Chapter 57: Answering the Challenge

That familiar spin hit, like a boat tipping into a hidden whirlpool.

The Little White Dragon had long grown used to Abaddon’s otherworld. Passing through the mirror‑gate portal, she felt no nausea now—no more being rammed down a narrow tube and shaken like dice. Lilith slipped out as the portal spat her back into existence, calm as a falling snowflake. She glanced left and right. No Nidhogg. No Yingna Zhen.

“Still split up,” Lilith murmured, the words light as mist. It matched her first guess. Nidhogg’s prepared runes flared, and her senses tugged northeast—Black Dragon’s presence pulsing like a distant drum. By the plan, she should head straight to Nidhogg.

She paused, breath settling. The space around her was bleached and stark—sky pure white like a blank scroll, ground pure black like wet ink. Between heaven and earth stood only the Little White Dragon.

And an Undead waiting before her.

“Devourer,” she called softly, naming the enemy like tapping porcelain. A massive green zombie floated in front of her, his shadow a hanging cliff. The greatsword on his back answered in his stead. What had been a lean blade spat sparks, then swelled in a breath into a door‑wide slab, its energy edge glowing teal like river glass.

“Intruder… sly… rat… exterminate…” The Devourer’s voice broke like a cracked gong. Lilith caught only fragments, the way you catch stray leaves in a gust. He sounded like someone riding a bad high, ready to smash the first thing that moved.

“Too bad. That brute vibe? Girls aren’t into it,” Lilith said with a playful curl of her lip. “First meeting and you call a lady a rat? That’s just rude. A gentleman treats a lady with care.”

“As the price for your lack of manners…” She blinked, lashes flicking like moth wings. The azure feather pattern on her lower belly lit up, and in the white sky above, star‑points gathered into a blue feather. She projected the star map of the Void Command Seat, the constellation humming like a struck harp. Human form, full speed. Lilith flashed a wicked grin. “Not a date. Bye!”

She didn’t engage the Undead. With her constellation resonance singing, Lilith bolted toward Nidhogg, a comet skimming dark earth. The Devourer, massive and slow, hung back, watching her streak away.

“Stop!” The Devourer roared, voice rolling like gravel. He flew faster than she’d thought, a boulder loosed downhill. Catching Lilith, though, was pure fantasy. She considered pouring on speed and dropping him outright. But this was the enemy’s nest; shake him once and he’d just pop up again. So she held the perfect pace—close enough to keep hope alive in him, far enough that hope never paid out.

She savored the leash‑play, kiting him like a dog tugging at a rope. The hulking green zombie tore after her, all strain and rage, while the Little White Dragon spent only a sliver of effort to keep him panting behind, safe from any swipe.

Melee blockheads were her favorite.

Whoosh. Her battle‑mind flared like lightning over water. Lilith dove and rolled, a white ripple on black ground, and an arc of blade‑aura hissed past where her head had been.

She snapped a look back. The Devourer’s blue‑green sword had flushed to red. Red‑black mist boiled around him, condensing on the edge, and with wide, brutal swings he sent slashing crescents screaming toward her.

“Whoa!” Lilith slipped past another flashing arc, breath quick, shoulders tight. She cranked up her speed to buy herself reaction time. “He’s got range too?”

The melee idiot had leveled up into a high‑threat artillery piece. Lilith’s focus tightened like a drawn bow. She had zero interest in testing how sharp those waves were. With her flesh and blood, she feared one clean cut could split her in two.

She pulled the marble staff from her back. Astrolabe in hand, she loosed frost spell after frost spell, blue light blooming like winter blossoms. The Devourer’s blade shredded every flake. Those that survived to kiss him were swallowed by his red mist, like sparks drowned in fog.

“Magic’s a bust,” she hissed, stowing the Astrolabe to save her Star Energy. The Devourer floated. No sticky traps on the floor to snare him. Ice walls? Useless—the kind a bull would crunch through without slowing.

“I really hate enemies with immunities,” Lilith muttered, breath dark with annoyance. She accelerated. She could feel Nidhogg nearby now, a black flame just ahead. Even if she dropped the Devourer here, he wouldn’t beat her to an ambush.

Just as she thought she’d outrun him, the Devourer changed. His green armor drowned under dark red mist. The tentacles under his plates swelled thick, bulging out like knotted muscle, like blood vessels engorged with fever. Wrapped in crimson, the Devourer snapped into a feral rage. He lunged at Lilith like a fired shell, speed spiking hard. The massive Undead streaked in, and the Little White Dragon jolted cold. She rolled sideways, heart thudding, dodging by a hair.

The greatsword scraped past her ribs and smashed into the ground. The pure black floor cracked, thin fissures glowing with seeping white light, like moonmilk bleeding through stone.

Lilith had no plan to wrestle him. She knew her limits with the clarity of a bell tone. She wasn’t beating this one. Let a specialist handle him.

Good news—she could see Nidhogg’s coat now.

The Black Dragon faced another Undead: a Wraith with a thick grimoire clasped like a tombstone. Lilith recognized him in a blink—the librarian the White Lady had mentioned.

“Nidhogg, swap!” The Little White Dragon drew the Astrolabe. A freezing ray snapped out and slammed into the librarian. The Wraith’s forming spell shattered, and it stared, livid, at Lilith—only to meet a flurry of her follow‑up spells.

“Got it.” Nidhogg saw the Devourer barreling in behind her. The Black Dragon’s right hand rippled back into a taloned claw. She drove off her heel, a black gale, and landed by Lilith, then hammered a punch into the Devourer’s skull.

Razor claws cut through the red mist skimming the teal armor and shaved off a slab of its outer plate, sparks flying like fireflies.

“Fast and clean,” Nidhogg said, and she kicked the Devourer away, boot like thunder on iron.