[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

Chapter 271

I silently stared at the bastards and the statue they had brought.

"Just a word of caution—don’t try to test us."

"Oops. Got caught, huh?"

Their look, like I was some lunatic, really rubbed me the wrong way.

"Should I just rip it apart?"

"Cut the damn jokes! That’s not even funny!"

Didn’t seem like they were lying… Still, I should confirm and help them grasp the situation.

As I reached out to the cloth covering the statue’s face, they panicked and grabbed at me.

"Y-you crazy bastard! What the hell are you doing?!"

"What? I just need to check if you’re bluffing or if you’ve actually revealed your hand."

"What kind of insane…"

The man shook his head in pure disbelief.

"Once we confirm the target’s location, we’ll contact you. I suggest gathering as much firepower as possible."

* * *

About three days passed.

That’s how long it took for the cult to contact me again.

Upon receiving their message, I arrived at the Demon Realm and saw the statue writhing at the center of a massive black magic circle.

"That thing's always so grotesque."

"Be careful. It’s extremely sensitive right now."

Looks like they’re trying to stimulate it enough to imprint Nyala’s presence.

Not sure how effective that’ll be, though.

Is that even a living thing?

I had a sudden urge to try using the Heart of the Machine God on it, but I held back.

No reason to waste time making it target me.

Then, the cult’s high-ranking archmage, Dobel, shouted while performing some ritual with unidentifiable objects.

"It’s moving!!"

At the same time, the statue twisted grotesquely and let out a horrible sound.

Crack-crack-crack. Craaack!!

And then, as if it had come to life, it suddenly bolted off into the woods at a mad pace.

Its speed wasn’t astonishing, but seeing a statue move like that was certainly a strange sight.

So it’s found its target?

The cult was the first to move, riding undead mounts.

I followed right after.

And behind me, Luna and Isna also began moving.

"Deputy Priest Dibl. And Lady Triana. The target has started moving. I’ll share its location as soon as we arrive."

—The Holy Knights of the Holy Kingdom are ready at any moment.

—The elite rangers of the Mother Forest are prepared to depart, young lord.

It made sense.

Both the Elven Forest and the Holy Kingdom had taken heavy blows from otherworldly beings before.

Like a predator that had found prey, the statue began to move more erratically and quickly.

"Track it! As soon as we find the target, we’ll activate a wide-area curse formation."

With that, the cult members mounted undead wolves and began swift pursuit.

"Take this. It’ll protect you from the effects of the curse formation we’re about to deploy."

He handed me a strange bracelet-like artifact, and as I put it on, I felt a thin veil of necromantic mana with a particular pattern surround my body.

"You’re even giving this out?"

"It shows how serious we are about destroying that monster."

I still didn’t know what these cultists were really after, but at least they didn’t seem to want the world to end.

If I remembered right, their original purpose was to contain, eliminate, or control dangerous powers threatening the world.

"But still… it’s not as impressive as I thought."

The thing was moving at high speed for a statue, but if it’s just running, I doubted it would reach its destination quickly.

"If it decides running’s not enough, it’ll sprout wings."

Wings, huh…

Before the words were even finished, the statue’s back twisted, and massive wings sprouted from it.

The statue was about 190 centimeters tall—just a bit larger than a human. But its wings, even just one, stretched over 5 meters.

Massive.

In an instant, it took to the sky, flying much faster than before.

"Don’t lose it! Increase speed!!"

The statue didn’t tire and kept moving.

"What’ll you do once it finds its destination?"

Dobel, the cult’s high-ranking member riding an undead wyvern behind me, turned toward me.

"Right before it arrives, we’ll break the hypnosis placed on it and put it back to sleep."

"Why bother? Wouldn’t it just fight whatever’s there anyway?"

"We can’t afford uncontrolled variables."

Uncontrolled variables, huh… Not very reassuring.

Sensing my doubt, Luna added a bit of explanation.

"Can’t risk it. If that thing’s from beyond the dimension, there’s no telling what kind of synergy could occur."

"Good point."

"Damn it… you believe it when she says the exact same thing?"

"Should’ve kept your mouth shut then."

Dobel scowled but didn’t say anything more.

The statue continued to fly without rest.

But maybe because this whole plan wasn’t really a frontal assault strategy, the statue unexpectedly stopped every other day, standing still before moving again.

I heard the cult had to redo the ritual every time it stopped.

No needless casualties so far, so I wasn’t complaining… but man.

These guys are really ruining the mood.

"You talked like it was an extremely dangerous entity, and now this is just lame."

"Of course, if you really want it your way…"

"Seriously?"

"If we go that route, innocent people might get hurt—"

Shiiing…

"You damn lunatics!! Are you saying to do it or not?!"

As Isna and I simultaneously half-drew our swords, Dobel shrieked like he was having a seizure.

But Isna shut him down with a single line.

"A cultist, talking back?"

"Damn it…"

Dobel clicked his tongue.

"So? How much farther?"

"We can’t say for sure. But judging by its current condition… I’d say we’re almost there."

And then—

“Uh… huh?! Why won’t this thing listen?!”

