The Lizardmen were swept away like sandcastles in front of the waves.
Even for Lizardmen who feared not death, such a gap made it nearly impossible to bridge the divide.
Even pouring oil and setting fire, the Mermaiden clearly was not taking much of a hit.
In the midst of this chaos, even female Lizardmen came out to throw ropes, attempting to hinder the Mermaiden’s movements a bit, but instead, when the Mermaiden yanked on the ropes caught on her arms and tail, wails erupted as female Lizardmen were flung hither and thither.
“Unbelievable…”
Yona sighed as she witnessed the scene.
Her Sacred Barrier was already stained red with the blood of Lizardmen, but with every healing, that many Lizardmen turned into corpses.
At her feet, a Lizardman shaman was lying in a pool of blood, leaving only his upper body, and she had her limits on how many Lizardmen she could heal alone.
Yona couldn’t figure out how to stop that Mermaiden or what to do.
“Yona!”
Alex rushed over and grabbed Yona’s hand.
His face was drenched in sweat, mixed with sand and looking quite the mess.
In the meantime, Yona scanned Alex’s body, searching for any injuries.
Only a scrape here and there, she let out a sigh of relief inwardly.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. You hanging in there, Baldy?”
“I’m okay too. Kaiyak’s over there.”
Leading the remaining Lizardmen who hadn’t retreated, Kaiyak was fiercely fighting.
The Mermaiden roared repeatedly, unleashing a flurry of attacks on the Lizardmen, but under Kaiyak’s command, the Lizardmen were somehow managing to deflect those strikes.
Yet they consistently refused to abandon their assault.
Even though those attacks were so feeble that they couldn’t even hope to take down the Mermaiden or even just hold her back.
“Don’t let her get to the Shrine! We’re stopping her here!”
Kaiyak shouted with a glint in his eye.
The direction the Mermaiden was approaching step by step led to the Shrine’s altar, the sacred spot.
The shrine, tying spirit strings to an egg-shaped rock and setting up an altar in front, served as a long-standing spiritual anchor for the Lizardmen along with the shrine in the sanctuary.
They couldn’t let such a pathetic monster set foot in a place like that.
But Kaiyak’s shout was utterly futile.
No matter how much the Lizardmen lunged in attack, the Mermaiden only roared loudly.
That roar held not a trace of pain, making the situation look utterly hopeless.
【Are you really struggling against such a lowly beast? What’s the matter, do you need my help?】
Yona gritted her teeth and ignored the voice.
Instead, she shot venomously at Kaiyak.
“Kaiyak! Is there no Archer, no Archer at all?!”
One of the Mermaiden’s eyes was sunken.
It was surely the eye that had burst under Kaiyak’s attack yesterday, not yet recovered.
Even with the black goo flowing, a completely ruined organ could not be healed, or maybe it just wasn’t fully healed yet.
“Is it that you can’t do it, or is it just that you’re not fully recovered?”
“There’s none…! Lizardmen are a melee species!”
“Ugh, stop the nonsense!”
Yona was furiously racking her brain again.
Meanwhile, the mermaid was swinging her arms and tail like it was her own world, sending the Lizardmen flying, and with every swing, screams erupted and blood splattered.
“Alex, Allex—!”
“I’m here, stop screaming!”
Alex, bouncing off a blind rock with his shield, grimaced at Yona.
He was busy blocking stones and fragments flying at him, even though Yona was right nearby.
“Can’t you throw a hammer?! Smash that jerk’s eyes out!”
Alex assessed the distance while gripping the hammer in his hand.
Even from just looking, the distance to the mermaid’s head was quite a stretch.
Throwing it wasn’t a problem, but whether he could actually hit her eye was another story altogether.
“They say the divine couple threw a mace to burst a monster’s eye! You can do it too!”
“Hey, hey… choose your comparisons better!”
Even so, Alex gripped the hammer tighter and gauged the distance.
Honestly, if it worked, great; if not, whatever.
It was definitely worth a shot, so Alex decided to take a chance.
【This doesn’t seem like an opponent that can be dealt with such childish antics, but how about borrowing my power now?】
“Shut up, just zip it!”
While intimidating Vervaria, Yona hoped for Alex’s success and stood waiting behind him.
Who knew what would happen? She figured it was best to remain right behind him.
Alex took a few deep breaths while holding the hammer.
After winding up with vigor—
“Hyahhh!”
He shouted and hurled the hammer with all his might.
The hammer shot straight—
And hit the mermaid right in the mouth, crushing one of her protruding fangs.
“Hey, you idiot!”
“Do you think this is easy?!”
As a result, the mermaid shifted her gaze to Alex.
Till now, the mermaid had only focused her onslaught on Kaiyak and the other Lizardmen, but now she was glaring at Alex.
“W-What are we going to do now?!”
“…I-I’ll heal you…?”
“Hey!”
As a fist came swinging down towards him, Alex raised his shield but realized this wasn’t it, so he retracted the shield and rolled aside.
Yona, unlike Alex, jumped back, and as spikes flew toward Alex, he held out his shield to deflect them.
“What now?!”
“What do you mean what now?!”
Alex pulled out another backup hammer from behind.
