Fairy tale: Little Red Riding Hood's wolf mentor

"Success, only one entranced Prince, and without any defenses… It really is a lot easier."

Poro looked at the golden rune in the palm of his paw.

The rune given by Cullen not only isolated the Mad Dancers’ influence on the energy within Poro's body, but also prevented Poro and these entranced Princes from sensing each other through the shared energy source.

It was precisely because of this that the surprise attack just now could achieve its purpose so quickly.

"Let's go, leave through the underground passage."

The several entrances to the dance hall had been sealed off with vines by Poro before the battle began.

But obviously, this was not enough to hold back those entranced dancers for long; the doors had already begun to creak, and blood-colored limbs were probing out from the widening cracks.

Although with their current level, the group wasn't afraid of these 'small fries,' if all the entranced dancers in the city swarmed them, no matter how much strength they had, they couldn't withstand such attrition!

"Remove the surface flesh from the ground to confuse those entranced dancers, then take advantage of the chaos to get to the underground passage…"

As he spoke, Poro and the others began to deliberately remove the wriggling limbs from the ground, burning them to effectively eliminate their sensory ability.

Fortunately, Poro had learned some fire magic from the Gluttonous Witch's magic notes…

Although it wasn't very strong, because this kind of magic was originally used by the Gluttonous Witch for cooking food.

"Crack—咔咔——"

The blue and red vines wrapped around the door of the dance hall finally snapped.

Outside the door, ugly and twisted entranced dancers instantly swarmed in!

But inside the dance hall, the flesh carpet on the ground was broken into pieces, still smoldering with residual flames.

In addition, most of the area was still in dim light, so the entranced dancers did not discover the 'invaders' traces, and simply wandered aimlessly.

And when the entranced dancers at the door became less 'crowded' as they entered the dance hall…

Above the dance hall door.

In a shadow where the surface flesh had been deliberately removed:

"Go!"

In the next moment, the light of a sword flashed, and several wandering entranced dancers at the door instantly turned into two halves.

The group headed towards the basement.

The entranced dancers along the way, although possessing great strength and inhuman limbs, did not pose much of a threat in the short distance, with their sparse numbers.

They jumped down the stairs, used the pillars to avoid more dancers, and killed those they couldn't avoid…

But the group stopped before the corridor leading to the basement.

Because the way they had come was gone.

A large mass of abnormally bulging and proliferating flesh limbs, intertwined and connected, blocked the narrow space.

Ahead, a half-human, half-monster shadow slowly walked towards the group.

Whether it was the abnormally proliferating inhuman limbs of one half, or the gorgeous attire of the other humanoid part, both demonstrated his identity—the second entranced Prince!

"Why is there… a second entranced Prince in this opera house?!"

"Yeah, and he's unfortunately blocking the path we were planning to retreat on."

Magic light lit up in Poro's eyes, and an invisible impact force shattered the wall on one side, along with the rapidly proliferating flesh on it.

Seeing this, the entranced Prince's limbs on one side of his body began to grab at Poro like a noodle machine—

But as his attention was diverted.

Next to him, from a very close, seemingly empty spot, came the blast of Inve's hand cannon.

A bullet carrying a golden rune hit the entranced Prince's abdomen, blasting a huge hole!

The entranced Prince lost his balance, and Leake seized the opportunity, the silver light of the Star Killer Sword flashing, and a heart fell onto the tip of the sword.

But soon, the heart quickly withered and decayed.

However, the proliferation of flesh limbs around them, although slowed down, did not stop.

"We must find this Prince's dance partner."

The old soldier Inve said in a deep voice, "Otherwise, this entranced Prince will be reborn from the dance partner!"

…

"Inve, it's you again… you lowly thief, no matter how many times you kill me, it won't do any good. On the Mad Dancers' stage, anything you do will be meaningless!"

An entranced Princess wearing a dancing dress.

On her body, countless blood-colored muscles proliferated and swirled out, quickly condensing into the form of an entranced Prince beside her!

But Poro and the others had no intention of communicating with the entranced Prince.

Although they seemed to still have the ability to communicate like humans, in fact, the entranced Prince himself had already been reduced to a puppet controlled by the Mad Dancers.

Upon seeing the entranced Princess, Leake drew her bow and shot an arrow—

An arrow carrying a golden rune instantly pierced the entranced Princess's chest, allowing this poor girl to return to peace.

