Chapter 191: You Can Never Escape
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 191: You Can Never Escape
Sion sprinted forward.
There was nothing to block his path. As long as he kept running down the wide-open corridor, he would reach the heart of the Snake Nest.
"We’re almost there!"
The party shouted back in response to Sion’s cry.
The plan was simple: wipe out all the indigenous monsters in the Snake Nest first, then deal with the three remaining Fiends.
To achieve this, Maximus was assigned to the Undead Imp, Male the Shadow Mage to the Alraune, and Joshua to the evolved Insect-man.
While those three held the line, Sion, along with the rest of the party, would take down Medusa, the Serpent, and the Gorgon. He wasn't worried. He had Helena and Freya by his side.
"Snakes!"
"It’s the Lamias!"
Monsters began pouring out from the end of the hallway Helena had incinerated.
They swarmed the corridor, huddling together in a writhing mass as they lunged at the party. Behind them stood the Gorgon.
The Alpha Serpent and his females had entered 'factory mode,' churning out eggs at a frantic pace. The monsters hatching from those eggs were being controlled by the Gorgon—Kairan.
"I’ll break through!"
Rosier drew her holy hammer.
As the hammer, imbued with the Archbishop’s prayers, settled into her grip, it emitted a brilliant light that immediately began repelling the charging monsters.
Boom—!
A burst of compressed prayer erupted.
Clad in the divine power she had diligently gathered over several weeks, Rosier charged forward like a juggernaut.
Monsters exploded. They melted upon contact with her blazing divine energy.
As if refusing to let any filth near her, Rosier plowed through the opposition.
"Holy hell!!"
"She is a warrior of the Goddess...!"
Maximus watched in awe as Rosier smashed everything in her path, while Chloe saw her as the manifestation of a Valkyrie from myth.
Amidst the two gladiators' admiration, Ulysses shouted, "Keep up! If you’re slow, you’ll be left behind!"
Monsters were pouring out of holes in the walls. If they didn't match Rosier’s pace, they would be cut off from the main force.
"Run!"
The party pushed their awe aside and sprinted.
Meanwhile, in the shadows cast by Rosier’s light, Male’s shadows writhed, slicing through any monsters that hadn't died instantly. Sion drew a dagger from his inventory.
Soon, the path opened, revealing the central chamber.
Seven massive female Serpents were gathered in the Alpha Serpent’s nest.
"Begin the purification!"
At Sion’s command, Freya, who had been perched on his shoulder, soared toward the ceiling of the central chamber.
Gaining altitude in an instant, Freya dove toward Medusa, who was preparing to fire a Petrification Curse, and attacked the master of the Snake Nest.
"Kieeeeeeeek—!!!!"
Medusa, who had been trying to neutralize Rosier, was thrown into confusion by the bird's sudden assault. Freya intercepted and erased the curses firing from Medusa's eyes mid-air.
Narrowly dodging Medusa’s counterattacks, Freya successfully bound the curses.
"Helena! The snakes!"
"Understood."
Sion sent Helena toward the massive serpents lunging at them.
There were seven females belonging to the male Alpha Serpent.
Though smaller than the Alpha Serpent, they were still enormous creatures, easily over ten meters long.
They posed a significant threat; if anyone were caught in their coils, death was almost certain. This was why Sion had sent Helena to deal with them.
Thump—!
Helena flew toward the female Serpents and landed hard, grabbing one by the head and tearing it apart.
The remaining six coiled around Helena’s body and began their assault, but she wasn't one to be caught so easily.
Instantly shrinking her size to slip out of their constriction, Helena unleashed a torrent of flames that left two of them on the brink of death. She then drew a magic circle in the air, hammering ice spears into the remaining snakes.
"There are too many of them!"
"Kill them all!!! Tear them apart!!!"
Following behind Rosier, the gladiator brothers continued to slaughter the monsters lunging at them.
"Male!"
"On it!"
At Sion’s call, Male immediately swept away the approaching monsters, while Ulysses unleashed thorn vines to forcibly bind the struggling Alpha Medusa.
"Where are the Fiends!?"
"I don't see them!"
"They might be planning an ambush! Stay sharp!"
Sion activated his Demon Eye to prepare for a surprise attack from the Fiends.
Just then, Joshua opened the chest compartment of his golem and shouted, "There are more than I expected! I have no choice!"
"You’re starting already!?"
"I have to! If I collapse, someone better swap out my magic stones!"
Joshua’s ability consumed a massive amount of mana. He had intended to save his power until the Insect-man appeared. However, there were too many monsters to stay idle; they were at risk of being swallowed by the tide.
If the Fiends ambushed them in this state, it would be another massacre. Thus, Joshua began his performance, intending to drain every drop of mana from his magic stones.
"Kieeeek!!!"
As Joshua’s music resonated, the monsters attacking the party fell into a frenzy, baring their teeth at one another.
Lamias bit into the thighs of Lizardmen, and Nagas grabbed the heads of their own kind and tore them off. The Serpents, which had been spitting venom at the party, began spraying poison in every direction, starting a fratricidal bloodbath.
