Fairy tale: Little Red Riding Hood's wolf mentor

"You're saying, the place you went to can only be accessed now?"

Poro and Lake followed Gretel down a spiral staircase. The walls on either side of the steps began to change color slowly, the cream and cheese plastered on them gradually receding to reveal smooth, gray-black stone.

"Yes, that grandma said that if I go at any other time, I'll be discovered..."

Gretel nodded. The current time was the same time Gretel had visited yesterday.

Footsteps echoed in the narrow stairwell.

Crystals protruded from the walls on both sides.

Poro's eyes flickered. He could tell that these were some extremely special and rare magic crystals, and their use was for magic arrays not recorded in the Queen's notes.

Discovered? Discovered by whom?

Poro was slightly puzzled by what Gretel said. Under the influence of hunger, the scene before him looked like a mix of colors—

But it was precisely because of this that they could see this downward passage.

Even awakened saints were not qualified to enter these covering mazes.

But Poro already had a guess in his mind.

"Clatter—"

Footsteps landed on a more solid ground.

Poro calculated the position, roughly at... the very bottom of this candy castle, a stone cave completely devoid of food.

Who exactly is being held here?

As soon as Poro and Lake stepped onto the ground, they focused their eyes on the tall, burning stove in the center of the room.

Golden flames fluttered out of it.

Poro and Lake recognized that the flames were identical to the fire in the stove in the hidden kitchen!

"That old grandma is inside this big... stove!"

Gretel said softly.

"Inside the stove?!"

Poro and Lake were both stunned. They didn't know how Gretel had discovered it.

They exchanged glances and walked towards the stove step by step.

Stepping over the dancing flames, they saw the scene inside.

A small table with some old-looking books neatly arranged on it. Next to the table was a crystal chair engraved with runes.

Sitting on the chair was an old man with silver hair.

"Sorry, both of you. It's been many years since I've had guests here."

The old man turned to look at Lake and Poro, the wrinkles on his face narrowed into a smile, "I have some difficulty moving around, so I can't get up to greet you. Please forgive me."

Without explanation, Poro and Lake could see the reason for the old man's "difficulty in moving around."

A dozen slender iron chains were nailed into the old silver-haired man's hunched body. These chains pierced into the old man's back, and the other ends extended to the top of the surrounding stove.

Golden fire extended from the old man's back, along the iron chains, to the entire inside of the stove.

The flames danced like butterflies, spiraling upwards.

Invisible flames were guided towards the candy castle far above.

"May I ask who you are..."

Poro and Lake asked cautiously. No matter who the person in front of them was, she must have a great relationship with the secrets of this candy castle.

"You can call me Karen. I can sense that this young lady has something of mine on her."

The old man smiled slightly. She tremblingly raised her hand with thick knuckles and pointed to Lake's pocket.

"Your... thing?"

Lake was stunned, her bright eyes widened, and she instantly thought of something. She reached into her side pocket and pulled out the red ribbon that the old soldier had given her earlier.

"Yes, that's it. I remember giving it to a brave soldier back then."

Hearing these words, Lake and Poro realized the identity of the old man in front of them...

"Ms. Karen, are you... the real angel?!"

The old man smiled when she heard this and said:

"Ah, it seems he told you, which saves me a lot of explanation."

With that, the old man's silver-white hair moved without wind, a dim halo appeared above her head, and snow-white feathers emerged from nothing behind her.

It was a pair of illusory wings.

Only then did Poro notice that the chains that he had previously thought pierced the old man's back were actually piercing through these wings, and the golden light was drawn away from the pierced wounds by the magic arrays on the chains.

"Your wings, do you... hurt?"

Lake opened her eyes wide and wanted to touch the chains, but still looked at the old man and said.

"It's nothing. This pain is only on the physical body. I got used to it a long time ago."

The old man shook her head, and those inhuman characteristics disappeared.

She was still an ordinary white-haired old man.

"A long time ago, the owner of this castle deceived me."

The old man's eyes sank slightly, and she sighed, "She told me that she wanted to use my power, combined with her magic, to create a paradise on earth. I believed her.

But I was wrong.

The price was that I was imprisoned here by her.

She stole my power, for... only her own selfish desires."

The old man seemed to see some hesitation in Poro and didn't say much, "You broke through the illusion she placed on the castle through hunger, right?

