Chapter 42: War Machine, Undead Thing

While I was pondering, several phantom spears fell from the sky in succession, precisely pinning the crucial power points of the monstrous bug’s wings and shoulders, causing its struggles to gradually subside.

Miss Vilyric walked over with her pet and the little village girl she had just saved. Although Tilysha felt some fear towards the creature that had just devoured Ron, she found her heart gradually calming upon seeing the black-haired girl’s composed expression.

As they approached the monster, Leila and Renée just happened to descend from the sky, gathering the pristine white feathers on their backs.

“Lady Vilyric.”

Leila stood with her lance by her side, and both she and her sister were still remarkably calm; this level of combat was hardly a burden for legendary beings.

“You did well. How do you feel?”

Vilyric had deliberately let the sisters take action.

The Priestess or the Giant Dragon could easily handle the monstrous creature that appeared out of nowhere, but honestly, they were just too strong.

When it came time to truly engage, there wasn’t much discernible difference between the so-called earth and sky—very hard to assess the opponent’s strength or miss some crucial traits.

Just like this beetle-like monster; if it were Leila and Renée who had gone in to squish it directly, we would have never noticed its incredible healing ability.

“I’m fine. Although it’s a beast I’ve never encountered, its combat style isn’t too bizarre to understand. Its main weapons are those spikes on its body and its six hard arms akin to long spears; its speed, strength, and defense are quite impressive.”

“As for strength, it’s probably on par with high-tier aerial creatures—still a ways from legendary status. The main issue is that its body structure is very peculiar; it seems to have no weaknesses at all. It’s nearly impossible to kill no matter where you attack, and as for its healing ability, you’ve seen that too.”

Renée, being a mage, also added her observations.

“It feels like it was purely born for combat and killing. Can such a creature really engage in farming or animal husbandry?”

Vilyric glanced at the menacing, thorn-covered bug and nodded instinctively.

That’s right, even though it has six arms, it’s not like human hands with five fingers; instead, it has two sharp, hook-like protrusions. While handy for combat—you could even use them as a spear—gripping a tool effectively becomes a challenge.

Besides, this bug had never uttered a single word throughout the battle; it didn’t even have a mouth. All that was visible on its head were those four pairs of whirling compound eyes.

Combining Tilysha’s description, judging by how it devoured the village guard captain, this thing’s “mouth” must be hidden in its abdomen, only to be revealed when it eats.

Wait… eating?

That’s strange. If all the hundred or so people left in the village were gobbled up by it, how did this creature accommodate such a massive volume of food?

To be cautious, Vilyric brought along a tool that could translate any unknown language directly and tried to reach out to the bug that was firmly pinned to the ground and could hardly move.

“Hey, can you hear me?”

No response. The bug, completely immobilized, merely fixed its fierce and cold gaze silently on Vilyric and her group.

Well… it seems communication is completely impossible.

Moreover, even in this state, its eyes didn’t show a hint of fear; not even the most basic survival instincts were apparent.

No excessive communication, showing no sign of retreat; it simply operated for the sake of combat and consuming. Truly…

“…Disgusting.”

Even the Phantom Cloud, referred to as the “Southern Disaster,” travels with a clear purpose of spreading seeds and gathering power. But with this creature, Vilyric felt no aim; it seemed solely dedicated to killing for the sake of killing.

This was a true walking disaster, a nightmare for all living beings.

“Lady Vilyric, how shall we deal with this thing?”

Noticing the black-haired girl hadn’t moved for a while, Leila tentatively asked.

“…”

To be honest, Vilyric had originally intended to keep this peculiar creature she had never seen before, to take it back and study it slowly. But after understanding its nature, the Priestess, who was usually very interested in rare things, surprisingly changed her mind.

“Kill it, but don’t use too strong an attack all at once. Try attacking from various points slowly to see if we can find its weak spot.”

“Understood.”

Thus, Renée gripped her lance and began to pierce the various parts of the bug’s body from the bottom up. She had no fondness for this disgusting creature either and struck without mercy, each thrust completely impaling it.

It seemed there wasn’t much bodily fluid inside this beast; even when Renée’s lance pierced through to the other side, it only brought out a minimal amount of dark green liquid that looked like blood. Truly, I can’t fathom how such a large body manages to function.

However, Vilyric had no intention of dissecting the bug piece by piece; she was a priestess, not a mad scientist.

Being slowly pierced through in every part without dying could be deemed as a rather gruesome punishment among humans. Even if this creature had little blood, after dozens of stabs, the ground was already soaked green.

While Vilyric and the others were fine, the little village girl named Tilysha had been expected to shy away in fear, but when Vilyric turned to look, she found Tilysha trembling all over, her leaf-green eyes still fixed on Renée’s execution.

It seemed many of her important friends had been swallowed alive by this bug; she must be feeling a tremendous hatred in her heart.

Without saying much, Vilyric continued to observe the state change of the bug.

It was absurd.

Having been subjected to such slow torture, the creature didn’t even flinch once, as if it hadn’t been pierced at all.

What was crucial was that it seemed to have no weaknesses anywhere on its body. Even when its eight compound-eyed head was pierced, and its eye socket burst, it continued to rapidly regenerate in an orderly fashion.

Impressive… this was definitely way beyond anything undead-like.

But now, relying not just on game skills, but also learning to use Soul Power for investigation, Vilyric had noticed, even without direct contact, that a very peculiar energy always lingered in the creature’s abdomen, where it consumed food.

Ordinary physical attacks, such as the ones from Leila’s lance, wouldn’t affect it at all. But as the bug began to heal from its wounds, that energy would slowly dissipate.

The more severe the wounds, the greater the amount of energy lost.

Linking this to its behavior of devouring lives, Vilyric quickly arrived at a hypothesis.

First, rebuilding its body required energy; no matter how absurd a creature, it couldn’t create energy out of thin air.

Therefore, it must somehow convert the lives it devoured into this unique form and store it within itself.

In other words, as long as we completely deplete this power and prevent it from consuming further, we can truly kill this strange and uncanny thing.

However, on the flip side, it could also be understood that the more lives it consumes, the harder it becomes to deal with. Unless we inflicted instant damage far exceeding its limits, turning it to ash directly, otherwise…

   

---