Then, she continued to rush forward.

The flesh extending from the ground next to the entranced Prince, trying to block Leake, began to turn into fragile food from the tips, breaking and falling.

And before the entranced Prince could recover, Leake was already standing in front of it.

The light of the sword flashed, and the twisted flesh gradually lost its activity.

"Okay, there's no way out now… we can only risk it one more time."

This time, the arrival of the second entranced Prince was completely unexpected.

This left the group completely unprepared.

In such a situation, any other ordinary human adventurers would probably have been buried here long ago, right?

Even now, although they had killed the second entranced Prince, they couldn't leave through the underground passage as easily as they had planned.

The surrounding doors had already been destroyed.

Countless entranced dancers of various shapes and twisted forms had already rushed in, and the flesh on the ground was undulating, constantly sending the group's location to the entranced dancers throughout the city.

But since the group had come to this city.

They were already prepared to fight their way through such a situation where they were surrounded on all sides, it's just that…

It would take a lot of effort.

…

After fighting their way out of the opera house, the group stood in the sunlight again, climbing to the top of a building, wanting to find nearby buildings that were not covered in flesh.

Previously, in the "surviving warriors" base in Steeds, the map Poro had seen—

Had some special markings on it, some of which should have marked areas where the blood-colored substance had been cleared.

And Poro, through the memory-enhancing effect of [Spiral Beacon: Sage], allowed him to achieve the ability of "photographic memory," at least for such a short period of time.

"It should be over there…"

But just as he was about to point in a direction, he heard a somewhat familiar voice.

"This way! Quick… come this way!"

It was the red-bearded man from before; he wasn't dead, but was waving anxiously to the group from the roof of a building not covered in flesh.

"Uh, sir, you didn't die earlier?"

Leake asked curiously as they entered a tunnel that looked like one of the previous "surviving warriors'" hideouts again.

The red-bearded man looked to have some scratches, but no major injuries.

"Sorry, I didn't expect there to be two Princes in that opera house… I almost got caught by that Prince when I got to the basement."

The red-bearded man looked at the two Prince hearts that the group had newly acquired.

His eyes still showed an uncontrollable excitement.

It was as if… he was genuinely happy that the weirdness that was destroying his homeland finally had a chance to be destroyed.

"But you killed two entranced Princes at once; you must be the saviors sent by God, right?

Now, we can go to the Royal Palace; with your strength, you will definitely succeed!"

As he spoke, Poro estimated that, based on the direction and number of steps forward, they were roughly not far from the front of the Royal Palace.

Sure enough, after bypassing another section with some flesh and stinky water hanging on it, a sewer outlet appeared in front of the group.

"But there's too much flesh in front of the Royal Palace, and we can't clean it up."

The red-bearded man said, leading the group to climb out of the exit.

The ground was still covered with wriggling flesh, and even more densely packed entranced dancers were dancing eerily all around the streets; those scarlet blood lights were twisting in their illusion-like dance postures.

As soon as the group's feet touched the flesh on the ground, the entranced dancers spread all around instantly looked over.

Then, distortion, encirclement.

"Hurry, go straight to the Royal Palace!"

The red-bearded man said anxiously, leading the way to the Royal Palace gate of the Steeds Royal Palace.

The group didn't have time to look at the appearance of the Royal Palace, the architectural appearance covered in flesh, and had to enter it together.

Blood-colored light and mist filled the field of vision, and the weird dance music from those flesh throats was even more disturbing.

The entire Royal Palace complex had long been filled with constantly wriggling flesh.

Behind them, those entranced dancers pouring into the Royal Palace from all directions were getting closer and closer, and those chaotic dance tunes were gradually rising, piercing the soul.

Finally, the red-bearded man at the front stopped.

The group looked up and saw a huge stone door wrapped in flesh, but still revealed, with obscure and tortuous magic lines on it.

At the bottom, there was a stone trough.

Inside, there were still a lot of old, smelly dregs.

Behind them, those entranced dancers who had poured into the Royal Palace from all directions had formed a crowded blood-flesh torrent.

They came from all directions, crowding into the narrow passage.

Their bodies gradually stuck together, and the clothes in the disguised state were also transformed back into wriggling flesh-tendons.

Looking back at this time, one could only see…

That heavy, thousands of arms and legs, mixed together chaotically dancing, pressing down!