According to what this young lady said, you should also have mastered some magic?

I don't know how much of the truth you have seen, but I will tell you some secrets about this castle. I don't need you to believe me immediately.

But you can see for yourselves.

Of course, if you feel dangerous, it's okay to leave here. If possible, I would like to ask you to spread the truth here as much as possible—

I don't want to see more people becoming moths flying towards the light!"

Poro and Lake looked at each other, and then Poro nodded and looked at the old man again:

"We will help you, if... what you tell us is indeed the 'truth'."

"Thank you."

The old man lowered her head slightly, her eyes reflecting the dancing golden flames in the stove,

"First of all, what I want to tell you is that the owner of this castle, the person who locked me here, the person who covered the magic to the entire Fertile Plain, was once called—

The Gluttonous Witch."

……

Candy Castle, top floor.

A staircase hidden under magic.

"11:42 AM."

Looking at the angle of the sunlight revealed by the window on the other side of the floor, Poro closed the pocket watch in his hand and slowly walked up the stairs, enduring the hunger.

The surrounding candies and delicacies were distorted like swirling oil paints.

Without mastering the corresponding magic, only people on the verge of starvation can see through the Gluttonous Witch's magic maze.

"Also, a gap of three minutes and twenty-two seconds..."

Poro thought about what the old angel Karen said and climbed to the highest floor.

The surrounding transparent colored sugar glass was dazzling in the midday sun. Looking past the window, Poro saw the undulating houses of Sweet City around the Candy Castle and the slowly rising smoke from the chimneys.

"Huff..."

Poro didn't spend too much time. He knew that time was still passing.

In the hidden top floor of this Candy Castle, Poro looked at the house in front of him. The crystal on the door was shining, a special magic lock.

Poro took a deep breath and took out a feather from his pocket.

Then, Poro recited a short string of spells. His magic light was wrapped around the feather, merging with the white light that rose from the feather, and probed towards the magic lock on the door.

This lock was not difficult, and Poro could unlock it with his current level of magic.

The only difficulty was...

The key magic used to unlock it needed to carry a trace of "aura" from an angel.

Poro entered the room, which contained a lot of food.

Some of them looked like they had been eaten and still emitted some inexplicable magic light. Further inside, the room also contained some magical materials of unknown use.

Several books were placed vertically on a bookshelf on one side.

Like the Queen, there are very few witches who own a room full of notes.

After all, magic is not like cabbage on the street.

And the adaptability of most magic to experience, mentality, and soul is an even harder threshold.

This kind of difficulty in reproduction makes most casters above a certain level...

Still mastering the magic they created themselves.

Not this one.

Poro quickly flipped through it, put the notebook back in place, and took out another book.

After quickly scanning a few pages of the text, Poro came to the conclusion:

It's this one!

Although it is not complete, it is still a record of the Gluttonous Witch's own magic practice.

There is no title, but the overall content can be summarized as...

《Candy House Magic Construction》

The content includes the Gluttonous Witch's use and combination of various candy magic, and the design of the entire Candy Castle.

The structure of the Candy Castle, the location of the maze, and the magic circuit planning for various candies.

It also includes simple identity magic imprints.

To be precise, it is the effect of the so-called awakened saint with a numbered holy emblem.

This book alone contains a lot of information.

That is, the complex calculations, magic link, and other knowledge in magic. No one can absolutely read such a book in a short time!

Therefore, Poro had already prepared a countermeasure before coming.

The pages were turned in his hand at a speed of one page every few seconds.

The memory given by [Spiral Beacon: Sage] allows Poro to reach the level of "photographic memory" under overload.

Of course, this is more like injecting the text into the brain in a rigid way.

It can be said that Poro is like a human camera at this time.

Two minutes and one second...

One minute and thirty seconds...

One minute and one second...

Thirty seconds...

"Pa—"

Poro quickly closed the notebook as soon as the last thirty seconds arrived.

Although there were still a few pages that had not been memorized, after quickly flipping through them, Poro determined that those parts were harmless existences.

"It's time."

Poro put the book back in place and ran back the way he came as quickly as possible.

To face the person who stole the angel's power and covered the magic over the entire plain...

The chance of victory, or rather survival, can be said to be slim to none!