Fairy Tale: Little Red Riding Hood's Wolf Mentor

Chapter 144 Red Dancing Shoes
Pushed by the river, the two looked towards a towering palace on the mountain above the river. Its appearance switched between a luxurious palace made of gold and stone and a hell made of wriggling flesh and blood.

At this moment, a blood-red invitation emerged from the air.

It began to twist, transforming into a bridge that led to a palace not far away.

From the deck, there is a doorway leading to the palace.

In the field of vision, the gate of the palace in front of me slowly opened——

The scene before their eyes became blurry, and the next moment, the world they were in immediately entered this palace. At this moment, Poro's eyes suddenly widened.

Because the layout and architectural style of this palace are extremely familiar to him!
In the forest of the Kingdom of Sinuo, Poro had previously seen such a huge palace in the illusion he had seen under the influence of the Mad Dancer.

But unlike before, this palace seemed much brighter.

Many people were dancing in it, they were wearing all kinds of clothes, there were nobles in luxurious clothes, there were beggars in rags, there were adults, there were children.

They were all moving around and dancing happily.

Poro and Lake were no longer affected by this dance that was almost a spiritual illusion. The pages of [Circular Return: Twelve Dancing Princesses·Curtain Call Notes] emerged from mid-air.

After seeing the four spells, the Poro no longer needed the help of the magic mirror and could ignore these illusions.

Poro and Lake stopped after entering the hall. Here, they no longer needed to abide by such invisible rules.

Those dancing people began to dissipate, turning into chaotic blood-red phantoms.

But unlike before, these blood-colored phantoms disappeared one after another, swallowed up by the shadows in the palace.

The lights and candles were also extinguished.

Darkness surged towards Lake and Poro from all directions, leaving only thick pillars standing in the dim space.

The dance music that was originally clearly audible began to become chaotic, appearing and disappearing until it disappeared.

"It's time to come..."

Poro raised his head and looked into the distance. Deep in the palace, a bright red, dancing shadow was gradually approaching the two of them.

The sound of dense dance steps became clearer and clearer.

However, as it got closer, the originally dense footsteps became less and less...

Until only the last, lonely dance step remains.

It sounded very light, forming a sharp contrast with the oppressive force of the huge shadow.

"Tap-tap-tap-"

It approached the two of them with a certain rhythm and melody.

But when it reached a certain vague distance, it stopped growing and instead fell again, as if it was moving away.

It was also like... he was deliberately guiding the two Poros.

"Let's follow."

Poro thought for a moment and spoke softly to Lake.

The two held hands and walked towards the huge shadow in front of them. When they arrived at the place where the dance sound came from, there was a pair of bloody footprints on the dark ground.

It's very small, and looks like the size of a little girl's foot.

These bloody marks look more like some kind of bloodstains.

Two lines of footprints extended crookedly deeper into the palace.

It looks like... they are dancing forward non-stop.

The two followed the leaping footsteps in the darkness and walked into deeper darkness. The halls on both sides suddenly began to become lower.

In the darkness, the flickering sparks seemed to illuminate the outlines of some things.

"This isn't a palace anymore, it's more like a church?"

Amidst Lake's somewhat puzzled voice, Poro looked around. The rows of seats indeed showed the layout of a church.

In front, there should be a pulpit and...the location of the statue?

Poro guessed based on this layout.

After entering this mysterious space, the sound of light dance steps in front disappeared.

The two men walked forward following the bloody footprints on the ground. In the darkness ahead, candles were lit one after another again, and these candles were glowing with a bloody light.

The entire space was illuminated, appearing shadowy and strange.

"Why is it here? Why is the wild dancer in front of this church?"

Poro thought about the layout of the church and made some guesses.

Statues of gods are often placed in front of churches. Could it be that the wild dancer is now claiming to be a god?!
Sure enough, in the illumination of the blood-red candlelight, Poro saw that there was no sculpture of God or other gods on the altar not far in front of him.

But when they got closer, and the things inside appeared in Lake and Poro's eyes, they both fell silent.

There are no idols there.

A tall execution platform was placed abruptly where the holy altar originally stood.

On top of it, there was a tall guillotine.

There was an axe stuck in the ground next to the guillotine, and bright red blood was dripping from the axe blade.

Those blood drops connected to form a thin blood line on the ground.

At the end of the blood line, in the center of the execution platform, the focus of the blood-red candlelight of the entire church was a pair of crimson dancing shoes.

Inside the dancing shoes were two severed feet, with blood dripping in the middle and white broken bones wrapped around them.

