Chương 323: The Harder They Fall

Binibelle felt a little pressed for time. She had checked, and Lunovis had been perfectly fine following his encounter with what was once an agent of his, which meant that Mara had sent Gilepre for a purpose other than an assassination or something violent–Which was very worrying in her eyes. Mara Nebulo was currently considered a threat, but at least a direct one.

Be it by unleashing the Nightmare Plague or in a direct physical confrontation, the reason why she was threatening was obvious and simple, but if she was starting to make non-violent moves, then it meant that she was potentially attempting to become a threat via a more insidious way… If Lunovis had been correct in his belief that Mara and Leou were 'tightly knit' allies, then the threat the monstrous woman posed could become economic and political as well…

In the detective's mind, there was no doubt that Gilepre had come with a truly alluring offer for the owlfolk, meaning that he might already be compromised. She rubbed her temples… If she had known that this case would turn into this, she might have hesitated before taking it on–How could a simple murder mystery turn into a game of cat and mouse against a continental threat the likes of which haven't appeared in several centuries?

Comparatively, rogue necromancers who raise armies of the undead are way easier to deal with than all of this nonsense. Nonetheless, she wasn't planning on giving up. She felt confident that she could piece everything together by hunting down the other steel decoys Mara had spread all over the place… Despite making their presence known, they were actually quite the slippery bastards, and some of them had appeared and shown themselves to be friendly as well.

Clearly, Mara wanted to scramble up people's brains and make it seem like her 'kind' was akin to beastfolks, with feral and sapient variants. The worst part was that it was effective, only minimally at the moment, but she was gathering momentum and managing to keep the alliance of adventurers off her back for now. She was somehow present all over the place, but also lying down as close to the ground as possible.

"Regardless, with me around, spreading these creatures so tightly linked to you was a mistake" Binibelle smiled as she and her group arrived before what could only be described as a ghost town, or rather, a ghost village would be more appropriate. This place, like a few other small communities, had been completely wrecked by a wave of Nightmare Plague that had been unleashed with the complicity of the former monarch of Beelmart.

Some small towns and villages had seen their population wiped out, or otherwise had so many deaths that the houses and everything had to be abandoned. Some had been repopulated, but not this one, and this was where one of Mara's minions had decided to settle down, and the reason this was known was quite simple…

"Stay on your guard, but we should be able to hear this thing move quite easily" Hilene spoke up. There were now six people in the group with the addition of Maarkus. Although it was reassuring to have a healer around, the man was clearly quite unhinged. Even if he restrained himself from mentioning Mara directly, he nonetheless kept on speaking about a lost love that had never bloomed, and he had a certain talent for making everything he said sound off. When it came down to it, though.

He went completely silent, acting more in line with what one would expect from a cleric of the Divine Feather.

"I know we were told that it was big, but no one elaborated on just how big it actually was…" Gontra spoke softly as her gaze fell on a large house that was partly demolished. With a raised eyebrow, Jupo sent one of his spells above the house to take a look at it from a better angle before showing it to everyone. Hortus whistled.

"Yep, that's a big ass handprint. This motherfucker is huge""Indeed, but where could it be hiding if it is that large? It's not like it could be crouched behind a house or anything" Jupo rubbed his chin in thought. He also would have thought that detecting such a creature with his mana sense would have been easy. From what he knew, Mara Nebulo's creations didn't have any energy manipulation capabilities, so they should be like big lumps of steel that couldn't conceal their energy signature.

As such, if it were within the range of his mana sense, he should be able to feel a whole lot of 'empty space' wherever it is, but that wasn't the case. Even if it was somehow blending in, it would be unexpected for it to blend so well…

"It might have gone away. From what we were told, it roams around a fair bit and likes to pick up live animals and beasts to throw at passing carriages" Apparently, its aim was also exceptional. Maarkus cleared his throat.

"What about the lake over there?" He had walked away from the group as if he wasn't the damned healer and thus wasn't supposed to stay safely in the middle of the team.

"Huh…" Hilene could tell that the water of the lake was actually quite heavily charged with ambient mana, so the monster could definitely go unnoticed if completely submerged.

"Isn't it supposed to be a machine? Even if possessed, you would expect it to be wary of water. I hear that stuff made with mechanistry doesn't like getting wet one bit""You're not wrong, Hortus, but it isn't unlikely that some are… Well, more possessed than others and thus care less about supposedly being machines" The halfling shrugged casually as the group placed themselves at a distance away from the lake in case the monster was indeed under the water.

All of the magic-able people in the group tried to sense through the water, but with how dense the ambient energy was and the distance they had to keep from the lake, none of them managed to peer deeper than three meters.

"With how rich the water is in ambient energy, you would expect life in the lake to be thriving, but… I don't sense a speck of life anywhere, not even a single whiff. Not only does the lake feel empty, but it's clearly been a while since anything has come to get a drink here" Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

"You can sense life force, cleric?"

"I sure can, Miss Gontra! I wouldn't be such a great healer otherwise. I can only sense it, though. If I want to interact with it, I have to spend a lot of holy energy to pull it anywhere… But anyway! It seems likely that our guy is indeed claiming the bottom of this lake as his resting spot" It made sense, considering how aggressive this one was said to be. It had probably slaughtered everything it could in the lake and ambushed drinking creatures so many times that nothing even dared to come close anymore.

