"Zizi." Cassias’ calm and composed voice rang in her mind, soothing her slightly panicked state.

Even if they were celestial beasts, they didn’t have their previous power. The cliff was very deep. Once they arrived down there, they would suffer heavy injuries.

The injuries were another matter; she could heal them with her power. It was also not an instantaneous recovery. At least, they will take a while to fully recover.

However, the presence below wouldn’t wait. The zombie beast would surely shred them into pieces if they landed down in their weakened state.

They wouldn’t be able to fight back.

Her thoughts lasted only for a split second, interrupted by Cassias’ words.

A fox couldn’t fly, but a dragon could! She hurriedly grasped the rope that had tied her parents together, telling them to shift to their foxes form while holding on to the ropes.

As if they had one mind, even without Cassias telling her, she already knew what he wanted to do. And she quickly went to execute it.

After she sensed that her parents had turned into their fox forms, she pulled them into her inner space. Cassias had his dragon wings ready and he carried her in a princess style.

She shredded the ropes into pieces.

Cassias flew steadily, heading toward the abyss below. They sensed several presence in the fog; the people who had gone down first.

The ability users huddled together. Light couldn’t get through the fog at all, so everything was dark. As though they didn’t want to provoke the monster, they stayed quiet.

Only their labored breaths filled the narrow path.

When Cassias landed on the ground, Zerra went down from his arms. The people around drew a gasp. They both could feel the people’s fear, as palpable as the thick fog.

The ability users might not have expected that the situation would be this scary, no light and the presence of an unknown monster was looming like a shadow.

Unfortunately, it was the mission from the base, and once they stepped into the fog, there was no going back.

"Miss Zerra? Mr. Cassias?" They heard a hoarse voice. The woman brought by Anita. "We are on this side, follow my voice."

They glanced at each other, and Cassias took her hand, whispering slightly. "In case you might stumble on something because of the darkness."

Zerra’s lip twitched. She wouldn’t stumble because her senses were quite strong, but still, she didn’t refuse.

They both strode toward the voice. Now that they became closer with the group, they finally saw everyone. Some people heaved a sigh of relief after seeing them both.

It must have been unsettling, not knowing what kind of creature was heading toward them every time they heard a noise.

The place became quiet again after they joined, no one spoke. They all waited for the next batch of people to come. Zerra guessed that there would be no more people. Ashley, seeing a familiar person, stayed close to both of them.

For a long time, there were no more people coming down.

"Miss Zerra, are you and Mr. Cassias the last batch? No more people?" The woman’s hoarse voice echoed again after a while.

Zerra’s eyes flashed. She blinked, full of innocence. "I don’t know..."

Everyone’s eyes seemed to change, each harboring suspicion. They just realized there was something odd with Zerra and Cassias’ situation. Usually, there will be four people in each batch.

"Then, it seems that there will be no more people." The woman decided.

The ability users were full of turmoil. The mission leader didn’t even come down yet.

"But, Miss," someone interjected. "The mission leader..."

The black-robed woman stared at the person, making her feel intimidated. A few seconds later, she withdrew her gaze. "Alright, wait a little longer."

They waited. This time, doubtful glances occasionally landed on Zerra and Cassias. Even so, no one dared to open their mouths to ask them again.

The time passed excruciatingly slow.

"It’s time. The longer we wait, the more dangerous it is." The woman finally spoke, taking the role of a leader. "Follow me."

They started walking, following the black-robed woman whose name was still unknown. However, because of her power, they all unhesitatingly followed her.

Zerra became thoughtful. Since the ropes were gone, how would all of them go back to the land above? Although they deliberately plotted against her and her family, they wouldn’t be so ruthless as to abandon so many high-level ability users, right?

She couldn’t really fathom their motive.

This black-robed woman is also too strange. There was a familiar feeling about her, yet she couldn’t put her finger on it.

The more they walked, the thinner the fog became. Soon, they arrived in a clearing. It was some kind of valley, filled with thick vegetation. They could even see some mutated plants on either side of the walls.

"Where is the monster?" Someone asked, gulping nervously.

They no longer harbored much hope when they found out less number of people had gone down than they initially thought.

When someone had brought it up during the time they walked here, the black-robed woman’s answer made them unsettled. She said, "They might have met something there."

The implication was unclear, and everyone had their own thoughts. Most of them instantly thought of the worst possible scenario—they had met their demise there.

Currently, everyone was looking around alertly, looking for any signs of a mutated animal, which was the kind of monster they conjured in their minds. The kind of place they were on was the perfect location for mutated animals’ breeding ground, after all.

The black–robed woman didn’t answer.

Suddenly, the fog around them thickened, but it was still a little thinner than the fog in the location where they had landed. The situation made them grow more and more unsettled. Fortunately, the range of sight was still decent.

As if it was some kind of invitation, not long after the person uttered their question, they heard a hissing, raspy sound. Their hearts tightened.

One noise, like an echo, soon turned into many noises.

The land sky above became dark. Everyone was startled, and they subconsciously looked over. As a result, they saw the sight that made them draw a cold breath.

A few birds, vultures, circled the air. There were dozens of them, each of them radiating ferocity. The most frightening thing was that the number wasn’t only a few dozen. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

They kept increasing until they covered the sky above them, circling the air in a threatening manner.

Zerra’s face grew serious, and Cassias’ hand tightened his grip on her. They noticed that the vultures circling the air weren’t mutant beasts, but zombie beasts...

The kind that would pounce as soon as they saw fresh meat.

Their expressions became grave. The base didn’t give much specific about what kind of creature they would face. There were only assumptions. They didn’t expect that there would be so many.

Even with the strength of all the people here, it might not be enough to defeat all the zombie birds. The birds had the advantage of numbers.

Soon, one of the vultures swooped down, biting into an unsuspecting ability user who had been paralyzed by fear. With one vulture leading down, others followed.

"Fight! Why are you all just standing there like a fool!" Zerra couldn’t help but curse.

She no longer cared about them and went to deal with the flock of vultures flying toward her. There was a pitchfork in her right hand and the whip in the other.

Everyone was roused by her words. They immediately get into their fighting stance. However, they soon discovered that the vultures were hard to kill. They all still ended up getting bitten no matter how hard they tried to evade.

With a lot of effort, most of them only killed one, and the rest couldn’t even kill any.

Zerra and Cassias killed the most. Zerra used her whip to slash and pitchfork to stab a few vultures at once. Cassias was more straightforward, using his lightning ability to turn them into charred rotten meat or his dragon fire power to roast them.

They fought for a long time until their energy was depleted. More and more people fell, dying because of the vultures.

Even if Zerra and Cassias wanted to help, they couldn’t. They also had their hands full; the vultures kept on coming like ocean waves. They were just endless.

If this continued, there might be no one who could survive this calamity.

Suddenly, a hoarse laugh echoed among the raspy sounds of the vultures. It was the black-robed woman. Her laugh was loud, magically still transmitted over despite so many vultures making noises at once.

Soon, her laugh turned hysterical. The ability users were frightened when they saw her like this.

Zerra hadn’t paid attention before, but now that she did, she could see that the vultures didn’t attack her. The woman’s laugh morphed into a noise similar to a strangled dog.

"Zerra, you never expected there would be such a day for you, did you?"

Her laughter stopped. Her voice was clear and normal. She pulled down the cloth covering the lower half of her face, revealing a familiar appearance.