Gardenia's Heart

Chapter 110: Reach the Top

Moving her head toward the light, Lily peeked out from beneath her hood at the several bees moving through the labyrinth’s sky.

The creatures, now only patrolling in groups of four, flew in rhythmic rounds, surveying the entire surface in

With no time even to curse, Elarielle wrapped her left arm tightly around Lily’s semi-conscious body. She couldn’t afford to fall—crashing from this height would be a problem even for her.

She had to soften their landing. Whatever came after… would have to be dealt with later.

Her target? A group of four unfortunate bees directly beneath her.

Elarielle didn’t try to resist gravity—she let it carry her. A putrid green aura engulfed the blade of the queen’s axe, and a single swing of her hand was enough to obliterate the heads of all the monsters before they had any chance to react.

“Stealth won’t help anymore.”

Using the monsters’ bodies as stepping stones, without even bothering to wipe off the purple blood that began turning to ash as it touched the foul aura surrounding her, the elf bent her knees and leapt. A sonic boom echoed like thunder as her body struck the side of the massive roots.

The cloud of dust that rose was an obvious signal of her location. The threat had been found, and all the bees immediately began flying toward her.

“It’s going to shake a lot. Stay awake, even if it kills you.”

Seeing the faint nod of the silver-haired girl, Elarielle, with both feet embedded deep within the wood of the roots, glanced at the ground.

Twenty bees had already reacted to the first group’s death and were now flying straight at her. If she remained in that nest even one minute longer, they’d be completely surrounded.

“Tsk.” Clicking her tongue, Elarielle bolted.

Whatever this place was, the tangled roots connected sky and earth. She had a path toward the ground—all she had to do was follow it.

Her terrifying acceleration streaked the black trunk with purple blood. Neither the heavy bag on her back nor the girl in her arms hindered her axe as it mercilessly tore through everything in her path.

Fighting in midair was a problem—but now, she knew her enemy. With solid ground beneath her feet, it didn’t matter if she was a hundred or two hundred meters above the earth—she could kill them.

A putrid aura burst as Elarielle’s axe cleaved through the shield of one of the bees. The blade, still lodged in the monster’s exoskeleton, twisted along with the creature’s entire body as she hurled it at another bee approaching from behind the group.

The new monster’s spear pierced straight through the already-defeated corpse, the added weight dragging it down, making the bee lose lift and crash into the roots of the tree.

Elarielle didn’t know if that had killed it or not—there was no time to care. Not with endless hordes of monsters, unafraid of death, swarming toward her.

Focusing mana into her legs, she shot downward, gravity working in her favor as she ran.

But heading for the center of the nest wasn’t an option. She had to go somewhere else.

She was close to the ground—it had to be now. Without reducing her speed even slightly, she jumped. The spot where her feet had been just a second before crumbled into debris from the force as she launched herself a great distance.

Enveloping her body in mana, Elarielle cradled Lily tightly and let herself crash into the ground. Cuts and grime spread across her as she smashed through a dozen roots, but as soon as she finally stopped, she didn’t waste a single second—she kept running.

“Iris!” she called out forcefully, and instantly, a cyan glow enveloped her body.

The bees kept flying toward the destruction and noise. After creating disturbances in so many different spots, she had the perfect smokescreen to escape.

It took only five more minutes of running before she saw the last group of bees flying overhead, heading toward the place where they had fallen. Realizing that the creatures no longer knew their location, Elarielle finally allowed herself to stop running.

“Nhm…”

Lily, barely able to stay conscious, let out faint whimpers of pain from the discomfort, despite the massive impact she’d just endured.

“I’m going to start treating you now.”

Now hidden beneath the roots, Elarielle laid Lily on the ground. As she placed her hand on the girl’s forehead, her eyes widened.

“This is far more than any human could withstand without dying.”

This wasn’t just a fever. The girl’s body radiated such intense heat that, even through her gloves, Elarielle could feel her fingers involuntarily contracting.

She moved her open palm to cover the rest of the girl’s body. Not even the faintest breath escaped from Lily’s lips or nose, but the elf could still feel her heartbeat, pulsing against her wrist—she was alive.

The fact that Lily wasn’t an elf didn’t matter. Elarielle knew the human constitution. In fact, it wasn’t an exaggeration to say she understood the physiology of nearly every sentient race in the world—and this didn’t match any of them.

An unease swelled in her chest as Elarielle raised her right hand above Lily’s body. Slowly, a faint greenish aura flowed from her fingers, enveloping the nearly unconscious girl from head to toe.

The moment the light entered the girl’s body, Elarielle closed her eyes and began examining her from within, searching for the source of such an abnormal condition.

“It’s not in the bloodstream or the organs… Is it in the next cellular structure?” But before she could fully grasp it, a chilling shiver ran down her spine.

As someone who knew everything about the body, there was no way such a singular and powerful fact could escape her notice.

Every cell in Lily’s body was hers, consistent with her genetic structure—she was undoubtedly human. But something was interwoven within it. So firmly, so powerfully, that Elarielle couldn’t even begin to imagine how it was possible.

It wasn’t natural. It was something that made her fingers instinctively pull back and cold sweat run down her face as the conclusion dawned on her.

It was Lily—but there was something else. And as absurd as the words that followed might sound, it was that very thing keeping the girl alive.

“… A monster?”