Chapter 190 – Ground Crawler Sacred Beast
The move towards the imperial capital, which was supposed to be a pain, ended up being smooth sailing due to Eris’s ultra-wide sniping.
Myne was tense at one point, but now she already dropped that vigilance and was yawning.
We proceed while avoiding the corpses of monsters scattered on the devastated land.
Myne’s guidance led us to areas with a relatively sparse amount of monsters. But there’s one reason why we still ended up fighting a lot of monsters.
It’s Eris’ loud gunshot noise.
Unlike my black bow, the black bayonet left a fairly loud noise when used without suppression. That noise attracted monsters to investigate.
However, Eris seemed to be aware of such a situation, as she wiped out the monsters without showing any sign of exhaustion.
[Fai, how far is it until the imperial capital?]
[If I remember correctly, we’re probably halfway there]
[Is that so…]
Roxy then glanced at Eris.
[I think we are attracting more monsters as we go]
[Yes, I can feel it too through magic perception.]
[Even so… these ancient monsters were really persistent.
I wonder whether it’s because they’re hungry or something else.
But the monsters had been attacking us relentlessly.
[It’s strange that they kept coming. Normal monsters would’ve stopped some time ago.]
It’s as if they had no instinct to avoid someone stronger than them.
What their eyes tell was only the murderous intent toward humans.
[Myne, what do you think?]
[Just kill any who come at us. That’s all.]
That’s all… So very Myne to say that.
For now, there’s no magic power sign approaching us. Suffice to say there’s no imminent danger.
Before I knew it, Snow was tugging at my sleeve.
[Incoming.]
[What?]
I searched the surroundings with magic perception once more. Still nothing.
[Fight!]
Snow jumped to Roxy as she said that.
Not long after the ground where she used to be suddenly exploded.
[Again? And under our feet?]
Thanks to Snow’s warning, I was able to avoid the subsequent attacks.
[This guy… what!?]
It was almost transparent, but if one looks closely, it’s still slightly visible due to its skin refracting the light.
It’s still hard to eyeball its movement though. And magic perception did not detect it either.
[There!]
[I swung the black sword at it, but the blade simply passed through it.
[Kuh.]
So physical attack is ineffective? In that case, let’s add the fireball to the slash.
Flames bloomed with each of my slashes.
[What?]
It’s also useless.
Magic attack also passed through harmlessly.
Its transparent, slime-like body seemed to float toward me.
[Fai, come.]
Roxy, who had activated her angel mode, danced in the air and reached out to me.
We managed to escape for the time being.
[Thank you.]
[It is fine to experiment with your opponent, but please be more careful.]
[I will from now on.]
[Alright. But we are in trouble. That thing… according to Snow-chan’s memory, it is a sacred beast.]
[Physical and magical attacks didn’t work on it. What a troublesome fellow.]
[Just a moment, please.]
Roxy is now sharing consciousness with Snow.
Perhaps she has other information from Snow.
On the ground, Eris and Myne were struggling to contend with the sacred beast.
None of their attacks could hit it no matter what.
On the contrary, the enemy can attack us with its corrosive body.
Even Myne was frustrated by this.
Does it only materialize when its attack is about to connect?
Myne seemed to guess the same.
She’s now aiming to counter attack right when the opponent strikes.
The black axe was swinging.
But it merely hit the ground, causing a huge crater.
The transparent enemy suddenly contracted. The entire thing suddenly pulsed like a beating heart.
[Everyone, please move away from it!!]
Roxy warned us.
The enemy who stopped moving for a moment fired countless tentacles from all over the body at high speed as if exploding.
It extended not only to Myne and Eris, but also to us in the air.
Roxy skillfully used her two pairs of wings to dodge.
The tentacles kept looking to seal her path, but she flew around them again and again.
I’m not quite used to aerial battle yet, so the maneuvering made me dizzy.
The same thing happened on the ground. The two girls desperately dodged.
Myne had some room to spare. But Eris on the other hand was mostly a support fighter; her melee combat capability was definitely the lesser between the two.
