feet.
The bandages covering half her face had come loose, revealing pale, rigid skin like that of a lifeless doll.
“Throw me.”
Lia didn’t hesitate.
She rushed to Isolde’s side, placed one hand beneath her waist and the other against her shoulder, then sprinted toward Valen.
Grant’s eyes nearly bulged out of his head.
“What is she doing? Is she insane?”
Rowan’s voice came out hoarse.
“She’s always been insane.”
Valen realized what she intended to do.
For the first time, genuine panic entered his voice.
“Isolde, don’t you dare!”
Isolde pulled out her bone knife again.
She wiped the blood from her lips and smiled.
“Father, haven’t you always wanted a more perfect body?”
Lia used all her strength and hurled Isolde into the air.
“Only a dead body can truly be perfect.”
Wind tore past Isolde’s ears.
Valen’s enormous body rushed closer in her vision as the overwhelming stench of decay nearly smothered her.
Her eyes remained fixed on that point of silver-white light.
Her smile deepened.
Valen struggled frantically.
The Soulbinding Threads snapped one after another.
A corpse hand swept past Isolde’s shoulder, tearing through fabric and flesh.
Pain numbed half her body, but her laughter only grew wilder.
She landed on Valen’s back.
Her knees plunged into the rotting flesh, and the writhing tendrils nearly dragged her under.
Valen roared.
Every chandelier in the banquet hall shattered.
“I am a demigod candidate! You cannot do this!”
Isolde gripped the bone knife with both hands and drove it toward the Silver Core.
“A demigod?”
Her gaze was terrifyingly cold.
“That’s unfortunate. Demigods are exactly what I came to kill.”
The bone knife pierced the Silver Core.
Crack.
The sharp sound of something breaking rang through the banquet hall.
Valen’s roar stopped.
Silver-white light erupted from the fracture.
It was like moonlight imprisoned beneath rotting flesh finally tearing through the filthy blood.
[Weak-Point Critical Hit.]
[Silver Core shattered.]
[Duke Valen’s Health has reached zero.]
Isolde remained on her knees atop Valen’s back, both hands locked around the bone knife.
Then his enormous body collapsed.
Rotting flesh, broken bones, and severed limbs fell like sludge that had lost its support.
Black blood spread across the stone floor.
From the center of the remains, silver-white light slowly rose.
Notifications appeared before the three stunned players.
[Duke Valen has been slain.]
Grant hauled himself upright with his axe.
His eyes lit up instantly.
“He dropped loot!”
Rowan forgot his fear as well.
He stared at the silver light, greed written across his face.
Mina bit her lip and forced herself to speak.
“Miss Isolde, we helped you kill the villain. That reward belongs to us, doesn’t it?”
Isolde slowly turned around.
Black blood covered her white dress, and the bone knife in her hand was stained dark.
“Belongs to you?”
She laughed softly.
The next instant, system notifications appeared before all three players.
[Warning.]
[Isolde Sylvain’s faction status has been updated.]
[Current Identity, Heir of Sylvain Castle.]
[Castle authority transfer in progress.]
Dark red array lines flared across the floor.
Every candlestick in the banquet hall burst into flame.
Grant’s expression changed.
“What is it this time?”
Isolde raised her hand and closed her fingers around the silver-white light.
[You have acquired Divine-tier Item, Valen’s Silver Core.]
[You have acquired Top-tier Skill Fragment, Throne of Corpses.]
[Soul-Stitcher identity detected.]
[Skill fusion requirements met.]
Notifications flooded Isolde’s vision.
At the same time, a bloodred warning appeared on the three players’ status screens.
[Attention, The master of Sylvain Castle has changed.]
[A new Dungeon Boss is being generated.]
[Soul-Stitched Witch, Isolde Sylvain.]