Chapter 178: The Great Serpent Forest, Part 1

Mother, Ashera, and I headed for the Great Serpent Forest, but in the end we didn’t arrive until the Mantises had fallen asleep and travel became smooth.

We were now resting in a tree, eating dried meat and black bread for dinner.

Before the meal, I had eaten one of Brother’s preserved foods—the “pickled plum”—and nearly spat it out.

It was more sour than anything I’d ever tasted.

Brother said that very sourness “relieved fatigue,” but to my senses, sour food felt rotten…

He also insisted it wasn’t rot but the effect of something called “citric acid,” or whatever it was.

Brother had always said incomprehensible things from time to time.

I might not understand these pickled plums, but surely they truly did relieve fatigue.

And the sourness had begun to taste good as I adjusted to it…

Was I being corrupted?

I shook my head and drove the needless thought away.

“I’m about to use wide-area sonar at maximum range.”

“Understood. Ashera, stay alert just in case.”

“Yes, Master.”

I projected wide-area sonar to its full radius of one thousand medes and examined the enemy’s positions and condition.

A large mana response lay roughly eight hundred medes away.

It was probably the lord.

It showed no reaction to the sonar, so I suspected it couldn’t use magic.

We knew the lord’s position. The night assault now seemed viable.

“Mother, there’s one large mana source eight hundred medes ahead. I believe it’s the lord.”

“I see. Then let’s rest here.”

“Understood.”

We decided to eat and wait here until the assault.

The distance from the lord was comfortable. Even if something happened, the disturbance shouldn’t reach it.

I wanted to recover my mana and confront it in perfect condition if possible.

“Mother, I still have three-quarters of my mana, but I’d like to sleep two or three hours and recover it.”

“Good. Ashera, you should sleep too, just in case.”

“Master, will you be all right alone?”

“Ashera… Who do you think you’re speaking to?”

“I shall go to sleep immediately!”

“Good. Both of you tie yourselves firmly to the tree first.”

““Yes.””

As the sleeping draught stole my consciousness, the last sight I saw was the Mantises sleeping in several clusters.

I woke slowly.

My pocket watch showed that I’d slept about three hours.

Mother and Ashera were having a light late-night meal.

“El, you’re awake. Even if you don’t want food, eat something small.”

“Yes.”

Apparently, neither had actually been hungry.

Given how ravenous they ordinarily appeared, it was difficult to tell how much of that was sincere.

I took dried meat from my pack and gnawed on it while we reviewed the plan one final time.

“Unless it moved after my earlier sonar, the lord is eight hundred medes ahead.”

“Yes. We’ll go there first. If it’s present, we attack at once. If not, use wide-area sonar again even though it costs mana.”

“Understood.”

“Ashera and I will clear away the small fry once El begins fighting. We won’t let them approach you.”

“Yes.”

The plan remained unchanged.

Everything else would be handled according to circumstances.

“And El, use the Miasma Stone at your discretion. Al said the same thing, but we collected them for moments like this. Hold nothing back.”

“Yes. Understood.”

“If necessary, we take the mark, use the stone, and withdraw.”

“…Yes. That emergency escape is why Brother and I split up.”

“Exactly. Everyone’s safety comes first, securing the mark second, extermination third. Don’t mix up the order.”

“I won’t.”

“El takes the lead. We’ll match your movements. Understood, Ashera?”

“Yes, Master.”

“Then I’m entrusting my back to you.”

I ran into the dark forest through the air.

Tonight’s moon was a crescent, and visibility beneath the trees was far worse than expected.

One unexpected problem.

Looking back, I saw Mother keeping up without falling behind.

She couldn’t move as quickly or turn as tightly as Ashera or me, but we’d simply used Vernier far longer than she had. It couldn’t be helped.

In only five minutes, we reached the place where sonar had detected the lord.

Countless Mantis larvae crawled there amid innumerable eggs.

At their center lay the lord.

Its head and arms barely identified it as a Mantis, but its overall shape resembled a caterpillar with a mantis’s upper body attached.

Even for a monster, the distortion of its body triggered a visceral disgust.

Without making a sound, I descended onto a thick branch so the lord wouldn’t notice.

Mother and Ashera followed immediately.

“Mother, that’s the lord.”

