Chapter 94: Terror Beast and Legendary Spell

Tally emerged from Rod's shadow.

She bent down, staring straight at Lili.

"Wh-what are you doing?"

"I never expected a halfling to have such a chest. Master, do you want to try a halfling? I can transform."

"Dare you!"

Lili, humiliated and furious, raised her hand and cast a Magic Missile at Tally.

The succubus 【Blinked】 out of existence in place, hiding behind Rod.

"Master, she hit me~"

"Rod! Won't you control her!"

Rod smiled bitterly, pretended to lecture, and forcefully pinched Tally's soft, tender cheeks.

"No messing around. Lili is our friend."

"Okay~~"

"And don't tell anyone."

"Okay~~ I want to kiss."

"Kiss later."

Rod pushed the succubus aside.

Lili clicked her tongue.

She felt somewhat embarrassed to have lost her composure so badly in front of Rod.

"Sorry... can you tell me what that is over there, Lili?"

"... Perhaps she performed 【Bio-Weaving】 on her own body too. I said, that guy is a madman."

Rod looked toward the temple not far away.

The black blood from the corpse explosion turned into a cloud of blood mist, covering the top of the temple.

The next moment.

"ROAR!!!"

A frenzied roar burst from inside the temple.

The pressure of spiritual force became substantial, pressing down on the air, as if even the oxygen was trembling.

The two snapped out of it and immediately entered combat mode.

"What is it now?"

A miniature 【Xing De Fa】 array appeared in Lili's right eye, usable for seeing and sensing over extreme distances.

"The aura of a demon seed... not Bio-Weaving. She summoned a juvenile Terror Beast inside her own womb!"

The blood mist rapidly turned into evil dark energy.

Then it spread outward.

"That is 【Dark Corruption】. Demon Terror Beasts can release this mist through breathing; it can erode life force and all kinds of defenses."

The two quickly retreated, leaving the range of the dark energy.

"Tier Six? No, the intensity seems to have reached Tier Seven."

Lili looked at Rod.

"A Tier Seven Terror Beast possesses part of the 【Fear】 domain. I don't recommend provoking it."

"Why would that half-elf summon this thing?"

"It might not have been her summoning it voluntarily. Terror Beasts are cosmic creatures adept at entering alternate spaces, and mage experiments often involve this; they would take the opportunity to parasitize their eggs onto targets. The half-elf was perhaps unintentionally parasitized during an experiment."

Upon hearing "parasite," Rod felt his scalp tingle.

He retreated a few more steps.

After discussion, the two decided to ignore the thing.

First, it could not affect Naulin, and it was located in a maze rarely visited by humans.

Second, risking an encounter with a Tier Seven cosmic creature that offered no reward and whose situation was unknown was clearly disadvantageous.

Most importantly, Rod hated things that parasitized.

Just report it to Emerald City and that's it.

The people of the Magic Control Union would naturally come to deal with it.

Meanwhile.

From the distant temple, a terrible crying sound like sawing wood came.

The crying was sharp and piercing, utterly tragic.

Vaguely, it also carried emotions of satisfaction and depression.

It sounded like wailing for the dead.

"This is... the crying of a Terror Beast?"

"No, Terror Beasts are relatively common cosmic creatures on the continent; no one has ever heard of them crying... Could it be that there is someone else inside the temple?"

Lili's eyebrows furrowed.

Having said that.

She tapped her staff lightly, summoning a sparrow made of mana.

It flapped its wings and flew toward the temple.

"Don't fly toward the roof; that's where the Terror Beast is. Watch me."

Rod took a red metal spear from Naga Eve's spell satchel.

Bang!

The long hair shot out, bursting through the sound barrier with a roar midair.

Then it punched a clean hole through the bottom of the temple.

The magic sparrows slipped through the hole and entered the temple smoothly.

A short while later.

Lily stared at the image beneath the eyeball, her expression odd.

"It's her?"

"Who?"

"That banshee from that day, Chris—she's keening for the black-haired boy beneath the temple. Huh, why is there so much water around, and milk? Where's it dripping from?"

Rod coughed repeatedly in fright.

He hurriedly changed the subject.

"How is she there? We didn't even notice her."

"Don't underestimate banshees. I once ran into a seventh-tier one—a single 【Leap of Fear】 scared a sixth-tier spiritual warrior to death. And spirits are naturally immune to a lot of perception spells."

Lily rubbed her chin.

Looking puzzled, she added: "But we threw her into the big jail. Why did she get out so fast?"

Rod recalled Harris mentioning that the prison had been wrecked by jade creatures.

He told Lily this.

"No wonder. Huh? She's actually about to advance a tier."

"It's because of the keening," Rod realized at once.

"I'm afraid so. I don't really know much about them—every race's way of advancing is completely different. But if that's the case, the spiritual fluctuation will let the Dreadbeast notice her."

Lily stretched her body a bit.

Then she layered on a few more spell shields.

"You're going to save her?" Rod asked.

"Yes. What she committed was fraud and extortion, involving an amount not even worth a single Jin Along. In Jade City, she'd serve at most a little over a year in jail—not enough to die here. Anyone from the Chivalrous Alliance who saw this wouldn't just stand by."

"Truly worthy of the Chivalrous Alliance."

Rod smiled, then said:

"I'll draw its attention. You go pull her up."

"Thanks for the help, but I'll be the one to draw attention. You go save her—close combat carries a bigger risk of parasitism."

". Fine."

The two were about to move.

A sudden change!

Squeal!!!

A piercing, sharp scraping sound came through.

A magic filament of orange flame tore across the sky and landed squarely atop the temple.

At that moment, the sky seemed to tear open. A blinding flash of light instantly illuminated the entire world—a radiance billions of times more dazzling than the noonday sun burst forth from the annihilating explosion, shrouding everything around in a glaring white glare.

Immediately after, an indescribable massive energy, centered on the blast point, raged outward like a wild beast. The shockwave swept through at supersonic speed—wherever it passed, buildings collapsed and trees were ripped up by the roots.

The 【Lightless Seal】 on Rod's body instantly hit its tolerance limit and detonated on the spot.

Lily's spell shields blew through three layers in a row, but she reacted astonishingly fast, instantly casting three more. Though she held the line, the blast wave sent her flying.

Rod faced the shockwave and strained to lift his head.

He stared at a massive, pitch-black, twisted plume of smoke rising slowly in the distance, stabbing straight into the heavens.

". A legendary spell?"

Boom—

Wave after wave of blast kept coming.

He seemed rooted to the spot, not budging an inch.

He turned his head to look the other way.

An army marching in step, holding tall poles topped with torches and wearing the red-trimmed armor of Blazing City, came forward in formation.

(End of chapter)