Chapter 83
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 83
Chapter Title: Simple
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"What the hell... What is this?!"
Deep within the Nest of Solitude dungeon. In the Dungeon Master's chamber, Belze had been observing the allied forces through her 'links,' but now she was throwing a hysterical fit, smashing every piece of furniture around her.
Even as she had pulled the alliance into this, she had been confident of victory. When she had sent her massive swarms of insects, she had glimpsed the newborn dungeon's forces through the links, and they had seemed utterly pathetic.
Just a handful of elves, a bunch of frail Red Demons, and monsters that amounted to nothing more than goblins and golems.
There had been that strange white-haired woman she'd never seen before, and a woman with pink hair and bat wings, but one or two outliers wouldn't make much difference. They were bound to be weaker than the Dungeon Master anyway.
That was why she had dispatched several Insect Demon tribesmen from her own dungeon, warning them only to beware that Dungeon Master who had wiped out her insects. Whatever it was that had exterminated all her bugs would pose a serious threat to the Insect Demons too.
In exchange, she had left the dungeon's minions—who had already suffered losses to her insects—to the Insect Demons, while assigning the brutishly powerful werebeasts and the curse mongers, who excelled at toppling the strong, to deal with the Dungeon Master. That should have given them more than enough chance of victory. But...
"Are you kidding me? What kind of trees wipe out demons like that! And... and...!"
Just trees. The allied forces hadn't even made it inside the dungeon; they'd been blocked at the forest out front. Her pathetic demon allies had been swept away by a few mere trees, and the subordinates she had trusted...
They had inhaled that ominous 'something' that bloomed from the trees and collapsed right there.
If the Dungeon Master who wielded that grand magic had used it, she could have understood. She had witnessed it already. But for that ominous 'something' to erupt from every tree in the entire forest?
She had miscalculated. Had they somehow installed the ability to unleash that grand magic at any moment even in the outer forest? She hadn't seen what happened next because the links had snapped after the Insect Demons' bugs were wiped out too, but...
"Did they succeed? The beasts might have failed, but those curse mongers have the power to kill even the strongest foes..."
Belze bit her lip anxiously, gauging the chances of the allied forces' success. Her own minions had fallen to that unexpected insecticide-like horror from the trees, but the alliance's remaining power was no joke.
Especially those dispatched from the Garden of Curses. Having inherited the curses of solitude from her ancestors, she knew what they were. The worst curses, thought lost to antiquity. The curse plague.
'Yes. If it's the curse plague, then they can...!'
The worst possible enemies, but as allies, there was nothing more reassuring. She had even dispatched several of them, so even without her own minions, the remaining alliance might well be enough to destroy that newborn dungeon.
As Belze waited anxiously for word from the allied forces, one of her subordinates burst into her chamber in a panic.
"M-Master!"
"...What is it! Did the alliance... did they send word?"
The moment her subordinate entered, Belze pressed him without a chance to reprimand his rudeness for barging in. She was convinced it had to be news that the surviving alliance had succeeded in conquering the newborn dungeon.
"N-No, that's not it. Right now, in the sky..."
"...The sky?"
-Kwaaaang!!!
And just as Belze blankly echoed his words, a sound echoed from the dungeon's entrance—like something plummeting from the high sky above.
"Here it is."
-Whiiiine...
Erzsebet, unfolding her three pairs of wings, spotted the hive buzzing with noisy insects and descended straight to the ground. Even to the last, her master had worried about her, but she was plenty confident.
"What the hell is that?"
"It came down from the sky... An Insect Demon?"
The Insect Demons stationed to guard the dungeon entrance went on alert at Erzsebet's fall from the heavens, instantly assuming combat stances.
True to their power over insects, grotesque bugs rained down from their sleeves, and the insects they had scattered around the entrance slowly gathered in response to their call.
Her master probably could have erased those bugs in one shot with that strange magic tool of his. But she...
-Chwaaaak!!
"Gasp...!"
"Guh...!!"
In an instant.
In the mere blink of an eye, the blood forming her wings expanded in a flash, swallowing the two Insect Demons guarding the entrance. Feeling the fishy blood pour into every orifice of their bodies, the Insect Demons flailed desperately, but the blood that invaded through their ears and noses pierced straight into their brains, transforming into razor-sharp blades within their flesh.
-Chuuuuk...
Their bodies, struggling desperately to breathe, went limp. And the blood that had ravaged their insides drained out completely, pulling their own green blood along with it.
As all the blood was absorbed into Erzsebet's body, she let out a short retch.
"Hoo... Insect blood really doesn't taste good, as expected. Still better than the blood Master bestowed upon me, I suppose..."
The old her never would have touched insect blood. The Insect Demons weren't actual bugs, of course, but they were similar enough that their blood tasted just like insects'.
Still, having once tasted that horrific blood from the [High-Pressure Cleaner], this was nothing.
