Chapter 1 The Devil's Forest There was a giant one, at least two meters tall...
In the dead of night, thick fog rolled in, and suddenly, a series of hurried footsteps echoed through the silent Devil's Forest.
A young woman dressed in a nun's habit is running desperately through a thicket of thorns.
Clearly, she had been trapped in the thorn bushes for some time before this. Her white robe was already tattered, the sharp thorns that filled the bushes tore at her clothes and, with her constant running, further cut her skin.
The blood stained the pure white nun's robes, making them stand out conspicuously.
After nearly tripping over her nun's robe again, Catherine realized that the excessively long skirt would only hinder her movement. She decisively tore off the part below the mid-thigh and threw it on the ground.
Taking advantage of the cover of night, she glanced back hastily, only to see that the damned man-eating flower was still relentlessly chasing after her.
In the Devil's Forest, humans, who are at the bottom of the food chain, are rarely seen—not to mention that Catherine is not particularly powerful even among the human race.
Clearly, the sweet and delicious aroma of the food had driven the man-eating flower, which had been starving for months, to irrationality. So even after chasing it for a long time, it still couldn't bear to give up.
Catherine cursed under her breath, but dared not slow her escape due to exhaustion.
She felt that she must have already entered the depths of the Devil's Forest.
Although she had been fortunate enough not to encounter any new predators besides the carnivorous plants on her journey so far, the deeper into the Devil's Forest, the more dangerous it became. Catherine couldn't be confident that the rest of the journey would be as smooth as before.
Because of the night, the fog in the forest was even thicker, making it impossible to see anything even fifty meters away. Relentlessly pursued by the carnivorous plants, Catherine had no choice but to run deeper into the forest in a panic.
However, after running a few hundred meters further, she felt her movements begin to slow down. Each step forward was met with immense resistance, and this was clearly not just because her strength was running out.
When she had exhausted all her strength and could no longer take another step, Catherine stopped, panting heavily.
Only then did she suddenly realize how unusually quiet it was around her.
Even the cawing of crows, which sounded like a death knell, had stopped at some point, and for a moment the air was so quiet that only the sound of one's own breathing could be heard.
Oh no, there's also the carnivorous plant that's chasing after me.
She swallowed hard and turned her head, forced to watch the carnivorous flower, only a few dozen meters away, draw ever closer. A foul, yellowish sap dripped continuously from between its petals, and the stench made Catherine's face contort in disgust.
She thought that this might be the saliva produced by its craving for "delicious food"—in her eyes, the plant's digestive juices were no different from saliva.
Catherine's heart pounded, and despair inevitably rose within her.
Perhaps her life would end at this moment. Catherine suddenly felt a sense of absurdity and ridiculousness.
She's so young!
Although she had secretly done many things against the Vatican's will that were forbidden by doctrine... but! At least she had been a nun for the Lord for seven years.
His merits and demerits cancel each other out, and he shouldn't have died so young in the mouth of a monster.
But she was too weak, pitifully weak even among the human race. If it weren't for the protection of the Holy See, she might have died seven years ago at the hands of those fat, pig-like nobles because of her excessive weakness and beauty that shouldn't have appeared in the slums.
And now, it's just that death has been delayed once again.
But suddenly, the carnivorous plant stopped when it was only thirty or forty meters away from her.
At such close range, it could easily have grabbed its prey and devoured her with its thorny vines, but it stopped.
Catherine could even see that all its petals were trembling slightly, while at this moment, the surroundings were shrouded in thick fog, and not a single breeze could penetrate the embrace of the fog and blow into the Devil's Forest.
After a long time, or perhaps only a few minutes, the darkness interfered with Catherine's sense of time, and she saw the carnivorous plant move again.
However, it didn't open its foul-smelling mouth to devour her as she had imagined; instead, it slowly retreated.
After retreating to what it considered a safe distance, the carnivorous plant began to withdraw from the dangerous area very quickly, even faster than when it had been chasing it.
Catherine took a deep breath.
God! This is not a good sign.
The only thing that could easily make the carnivorous plant that had been chasing her for so long retreat is an even more ferocious predator.
Her luck had never been good. Otherwise, she wouldn't have been chosen from among hundreds of nuns to be thrown into the Devil's Forest as a sacrifice to the Tree God. Clearly, her bad luck had struck again.
Catherine turned her head to the side and looked at her wrist, which was covered with a transparent sticky substance that had somehow gotten on it.
