The ground trembled beneath just as a gaping entrance into a darker, more putrid zone of the dungeon could be seen ahead. The stench of the place was that of wet moss mixed with the sharp tang of something decaying. From behind, King Feline and his swarm of Titanomyrma soldier ants scuttled in.

Just as they began erupting from the earth one after another, Shin's clones yanked Yuki harder. He gritted his teeth, forcing his injured body to move faster. With his last burst of strength, he threw himself into the territory ahead.

A sudden shift in the air stopped Feline in his tracks.

He raised a blazing foreleg, fire surging in his thorax, ready to release a wave of incinerating fire, but paused the moment he caught scent of the domain they'd entered.

One of the frog fiend territories.

He lowered his limb, his flame extinguishing with a crackling hiss. He wouldn't dare launch an attack there. Not unless he wanted to ignite another turf war.

"Tch… You lucky bastard.....filthy human!!" King Feline growled from the edge of the border. His voice echoed with insectile malice. "I know your scent now. I'll be keeping tabs. You step back into my territory... you're dead."

The Titanomyrmas hissed and crackled with irritation, their armored backs twitching as they skittered away, disappearing into the same holes they'd crawled from.

Shin had no strength to respond. He collapsed as soon as he crossed the border, his body thudding against the damp, fungus-veined floor. His clones gently lowered Yuki beside him before vanishing into dust.

Hiding in their small cave, Ayaka watched everything with clenched fists. A quiet sigh of relief escaped her lips. They made it barely. Surviving the Titanomyrma was a miracle on its own. Thankfully, the frog fiend swarm hadn't yet noticed them, meaning this dead zone between rival domains might buy them a few minutes of silence.

But then she caught sight of Shin's back, and her stomach dropped.

He was soaked in blood. His shirt was no longer its original color, torn and glued to his skin by dried crimson. His shoulder was torn open, blood still trickling. Even his nose bled faintly, staining his cheek. He was in terrible shape—worse than she'd thought. Yuki was out cold too, unmoving, her skin pale from mana depletion. But Ayaka wasn't too worried about her; she knew Yuki's body would gradually absorb mana from the air. If all went well, she'd regain consciousness in about half a day.

Still, her gaze concerntrated on Shin.

She couldn't do anything but sit, remain hidden, and keep watch just as she'd been assigned to.

For now, that was enough.

**

Elsewhere.....

Inside the garden blooming with fake cherry blossoms, Gegee and Lilian were locked in a desperate battle after Sylvia had passed out.

This was a garden with wind that smelled of flowers, and the ground that delt soft, but beneath all of it, Gegee knew it lay bones, half-buried and dressed in petals. It was peaceful, serene, and horrifying.

She tightened the grip of her undead's fist around its sword, her eyes not leaving the tsukuma ahead of them who looked like an angel, but far from it.

She was something much worse.

An insane being who twisted death into beauty, forcing others to accept it under the guise of a peaceful ending. To her, death was a gift. Eternal rest beneath the flowers.

But Gegee could see through it all. Her rotten lips barely moved as she addressed the woman in white:

"Save your fake paradise for someone else, witch."

The tsukuma stood serene amid the blossoms, barefoot in the grass and responded: "All things must wither..... and flowers bloom most beautifully on corpses…"

"Tch.." Gegee spat to the side. "What a load of bullshit!!"

With that, the tsukuma raised her hands slowly.

A swirl of cherry blossoms danced around her, carried by a breeze that made petals gather behind her like a vortex until they began to form something monstrous.

A hydra.

Or something close to it.

A creature born of flowers and wind. Eight serpent-like necks twisted from the petal storm, their heads wide and toothless at first—then the petals opened, revealing fangs made entirely of thorned flora. Their tails coiled around the tsukuma's neck like living garlands, their heads swaying protectively over her.

Gegee narrowed her undead eyes.

"Don't let those things bite you," she hissed to Lilian.

"I know," Lilian replied, planting her feet firmly to the ground, axe in hand.

With a rush of wind, The flower-serpents descended fast and relentless. Gegee swung her undead's sword, slashing through the creatures. Her blade met no resistance. It cut through petals, but nothing else. They had no physical bodies to slash through. But their fangs? Those were real enough.

They sank into her undead flesh, biting into the rotted muscle as her memories began to shudder, the original memories of her life blurring away too quickly.

"Damn it!"

Beside her, Lilian screamed. Her axe swung wildly, useless against the flower serpents. They bit into her arms, her back, her legs. Not deep wounds, but each bite carried something more insidious.

Lilian staggered back.

"Why… am I swinging an axe?" her voice was laced with confusion. "Whose fight is this? Why does my arm hurt?"

She clutched her head as if trying to remember her own name. "The Master... wait... who's...?"

But even as she said it, the image of her master slipped from her mind.

"Who... was the master... again?"

"Don't let them bite you!!" Gegee howled. "It seems they're eating your goddamn memories!"

But it was too late.

The idiotic NPC was already done for.

Gegee clenched her jaw. This isn't even my real body, but l can still feel tiny fragments of my memories wasting away.

Lilian, meanwhile, had begun laughing. A soft, empty laugh that didn't belong to her. It sounded like someone who'd lost all grip on reality.

"Who in the world swings an axe... at flowers?" she giggled. What kind of idiot fights something so beautiful?

She dropped her weapon.

"You're right," she whispered to the tsukuma, eyes glazed. "I want to sleep beneath the flowers... forever."

"Say it," the tsukuma cooed. "Say you accept a satisfying death."

"Damn it all," Gegee growled.

She didn't know how many more times she could divide her soul. She was pushing the limits of Soul Split, but she had to risk it. She forced her essence into another corpse nearby—one with stronger limbs and better armor.

The body rose, twitching unnaturally as it stood behind the tsukuma, slowly, silently crawling closer.

If she could hit her once. Just once—

But Gegee froze.

Every flower in the garden had turned toward her.

So had the trees. The rivers and the birds in the sky. They were all the tsukuma's eyes, ears and limbs.

That's when Gegee realized that a petty sneak attack wouldn't work here.

Not unless she could kill this twisted god or whatever the tsukuma is inside her own heaven.

TBC