"Is this your first time diving?"


    Rhys was initially going to push himself down to the Surface faster, but after seeing the cenleons panicking, he opted to slow down and fall closer to Edissa.


    Edissa was screaming and iling around, but as soon as Rhys dove closer to her, she immediately stopped struggling and closed her mouth; trying her best to look away from Rhys.


    Unfortunately for her, she was still swinging and spinning randomly in the air; her panicked face, showing itself from time to time to Rhys.


    "I am going to hold you to keep you steady, okay?" Rhys said as he dove even closer to Edissa; raising both his palm to show he was not going to do anything harmful to him, "So, please — do not eat me."


    "Who. is…!" Edissa was trying her best to speak but was only brought to an awkward situation as her words and face faded and came back several times in front of Rhys. Still, she seemed incredibly prideful as she just continued to speak even while her words dissipated,


    "...going to eat you!"


    "..." Rhys stared at this 6-limbed creature for a few more seconds as she swayed and spun before deciding to help her stabilize herself. The only problem was that he did not really know where to hold her. And so, he just decided to hold her around her human waist; the faded fur around it, extremely smooth despite looking incredibly dry due to the chill.


    "!!!" Edissa, however, let out a loud roar as her legs kicked on their own; her arms tucked in on their own as she gritted her teeth. Still, this was better than spinning around and around for several minutes.


    "You are going to feel incredibly dizzy in a few moments," Rhys then said, not even caring that Edissa''s entire body was trembling, "But this is better than being frozen to death."


    "Get… get your hands off of me. You—"


    Rhys did not even let Edissa finish her words as Rhys quickly let go of her, causing her to once again spin around; her hind and front legs, once again moving erratically as they instinctively tried to find a ground to stand on.


    This time, Rhys did not help Edissa at all and just watched her continue to fall without grace, even fully knowing that she wanted his help due to her desires practically screaming into his mind.


    It was a surreal view — Rhys had actually seen several other bipedal humanoid races in the Underworld during his stint in the Underworld Corps, but this was the first time he was seeing a humanoid with a quadrupedal lower body this up close, and it was extremely fascinating.


    "H… help, help!" And very soon, Edissa started asking for his help; her eyes, barely even straight anymore as her body started to lose strength. And so, once again, Rhys grabbed her by the waist, causing her body to jolt again — but this time, she did not resist at all and just looked away.


    "Is this your first time ever going to the Surface?" Rhys then said, but Edissapletely ignored him as she tried her best to contain her dizziness, "Look, you need something to distract you from the nausea you are feeling — talk to me."


    "Talk…" And finally, with her letting out a stuttered sigh, she turned to look at Rhys, "...How can you speak ournguage?"


    "...How indeed," Rhys let out a small hum as he thought about it for a few seconds before just shrugging his shoulders, "I have many skills. Is this your first time going to the Surface?"


    "...It is," Edissa whispered; her already ufortable face, turning even more sour as she looked ahead to the deep abyss she was falling into. She was going to look away andpletely ignore Rhys again, but as soon as she felt her soul being left behind by her body again, she took in arge gulp and nced at Rhys,


    "We do not call it the Surface — we call it the Forbidden Land."


    "Forbidden Land…" Rhys lowered his eyebrows, "...Then why do so many of your kind go above the Surface?"


    "You darepare my kind to beasts?" Edissa truly wanted to lunge at Rhys and w his eyes out violently, but refrained from doing so as she might once again spin around until she dies. After all, her brothers and sisters who are below her were alreadypletely knocked out; vomit, escaping their sorry faces,


    "The Forbidden Land is where the Great Gods y their games, only mindless creatures used for entertainment are banished there!"


    "Banished…?" Rhys''s eyebrows lowered as he heard Edissa''s words. The first to reveal to him that the history that humans know of ispletely different from the truth was Arachnea, the second one was the first demigod, King Aethelc, and now… another native of the Underworld was telling him that the gods sent the monsters and beasts to Earth.


    The thought of the past did not linger in Rhys''s mind for long, however, as he truly did not want to involve himself in it — his goal was different, after all.


