Starting With an SSS-Rank Goddess Summon!

Eluned brushed off the dust with her armored hand, gracefully sitting down and crossing her long elegant legs.

With a bright cheerful hum, she reached into her satchel, pulling out a small, beautifully wrapped wooden bento box containing fresh honeyed biscuits, dried fruit slices, and sweet tea that she had packed herself that morning.

”Hehehe... Looking sweet Elu...”

She popped a golden biscuit into her mouth, chewing happily with puffed cheeks as she watched the fifteen women charge into the jaws of death.

”Let the show begin,” Eluned giggled softly, kicking her heels against the stone.

’This truly is the finest method to train new recruits,’ Eluned mused internally with complete, affectionate ruthlessness. ’Hubby is far too gentle with these girls, worried that they might get bruised but Blessed Land’s doctrine is absolute... to serve the Lord, you must be forged in the abyss of mortality. And as long as my Authority blankets this field... they cannot die, even if their bodies are torn to shreds!’

KRA-BOOOOOOOOM!

Perched upon the high branch, the Phantom-Mantis Stalker shrieked with ear-splitting fury.

”AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

FWHIP!

The twelve-foot beast blurred into a streak of purple momentum, dropping from the tree like a falling guillotine.

Its right bone-scythe cleaved through the air with Mach-speed, striking the forward line of recruits.

CLANG-CRACK!

Catelyn raised her iron buckler to intercept the blow, but the monumental mass of a Tier-3 beast shattered the reinforced metal face instantly.

The jagged bone-scythe tore straight through Catelyn’s left shoulder, severing muscle, tendon, and clavicle in a horrific bloody spray that sent her flying twenty feet across the dirt.

”CATELYN!” a spear maiden screamed in absolute terror.

”DON’T LOOK AWAY! IT’S SWINGING AGAIN!” Helen yelled, lunging forward with her spear.

The mantis spun its torso with terrifying insectoid flexibility. Its lower left scythe swept horizontally, catching two recruit maidens across their abdomens.

SCHLICK-SPLAT!

The razor-sharp bone sliced clean through their sky-iron cuirasses, opening massive, gushing lacerations across their torsos that spilled crimson blood onto the shale.

Both maidens collapsed to their knees, gasping for air as their vision blurred with shock.

In any standard battlefield, this would have been an instantaneous, catastrophic wipeout.

Three soldiers were critically wounded in the first three seconds of engagement.

...However this was not a standard battlefield.

VUUUUUUUUUM!

The moment their blood touched the emerald-glowing soil, Eluned’s authority ignited with miraculous intensity.

SZZZZZT... SNAP!

A radiant cocoon of emerald life-force enveloped Catelyn’s shattered shoulder.

In less than a fraction of a millisecond, severed nerves reconnected, bone fragments fused with a loud crack, and torn flesh knitted together at high speed, completely restoring her arm to peak condition before her body even finished sliding across the dirt.

Across the clearing, the two gut-cleaved maidens gasped as blinding green light sealed their abdominal wounds instantly, repairing their muscle walls, skin, and armor integrity without leaving so much as a single scar.

Catelyn sat up, her eyes wide as she looked at her fully functional unblemished shoulder.

”I’m... I’m completely healed?!” Catelyn gasped, a wild grin breaking across her face. ”IT DOESN’T HURT AT ALL!”

She grabbed her fallen spear, vaulting back to her feet.

”GIRLS! WE CAN’T DIE! SISTER ELUNED IS BACKING US!” Catelyn roared at the top of her lungs, her voice echoing across the canyon. ”WE CAN’T DIE! SWARM THE BASTARD! TEAR IT TO PIECES!”

The dam broke completely.

Knowing that death was rendered impossible by the will of the Goddess, all fifteen recruit maidens abandoned every shred of mortal self-preservation.

They transformed into a pack of relentless immortal berserkers, throwing their entire physical existence into an overwhelming swarm.

”PIN ITS LEGS! DON’T LET IT JUMP!”

”I’VE GOT THE LEFT SCYTHE! BRACE!”

Four maidens threw themselves directly into the mantis’s descending bone-scythes.

CRUNCH!

The bone blades impaled two of the girls through their chests, lifting them into the air but instead of screaming in agony, the two impaled maidens bared their teeth, grabbing the serrated scythes with their bare bleeding hands and locking their fingers around the bone to trap the beast’s limbs.

