Chapter 305: A Face in Love
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 305: A Face in Love
The Snake Queen was under attack.
The moment I heard the news, I couldn't think of anything else.
My only thought was that I had to go help her, no matter what.
My Master looked at me and gave a slight nod. After bowing my head, I immediately shot up and left.
I had promised myself not to reveal my lizard form to the believers, but this was no time for such concerns.
My lizard body was faster than my human one, so to save the Snake Queen, I had to return to my true form.
But, as a minimal precaution, I moved to a place with fewer people. It was then that I saw him.
“Heh heh… Hehehe… You lustful wench! Today, I'll make sure you know who's on top! Hnngh, hyaa!”
In a deserted corner, I found the Wyvern in a half-crouched stance, about to charge at a carriage.
Ah, right. You were here.
“Gasp! M-M-My Lord?”
The Wyvern flapped its wings in surprise upon seeing me.
It seemed he was trying to vent his desires in a secluded spot, and I happened to run into him while looking for the same kind of place.
It seems I unintentionally interrupted his... fun time.
Normally, I would have smoothly backed away and respected his privacy, but not this time.
Because I had found the solution to all my problems.
I had found a way to travel faster than my true form without even having to transform.
After all, its flying skills were good enough for the Ice Dragon to use it as a messenger.
Its instantaneous speed might be significantly slower than mine, but since it can fly and ignore the terrain, it would be faster than me over a long distance like this.
“Aigoo! P-Please, ride me!”
The Wyvern prostrated itself flat on the ground.
The fact that this lower-rank dragonkin has survived this long is proof of how sharp its instincts are.
Flap.
SWOOOOSH!
The Wyvern flew through the sky at an incredible speed.
I grabbed its reins and steered, allowing us to reach our destination without much difficulty.
It was certainly a useful creature.
It would be a great help in many ways if I stationed it at the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
Shwaaak!
The Wyvern's speed gradually decreased.
We had almost reached our destination.
The thick, coppery scent of blood already filled the air.
There was no time to wait for the Wyvern to land, so I leaped straight off its back.
Thud!
Then, I sprinted toward the Snake Queen's temple with all my might.
Praying I wasn't too late.
*
The Snake Queen stared at her enemies.
Bixi. Spirit beasts resembling giant monkeys, known to prey on tigers.
Encountering Bixi in the jungle was not unusual.
They lived in packs in the dense forests.
Because their habitats overlapped, the Snake Queen would occasionally run into them while hunting.
However, the Bixi and the Snake Queen paid each other no mind.
To be precise, it was the Snake Queen who was showing them mercy.
She could hunt them whenever she pleased, but since they were spirit beasts, she left them alone on the off chance she might recruit them later.
The Bixi, too, knew of the Snake Queen's power and never dared to attack her recklessly.
Despite their ferocious nature, which made them one of the jungle's biggest nuisances, they wouldn't even dream of challenging the Snake Queen's minions.
The Bixi species had no resistance to petrification, so no matter how numerous they were, they could never handle the Snake Queen alone.
It wouldn't even have to come to that.
A single Gogadurisu under her command could wipe out half a pack of Bixi on its own.
Thus, for the Bixi, the power of petrification was their ultimate weakness, and the Snake Queen, who wielded it freely, was a being of terror.
The aloof queen of the jungle, who did not even permit others to meet her gaze.
She was, in every sense, the Snake Queen.
But now, dozens of Bixi had gathered around that same Snake Queen's temple.
“Kkigigik!”
“Kkiik! Kkiik!”
The Bixi beat their chests in excitement.
Normally, it was a matchup so bad they wouldn't have dared to even try.
But the Snake Queen's Demonic Eye no longer worked on the Bixi.
Tzzzt.
Black, shadow-like tentacles clung to their bodies, and their eyes glowed red.
The Snake Queen could tell they had been influenced by the remnants of Tai Sui.
“Hmm, they're just remnants, and not a large amount at that. It seems their minds haven't been affected.”
They had gained the remnants of Tai Sui, but their minds had not been corrupted.
The Bixi were acting this way because they had finally obtained a means to resist the Snake Queen's power.
In other words, even if they had gained power through some other means instead of Tai Sui's remnants, they would have attacked the Snake Queen just as they were now.
“Kkigigik!”
“Kkiek! Today, we take the jungle!”
The Bixi charged at the Snake Queen, brimming with excitement.
Sssssss.
But there was one thing they were mistaken about.
The Snake Queen hadn't become the master of the jungle with the power of petrification alone.
BZZZZZZZZZZT!
A massive destruction ray shot out from the giant basilisk's mouth.
KWAGAGAGAGAGAK!
