Volume 6, Chapter 42 – The Ugly Thing

A storm of flames completely enveloped the monster. Feeling the temperature that seemed to be about to scorch their skin, the paladins, as well as Yisi and Camilla who were standing further away, all subconsciously took a few steps back.

“Is it over?”

“What did Lady Evelyn throw?”

“It should be a type of holy relic.”

Looking up at the raging flames, the paladins, who finally had a chance to catch their breath, took the opportunity to talk to each other to relieve their tension. Even though they were paladins who had been baptized by the church, they still felt a fear from the bottom of their hearts when facing a monster that was immune to swords.

The person who also breathed a sigh of relief was Evelyn. The magic crystal she had thrown out was specially made by the church, a magic crystal filled with holy attributes. Although its power was only equivalent to a Tier 2 spell, it had a very strong restraining effect on undead creatures and ordinary flesh and blood.

Finally having killed the disgusting-looking monster, Evelyn placed her left hand on her chest, let out a soft breath, and turned around with a particularly relaxed expression.

“It’s finally taken care of. What on earth was that thing?”

Unexpectedly, Evelyn did not hear an answer. She couldn’t help but tilt her head and look into Yisi’s eyes. Then, from Yisi’s slightly hesitant and somewhat wary gaze, she discovered that something was wrong.

That thing was not dead yet.

Although there was no evidence to prove this, Evelyn had already read from Yisi’s expression that the situation was not good. Some might think that Evelyn was being overly neurotic, that a living creature could not possibly survive in the flames. But this was Evelyn’s intuition. If even the unfathomably strong Yisi showed such an expression, then something must be wrong.

Without waiting for Yisi’s answer, Evelyn suddenly turned her head. And just as her intuition had reacted, with the exhaustion of the magic power, the raging flames gradually shrank, finally revealing the entity inside.

A charred, onion-shaped, pitch-black lump of flesh. Due to the evaporation of a large amount of blood, wisps of white smoke rose from the surface of the lump of flesh. However, what made everyone’s heart clench was that the lump of flesh was still beating like a heart, with a slight, almost imperceptible, pulsation.

A sense of foreboding instantly swept over Evelyn and the paladins. Their brains warned them that if they did not deal with the lump of flesh, a situation that would be difficult to clean up would follow.

“How is that possible!?”

“Hurry up and add a few more cuts!”

“Aaaah!!!”

Reαⅾ οn КatReаԁіոgСafе

However, the paladins were a step too slow.

Like a crustacean stepping on a stone, or the sound of something cracking, the surface of the charred, black ball of flesh suddenly made a cracking sound. Immediately after, the ball of flesh, like a blooming fruit, split into several parts and burst open, revealing the things that had been gestating inside for a long time—a group of creatures like ten year old human children.

They were like humans, yet not human.

Their limbs were thin and long, their skin a livid color. They were about the size of a child, but their faces were exceptionally ferocious, as if someone had painted a layer of paint on a goblin and then randomly cut it a few times with a scalpel. Their mouths were split to the base of their ears, and their eyeballs protruded, giving the impression that they could fall out at any moment. Anyone who saw them would think that these evil creatures before them were a collection of all the ugly things in the world.

There were no more than ten of them in total, but the evil aura they exuded made people retreat. Every time they took a step towards Evelyn and the others, the paladins would subconsciously take half a step back.

“W-What is this? Goblins?”

“The aura is completely different! Aren’t goblins cowards who run away at the sight of paladins!”

“We need to report to the church immediately!”

“Lady Evelyn, let’s retreat first! They are not monsters that ordinary humans can defeat!”

This was not the paladins talking nonsense out of fear, but that the monsters before them were indeed not something that ordinary people could deal with. If it took 3-5 soldiers to deal with an ordinary lower-class demon, then these goblin-like creatures would require more than 10 soldiers to deal with. Their levels were all above 15, and the difference in strength was so great that it could be seen at a glance.

“You guys retreat first. Have the temple send more paladins—no, have the Inquisition Knights and the Templar Knights come. Leave them to me for now.”

“But.”

“Don’t waste time!” Evelyn snapped at the paladins, snorted coldly, and faced the monsters approaching her. She slowly retreated to Yisi’s side and asked in a low voice without looking away. “Can you hold them off for a while for me, Yisi?”

“I can, but…”

“I’m counting on you.”

Before Yisi could finish, Evelyn interrupted her. After judging from the sound of footsteps that the paladins had already run out of the alley, she gripped the Staff of Divine Retribution with her right hand.

Rеаd οո КαtRеαdіոgСafе

“My incantation takes time. These things are very dangerous. If we let them escape, the consequences will be unimaginable. I can feel that their strength is not limited to this. We must take advantage of the fact that they have just been born and wipe them all out.”

“Mm.”

Yisi, who also understood this point, nodded and gave Camilla a look, signaling her to use [Ice Wall] to seal the goblins’ retreat. Evelyn then retreated behind Yisi, while Yisi lowered her body, slowly took a step forward, and put her hand in her pocket.