Everyone glanced at each other, all with the same question in mind:'How do we force it to get out?' Maarkus casually dusted his shoulder with a smile. Although they were different, they were both great appreciators of Mara, so he knew exactly how to get it to show up. The healer cleared his throat before shouting.

"What did you say? You think that Mara is ugly and is a terrible swordswoman? I guess you're right! Why else would she have been kicked out of knight training?"

"There's no way this works-" Jupo was proven otherwise as the water of the lake seemed to start boiling, and something came bursting out of its surface." W ho the h e ll said t hi s?! D–D– D – DO YOU D A RE IN SULT MY LADY AGAIN TO MY F–F–F– FACE?!" The steel abomination's voice was painfully loud, echoing into the distance as it used its water-damaged voice box to speak. Despite being perfectly capable of speaking normally by simply using its ghostly voice.

"It's as easy as that, folks" Maarkus seemed wholly unbothered as the monster stood up to his full height, easily being taller than ten meters, and having seemingly no issues despite merely having the same build as the previous steel abomination, only larger. One would expect a crafted being like this to fall apart when trying to stand like a humanoid, but either the materials used were different or the power of the possession was simply that great.

Unlike the previous one, who had stashed crystals filled with nature energy inside his own ribcage as a trump card, this one was equipped with a massive 'Faraday Box' and had his entire skeletal body wrapped with copper wires. He was constantly emitting sparks and made it quite obvious how he had been able to slaughter all life in the lake. Apart from this and his giant size, there wasn't much special about this monster.

"Hortus, do the thing" Hilene calmly commanded as the monster didn't waste any more time and started running at them. He was thankfully a bit clumsy and held down by his excessive weight, but he nonetheless only needed two strides to be right on top of them. Hortus nocked an arrow, pulled on his bowstring, and let loose of an arrow made entirely of steel with curious patterns carved into its body and tip. The projectiles flew through the air and, with terrific precision, struck the 'Faraday Box' dead in its center.

"Oh my… Where did you even learn this, Miss Binibelle?" The archer couldn't help but ask as he saw the arrow go right through as if it were moving through warm butter.

"I didn't have my reputation as a detective when I was young. So I had a gig as a support mage, I was quite popular with archers thanks to this""I can see why…" The monster had stopped in his tracks, convulsing uncontrollably, as the dire amounts of lightning stocked inside the sphere were forcefully let out, making the whole thing explode, covering the area with smoke. Maarkus, Jupo, and Binibelle all erected a barrier over the group, preventing the piece of debris from the creature from hitting anyone.

As they felt the ground shake, though, they all reinforced their respective barrier, right on time as a giant fist came slamming down on them.

"I think you have the best barrier out of all of us, Maarkus, so I say Jupo and I reinforce yours instead of keeping ours up""Sure, go ahead" The cleric didn't seem to even feel it as the abomination kept on pounding on his barrier. In fact, Binibelle and Jupo, who were only supporting him and thus had a much fainter connection to the barrier, were feeling it harder than he was.

"I… I guess holy energy is quite good at making barriers…?"

"Jupo, it isn't good. It is excellent! Especially when a skilled and experienced cleric is at the helm! Did I ever tell the story of how I trained my barrier spells by going against heavy siege weaponry?"

"Can it wait until after the big bastard is dead?"

"Of course, Miss Binibelle! By the way, allies can go in and out of the barrier as they see fit" Hilene turned her head toward Maarkus.

"Does it include spells and such?"

"Naturally" Slayer Blade stanced herself as a bright white glow engulfed her sword, for several long seconds, as the creature kept on hammering onto the barrier mindlessly, screaming with a now ruined voice box. Hilene stayed still until the perfect opportunity arose. She swung her blade, launching a flying slash of incandescent energy at the wrist of the giant, slashing right through it, allowing the attack to go on and end its course after destroying one of her opponent's eyes.

Oddly enough, the creature reeled back in pain, right on time as the smoke began to thin, allowing everyone to see clearly. Everything had happened quickly, but right before the 'Faraday Box' could blow up, their target had let it drop, allowing him to keep a somewhat intact upper half as his hips and legs were blown to pieces.

"Let's go" This time, Gontra led the charge as her shield began to shake strongly." B-_A — S … T AR D S!" The only word that came through the gibberish was an insult as the monster forced himself off the ground using the stump left behind by Hilene's slash, swinging his remaining fist at the troll, only to encounter what felt like a wall made of even tougher and heavier steel than he.

The shield erupted with a grey shine, and the giant arm was flung backwards, making the creature helplessly spin and crash to the ground. With another deluge of incomprehensible words, it saw Hilene standing right in front of his face, and without hesitation, opened his maw wide to try and crush her, but this desperate lunge was cut short as the incandescent glow returned, extending the range of her sword dramatically, allowing her to stab right through his open maw and head without even moving.

Normally, such an attack wouldn't stop him, but the unidentified energy she was using seared at his corrupted soul, inflicting such monumental pain that it shut down all of his thoughts. As his head lowered itself back to the ground again, the unmoving blade of Hilene carved right through, and his remaining eye went dark before he even touched the soil. Hilene let herself fall into a sitting position.

"Are you alright, Hilene? I've never seen you use this for more than a moment""I'm fine, don't worry about me, Gontra""... There's blood coming out of your nose" Hilene reached up to her face to confirm it.

"Well… I guess I'm not fine, then"