The SSS Ranked Villain's Return

The two walked alongside each other in the dark secret tunnel.

And of course, Evangeline felt a bit uneasy, as if someone was actually watching them.

But that's probably not it, right? Evangeline mused.

"Hey, any idea where we're going?" she asked.

Jane shrugged. "If I had any idea, I wouldn't be recklessly touching this dirty wall, would I? Go touch the other side in case there's a secret passage."

"Sure, captain," Evangeline replied, and brushed her fingers across the left wall.

Yet not even a moment later, her fingers sank into the wall, causing her to halt.

"Huh... I guess you were right on the money. There's a thingy hidden here, come check it out," Evangeline said flatly.

"You know, you're pretty bad with words," Jane snickered, approaching and crouching down.

She ran her hands over the wall, but to her, it was fully solid.

Jane moved Evangeline's hand aside and tried putting her own hand through the wall.

Yet again, it was the same outcome. The wall was solid.

Noticing this, Evangeline's brow rose. "Do you think the wall hates light mages?"

Jane scoffed. "I just think it loves demons more."

"I'm not really a demon, though. I'm a vampire," Evangeline pouted.

"Isn't that a sub-branch of demon, though?" Jane mused. "Like, didn't you all come from Lucifer or something?"

"That's a children's book..." Evangeline sighed. "And no, even if we have similar qualities, vampires don't have demon cores. We die when our hearts are destroyed. Of course, destroyed for good. I can usually regenerate mine under normal circumstances."

"I see... well, open up the wall then," Jane urged.

Evangeline rolled her eyes and took a step back.

Then, she sent a fierce punch at the wall, which, to no one's surprise, didn't work.

"Huh? It didn't budge?"

Jane's brows furrowed. "I hate to ask, but how many points did you put into strength?"

"Uhh..." Evangeline trailed off, quickly opening her status screen.

She flinched, turning to face Jane.

"Mm... 10. But I swear, it's not because I forgot. I just thought I'd never need it."

"Use your sword..." Jane said.

The moment she did, Evangeline facepalmed, unsheathed her sword, and slashed.

The sword easily tore open the wall, revealing yet another tunnel. Just this one seemed to have a trail of blood leading forward.

"Well, what do you know? I guess I'm quite lucky." Evangeline whistled to herself. "Anyways, I'm going first."

With those words, Evangeline headed inside, and Jane soon followed.

However, the cave wasn't as long as they expected, as after only a couple dozen minutes they reached the end.

And to their surprise, there was a single finger lying around on a nearby stone slab.

At first, Evangeline was puzzled. However, as the seconds passed, her eyes widened in realization.

"Hey, can you revive through that?" Evangeline asked, hopeful. "It might be him..."

"It's not," Jane flat-out denied it. "He has a scar on both his middle fingers. This finger doesn't. My guess is that this place is a trap for me. If I were to revive this person, then I'm sure we'd be in trouble."

Evangeline glanced down, clenching her fists.

I knew it wouldn't be that easy... I mean... finding his body in a random tunnel? It's already a big stretch. For all I know, this entire place is a trap.

Despite that, the mimic's earlier words still lingered inside her mind.

It mentioned hell, and the others. If she could find them, then she might be able to find a way to bring him back.

If he was really gone, of course...

"Snap out of it." Jane slapped her across the back. "I don't need you being moody when you're usually so annoying. Just keep being annoying until we find him, got it?"

"Nope, don't tell me what to do," Evangeline replied, and skipped out of the tunnel, reentering the previous one they were in.

They once again began walking through it, and after what felt like several hours, they reached the end.

But before Jane could even open her mouth, Evangeline unsheathed her sword and slashed the wall in front of her.

It crumbled, revealing a swirling blue portal ahead.

There was a lot of blood on the ground. So much, in fact, that she was immediately reminded of what she saw earlier.

But when she bent down to sniff the blood, she realized it didn't belong to Neraxis.

Instead, it belonged to the second figure whose blood was mixed with Neraxis's.

She wasn't disappointed. If anything, ever since this unfortunate incident, she had finally gotten a hint to help her find Neraxis.

Therefore, she trailed the blood, and when she finally turned the corner, she saw an interesting sight.

In front of her was an empty corpse. No hair, no eyes, and it seemed like everything essential had been taken out, leaving behind only the skin.

And as she glanced down, she realized the figure was missing a single finger.

"Hmm... is this the Sovereign of Pride?" Evangeline thought out loud. "He's pretty ugly..."

"It seems like him...?" Jane muttered, puzzled. "I've seen his picture in the books, and at least from the face... or what's left of it, he looks similar."

"Similar?"

"Yeah." Jane nodded. "It's hard to really tell when half of his body is missing, you know?"

Evangeline's brows twitched as a bad feeling began welling up inside her chest.

Someone had dissected a Sovereign, so it was right to assume that something might have happened to Neraxis too.

As much as she didn't want to imagine it, her thoughts swirled to the worst.

But not for long, as Jane delivered a fierce slap across her face.

[HP -138! 12/150]

"Bitch! Are you trying to kill me!?" Evangeline yelled.

"Huh? That was a light tap, though?" Jane tilted her head. "Wait... did you also not put any stats into stamina?"

Evangeline ignored her comment as she suddenly ran up to Jane, picked her up by the waist, and without wasting even a moment, dashed through the blue portal ahead.