"Ack!"

Nord clutched his wrist as sharp pain permeated through it, a sickening tremor running up his arm. He could tell some of the bone had fractured—and all that from a single lash of a thin vine.

Then he heard it.

A sweet, calm voice that sent a chill down his spine.

"Is that the dagger you used to hurt Miho?"

Before he could even turn around, his beast, Goluk, reacted on instinct, throwing its massive arm forward in a punch aimed straight at Lily. But—

Slash!

Lily raised one palm effortlessly, and a compressed wind blade tore straight through Goluk's body. The air screamed as it cut. Just before the blade could split the beast completely in two, Goluk vanished in a flash of light—transported away by its life-saving bracelet.

Lily noted the detail subconsciously. A beast could be saved from even a one shot attack. That realisation soothed her slightly; if Miho had truly been in mortal danger, she would have survived.

But that didn't mean she would forgive Nord.

She stepped closer.

Nord watched her approach with a pale face, his legs wobbling weakly, as if they would give out at any moment. Lily advanced one step, and he retreated one. Her expressionless gaze alone made his scalp tingle, a primal fear crawling up his spine.

She bent down gracefully and picked up the oriental dagger.

At that exact moment, Nord's other, smaller beast lunged at Lily—but before it could even reach her, a thick vine erupted from the ground. It wrapped around the beast's body and hoisted it high into the air.

Nord's eyes widened in horror as he sensed the incoming death.

That beast didn't have a life-saving bracelet.

He tried to unsummon it immediately.

"Wai—!"

Crack! Thum!

The beast let out a shrill cry before the vine tightened mercilessly. Its rocky body shattered, fragments raining down as its core and mana crystal rolled lifelessly across the ground.

"Huk—!"

Nord suffered a brutal backlash. He clutched his stomach as blood surged up his throat, collapsing onto the ground in a heap.

Lily held the dagger loosely and stepped closer, stopping just an arm's length away.

She grabbed Nord by the hair and yanked his head up until their eyes met.

"It's so great when people walk right up to me," Lily said with a gentle smile. "Saves me a lot of trouble."

The backlash had left Nord drooling, saliva soaking into his shirt. But when Lily forced him to meet her gaze, the reality of his situation finally hit him. Still, the misogynistic attitude drilled into him since childhood refused to let him submit so easily.

"Unhand me, bit—!"

Slash!

Lily dragged the blade across his face—the exact same way he had done to Miho.

"Ahhhhhhhh!!"

Nord's scream ripped through the air, raw and desperate—but that was only the beginning.

Slash! Slash! Slash!

Lily continued without hesitation, carving into every place he had cut Miho, from to to and beyond. The sound of flesh tearing mixed with the wet splatter of blood hitting the ground.

The entire region echoed with Nord's screams. At first, he hurled curses at Lily, spitting venom through his agony—but gradually, his voice broke.

"I-I am sorry! AAAHH! NO! PLEASE!!!! AAAAHH!"

"I WAS WRONG!!!!! NOOOOO!"

Eventually, his voice grew weak, and his body went limp. He had lost too much blood.

"Out of blood already?" Lily murmured, tilting her head. "Hmm… since my healing won't work."

Thick vines wrapped around his wounds, tightening to forcibly seal them shut. The bleeding stopped—but the pain intensified. Nord felt as if every opening in his body had been cinched with iron cords pulled far tighter than they should have been. The agony was unbearable.

Still, Lily wasn't done.

She force-fed him blood-warm cherries, crushing them into his mouth and forcing him to swallow. His blood circulation improved, keeping him conscious and aware.

Several vines erupted from the ground and wrapped tightly around his legs. They dragged his broken body across the ground toward the secret room Howl had excavated at Lily's request—a chamber hidden just beneath the rise of the plateau.

Leo cast a brief glance in Lily's direction.

He saw her drenched in blood—and an equally mutilated body being dragged away like livestock to a slaughterhouse.

That was enough.

He turned away and continued his work in silence.

"Hmmm… so if I focus on a single golem specifically," Leo muttered, "at the cost of lower numbers, I can create a higher-grade one…"

He looked at the new golem before him, its frame denser and more refined, deliberately forcing his thoughts away from what was happening behind him.

Rock Golem (Low 2-star) – Magical Construct

High 1-star golems could be created—20 of them at once—by him and Howl together. But when constructing a Low 2-star golem, the maximum was only 4.

He checked the proficiency.

[Golem Construct] – 1% Basic → 12% Basic

"Alright, Howl," Leo said calmly.

"From now on, focus on increasing the proficiency of the skill [Golem Construct] in your free time. I want these golems as high-level as you can make them. If possible, integrate Heartstones so they don't consume our mana."

Howl responded with an affirmative intent.

Currently, powering 20 High-1-star golems—even briefly for 10 minutes before they were destroyed—costs around 5000 mana units. That was far too expensive for something so weak. It was comparable to the mana Lily spent maintaining the uncontracted spirits she summoned using beast cores.

On the other side of the battlefield, Leon remained still, offering only occasional pointers to Miho to improve her battle awareness. He watched as Leo's golems overwhelmed their enemies. Those who attempted to flee were yanked back by vines Miho created using the Cedar Treant's beast core, then burned away by fire cores until both men and beasts vanished back to the temple.

In her use of vines, Miho and Lily were similar, almost as if Lily was influencing her.

Leon raised an eyebrow when he realised Miho could technically use nearly every element—so long as she had the appropriate cores. He was also shocked to see so many golems spawn at once. The other shock was that the druit was obeying Leo. For himself, he had thought of capturing the druit and beating it into submission, thinking it would take nearly a week, but Leo did it in a day. Combined with other days' shock of Leo powering up senselessly to Low-4-star, he grew numb and focused on current things.

The battle was nearly over now. Only a few men remained, running around in blind panic.

Miho turned toward Leon excitedly.

"B-brother Leon, how did I perform?" she asked with flushed face, clearly expecting praise from him.

Somehow, Miho had started calling him "brother," and Leon wasn't bothered at all.

He was just about to nod—

When he saw a man in the distance raise his hand toward Miho.

"Careful!"

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