From the very beginning, Wuxian had never intended to cooperate with anyone after entering the Divine Domain.
Part of that was simple confidence. He had always believed he was strong enough to walk alone.
The rest came from the weight on his shoulders. With all of Dragon Nation watching him, with the hopes of an entire nation pressing down on him, even going to rescue Fahai had felt less like a choice and more like something he had to do. In his view, strength had always been tied to responsibility. The stronger you were, the more you were expected to bear.
But Adrian Vale was different.
Adrian's very existence was a challenge.
The aura around him was unmistakable—that of an apex predator. He carried himself like someone who could crush anything in front of him and never once care what the rest of the world thought. Yet when Raven Shaw was truly in danger, Adrian would move without the slightest hesitation, without the slightest calculation, as though, in that instant, nothing else in the world mattered.
That contradiction made him difficult to understand.
And impossible to ignore.
For the first time in his life, Wuxian found himself genuinely interested in following someone farther, just to see where that person's path would end.
That, perhaps, was the strangest thing about this mismatched team.
On the surface, they looked like people who never should have been able to work together.
And yet, for reasons none of them could fully explain, they did.
Raven had felt it before anyone else.
There was something about Adrian that made people want to move closer to him, to unconsciously fall into step with him, even while every rational instinct screamed that he was dangerous.
It was as though his strength cast a shadow so vast that anyone beneath it would inevitably begin to rely on him.
Not because he asked for it.
But because his existence itself made it feel unavoidable.
At the same time, on the other side of the livestreams, Eddie Brock—still bound tightly by Medusa's snake-hair restraints—had already learned the latest bad news from Miracle Nation's frantic viewers.
"Hey! Magneto! Joker!" he shouted. "Dragon Nation's people are already inside!"
Venom's tone was unusually grave. "If we still don't stand together now, then the moment they find us trapped in here, they'll finish us off without hesitation."
If Dragon Nation's group caught them weakened inside Medusa's lair, then forget competing over resources.
At that point, Miracle Nation would be fortunate just to keep its lives.
Because once Adrian got close enough—
the chances of dying without even leaving behind a corpse would rise sharply.
The moment Magneto heard that, the metal around him surged violently.
Sharp steel edges snapped outward. With one brutal sweep, he severed the giant snakes coiling around Eddie and Venom, freeing them at last.
The instant they hit the ground, Eddie sucked in a sharp breath and barked, "If your powers were already back, why didn't you use them sooner?"
"Don't tell me you were really planning to die in here!"
Venom, naturally, didn't trust him either.
"I don't believe for a second that you suddenly had a change of heart."
Magneto's face was dark, his voice even colder.
"Enough."
"Whether it's Dragon Nation, Medusa, or the people screaming outside, none of that matters right now."
"If you want to live, shut your mouths and move."
The Miracle Nation audience exploded the instant he said that.
"Damn, Magneto finally snapped!"
"Hahaha! I never thought I'd see the day when he'd be the sane one in this team!"
"Venom and Eddie never stop yapping. Put them beside Magneto and it turns into a comedy show."
"Honestly, if they want to survive, they really do need to shut up."
On the livestream, Joker was still smiling.
Blood dripped from his clothes. Bits of snake flesh still clung to his hands. His laughter echoed unnaturally through the cavern.
And yet, even he had stopped provoking Medusa for the moment.
Because no matter how mad he was, he understood one thing very clearly:
If Dragon Nation's team arrived while Medusa was still active, then this cave would turn into a complete battlefield.
And if Miracle Nation failed to withdraw before that happened, they would become prey from both sides.
Outside the cave, Adrian's group had already reached the deepest stretch of the tunnel.
"It's pitch-black in here," Raven said, her voice taut. "Stay sharp."
The deeper they went, the less natural the darkness felt.
This was not merely the absence of light.
It was a heavy, sticky darkness, as though the cave itself were trying to swallow their sense of direction whole.