The Bixi charging at the front were instantly turned to ash and vanished.
“K-Kkieek?”
“Kkiik! Kkiiik!”
High-tier spirit beasts can resist petrification and poison.
It was only natural that any being vying with her for supremacy over the jungle would have the power to resist her petrification.
And yet, she had eliminated all her rivals to become the queen of the western jungle.
That meant she possessed the power to defeat opponents against whom petrification was useless.
“Kuaaak!”
“Sh-She used a major technique! There must be an opening! Attack now!”
The Bixi leader shouted urgently.
It was impossible to use such a powerful technique consecutively.
His thinking was correct.
Even for the Snake Queen, using a full-power destruction ray would inevitably strain her body.
But he was mistaken about one thing.
To the Snake Queen, that attack was not considered a major technique.
BZZZZZZZZZZT!
A second destruction ray flew out as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
“Kkieeeek!”
“Th-The flanks! Attack the flanks!”
The leader hastily directed his pack to move to the sides.
He thought that if a separate unit could strike her flank while the main pack drew her attention from the front, they could land a significant blow.
But this, too, was a miscalculation.
Shing.
SWIIISH!
The Snake Queen was a master of the blade.
By swinging her sharp tail, she instantly slaughtered the swarming pack of Bixi.
The sight of her spewing a destruction ray from her mouth while slaughtering enemies with her tail made it abundantly clear that she was the master of this jungle.
“This… This can't be…”
Is she unbeatable?
Even with this overwhelming power, can we still not reach the being known as the Snake Queen?
The leader fell into agony.
Should he retreat now and preserve what was left of his pack?
“Kkiik…!”
No, he couldn't.
He had to defeat that aloof Snake Queen, no matter what.
That was the instinct of the Bixi species.
They harbored the ambition to kill the jungle's ruler who suppressed their destructive impulses and take the entire jungle for themselves.
It was at that moment.
The Snake Queen's Demonic Eye glanced toward a corner, and her body began to tremble faintly.
Shwaak!
Then, in an instant, her body shrank, and she transformed into her human form with the lower body of a snake.
She pressed a hand to her temple as if she were dizzy.
“Kkiiik! Yes! The queen has exhausted her strength!”
“Kkigik! Kkik!”
The Bixi at the front clapped their hands in joy.
No matter how strong the Snake Queen was, using that much power was bound to take a toll on her body.
The overwhelming display of power she had shown until now must have been her forcing out every last bit of her strength.
If so, then they had a real chance of winning.
“Kkieeeek! Charge!”
The leader commanded his pack and rushed toward the Snake Queen.
This was their chance.
If they missed this moment, they would never defeat her.
“Ah, my head feels dizzy.”
At that moment, a question flashed through the leader's mind.
Is this really our chance?
Aren't those words a little too... theatrical?
Is the Snake Queen really out of strength?
The Snake Queen's true form is the snake, not the human.
It was only logical that even if she was active in her human form, she would revert to her snake form when her power ran out.
But now, she had done the opposite.
If she was out of strength, how could she maintain her human form?
There was more than one thing that felt strange.
But the strangest thing of all was that, at some point, he could no longer see the Bixi running beside him.
Th-th-thump.
Turning his head at the strange sound, the leader's eyes fell upon a shocking scene.
Splat!
A Bixi died in a single blow.
It wasn't the Snake Queen's attack.
A man with white hair and blue eyes.
Dressed in black robes, his expression was terrifyingly cold.
CRUNCH!
Another Bixi's head exploded.
He held the headless Bixi in one hand and walked steadily toward him.
The leader's body froze at the horrifying sight.
If Death itself were to become human, wouldn't it look just like that?
He had the form of a human, but he didn't look human.
As the leader stared blankly at the approaching death, unable to even think of escape, his eyes caught sight of a white string around the man's neck.
At the end of the white string was an ornament made from a seashell.
The Snake Queen's token.
The Bixi leader was able to realize the truth.
“T-To think, at her age, she's pretending to be weak…!”
The Snake Queen hadn't run out of strength.
She had sensed the presence of the man now approaching and had pretended to be weak.
SPUUURT!
His vision spun.
The last thing he saw was the Snake Queen.
The aloof ruler of the western jungle was twisting her tail shyly, looking at the man with an expression he had never seen before.
It was the face of someone in love.
It was an utterly shocking sight.
Not only was it unbelievable that the Snake Queen had fallen in love, but that her partner was a being like that.
Even for spirit beasts, who didn't care much about age, wasn't this going too far?
He was younger than not only the Snake Queen but her daughter as well.
He was a Bixi who had lived a life without rules, but even he could not comprehend this situation.