The dark tunnel was filled with debris, and she could only continue by holding onto the walls.

Still, the physical weariness and the pain in her feet made Anna show a pained expression on her face.

Leaning against the wall, Anna rested for a moment, then raised the staff that emitted a faint light in her hand, trying to see the path ahead clearly, but unfortunately, the weak light was swallowed by the darkness.

"Sigh..."

Anna felt a bit disheartened and kicked some stones on the ground to create an open space to rest.

Not long ago, she and her team had discovered a ruin in a dark forest.

Since there were signs of collapse at the entrance, they could enter directly.

The goal of their mission was to investigate the anomaly to the south, so they carefully entered the ruin.

During the journey, they didn’t encounter many dangers but triggered a mechanism that caused Anna to be separated from the group.

“What bad luck... really bad luck…”

Perhaps to ease the fear in her heart, Anna kept talking.

“By the way, what happened with that young girl before? She did that to me. Even though she's just a girl, she shouldn’t do something like that…”

“Hm…”

“Or is it normal for girls to do this kind of thing, and I’m overthinking it?”

Since childhood, Anna had lived in a poor neighborhood and had no contact with high society.

Even now, as an apprentice priestess, her contacts were mostly with mercenaries and monster hunters.

Naturally, she didn’t know what habits those pampered young ladies had.

“The next time I meet her, I’ll have to talk to her about it, but how would she listen to what I say…”

“Ah… and that person we met earlier, has his curse been removed?”

“Sigh… When will I be like those high priests…”

“Or like a priestess? Hehe…”

With these thoughts, Anna couldn’t help but smile.

Then, she got up again and shook the dust from her clothes.

“Let’s get out of this awful place… Come on, Anna, you can do it!”

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Encouraged, Anna continued moving through the tunnel.

Even without knowing if the path ahead led to the depths of the earth or to the surface, if there was a path, she could only move forward!

It might have been an illusion, but the more she walked, instead of feeling more tired, she felt much more comfortable.

“No… this isn’t an illusion.”

Anna looked at the staff in her hand, and the light it emitted was indeed stronger.

This change made her a little more at ease.

If there were any monsters in the depths of the tunnel, the staff would definitely not produce such a change.

Such a change would only occur when there were strong particles of light element ahead.

Continuing the walk, perhaps she could find the light…

Thinking this, her steps quickened a little.

And the result did not disappoint her.

After turning at a possible fork, a faint fluorescent light appeared ahead.

Moving forward, the light around became sufficient that she no longer needed the staff to illuminate.

Anna finally saw the situation she was in.

The walls around were filled with marks of destruction, looking ready to collapse at any moment, and several magical inscriptions, some of which Anna had never seen before, were engraved on the broken walls, though most were illegible.

However, Anna noticed that these inscriptions were related to light.

Ahead, there were many crystals of different sizes emerging from the ground, and these crystals emitted a glow that illuminated the surrounding area.

But the real focus was in the center of these strange crystals.

When she looked there, she couldn’t help but take a few steps back, leaning against the wall, almost screaming.

—It was a cross, made of wood already quite deteriorated, but Anna didn’t think the cross would collapse because of the deterioration.

On the cross, a girl was nailed with her palms and soles pierced.

Her clothes were in tatters, and she seemed unable to resist, but she was still bound with some additional chains.

The strangest thing was that, although the girl, with light blue hair, seemed to have been there for a long time, her body showed no signs of atrophy, and there was no visible blood coming from the wounds.

She simply had her eyes closed, with a peaceful expression, as if she were just sleeping there.

What to do now?

Going back the same way wasn’t an option, the chances of finding her companions were minimal, and ahead seemed to be a dead end.

Only this strange girl was there...

No matter what she thought, as long as she didn’t want to stay here and wait for death, it seemed she could only take a step forward to check the girl’s condition.

With that in mind, Anna took a deep breath and carefully walked towards the girl, taking only a few very slow steps.

Fortunately, nothing unusual happened.

As she got closer to the girl, Anna saw more clearly.

The girl seemed to be only eight or nine years old.

Even after so long trapped there, her skin seemed to be in better condition than Anna’s, but she had no more breathing, indicating she was dead.

What to do now?

She never imagined she would face such a situation.

Anna hesitated, thinking if she should free the girl’s body from the cross.

Could it lead to some bad consequence?

During some hesitation, Anna extended her hand and was about to retract it, planning to take a closer look, perhaps find something.

However, at that moment, the girl unexpectedly opened her eyes!

Her blue eyes, bright as jewels, stared at Anna from a very close distance.

“Ah!”

The sudden opening of the "dead" girl’s eyes made Anna scream and step back two paces, stumbling over a stone and falling to the ground.

Observing Anna’s reaction, the girl tilted her head slightly, but showed no emotion.

The two stared at each other in a strange atmosphere for a moment, and Fisshill gradually began to calm down.

At least it seemed the girl wasn’t that dangerous.

“Er… ah…” Anna swallowed and said cautiously, “Hello?”

The girl did not respond, continuing to stare at her without blinking.

Being stared at like this made her a bit nervous, but she didn’t dare move at the moment.

What if the girl suddenly attacked her...

Suddenly, the girl spoke in a cold tone.

“You… who are you?”