    He was not interested in knowing the truth or seeking it, or whatever fate or prophecy he was involved in — his story is different. Whether the gods are the viins or not does not concern him at all.


    "What do you think the Surface—the Forbidden Land looks like?" Rhys asked.


    "Dark and filled with death," Edissa''s voice lowered, "A field of graveyards of the most horrendous of mindless beasts."


    "It''s… not like that at all," Rhys let out a small sigh, "Our horizon is endless, and our sky even more — almost like you could just fall right into it if you''re not touching the ground."


    "What you are describing is Olympus," Edissa let out a small harrumph; one of her legs, stomping the air as she did so, "Do you really think I will believe your words, Druid? You might talk like us, but your feeble and small brains can not evene up with a better lie."


    "You think… we are not an advanced civilization?" Rhys could really only look to the side, "Is that why you eat us?"


    "What are you talking about? Humans have always been food," Edissa scoffed, "You eat too, right? Have you ever wondered why you are eating what you eat?"


    "...Right."


    "I can not expect your feeble mind to understand," Edissa shook her head as she looked away, no longer seemingly interested to continue the conversation. And surprisingly, Edissa seemed to be starting to adapt to the dive, as the difort visible on her face have already faded away — well, that is, until…


    …they reached the Surface.


    "!!!" As soon as the sudden shift of gravity enveloped her body, she found herself suddenly gasping for breath even though her lungs were already full; the whites of her silver eyes, showing themselves as she lost consciousness several times in the span of just seconds.


    Luckily for her, she was caught by Rhys after being spewed out by the Hole — the same could not be said for her brethren.


    "These guys are huge…" Dominique pulled the other unconscious cenleons out of the cell so they would not identally fall down again and return to the Underworld to freeze to death—no.


    At this time, the Ice Warden has probably blocked the other end of the Hole in a thickyer of ice, they would just probably die due to the fall… but then again, they could probably survive the fall… only to be frozen as soon as they touch the ice blocking the entrance,


    "...And heavy."


    "Stop talking about yourself, dyke," Talia let out a scoff as she watched Rhys carry Edissa out of the cell, "You zeem to be very interested with that one — are you also wondering what sort of specimen woulde out if you mate with her?"


    "...No," Rhys gently dropped Edissa on the floor.


    "So, how do you want to do this?" Talia ced her hands on her waist.


    "Let''s feed them first as soon as they wake up," Rhys turned to look at the dozen unconscious cenleons. And now that he was looking at all of them clearly, he could not help but just squint his eyes from their condition, "They look incredibly… famished."


    "Feed them with what?" Dominique raised an eyebrow, "Do you need the gang to prepare something for these… animals?"


    "No," Rhys seemed confused at Dominique before he started looking around the hall… which waspletely covered with the bodies of the inmates he killed,


    "They have a buffet here."


    "...You evil son of a bitch," Dominique stuck out her tongue in disgust as her entire body got the shivers, "Well, I won''t be here for that — just so we''re clear, you''re not… joining them in eating anyone here, right? ''Coz… you have a history with that."


    "...I shouldn''t have told you that."


    "Toote, dregger."


    Rhys could really only shake his head as he watched as Dominique walked away with her middle fingers raised. This was perhaps the very first time he was called a dregger in a very… endearing way.


    "Don''t tell me you are also nning to sleep with that dyke? She is of the homosexual category," Talia crossed her arms, "I do not mind you sleeping at all with other women, in fact, I endorse it — I am already old. But choose your partners, Fuhrer."


    "...Please don''t call me that," Rhys''s eyes widened, "...And trust me, you''re not that old in bed. You—"


    "You should have killed us when you have the chance!"


    And before Rhys could finish his words, he found his neck suddenly being wrapped around by Edissa''s arm; her broken but still sharp ws, threatening to carve off his head,


    "Now we will take… take… Where…" Edissa''s voice, however, quickly weakened as soon as she realized she was surrounded by corpses,


    "...Where have you brought us!?"