The moment the demon's skull was pierced and its brain shattered, the cavern fell silent except for the faint echo of cracking ice. The woman who had dealt the blow—slim, graceful, with movements so precise that every gesture carried a hidden elegance—slowly removed the hood that had covered her head.
Her hair spilled down in a long, flowing sheet, silver with a hint of metallic shimmer, as if woven from threads of moonlight. Beneath that veil of brilliance was a face touched with solemnity. Her eyes, calm and sharp, carried the weight of decision. Yet almost instantly, her stern expression softened, and with a half-smile she spoke in a voice at once lighthearted and steady:
"Once a demon, always a demon. They often feign weakness, disguising themselves in human form to stir compassion. The stronger the demon, the more it can imitate human emotions, mannerisms, even thoughts—until it has completely fused with the body it inhabits. That is why, to destroy such a creature, the human within must be freed not by preserving the body, but by breaking the demon's core. In this case, its brain."
As she explained, the corpse of the demon began to dissolve. From head to torso, its form unraveled into fragments of dark mist, dispersing into nothingness. At the same time, the massive sheet of ice she had conjured began to crack, thin lines spreading until the surface splintered into glittering shards.
The woman exhaled lightly, then gave a small, self-mocking laugh. "Ah, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Ho Lam Uyen, of the Heaven's Fracture. … You two are making your way to the Order, aren't you? I sensed the lingering aura of an old acquaintance here."
With casual familiarity, she searched among the stones until her hand closed around a tightly rolled scroll. "Here it is," she said, holding it up. Her manner was so natural, so unforced, it was as though the three of them had known one another for years. Both Khanh and Vy felt the oddness of it but said nothing.
Vy straightened her posture, her expression now serious, and asked, "Excuse me… are you human, a god, or… a demon?"
The question seemed to catch Ho Lam Uyen off guard for a moment. Then she grinned. "Of course I'm human. Not just human—I'm the most beautiful woman in the Heaven's Fracture, if I may say so myself."
The words were delivered with such lighthearted confidence that even Vy—who herself had never hesitated to boast—felt a shiver of secondhand embarrassment.
Their exchange drifted into brief conversation before Ho Lam Uyen finally waved her hand. "Enough standing around. Come with me."
She led them through winding rock paths until they reached a cavern mouth. "This way."
The cave loomed wide and cool, yet tranquil. From within came the faint sound of trickling water, soft as if whispering through stone. The three of them stepped deeper. At a certain point, Ho Lam Uyen pressed her palm against a wall veiled in moss.
Immediately, the stone responded. Intricate patterns emerged across its surface—circles, triangles, pentagons, all interwoven into a web of glowing lines. As the symbols expanded outward, the rock softened, flowing like fabric woven of liquid light. Without hesitation, Ho Lam Uyen stepped into it, her body sliding through the surface as if through a sheet of water.
She glanced back, her head poking through the stone with a mischievous smile. "Come along. Why so slow?" Then she pouted playfully. "Hurry up, I don't like being scolded, you know."
Encouraged yet uneasy, Khanh and Vy followed. The moment they crossed the threshold, a strange sensation enveloped them. The stone did not resist their bodies; instead, it yielded like a living membrane, cool and viscous, clinging to their skin. It was as if they were passing through the body of some great watery slime, each step both foreign and intimate, until at last they emerged on the other side—breathless, disoriented, and entirely certain they had crossed into another world.