-Thud thud thud...
With the insect-controlling sorcerers gone, the bugs crawling from their bodies fell limply. And the swarms rushing in from the outer forest lost direction and milled about in confusion.
'This is how you deal with Insect Demons.'
When facing Insect Demons who commanded vast numbers of bugs, picking them off one by one never ended. The best way was to eliminate the sorcerers controlling them. Her master wiping out every last bug in one go was the unusual part.
-Step step.
"Tch, intruder...! Ack...!"
"To the ma-master... Kyaaak..!!"
Beings appeared to block her elegant advance, but every one of them dissolved into a single stream of blood before her. Sometimes several banded together to resist her, but with a flick of her hand, compressed blood like thin rapiers shot out like bullets, piercing their foreheads clean through.
-Puhbuhbuk!!
"G-Got her! Into the trap...!"
And as befitting a dungeon, the traps they had set managed to halt her steps for a moment. Arrows and blades shot from all sides, along with intense cold and flames from the magic traps, all assailed her.
-Kagagak!!
But every attack was blocked by the thinnest crimson veil. Unlike the casual blood membrane she had used before, this was forged from her true blood, refined by consuming far superior vitae over time.
"To dare invade my dungeon...!"
Belze finally arrived in person, having heard her minions' reports and flown into a rage, leading all the insects under her command. Spotting Erzsebet far off, slaughtering her minions with casual manipulations of blood, her eyes twitched violently.
"That... that woman...!"
One of the figures she had glimpsed through the links when she sent her massive insect swarms. The woman who had been at the side of that man who mercilessly wiped out her bugs.
'They failed!'
Seeing that woman standing boldly before her, Belze realized the alliance had failed to conquer the newborn dungeon and ground her teeth. Then she frantically looked behind Erzsebet.
'None...?'
"What are you looking at so intently?"
As if reading Belze's thoughts perfectly, Erzsebet smiled lightly, and Belze muttered blankly.
"Just one...? No way. Did you... come here alone?"
Realizing the failure of the newborn dungeon conquest and sensing fear at a demon coming from that dungeon, Belze asked incredulously. Wiping out the entire alliance and tracking her down here was impressive, sure. But just one person?
"Punishing trash like you lot is more than enough with me alone."
And as if confirming Belze's exact thoughts, Erzsebet affirmed it, and the fear slowly faded from Belze's eyes.
In its place rose disbelief and irritation. She had feared the newborn dungeon and dispatched the alliance because of that 'something' which obliterated her insects—not because her own combat prowess was lacking.
"Where does a wench from who-knows-where get off talking like that in front of the dungeon's master?"
"You dare... How arrogant. A mere bug larva that dared to covet my master's territory."
"...Grind!"
Staring at Erzsebet, who refused to yield even a word, Belze raised her hand, summoning the insects scattered throughout the dungeon's depths.
The curse of solitude: confining hundreds of insects in one place and making them devour each other until only one survived. The horrific venomous creatures that endured it emerged from behind her.
"You saw my insects die easily to your master and thought mine were pushovers, so you came alone, huh...!"
She had already witnessed how that white-haired demon dealt with her minions. She worried the woman might wield that horrific something too, but all she had shown was blood manipulation—no spraying of that deadly liquid that erased bugs instantly.
In that case, dealing with her would be easy.
"I'll make you understand what kind of being the dungeon's master is..."
"Do you have invincible skin that nothing can pierce?"
"...What?"
As Belze summoned her vast insect army in an instant and prepared to attack with supreme confidence, Erzsebet halted her with an out-of-left-field question.
"What the hell out of nowhere..."
"If not, do you have a sealing circle that imprisons targets without any prior preparation? Can you perform the miracle of erasing any magic on contact?"
"I don't need any of that crap—my insects are more than enough! I don't know where your confidence comes from coming here alone, but...!!"
Without such power, the opponent was simple. Brimming with pride in her own strength, Belze commanded her insects to attack.
"Chakchakchakchakchak..."
"Aeaeaeaeing..."
"Leeeeergrrruuuwaaang..."
"Wiiiing..."
Fewer in number than the horde that invaded the ruins before, but each one carried venom potent enough to kill with a single drop. Moreover, most had jaws strong enough to rip through even a mighty demon's skin like paper and devour their prey.
"If you lack such unreasonable power."
Facing that terrifying insect legion without a care, Erzsebet remained calm. Then she lightly raised her hand and snapped her fingers.
"It's yawn-inducingly easy."
In a deeply languid voice, yawning for real, she snapped her fingers. The three pairs of wings spread behind her condensed into a single drop of blood in an instant, then shot toward the insect horde.
"Die...!"
Even Belze, monitoring her through thousands of compound eyes, caught the motion.
A tiny droplet of blood leaped into view across thousands of retinas, and the next moment...
-Chwaaaaaak!!!
Thousands of fields of vision slammed shut in a single instant.