I don’t know what would happen if the tentacle managed to grab any of us.
[Fai, additional information from Snow-chan. That creature is apparently one half of the sacred beast Gemini. There should be a pair of them.]
[How to defeat it?]
[….unfortunately, there is no info about that]
Why, of course. Nobody would willingly tell their weakness to another person. The same applied to the sacred beast.
Anyway, it should be a pair of beasts. And the one attacking us is just one half.
Then what about the other pair?
[Let’s quickly find the other one.]
[Better be quick.]
But how to find it? If the other half has the same ability, it should’ve attacked together with its pair.
So the reason why it didn’t, most likely is because it couldn’t.
I know Myne will be mad at me for this, but I think I have no choice but to rely on gluttony skill’s power. Not to mention that the taste of a sacred beast still lingered even up to now.
The gluttony skill had never been this satisfied before. So the sacred beast can forget about running away.
It must’ve tasted very delicious.
And now, more of them are here. Don’t you want to eat them too?
I can rely on gluttony skill enhanced sense of smell to track them.
The sacred beast scent that entered my nostril belonged to one half of Gemini, Libra, Snow… Dad in the far distance… and!?
[That is the direction of Imperial Capital. The other half of Gemini is in the imperial capital.]
[Are you sure?]
[If the gluttony skill’s sense of smell can be trusted, I believe it may have been sent here by Dad.]
We were running around and were pushed back in the opposite direction of the imperial capital.
The momentary impatience caused by the situation creates a slight gap.
The tentacles did not overlook and grew to completely block our escape.
[Roxy!]
It was a desperate moment…. But somehow, the tentacle stopped right before it reached us.
[That’s close.]
[It was close indeed. But why did it stop?]
[Perhaps we’re out of its range.]
The same thing was happening on the ground.
The tentacles responded immediately when I tried to stick my finger on its perimeter.
[Are you saying that it’s trying to prevent us from reaching the capital?]
I felt like this was Dad’s message for us.
Don’t get any closer if you want to live…
[What should we do, Fai?]
It seems that this one half of Gemini has the power to melt something it touches like slime.
Omega slimes that I fought a long time ago could be countered with corrosion magic, but mere magic won’t work on a sacred beast.
[To get to the Imperial Capital…]
There’s only one way that crosses my mind.
[Split into two groups. One group attracts this Gemini, and the other goes to the Imperial City to defeat the other Gemini.]
I landed back on the ground alongside Roxy. Myne and Eris were already waiting.
My suggestion received a nod from Myne.
[That’s the only way. It’s best to avoid it for now.]
[Then let’s decide on the group member. Myne, Roxy, I’ll have to ask you two to distract this gemini]
Mine and Roxy looked at each other.
This would be the first time they teamed up.
However, both of them were born warriors. They should be flexible enough to work together.
[Alright. I am just slightly salty that we cannot go to the imperial capital together.]
[Don’t overdo things… if you think that it’s impossible, don’t overdo it and just try to escape.]
And lastly, for the strike team… I’ll be teaming up with Eris.
[Can you go with me?]
[As you wish. You can even ditch me if you no longer need me.]
Her emotionless voice was lighter in inverse proportion to her words.
[Then, can I give you just one order?]
[Yes, certainly. Libra-sama has commanded me to obey your orders.]
[Then don’t die. Don’t die at all costs. Eris is not some object that can be ditched anytime.]
[I will do my best.]
The one half of Gemini was still sitting there.
Unmoving, but its presence was like a tall wall that blocked our path.
[Are you guys ready?]
I knew it… There’s no easy way. I have to devour it in order to win.
[Roxy and Myne will lure Gemini to the southeast. Eris, you’re banned from shooting the black bayonet until we arrive at the imperial capital. It’s so that we don’t attract unnecessary attention.]
I will have to rely on myself now. Cutting my way to the capital.
That’s just how it is.
For the first time in a long time, I tried pushing the limits of my Gluttony skills by eating monsters.
I could almost imagine the other me inside grinning evilly.