But he wasn’t confident enough to throw it again.
Even though he had enough time to accurately aim without being targeted, throwing it while dodging an attack would just be a waste of a weapon.
Yona nervously chewed on her lips.
All around were the bodies of Lizardmen, and many awaited her healing.
Many Lizardmen were waiting for her healing.
In fact, Lizardmen were even being attacked by their own kind.
Meanwhile, because of her misjudgment, now the mermaid’s gaze has turned toward Alex, plunging the situation into further chaos.
【What are we to do now?】
With Vervaria’s whisper, Alex let out a bizarre scream and rolled around several times.
With a gap in physique and attacks raining down from above, it was difficult to deflect them with a shield, leaving no choice but to dodge.
Yona chewed her lips at the sight.
If Vervaria could lend her strength, the situation might be resolved in an instant.
But the reason she hadn’t done so till now was very clear and evident.
The reason being that she was a priest.
Is it really right for such a priest to handle monsters with the help of a demon?
And would a demon lend its power willingly?
A demon is called a demon for a reason.
It doesn’t tell lies, but cleverly twists the truth to serve its own interests.
It doesn’t break promises, but twists them to lead others to ruin.
If she were to borrow the power of such a demon—
Would Yona be able to remain as Yona?
【Haven’t you already ceased to be human the moment you accepted me? To say you won’t use my power, that’s quite a comical thing.】
Yona couldn’t argue against that.
Even though she calls herself a priest, can she really still claim to be one after accepting a demon?
Though she identifies as human, can she still call herself human after accepting a demon?
In the meantime, Alex was narrowly dodging attacks.
Even Yona could see that the durability of his shield was nearing its limit.
Moreover, all around lay the corpses of Lizardmen.
Kaiyak looked exhausted to the bone, and it was clear that the fall of this Lizardden was imminent.
And she absolutely did not want to accept the idea that among the remnants of that fallen village, her corpse and Alex’s corpse would be left behind.
‘…If you lend me your strength, what do you expect to gain in return?’
【I haven’t thought about that yet. I don’t know what I’ll ask of you.】
‘What kind of trickery is this, exactly?’
【Is that a refusal? If you don’t want it, then forget it. Your death doesn’t mean mine, you know. If you die, I can just find another vessel.】
That damn bastard.
Yona cursed internally while nodding her head.
After all, she had to survive first, so she tried to positively reinforce herself in her mind.
– Boom!
At the sound that burst like a large drum, Alex turned around.
The sound coming from where Yona should have been made him turn instinctively.
Yona’s nun outfit, the sleeve that should have wrapped her left arm, was tattered and fluttering like dark snow.
A snake that had been tightly coiling around her left arm, which should have been revealed as pure white, was gradually becoming faint.
The sky was gradually fading.
“H-Huh, the sky…?”
The morning sunlight that had once shone down was now replaced by darkness, as if the sun had suddenly taken a break and left behind a black veil.
Looking up, the sky was filled with thick black clouds that seemed to block out the sunlight entirely, making it feel like night had come early.
And from that sky, a sound like “shaaa—” echoed, as if something massive was gliding over the grassy field.
“Could it be… Yona…?”
Alex’s voice trembled.
In his line of sight, Yona’s left arm had already vanished without a trace.
The serpent that had wrapped around her left arm—seemingly never there to begin with—had disappeared, leaving nothing behind.
– Grrr…
The Mermadein, startled by the sudden change, looked around before finally glancing up at the sky.
The sky, filled with gray clouds, created a sense of foreboding that even a mindless creature couldn’t ignore, causing it to cower instead of roar.
【It is I who have descended after a long time. My vessel was so comfortable that I took a long rest. Now, it is time to feast.】
The ground trembled with a booming sound.
Yona was also staring up at the sky.
Though she inwardly cursed everything under the sun, what could she do now?
She was powerless, merely observing the spectacle unfold.
A sinister red glow burst forth, piercing through the clouds.
The light casting down on this Lizardden looked utterly ominous.
– Grrruuuugh…!
The Mermadein stepped back instinctively.
Overwhelmed by a primal fear, it sensed that staying put would only lead to its demise.
The Mermadein tried to escape.
But before it could react…
With a thunderous roar, a massive serpent descended from the sky.
With a mouth wider than its own body, the serpent lunged down, wrapping itself around the Mermadein.
Before the Mermadein could even scream in agony, the serpent’s jaws clamped down on its upper body.
The sound of bones breaking echoed as the Mermadein was ensnared within the serpent’s coils.
With each gulp from the serpent, the Mermadein’s body was drawn ever closer into its gaping maw.
The surroundings fell eerily silent.
The already dead Lizardmen, the injured groaning Lizardmen, and even the surviving ones were all still.
As the Mermadein faced its end, the tainted Lizardmen slowed their movements, eventually ceasing altogether.
Yona watched the scene in a daze.
‘…Is that a demon?’
This gigantic creature, that not even dozens of Lizardmen could injure, was devouring the Mermadein so easily it was almost laughable.
Yona blankly observed the feeding frenzy of Vervaria.
A far greater and primal fear pressed down upon her, overshadowing even the dread she had felt towards the Mermadein.
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