CHAPTER 225: [LILITH WANTS TO SLEEP] - SILVANUS’S PART (11)

The field of sunflowers swayed in the wind, like countless little suns shining beneath the great sun above.

Silvanus had just stepped out of the house when he saw Meow and Bunny hiding, nervously watching him.

"Hey!"

Right at that moment, Cocona suddenly screamed. Everyone turned to look and saw her holding onto her legs with both hands.

But her legs were relentlessly stretching forward, as if trying to step into the sunflower field—though it was clear Cocona had no intention of doing so.

The roots were writhing and squirming, slithering continuously. Cocona screamed, "Drake!"

Drake immediately lunged forward and used his massive blade to slash at the roots constantly reaching into the mud.

Fresh blood burst out from the roots, and they thrashed in agony. Cocona had the disturbing sensation that what Drake had just cut wasn’t a plant’s roots—but her legs. The blood pouring out wasn’t from the roots—but from her.

And yet, strangely enough, she felt no pain.

Cocona pressed her lips together and looked at Drake. "Why aren’t you affected?"

Drake stood there, calm and unharmed. The roots under his feet hadn’t stretched toward the soil at all.

Drake shrugged. "How should I know?"

"Watch out!"

Silas suddenly shouted, having noticed the commotion.

Everyone turned to look—only to see the sunflower field violently shaking, the stalks growing longer and longer, twisting endlessly as if there were no end. The large flowers split open, revealing gaping mouths full of razor-sharp shark-like teeth, drooling uncontrollably.

They roared in unison—then lunged at everyone!

"Bastards! Drake, move!"

Cocona roared, lifting one hand toward the sky. The clear blue sky darkened as streaks of lightning began to appear.

They slithered like massive serpents. Cocona lowered her arm—and the bolts came crashing down, forming a circle of destruction around the sunflower field, leaving not a single stalk untouched!

The sunflower forest let out a piercing screech, like the death cries of countless giant rats being burned alive.

Everyone’s vision blurred from the blinding light of the lightning pillars—at that moment, all they could see was pure, blinding white.

"Boom! Boom! BOOM!"

Roughly five minutes later, the intense lightning finally faded—and the sunflower forest was revealed once more before everyone’s eyes.

All they saw was a scorched black wasteland, ash scattered everywhere.

The sunflowers were burned entirely and collapsed across the ground. The once-vibrant yellow petals had vanished without a trace.

Meow and Bunny stood off to the side, their fur singed black. They looked at each other, seemingly united by how hideous the other looked, and burst into even louder sobs.

Only the candy house remained on this plot of land.

"Clean and tidy," Cocona huffed coldly, dusting her hands as if nothing had happened.

[Damn it, it’s another day of being dragged into Cocona’s fan club!]

[So cool, so hot, hubby, you’re amazing hahaha—why is my screen wet? Because I couldn’t hold back aaaaaa!]

[That power is broken! I still don’t get why she ranks below Drake, hmph!]

[Alright, Cocona’s fans can praise her all they want, but don’t drag Drake down with her. That’s just petty.]

[When Drake’s fans bully others, no one says anything—double standards much?]

[But in this dungeon, the stronger someone is, the sooner they die. So shouldn’t Drake have died first?]

"Cocona, your legs!" Silas suddenly roared.

They all turned to see that Cocona’s lower body—from her thighs down to her feet—had been engulfed by mud.

It had appeared suddenly, without any warning.

Then, from the mud sprouted roots—not grotesquely twisted like before. These only extended cleanly, quietly budding with fresh shoots.

Cocona furrowed her brows and tried to walk, but every step was unbearably heavy. The mud and the roots clung to the ground like they were one and the same—utterly inseparable.

And with each step she forced out, the roots that were torn off bled profusely, soaking the ground in blood. Cocona’s face began to pale so visibly that even the naked eye could tell.

Suddenly, Drake lunged forward, grabbed Cocona’s hand, gained momentum, and hurled her into the candy house.

"BAM!"

Cocona hit the floor. Even though she didn’t feel any pain, a wave of weakness surged through her so fiercely that she couldn’t even get back up.

The roots still writhed beneath her feet, but in this place filled only with chocolate and sweets, without any soil, they couldn’t reproduce.

Cocona clutched her mud-soaked legs, her expression growing increasingly grim. She could feel her sense of connection with her legs fading—perhaps in a little longer, or if she struck the sunflower field again, they would fully dissolve into mud, leaving her body behind to nourish the plants.

"You don’t feel pain, but you’re weakening constantly, Cocona," Silas said in a low voice.

Cocona’s face darkened. She didn’t say a word.

But what made them even more despairing was what came next.

The sunflower field scorched black by lightning suddenly began to disintegrate into ash. At the same time, new sprouts emerged from beneath the pitch-black soil, piercing through the nutrient-rich ashes and growing rapidly under the sunlight.

In the blink of an eye, the sunflowers had grown two meters tall, swaying once more in the wind—as if the battle just now had never happened.

It all happened in less than two minutes.

Drake clicked his tongue. "Damn it."

Alice had made her way to Cocona and begun healing her. Cocona was no longer as weak as before to the naked eye—but the muddy legs remained. This wasn’t a normal injury—it resembled more of a curse.

At that moment, Leonard suddenly stepped forward and yanked up a sunflower.

Just like before, there were no roots.

But the sunflower was no longer the harmless plant from yesterday, nor the passive victim it had been last night.

The flower in Leonard’s hand began to morph. The petals peeled apart, turning into a gaping mouth. The stem stretched out rapidly, binding Leonard with shocking speed.

Drool dripped from the flower’s mouth onto Leonard as it hissed, baring a blood-red maw as wide as a basin—about to chomp down on him.

But perhaps what it didn’t expect was that the one it was about to devour was also ready to eat it.

Leonard’s eyes suddenly turned crimson. He opened his mouth, the corners tearing open as if his jaw had unhinged, making his mouth far larger than any human’s—and at this moment, far more terrifying than the sunflower’s.

"CHOMP!"

Leonard instantly bit the sunflower in half. Its petals scattered to the ground, along with a red-yellow liquid that, to anyone watching, might have looked like hot dog sauce.

The only sound in the air was Leonard’s chewing—as if unsatisfied, he also devoured the rest of the sunflower. The stem that had been binding him instantly withered and collapsed to the ground.

Leonard wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and his jaw returned to normal.

He inhaled deeply, smacked his lips, as if savoring the aftertaste in his mouth—then calmly walked back, standing in silence, as if eating a sunflower was nothing more than having a meal.

"Hey, at least put on a show or something. Quit acting all sheepish like that," Drake said, nudging Leonard with the tip of his blade. "If you want to be an actor so bad, get lost and go audition or something—don’t stand around here."