“Boom, boom, boom!!!!”

 

The huge explosion raised a wave of dust, obscuring most of the visibility again. From behind the white fox girl came a low inquiry from a certain dragon lady.

 

“Master, should we intervene?”

 

Glancing at the four-winged girl flying around with a bunch of spheres, occasionally striking them with sharp slashes to cause distant explosions, Violet then looked through the thick dust at another figure and shook her head.

 

“No rush. They’re not delicate hothouse flowers that can’t handle any hardship. Appropriate pressure and injury will only benefit their growth. Just watch, the power of mythical angels is more than just this.”

 

“Yes.”

 

Sure enough, when the dust surrounding Rene dispersed, her body was protected by a strange light shield resembling a white eggshell.

 

Although the outer magic barrier was tattered from the heavy bombardment and looked quite miserable, even the residual damage that penetrated to the innermost layer was blocked by the girl’s large overlapping wings. She seemed unharmed.

 

She even managed to make a sharp wartime remark.

 

“Damn, that scared me! What’s with these things suddenly? Are they stuffed with berserk magic crystals or something?!”

 

“Be careful, the battle isn’t over yet.”

 

The agile figure of the four-winged angel descended from the sky once again. Leila waved the shimmering spear in her hand, her face solemn. The large group of spherical mechanical devices that had been chasing her earlier had all disappeared, clearly dealt with.

 

“I understand, but sister, what are we supposed to do next? Honestly, without directions from Miss Vi… from that person, I’m not quite sure what to do…”

 

Listening to her sister’s low murmurs from behind, Leila didn’t respond immediately. She observed the sunken crevice from which the strange mechanical spheres continued to emerge. After a brief moment of thought, she pointed toward it.

 

“Do you see that? Since the enemy is still coming out from there, it means there’s definitely something below. As Miss Dawn often says, ‘catch the ringleader first.’ We need to… charge in.”

 

“Huh? But those things keep exploding. How are we supposed to…”

 

“I’ll charge, you provide support from behind!”

 

Without further explanation, the girl with snow-white four wings bent her knees and, with a sound like a sonic boom and a trail of afterimages, crashed into the mass of mechanical spheres ahead!

 

“Ah! Sister!? Honestly…! Sky Hymn, Mid-level Magic Armor!”

 

Despite her constant complaints, Rene’s actions were swift. Raising her hand, several streams of glowing light shot out from the tip of her staff, imbuing the charging girl in front, or coating her body with a protective light film.

 

With the remote support from behind, Leila’s already strong momentum surged again. With just one spear strike, she swept through the incoming spheres like an invisible wave, transforming into a white meteor and physically crashing into the ground!

 

“Boom!”

 

From within the crevice, far more intense and dull explosions soon echoed, as if some gigantic monster was desperately thrashing and clashing underground, engaging in a fierce battle with the intruder.

 

Feeling the ground beneath her feet constantly shaking, Theresa couldn’t help but worry about her companion.

 

“Miss Dawn, are we really just going to watch from outside? Although Miss Leila is indeed very strong, that faint sense of dread hasn’t dissipated. I’m afraid there might be something even more terrifying down there.”

 

“Hmm…”

 

The girl wearing the white fox mask pondered for a moment, seemingly considering something. After a while, she shook her head.

 

“It’s alright, let’s leave the vanguard to Leila. There won’t be any problems. We’ll go in a bit later. It’s a rare opportunity, and stealing her thunder wouldn’t be good.”

 

Due to the forceful entry of the angel, the mechanical spheres that had been constantly emerging seemed to be drawn back underground.

 

When Violet and the others reached Rene, who had nothing to do, she was already at the edge of the crevice made by the boulder, peering into the darkness below, looking hesitant as if she wanted to help but was unsure.

 

Noticing her companions approaching from behind, she quickly jumped up with an exclamation of “Whoa!” and shook her head while showcasing her weapon.

