Chapter 129: The Next Target

"Waaaaaaaah!!!"

The shrill, agonizing scream echoed through the wine cellar. Jan squinted, listening to the man's shrieks as if savoring a marvelous concert. Pain, despair, sorrow, and rage—to the denizens of the Abyss, these were like fine wines, intoxicating and sweet.

Cotton lay on the ground, four xenomorphs crouched over him, ravenously devouring his limbs. Anyone else would have long since slipped into a coma or perished, but Cotton was not so fortunate. Eunoia’s magic kept his soul firmly anchored within his body, amplifying the agony of his ordeal tenfold now that the physical shell was being stripped away. He could feel the pain of his skin being torn, the agony of his bones being gnawed, and the sensation of his tendons being pulled out like strips of rawhide while his bone marrow was slurped away like a fine beverage. As the xenomorphs' teeth tore through muscle and snapped bone, he could even feel his own severed palm being chewed, swallowed, and digested by the creature's potent stomach acid.

Under any other circumstances, he would have lost consciousness, but such mercy was denied to him. All he could do was scream, and scream, and scream. He vented his agony through his raw, raspy cries, desperately hoping someone might hear him and rescue him from this demon. Even death would have been a relief compared to this torment.

Alas, no god or man heard his prayers. He could only watch helplessly as those horrific monsters tore his body apart and feasted upon his flesh. Eventually, his screams faded into wheezing whimpers; his body could no longer sustain such violent expenditure. He lay there like a dying dog, shivering and gasping.

"Ugh... ughhh..."

Stimulated by the intense pain, Cotton’s mind began to fracture. Soon, his screams devolved into incoherent wails, then into uncontrollable sobbing.

"It hurts... it hurts so much... Mama... Mama...!"

"Ah, Mama..."

Hearing this, Jan clasped his hands together and closed his eyes.

"Mama... what a beautiful word. A call that resonates through the soul... What a pity she isn't in the Abyss. If she were, I would certainly bring her here to see the miserable state of her son..."

"Waaaaah... waaaaaah..."

But Cotton could no longer hear Jan. He had regressed to the state of a child, sobbing uncontrollably, snot and tears mingling to ruin his once-handsome face. He thrashed his head desperately, as if that could escape the agony of being torn asunder. Just then, with his frantic movements, a bright silver flash flew from his neck and landed on the floor nearby.

Intrigued, Jan reached out and flicked his fingers. The silver object immediately flew through the air and landed in his palm. It was a silver heart-shaped locket; it looked refined but not exceptionally valuable. Jan curiously pried it open to reveal a miniature oil painting inside. It depicted a man and a woman standing intimately together. The man on the left was Cotton, and the pure, lovely woman on the right appeared to be his lover. They were arm-in-arm, wearing happy, sweet smiles.

Seeing the portrait, Jan’s interest piqued. He waved the xenomorphs away, walked slowly to Cotton, and dangled the locket before his eyes.

"Is this your wife? Or your lover?"

Cotton was nearly delirious. At the sight of the locket, his eyes instinctively focused, and a sudden, desperate light sparked in his dull, dimming pupils.

"Ligeia..."

Cotton muttered, his mind seemingly lost, relying only on instinct. "My sun... ah... Ligeia... you are my angel... I promised you... that when I returned... I would give you a wealthy... happy life..."

"Tsk, tsk, tsk..."

Hearing the self-miserable soliloquy, Jan shook his head. "That is why you shouldn't just go around planting flags. Ending up like this is entirely of your own making. Poor Mr. Cotton... when you do something as unlucky as planting a flag, even the King of the Gods himself couldn't save you."

As he spoke, Jan tucked the locket away. Seeing it move further from him, Cotton suddenly lifted his head, his face, pale from blood loss, flushing with an unhealthy red excitement.

"Ligeia...! No, my Ligeia... come back... come back...! Give Ligeia back to me, she is mine!! Mine...!"

"Finish him."

