"Don't bother me right now! I need to think about what wish I should make!"
After saying this to the Earth Evil God, little Aeria anxiously clutched the basket holding her baby sisters and ran toward the cave’s exit.
Right now, the only thought in Aeria’s small head was to take her sisters away from this place and return to human society, to seek refuge with their grandfather.
After all, in the current world, he was probably the only one willing to protect them.
If she wanted to escape, then figuring out where they were was the most critical thing.
On the other side,
The blue-haired girl, the Earth Evil God, did not stop her but simply watched Aeria’s retreating figure in silence, letting her run out of the cave without any interference.
...
Soon, with her small legs moving quickly, Aeria followed the light and emerged from the cave.
Then,
The sight that entered her eyes made the little girl’s face fill with pure shock.
"What is this place?"
Aeria had thought that she and her sisters had been taken into the Enigmatic Abyss by the Earth Evil God. That eerie and desolate domain should have looked like a primordial jungle, an inhospitable wilderness. But when Aeria stepped out of the cave, the sight before her was completely different from the cruel forest she had imagined.
What she saw instead was an abandoned city.
Towering skyscrapers stood in front of her like massive giants, their once-magnificent forms now crumbling under the weight of time. The windows were shattered, and pieces of glass hung loosely, looking as if they might fall at any moment. The concrete walls were covered in overgrown moss, creating a bizarre scene where life and decay intertwined.
Sunlight filtered through the thick clouds above, casting fragmented beams of light onto the ruins. The interplay of brightness and shadow seemed to whisper stories of a past era, of the life that once flourished here. Each towering building stood like a silent witness, murmuring secrets to the small girl standing in the middle of their graves.
A cold wind swept through the ruins, lifting a few dried leaves, their rustling sound scratching against the silence like an echo from the past. The air carried the scent of mold and damp stone, a mixture of decay and overgrown greenery. It made Aeria shiver involuntarily.
"A city? This is actually a city? A ruined city?"
Shocked, Aeria muttered to herself as she turned her head left and right, taking in her surroundings.
"It’s so broken down... Was there a war here?"
But?
These buildings... were so tall.
Even taller than the ones in Lilybell City... Could buildings really be built this high? If someone stood on top, what would they see?
Looking up at a towering skyscraper that seemed to stretch over a hundred floors, Aeria suddenly had a thought.
Wait!
That’s it!
Since this building is so tall, if I climb to the top, I might be able to see the borders of the Enigmatic Abyss! Then I’ll know which direction to run in!
With that realization, Aeria couldn’t wait any longer. She quickly transformed the baby basket into a stroller and, pushing it in front of her, rushed toward the skyscraper.
Very soon,
The little girl dashed through the courtyard with no obstacles in her way.
And then,
The moment she stepped out of the courtyard, her field of view expanded, but the joy in her eyes instantly vanished.
Her entire expression froze.
"This... this is..."
The previously peaceful courtyard had briefly made Aeria forget where she was.
But now?
Staring at the vast expanse of thick, oppressive black and violet mist floating just beyond the courtyard—mist so deep and unsettling that it made her spine go cold—Aeria couldn’t help but suck in a sharp breath.
That’s right,
This was the Enigmatic Abyss, the domain of the Earth Evil God.
How could a place like this be truly peaceful?
At that moment,
A voice.
That familiar yet strange gentle female voice rang out behind Aeria once again, making the girl instinctively tremble.
—"Don’t go... You... will die..."—
"..."
Hearing those words, Aeria trembled as she slowly turned her head, looking back at the Evil God who had taken the form of her mother.
The blue-haired girl gazed at Aeria’s delicate face, her voice breaking just as before as she spoke softly.
"Poisonous miasma... you’ll die."
There was a faint trace of worry in the girl’s tone.
Of course, little Aeria couldn’t pick up on that kind of emotion.
To her, it simply sounded like a threat.
And she had no way to refute it, because it was the truth.
The miasma was filled with death and corruption, capable of reducing all living things to nothingness. Any land touched by it would turn into a dead zone, completely uninhabitable for normal creatures. It was precisely because of the miasma that humanity’s territories had been forced to shrink again and again, and civilization itself had suffered devastating losses.
The only ways to resist its corrosion were either possessing Heaven’s Decree Knight-level strength—the power of the Gui Li Realm—or wearing specially crafted mobility armor.
Aeria had neither.
If she entered that fog, she would be instantly dissolved into nothing but a lifeless corpse.
Realizing this, Aeria's excitement vanished.
Escaping wasn’t going to be so easy.
She was frustrated, the bitterness clear on her small face.
But—
She wasn’t about to give up.
Taking a deep breath, Aeria glared at the monster before her—the creature that had disguised itself as her mother.
"Clear away the miasma and let me out!"
"No..."
The Earth Evil God shook her head without hesitation.
As expected.
But Aeria didn’t back down.
"In a place like this, I can’t properly think about what wish I want to make. I need to go home first, then I’ll be able to decide."
Clearly,
Aeria wanted to use the wish as a bargaining chip just like before, trying to "threaten" Gaia Lobil into letting her leave.
Most people would call repeatedly threatening an Evil God suicidal.
But Aeria wanted to try.
Because—
After this short interaction, little Aeria had a strange feeling...
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Maybe this Evil God wasn’t that hard to deal with after all.
So—
For her sisters’ sake, and for her own, Aeria gathered her courage and made her demand again.
"If you don’t let us leave, I won’t make my wish!"
"..."
The blue-haired woman blinked in silence, hesitating.
But—
Contrary to Aeria’s expectations, the Earth Evil God didn’t agree.
Instead, she firmly shook her head, her voice unusually resolute.
"No... you... can’t leave. You can’t..."
"If you don’t let us go, I won’t make a wish! But if you let us return, I might think of a wish soon and come back to you to make it!"
Aeria repeated her threat, this time forcing herself to stare straight into the blue-haired woman’s emerald-green eyes, trying to appear strong.
However—
The moment those words left her mouth—
The Earth Evil God’s pupils contracted sharply.
Something strange flickered through her gaze.
Images, bizarre and fragmented, surfaced in her mind.
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Her fists clenched slowly.
And her expression darkened, sinking into deep, ominous shadows.
...
?!!!
The instant Aeria looked into the Evil God’s eyes, a cold shiver ran through her very soul.
Her small body shrank back instinctively, fear seizing her as she stumbled backward several steps.
Because—
At that moment, Aeria saw something terrifying.
At some point, the Evil God’s eyes had become hollow and empty.
A bottomless, suffocating malice spread through them, deep and all-consuming.
For a brief second, it felt as if a giant invisible hand had clamped around her heart, squeezing the air from her lungs.
She couldn’t breathe.
"..."
The threat she had been about to utter was forcibly swallowed back down.
And as the girl trembled, the blue-haired woman spoke again, her eerie voice whispering softly.
"You can only leave... after making a wish. No wish... means staying here. Forever... until you make one... then you can leave."
"Those who left... without making a wish... never... came back."
"All of them... lied to me..."
"Lying..."
"They were all lying to me..."
...
As she muttered to herself, the Evil God slowly leaned down, reaching forward.
Then, suddenly—
She cupped Aeria’s face with both "hands."
The girl’s entire body froze.
That unnerving voice drilled into her mind.
—"Are you... trying to lie to me too?"—