Chapter 40: Despair

Strange, so strange.

The village guards at the entrance are gone.

There should have been two on duty. They were picked from the young men in the village by Uncle Ron, a retired high-level adventurer, trained specifically and equipped with homemade weapons and simple leather armor. Even when faced with the Empire’s regular soldiers, they should have had a fighting chance.

Where did they go?

My heart raced and unease grew stronger.

Tilysha carefully walked through the village, trying to knock on the doors of the houses along the way.

However, either no one was home and the doors were firmly closed, or the front doors were forcefully broken down, revealing chaos inside. Some even had dark red liquid stains on the walls, making the little village girl feel an ominous chill.

But there were no people to be seen anywhere.

Robbers?

In the Wasteland, it’s quite common for bandits to raid villages for loot. Although the Nobos Ironblood Empire’s law and order is said to be much better than that of the nearby small countries, it still couldn’t eliminate this phenomenon completely.

In White City 27 Village, since Tilysha could remember, there had been similar situations twice. But ever since Uncle Ron settled here and trained a formidable village guard, bandits had not dared to come near the village.

Moreover, the big shots from the United Kingdom had just passed through nearby; any robber with a bit of brains wouldn’t choose this time to attack.

So…

Although most of the villagers had gone out to the fields, about one-third of the old, young, and the village guards remained here. Where on earth did over a hundred people go?

Tilysha did not head towards her own home. She decided to go directly to find the village chief, the strongest person in the village, Uncle Ron, who lived next door.

Though he injured one of his right eyes and had some inconvenience with his left hand, Tilysha had seen Uncle Ron easily take down four or five attacking village guard youths with his bare hands in a matter of seconds.

If she could find him, she should be safe.

White City 27 Village wasn’t large, with only about a hundred households, and the village chief’s and Uncle Ron’s homes were centrally located.

The road remained eerily quiet, and the occasional strange drag marks on the ground hastened Tilysha’s steps.

Running with all her might, she reached there in under three minutes.

Uncle Ron’s door was closed. He was one of the few pure-blooded humans in the village, nearly fifty years old. Though he had a lazy personality, usually sleeping until nearly noon and saying odd things to girls, he was actually quite reliable and gentle.

“Uncle Ron! Wake up, something happened!!”

She knocked urgently on the heavy door several times, but there was no response from within. Just as Tilysha was about to take some forceful measures to wake up this perpetually lazy guard captain, the door suddenly swung open.

Exploded open.

“Yah!”

A forceful surge struck the girl standing outside, sending her flying and crashing against a low tree in the yard to stop.

“Ouch, ouch, ouch… What the heck is going on…?”

Tilysha grimaced in pain, with sharp splinters lodged in her arm and thigh, but thankfully she had instinctively used her hands to protect her torso, so her vital organs hadn’t been hurt.

This was one of the emergency techniques Uncle Ron had casually taught her during a past occasion.

Though her whole body ached and her head spun from the impact, it was clearly not the time to dwell on that. Tilysha steadied herself against the tree, looking up toward the scene ahead.

“Ah… ahhh…”

The little village girl’s mouth leaked an uncontrollable wail.

What lay before her was a sight that could only be described as despair.

A terrifying monster over two meters tall, covered in black shell, with eight grotesque compound eyes on its face, was slowly stepping over the broken door and walking towards her.

Tilysha had encountered magical beasts before when out and about; most were docile creatures not particularly aggressive. She had even had a stimulating experience once, watching from afar as adventurers from White City fought local ferocious magical beasts.

But she could guarantee she had never seen a monster so vicious that sent chills down her spine.

Compared to this thing, even the so-called evil beasts that sometimes descended from the mountains to attack travelers and villages appeared cute and gentle.

This creature looked like an upright beetle; its separated semi-circular parts resembled wings, topped with two tentacles of unclear purpose. If that were all, it would be within the realm of acceptance.

But the problem was, this armored beetle was covered with wickedly sharp spikes of varying lengths. Aside from its sharply pointed head with compound eyes, it seemed almost clad in an armor of barbed spikes, which would poke wounds everywhere it touched.

The evidence lay in the dark red liquid stains, likely blood, on most of those spikes.

What truly drove Tilysha into despair was that one of its six thick, wickedly spiked arms was clutching the shattered remains of a humanoid corpse, making it nearly impossible to discern its form.

Though she couldn’t see the face clearly, the blood-soaked insignia on the sleeve indicating it belonged to the village guard, along with some distinct characteristics relative to the house the monster had emerged from, led Tilysha to suspect its identity.

“U-Uncle Ron… how could this…?”

That sword, said to have come from a master, nearly legendary as a magical weapon, often boasted by Uncle Ron, was half-driven into the monster’s chest through the gaps in its shell, with the other half gripped tightly in the stiff, lifeless hand of what had once been Ron.

But such a severe, even potentially fatal injury for an ordinary creature seemed to have no effect on this monster.

Its eight compound eyes, aligned in four rows, began spinning, seemingly fixated on the terrified Tilysha.

Then, the monster’s abdomen suddenly split open with a massive gash, and it proceeded to swallow Ron’s corpse whole, sword and all.

“Ahhhhh!!!!!!”

Tilysha broke down.

Seeing this scene, even with her naivety, she could no longer deny where all the missing villagers and guards had gone.

They had all been eaten by this monster!!!

Tilysha desperately moved her trembling legs, stumbling in her attempt to run away. However, her terror and the injuries from the previous impact caused her to trip over her own feet, crashing down again.

Meanwhile, the monster moved at an astonishing speed, spreading its wings and diving straight for Tilysha without hesitation!

“Yah!!”

In the face of death, the inexperienced and timid little village girl could only curl up like an ostrich, covering her head with her hands, self-deceivingly squatting in place waiting for death to arrive.

However, the anticipated pain and darkness did not come as expected.

With a loud bang, an intense blast of air surged past her, the anxious tension from being on the brink of death began to dissipate.

“What… what just happened…?”

Tilysha raised her head, dazed, only to see two white-haired girls with snow-white wings unfurling behind them, one near and one far, fiercely battling that monster with their spears and staffs in the air.

Their speed and power completely exceeded Tilysha’s understanding.

She had seen adventurers fighting magical beasts before, or people sparring with each other, but compared to the battle unfolding before her, those scenes felt like children playing house.

At that moment, the little village girl felt someone pat her shoulder from behind.

Simultaneously, a voice as sweet as heavenly music rang out.

“Are you okay? Do you need some healing?”

   

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