Chapter 237: Centipede, or Snake-Form

"Heh, the youth," the queen, whom Ron had earlier thrown like a projectile, drawled as she floated back. "You have to let them die a few times. Once they develop a fear of the afterlife, they'll naturally learn to cherish their lives."

Coming back from the dead wasn't without a price. The deceased are tormented in both body and soul, and many even lose some of their power in the process. Almost everyone who has been resurrected after a period of time says they never want to experience that feeling again.

The only one who could die and still remain so dauntlessly brave was probably a real badass like Sera.

Then again, there was a reason for her fearlessness: with a combat record like hers, she'd get a seat at the main table in the Hall of Heroes.

"You don't know what you have until it's gone, and by then, it's too late," Yelena scoffed, wiping the blood from her blade with a handkerchief. "The one thing the Shadowfall Netherworld has in abundance is souls wishing they could start over."

"Heh, no wonder they were enjoying their meal so much," Delaford said, moving closer to where the demons had been squatting to examine the flesh they'd been devouring. "This is an Owl Bear's corpse. Sibach, is this that lost Owl Bear cub you mentioned?"

"How should I know?" the carpenter replied with an exasperated look as he walked over. "We heard about it from Quest, and Quest heard it from those two adult Owl Bears. How am I supposed to recognize the cub they lost?"

"However..." Sibach and Delaford exchanged a glance, their eyes falling on the mangled Owl Bear's bulging stomach. They spoke in unison, "Is there something in there?"

The Owl Bear was nearly an adult and quite large. Its abdomen was severely swollen, and it vaguely looked like something was inside.

"Let's cut it open and see." Before Ron could say anything, the two of them got to work, slicing a larger gash in the Owl Bear's abdomen.

With the thud of something heavy hitting the ground, a small figure covered head to toe in gore and tangled viscera tumbled out of the Owl Bear's corpse. The person's eyes were shut tight and only opened slowly after a waterskin of cold water was splashed on his face.

Thanks to that splash of water, most of the blood was washed from his face. Sibach's eyes widened in shock as he stared at the small Half-Elf. After a long moment, he shouted:

"It's Jack! He's actually still alive!"

Ron recognized him too—it was Jack, the Shapeshifter disguised as a Half-Elf, the same one who had exposed his own kind before. 'But he's one of the Shapeshifters who's supposed to change his appearance frequently,' Ron thought. 'Why is he still in this form?'

"Ugh... Sibach? What are you doing here?" The Half-Elf, jolted awake by the cold water, struggled to sit up with the help of the Goblin Hunter and the carpenter. He tilted his head, trying to slap the blood out of his ear. As his senses slowly returned, he spotted Ron standing a short distance away.

"Lord...?" Jack asked, staring at Ron in shock. "Did I finally get eaten? But then why am I seeing you?"

"It's because you *weren't* eaten, of course," Sibach said, pulling Jack into a bear hug. "Where are the others? Where did Quest and his group go?"

The Half-Elf had to use all his remaining strength to push the emotional carpenter away. "I don't know," he said. "We split up when we ran."

"After we found that stone coffer, you went nuts, grabbed it, and vanished into the darkness. We heard you scream a moment later," Jack said, recalling what had happened after he and Sibach had been separated. "We tried to find you, but I think we took a wrong turn. We ended up waking a monster that looked like a giant centipede."

"We were hunted down, completely trapped. Luckily, the monster seemed to only be interested in Quest. To help him and the others escape, I took his form, and he took mine. We split up, and the monster fell for it. It chased me like a madman, hacking at me across half the labyrinth."

"I left a trail of markers in different places so Quest could find me. But eventually I ran out of pigment, and I'd been slashed a few times, so I had to resort to using bloody handprints."

The Half-Elf gave a pained grin. Victoria, who was rummaging through the Owl Bear's stomach, found two or three small Potion vials inside.

"I hid inside it. This Owl Bear stepped in a trap and didn't die until it got here. I kept my Half-Elf form and hid in its belly to escape my pursuer and heal up," Jack said, casting a grateful glance at Ron. "It's all thanks to the Lord's Weak Potions. Otherwise, I'm afraid I wouldn't have held on until you came for me. I'd been slashed in the back several times, and trying to hold my breath right under the noses of three Minotaurs while that injured... it was nearly impossible."

"I guess you inherited a Half-Elf's good luck," Aive said with a laugh. "If we'd been any later, we'd be looking for you in a Minotaur's stomach."

"You can say that again," Jack laughed. He was still very weak, but he could manage simple movements. "Still, from the looks of things, I take it you haven't found Quest and the others yet."

"You know where they are?"

"No idea," Jack said, using his hands on his knees to push himself up. He took the waterskin from Victoria and downed two large gulps. "But I think they'll find their way here soon enough. And they won't be the only ones."

The painter looked at the messy blood and corpses on the ground. "I guess you didn't kill them stealthily, right? The commotion here, I imagine it will soon—"

Before Jack's words had even faded, You's form drifted through the wall. "Quick, quick, get out of here!"

"There's a snake-like demon headed this way! I saw it myself! It turned a group of lizards pretending to be statues into mincemeat! It's incredibly powerful!"

"Mincemeat?" Aiksuuri craned its neck. "A snake-like demon... shouldn't it have turned them into paste?"

"I said what I said!" You huffed, planting her hands on her hips. "Stop splitting hairs! Just get out of here!"

"Uh, I don't think we'll have to leave," Silvia said, poking her head around the corner of the dead-end alley before quickly pulling it back. "Benefactor, prepare your Magic. It's already here."

"As for whether it's a snake or a centipede, mincemeat or paste... you'll all have your answer very soon."

As she spoke, the Vampire Mage gripped her Walking Stick with both hands and began chanting as many powerful spells as she could, faster than she ever had in her life.

Ron quickly understood why Silvia was so frantic. As a long, thick, serpentine body slithered into the corridor ahead, the cold glint of scimitars reflected in his eyes.

Six scimitars, all gleaming and impossibly sharp!