 

“Miss Dawn!? I-I-I wasn’t slacking off! My sister communicated with me through telepathy before…”

 

Smiling slightly, Violet patted her on the shoulder and nodded.

 

“Alright, I understand. Leila has already reached a transcendent level and is a warrior. Some things are indeed too dangerous for you at the moment. She’s protecting you.”

 

“Lazybones, if you don’t want to be left behind and become a burden to your sister, you really need to work hard.”

 

“Ugh… I-I know…”

 

Since the commotion below had gradually subsided, Violet led her companions to enter the crevice, which, though created by a meteor impact, revealed an obviously vast space inside.

 

After making sure Theresa wore her flight wings, the four of them slowly descended nearly a hundred meters before finally touching solid ground again.

 

What appeared before them was an exceptionally spacious and uniquely shaped underground stone chamber, with a passage extending somewhere.

 

“I see…”

 

Scanning the room filled with spherical mechanical debris and the small holes emitting a faint white light in the ceiling dozens of meters high, the white fox girl murmured thoughtfully.

 

“Master, what is this place for? And what are those holes?”

 

“Hmm, that’s a good question.”

 

Violet looked around. In the large underground cavern, apart from the bare stone walls and the countless white dots that would make anyone with trypophobia’s skin crawl, there was nothing but the piles of mechanical debris scattered on the ground. She then put forth a hypothesis.

 

“I think this place is a storage room, or you could understand it as a ‘barracks.’ See those holes connecting to the outside? The transparent threads that attacked the caravan and us were most likely controlled by these spheres from here, which is why we could never find the true attackers.”

 

“And each mechanical sphere represents a thread, a… soldier.”

 

Removing the flight wings that were inconvenient to carry while walking, and placing them in her storage item, Theresa still seemed somewhat confused.

 

“But Miss Dawn, what exactly are those spheres? They can’t be the Holy Spirits of the Goddess of Light. Why are they targeting travelers, and where have the people they dragged away gone?”

 

Seemingly pleased with the girl’s independent thinking, Violet smiled gently.

 

“I don’t know yet, but these three questions… perhaps can be explained with one reason. Some of the answers are likely at the end of that passage. It seems Leila has already noticed this too.”

 

“The end of the passage? What is it, Miss Dawn?”

 

“It’s simple. Where there are soldiers, there must also be commanders. If this is a barracks, then there must be an area that functions like a ‘command post,’ connected to the vast underground forest. Let’s go, Leila has already gone ahead.”

 

It seemed that those mechanical spheres had the ability to navigate in the dark. In both the initial underground stone chamber—the “barracks”—and the passage Violet and her companions entered, there were no torches or magical lights for illumination.

 

Although not strictly necessary, considering Theresa and Rene’s comfort, Violet took out a high-quality light element crystal and activated it for lighting.

 

By the way, the 【Dominion of the Fox Mask】, being a Semi-Divine artifact, naturally had effects beyond mere disguise and identity change. According to Violet’s experiments, this transformation, although temporary, turned her into another new individual named “Dawn” from the perspective of existence.

 

If not known beforehand, outsiders would never be able to link the two identities. This transformation went beyond the 【Cognitive Obstruction Mask】, covering all its effects and more thoroughly changing her.

 

While existing as Dawn, although her attributes did not change, Violet’s skill list temporarily switched to another fixed set. She could forcibly use her original abilities, but it would result in some “abnormalities.”

 

Simply put, like when she was in Demon Suppression City and used 【Heavenly Blessing】 to heal those foreign girls, a vision of the priestess herself appeared. Such phenomena made the scene look more like a ritual, as if “Dawn” was borrowing power from “Violet.”

 

Although she didn’t fully understand the reason for this phenomenon, unless necessary, Violet preferred not to frequently use her original abilities while wearing the 【Dominion of the Fox Mask】. After all, she was “Dawn” now, and if she was going to play the part, she had to play it completely, right?