The Horrificator, formed by Mylène's Akumatization, walked into the basement—which had already been converted into a "cocoon chamber"—with heavy steps that belied its miniature size.
Its Rose-red and deep purple skin reflected an unsettling glimmer under the dim light.
Several tentacle-like tails extended flexibly from its back, wrapping around three struggling figures at their ends—Chloé, Sabrina, and Kagami.
It tossed the three people into three empty, half-finished cocoons as if they were trash.
Then, it opened its mouth and sprayed several streams of thick, pink-purple liquid, completely sealing the openings of the cocoons.
Having finished all this, it turned and walked with small steps toward the depths of the basement, as if it had only completed a trivial task.
"Ugh—is this thing's drool poisonous?"
Chloé's voice, full of disdain and disgust, came from inside the cocoon. "And! That was so rude! How dare it treat me like this!"
Complaining, she instinctively reached for her phone to call the increasingly inefficient Hawk Moth and demand an explanation for what was happening.
However, the moment she moved, Sabrina's voice, hushed and slightly trembling, came from the neighboring cocoon containing Sabrina: "Chloé... keep your voice down... I... I can hear you..."
The implication was that if she could hear her, then the classmates she usually looked down upon in the other cocoons could also hear everything clearly.
Chloé's sharp hearing immediately caught Sabrina's warning.
The hand she was about to use to message Hawk Moth froze in mid-air.
She checked her phone and, sure enough, there was absolutely no signal.
Moreover, she couldn't do anything to the monster right now. After all, who knew how many classmates were trapped in this basement.
If she were to shout out something she shouldn't and expose her "secret Alix," the loss would outweigh the gain.
Weighing the pros and cons, she had no choice but to swallow her anger for the time being and reluctantly remain in her "private room."
Inside her own cocoon, Sabrina listened for a moment. When she realized Chloé had gone quiet, she knew Chloé had understood her hint.
Feeling relieved, she obediently stayed in her cocoon, not daring to make another sound.
Soon after silence returned to the basement, two agile figures leaped in from the entrance.
Ladybug and Cat Noir had finally followed the deliberately left trail of footprints to this location.
Alya, Alix, Rose, and Juleka, meanwhile, obediently remained upstairs. They knew that at a time like this, the greatest help they could offer was not to cause trouble for the heroes.
"Whoa..."
Cat Noir looked at the scene before him, which resembled an alien hive, and exclaimed sincerely, "This place... is totally awesome! Which art director designed this? Good taste!"
Ladybug ignored his banter. She immediately raised her voice and called out loudly, "Classmates! Are you here? Can anyone answer me?"
Her voice, like a stone dropped into stagnant water, instantly provoked a chorus of responses.
"Ladybug! We're here!"
"We're all fine! We're just trapped!"
"The heroes are here! We're saved!"
The teachers and students inside the cocoons cheered, relieved to have survived the ordeal.
Amidst these voices, Ladybug did not hear the one she most wanted to hear.
Her heart tightened, and she pressed on: "Where is Jaden? Has anyone seen where Jaden is?"
"No..."
"We called out just now, but there was no response..."
"Could that monster just now... have taken him somewhere deeper?"
The voices of Nathan and Marc came from one of the cocoons, filled with worry.
"What?!"
Upon hearing this possibility, Ladybug immediately panicked, instinctively wanting to rush into the depths of the basement.
"Hey, calm down, Ladybug."
Cat Noir, standing nearby, spoke up promptly.
"Now is not the time to be so reckless." Although he was equally worried about Jaden's safety, as a hero, he knew that the more critical the moment, the calmer he needed to be.
He continued, feigning ease, "If you shout like that, won't you just let the hidden Akumatized Person discover us? Don't forget, we are here to 'rescue people,' not to 'throw ourselves into the fray.'"
Ladybug calmed down after his reminder. She took a deep breath and said to Cat Noir, "You're right.
But don't you think it's strange? The footprints I found earlier were clearly left intentionally, almost as if they were meant to lead us here."
"Intentionally?"
Cat Noir felt something was wrong when he heard this.
What Akumatized Person would be so kind as to leave signposts for the heroes?
He immediately looked around warily, but apart from the dense clusters of cocoons in the basement, he couldn't see any trace of a living creature.
Ladybug was equally puzzled.
The trap had been set, and the prey had walked in, but why was the hunter still refusing to show itself?
Just then, Cat Noir suddenly let out a short gasp: "Ah!"
Ladybug looked over at the sound, only to see Cat Noir's body being lifted high into the air by a pink-purple tentacle that had suddenly shot out from the shadow of the ceiling!
Following the direction of the tentacle, she finally spotted the Akumatized Person who had been hiding in the shadows!
The Horrificator held Cat Noir in the air, spun him around twice like a shot put, and then violently flung him away.
Cat Noir flexibly adjusted his posture in the air, used his feet to push off the slime-covered wall, performed a graceful backflip, and landed elegantly on the ground.
"Hey! How dare you ambush the handsome Cat Noir!"
He stabilized himself, raised the metal staff in his hand, and actively charged toward the small monster.
Ladybug reacted immediately as well, her yo-yo whistling through the air as it headed straight for the monster's face.
However, although the Horrificator was small, its movements were incredibly agile.
Like a slippery loach, it always managed to dodge the duo's attacks at the last second, using unbelievable angles.
At the same time, the several tail-like tentacles on its back, like venomous snakes, continuously counterattacked from tricky angles, forcing the two heroes to divert their attention to dodging.
For a moment, the two-on-one situation was deadlocked.
"What the heck is going on!"
After barely dodging a tentacle whip, Cat Noir couldn't help but complain, "This little monster doesn't look big, so how are its strength and agility so high? What did it eat?!"