"Quick, there's no time, those entranced dancers are catching up, quickly give me the hearts—"

The red-bearded man said urgently, reaching out to the hearts held by Poro and the others, "I know how to remove this magic array and then go in and kill the source of the dance plague.

These monsters will all disappear!"

However, in the next moment, what Poro and the others handed him was not the entranced Prince's heart.

"Clang—"

Leake's Star Killer Sword was against the red-bearded man's neck.

At the same time, blue and red vines drilled out from the ground, wrapping around the red-bearded man's legs.

The old soldier's hand cannon was also against the red-bearded man's back.

"What are you doing!? Don't joke around like that…"

The red-bearded man was shocked and asked in surprise.

Behind him, the golden halo above Cullen's head emitted light, and a large area of blood-colored muscles on the ground actually began to decompose and decay.

In the golden halo, those entranced dancers who rushed forward also stopped in place for a moment, no longer moving forward.

"Stop pretending, who are you, what is your purpose?"

The old soldier Inve then said in a deep voice.

Hearing the group say this, the red-bearded man was silent for a few seconds, the surprise on his face disappeared, and finally his face turned gloomy, and he asked:

"How… did you find out?"

"You saw us when we entered the city, right?"

Poro said, "The houses that collapsed suddenly earlier should also have been your doing, right? At that time, I seemed to vaguely smell your aura."

"Oh, okay, a special wolf?"

The red-bearded man frowned, "It shouldn't be just these, right?"

"Of course, the house you took us to earlier also had problems."

Leake also said, "Those things are all dust; if it was really like you said, you wouldn't let the maps, weapons, and those things get dusty!

Besides, that place doesn't look like a place to eat at all; how could you have survived there for so long?"

"What if the eating place is in another stronghold? The city is so big; it doesn't matter if we have many strongholds, right? The one I took you to might just be vacant."

"But the Steeds warriors won't let their dead comrades rot and stink in the room!"

The old soldier Inve then said, "The wounds of those dead warriors also don't look like they died from suicide!"

"Just based on these guesses? What if I just have other unspeakable secrets?"

The red-bearded man frowned.

"Most importantly, if you were just an ordinary person like you showed, how could you live alone in this city? And know so much about the Mad Dancers that we don't even know?"

Poro looked up at the stone door wrapped in wriggling flesh limbs in front of him; those fingers squeezed out from the cracks were abnormally twisted, as if trying to climb out.

"Most importantly—this is a seal, not the magic array you said earlier!"

And Cullen next to him, with golden pupils, was also staring closely at the man with blood stains on his beard in front of him:

"Also, have I ever seen you before?

Why did you refuse to give you my blessing before?"

"Heh, I really underestimated you."

The red-bearded man snorted coldly, and on his gloomy face, his two eyes stared at the three hearts placed in the golden wine glass by the old soldier, as if he sighed helplessly,

"Okay, I admit…"

But in the next moment, his face suddenly changed, revealing an extremely strange smile, "But—it's too late!"

"Not good!"

Looking at the red-bearded man's expression, the group instantly reacted.

Lake's longsword severed the red-bearded man's head. Simultaneously, Invi's hand cannon roared, blasting a hole in the man's chest. Polo's prepared magic took effect immediately, transforming the red-beard's remains into food…

But then, the red-bearded man's voice echoed again in their ears.

Beside the corridor, a corpse that had been reduced to bones rapidly grew flesh and blood, transforming into an unfamiliar Stetz guard!

The only difference was that he also had a long beard.

The beard was dyed reddish-brown by blood from an unknown source!

"You carry the aura of four deceased princes, and the hearts in your hands belong to three demonized princes. There are only twelve princes in total—

But with half the power returned here, the seal is utterly useless!"

Crimson light flashed in the red-beard's eyes. He pointed a finger, and the three hearts in the old soldier's golden cup instantly shattered into a torrent of blood-red springs, gurgling and spilling onto the ground.

The stone door encased in flesh and blood instantly shattered amidst the flickering runes!

Thereafter, countless blinding crimson shadows and a wild dance of chaotic sounds surged forth, engulfing everyone and everything before the door in an instant.

"Heaven falls, dark clouds obscure the sun. In this beautiful world, the Mad Dancer, the demonic nature deep within the human soul—His return is unstoppable!"

The red-beard's voice faded into the chaotic dance.

Epileptic-like crimson light projected a blurry, horned shadow onto the fleshy ground.