Blood soaked the entire dancing shoe.

It is hard to tell whether it is the bright red of blood or the color of the dance shoes themselves.

Obviously, the long series of bloody dance steps came from the severed feet in this pair of dancing shoes!

All around, the blood-red candlelight was extinguished one by one, and the surrounding execution platform and church also disappeared after the candlelight was extinguished.

Finally, in the pitch-black space, only a pair of red dancing shoes remained, standing quietly in front of Lake and Poro.

The blood-red light of the red dancing shoes itself was extremely bright in the darkness.

Poro had always believed that the Wild Dancer was a terrifying, indescribable god, but for some reason, when all the energy, illusions, spirits and images converged on the pair of red dancing shoes before him...

He felt an indescribable feeling.

It was as if the pair of red dancing shoes in front of me seemed to be trying to express something through the illusion just now.

The red dancing shoes moved again, jumping and taking a step closer to Lake and Poro.

The blood light on the surface of the red dancing shoes suddenly brightened like a pulse. In the surrounding darkness, chaotic blood-red shadows vaguely emerged. The noisy dance music suddenly appeared in the distance.

But soon, the red dancing shoes trembled slightly.

Those strange changes disappeared again - the red dancing shoes seemed to be reminding people of something through their movements.

"Well, do you also want to... put an end to this? This uncontrolled dance party?"

The Wild Dancer, or... The Red Shoes.

It is not a human being, but a creation of the concept of magic and dance. The human soul and thinking may seem confusing to it.

At the same time, its thinking process may be different from that of most humans.

But then, it took another step closer.

Poro breathed a sigh of relief. In this situation, there was no need to fight or face a strange and powerful enemy. No matter what, it was a good thing.

Poro waved his hand and marked [Circular Return: Twelve Dancing Princesses - Curtain Call Notes]

It flashed in front of him, and an invisible glimmer of light projected out from it and flew towards the red dancing shoes in front of him. A complex rune appeared on the surface of the red dancing shoes.

The blood-colored runes combined with the light of the farewell notes.

Then, it shattered.

At this moment, Lake and Poro saw the darkness on all sides twisting again and colors appearing, but this was a completely different feeling from the previous illusion switch!

It was like... from the darkness of the seabed, seeing the faint light of the sea surface. Rising from the heavy seabed like a mountain, breaking through the water.

The air once again entered my aching throat and lungs, and my whole body felt indescribably refreshed...

Reality is back.

The outline of the hall reappeared, like a huge underground palace, with walls and pillars on all sides covered with dancing flesh and blood.

From that flesh and blood, spider-web-like blood lines stretched out, and in the center of the blood lines, it connected...

In front of Poro and Lake, inside the red dancing shoes.

……

Deep in the palace of the Kingdom of Stez, behind the sealed stone gate, unknown number of meters underground, lies a cold and dark underground palace.

Countless flesh and blood were lurking around.

"Bam—"

A dim golden light slammed heavily onto the ground. Karen struggled to get up from the bloody ground. Her body was covered with wounds.

The pair of wings behind him were already stained with blood.

Her wings flapped weakly, trying to propel her body into flight, but at this moment—

"Click——"

There was the sound of broken bones, and a black and red shadow appeared beside Karen.

The red-bearded devil appeared next to Karen. He raised one hand and grabbed Karen's wings. A red light flashed in the depths of his pupils, which were marked with two horizontal lines.

Break Karen's wings abruptly!
"Long time no see, Karen, you've been an angel for so long..."

The red-bearded devil's voice was filled with an unreal gloom.

He said with a sneer, looking at Karen on the ground, who maintained the appearance of a girl due to the power of angels.

"I never thought that after Heaven was destroyed, a cowardly surviving angel like you would not only not hide and live secretly—but find yourself here again?"

Red Beard leaned over, grabbed Karen's neck with one hand, and lifted her up.

The golden light on Karen's body kept flashing, trying to attack the devil in front of him, but the black and red light and shadow that inexplicably emanated from the red-bearded man blocked the weak angelic power.

"It's so sad, little girl, that after so much time, you're still like this.

When God dies—

What use are your kindness and compassion on this land destined to die?"

Karen stared at the red-bearded man in front of him, and something in his mind finally came to his mind.

"I... have seen you..."

Karen uttered a few words with difficulty, "You were..."

"Yeah, I even complimented you on your dancing."

The devil said in a joking voice, then lowered his head and looked at the wooden prosthetic limbs under Karen's feet, "But I didn't expect that you would give up your feet and dance so easily—

It really surprised me.”

