Chapter 114: Child of the Beast

"Investigate evil." The light of judgment spread out, and without doubt, a sea of red appeared before them.

The red, glowing like a lightbulb, was naturally the mind flayer behind the dwarves—this was one of the most notorious evil races on the Material Plane!

"Smite evil!"

When the two paladins charged forward like mad dogs, every evil being should have known things were going badly.

"KIK?! SRUTFE! (Surface dwellers?! Kill them!)"

At the mind flayer's hoarse roar, the goliath dwarves with collars immediately surged forward, eyes blazing red.

Their steps were sluggish, but their arms, gripping hammers and shields, showed no hesitation—driven by their master's will, they slipped into a frenzy.

No wonder the opponents Li En had faced earlier were so weak; slaves could never be healthy or ambitious without their master's whip driving them.

"Get out of my way!"

The silver holy sword blazed brilliantly in the night; faced with the approaching "evil," the paladin's divine calling was fully activated.

"Swish!"

The blade of holy power carved a perfect arc through the air, its edge gliding like a swallow—easily dodging the raised hammer, the sword had not yet landed before the head had already flown free.

"Feather Fall" was activated; for other races, this leap-and-slash tactic seemed foolish, but against the short-statured dwarves, it was an almost overwhelming tactical advantage.

"Evil, die!"

Li En danced among the short, red crowd, his blade carving out semicircles.

With the aid of the spell, his leaps were explosive yet light, his landings as smooth and graceful as a swallow's glide.

Unlike the brutish, brawling style of other paladins, Li En at this moment moved like an unarmored sword saint.

Each swing of his blade effortlessly severed at least one head—whether through direct combat or aerial slash, he hunted like a predator facing reckless prey.

The gray dwarves were never weaklings, but before him, they were defenseless targets.

"How beautiful." Behind him, Violet Rose narrowed her eyes, her expression dreamy, almost entranced.

She had never before seen Li En's fighting style.

Unlike the expected brawny paladin, this sword technique—nearly approaching the Dao—and mature tactical choices were not merely inherited masterwork, but a refined masterpiece forged through countless trials.

"More importantly, it had fallen into the hands of a perfect one."

Whether a combat technique finds its true wielder is pure luck—perhaps only one in a dozen generations could truly unleash its radiance.

And Li En might just be the perfect one.

"Is this… his way of fighting?"

Salliman was also surprised; she had never seen Li En fight before. In her mind, he was a peculiar gentleman—but on the battlefield, he roared like a lion.

Larry, lagging behind, had just begun to raise her sword—yet Li En had already cut through the entire line. Not a single enemy remained for her.

Li En did not overly rely on the Wallbreaker's armor-piercing ability; though each strike could pierce the dwarves' armor, this lethal secret remained hidden beneath the surface.

Merely superior sword skill, longer reach, and explosive speed, combined with the leap-slash tactic granted by the spell, easily shattered the gray dwarves' short shield wall.

"Stop him! Crush his skull!" a moment ago, the mind flayer had roared.

"Wait—we can talk," now the mind flayer was already trying to negotiate.

Too fast, too fast—when master-level swordsmanship was amplified by speed-enhancing magic, the dwarf line collapsed in mere seconds, and Li En closed in on the mind flayer behind.

Talk? Gather more intelligence? The power of mind suggestion spread through the air, and Li En hesitated for a moment.

"Mind Shock!" But to believe the mind flayer's words was absurd! Even as he spoke of negotiation, he was clearly preparing a psychic ability.

"Crack!" Sudden, searing pain from above shattered the mind flayer's nearly instantaneous psychic attack.

It looked down in shock and saw an ugly mechanical lizard puppet grinning at it.

In the upright lizard's hand was a metal wrench!

"Mind Shock!" Fury surged to its peak—this soul-rending psychic explosion would paralyze everyone nearby.

But it was too late.

The paladin's holy sword was already before its eyes.

The slave warriors? Oh—they lay dead everywhere.

Talk? How to talk? Talk in your next life.

The flying octopus head still looked bewildered.

How had he died so quickly?

The octopus-headed creature, who devoured brains monthly, was a race destined for evil.

Its final memory was of its skull, riddled with wounds specifically targeted by the holy smite—the severed neck spewing blood.

Then, the headless corpse of this unknown intelligent being collapsed lifelessly.

"Too fast!" Salliman exclaimed, halting her ongoing Mind Shield (absorbs damage and reflects some psychic attacks).

