Chapter 501: Let’s go after them.

The silence that followed Rize’s massacre was suffocating. Not even the mutilated wolf’s moans could rise above the crushing pressure gripping the ravine.

Roxanne rose slowly, her fingers still stained with fresh blood. A perfect contrast against her golden hair that shimmered in the wind, as if nothing could tarnish her radiant beauty.

She returned to Vergil, sliding her arms around him with an almost childlike possessiveness. Her red eyes sparkled, but now it wasn’t just joy or love. There was something else: a shadow of doubt.

“Husband…” Her voice was low, almost melancholic, as if a memory had surfaced. “Where did you end up when you came in?”

Vergil arched an eyebrow, surprised by the sudden change in tone.

“I walked,” she answered simply. “I went through the forest. Nothing major.”

She bit her lip, as if that answer made no sense. Her gaze drifted off for a moment, gazing into the void beyond the ravine.

“For me… it wasn’t like that at all,” she murmured. “I’d barely taken a few steps and… it was like I was being sucked in. As if each step threw me deeper into some place that had no beginning or end.”

Vergil narrowed his eyes, intent.

“Explain.”

Roxanne took a deep breath, trying to find words to describe what she’d experienced.

“I just… walked. Just a little.” She gestured, as if her movements could help convey what she’d felt. “But before I knew it, I was already far away. Very far. So far away that I began to believe I’d never return.”

Her tone carried a heavy sincerity. There was no exaggeration, no theatricality. Just the voice of someone who had seen the impossible.

“It was like the ground was moving on its own, pulling me away from everything I knew.” She squeezed her eyes shut, remembering. “And the next thing I knew… I was at the bottom of that abyss. I didn’t walk there. I was thrown in. As if reality itself had spat me into it.”

Vergil remained still, analyzing every word.

“This place…” he murmured. “Then it’s not just a prison. It’s a living labyrinth.”

Roxanne turned to him, her eyes trembling with something between anger and vulnerability.

“You don’t understand…” she said, her voice breaking. “The feeling of being lost, of not being able to return… It was horrible.”

She clung tighter to him, pressing her face against his chest, as if afraid he would disappear at any moment.

“I thought I would never see you again…” Her voice broke, and for an instant the destructive woman, the Bloodthirsty Queen, seemed nothing more than a desperate wife.

Vergil ran his hand through her golden hair, a rare gesture of tenderness.

“I’m here,” she said firmly. “And you won’t get lost again.”

Her body relaxed for a moment, but then her expression changed. A spark of concern appeared in her eyes.

“Husband… and the others?”

Vergil frowned.

“The others?”

“Yes.” Roxanne looked up seriously. “I didn’t come alone. When I came in… I had Katharina, Sapphire, my mother, Raphaeline, Ada… and even your mother with me.”

The silence that fell was even heavier than the previous one.

Vergil stared at her, his eyes narrowing like blades.

“Repeat.”

“Katharina, Sapphire, my mother, Raphaeline, Ada…” Roxanne counted on her fingers, as if each name were an open wound. “And your mother.”

The air seemed to tremble around him. The weight of the final name was not something to be ignored.

Vergil turned to the horizon, his gaze lost in dark thoughts.

“That doesn’t make sense,” he murmured. “I didn’t see any of them. Not even a trace.”

Roxanne narrowed her eyes, confused.

“What do you mean? They were with me when I entered. I remember clearly. I saw them. I spoke to them.”

Vergil took a deep breath, his expression hardening.

“If they were there, then they were separated from us. The same way you were thrown into the abyss.”

“Separated… or devoured,” Zuri said in a deep voice, his colossal form moving behind them.

The serpent slid part of its body forward, making the stones tremble under its weight. Its yellowish eyes shone like ancient suns, fixed on Roxanne.

“Prisons of this kind don’t just contain. They… fragment. They distance. Each step can lead to a different destination.”

Titania, still sitting on the serpent’s head, swung her legs like a bored child.

“Hmph. It’s like falling into a net of mirrors. You think you’re walking in a straight line, but you’re being pulled toward the reflection they want you to see.”

Roxanne huffed in frustration. “That doesn’t change the fact that they were there with me. And I need to know if they’re alive!”

Vergil turned to her, his red eyes blazing like burning coals. “Alive or not… we’ll find out. But you won’t get lost again.” His voice held an unbreakable promise, a tone that brooked no dispute.

Roxanne opened her mouth to respond, but hesitated. Her gaze flickered away for a moment, returning to Rize’s mutilated body, still gushing blood. Something in her seemed heavy, as if the scene had finally pierced the armor of absolute confidence she always wore.

Vergil noticed. “What happened?”

It took her a moment to speak. “It’s just… if that happened to me… what could have happened to them?”

Vergil didn’t answer immediately. His gaze remained hard, fixed on the horizon, as if trying to calculate every variable.

Vanny, who until then hadn’t dared to speak after what had happened to Rize, stepped forward.

“If the prison separates everyone… then any one of them could be in danger right now.”

It was the first time his words didn’t sound tinged with jealousy or venom. There was only concern—perhaps for Vergil, perhaps for the other women who carried his blood.

Vergil nodded slowly.

“Yes,” he murmured. “And that’s why we can’t waste time.”

Roxanne gripped his hand tightly. Her red eyes were shining, but now not with joy or anger. It was something different. Determination.

“Then we’ll find them. All of them. No matter where they are.”

Vergil looked at her. And for the first time since he’d met her, he saw not only the possessive, chaotic wife, but also the queen who wouldn’t abandon hers.

He squeezed her hand back. “Let’s go.”