Raven's eyes flicked across the overlay. Dragon Nation's viewers were already flooding it with warnings.
"Miracle Nation's team already retreated!"
"Medusa is still inside!"
"Do not make fire!"
"Do NOT create a light source!"
At first, Raven didn't understand why the warnings were so specific.
Then—
something slid across her arm.
Cold.
Wet.
Alive.
Her entire body went rigid.
"What was that?!"
She turned instantly, blade already moving.
But she cut only empty air.
"What's in here?" she snapped. "I can't see a damned thing!"
As she spoke, she dragged her weapon hard against the cavern wall, sending a burst of sparks scraping into the darkness.
For one heartbeat, the tiny flare was enough to sketch the outline of the cave—
Then Adrian's hand shot out and slammed her weapon aside.
The sparks died at once.
Darkness swallowed everything again.
Raven's temper flared immediately.
"Adrian! What are you doing?"
"If you knock that away again, I swear I'll set the whole cave on fire myself!"
Her anger was real. They were blind in here. Blind, exposed, and moving toward an unseen enemy.
But Adrian's reply was colder still.
"There can't be any light in here."
"The people before us already left."
"If the thing in this cave didn't become their resource, then it means it has a kill condition."
"And that condition is almost certainly tied to light."
The instant he said it, Wang Ye's eyes sharpened.
He had remained silent until now, but he spoke at once.
"That's right."
Before anyone else could respond, Wang Ye continued calmly, his voice steady despite the oppressive dark.
"Think about it. Since we entered, we've heard movement, breathing, sliding, even the sound of something enormous shifting against the walls."
"But it hasn't attacked us."
"That means it's waiting."
"It doesn't need to rush us. It just needs us to make the wrong move."
Raven's breathing eased by a fraction.
Fahai folded his hands and nodded.
"So the trigger is illumination."
Wang Ye said, "Exactly."
"If this is Medusa's lair, then it makes perfect sense."
"In total darkness, it can track us while we can't properly perceive it. The moment we create enough light to see its face, that's probably when the real trap begins."
The livestream instantly exploded.
"As expected of Wang Ye!"
"Wudang's genius strikes again!"
"He figured it out that fast?!"
"This is why having a calm brain matters!"
"Having Wang Ye on the team is like carrying around a live strategy guide!"
"Raven nearly triggered the kill condition!"
Inside the cave, even Wuxian gave Wang Ye a brief, appreciative glance.
The explanation was sound.
More importantly, it fit the atmosphere of this place perfectly.
The cave fell silent again.
Too silent.
Then, from somewhere deeper in the darkness, the sound came once more:
Hiss... hiss... hiss...
Closer this time.
Raven tightened her grip on her blade.
Fahai's feet shifted slightly, settling into stance despite the cramped space.
Zhang Zhiwei remained calm, but faint arcs of tightly restrained lightning were already dancing around his fingers.
Wuxian floated motionless, his presence sinking into complete stillness.
And Adrian?
Adrian's red eye gleamed in the dark.
He looked less tense than the others.
Less cautious.
Almost interested.
Like a hunter who had finally found the entrance to the beast's den.
Outside, Dragon Nation's viewers were already laughing again in relief.
"Wang Ye really saved them there."
"One wrong spark and they might've all turned to stone."
"This lineup is disgusting. Adrian has the killing power, Wang Ye has the brain, Wuxian controls the field, and the others cover everything else."
"It's over for whoever runs into Dragon Nation now."
But inside the cave, no one dared relax.
Because the danger had not vanished.
If anything—
now that they understood the rules, the thing lurking in the darkness had become even more terrifying.
Something shifted ahead.
Long.
Heavy.
Silent in all the wrong ways.
And just as everyone braced themselves for what was coming next—
a voice rang out from the depths of the cavern.
Cold.
Female.
And filled with murderous delight.
"So…"
"Another group of men has come to die."
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