"It's gone," Chloe said, stepping aside as the beam of light illuminated the end of the stone tablet.
A large section was missing, with several distinct, massive teeth marks remaining on the edges, as if something had fiercely gnawed on it.
"Damn it!" Tarak cursed in frustration, the most exciting part of the story abruptly cut off.
"But… what kind of beast's tooth marks are these?" Chloe raised an eyebrow vigilantly, her gloved fingertip carefully touching the grotesque marks. "They're still fresh… And what could bite through this kind of stone?"
"Maybe… a giant capybara? But I guess it's a howler monkey…" Tarak guessed absently, "Those beasts like to grind their teeth on things like this when they're in heat."
"Howler monkeys… grinding their teeth on stone?" Chloe raised an eyebrow, her tone full of doubt. She sighed lightly, raising her camera to carefully photograph the tablet's contents. "Even with some damage, this stone tablet is still priceless. It's a pity we can't take it back for further study."
She cast a final, regretful glance at the stone tablet before continuing deeper with Tarak.
As their footsteps and light disappeared around the corner of the passage, a nearby shadow silently rippled.
A strand of long, snow-white hair, like moonlight, slid out of the darkness, and sharp, bone-white fangs, like daggers, were faintly visible at the corners of her slightly parted lips.
This was precisely Serie's Mad Eater Witch incarnation.
"You're the howler monkey… Your whole family are howler monkeys in heat," Serie muttered resentfully in her mind.
She stared at their retreating figures, having previously wondered what "Now, you are awakened by intruders…" in the Mad Eater Witch's background meant.
Now she saw, there really were intruders.
According to the information in the background story, the "demon of the Queen's contract" that Chloe translated should be the Mad Eater Witch.
She hadn't expected there to be such a secret history.
But unfortunately… the most crucial part…
What on earth did that Mayan Queen want to do, running to the Mad Eater Witch's lair in the middle of the night?!
The brawny man named Tarak was noisy and timid, quite annoying, but Serie's feeling of regret, as if ants were crawling, was exactly like his.
It was just that there was nothing she could do; those bite marks were caused by Serie's Mad Eater Witch.
Having the story she wanted to hear gnawed away by herself, Serie could only consider herself unlucky.
However, since Chloe said it was priceless… Serie came before the stone tablet.
Her eyes locked onto the broken black stone tablet.
Gulp…
Eating a bite is eating…
Eating it all is also eating…
So what are you waiting for?!
Serie, like a ghost pouncing on its prey, came before the stone tablet.
She didn't even bother to bend down, directly opening her mouth, revealing sharp fangs that gleamed with a bone-white chill, and aimed them at the stone tablet—
Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!
The ancient stone tablet, hard as iron, emitted a grating, shattering sound under her sharp teeth, which could gnaw through rock.
Large chunks of inscribed stone, like crisp biscuits, were easily bitten into her mouth and chewed to pieces.
[Mad Eater Witch used Wasteful Devour on "Ancient Mayan Secret Script Stone Tablet (Damaged)"]
[Obtained 7 Devouring Layers]
[Current Gluttony Count: 1269]
[Agility F → Agility F+]
["Knowledge" + 3%]
["Knowledge" current progress 14%, upon completion will gain ability "Millennium Wisdom"]
Serie licked the stone dust remaining at the corners of her mouth, still wanting more.
Chloe was right, this stone tablet truly had more "value" than ordinary stone.
But for Serie, it was nutritional value.
Having eaten her fill, Serie once again melted into the shadows, continuing to follow behind Chloe and Tarak.
What drove her to follow was, on one hand, the exploration of this body's past and its lair.
On the other hand… this damned tomb was like a labyrinth.
If she had to find her own way out, she really wouldn't know where the exit was.
Ahead, Chloe's headlamp beam rested on a new mural, continuing to decipher that dark history:
"However, the demon's desires were insatiable… First it sought delicacies, then it plundered cattle and sheep… until… it devoured all living beings in the city…" Her voice carried a trace of heaviness. "The royal capital… became almost a realm of death, with no one left for a hundred li… Yet the Queen remained infatuated with power, her mind completely clouded…"
The mural depicted a horrifying scene of the Queen prostrating herself and offering sacrifices before a shadowy silhouette.
This information was largely consistent with what Serie knew.
"Tsk tsk," Tarak smacked his lips, pointing his flashlight beam at the gruesome scene of the Queen's sacrifice on the mural, his face full of disdain and incredulity. "If you ask me, this Queen was probably drugged by that demon, and her brain was sacrificed too, huh?"
"In the royal city, the people are gone, the cattle and sheep are gone, even the rats should have been gnawed clean, right? It's a complete ghost town!" He shook his head: "In this state, she's still eagerly offering sacrifices to that monster?"
"What for? For its good appetite? Or for it not bathing?"
"This isn't a Queen; she's clearly a simp."
Chloe didn't respond. Her expression was solemn, her headlamp beam fixed intently on the Queen's fanatical and vacant face in the mural.
A moment later, Chloe's beam shifted to the next painting: "Until a group of holders of spear appeared…"
"To protect the common people, to eliminate the Outliers, they rose up in unity."
On the mural, a group of agile warriors with resolute eyes stood side by side, their long spears like a forest, pointing directly into the darkness.
Above their heads, a simple yet highly stylized hourglass-shaped symbol was carved.
It was called an hourglass, but the main body was actually a vertically standing "∞" infinity symbol, only shaped like an hourglass.
The center of the symbol was divided by a heavy black horizontal bar, and at the very bottom of the symbol, a circle of fine, ant-leg-like, unclear black inscriptions encircled it.
"The heroes severely wounded the demon… However, at its wits' end… it actually devoured the foolish Queen who worshipped it, using her body… transforming into human form, its demonic might soaring!" The mural clearly depicted that terrifying scene.
The shadow swallowed the elegantly dressed Queen, then transformed into a white-haired girl with only a terrifying gaping mouth on her face.
Just like the carving outside!
"The demoness, in human form, slaughtered all around… Blood dyed the city, just to force out the hidden heroes."
"She succeeded," Chloe continued. "The heroes reappeared and finally defeated her again, and her remnants are forever sealed here…"
"That's… that's it?" Tarak, who had been listening intently, was like a duck with its neck squeezed, his face full of unfulfilled desire and disbelief. "That's it? An epic battle that decided the fate of humanity is just glossed over with a flimsy 'defeated again'?"
"There isn't even a battle scene? How did these guys with spears manage to take down and bury a monster that could swallow a Queen whole?" He couldn't help but complain, "Chloe, your storytelling skills are wasted if you don't go to a kindergarten to lull children to sleep."
Serie came to her senses. So it was this group of holders of spear who sealed the Mad Eater Witch here.
Ignoring Tarak's chatter, Chloe spread her hands helplessly, her flashlight sweeping over the smooth rock wall at the end of the mural.
"Yes, this time it's really gone."