Release that Witch

”Coming? What’s coming?”

Before Roland had time to inquire about the details, the ground beneath had risen and cracked. The black stone tower was lifted into the air in a second. A giant gray monster jumped out of the crack and opened its huge crimson mouth, trying to devour the stone tower. The slimes on its skin spilled all over the place.

As Summer could only reconstruct the scene but not sounds, Roland felt like he was watching a vivid but intense silent movie. The witches, who had never been to a theatre, reacted more dramatically. They all cried out in fright and stepped back a few paces. Ashes even automatically pulled out her sword and stood in front of Tilly, in an attempt to protect her.

What was more horrid, however, was that there was more than one monster.

Underneath the black stone tower hid a Tentacle Monster, whose gleamy black body was almost completely fused with the stone tower, with only its tentacles poking out of the bottom of the tower like innumerable feet. Its scale, which glistened in a deep red light, was the only indication that the creature was alive.

Tentacle Monster was pretty much as big as half of the castle, but it was incomparable to Megamouth Beast who could engulf the entire tower. To avoid being swallowed, it strove to keep the megamouth beast from shutting the mouth by waving its tentacles. Meanwhile, clouds of blood mists that burst out of the scale started to gradually erode the skins of the beast. Evidently, the thick mist, almost of a black color, could cause harm to its rival.

Nevertheless, the megamouth beast was simply too large to defeat only via the red mist corrosion. As the stone tower was lifted off the ground little by little, the tentacle monster was finally crushed by the tower and became the megamouth beast’s food. After that, the black stone tower slowly slid into the giant mouth as well. In the end, Roland saw the eye demon, which appeared to take no notice of the megamouth beast and sat motionless at the top of the tower during the whole process of being gulped down without the slightest intention to escape.

The illusion stopped at that moment. The red mists and the giant monsters vanished instantly. Peace was restored. They saw a massive hole in the ground and realized what they had seen did occur at some point in the past.

Roland heaved a long sigh. He was further convinced that he had done the right thing not to include the soldiers from the First Army. His heart was beating so fast as if it were going to jump out of his chest while he was watching. Even if the ”movie” was now over, the fear still lingered.

”This is... the wriggling monster that ate Miss Agatha’s lab?” After a long silence, Tilly broke off. ”Why would it attack the Devil’s Town?”

”We might be wrong earlier. It’s probably not a demonic hybrid enslaved by demons. At least, it isn’t controlled by the demons behind the snowcapped mountains...” Roland looked at Agatha and said, ”What do you think?”

”I agree.” Agatha nodded, apparently having been thinking about it for a long time. ”There were no records of this kind of demonic beast whatsoever during the two Battles of Divine Will. If demons do have the ability to subjugate them, we won’t be able to hold up long, and Taquila would have been devastated long before. Demons just need to order a few megamouth beasts to carry some senior demons and enter the city from the underground when launching an attack.”

”If not demons, then who does?” Tilly’s brows furrowed. ”Judging from the transparent mantis that Miss Nightingale found, it’s obvious that these demonic beasts have some sort of plans.”

”Can’t it be a random action?” Nightingale spread out her hands. ”Hybrids are by no means ordinary demonic beasts. Based on their performances during the Months of Demons, they have already developed critical thinking skills. Perhaps they’ll be even smarter than us if they live long enough.”

Everybody laughed at her comment and felt less strained at once. Clearly, nobody would believe that those savage monsters, which knew nothing but wrestling in muds, would be more intelligent than fed and clothed human beings. The idea just sounded too ridiculous.

Only Roland remained silent. He gazed at the deep hole, dealing with crowding thoughts in his mind.

Was Mankind the most intelligent species?

He would not be so presumptuous as to boldly assume mankind was the smartest creature, especially when he was currently in a completely foreign world. When the living environment and the requirement for necessities changed, what was considered to be intelligent might be distinctive as well. Take demonic beasts for example. They would certainly not regard silk and bread as essential.

”Why was the eye demon unresponsive?” Andrea asked in confusion. ”Didn’t you say the whole campground will be startled once it sees you?”

”Because nobody saw it,” Agatha explained, ”Eye demons will see us only after we see them. But to that megamouth beast, it simply had no eyes. It has nothing but a big mouth.”

”Because it doesn’t need an eye.” Roland continued, ”Like an earthworm, the beast lives underground all the year round. It doesn’t need an eye to see things. Naturally, it won’t specially grow any light-sensitive organs.”

”Grow... what?” Tilly questioned curiously.

”Light-sensitive organs, such as eyes. Some animals use skins to detect light.” Roland did not go further but squatted down and pointed to the deep hole. ”Lightning, do you want to go down there to take a peek?”

The little girl nodded immediately.

”That’s too dangerous.” Ashes attempted to stop her. ”We don’t know what’s hiding down there at all.”

”You don’t need to probe into the tunnel, but just look at where the beast is heading,” Roland said, ”and Nightingale will stay here while monitoring magic reactions. It’s going to be fine.”

”Um, don’t I need to follow it into the hole and catch it?” Lightning pouted.

”Not this time. He devoured demons after all, not Agatha.” Roland stressed once again. ”Get out of there and report to me right after you find where the tunnel leads. Do you understand?”

”Yes.” Lightning took out a portable torch from her knapsack and plunged into the deep hole after lighting the torch.

”The exit is over here!” After a few minutes, Lightning’s voice came out of the magic stone. ”Do you see the torchlight?”

Nightingale soon found out the direction in which the tunnel ran based on the location of the torch. ”It’s good now. You can come up.”

Roland’s brows deepened when he glanced at Nightingale who was standing to the southeast of the hole, and the lofty snowcapped mountains behind her.

Apparently, someone shared the same view.

”It looks like we were indeed wrong.” Tilly shrugged. ”The wriggling demonic beast we met in the Misty Forest did not intend to go to the Devil’s Town, but maybe to this snowcapped mountain?”

”It seems so.” Roland looked up. The summit of the mountain loomed against puffs of clouds. The snow on its peak shimmered in the rays of sunlight. ”It appears that we have to thoroughly look into this highest mountain in the Western Region.”