The battle erupted in an instant as thunderous light collided with rotting flesh, kicking up clouds of dust and spray from the sea.
“Katy! Get back!”
Gray’s voice exploded through the wind.
“Okay, okay, I’m getting out of here!”
Katy’s response sounded panicked, but her footsteps were exceptionally light.
She perfectly evaded every sneak attack from the hands bursting out of the ground, even managing to heal Gray a few times to wipe away his minor scratches.
As lightning and arms clashed once more, the resulting shockwave slammed directly into the small live-streaming drone hovering in the air.
The poor robot let out a screeching whine and plummeted straight into the churning seawater like a swatted fly.
**[Signal Interrupted]**
The red light flickered out as a puff of black smoke rose from the small machine, leaving it completely lifeless.
“Ah! The camera is broken!”
Katy cried out in fake alarm, but she secretly sighed in relief.
‘The annoying camera is finally gone. Now, even if I have to unleash my power to help this idiot Gray, it’ll be a lot more convenient.’
In the center of the battlefield, Gray and the Thousand-Handed Demon, Slather, had fallen into a brief stalemate.
Although Gray’s raw strength surpassed this Star Glimmer Level boss, Slather possessed nearly infinite arm regeneration and the home-field advantage.
Combined with Gray’s need to protect Katy, the fight was locked in a dead heat.
“Heh… heheh…”
A twisted slit opened on Slather’s “face,” which was composed of countless stitched-together palms.
He slowly raised two arms whose wounds had only just begun to scab over, showing them to Gray and Katy — one was a thick, burly arm wearing a bracer, while the other was slender and fair.
“Look, humans.”
Slather’s voice sounded like two pieces of raw meat rubbing together, making it nauseating to hear.
“These belong to the two little mice who broke into this place three days ago. Just like you, it was a male Warrior and a female Priest.”
“The male was strong; he cut off many of my collectibles, but…”
The monster’s thousands of fingers wiggled simultaneously in excitement.
“Once I caught the female and tore off one of her legs right in front of him… the male collapsed. He dropped his sword and knelt on the ground, weeping and begging me not to hurt her anymore.”
“And then — I killed them both. Especially that male’s right hand; cutting it off felt absolutely wonderful.”
Gray didn’t speak, but the violent lightning surrounding him suddenly contracted into a blinding, pale blue.
“Die!!”
Gray’s figure vanished instantly.
In the next second, a flash of lightning streaked across the sky and sea.
With no flashy techniques — just pure speed and power — Slather didn’t even have time to take a defensive stance.
The thousands of arms on his body were severed at the root in that single heartbeat, and foul-smelling black blood sprayed down like rain.
In mid-air, Gray gripped his blade in a reverse hold, aiming the edge directly for Slather’s demon core.
However, the Decapitating Demon, now reduced to little more than a bare, fleshy torso, showed no fear.
He still had a few arms hidden in his abdomen that hadn’t been cut. Using that final pair, he suddenly tore open a Parchment Scroll.
Blackish-purple magic power erupted, causing Gray to hesitate instinctively for a moment.
A scroll?
In his experience, members of the Demon Race were beasts that released magic based on instinct; only human mages used items like spell scrolls.
That momentary hesitation caused him to miss his final chance for a killing blow.
The blackish-purple light didn’t lunge at him; instead, it accurately enveloped the unsuspecting girl behind him.
“Katy!!”
Gray’s eyes nearly split with rage as he turned back, but he only caught a vanishing shadow.
Under his desperate gaze, the girl’s figure disappeared along with the light of the scroll.
***
The surrounding mist cleared, replaced by a blood-red Space.
Countless torches stood at the edges of the area, marking the boundary between reality and illusion.
“Welcome to my dining table, female.”
Slather’s massive body writhed in the center of the Space, the arms Gray had just severed regenerating at a visible rate.
He looked down at the tiny, blonde girl before him and let out a piercing, erratic laugh.
“That annoying Warrior can’t get in here. Now, it’s just the two of us.”
“I will start by breaking every one of your fingers, listening to your screams, and then I’ll tear your arms off… just like I did to the last female.”
However, the expected screams and pleas for mercy never came.
The little Priest standing there didn’t tremble; instead, she laughed.
Slather felt a surge of irritation.
“What are you laughing at? Have you gone mad with fear?”
“I’m laughing at how stupid you are.”
Katy smoothed her messy bangs and adjusted her collar, her tone as flat as if she were complaining that a dinner dessert tasted bad.
“Slather, don’t you recognize who I am?”
“Who are you?” the twisted demon laughed.
“You’re the next Hero I’ll kill, my next collectible!”
“Tsk, utterly ignorant.”
Katy sighed, and the pitiful, delicate aura she had maintained while following Gray vanished completely.
She slowly raised her head, her deep blue eyes no longer holding a single shred of Katy’s softness.
“As I thought, your brain, which probably isn’t even as big as a walnut, still doesn’t work very well.”
The girl’s voice changed; it was no longer sweet and high-pitched, but carried a tone of mockery and contempt that no one had ever heard before.
“You— ”
Slather’s questioning words got stuck in his throat as he suddenly felt an inexplicable chill.
“Use that pathetic brain of yours and think, Slather,” Katy said, pointing toward the outer wall of the Space as she analyzed the situation unhurriedly.
“Gray and I look like we have a very good relationship, don’t we?”
“Even though you used your home-field advantage to negate his raw power, if you kill me here while I’m acting as his companion… guess what kind of combat power that A-rank Warrior outside will unleash the moment this domain dissolves out of sheer rage?”
Slather froze.
He truly hadn’t considered that question.
Aren’t humans weak creatures who fall into despair and beg for mercy when they see their lovers about to die?
“Finally realized something is wrong?”
Katy watched the monster’s stiff movements, the mockery at the corners of her mouth deepening.
“That’s why I say you’re more of a hindrance than a help. Kicking you out of the Labyrinth back then was truly the best decision I ever made.”
“Back then… kicked out of the Labyrinth?”
Slather’s thousands of arms stopped writhing at once as a terrifying thought rose in his underdeveloped mind.
The Thousand-Handed Demon stared intently at the girl, his voice trembling.
“Who… who are you?! Who the hell are you?!”
“Who am I?”
Katy let out a soft chuckle, her fingertips lightly brushing over her flat stomach.
*Hum— *
Blackish-purple light tore through the blood-red Space.
“Nocturne.”
Following her summons, an ultra-heavy warhammer at least two times the girl’s height and solid black appeared out of thin air in her hands.
To Slather, the aura of the human female holding the giant hammer underwent an earth-shattering transformation.
The pressure that made his very soul tremble was all too familiar to Slather.
It was so familiar that his thousands of hands began shaking violently, and his massive body actually slumped onto the ground.
“No… Nono…”
Slather tried to scream out the name Noctiluca, but extreme terror made his vocal cords seize up.
“My name isn’t Nono, and I’m not the weak, red-haired White Moonlight of some loser.”
The girl, her eyes glowing with blue, vertical pupils, lifted the multi-ton hammer with one hand as easily as if it were a wooden stick.
“While I was away, you’ve been acting like quite the arrogant stray dog, haven’t you, Slather?”