“D-Damn it! The bastard suddenly went berserk!”

Though the cultists were still shielding their faces, panic was obvious on their faces as the statue abruptly went on a rampage.

The screaming statue lashed out at everything in sight.

“Damn it all! A variable like this, here of all places!!”

At Dobel’s shout, I let out a sigh.

“Figures. I knew you lot would screw it up…”

“Shut up! This kind of situation only happens once in a hundred cases! We’ll handle it, so just shut your damn mou—”

“How long.”

“Th-Th-Three days.”

“Move.”

I spoke coldly, stepping toward the statue that was in the middle of snapping a cultist’s neck.

“Same as with those goblins back then. Everything in the world understands words.”

It doesn’t listen?

Then maybe the message just didn’t get through properly.

Without hesitation, I entered its attack range.

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

The moment it spotted me, the statue let out a demonic shriek and charged.

“Tch…”

I took a short breath.

Angle, 45 degrees.

Strength, just enough.

Like you’re disciplining a misbehaving child.

SMACK!!!

Before its arms could wrap around my neck, my palm—wrapped in cloth—struck its face.

The statue staggered back, only to lunge at me again.

SMACK!!!

Another slap landed.

“Even goblins start to talk after enough hits. And if you ask me, this one’s smarter than a goblin.”

I reached forward and tore off the cloth covering the thing’s face.

Revealed beneath was the grotesque face of a demonic statue.

“Th-That lunatic, what is he doing?!”

“Screeeeeeeech!!!”

The statue shrieked as I reached out again.

SMACK!!!

The sound echoed with such force, it was hard to believe a human hand had struck stone.

“Who are you trying to find?”

—Screeeeeeeech!!

SMACK!!!

“Who are you trying to find?”

SMACK!!!

Even after multiple slaps, the statue regenerated instantly and kept attacking.

Still, the way it flinched under the hits told me one thing:

It feels pain.

So it's capable of understanding.

“How the hell am I supposed to wait three days? Just give me five minutes.”

I infused my palm with explosive aura.

“There’s no such thing as a bad statue—just ones that haven’t been beaten enough.”

This ugly demonic statue may have been secured by the cult, but clearly, someone had once tried to isolate or control it.

Killing people just for seeing its face?

Not even your typical back-alley psycho would do that.

If a statue really did that, rumors would’ve spread far and wide.

But this?

Only vague whispers.

No real info.

“You’re pretty tough, huh?”

I gave it a chilling smile, and the statue’s already hideous face contorted even further.

Demons don’t even look like this.

Wait… could it be?

“This isn’t… some offshoot of a spirit blade, is it?”

Like the Falling Blossom or Utopia I created—when a condensed form of spirit energy accidentally manifests a flawed consciousness.

When Utopia or Falling Flower fails or mutates incorrectly, it ends up just like this.

Now it made sense.

This thing didn’t come from another dimension.

I withdrew the aura and wrapped my hand in pure spirit energy instead.

That should make communication easier.

SMACK!!!

Another slap sent the statue reeling.

It had grit, I’d give it that.

For the next three minutes, I slapped the same spot on its cheek repeatedly.

It regenerated and attacked every time, but its movements gradually changed.

Unlike with aura, the moment I started using spirit energy, it began to hesitate.

“Luna. Wanna try? Real stress reliever.”

At my offer, Luna stepped up.

The moment the statue saw her face, it let out another screech and charged.

Luna quietly infused her hand with hidden holy power.

Would that work too?

With pinpoint precision, she slapped its face.

SMACK!!!

Again, a sound erupted that didn’t sound like flesh meeting stone.

“Oooh… Auto-regenerating sandbag. Leon, if we block its limb regeneration and tie it down, this thing would make a great training dummy.”

“Funny, I was just thinking the same thing.”

Looking at it as though I was speaking to a flawed spirit blade, I pushed spirit energy into it.

If you're a byproduct of a spirit blade, then you understood what I just said, right?

For the first time, the statue’s expression warped not in rage—but in confusion.

About five minutes later, the cult executive Dobel muttered in disbelief.

“This makes no sense…”

He slowly approached the statue, which was now crouched by a tree, trembling with its head buried in its arms.

When he reached out a hand, the statue flinched and slapped it away irritably.

“Well, damn.”

Its strength hadn’t diminished.

“Why can’t it hold out anymore? That thing used to regenerate endlessly, no matter the attack…”

He didn’t know that spirit energy was its weakness.

Not that it’s surprising.

Spirit energy was practically unheard of in the world.

This thing didn’t come from some other dimension.

There’s no such thing as an incomprehensible phenomenon in this world.

“What are you waiting for? Aren’t you gonna keep going? And once you’re done, mind handing it over?”

Dobel frowned at my request.

“What exactly do you plan to do?”

“There’s no better sandbag than that thing.”

My future wife’s been getting antsy lately—like a cat looking for a scratching post.

Hearing my answer, he gave up trying to understand me.

“Damn it. I think I’ve allied with a lunatic I shouldn’t have messed with…”

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]