“Because of those bastards, we have already lost twelve mercenaries. If we can kill them, we should.”
Feeling that he had to answer, Evner spoke slowly while watching Kasion’s reaction.
“Yes, that is a good answer. If we can kill them, we should.”
His tone was strangely spiteful.
Seeing Kasion’s reaction, Evner realized that he had not given the right answer.
“I am sorry. I am too stupid to grasp your profound intentions, Captain.”
Evner knew how to humor Kasion. Only when Evner scratched the back of his head and looked embarrassed did Kasion finally begin to explain.
“You know that the Temple of the Wise Serpent has three Great Serpents, each equivalent to a High Priest. Green Serpent Beligan, Red Serpent Maderil, and White Serpent Remnus.”
“Yes, I know, Captain.”
“What would you do if the twins killed Beligan?”
“Well…….”
Evner could not answer again. Kasion did not wait, instead asking another question.
“What if they even kill Red Serpent Maderil?”
“If they are that strong, our strength will not be enough. We would have to borrow the power of White Serpent Remnus, but I have heard that even the Order does not know where Lord Remnus is. But Captain, do you think those little bastards are really that strong?”
“I have faced the one who uses Aura, so I know roughly how skilled he is. But I do not know what the one who handles mana is capable of. He is the one who killed the fraud in the temple, and he is also the one who stole the Sacred Relic, so he cannot be ordinary.”
Their unknown ability was not the only source of unease.
One used mana and the other used Aura, so they must have two Guides as well. Yet Kasion did not know who their Guides were or how skilled they might be.
He truly wanted to grind them up and drink them, but if he touched them carelessly, it felt as though he would be stirring up a hornet’s nest.
“As you say, what will you do if they harm Lord Maderil after Lord Beligan?”
Evner casually passed the question Kasion had asked him back to Kasion.
Even the Great Nobles could not treat Red Serpent Maderil lightly. If the twins were strong enough to defeat Maderil, even bringing the entire Kasion Mercenary Company would not be enough to dispose of them.
“If they harm even Red Serpent Maderil, what choice is there? Whatever it takes, I will make them mine.”
The Kasion Mercenary Company was an organization driven by profit. Kasion had come because its honor might suffer and its business be affected, not because he had any obligation to take losses for the sake of avenging the dead.
“Then I will first sell the information to Lord Maderil and decide what to do next according to the situation.”
“Your brain is finally working.”
Evner immediately called someone over and gave new orders for the mercenaries lying in ambush: do not fight the twins, only tail them.
‘I hope it ends with Beligan, but it does not seem likely…….’
Since Beligan had failed in his ambush and gathered every priest left in the city, the little mage seemed to be more skilled than Kasion had expected.
However, it was the one who used Aura that worried Kasion more.
‘For some reason, I feel as though we are going to get damn entangled.’
Those eyes that had glinted in the darkness like the Grim Reaper’s. He could not understand why a little bastard he had never seen before had looked at him with eyes brimming with resentment.
“It bothers me. It really bothers me.”
Kasion muttered to himself as he looked at the gloomy sky, which seemed ready to pour down rain at any moment.
***
While Kasion paid the bride price to Baron Buzoni, Ernolf and Kazar were gambling with their lives against Beligan in the armory of the Sarapi Imperial Army.
The moment Ernolf pulled the fine sword from the pedestal, the Seal Circuit hidden beneath the floor emitted a crimson light.
Gripping the Mana Chain, Ernolf was carried away in Kazar’s embrace.
“Run!”
“Do not let go of the sword!”
“Is that what matters right now?”
“Then what matters? Did you take it? I asked whether you took it!”
“My ears are going to fall off. I took it!”
Kazar and Ernolf were the sort of people who would grow thorns on their tongues if they went even a moment without arguing.
“Catch them!”
Beligan shouted as he ran after Kazar. Even before he could shout, the priests were firing black arrows at the two.
“Poison Mist!”
“Dark Arrow!”
Black, poison-laden mist wrapped around the two, and arrows carrying the energy of death pierced through the mist.
‘Did we hit them?’
The priests’ question was answered at once.
“You blockhead! I said left! Are your ears stopped up? Shall I pierce them open with this sword?”
“Fuck, is that your left or my left?”
“Your left!”
The bastards raced toward the narrow corridor, bellowing at the top of their lungs while shrouded in poison mist.
At the end of the rounded black poison mist, a beautiful sword glowing with silver light dangled like a tail.
“Th-those bastards!”
BOOM!
With a tremendous noise, the floor suddenly shook violently.
“Urgh.”
The priests swayed as they tried to keep their footing. A second tremor followed soon after.
BOOM!
The second rumble was greater than the first. The floor shook so violently that no one could stay standing, and one priest fell and braced himself against the floor.
“So that is why those bastards were lingering here. They were laying a trap!”
Beligan ground his teeth and began chasing the fleeing bastards.
The moment he kicked off the ground and leaped high, the floor split open with a sharp crack.
“What?!”
Light poured through the collapsing floor, dyeing the inside of the armory blood-red.
Then came an eerie roar.
“SKREEEEEEEE!”
A terrifying sound echoed, as though the roars of a rhinoceros, tiger, lion, leopard, elephant, and every other kind of beast had been combined.
CHOMP!
A crimson monster’s head burst from the collapsed floor and swallowed a priest in a single bite.
While it crunched and crunched the living priest in its jaws, dozens of legs flailed and hauled up its long body.
SLITHER, SLITHER, SLITHER.
Its glossy black body, gleaming as if it had been greased, kept emerging without end.
SLITHER! SLITHER!
When its head soon reached the ceiling, it curled its body around along the wall and crawled out of the hole.
“Dark Arrow!”