The mucus had little taste and little weight, otherwise she wouldn't have only now belatedly noticed it.
But it was too late. Catherine felt a tremor coming from somewhere far to her right, anxiously awaiting her judgment.
Soon, a huge gray shadow appeared in the thick fog. It moved very fast, and even faster.
A few seconds later, the first thing Catherine saw was a sharp blade cutting through the thick fog, its grayish-white color gleaming blindingly in the darkness.
Catherine didn't know what it was at first, until its true form slowly emerged from the thick fog, at which point her face turned deathly pale.
That was a giant alien spider, a full two meters tall!
As it drew closer, Catherine felt her heart pounding faster and faster in her chest, until it felt as if it were about to leap out of her throat.
She involuntarily held her breath, looking at the huge creature so close to her with a mixture of fear and awe.
Catherine didn't want to look away, but the excessive tension had clouded her mind, and she had no thought of escaping.
Once it got close enough to her, the spider lowered its body. Only then did Catherine notice that above the giant spider's abdomen was the upper body of a human man.
Although it sounds very strange, the connection is actually surprisingly perfect, just like a creature created by the Creator.
He was very close to her, so Catherine could see that he had dark red pupils, which gave his gaze a strong sense of desire—a desire for food.
Deep down, Catherine hoped that this was just her imagination.
Catherine stared intently at the spider, not daring to look away, while secretly trying to break free from the spider silk binding her.
However, perhaps because the spider silk wasn't from an ordinary spider, it was exceptionally sticky and strong. No matter how hard she pulled, she couldn't remove it from her arm. To make matters worse, she also had to be mindful of the alien spider in front of her, forcing her to move extremely slowly.
While she was still struggling with the spider silk, the alien spider suddenly made a move. An expression of excitement appeared on its face almost abruptly, and it bent down towards her calves.
Catherine looked down as he did so, only then noticing the cut on her leg, a large area that was almost a bloody mess.
She knew the allure of blood to wild beasts without even experiencing it herself.
Her nerves tensed to the limit, but her mind uncontrollably recalled the scattered body parts along the roadside during her escape through the Devil's Forest. Among them were animal parts, and intermittently, human remains would also appear.
But what they had in common was that they were all gnawed beyond recognition—oh! Only God knew why such a hellish image lingered in her mind. She swore to the archbishop that she hadn't even looked in that direction while running!
Staring at the alien spider's drooping head, Catherine seemed to feel pain, but the next second, it seemed to be just pain she imagined because she was too nervous.
But in any case, Catherine knew she didn't want to die in such a painful way.
When her nerves were stretched to the limit, she seemed to feel the ground trembling... No! The ground seemed to be really shaking!
The branches of the surrounding trees trembled to a certain extent, as if they were afraid of this new outsider.
The alien spider abruptly raised its head, looking in the direction from which the tremor had come. It paused for a few seconds, as if sensing the scent carried by the air.
Judging from the tremors, it must have been a massive creature comparable to an alien spider. And since it was unfazed by the scent of the spider's territory and dared to continue approaching, it meant that the newcomer was at least capable of fighting this spider.
A few seconds later, the alien spider suddenly swung up Catherine and held her in its arms, its eight sharp legs running rapidly across the ground.
Although Catherine had never ridden a horse before, she was certain that the alien spider could run at a speed that even the fastest thoroughbred warhorse could not catch up with at all costs.
Catherine was bound by the spider's arms. The jolting caused by the excessive speed tousled her hair and made her fear that she would fall to the ground at any moment.
She instinctively grabbed the spider's arm, the only "fixture" she could touch in mid-air.
Although the upper half of the alien spider's body resembled that of a human, its excessively cold body temperature and marble-like skin made Catherine clearly aware that she was currently trapped in a non-human embrace.
Reason told her she needed to stay alert to defend herself against potential dangers.
But whether it was because of the prolonged tension or the hypnotic poison of the thorns that had cut her earlier, she felt her mind growing increasingly hazy, to the point that everything before her eyes seemed to have doubled over.
Finally, her eyelids closed uncontrollably, and her consciousness sank into a blackness filled with blurry light and shadow.
A note from the author:
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Started a new project!
This is the draft editor, and I'll be here with you all until the very end! Please take good care of me!
——————The following is a list of thank-you notes——————
Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants with nutrient solution during the period of filling in the gaps in my manuscript~2025-08-28 12:00:00~
Thank you to the little angel who threw the landmine: Huanxiya (3);
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Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
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