While listening to Cotton's wails, Jan walked away, nonchalantly issuing the order. Naturally, he didn't forget to add one final instruction: "Remember to leave the head intact."

The next moment, accompanied by a final, blood-curdling scream, Cotton’s body was completely engulfed by the xenomorphs. Simultaneously, the torch illuminating the cellar flickered like the young man’s life before extinguishing completely.

Half an hour later, Eunoia emerged from the basement, wiping the blood and brain matter from her hands.

"Master, everything has been investigated."

"Tell me."

Jan glanced at her and nodded. As his adjutant, Eunoia could not leave his side, but she could not have infiltrated the mercenary group to reach the surface with him—women were rare among them, and she would have drawn unwanted attention. Thus, Jan had ordered her to remain in the dungeon, summoning her to the surface only after the deed was done.

To be safe, after leaving the Underdark, Jan had goaded Lokes to destroy the portal under the pretense of "preventing evil Underdark creatures from plaguing the surface." This ensured that creatures from the Underdark could not enter the surface world, and conversely, surface dwellers had no way to enter the Underdark. Objectively, Jan had secured his dungeon; at least for the short term, he didn't have to worry about it being attacked.

From the start, Jan never intended his main dungeon to be the main battlefield. After all, the Dungeon Heart was there; if someone lucky enough managed to sneak through the secret passages and traps to reach it, Jan would have nowhere to cry. The saying about a wily rabbit having three burrows was perfectly applicable here. In games, players usually treated the main dungeon as a base for technology and resource gathering, while establishing forward bases near the surface for war of attrition. Even if the enemy broke through the final line of defense there, the player could simply disband the base, causing it to collapse and eliminate the enemy in one fell swoop, thereby ensuring the safety of the main base.

For most, traveling between the Underdark and the surface was difficult. The magic and magnetic fields within the deep rock caused irreparable damage to teleportation spells. A mage attempting to teleport blindly would likely end up with his upper body viewing the vistas of the highest peaks, while his lower body—along with his backside—was thrown into a wall in the Underdark to feed the dogs. If they were strong enough or unlucky enough, they might remain in that state of separation until their final breath. This was why the original surface invasion of the Underdark had specifically constructed a portal to avoid such tragic outcomes.

Conversely, the same applied to the surface. As mentioned, the powerful weapons created by the Dark Elves using the magic of deep-crust rocks turned to scrap metal in the sunlight. Underdark magic also fluctuated on the surface. This was the primary reason Iris disliked the surface; although as a spellcaster, her mana was mostly internal, she still relied on external factors at times. No spellcaster enjoyed their familiar spells suddenly shifting from level one to three, or dropping from four to two... it took too much time just to stabilize the magical fluctuations.

Fortunately, Jan’s [Gate of Teleportation] was a system structure unaffected by the surface or the Underdark. As long as a coordinate was set, Jan could open a planar portal from anywhere to summon his subordinates. It was through this method that Eunoia had been summoned.

"It has been verified, Master," Eunoia said with a faint smile. "Miss Ligeia Pastina is Mr. Cotton’s wife. They were married only three months ago. Shortly after, Mr. Cotton answered the call of the Temple and joined the expedition to the Underdark."

"He was certainly desperate to make something of his life, tsk, tsk..."

Jan shook his head with a touch of sentiment. He gestured, and Eunoia placed the silver locket into his hand.

"Everything is prepared, Master. The seal is perfectly intact."

Jan opened the locket. The sweet portrait of the lovers was there, but with one difference: upon closer inspection, the image of Cotton was now grinning in a somewhat hideous, distorted way. His eyes twitched slightly, staring fixedly at Jan as if he were still alive.

"How interesting."

Jan chuckled coldly at the living portrait. He snapped the locket shut, tucked it into his robes, and looked up at Eunoia.

"By the way, Eunoia, where is his home?"

"Passus—a small town on the Eagle Plateau."

Jan nodded with satisfaction. "Then let us head to Passus and carry out our plan."