The empty vial of the antidote fell into the black sludge.
Lilith took a deep breath and fixed her ice-blue eyes on the man across from her, kneeling on one knee and panting heavily.
Aren.
There was no trace of his clean, untouchable state in the lobby.
His black, dragon-embroidered robe was slathered in mud, some parts of the fabric were torn and just beginning to try to repair themselves.
The man's shoulders were rising and falling, the hand holding the sword was trembling.
From the outside, he looked like a man who had greatly surpassed his limits, standing only by his will.
Days ago.
The Crimson Forest was literally the physical manifestation of hell for Lilith.
The black ash constantly raining from the sky and that sulfurous, heavy air that burned the lungs were at a level that could make an ordinary person sick in minutes.
But for Lilith, the situation was much more critical. She was a natural-born 'Child of Ice'. Her element was the complete opposite of this scorching environment, this volcanic ecosystem.
From the very first second she stepped into the forest, her body had instinctively begun to use her mana like a shield to survive.
There was an invisible, thin layer of cold mana over her skin. This protected her, but at the same time, it constantly leaked her mana drop by drop, like a bucket with a hole in the bottom.
The first days were an absolute nightmare.
During the day, she had fought fire-spitting lava lizards and wild dogs with skin burning like embers.
The ice skills she used while fighting were half as weak as normal due to the immense heat of the forest.
At night, she took shelter among the roots of the massive charred trees, enclosed herself with a thin wall of ice, tried to sleep, and exerted a superhuman effort to replenish her mana.
'I wonder how my family is doing... I hope they are well...'
'No matter what, I will find my family! They are definitely healthy and safe!'
As tears streamed down Lilith's eyes, she thought about the horror she was experiencing and the time that had passed. In the end, no matter how strong she was, she was a young girl.
She violently rejected this reality she was suddenly thrown into, but she thought she had somehow adapted to this environment very well.
Lilith was always superior to other people.
She had been exceedingly athletic since childhood. Despite her frail build, she was stronger and more durable than boys. She had come first in every exam she had taken since her first day of school.
Despite all this 'superiority', thanks to her strong will, she had chosen to be a kind and humble person.
Until the 'system' arrived. Lilith, who hadn't even hurt an ant before, was forced to kill people with the arrival of the system.
She thought she would feel terrible the first time she killed someone, but she had actually felt nothing.
This scared her.
Lilith's superior will and mind protected her against all conditions.
That was the kind of person Lilith was.
A strange event occurred in the following days.
Deep within the Crimson Forest, there was a massive explosion that shook the earth and sky. The shockwave was felt even by Lilith, who was miles away.
Succumbing to her curiosity, Lilith had cautiously approached that area hours later.
At the center of the explosion, she found a massive crater made of molten rock. But what truly froze her wasn't the crater itself.
It was the corpses of three people lying among the trees right at the edge of the crater.
One was a man whose skull was shattered with a single blunt blow. The man's eyes, popped out of their sockets, were hanging down from his head.
The other was someone whose throat had been cleanly slit. The crimson blood flowing from his throat had practically turned into a lake.
And the last one...
A skinny man whose severed arm had been thrown meters away, and his head separated from his torso with a single blow. His severed head had frozen with an expression full of terror.
Whatever created that scene of brutality, be it a wild monster or a demon disguised as a human, was roaming free in the forest.
The days passed slowly.
Lilith was advancing silently among the gray, sickly-looking trees, holding her white ice sword.
She was tired, but she hadn't broken that noble and sharp her posture. Her ice-blue eyes were careful enough to watch the movement of every single speck of ash around her.
Suddenly, her steps stopped.
Amidst the howling of the wind, she heard a light, rhythmic metallic click. Someone was twirling a knife between their fingers.
"You don't need to hide." Lilith said, her voice as cold and sharp as the winter wind. She raised her ice sword slightly.
"Show yourself."
A voice was heard from the bushes.
"Calm down, I didn't come to fight."
A figure appeared from the shadows. He was wearing a black hoodie. His face was covered in scars like a map. That thin, psychopathic smirk hung on his lips. In his right hand, he was twirling a rusty dagger.
Lilith recognized him immediately. That strange, unstable boy sitting alone in the corner of the hotel lobby playing with his dagger.
"What do you want?" Lilith said.
'This person might have killed those men. It's best to be careful.' Lilith thought.
A freezing vapor was rising from the tip of her sword. She didn't trust the person in front of her in the slightest.
The young man raised his hands in a peaceful gesture, but that disturbing smile didn't fade from his face.
"Like I said, my intentions are friendly. In fact, I came to you with a job offer you can't refuse." the young man said, slowly taking a few steps closer.
"You know, this forest is too ruthless to survive alone. It hasn't been long since we arrived, but I've returned from death dozens of times. I assume it's the same for you, isn't it?"
"Get to the point." Lilith snapped.
She didn't want to waste her mana unnecessarily.
The young man shrugged. "I just want to be allies with you. That's all. I even prepared a little gift for you to prove my sincerity. Even if you don't accept my offer, this is yours." he said and threw a rolled-up piece of paper toward Lilith.
The paper roll fell at Lilith's feet.
"This is a map. A map of the Crimson Forest."
