TEOCH 85

KABOOM—!

Perhaps due to the magic wielded by the Human Centipede, a thick, dark red fog, sticky and clotted like lumps of blood, settled on the ground and enveloped the area around the defensive barrier. I could not tell what this fog was made of, but it was clear that it was at least an explosive substance, because every time a blood-red lightning bolt struck the ground with a loud thunderclap, the fog would react to it and cause a chain reaction of explosions. The power of the lightning itself was formidable, but the chain of explosions that occurred was so loud it was enough to make one lose their mind.

The ground of the island, protected by the defensive barrier, was safe from the explosions, but the island’s trees outside the barrier’s influence were all blown away, caught in the blasts. Considering the scale, if it were not for the defensive barrier, the entire island might have been swept away by the explosion. It was certainly a power worthy of being called an instant-death skill.

Just the vibrations transmitted from beyond the barrier were enough to make it impossible for us to stand properly. Unable to withstand the shock, I collapsed right where I stood, and my other companions also either fell on their rears or sprawled on the ground, panting for breath with difficulty. Damian, who had to maintain the spell, was barely standing by leaning on his staff, but his slender body also looked precarious, as if it would collapse to the floor at any moment.

—Are you okay?

“Right now, in this state, there’s no way I’m okay…….”

A warm body heat covered my back as I crouched on the floor, almost prostrate. It was Charon’s wing. Charon seemed almost unaffected by this commotion and was glaring up at the sky. Leaning on her wing, I painstakingly pushed myself up. I looked up at the sky as well, wondering if I could see anything, but the outside was all dark red, as if we had entered the internal organs of a living creature. It seemed that only Charon’s eyes could see the situation outside.

Feeling like I would throw up if I looked outside any longer, I forced my gaze away from the outside and checked on the condition of my other companions. Thanks to the level-up earlier, everyone was in good condition, but leveling up did not completely heal injuries. I looked over everyone’s wounds and let out a worried sigh.

Still, the explosions outside were beginning to subside. The dark red fog that acted as a detonator had thinned considerably, and the lightning bolts that had been striking the ground from the sky were also gradually disappearing. This took a full 20 minutes.

Once the dark red fog had completely vanished, Damian dispelled the defensive barrier. In the sky that Charon had been glaring at until just a moment ago, a rather displeased-looking Human Centipede was floating. Its mandible was clacking ferociously, making an unpleasant sound, and its inorganic red eyes were shining, filled with anger. The target that monster was glaring at was.

—You interfered with me…….

—Interfered? Do you call stopping you when you’re causing a ruckus in someone else’s territory interference? What in the world is this?

Charon stood in front of us, blocking the way, and glared at the Human Centipede. The monster huffed and puffed, expressing its anger, and Charon questioned the monster in a cold voice. But the monster looked as if it could not understand Charon’s protest itself.

—Must kill human. You interfered. You are bad.

—At least the humans didn’t openly destroy a perfectly fine island in its entirety! We handed over the right to dispose of these humans, not the right to wreak havoc in someone else’s territory!

—Don’t know. Noisy. Will get rid of you too……!

Black smoke once again flowed out from the enraged monster’s body and began to form a magic circle. It seemed it was going to summon the eyeball monsters again. I had a rough idea of its pattern, but the thought of having to block that horde of monsters again made my vision go dark.

Can we really do it? It will take quite a while to reach the next level-up, so recovering health or magic power won’t be easy, and Damian’s right arm is already in tatters from the parasite’s rampage, so there’s no way to produce additional magic power. At this rate, it’s obvious we’ll die without even lasting until the next instant-death skill……!

Just then, four harpies flew in hastily from the other side of the sky. It seemed they had moved the monsters to another island and returned. They stared at the disastrous state of the island with their mouths agape. Looking at the state of the island now, it was certainly understandable. The forest that had been so lush and dense that it covered the entire sky had been completely wiped out. Only the unsightly stumps of the trees embedded in the ground served as proof that a forest had ever existed on this island.

—U-unnie? What in the world happened?

—Can you not tell by looking at that monster’s work? Because you all let that thing run wild, this beautiful island has become like this. If I hadn’t come and stopped it, the entire island would have been gone.

The harpies looked back and forth between Charon and the monsters with faces filled with shock. They too seemed not to have expected things to turn out this way. The shock seemed even greater for Iren, who had practically led this situation. Charon let out a light sigh and gazed at Iren. Iren looked like she was about to cry.

—B-but it definitely said it would fix the island……!

—It probably would fix it. After all our beautiful islands are in a complete mess, then it would fix them as if doing us a great favor! But why must we endure such treatment? He may be a close aide to His Majesty the Demon King, but is it acceptable for a subordinate of the King of Insects, who has no particular relation to us, to dare to do such a thing in our territory?!

—……!

—Furthermore, that monster unleashed such a horrific spell on the island even knowing that I had arrived. This means it didn’t care about my existence at all. What would have happened to me if these humans hadn’t used their defensive magic?

The harpies’ expressions became even more serious. As much as they were on the monster’s side, they seemed quite shocked by the fact that the Human Centipede had unleashed a wide-area attack without any regard for Charon’s presence. After being lost in thought for a while, they seemed to have made up their minds and glared at the Human Centipede. Charon looked at Iren, who was hesitating until the very end, and declared.

—If Lord Herus seeks to hold someone responsible, I will take it. But we too will inform His Majesty the Demon King about this ridiculous outrage! First, cooperate in driving that monster away, Iren!

In the end, Iren nodded with a pale face. Charon quietly sent her gaze to me, and I looked back at her and nodded.

If they help us, we can hold out somehow. Of course, there’s no guarantee we can defeat the Human Centipede, but the harpies were still the guardians of this area. If they help us, blocking the eyeball monsters should be no problem.

