[Vol. 8] Chapter 37: The Watcher Gets Watched
Just then, the two girls inside the barrier suddenly stopped walking.
One of them, a young girl with black hair and a white robe, gave off a faint, holy feeling with every movement, like a high-ranking priestess from a temple. She turned her head, and her silver-blue eyes looked straight at Flora through the mental link she was using to watch them. The girl smiled, a calm and slightly mocking smile, and moved her lips as if speaking softly.
What she mouthed made Flora’s heart turn cold with fear.
“You’ve watched long enough, haven’t you?”
“Eek!!!”
Before Flora could do anything out of shock, the blonde girl standing next to the first one suddenly lifted her smooth, long left leg, as if following an order. Then she slammed her bare foot down hard onto the ground.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!!!!
A huge, invisible shockwave burst downward with unstoppable force. The area around them shook violently, and the mother parasite let out a terrible, painful cry. The ceiling above Flora, made of flesh and blood, was instantly blown apart.
As bits of meat and tissue flew everywhere, the two beautiful figures slowly floated down from above like a dream or nightmare, landing gently on the ground again.
“Wh-Wh-Wh-What... how is this possible!?”
Just the pressure of that one strike, and the force of the air pushed by it, was so strong and terrifying that it knocked Flora to the ground. Even though she was a powerful warrior of the illusion butterfly race, strong enough to be at the beyond-legendary level, her face turned completely pale.
Trembling and stunned, she pointed at the two girls, trying hard to stand and get into a fighting stance. But no matter how much she tried, her legs were too weak and shaky to even hold her up. Her heart was beating three times faster than normal, causing sharp pain in her chest.
To make things worse, a strange feeling of shame and heat spread from her lower body without control, forming a small puddle on the flesh-covered ground below her.
Noticing Flora’s pitiful state, and possibly some other details, the black-haired girl let out a small “Hmm?” sound and turned to look at her companion with a helpless expression.
“Okay, okay. I told you just to use a little [Dragon’s Aura] to scare her a bit. You didn’t need to go that far, you literally scared the poor girl so bad she peed herself... She’s still a girl, after all. Kill if you must, but don’t humiliate.”
“Master, it’s not my fault. Her will was just too weak. I set the [Dragon’s Aura] based on how strong her energy felt. She looked like a legendary-level or so, but she’s clearly all show and no substance. Her mind collapsed with one hit. Her power must’ve been forced up with some outside help.”
“Hmm... is that so?”
Violet nodded and didn’t continue talking about it. She just ignored the illusion butterfly girl who had been secretly spying on them and who now sat on the ground, gasping for breath, completely pale and terrified.
Violet quietly looked around, taking in the entire scene:
There were bones and dead bodies everywhere. The wide, sealed space made of dark red flesh had a deep pit in the middle. From the walls and floor, a strong, corrosive acid was spreading out. It had already melted the hundreds of corpses nearby into broken, messy, and horrifying shapes.
It was now clear. This was where the “zombies” ended up after being swallowed, their real destination. The place where the girls had first arrived must’ve been an illusion meant to trick them.
Under normal conditions, with Xiao Guang’s control over spatial rifts, neither the undead monster nor this unknown woman should’ve been able to react so quickly. That meant this reaction was probably from some kind of passive ability instead.
The floor made of flesh and blood was in a strange semi-solid state. It could automatically recognize and sort targets, kind of like how ripples formed on the ground when that giant undead bug first appeared from beneath the training grounds.
Even she and Xiao Guang didn’t notice anything wrong at first. Was this some kind of special magic based on the laws of matter?
The laws of matter... that usually don’t have much to do with undead creatures. If that’s the case, then this insect must be connected to at least two different gods, or to two beings who have similar powers.
Things were more complicated than they looked.
The girl with butterfly-like wings and long antennae, who looked like she might be a distant relative of Tiyelu, was actually noticed by the priestess right away, from the moment her mental energy reached out. In fact, it was thanks to her making the first move that Violet was able to trace her back and discover that, deep under their feet, there was another hidden space.
But since there was a small chance this was a trap, she didn’t rush into action with the dragon girl. Instead, they pretended to be lost, wandering around the circular passage that had no clear end. Meanwhile, she secretly split off an avatar to scout the surroundings in every direction. Once everything was clearly mapped out, she finally made her move.
Looking back now, maybe she was a little too careful.
“Alright then, let’s get to the point. Who are you? Who do you work for? And what is this place used for? Better tell the truth, unless you’re in a hurry to suffer.”
“Eep!”
The two girls stepped closer with every word, while Flora, eyes filled with fear, scrambled backward on hands and feet, until she bumped into the dark red wall of flesh behind her. She had nowhere left to run.
Before this, she had imagined all kinds of ways to deal with them. Maybe using all her power to fight, maybe lying to confuse them, or maybe just staying silent and acting cold.
But now, with that golden-eyed girl staring at her like a beam of burning light, the terrified divine messenger could only gulp hard and squeeze out a smile that looked worse than crying.
“I-I… I’ll tell you everything! Please don’t kill me...”
………………………………………
Later that night, just after midnight, a tired-looking Frederica returned with several of her men and the imperial general, Raymond, to a temporary camp not far outside the fortress. There, she saw a certain priestess girl who had already come back earlier, looking like she hadn’t done anything at all.
“Oh~ You’re back?”
Violet hadn’t gone to sleep. She was sitting on a big rock at the edge of the forest, swinging her pale legs in the air while looking up at the moon. She didn’t seem tired at all. Turning her head with a smile, she waved at them and then hopped off the rock, casually walking up to Frederica.
“Judging by that gloomy face, I’m guessing you didn’t find that Behemoth chieftain?”
Seeing Violet, Frederica’s sour mood finally lightened a bit. She sighed and gave a helpless nod.
“Something like that. In short, one good news and one bad.”
She waved for the others to go get some rest. Then, she and Violet walked side by side back to the big rock.
“You were right. We searched all over the fortress all night, but we never found any sign of Chief Ternak. It looks like he’s not in the Ironridge Fortress at all. If we can’t get his help to negotiate… we might end up in a fight with the tribal alliance to break through.”
“Hmm... I see...”