"So where did you find the map?" Lilith asked.
Her voice was as cold as ice and calm.
"My mom gave it to me." the young man said without hesitation.
"Your mom? Are you kidding me?" Lilith said, beginning to get angry.
The young man didn't answer.
Without taking her eyes off the young man in front of her, Lilith slowly bent down and picked up the map. She opened the roll with her left hand and quickly skimmed it.
The map was truly detailed.
'It looks like it was just drawn. It's most likely fake. But it's still worth checking. Maybe he has a special skill, and that's how he was able to draw the map.' Lilith thought.
She tossed the map into her storage pouch.
The smirk on the young man's face widened. "Then we have a deal?"
"No." Lilith said, her voice at absolute zero.
The smirk on the young man's face cracked and fell like a mask made of glass. His eyes began to twitch wildly.
"What are you doing? I gave you a gift. Are you retarded?"
Without giving Lilith a chance to answer, he continued speaking frantically.
"But my mom used to say that giving gifts to women would please them."
The young man's scar-filled face twitched with anger.
With an unexpected, deadly speed, the rusty dagger in his hand traced a flawless arc aiming directly at Lilith's neck.
There wasn't the slightest sign of panic in Lilith's ice-blue eyes. Raising her sword in a fraction of a second, she cut off the dagger's path.
The shrill sound born from the collision of metal and ice echoed among the dead trees.
Despite the young man's slender build, his physical strength was immense. The force of the collision forced Lilith to slide a step back.
'His agility and strength are not bad. Also, that rusty dagger looks dangerous.' Lilith thought.
The young man didn't stop.
"You are one of the 'Bad Girls' my mom mentioned, and bad girls must be punished!" the young man shouted, his voice fluctuating in a hysterical tone as if he was crying one moment and laughing the next.
'He looks like he's lost his mind.'
Like a broken machine, he began to stab his dagger from every angle, one after another. Lilith met every blow with her sword.
The young man suddenly dropped low, aiming his dagger with unexpected flexibility at the unarmored gap behind Lilith's kneecap.
Lilith dodged this deadly blow by doing an agile backflip. However, the young man's free hand lunged forward like a claw and grazed the edge of Lilith's blue armor.
Lilith took a deep breath.
The sulfurous air filling her lungs wasn't helping her at all, but the focus in her mind was flawless.
The ice-blue gleam in her eyes intensified.
Instead of retreating and staying on the defensive, she suddenly lunged forward, directly at the young man.
This unexpected assault surprised the young man for a moment.
While swinging her sword horizontally toward the young man's chest, Lilith simultaneously touched the volcanic soil with her left hand. Without a second thought, she released a portion of the mana she possessed.
"Ice Trap."
The mud beneath the young man's feet reached absolute zero and froze. The young man's feet were trapped in the ice.
"What?!"
This one-second opening was enough for Lilith.
The tip of her sword tore the young man's black hoodie and opened a thin but deep cut on his chest.
Lilith's mana seeped in through the wound; the freezing cold penetrated the young man's veins, slowing his blood flow.
The young man jumped back, hissing with pain and shock. He looked at the cut on his chest. His blood wasn't flowing, it was freezing instantly. That manic expression on his face faded; it was replaced by a pure, animalistic survival instinct. His eyes scanned his surroundings frantically. There was not a shred of mercy in the eyes of this woman before him, only a killing intent that wanted to crush him like a bug.
His instincts screamed at him that he would lose if this fight dragged on.
"You... You hurt me!" he squealed in a childish but spiteful voice. And right after that, he began to cry like a little child.
He reached into his pocket with his left hand and threw a small, black, marble-sized sphere right at Lilith's feet.
The sphere exploded the moment it hit the ground. A heavy, tear-inducing, and acidic black smoke spread around, overpowering even the smell of sulfur.
"This isn't over here, Bad Girl! My mom was right, I shouldn't trust anyone!"
The young man's voice echoed among the dead trees, rapidly distancing itself within the black smoke, and disappeared.
Covering her mouth with one hand, Lilith coughed as she emerged from the smoke. The poisonous gas had burned her eyes and constricted her breathing.
She looked around carefully, thoroughly scanning the surroundings to make sure the man was really gone before lowering her sword.
He wasn't there.
"What was that?" she said.
Lilith set off again.
This part of the forest looked even more sickly.
Right at that moment, she felt the air around her grow heavy.
The wind stopped. Even the fall of volcanic ashes seemed to hang in the air for a moment.
Lilith's instincts sounded an alarm. She quickly leaped backward.
The place where she stood seconds ago was shattered by a massive, black mass. Mud spurted meters into the air.
Standing before her was a five-meter-tall creature made entirely of obsidian.
Its right arm was a massive scythe resembling the scythe of death. A purple, nauseating gas was leaking from the fissures in its ribcage.
Her sixth sense screamed at her that this creature's level was much higher than hers.
The following minutes were an absolute life-or-death struggle for Lilith.
Every time the massive scythe was swung, Lilith dodged by a hair's breadth, trying to stab her sword into the creature whenever she found an opening. However, every time her ice sword struck the skin, it only sparked, unable to leave even the slightest scratch.
'It's too hard.' Lilith thought.