"You-my dancing shoes, is it because of... you!?"

A hint of anger actually flashed in Karen's golden pupils, but at the moment, due to the disparity in power, she could not do anything.

"Yes, I only gave you your dancing shoes and some small 'blessings'. I left weaker blessings for other people in the kingdom."

The devil shrugged. "They are very happy because from now on, they can dance endlessly."

He leaned closer again, his two blood-red pupils carefully examining Karen and the dimmed circle above her head.

"At that time, God and I saw the value hidden in your soul.

But unfortunately, at that time... Heaven still existed, but you cut off the blessing I gave you and were taken away by those troublesome guys."

As the devil spoke, the corners of his ugly mouth suddenly rose. He raised his head and looked at the bloody underground palace all around him.

It's like being intoxicated by a work of art created by one's own hands.

"But now it's different. Today, after Heaven has fallen, I no longer need you. There is no disgusting god staring at me from Heaven anymore.

I don't need you either—

With my day-by-day efforts, the evil spirit you left behind gradually blossomed and bore fruit, giving birth to the Dance Epidemic, which is now unstoppable!"

Karen's lips couldn't stop trembling.

She waved her hands, weakly hitting the devil in front of her, but she was not a fighting type of angel, and the devil ignored her weak attack.

"you……"

"Huh? What did you say?"

The devil's hand tightened slightly, suppressing the second half of Karen's words in his throat. He smiled mockingly, "You must still be worried about those ordinary people who came with you, right?"

Just now, when the stone gate that sealed the Mad Dancer opened, Invi, Dans, Lake and Poro, who were originally standing with Karen, disappeared.

All that was left were Karen, wrapped in angelic power, and the red-bearded devil who stood up from the corpses.

The devil seemed to be able to see the fear in Karen's heart.

He stuck out a scarlet tongue, licked his lips, and continued:

"You, and a few other ordinary people, what confidence do you have to come here and try to stop a car with your bare hands, thinking that you can stop this inevitable fall and collapse?

Do you think that you can see the full picture of what I have done by killing a few ordinary princes who only have a little power?
How stupid! "

Seeing Karen's eyes filled with resentment, sadness, and guilt, the devil's expression became more and more pleased. He dragged Karen with satisfaction and walked deeper into the Flesh and Blood Hall:
"Next, take a good look at the sin that was born from you. After being apart for so long, you must miss it a lot, right?"

The devil said this, spreading out one hand.

Black and red energy threads emanated from the palm of his hand.

They swirled around the golden ring above Karen's head, coiling like snakes around the angelic power that emitted this golden light.

At the same time, the golden light emanating from Karen's body began to slowly deteriorate under the illumination of those black and red lights!
The color darkened, gradually becoming a... crimson that blended in with the surrounding colors.

"Karen, these sins originated from you. Your angelic power also comes from the same source as the sins."

The devil's voice was filled with the joy of success, "I want to thank you for traveling thousands of miles to come here in time shortly after Heaven fell—

Let my destruction add more power."

As he spoke, in the center of the trembling spiderweb of flesh and blood above his head, the devil had already seen the outline of the wriggling limbs wrapped in red dancing shoes in the depths of darkness.

He extended a finger, and the dark red blood light emanating from Karen's body, as he controlled it, seeped towards the dancing limbs on the ground...

"Huh? What's going on?"

But at this moment, the devil frowned. He felt that the speed of the dancing limbs around him seemed to be slower than usual.

No, this is not an illusion!

The devil's pupils suddenly shrank. He noticed that the dancing limbs around him stopped visibly at a certain moment!
It's like it's starting to rest!
"Why is this happening!? Shouldn't...it stop?!"

The devil muttered, a blood-red rune lit up on his forehead, and his eyeballs rolled up, as if he was beginning to sense something - but then, his eyes widened!
The spell he left on the red dancing shoes, which had lasted for a hundred years, was being erased from this moment by some unknown force!

He hurriedly took a few steps and looked through the darkness, but what he saw shocked him even more!
He saw...

A girl in a red cloak, and a figure...whose figure began to melt in the blood light, were standing next to the Red Shoes, the Wild Dancer!

The man whose body was constructed with the energy of the wild dancer was raising one hand.

Although the devil couldn't see what was in front of his hand -

But there is no doubt that he is the one who broke the curse!
"Assholes, you, you dare—"

The joy of winning on the devil's face has disappeared.

His eyes were red and bloodshot, and after knocking Karen aside, he turned into a shadow and leaped forward!

(End of this chapter)