”NOW! STAB IT! WE HAVE ITS ARMS!” the impaled girls screamed, emerald light already healing the puncture wounds around their ribs in real-time!

”DIE! YOU UGLY ROACH!”

Six spear maidens closed the pocket from all sides.

THWACK! CRUNCH! SQUELCH!

Six spearheads punched straight through the mantis’s chitin-plated abdomen, driving deep into its internal organs.

The beast shrieked in deafening, agonizing torment, thrashing violently as black acidic ichor gushed from its punctured thorax.

”DON’T STOP! KEEP STABBING! PUNCH THROUGH THE CRANIUM!”

”STEP IN WITH THE SWORDS! CHOP ITS HEAD OFF!”

Five sword maidens lunged onto the beast’s back, using the embedded spears as footrests.

They raised their arming swords high with both hands, driving the sharpened steel down in a relentless storm of synchronized chops and thrusts.

STAB! HACK! CHOP! SPLAT!

”TAKE THIS!”

”AND THIS!”

”FOR BLESSED LAND!”

”FOR LORD SILAS!”

The fifteen maidens stabbed the twelve-foot apex mantis over two hundred consecutive times in less than thirty seconds.

The beast’s chitin armor was pulverized into fine black powder, its four bone-scythes were snapped into splinters, its illusion organ was shredded to ribbons, and its demonic ape head was reduced to an unidentifiable minced puddle of black brain matter and shattered fangs.

THUD!

The colossal corpse of the Phantom-Mantis Stalker collapsed limp against the stained shale, it had been brutally executed.

PANT... PANT... PANT.

The fifteen recruit maidens stood atop and around the pulverized carcass, their bodies completely drenched from head to toe in black monster blood, their chests heaving in synchronized breaths.

They looked at their trembling bloodstained hands, then turned toward each other, their faces breaking into wild victorious smiles as they threw their arms into the air.

”WE DID IT! WE KILLED A TIER-3 MONSTER! I’M SURE THAT WAS TIER 3!”

”YEAAAAAAAH!”

Sitting on her boulder, Eluned swallowed the last bite of her honeyed biscuit, brushing the crumbs from her lap with a proud beaming smile.

She stood up, clapping her wooden-clad hands together with genuine radiant admiration.

”Magnificent performance, my lovely fledglings!” Eluned cheered warmly, her emerald eyes sparkling. ”A truly glorious slaughter! You held your ground, embraced the pain, and dismantled a predator with flawless unison! Hubby will be exceptionally proud of you all!”

The fifteen blood-soaked women cheered even louder, standing tall with unyielding pride in the heart of the conquered charnel pit.

...

Meanwhile, roughly three miles away in a deep cavern carved into the northern crags of the Umbral Basin...

The air inside the dark vaulted cavern was damp and heavy with the thick pungent smell of burnt silk and roasted arachnid flesh.

Standing near the cavern entrance, Aurelia held her mithril rapier loosely at her side as her white-enameled armor was completely spotless.

Beside her, the blue-haired Princess leaned her back against the damp stone wall, her arms crossed over her sky-iron breastplate as she stared into the center of the chamber with an expression of pure bewilderment.

’I knew Lord Silas was remarkably powerful... and undeniably eccentric...’ the Princess thought, her azure eyes blinking repeatedly as a bead of sweat rolled down her temple. ’...But this? This is beyond the scope of rational comprehension.’

Lying across the center of the cavern floor was the colossal, charred carcass of a Broodmother Spider.

The monstrosity had been brutally eradicated... its eight hairy legs were sheared off cleanly, its chitinous skull had been split in half by a single terrifying strike of Silas’s Gold sword, and its silk glands were smoking from point-blank fire.

And kneeling right in the middle of the spider’s pulverized nest, surrounded by thousands of glowing translucent silk threads, was Silas.

The Lord of Blessed Land had both knees planted firmly in the dirt, completely unbothered by the sticky monster slime coating his boots.

In his hands, he held a big crystalline spider egg that pulsed with rich concentrated mana.

Silas lifted the glowing spider egg high above his head, staring at the translucent shell with eyes that burned with glorious greed.

”I finally have you...” Silas whispered, his voice trembling with overwhelming ecstasy.

A wide grin spread across his handsome face, stretching from ear to ear as he threw his head back, letting out a booming, echoing laugh that shook the cavern stalactites.

”THE SPIDER EGGS! HEHEHEHE... AHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

Silas clutched the massive egg tightly against his chest, rocking back and forth in the dirt like a lunatic who had just struck the mother lode of the cosmos.

