Chapter 484 The Birdcage and the Arena

“I actually have a theory.”

Hulim Heyerar looked at Hena in the distance and spoke her understanding.

“The endlessly repeating labyrinth was probably the most terrifying, deeply etched memory Hena ever experienced.

It was a long, cyclical period of struggling back and forth between hope and despair…… a memory that finally took shape as a labyrinth that looked identical on the surface, yet slowly sank into darkness.”

“In there, we couldn’t change a thing. The only thing we could do was keep walking, and witness the process of Hena’s heart falling completely into darkness……”

“……”

Inside the birdcage, a long silence fell.

They had seen it with their own eyes.

What an endless, repeating, and gradually darkening path it had been.

They could not even begin to imagine

what Hena had once gone through.

If the final pitch-black darkness truly represented Hena’s heart…… then could they still save her?

“Say…… Hulim.”

Miko said in a sorrowful voice.

“Please…… save Hena. I just can’t——”

She knelt down, reached out, and gently hugged Hena from behind.

“I can’t stand seeing her like this, so full of sorrow any longer……”

“……” Hulim looked at Miko quietly.

After a short silence,

she spoke in a soft, steady tone.

“……I will.”

“I-I’ll do my part too!”

Prarlulu clenched her fist and declared.

Creak——!

At that moment,

the constant clinking of chains suddenly stopped.

The descending birdcage halted its fall.

Hulim lifted her head slowly, her eyes shifting into a battle-ready gaze.

“Miko, Prarlulu, get ready.”

“I’m ready!” Prarlulu replied loudly.

“Mm……” Miko stood up slowly as well.

In the darkness,

faint, scarlet lights flickered into view.

A vast, arena-shaped square unfolded before them, with the birdcage standing right at its center.

“Groar……”

Along the edges of the arena,

countless twisted, hideous scarlet eyes emerged from the darkness.

They let out low, feral roars

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as they stared at the group inside the cage.

Thud——!

A deafening crash rang out.

A figure slammed heavily onto the arena’s stone floor, raising a huge cloud of dust.

“Gurgluh……”

A strange sound came from within the dust, and a pair of red-glowing eyes pierced through the haze, locking onto them.

Creak……

The metal bars of the birdcage slowly faded away.

Buzz, buzz!

Crimson light flickered around Hulim.

She extended her right hand, ready to strike at any moment.

But then, something completely unexpected happened.

Hena, who had been curled motionless on the ground this entire time, suddenly stood up.

“Defeat…… must defeat them……”

She mumbled dazedly over and over, and a faint black smoke began to rise from her body.

“Hena?”

The three stared at the scene in shock.

Before they could figure out why she was acting so strangely,

Shua——!

Hena charged straight toward the monster at blinding speed.

“Roar——!”

The monster, hideous in appearance but roughly human-sized, let out a snarl and lunged at Hena as well.

The two collided in an instant.

Whoosh!

The monster swung its claw, swiping at Hena.

With astonishing agility, Hena dodged the attack, then sprang forward, lunging into the monster’s embrace and wrapping her limbs around its outstretched arm.

Crack!

A sharp, crisp sound rang out.

She snapped the monster’s arm clean in half.

“Roar!!?”

The monster let out a miserable shriek.

The next second,

Thud!

Her small, delicate knee slammed violently into its face.

The shriek cut off abruptly. Amid a spray of shattered teeth, the monster crashed heavily backward.

But it was still alive.

Shua!

Hena spread all ten fingers, and glistening, razor-sharp nails extended from her fingertips.

Swoosh!

A white blur flashed.

Splat——!

In an instant, a flood of scarlet blood splattered across the ground.

The monster fell lifeless, completely dead……

All around the arena, the countless scarlet eyes twisted and flickered wildly, as if thrilled by the carnage.

Hulim and the other two watched the entire battle in silence.

Not one of them could understand why Hena had suddenly acted this way……

Whoosh~.

The fallen monster dissolved into a wisp of black smoke and faded away.

Hena, whose body was now faintly shrouded in more black smoke, turned and walked back to her original spot.

She crouched down and curled up just as she had before.

Clang!

The second she settled into her crouch,

the birdcage reappeared.

The light around them vanished, and the scarlet eyes sank back into the darkness.

Clink, clink.

Above their heads, the chains rattled once more.

The birdcage began to descend again.

Miko walked over to Hena

and knelt down in front of her.

“……Hena.”

Hena did not react at all.

If not for the black smoke clinging to her body, she would have looked as if she had never moved an inch.

Hulim fell into deep thought.

“I see now……”

“Hulim, do you understand what’s going on?” Prarlulu asked hurriedly.

“Yes.”

Hulim nodded and explained:

“If I’m right, this place is just a continuation of the path. It only looks different because the memory it’s based on has changed.”

“Judging by Hena’s current age and the fight just now, this memory must be from when she was raised and trained as a living weapon.”

“Ah, that makes sense…… So what do we do?”

“It’s simple. We help her see it through to the end. I think…… if we keep going like this, Hena’s own subconscious will lead us to the deepest layer before we know it.”

……

Boom——!

In the dim arena, a red light suddenly blazed.

The massive monster’s body rapidly disintegrated from the point struck by the light. Its fist, which had been moments from crashing down on Hena, froze mid-air, then vanished along with the rest of its form.

“……”

Hena still did not say a word.

A few seconds after the monster disappeared, she stood up from the ground

and returned to her usual spot to crouch.

“The monsters keep getting stronger, but…… they feel way weaker than the ones back in the first two areas, don’t they?” Prarlulu asked in confusion.

By this point, the birdcage had stopped descending many times.

Every time it halted, a monster would appear without fail.

Each monster was stronger than the last, but they were incomparably weaker than the ones earlier that ordinary magic could not harm at all.

They also had no real will of their own. Every single one only targeted Hena, completely ignoring the three of them.

It was as if they were puppets acting out a pre-programmed set of commands.

“Perhaps it’s because these beings aren’t the things that scare Hena most. The ones before—especially the monsters in the labyrinth—were the true horrors to her.”

Hulim explained.

“Oh! I get it now!” Prarlulu exclaimed in realization, then scratched her cheek awkwardly. “……I feel like you’ve been doing all the things I’m supposed to be doing, though.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m just putting the clues together.”

“Mm…… that just makes me feel even worse. Am I really this useless?”

Prarlulu squatted on the ground, drawing circles in the air dejectedly.

“……”

Clang!

The birdcage stopped descending once more.

Hena, her body wrapped in thick black smoke, lifted her head again and stared outside the cage.

A new battle was about to begin.

……

While Hulim and the others were trapped in Hena’s Inner World,

an unexpected crisis was unfolding on the surface world……