Are you kidding me?! The boss of the Hell Dungeon is a loli!

Jiang Luo stared at the shadow for two seconds.

The aura emanating from this child has already reached S-rank.

Moreover, with her current level of perception, she hadn't even noticed the shadow approaching.

"You've broken through to S-rank?"

"Yes." Shadow nodded. "I've absorbed all the power my mother gave me."

"The Senate is practically blocking Lolo's face, where have you been?"

Before Shadow could speak, Nyarlathotep's voice came from the side.

"It was my arrangement."

Jiang Luo turned to look at Naya.

"Did you arrange this?"

"Shadow's assassination skills are too unique. Once Shura notices him, he's likely to die." A smile appeared on Naya's skull-patterned face. "That's why I had him secretly operate behind the Senate's army."

"And the result?"

"The 20,000-strong army of monsters brought by the Senate," Nyar paused, "was one-third of it stolen by Shadow alone."

Jiang Luo: "..."

Awesome.

Speechless.

She looked down at the shadows.

The shadow stood still, his trousers stained with black blood, but his expression remained calm, as if to say that the weather was nice today.

"one third?"

"Six thousand seven hundred and forty-two," Shadow reported, a number accurate to the last digit. "Of them, three hundred are A-rank and twelve are S-rank."

Jiang Luo looked at An Ying's calm face and remained silent for three seconds.

"shadow."

"Yes, Mom."

"From now on, when you go out with Luo Luo, walk in front."

Why?

"Luo Luo is afraid you'll stab her in the back."

"Shadow won't stab Mom."

"Lolo knows, but Lolo is afraid."

Shadow tilted his head, seriously considering the logic behind that statement.

Jiang Luo sighed and reached out to pat An Ying's head.

This child's talent is terrifying; her S-level stealth ability almost went unnoticed even by someone at the SSS level.

"Mother."

"Um?"

"Shadow brought something back."

Shadow pulled out a spatial ring stained with black blood from behind his back.

"Taken from an S-class bizarre corpse."

Jiang Luo took the ring and scanned the contents with the Calamity Pattern.

Three seconds later, her red eyes lit up.

It has to be something eerie with a low profile, like the shadow!

With Shadow, wouldn't the opportunity to earn extra money come along?

"shadow."

"exist."

"From now on, you'll earn Lolo's allowance."

Shadow nodded, his expression remaining calm.

"As long as Mom is happy."

"Of course Luo Luo is happy." Jiang Luo put the ring in his pocket, and the lollipop crunched in his mouth. "With more than six thousand strange equipment and crystals, plus the compensation that Shura will send in three days, Luo Luo won't have to eat dirt this month."

A raven poked its head out of the castle, still clutching a bloodthirsty raven in its hand.

"Lord Jiang, you just said that Shura will deliver the compensation in three days?"

"What's wrong?"

"Do you really believe that Asura will send it?"

Jiang Luo took the lollipop stick out of her mouth and flicked it into the distance.

"It doesn't matter whether he gives it to me or not."

"If you don't deliver it, Lolo can go to the Senate and get it herself."

The crow shivered and shrank back into the castle.

Jiang Luo turned and walked towards the door, her black leather shoes making a crisp sound as they stepped on the patterns of calamity.

"Nyarlathotep".

"exist."

"Keep an eye on the castle's restoration."

"clear."

Stella.

"Master!" Stella sprang to her feet.

"Is the torture chamber ready?"

"Ready to be put into use at any time!"

"Very good." Jiang Luo pushed open the castle gate and looked back one last time at the battlefield, which was a complete mess.

"If Shura dares to lose even one crystal in three days, Lolo will turn him into a coffee table."

The door closed behind her.

Shadow stood there, watching Jiang Luo's figure disappear behind the door, then looked down at his pants stained with black blood.

"Mom is very happy today."

Nyar walked past him, and the bone staff paused on the ground.

"How did you figure that out?"

"Mom walks with lighter steps than usual."

A crack appeared on Naya's skull-patterned face.

"You have a keen eye for detail."

"Shadow kept watching her mother."

Naya stopped and looked down at the half-human, half-monster boy who only reached his waist.

"shadow."

"Um?"

"What else did you take from those six thousand-plus monsters?"

Shadow was silent for two seconds.

He pulled a fist-sized, dark red crystal from his pocket; its surface was covered with patterns of calamity.

"this."

Naya's skull-patterned face froze for a moment.

"Do you know what this is?"

"I don't know." Shadow handed over the crystal. "But it smells just like Mom."

Naya took the crystal, her knuckles turning white.

This is a crystal from the very source of the abyss.

Its purity is so high that it can allow an S-level anomaly to directly break through to SS level.

Shadow casually picked up this thing from the pile of corpses, simply because "it tastes just like Mom's."

"shadow."

"Um?"

"Keep this crystal for yourself."

"But Shadow wants to give it to Mom."

"Your mother doesn't need this." Nyarlathotep shoved the crystal back into Shadow's hand, her smile deepening on her skull-patterned face. "But she'll be glad you found it."

Shadow looked down at the crystal in his palm, his dark eyes reflecting a dark red light.

"The shadow is safe."

He put the crystal in his pocket, patted it to make sure it wouldn't fall out.

Then they followed Nyarlathotep through the castle gates.

Behind him, the calamity patterns on the battlefield slowly receded into the ground, leaving only a scorched ruin and Satan's two halves of his body, now completely cold.

……

As night fell, the restoration work on Red Moon Castle was still underway.

The patterns of calamity crawled along the broken city wall, piecing the bricks back together one by one with a soft, cracking sound.

Jiang Luo sat on the throne, his black leather shoes dangling in mid-air, his toes swaying idly.

He had the seventh lollipop in his mouth.

The candy sticks were piled up next to the handrail, arranged in a small row.

The castle was quiet. Stella was checking the instruments in the torture chamber, Yunyi was organizing intelligence in the library, and Shadow was squatting in a corner of the second-floor corridor wiping the black blood off his pants.

Everyone was extremely busy.

Only Nyarlathotep stood to the side and behind the throne, his bone staff resting at his feet, motionless.

Like a sculpture.

Jiang Luo bit into the candy, the crunching sound particularly clear in the empty hall.

"Nyarlathotep".

"exist."

"Lolo has something to ask you."

"Please speak, Master."

Jiang Luo didn't turn around. Her red eyes were fixed on the crack at the end of the hall that was repairing itself. Her voice was soft and sweet, as if she were talking about the weather.

"The stab you gave Lolo in the back a hundred years ago was pretty accurate."

Nyarlathotep did not respond.

The air in the hall fell silent for two seconds.

"You removed the castle's rules, and the spatial rift almost swallowed Lolo. Stella took the hit for Lolo."

Jiang Luo took the lollipop stick out of her mouth, turned it around, and threw it behind her.

The candy stick touched the front of Naya's suit jacket and bounced to the ground.

"Lolo almost died."

"Yes." Nyarlathotep's voice remained completely calm.

"Aren't you going to explain?"

"If the master wants an explanation, I will naturally do so."

"Then tell me."

Naya bent down to pick up the candy stick from the ground, placed it on the tip of her cane, and gently twisted it with her skeletal fingers.

"Has the master ever thought about this question?"

"What's the problem?"

Naya's emotionless voice echoed throughout the entire hall.

"What am I?"