"The method they use to communicate with Saints — what exactly is it like? How long does it take? Can it be disrupted?"
Hel's string of sharp questions left the Insect Princess completely dumbfounded. Clearly, the woman's understanding of the Witch's Palace came only from rumors.
"Well, since you don't know either," Hel sighed, "let's just go take a look for ourselves."
With a wave of her hand, several undead fruit flies appeared, ready to scatter toward the encampment — but before they could fly far, the Insect Princess caught her sleeve again.
"Lady Death, the beastmen have insect tamers. Using bugs to scout for information won't work well here."
"Can you detect the problem with these ones?" Hel asked, beckoning one of the fruit flies to hover in front of her companion.
The Insect Princess closed her eyes and concentrated. After a few seconds, she shook her head. "I can't sense them… but I'm certain the camp will have wide-range detection barriers — including anti-insect wards. Anything that enters those wards will be detected instantly."
"Ugh, great." Hel rubbed her temples. Nothing worked.
Who would have thought — she hadn't even reached the Beast Witch yet, and already, she was stuck figuring out how to sneak in.
"Forget it," she muttered, flopping onto the grass and staring up at the sky. "I'll just wait for the tunnel worm to dig through."
If the beastmen had been sending out scouts to monitor human activity, she could've slipped in among them. But she'd walked the entire Bloodstained Plains without seeing a single one. Clearly, the beastmen didn't care what happened out here anymore.
To them, humans invading beastman territory was a joke — it had never ended well. They'd already beaten humanity back behind the Watchwall; why bother sending anyone out now?
So, for the moment, Hel had only one workable plan: let the underground worms dig a tunnel beneath the encampment — about a hundred meters deep — and infiltrate from the rear.
Beastmen always guarded their front lines heavily, but the rear? Not so much. Once she surfaced, she could easily blend in — maybe as a supply worker or a messenger.
The only downside: it would take time.
"At the worm's speed, it should break through by tomorrow night," she murmured.
But as she said that, something flickered in the corner of her vision — a flock of black crows flying from the back of the beastman camp.
"Hmm? That's odd."
Her spiritual energy pulsed outward like a fine thread, darting into the crows' minds faster than lightning.
The next moment, the birds screeched and dropped like stones from the sky. But before they could hit the ground and splatter into a mess, a soft wave of psychic power caught them midair.
"Lady Death, what are you—"
"These creatures remind me of… an old acquaintance."
Hel's eyes glimmered faintly as she probed the crows' consciousness, invoking a trace of the Avian Witch's authority.
Fortunately, they weren't familiars — no binding sigils, no tracking arrays. That made her sigh in relief. For a moment, she'd feared that Yimshi had sent another avatar to meddle.
Then something else struck her — the crows had been flying above the detection field's range.
Which meant… she didn't have to wait for the tunnel worm at all. She could use the crows' flight path to bypass the wards entirely and slip straight into the camp's rear.
Without hesitation, Hel ordered one of the crows to take flight again, guiding it toward the back of the beastman camp. Through the link, she activated a necromantic summoning array etched into the crow's body.
A short while later, after a few complicated exchanges of magic, Hel materialized on the far side of the camp — alone.
This time, she hadn't brought the Insect Princess with her. The woman's soul was too tightly bound to Nikki; if she were discovered, the wrong people might start hunting for Nikki's whereabouts again.
"Now, I just need to wait for a supply convoy," Hel whispered, crouching low in the grass atop a small hill near the camp.
She covered herself with scattered weeds, watching the dirt road that led deeper into King Aira's domain.
She'd expected to wait days before getting a chance — but the very next morning, she spotted a girl riding a dire wolf, galloping out of the camp.
"That outfit…"
The girl wore a long black ceremonial robe — the unmistakable garb of the Witch's Palace.
"Could it be? A priestess from the Witch's Palace? What a coincidence…"
As the girl drew closer, Hel's eyes narrowed, scanning her aura.
"Only Tier Four? And indeed, she's a member of the Witch's Palace. In that case—don't blame me for being ruthless."
In the blink of an eye, Hel appeared behind the young priestess.
The girl barely had time to glance back before a cold hand seized the back of her neck. Her body froze — and her soul was yanked cleanly out of it.
With another wave, both the priestess and her wolf mount vanished into Hel's conditioning space.
A ripple spread through the air — and where Hel had stood, only a single confused undead fruit fly remained. Hel herself had already returned to her hidden position on the hill.
A breeze stirred the grass. To any onlooker, it was as if the priestess had never existed at all.
Meanwhile, far beneath Heim City, Hel's true body activated.
She summoned a physical vessel and placed a shimmering soul orb before her — the spirit of the captured priestess.
Hel frowned slightly. Soul-searching magic carried painful backlash, and she didn't enjoy using it. But this time, the intelligence was too important to pass up.
Still, she didn't plan to perform the spell herself. Instead, she took the soul orb and walked toward the Reincarnation Core.