”I’M RICH! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH HIGH-TIER ALCHEMICAL SILK AND REINFORCED CHITIN WE CAN HARVEST FROM THIS BROOD?! THE UPGRADE POINTS! THE UPGRADES! HEHEHEHEHAHAHAHAHA!”

Standing by the wall, the Princess leaned over slightly, whispering to Aurelia in a quiet concerned tone.

”Saintess Aurelia... is your Lord experiencing a severe spiritual breakdown from mana toxicity?”

Aurelia sighed softly, a gentle smile touching her lips as she shook her head.

”No, Princess,” Aurelia murmured warmly, watching the dark-haired young man laugh like a madman in the dirt. ”That is simply our Lord being himself... I think...”

...

About thirty minutes ago, well before the narrow tunnels had been coated in the sticky acidic sheen of fresh arachnid hemolymph, the vanguard of Squad One was still carving its measured path through the dense shadowed undergrowth of the Black Forest.

The air beneath the towering timber hung thick as usual, saturated with the rich, earthy scent of damp loam, crushed ferns, and the lingering tang of dried wryworm blood.

Silas sat tall and relaxed in Valkyrie’s enchanted leather saddle.

The Blessed wolf stepped across the treacherous root-tangled terrain without making a sound, her corded muscles shifting in slow movements beneath her shimmering coat.

Wedged securely in the space between Silas’s arms, the blue-haired Princess shifted her weight back and forth against the saddle pommel.

Her lightweight sky-iron cuirass clinked softly against the reinforced straps of her weave harness.

Every few seconds, her head darted left and right, her azure eyes searching the gloomy thickets for signs of an ambush.

From the left flank of the marching column, a soft crystalline chime broke the quiet rhythm of the march.

Suspended from the sturdy leather tactical belt around Morrighan’s waist, a polished multifaceted azure communication orb flared to life, casting deep-blue pulses of light across the damp forest floor.

’The orb...’

The tall demonic caster reacted with immediate poise.

Her long, crimson hair swayed gently over the clothes she wore as she stepped out of formation, closing the distance to the front with silent purposeful strides.

Morrighan came to a halt beside the towering flank of Valkyrie, dipping her head in a formal respectful bow.

”My Lord,” Morrighan said, her voice a deep contralto that naturally commanded attention without being raised. ”The communication orb entrusted to our unit is signaling an active transmission from the perimeter squads.”

She reached down to her hip, unclipped the glowing crystal relic, and held it upward with both hands, offering it directly to Silas.

”Thank you, Morrighan,” Silas said, offering her an easy appreciative smile.

He reached down to take the orb with his left hand, while naturally extending his right palm outward.

Without a second thought, he lightly patted the crown of her head, his fingers brushing gently against the smooth polished base of her curved horns.

Morrighan’s entire frame locked rigid.

”Mmm...”

Her heavy spade-tipped tail which had been swaying in a steady arc froze dead in mid-air.

Her molten-gold eyes widened by a fraction of a millimeter as a sudden unfamiliar warmth prickled beneath her pale skin.

’I...’

In her former service, ordinary soldiers had recoiled from her very presence, terrified of her lineage, refusing even to set up their bedrolls within twenty paces of her tent.

Yet here, her new Lord reached down and touched her head with the casual familiarity of a commander greeting a trusted friend.

’I got a headpat?’

The gesture felt alien, almost destabilizing to her guarded nature.

Yet, as the quiet seconds passed, she realized that deep within her chest, she did not dislike the sensation in the slightest.

Silas tapped the multifaceted surface of the azure orb with the tip of his finger.

BZZZZT... CHIME.

A crisp ripple of mana resonated through the crystal core, and Tasmin’s dry voice projected into the open air.

”Lord Silas, this is Tasmin reporting from the southeastern sector,” the scout commander’s voice came through. ”Squad Three and Squad Two have engaged an invasive anomaly... Bipedal wolf-like shapeshifters capable of mimicking human physical form, vocal cadences, and territorial armor. Their mimicry is imperfect... They lack shadows and show structural defects sometimes. Brida and I have already eradicated the local nest.”

Silas listened attentively, letting the reins rest loosely in his grip.

”Understood, Tasmin. Squad One cleared a cluster of Tier-2 wryworms along the central path. Thus far, the basin’s resistance has been relatively predictable... Keep your formation tight and ensure the recruits remain in pairs. Have you relayed this warning across the other squad channels?”