Chapter 990: Bonk Time?

Chapter 990 – Bonk Time?

Sira shook her head tiredly. "Here we go again. Another annoying, stubborn creature who prefers her own prison over freedom."

Yue gave her a side glance. "You mean me?"

Sira turned her face to the other side and whistled innocently.

It was a terrible whistle.

Gula snorted.

Lullaby hugged her pillow-hammer and murmured, "Prison people are grumpy."

Lux spun his shoulders once.

He looked at the tree.

Then his voice went cold.

"Okay. Let’s close this fraud account."

[Battle Form Activated]

His horns emerged first. Wings unfurled behind him. His tail lashed once behind him.

The glow in his eyes deepened.

Then the twin blades appeared.

Sira flexed her claws. "Finally."

Gula lowered her stance, fork-spear angled forward. "Please don’t make me hungry for cursed bark."

Lullaby lifted her pillow-hammer with both hands. "Bonk time?"

Yue’s spear shone with compressed force. "Now."

They lunged together.

The shrine answered.

Roots erupted between them and the tree, thick as pillars. Vines snapped downward in dozens, each thorn glowing with old oath-light. The first elf’s hologram raised one hand, and the water channels burst upward into ribbon-like streams, slicing through the air with enough pressure to cut stone.

Lux moved first.

Straight ahead.

A vine shot toward his throat.

Euphoria flashed.

The vine froze mid-strike, shuddering as delirium flooded the memory-script inside it. Lux stepped under it and cut upward with Voracitas. The severed piece turned black-gold at the edge.

[Passive Contact Analysis]

[Barrier Composition: Root-Oath / Preservation / Debt Continuity]

[Warning: Direct Reclamation Requires Core Contact]

"Need the tree," Lux said.

A root slammed across his path.

Yue appeared beside him and drove her spear into it. The spearhead pierced between glowing script lines and twisted. The root cracked open.

"Go."

Lux went.

Three steps.

Then the floor rose.

Roots braided together beneath his feet, trying to trap his legs. Lux kicked off one, flipped over another, and landed sideways on the wall. His wings spread enough to stabilize him as he ran along the vertical surface for two strides.

A vine tried to pierce his back.

Sira intercepted it. Her claws crossed in a silver-black X, slicing the vine into three pieces. "Move faster!"

"I’m admiring your support!"

"Admire later!"

Lux pushed off the wall and shot forward.

The tree was closer now.

Too close for the shrine’s liking.

The barrier flared, and a pulse of sacred force blasted outward.

Lux crossed his blades.

Impact slammed into him.

His boots carved trenches into the stone as he was pushed back.

Ely’s healing mana caught his spine like warm hands, stabilizing him just enough.

Lux’s lips curled. He drove Voracitas into the floor.

[Rejection Force Mitigated: 31%]

Another pulse came.

Stronger.

Lux’s arms shook.

Gula appeared on his right, screaming something that was probably an insult but sounded like a dinner complaint. She jammed her fork-spear into the floor beside him, prongs catching a bundle of roots before they could wrap around Lux’s ankle.

"Nope! No grabbing the expensive demon!"

The roots tried to consume the Gluttony resonance inside her weapon.

Gula’s eyes sharpened. "Oh, you want hunger?"

Her grip tightened, but she did not unleash her full mana. She pulled instead, using raw strength and Gluttony instinct compressed into her body. The roots tore sideways, opening a narrow gap.

Lullaby stepped into that gap.

A curtain of vines fell toward Lux.

She raised her pillow-hammer. "Sleep."

-Bonk!

The strike was soft.

The effect was not.

The hammer touched the floor, and gray Sloth power spread low, not attacking the shrine directly, but slowing the vines’ descent. For a precious second, the entire curtain drooped like it had forgotten urgency.

Lux passed beneath it. "Good girl."

Lullaby smiled faintly.

Then one vine twitched awake faster than the others and lashed toward her.

Sira cut it apart with a snarl. "Don’t touch sleepy mascot."

"I’m not a mascot," Lullaby mumbled.

"You are our mascot."

"Mm. Okay."

Yue moved beside Lux again, spear spinning in a tight arc. She struck roots not to destroy them but to redirect them, turning their own momentum aside. Every thrust opened half a step. Every sweep bought Lux another breath.

But the shrine was learning.

Roots no longer attacked only Lux.

They attacked the path.

They formed walls.

Layer after layer.

Vines interwove into nets. Water ribbons sliced between openings. The hologram of the first elf watched them with cold fury, but beneath that fury Lux saw something else now.

Fear.

Not of them.

Of what would happen if they succeeded.

That made him angrier.

Because fear wearing duty was still fear.

A root wall slammed down in front of him, glowing with old script. This one was thicker. Alive. Connected directly to the tree barrier.

Lux stopped.

For half a second.

Then he smiled. "Found a vein."

He plunged both blades into the wall.

The shrine screamed.

Not human.

But every root in the chamber convulsed.

[Foreign Influence Trace: Ash Ledger Kin]

Lux’s eyes blazed.

The wall tried to push him off.

He pushed back.

His Demonic Power spread from his blades into the root wall, not devouring randomly, but tracing. Following. Auditing. Looking for what did not belong.

The first elf’s hologram snapped toward him. "Stop!"

The roots attacked all at once.

Yue braced.

Sira lunged.

Gula planted her spear.

Lullaby raised her hammer.

Ely lifted both hands, light blooming behind them like a shield of spring.

For one wild second, all five women became the wall between Lux and the shrine’s fury.

Yue’s spear caught the biggest root and held.

Sira carved through three vines before they touched Lux’s back.

Gula hooked a root and dragged it aside with a growl.

Lullaby slowed the water ribbons until they hung in the air like falling glass.

Ely’s healing washed over everyone, closing cuts as soon as they opened.

Lux did not look back.

His entire focus sank into the seal.

Ash Ledger residue.

Lux’s smile disappeared. His voice came low. "Madam."

The first elf glared at him.

"I found him."