Ladybug remained silent, focusing only on her attacks.
Every time she swung her yo-yo, she tried to anticipate the opponent's movement, but each time, it was neutralized by the monster's illogical evasive maneuvers.
During the stalemate, the Horrificator seized an opening, and a tentacle lashed out like a whip, striking Cat Noir hard on the chest.
Cat Noir grunted, was sent flying again, and crashed heavily into a cocoon.
Ladybug was also forced back by the combined attack of the other tentacles, dodging to the side.
The loud fighting sounds and Cat Noir's robust complaining echoing through the basement naturally caused panic and fear among the classmates trapped in the cocoons.
Although they couldn't see what was happening outside, just hearing the sounds allowed them to imagine the intensity of the battle.
This pure, heartfelt terror seemed to be directly extracted by a mysterious force through some invisible channel and continuously transferred to the Horrificator.
"Hey, Ladybug, look!" Cat Noir, who had just scrambled to his feet, pointed at the monster ahead and shouted in surprise.
The previously small Horrificator was rapidly inflating and growing, as if it were being pumped full of air. In the blink of an eye, it became a true "monster," over two meters tall.
"This thing... can grow bigger?"
Cat Noir muttered a complaint but still charged forward with his staff raised.
The enlarged Horrificator had significantly increased strength and speed.
It roared and immediately sprayed a large stream of thick purple slime from its mouth.
Cat Noir couldn't dodge in time and was grazed on the arm by the slime. It felt as if he had been stuck with super glue, and his movements slowed considerably.
He had to retreat awkwardly to the side, trying to clean the slime off himself while continuously complaining, "This thing is disgusting!"
Ladybug was much more experienced.
Facing the spraying slime, she spun her yo-yo at high speed like a shield, blocking all the sticky substance.
But just as she blocked the frontal attack, the monster's massive tail swept in from the side, forcing her to leap backward and dodge to the side.
However, a strange thing happened.
The enlarged Horrificator did not press its advantage. Instead, it stopped, its body trembling violently as if trying hard to suppress something.
Immediately afterward, its recently inflated massive body began to shrink rapidly at a visible speed, ultimately returning to its original small size.
"What in the world?"
Cat Noir stared at the scene, completely baffled.
"What the hell is this thing doing? Wasn't getting bigger super powerful? Why did it shrink back down?"
He felt that the enlarged Horrificator had increased its intimidation factor and actual combat power by more than one level.
Yet now, it had voluntarily given up that power.
Ladybug's eyes were also filled with confusion. But she sensed that this Akumatized Person was different from any she had faced before.
The hostages it captured, its bizarre growth and shrinking, and... Jaden, whose whereabouts were still unknown.
All of this made her feel like she was vaguely grasping something, but the thought flashed away like a wisp of smoke, too fast for her to catch.
"I don't know what it's trying to do,"
Ladybug said in a deep voice, "But we need to defeat it quickly now and rescue our classmates!"
Meanwhile, in his lair in another dimension, Hawk Moth was also perplexed watching the battle footage transmitted via the mental link.
He saw the Horrificator voluntarily give up the chance to become stronger and shrink its body, which was utterly incomprehensible.
But he was too far away to intervene and could only continue watching the battle helplessly.
The battle continued for a while longer, and both sides were starting to get winded.
Just then, a faint "crack" sound, similar to shattering glass, suddenly came from the deeper darkness of the basement.
Hearing this sound, the Horrificator, which was entangled with the two heroes, suddenly froze, as if responding to a summons.
It abandoned its two opponents and rushed recklessly toward the source of the sound.
Even though Hawk Moth frantically urged it in its mind, commanding it to defeat Ladybug and Cat Noir first, it ignored him.
"Hey! It ran away!" Cat Noir was momentarily stunned.
But Ladybug had already given chase! Her intuition told her that place must be related to Jaden!
Seeing this, Cat Noir quickly followed suit.
The two followed the Horrificator, arriving at the deepest part of the basement.
Here, a single, massive Main Cocoon, much larger than all the others, was placed.
And on the surface of that enormous cocoon, several distinct cracks had appeared!
Through the gaps in the cracks, a figure struggling in pain seemed visible, and muffled moans, as if coming from the depths of the soul, emanated outward.
The Horrificator stood next to the large cocoon, anxiously, even affectionately.
Its strange face actually showed an expression of worry.
Without hesitation, it plunged its soft tentacles deep into the large cocoon, as if transferring some kind of power into it.
As the power was transferred, its already small body shrank yet again and looked exceptionally weak.
After it finished transferring the power, the massive Main Cocoon gradually quieted down.
The cracks on the cocoon's surface were slowly repaired by a new layer of slime, restoring it to its original state.
At this moment, the two heroes arrived on the scene. They saw the extremely weak Akumatized Person and the massive Main Cocoon in the center, which emitted an ominous aura.
"That must be Jaden inside!"
Ladybug watched this scene, becoming even more certain of her guess.
"This Akumatized Person must be someone very close to Jaden!
She doesn't want to hurt anyone; everything she did—capturing people, gathering energy—was to provide power to Jaden!
She... she wants to undergo Akumatization alongside Jaden, or rather, she is laying the groundwork for Jaden's Akumatization!"
Cat Noir, using his cat-like, acute senses, clearly perceived a familiar yet dangerous aura emanating from the massive Main Cocoon—it was Jaden's aura, but mixed with a dense, nearly uncontrollable dark energy.
"No! We have to get him out immediately!"
Cat Noir stopped hesitating. He focused all his power into his right hand, the one wearing the ring, which now glowed with a destructive green light.
"Cataclysm!"
He shouted, and the destructive claw energy swung straight toward the massive Main Cocoon!