Meanwhile, En the Alraune, who had been hiding, screamed as she watched Helena slaughtering the seven female Serpents single-handedly.
"Is that... a dragon!?"
The expressions of the Fiends, who had assumed Helena was just a decent mage, shifted instantly.
"I never heard anything about a dragon being here."
"..."
"But it’s not an adult yet. Why are you so afraid?"
Modic, the Undead Imp, asked En and Nihil.
However, Nihil the Insect-man and En ignored Modic’s words.
The two Fiends couldn't take their eyes off the rampaging dragon.
"En, we have a choice. We flee, or we fight."
"Flee? It’s just one hatchling!"
"Shut up, Modic. The decision belongs to En."
"Dammit. Why are you both so terrified!?"
"...Modic. You were born recently, so it’s understandable you wouldn't know. But Nihil and I know. That... is no ordinary dragon."
"No ordinary dragon? It’s just a dragon tamed by humans."
"No, that’s not what I mean..."
En remembered.
In the past, the five adventurers who had hunted down and killed the dragon of the 7th Floor that had attempted to regress.
"I suspected it from that familiar mana signature... That is the Witch of the Dark Moon. I don't know how they did it, but the humans have stuffed a dead person's soul into a dragon's body."
En had seen her from a distance once.
The mage who had engaged in a contest of pure power against a dragon, the supposed master of all mana.
She could never forget the sheer terror she felt then.
A monster who had erased the Light Dragon’s left arm with 9th Circle annihilation magic.
She was supposed to have died from a mana backflow back then.
So why was she resurrected in the body of a Black Dragon, rampaging right there?
"Let’s run."
"Understood."
"Wait! You’re just going to leave!?"
"If you want to die, die alone, Modic. That thing is a true monster. Even if she’s weak now, if you’re stupid enough to stick your head out... we’ll be the ones getting decapitated. Besides, that bird is unusual too. Have you ever seen a bird that uses divine power?"
"I heard the Saintess died. It must be a masterpiece of the Goddess, fashioned from the leftover divine power. How hideous."
En the Alraune and Nihil the Insect-man chose to flee.
In the end, Modic had no choice but to follow them.
Something completely unexpected by Sion and his party occurred.
Sion had expected the Fiends to intervene during the chaos to kill them. Instead, the moment they saw the dragon, they began to retreat.
The problem was that no one in the Snake Nest intended to let those three leave peacefully.
"You bastards!!!"
"Those snake-shits!"
From Kairan’s perspective, those three were variables that had to be dragged into the fray at all costs. If the Fiends fled now, she would surely be killed by Sion’s party. She couldn't let them escape.
Therefore, Kairan used her Gorgon’s eyes to locate the Fiends and sent monsters—those less affected by Joshua’s music—to block their path.
She would do whatever it took to drag them down into this pit of hell so they couldn't escape.
"Over there! It’s the Fiends!"
"Looks like those bastards got caught trying to run!"
"What? Is that true!?"
"Yes! I can see it with my Demon Eye of Insight! They were trying to bolt!"
"Those sons of bitches!!!"
Maximus, fueled by rage, charged toward the Fiends.
As his Crushing Sword activated, the monsters in front of him were shredded like vegetables in a blender. Leaping toward the Fiends in an instant, Maximus threw himself at Modic, the Undead Imp.
'What is wrong with this guy!'
Seeing Maximus lunging at him with madness in his eyes, Modic momentarily panicked, and his reaction slowed. Maximus didn't miss the opening and immediately blew away Modic’s upper torso.
Snakes, humans, and Fiends were all tangled together, slaughtering one another.
Watching the scene, Helena spat out chunks of flesh from the female Serpents.
Having killed all seven females, she smiled as she watched the Alpha Serpent approach her.
"I suppose you won't be laying any more eggs."
The monster production factory had been destroyed.
The rest was up to Sion. Helena had no intention of interfering with the Gorgon or Medusa, let alone the male Serpent.
Of course, if she stepped in, she could kill them faster and more easily, but that wouldn't help Sion grow.
"Let’s goooo!!!"
"Kill them quickly so we can catch the Fiends!"
Male, Maximus, and Joshua were struggling to keep the Fiends pinned down.
Sion had to take the heads of the Gorgon and Medusa as quickly as possible and help his comrades who were holding back the Fiends.
'I don't know why they’re trying to run, but I’m going to harrass you until the very end.'
Sion realized through his Demon Eye of Insight that the Fiends had tried to flee.
He didn't know the reason, but if they were afraid of them, that was all the better.
'I’m going to take your bodies.'
Sion had no intention of simply killing all the Fiends.
The Alraune, the Undead Imp, and the Insect-man.
Even if he gave one of the three to the Magic Tower as per the contract, two would remain.
What if he gave the Alraune’s body to Ulysses and the Imp’s body to Maximus?
Since Joshua seemed to prefer the golem body, that would leave only Chloe to be brought back.
'Resurrection cost savings...!'
That was his only thought.