—Cover your ears well. You’ve been through it several times, so you should know how we fight, right?

Charon said that and then flew high into the sky with her sisters. While my companions exchanged glances, unable to understand what her words meant, I hastily rummaged through my bag and took out the earplugs I had made before. From the magic circle that filled the sky, eyeballs were once again pouring out.

—Ah, ah-ah-ah-ah—!

From high up in the sky, Charon’s and Iren’s high-pitched voices echoed. Heard through the earplugs, their voices were as beautiful as music, but if those voices had been aimed at us instead of the eyeball monsters, our bodies would have burst and we would have died long ago. Just like the numerous eyeballs that were now bursting helplessly in the air.

“What, did they burst that easily?!”

“It’s possible because they’re harpies! It would have taken all my magic power to make them burst!”

Because everyone was wearing earplugs, we had to shout at the top of our lungs to get our words across to each other. Hearing Rehas’s words, Damian shouted as if wronged and swung his staff, crushing the arm of a transformed monster that was charging at me with a ball of fire. To minimize magic consumption, Damian was only using the ‘Combat Ready’ spell and small-scale flame magic. Of course, that alone was quite helpful for our fight.

“So do we just have to hold out now? Until they defeat the centipede human?!”

“I am not sure, Sir Rikiel! It would be nice if things were resolved that easily, but……!”

Rikiel glanced up at the sky and lightly clicked his tongue. The battle with the normal monsters was certainly easier than before, but it was difficult to say that the harpies had a complete advantage over the Human Centipede.

—Don’t, I said don’t!

—Damn it, Hezel! Don’t get too close to that thing! We’ll be the ones at a disadvantage!

Lethe and Hezel, who were in charge of close-range attacks, were having a hard time in their fight against the Human Centipede. Since Scathach was singing on the side, applying attack and defense power buffs, the battle itself was not a problem, but the issue was the ‘Acid Blood’ attribute that the Human Centipede possessed.

Every time the two harpies inflicted a wound on the monster, a physically impossible amount of acid burst out, and the skin of the harpies that came into even the slightest contact with the acid melted away without resistance. While the harpies retreated to avoid the acid, the wounds the monster sustained were instantly restored to their original state.

The harpies tried to attack its head in one go, but that too was not easy because it fled so quickly. Moreover, as it fled, it scattered numerous black lightning bolts, so the harpies had to avoid those as well to approach it. It didn’t seem like they would be able to defeat it easily.

While defeating the swarming transformed monsters, I turned various thoughts over in my mind.

‘First, let’s consider the number of quest items we have.’

The number of items in our hands now was 1 controller, 2 amplifiers, and 3 jewels. I remembered there were originally 2 jewels, but it’s roughly understandable if we assume Charon brought the jewel that was originally on the ‘Island of Spirits’.

‘The controller had 6 uses, the amplifier had 3 uses, and the jewel had 2 uses.’

Most of the quest items, excluding the new jewel Charon brought, had been used once each to prevent the collapse of each island, so their usage counts were reduced by 1. Then the controller can be used a total of 5 times, the amplifier a total of 4 times, and the jewel also a total of 4 times. Factoring in that we just used it once to create the defensive barrier…….

‘Exactly three more times, the number of ‘instant-death attacks’ we can block.’

In other words, a conclusion has to be reached in some way while we block those three attacks. It would be nice if Hezel and Lethe could defeat that monster during that time, but according to the message I saw earlier, that’s unlikely to happen, and it would be better to find the specific condition that allows us to escape from that monster.

‘According to the system message, if a specific condition is met, we can escape from that monster and go to the next area. For us now, finding that condition somehow is the priority.’

I also thought that the situation where the harpies are helping us might be included in the ‘specific condition’, but it didn’t seem likely. In the first place, we did nothing to get Charon’s help, and Charon helped us purely of her own will. Given the nature of this game where you get nothing unless you suffer like hell, it’s unlikely that things would turn out so easily.

Then what should I do? As I was struggling with my thoughts, Rehas, who had been diligently firing arrows from behind me, tapped my shoulder. It seemed that because I was lost in thought, I hadn’t heard him properly. The fact that his voice sounded faint because of the earplugs might also be a factor…….

“What is it, Rehas?”

“About those harpies, if we leave them like this, I don’t think there will be an end to it!”

“I know that too! But there’s nothing we can do, is there? How are we supposed to deal with a creature that even the harpies are having trouble with!”

“But I think we can help them so they can attack! I’ve been watching whenever I had a chance since earlier……. That thing, its reaction to attacks coming from the right is a little slow!”

“Wait, what did you say?!”

Startled by that one phrase, I raised my head and looked at the Human Centipede. Of course, I couldn’t watch for long because I had to block the transformed monsters, but when I watched its movements with Rehas’s words in mind, I could feel a very slight difference.

It dodges Lethe’s attacks from the left without any problem, but it takes a little more time to dodge Hezel’s attacks from the right. Even though Lethe is the older sister and should be delivering more powerful attacks.

‘How good are his observation skills to notice such a faint difference?’

I inwardly admired Rehas’s eyes and continued to observe the Human Centipede’s movements. If its unstable right-side vision is its weakness, then by exploiting that weakness, we might be able to neutralize its actions, even for a short while.

“Right now, we are also busy defeating these monsters, but isn’t there some way?”

“I think there might be a way! For now, let’s defeat these monsters and wait until that thing uses its next instant-death attack!”

Right now, it’s overwhelming just to defeat the monsters, but when that thing uses its instant-death attack and consumes all the monsters on the ground and in the air, there will be an opening for a short while. If we can use that opening to attack it.

I formulated a strategy in my head and swung my sword at the monsters in front of me. Now, I really wanted to get out of this damn stage.