"Is it that huge structure over there?" Gris asked, to which Caleb nodded.

Daru and his cohort, after failing to do anything meaningful to Harlowe, were forced to cross the drawbridge again and travel to La Filosa's ruins.

They tried everything except attempting to challenge the horror on his branches.

Caleb stopped Daru and Lesha before their ideas got too wild.

The plan, after all, was to test whether The Eye could be killed easily, and as expected, Limbo wouldn't be so nice as to gift them a free kill of one of its guardians.

The profane laws of this place made it impossible.

They had to force Harlowe to move, then kill him. To do that, they must kill the Whisperer of Lies, his beloved.

Of course, they didn't just leave Saphoros' corpse to rot.

Well…they did, except for the royal addict's head. They took his head, as instructed by Nando, so they could bury it at the corresponding grave at the Cemetery of the Damned.

This was also why they had to defeat the Gravewarden.

According to the elderly veteran, the relics of The Five were for returning to the surface, and their heads…were for cleansing one's "Damned" status.

The Lost ones were truly a lost cause, according to the old man, but Damnedlings like them could be saved.

They just had to labor for it.

And everything they had done…was one hell of a labor indeed.

Once they've removed their abominable shackles, then they would be free to return to the Surface.

Otherwise, even if they managed to open a portal, they wouldn't be able to leave.

The amount of information Nando knew was bewildering…and a bit strange. Caleb and Lesha were sharp enough to notice, perhaps Aesyn, too.

But whenever they asked the old man about it, he would only say that he obtained some random tomes of knowledge by scouring the ruins of ancient settlements.

The old man's explanation was, to a degree, believable. However, there was also weirdly deep knowledge that shouldn't be so easy to discover yet was somehow written in these "random tomes" scattered in ancient settlements.

The Damnedling Army had scoured these ancient settlements themselves but found no such boon.

In the end, they didn't press the old man too much.

They had no good reason to, anyway, as they wouldn't even have a single darned clue on how to leave Limbo if not for him.

Daru, too, would have been stuck here for an unbelievably long time had it not been for the strange existence of Nando, who somehow knew a lot without being physically capable of obtaining such a vast repository of information by himself.

The old man was an ally and was also looking to leave the god-forsaken realm.

Knowing that was enough.

Soon, Daru was standing in front of the entrance of La Filosa's ruins, his comrades standing behind him.

He was back…

This time, he was not the helpless rat that he was back then, and he was here to slay the bony horror.

Daru entered.

As soon as he did, Caleb spoke through the white ribbon:

"Hey, did you guys hear that?"

"Yeah." Lesha and Gris answered in unison.

But Daru heard nothing.

Furrowing his brows, he asked, not daring to turn around or he might find himself impaled by the two-pronged sword arms before he knew it:

"Hear what?"

"A soft voice said we can't enter," Caleb responded, shrugging impassively. "Well, wouldn't we know if we try?"

So, he tried…and found out that he really couldn't enter.

"D-Daru! We really can't!" The three tried over and over, but it was as though there was an invisible barrier that prevented them from crossing the entrance.

"Retreat for now!"

Daru was quite confused by what was happening. Still, he listened to Caleb and proceeded to turn and leave.

Only, before he could, he, too, heard a voice.

"Oh, but you can't leave."

Daru recognized whose voice it was…La Filosa's. Only, unlike before, when the bony horror talked through her sewn lips, he heard the voice in his mind.

"The…white ribbon?"

The Thorn was speaking to them through the white ribbon! He didn't have the white ribbon before, and perhaps that's why he was able to barely leave the ruins.

"No…"

If the bony horror was speaking through the white ribbon, then Nando and the others would've heard it, too.

In fact, he would've heard it when La Filosa spoke to his comrades.

"Then how?"

The bony horror was using some trick, for sure, but then why didn't she use this trick the first time around?

The only thing he could think of was that she had noticed him a little too late back then, which was why her legs had been the more efficient choice.

In any case, what was happening now could all stem from a blunder he — they — had made, one they were only now coming to understand.

Egress missed a preparation on this side of the Underworld River: the timing of La Filosa's emergence from the dark corridor.

Sure enough, the moment Daru turned his head, there the bony horror was, flashing a chilling smile at him while twitching and convulsing.

"Hola~ Ratito, we meet again."

Time seemed to have stopped at that moment…then fast-forwarded as La Filosa charged.

'Fast!'

Daru gritted his teeth, barely managing to follow the bony horror with his eyes, and this was despite his investing a majority of his previously earned attribute points to Perception.

Nonetheless, he was able to muster a clumsy block on time.

A sharp clanging noise echoed the next moment as the bony horror's two-pronged sword arms and his soulbound weapon clashed.

But momentum was on La Filosa's side.

Daru felt his feet leave the ground as he was sent flying, crashing onto the walls of the ruins with a heavy thud.

[-322]

He was damaged for almost a tenth of his total hitpoints, but he had more pressing problems to worry about, namely a follow-up attack.

Daru scrambled to his feet, barely managing to save his skin by somersaulting away.

The bony horror did not expect that her prey would get away.

So, she was struck by the rather pitiful red crescent, a red damage value floating above her head.

[-350]

The hit was far cleaner, but the damage wasn't so significant.

Somersault Slash was a mere F-tier Sword Skill, after all.

Daru landed a few dozen meters away and struck a fighting pose. He had witnessed La Filosa's speed and was now more ready to deal with her.

Only, she didn't explode into a blur again…at least not yet.

Instead, the bony horror turned around slowly, glancing at her hitpoints first, which had now been revealed.

==

La Filosa, Whisperer of Lies Lv.65

54,650 / 55,000

==

She shifted her featureless face a moment later, seemingly looking at Daru even though she didn't have eyes.

"Ahh, but you see, Ratito. I am impervious to blades. Look."

Then, something unusual and unfair happened.

[+350]

==

La Filosa, Whisperer of Lies Lv.65

55,000 / 55,000

==

The damage he dealt…was healed.

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