—Actually, she was taking out three handleless, diamond-shaped short blades from her inventory through her pocket. This was something Yisi had made on the side when she was making scale armor for Mary. The shape of the scales needed for the scale armor reminded Yisi of playing cards, and then, from the playing cards, Yisi thought about whether she could make a disposable weapon like a shuriken. Thus, the current diamond-shaped short blades were born. Because they had no handle and all four sides were sharp blades, except for some special races, only Yisi could use them.

Unlike using magic, which could clearly reflect a person’s strength, using items was not so direct. For example, a person who could instantly cast ten fireballs and a person who could throw ten short swords, the former would definitely be more eye-catching than the latter. That was why Yisi had specially spent time making weapons.

Lightly weighing the short blades, Yisi glanced at one of the monsters walking at the very front. Just like the ball of flesh she had seen in the outskirts before, the name of this monster in front of her was ‘Angel That Failed to Evolve’.

An angel… So ugly. It would be more appropriate to call it a ghoul.

Yisi clicked her tongue.

Although their body contours were similar to humans, these things were just too ugly. For Yisi, getting rid of them would not cause any psychological burden.

The moment she drew the short blades from her pocket, Yisi controlled their flight path. Before the other party could react, the monster walking at the very front was covering its neck with both hands, a gurgling sound like a leaky bellows coming from its mouth, and it struggled and fell down in pain.

It seemed her aim was not bad.

“Although it’s a monster, it will still die if its vital points are attacked.”

The blood was a cyan-black color.

No wonder its skin was also a livid color.

Hearing the painful cries of their companion, the monsters gradually stopped and looked at the source of the sound with a puzzled expression. When they saw their companion’s blood, their dazed expressions instantly turned ferocious. They rushed towards their fallen, struggling companion without any regard for their own safety and, under Yisi’s shocked gaze, took a bite of their companion’s arm.

Cannibalism.

How Disgusting.

Reαⅾ oո КаtRеadinɡСаfe

Without waiting, Yisi threw out the remaining two short blades again. Two more light dots on the map disappeared. But this time, the angels finally discovered Yisi, the perpetrator. As if they had sensed her strength, they gradually stopped eating and, one by one, retreated in a direction away from her.

“Are they trying to escape…”

She took out ten short blades from her pocket at once. However, Evelyn’s voice suddenly sounded from behind.

“Yisi, get out of the way!”

It seemed Evelyn’s magic was ready.

Yisi jumped to the side.

Immediately after, with the position where the ‘angels’ were standing as the center, a twelve-pointed star with profound runes rapidly unfolded. And sensing the immense magic power within, the remaining seven angels turned and fled without hesitation.

“[Mana · Release].”

With Evelyn’s command, the magic circle, which had expanded to its limit, rapidly shrank, capturing the slowest-reacting angel and enveloping it.

As if being squeezed by an invisible wall, the captured angel gradually deformed. And the magic circle, ignoring the angel’s shrill screams, forcibly compressed the angel until it reached a certain degree.

Evelyn continued to chant without any emotion.

“[Purify].”

Hiss.

The magic circle, which originally had a compression process, was instantly reduced to an invisible singularity. The screams came to an abrupt end. The angel disappeared from the world without even leaving a corpse or flesh and blood behind.

But that was all.

The remaining six angels had already taken advantage of the gap when Evelyn was casting her spell and used the walls to climb to the roof and escape. Although Yisi had tried to throw out short blades, because their flight path would pass through the shrinking magic circle, they were swallowed and purified by the magic circle as well.

Rеaԁ оո КαtRеаԁiոɡСαfе

Camilla came to Yisi’s side and asked in a low voice.

“Onee-sama, should we go after them?”

“No need. We can’t catch up to them now.”

Besides herself, even Edith, who was the most agile in the group, would not be able to catch up to the angels scattering on the map. As Yisi had expected, those creatures with long, slender limbs had the speed and agility of a beast. Not to mention that this was not a track without obstacles. To want to catch up to a four-legged creature that could climb over buildings and jump on roofs, it would only be possible to use flight magic, but the speed of flight magic was about the same as an adult’s full-speed run.

I’ll deal with them later when I’m alone .

Placing a marker on the six fleeing angels, Yisi went to Evelyn, who was weakened from exhausting her magic power. The latter was leaning on the Staff of Divine Retribution as if she had lost her bones.

“Do you still have any strength left?”

Evelyn answered her question with a question.

“What about those monsters?”

Camilla gave the result for Yisi.

“Originally, Onee-sama could have taken care of them by herself. Thanks to you, six of them escaped.”

“Tsk,” her focus completely on the ‘six of them escaped’ at the end, Evelyn propped herself up with the Staff of Divine Retribution and barely stood up. “Get the magic medicine from my chest for me. I’m going after them.”

Her chest?

Yisi glanced at Evelyn’s full bosom. There was no pocket on the chest of her priestess’s habit. The chest Evelyn was talking about was either hidden inside her priestess’s habit, or it was hidden between her full breasts like in an anime. Although Yisi knew that now was not the time to be paying attention to such things, she still felt that it would be very rude to put her hand into Evelyn’s chest.

Evelyn frowned.

“What are you still hesitating for?”