Chapter 137 : Human?
Chapter 137: Human?
This didn’t feel like being underground.
It felt more like being inside something.
The surrounding walls weren’t rock, but some kind of constantly writhing fleshy membrane, covered in glowing blood vessels that rhythmically contracted and expanded.
And at the center of it all, a crystal floated.
No—more accurately, it was a beating heart.
Only, this heart was black. Its surface was covered with a crystalline shell resembling an insect’s carapace, with countless thick blood vessels embedded into it, channeling that nauseating purple-black energy outward.
【Ding! Mission target detected: “Old God” embryo core (Pseudo).】
【Suggestion: Host should immediately perform physical exorcism to avoid triggering some kind of tentacle play scenario.】
The System thoughtfully popped up a red arrow, pointing directly at the black heart.
“So this is the core?”
Lilia rubbed her still slightly dizzy temples and climbed up from the ground.
She dusted off her skirt—though there was no dust to begin with—and casually walked forward, holding her two black daggers.
This thing looked pretty sturdy.
“Since it’s an illegal structure, don’t blame this inspector for enforcing the law with violence.”
Lilia walked up to the floating black heart.
At close range, it looked even more disgusting.
Something seemed to be swimming inside—like an unformed fetus, staring at her through the crystalline shell with eyes that hadn’t fully developed yet.
An indescribable chill crawled up her spine.
Lilia really wanted to throw up.
To prevent herself from vomiting the nonexistent dinner she had supposedly eaten, she decided to end this quickly.
“Die already!”
No fancy wind-up.
Lilia took a deep breath, twisted her waist, drove the force through her spine, and whipped her right arm forward like a steel lash.
All her strength converged into a single point.
This punch, carrying a howling gust of wind, slammed solidly into the black crystalline shell.
Boom——！！！
A dull, thunderous sound rang out.
Like someone striking the inside of a massive bell.
Lilia waited eagerly to see the shell shatter into fragments, with that disgusting mass spilling all over the ground.
However—
Reality slapped her hard across the face.
On the surface of the black crystalline shell, only a faint ripple of pale purple spread outward.
It didn’t even leave a mark.
Instead, Lilia felt like her fist had smashed into a hundred-ton slab of refined steel.
“Hiss—!!!”
A piercing pain shot from her knuckles to her wrist, then numbed its way up her forearm to her shoulder.
Lilia staggered backward several steps from the recoil, nearly falling flat on her butt.
She bared her teeth, shaking her right hand.
The originally fair and slender back of her hand visibly swelled up, like a puffed steamed bun.
“Damn it! What is this thing made of?!”
Tears welled up in Lilia’s eyes from the pain.
This wasn’t right.
Outside, she had punched that Red-Robed Deacon’s face into a crater—so why couldn’t she even crack this shell?
Did this thing have some kind of passive “physical immunity”?
Lilia glared furiously at the black heart that continued beating rhythmically.
It almost seemed to be mocking her:
That’s it? That’s all?
Put some strength into it—didn’t you eat?
Lilia’s temper flared instantly.
“Fine. You want to play hard, huh?”
Suddenly, a faint metallic scraping sound came from behind her.
The sound of armor plates rubbing against each other.
In this grotesque space filled only with the sound of flesh membranes writhing, it felt utterly out of place—and painfully sharp.
Every hair on Lilia’s body stood on end.
There’s someone else here?!
Her reaction was extremely fast. Almost instinctively, she rolled forward to create distance, while her right hand drew a dagger, slicing a defensive arc through the air.
Before her body even stabilized, her gaze had already locked onto the source of the sound.
And then—
Lilia froze.
Even if a Godzilla suddenly burst out of the ground right now, she could accept it.
After all, this was the Demon Realm.
But the thing in front of her… the style was completely off.
Standing there was a man.
A tall man, broad-shouldered with a narrow waist, possessing a physique as perfect as a classical Greek sculpture.
He had none of the typical demonic features—no goat horns, no bat wings, no sinister black robes.
Instead—
He wore a set of bright silver plate armor.
The armor was made of some unknown material. Even in this dim, purple-tinged, evil-lit environment, it still emitted a soft, sacred, almost dazzling milky-white glow.
On the chest of the armor was engraved a golden sun emblem.
And in his hand, he held a greatsword taller than Lilia herself.
The blade was wide and thick, flowing with golden runes, while a brilliant sapphire was embedded at the pommel.
This…
Wasn’t this the standard righteous, heroic protagonist look straight out of an RPG game?!
This was the depths of the Demon Realm!
The core of an evil altar where cultists were summoning an Old God!
Why was there a hero standing here?
This was like finding a statue of the Great Compassionate Guanyin placed on Satan’s bedside table—completely absurd!
The man didn’t seem to have any intention of attacking immediately.
He simply stood there quietly, his deep blue eyes like unfathomable lakes, carrying a sense of scrutiny and confusion as they fell upon Lilia.
That gaze wasn’t fierce.
But it carried a natural pressure of superiority.
Like a lion observing a rabbit that had wandered into its territory.
Lilia’s palms grew slick with sweat as she gripped her daggers.
Even when facing that corpse giant, she hadn’t been this tense.
Because this man felt far too dangerous.
That danger didn’t come from killing intent.
It was a pure suppression of rank.
If Hera was a bottomless abyss of darkness—
Then this man was like a blazing sun hanging high in the sky.
They stared at each other for a full ten seconds.
The silence in the air grew awkward.
Just as Lilia was wondering whether she should break the stalemate with a casual “Have you eaten?”—
The man spoke first.
His voice was low and magnetic, like the deep strings of a cello being plucked.
But the words he spoke made Lilia freeze again.
“Human?”
The man’s brows furrowed slightly, a trace of undisguised surprise flashing in his blue eyes.
He stepped forward.
His metal boots struck the fleshy ground with a dull thud.
“I didn’t expect that the one who intruded here would actually be a human.”
His gaze swept over Lilia.
From her silver hair, to her combat-modified maid outfit, and finally to the black daggers in her hands.
That gaze didn’t seem to view her as an enemy.
Rather, it was like looking at a talking monkey—or a backflipping salted fish.
Full of curiosity and inquiry.
She had been in the Demon Realm for so long, mingling daily with succubi, demons, and undead.
Even her boss was a ruthless Demon Queen who killed without blinking.
She had almost forgotten that she was human.
What was wrong with this guy?
Species discrimination?
What’s wrong with humans? Did humans eat your rice or something?