Barely standing between the collapsed floor and the corridor, the priests fired poison arrows at the monster.
The poison arrows pierced its carapace, but they were merely absorbed as though cotton were soaking up water. There was no reaction at all.
“SKREEEEEE!”
The monster let out an eerie roar, opened its mouth wide, and pounced on a priest.
CRUNCH!
It bit through the priest and the stone floor together, then slid along the corridor.
Beligan, who had quickly caught up, turned around and erected a powerful Shield.
The monster struck its head against the Shield, flinched for a moment, then rammed the Shield again.
The Shield was about to shatter. Beligan hastily cast another Shield.
“What came out?”
As Kazar ran up the narrow incline, he asked the question. Ernolf had his chest draped over Kazar’s shoulder and was looking back.
“Rex Gigantia! The Giant Venom Centipede!”
Kazar glanced back as he ran. Just as he had heard, a massive Giant Venom Centipede was fighting Beligan.
“Let’s get out of here while the muscle pig holds it back.”
“Wait a moment…….”
“Why?”
Their plan had been to use the confusion after the seal was broken to escape.
Ordinarily, Ernolf should have followed Kazar’s suggestion, but the situation had changed.
Ever since the monster trapped by the seal had emerged, the palm of his left hand, where the Beast King’s Heart was embedded, had been throbbing.
Ernolf opened his hand and showed Kazar. A small red light was swirling inside the Beast King’s Heart, which had looked like a black crystal.
“What is wrong with it?”
“It started doing this after that thing came out.”
Was it because a monster had appeared? Or specifically because Rex Gigantia had appeared? Ernolf wanted to confirm it.
“This is the perfect chance to escape. If we go back, we will have to face both the muscle pig and the Giant Venom Centipede.”
Kazar spoke. It was regrettable, but Ernolf agreed with him. To live a long life, one had to know one’s limits and recognize the right moment.
“You are right. Let’s go.”
The moment Ernolf agreed, Kazar whipped around and began running toward the monster. His actions were the complete opposite of the words he had just spoken. Ernolf shouted in a panic.
“I meant your front, not my front!”
“I know, fuck.”
“If you know, then why?!”
‘Why do you think?’ Kazar muttered inwardly.
“Because this is more fun!”
Actually, Tirad wanted to get to the bottom of the change in the Beast King’s Heart. However, Kazar was too embarrassed to say, ‘I’m doing this because you want to.’
‘I cannot believe I am getting worked up over something like that. A Giant Venom Centipede would have gone down in a single blow!’
Rex Gigantia was an intermediate-grade monster and, unlike low-grade monsters, possessed special abilities.
It had a carapace as hard as steel and was wrapped in deadly poison. It fired venom stingers from its twenty-two pairs of legs, and poisonous beams from the four eyes set crosswise in its head.
‘It is simple. Block the poison with Aura, split open its head with an Aura Blade, and destroy its core.’
Just because the method was simple did not mean carrying it out would be easy. It required Aura strong enough to block Rex Gigantia’s poison and attack power great enough to split its outer carapace in one strike and destroy the core inside its head. At present, that meant defeating it would be very difficult.
“Do you not have anything to say this time?”
Carrying Ernolf on his back, Kazar slid smoothly down the passage they had climbed.
“What are you saaaaying?!”
Ernolf shouted. His voice trembled like a goat’s as he strained not to fall off Kazar.
Hearing him, Kazar snickered.
“You acted like you knew something every time something popped out!”
Ernolf had just been about to say something, so he shouted awkwardly.
“Rex Gigantia is covered in deadly poison! And!”
“And what?”
“It absorbs poison! Poison attacks will only bolster its strength! Never use poison!”
“Fuck.”
The moment he heard that, Kazar scraped his heel against the floor and came to a stop. There were mechanisms in the corridor they had passed through that spewed poison. If they were driven back as far as there by Rex Gigantia, they would be in serious trouble.
Kazar set Ernolf down, drew the forearm-length dagger at his waist, and wrapped it in Aura. He leaned his upper body back, then forcefully bent forward.
“Hey, you idiot!”
The Aura-wrapped dagger flew toward Beligan’s back.
“What?!”
Beligan was holding one of Rex Gigantia’s pincer legs just beside its mouth. If he let go, he would be as good as dead, so he could not dodge the dagger.
THUNK!
With a powerful impact, Kazar’s dagger embedded itself in Beligan’s back. It would have bounced off in the past, but this time Shakim’s Ring was helping him.
“When I ask nicely, do not shoot poison.”
Beligan had not used poison, and Kazar had not asked nicely.
“You bastard, I will tear you apart right now…….”
With rage rising to the top of his head, Beligan turned toward Kazar as his muscles swelled as if they would burst.
“Get down!”
At Ernolf’s shout, Kazar swiftly ducked.
A green beam shot out from the front and collided with the Shield Ernolf had cast before Kazar.
“Aaaah!”
Unfortunately, no one gave a damn about Beligan, who was caught between them.
Beligan’s shoulder was pierced by the poison beam. As a result, he released Rex Gigantia’s pincer leg.
“Fire Bolt!”
Several small fireballs flew in and created a chain of explosions. Rex Gigantia, which had been about to pounce on Beligan, flinched and stepped half a pace back.
“Treat your wounds, Beligan, now!”
Why had the fleeing bastards come back and done this? And why were they giving him orders? Beligan understood none of it, but he first poured Healing Magic into the shoulder struck by the poison beam and retreated.
“There is no time. Choose: fight alone and be eaten by the monster, or join forces with us and take it down.”
Ernolf spoke as he threatened the monster with flames.
Beligan looked at Ernolf’s palm. The hungry Beast King’s Heart coveted the monster’s core.