She had intended to reinforce the front line's anti-psychic defenses—this was the most effective use for their psychic caster.

Yet this powerful mind flayer had died before Li En in under three seconds—she hadn't even finished casting.

With the master's death, the psychic network between master and slaves collapsed instantly—some gray dwarves died on the spot, others went mad. The mind flayer had no such mercy to let its freed slaves escape safely.

The ambush began swiftly and ended even faster; when Li En lowered his blade, even he hadn't expected it to be this easy.

Reality isn't a game of stats and panels—before superior swordsmanship, superior weapon, and overwhelming soul power, if the front line fails to hold, the backline is merely one cut away from death, two cuts from oblivion.

In this process, rear-line casters might have only one reaction window. Kuku's "fatal" ambush disrupted its casting—effectively sealing its fate.

Li En was still breathing deeply to recover, while Kuku, humming a tune, had already begun looting the battlefield.

A perfect "Li Ensu Combo." At least now, Kuku picked up each treasure with complete peace of mind.

"Uh… killed too fast. How do we gather intelligence?"

"Relax. The mind flayer wouldn't have only these few slaves."

Only eight gray dwarf slaves lay dead—this number wasn't small for a standard patrol squad, but it was far fewer than the mind flayer's typical slave complement.

And when it went out on a mission, it wouldn't bring only combat slaves; gray dwarves were strong fighters, but they were also terrible laborers.

"You… who are you?" Indeed, deeper in the village, they found some busy underground gnomes.

Their necks bore no psychic collars—those cost money, and in the mind flayer's eyes, these weaklings weren't worth the effort (gnomes had innate psychic resistance; direct enslavement was highly ineffective).

They scoured the ruins, using their small stature and nimble hands to search for what the mind flayer sought.

Around them were gray dwarf overseers—but none remained as a fighting force; some had gone mad, others had fled.

The lucky ones far enough away had escaped the psychic shock of their master's death; Li En's group had no interest in chasing them.

Li En raised his right hand; holy light illuminated the area, and the paladin's honor and title calmed the panicked gnome children.

Underground gnomes and mushroom folk were among the few benevolent beings in the underground world, though the former often survived in rock crevices, and if unlucky, lived in abject misery—especially near gray dwarves and dark elves.

These here were clearly even more unfortunate—they had encountered a mind flayer, an alien race born to conquer.

"There's a mind flayer clan. They have a hive-mind."

The information they provided had been verified as real—and it was grim.

This meant that if the hive-mind wasn't too far away, it likely already knew of Li En's party.

But Li En already knew this—the Eternal Hero Hall, housing the souls of the righteous, had been infiltrated by the supremely evil mind flayer hive-mind. The greatest joke of this world.

Mind flayers are nearly destined to be evil because their very existence and reproduction demand the death and suffering of countless intelligent beings.

Their young, like tadpoles, are dangerous parasites requiring a living intelligent creature's brain and body to become their new vessel.

The flesh beneath the mind flayer's head just now was probably some poor soul's.

To sustain their own life, as parasites, they must regularly consume the brains of living intelligent beings.

Their hive-mind is a collection of dead mind flayer brains—a terrifying artificial construct.

The entire race consists of parasites and slavers, evil beings that must constantly devour other intelligent species—and thus, they are true enemies of the continent.

They are opposed and hunted by most intelligent races, forced to survive only in the underground world or the dark corners of great cities (sewers, black markets).

"They're searching for an animal? A very beautiful white deer?"

Mind flayers, who possess interdimensional travel, have excellent eyesight.

They were searching for treasures—but from the gnomes' reports, the creatures they sent out to find were merely ordinary-looking white deer.

Li En looked at the drawing—it seemed no different from a normal deer, except its pure-colored eyes were slightly unsettling.

"Child of the Beast. This is the Child of the Beast."

Violet Rose, who had been watching quietly, spoke up—her ever-smiling face now serious.

Was this a hint that this was an event demanding serious attention?

"It is the direct bloodline of the Beast—the 'Prince' of the Beast Clan."

She drew a deep breath and stated the gravity of the situation.

"Each one can create a Magical Girl!" She turned to look at the gnomes.

"How many?" The Child of the Beast never appears alone—its appearance means the worst possibility.

"Uh… the hive-mind said there might be four." This, it seemed, was the worst possible outcome.

(End of Chapter)