After I died, my personal maid rebelled.

Upon arriving at the underground city of Erin's territory once again, a nearly 100-meter-long cocoon emitting a strange glow appeared before Dane's eyes.

Beneath the cocoon lay a platinum staff, but its owner, Medivh, the kingdom's pillar and great mage, had vanished without a trace, as if evaporated into thin air.

Upon entering the hidden room, Dane found nothing of the hero Thorne except for a few bloodstained chains.

Everything before him was beyond his comprehension. Before the entrance to the dungeon lay countless skeletons and the corpse of a giant worm, but inside the dungeon, there was no trace of Medivh's battle with the undead army.

Picking up the platinum staff, Dane stood silently in front of the cocoon for a long time. If he wasn't mistaken, the old man Medivh was probably inside the cocoon.

Damn it, it's happening again!

Memories flooded back; back then, the dragon slayer Baird had also told them to run first, and then…

Dane was somewhat annoyed. Normally, he wouldn't have cared about the lives of these old men. But the kingdom, humanity, couldn't afford to lose its guardians.

"Dig! We need to find him alive or dead!"

Dane gave orders to the squad he had recruited, and the men immediately looked terrified. If they were to awaken the monster inside, none of them would likely escape alive.

Silence passed through the ranks. Dane glanced back at them but said nothing more.

He took off his coat, rolled up his sleeves, and forcefully raised the axe to chisel at the cocoon.

Sparks flew out. The cocoon's outer shell was very hard, harder than granite. It took Dane most of the day to finally manage to cut a hole as thick as an arm.

On the first day, more than a dozen people in the team stayed behind, but by the fifth day, he was the only one left in the dungeon.

It's a very simple principle: the adventurers in the team were temporarily assembled, either for money or to repay Dane's favor, but no one would risk their life for Dane.

We're all adventurers, who wouldn't see that there's an extremely dangerous thing inside the cocoon?

Clang, clang!

The sound of hard objects colliding echoed between the floors of the underground city, drawing footsteps that trod through the water stains.

The footsteps grew closer, but Dane, who had already carved out a five-meter-long passage in the cocoon, did not turn around. He could tell that the other party was human and could also smell the faint fragrance of natural flowers.

"What happened here?"

The woman asked calmly.

"This is none of your business, witch. Why did you come in here?"

The jagged axe blade struck with a loud thud. Dane, panting heavily, wiped the debris from his face and asked in return.

"I had no intention of disturbing your work, adventurer. I was just passing by when I encountered a moving army of undead and took refuge here temporarily."

The witch smiled kindly, but her answer alerted Dane.

"The undead army, they've returned?"

"Yes, judging by the direction they're heading, they're heading towards the Elf Kingdom."

In the Elven Kingdom… Dane, his expression grave, put down his axe. Strange things happen every year, but this year there seem to be more than usual. He wondered who had meticulously planned this conspiracy.

"My name is Evelyn. As you can see, I am a wandering witch. I am on my way to the Northern Territory because I have been invited by the Saintess."

Evelyn stretched, and only then did Dane turn around and glance at her. The woman had long black hair, was carrying a suitcase, and was dressed as a typical traveler, wearing a loose, dark green robe over her clothes. Who knows how many dangerous items were hidden under the robe?

"A very rare name. If you're not impersonating someone else, can I suspect you're the same person as the previous Extinction Witch?"

Dane gave a provocative smile. Witches who study and control the forces of nature are ostracized by human society because they are often more dangerous than magicians.

A magician might be able to blow someone into the sky with a single bomb, but a witch can actually develop special weapons that target a particular species or natural environment.

For example, this extinction witch named Evelyn once developed a contagious potion that completely wiped out several types of magical beasts.

It's not about the individual, it's about the extinction of the species.

Dane even suspected that the massive plague sweeping the country was also inextricably linked to them.

"No need to thank me, it's what I should do. I'm really sorry to have saved you adventurers a lot of trouble."

Evelyn smiled back; she was used to people's bad attitudes, or rather, very few people wrote to her constantly like Saint Jane.

"Ha, this is indeed a chaotic world; even you have shown yourselves."

After saying that, Dane stopped talking to her and continued to swing his axe to dig out the cocoon.

There's no need to care about this chance encounter; finding Medivh is the most important thing. He doesn't believe that the great wizard Medivh can be easily defeated!

This old fellow is full of wicked thoughts and forbidden magic. Even though he's nearing the end of his life, he can definitely still have a couple more days to live.

"I don't recommend you take out what's inside, adventurer. Didn't you notice the immortality magic inside? But if you want to bring destruction, then never mind."

"The kingdom has enough madmen to spare, one more won't make a difference."

Evelyn shrugged, picked up a fragment of the cocoon, and immediately turned away to create some distance. Just as she sensed, the cocoon was extremely hard, so any monster that could break free of its confinement…

Forget it, why bother with all this? What's meant to happen will happen, and there are plenty of things that shouldn't happen either.

After discarding the debris, Evelyn found a corner to set up a protective barrier, then took out a blanket to wrap herself in, leaned against the wall, and closed her eyes to rest.

I'll take a nap first. By the time I wake up, the undead army should be all gone.

Not far away, Dane was still tirelessly swinging his axe. Occasionally, he would glance back and, upon discovering that the witch had fallen asleep, he would concentrate and speed up the process of carving out the cocoon.

The clanging sounds turned into an annoying lullaby, but they didn't affect Evelyn's sleep quality at all.

Time passed indistinguishably, and the underground city was indistinguishable between day and night. With a whoosh, as if a flood had been released, Evelyn scrambled to her feet, warily surveying her surroundings while gripping the short sword at her waist.

Soaked to the bone and reeking of a sticky stench, Dane finally broke through the cocoon's formidable barrier after working day and night.

A brighter halo shone on his tired face. Dane took a deep breath and stepped into the magical world inside the cocoon.

Evelyn, who had intended to escape immediately, waited for a while and found that the cocoon did not move at all.

Unable to resist her curiosity, she stepped across the damp ground and peered into the passage Dane had carved out.

Words cannot describe the bizarre sight before us: crystalline threads suspended the body of a deformed, swollen giant moth, and the patterns on its wings looked exactly like the imprints of a human hand.

The most terrifying thing is that, apart from its broken body and the strong aura of immortal magic it exudes, the moth actually lost its head before it was even born.

Where the moth's head once stood, hangs silently an old man's head, separated from the other by a blood-stained longsword.

A wondrous radiance travels along the silk threads, and symbols of death and rebirth converge within the same body.

Neither of them dared to make a sound, their trembling pupils revealing their inner shock.

What immense power it must have taken to create all of this.

"Too slow!"

The aged head suddenly opened its eyes and let out a terrifying roar...