“Yes. With that body, I doubt it can even walk.”

“It probably spent its entire blessing on reproduction.”

“And its body changed until it lost the ability to move…”

“Yes.”

“Killing the lord itself should be easy… But the aftermath looks far worse than we anticipated.”

“Yes. There are far more Mantises than we expected.”

“And unless we kill it quickly, they’ll keep multiplying and make the cleanup even harder.”

“Exactly…”

“Haah. The terrain is terrible too. If Sandra had open plains like Blue Ring, we could find a way to use Condense Ray. It has far too many mountains.”

I studied the lord again.

Was it asleep?

Its upper body remained still, but the caterpillar-like lower half continued its peristaltic motion.

The larvae crawling around it were only knee-high and posed no threat.

“El, we follow the plan. Nothing has changed. Charge when you’re ready.”

“Understood. I’m going!”

At Mother’s words, I rushed the lord.

First, I had to use sonar and locate the mark…

Did I really have to touch that body?

The upper half was bad enough, but the lower half was white and flabby.

It looked revolting, and the way it moved was even worse.

I aimed sonar at one of its token rear legs, which probably served no purpose now.

The lord didn’t wake when I approached or touched its leg, but the instant I used sonar, its eyes opened.

It twisted, trying to see me, but its abdomen prevented any meaningful movement.

I ignored it and fired sonar again and again.

On the fifth pulse, I noticed “strange mana” flowing from inside its abdomen.

“Inside the belly…”

I already hated touching it, and now I had to cut it open and pull out the contents…

Without thinking, I shouted to Mother and Ashera, who still waited in the tree.

“Mother! The mark is inside its abdomen!”

Their faces twisted in open disgust…

Then they quietly looked away.

I pleaded with my eyes, but neither would look back.

The lord continued writhing helplessly, and irrational anger welled inside me.

“This is your fault…”

Larvae had been clinging to my legs for some time, but they couldn’t scratch the dragon-leather armor.

I didn’t want to soil my one-handed sword, so I drew a spare knife and formed a magic greatsword. A blade in each hand.

I wrapped myself in mana so no blood would touch me directly.

Once prepared, I raised the magic greatsword and tore open the abdomen where I believed the mark lay.

Again…

Dizziness swept over me.

When I cut it open, a monster resembling a long, thin wire crawled out.

Apparently, the Mantis had become the lord while a parasite lived inside it.

How much more disgusting could this creature possibly be…?

The lord screamed like glass being scraped.

The parasite recognized me as an enemy and lashed its body like a whip.

I fired Vernier to evade. The blow sliced several larvae in half.

The parasite was more troublesome than the lord…

I decided to kill it first.

Magic greatsword in my right hand, knife in my left, I charged through the air.

The parasite contracted its wire-thin body and shot forward, trying to counter me.

It resembled a swordsman’s thrust. Even dragon-leather armor would take damage if it struck.

I fired Vernier, avoided the attack, and brought the magic greatsword down on its fully extended body.

The parasite split cleanly in two.

Both halves thrashed independently.

Ugh… This one was disgusting too!

Wanting the mark as quickly as possible, I used sonar on the lord’s exposed insides.

The response came from a blackened lump of flesh before me.

Tears in my eyes, I gouged it out.

The lord gave a death cry and stopped moving, then gradually returned to the shape of an ordinary Mantis.

A shiver passed through the surroundings.

The atmosphere changed completely.

Even the larvae that had wandered around my feet now radiated killing intent and prepared to attack.

The quickest ones had already begun eating the parasite and the Mantis that had been their lord.

The lord’s death had freed them from its binding.

“El! Come back!”

At Mother’s voice, I shoved the fleshy mark into Storage and ran up the tree through the air.

“Mother, I obtained the mark.”

“Yes. I saw.”

For some reason, she wouldn’t meet my eyes.

“Now we’ll thin them out in moderation and teach them the taste of one another. Since they’re free of the lord, we may be able to turn them against each other.”

“Understood.”

“First, we’ll meet Al. We’re heading toward the elven village. Thin the Mantises along the way.”

““Yes.””

We would cull the Mantises carefully, teach them cannibalism, and hope they destroyed themselves.

The real battle began now.

I felt bad for Ao, but liberating the mana spot would have to wait.