Six-Armed Serpent Demon

Page 110

Fortunately, Amiya seemed completely oblivious to anything amiss with the person opposite her and cut to the chase: "Are you aware of Gidroltin's suicide?"

--I go!

Ivy Beatrice remembered.

Amiya, the second squad leader—isn't that the name of the girlfriend her dead uncle, Gideroltin, once mentioned?

—This...this is actually a woman who has a chance of becoming my aunt?

So when she looked at the short-haired girl and Juan lingering in the distance, her gaze inevitably carried a hint of strangeness.

—Thank you, Juan, for eliminating an elder for me. Oh wait, after Gululos killed that dead old man, she couldn't possibly be my elder anymore. So the one I should really thank is Gululos…

Ivy Beatrice nodded without changing her expression.

"He jumped into the sea in public, and the news spread throughout the docks."

“I don’t believe he would commit suicide. I told him I was getting engaged, and we arranged to meet for a farewell fling,” Amiya said seriously, staring into Ivy Beatrice’s eyes. “I remember clearly that he told me he was coming to see you, saying he needed to resolve something. I asked him what was wrong, but he wouldn’t tell me. Do you know what happened?”

—To so openly and brazenly spew such vile and inhuman words…

Ivy Beatrice thought to herself, while alarm bells rang in her mind: This woman's bluntness meant she was either incredibly stupid or she might have activated some kind of lie detector or magic device to force people to tell the truth.

"Regarding the property of the Beate family."

Ivy Beatrice carefully chose her words, saying, "He came to me to discuss the family fortune. You know he's my uncle, even though he's been removed from the list, he's still Beatrice."

"and then?"

“We came to the casino hotel to resolve a property dispute,” Ivy Beatrice carefully chose each word, “but I lost the bet. After that, I parted ways with Gidelorine. Later, I returned to Fireport alone. As for Gidelorine’s whereabouts afterward, I think the casino hotel owner, Gulliros, knows better than I do.”

—If there were a magic tool to detect lies, wouldn't it be possible to test and find out that what you're saying is true?

Amiya remained silent for a few seconds.

I don't know if he was waiting for feedback from the magical item, or if he was simply in a daze after hearing the bad news.

Then Ivy Beatrice saw her shoulders slump.

“Gululos is dead,” Amiya said listlessly. “Even if he was the one who forced Gidelortin to jump into the sea, no one knows what really happened.”

Damn.

Ivy Beatrice sighed along with her, but her mind was filled with thoughts of the vanished head of Gidelorine.

What a coincidence.

She hasn't had a very smooth time these past few days.

Whether it was a human head buried in the ground or a dragon head that fell into the sea, they had all vanished without a trace.

Author's Note: I'm ashamed that I didn't manage to resume updates starting yesterday. There will be another update tonight; I'll make up for it gradually.

Chapter 129 The Invincible Northern Fleet

Ivy Beatrice made no attempt to hide her magical prowess, nor could she—a quick investigation at the docks would reveal that she had gone out to sea to fish in her trimaran and hadn't returned yet. So, after saying goodbye to Lamia and Juan Gillespie, she took out her "Anywhere Door" wand in front of them, preparing to teleport away.

Lamia was astonished: "When did you learn to cast arcane magic? I remember you struggled even with the first-tier divine spells of a paladin, and almost failed to graduate..."

Ivy Beatrice sighed, seemingly with regret.

“My talent is closer to that of a bloodline spellcaster than to perception, so I found this path easier after working part-time as an arcane spellcaster,” Ivy Beate said. “Don’t forget, I’m a Beate.”

"Indeed... a dragon vein family..."

The young paladin Juan sighed deeply, letting out a heavy breath.

From the moment Lamia made the marriage arrangement clear, he had remained silent, his gaze dim, and he almost dared not look up at Miss Beatrice's emerald green vertical pupils.

“Goodbye, Your Highness,” he said.

"Goodbye."

The atmosphere remained somewhat awkward until Ivy Beatrice disappeared from sight.

Juan Gilelso was secretly heartbroken. He sighed and turned to his fiancée, only to find that Amiya Shaffer's gaze had turned icy cold as she stared in the direction the young lady had disappeared, lost in thought.

He tried desperately to explain: "It's not what you think—"

"I do not care."

Lamia interrupted him, saying, "I can find a man for a breakup fling, and of course you can go after your rich girl." She smiled sarcastically, "It's just that she wouldn't even look at you."

Juan Gierello lowered his head, his face flushed, his eyes filled with shame and anger.

Lamia raised her left hand, which had been behind her back, to her face. Her hand was still in the gesture of forming a hand seal for casting a spell, with rosary beads and the emblem of a bronze dragon wrapped around her wrist.

She released her grip, and the faint aura of divine magic dissipated.

"She was telling the truth."

Lamia muttered to herself, "But there must be something they're hiding... just like how I could use a 'breakup sex' as an excuse to get close to that idiot..."

The young paladin Juan didn't hear clearly: "What?"

Amiya Shaffer shook her head.

“We will meet,” she said, “Ivy Beatrice.”

If Juan had stood in front of Lamia instead of behind her, he would have been astonished to see that at this moment, his fiancée's eyes had transformed into golden dragon pupils, her gaze concealing the vicissitudes of countless years, just like a bronze dragon.

Beneath the same steel dome as seen from the seventh-floor plaza of the lower city lies a vast, shimmering sea.

Ivy Beatrice first used the "Anywhere Door" to leave the seventh-floor plaza, and then used the "Advanced Teleportation" spell, a talent of the six-armed serpent demon, to appear on the deck of the three-masted sailing ship.

She saw Medusa-like Stéphane had set up a deckchair behind the wheel on the bridge. Stéphane was sprawled out, casually playing with a small fish using large tweezers, fiddling with her frizzy, punk-like hair, and propping the ship's wheel with her feet. When she saw Ivy Beatrice return, she lazily raised her hand in greeting, "Hi."

Almost at the same moment, Sink landed gracefully in front of Ivy-Beate and knelt on one knee before his master.

Ivy Beatrice asked bluntly, "Have you found the dragon head yet?"

“There’s something going on,” Sink said. “After we were attacked and fought off the enemy, we captured four prisoners. They seem to know something.”

Stewart added, "Just during the time you suddenly disappear."

A few minutes later, the four listless prisoners were dragged before Ivy Beate by the bomber crew. These four were similar to lizardmen, tall and muscular, with green skin, scaly skin, webbed fingers and toes, and long, fish-like tails. Perhaps because Ivy Beate had forgotten to revert to her six-armed serpent form, they forced themselves to be defiant, baring their fangs and showing off their long, spiked tusks to intimidate the red-haired human young lady.

Without saying a word, Ivy Beatrice raised an arm and cast a spell.

The next second, evil magic coalesced into a black claw, which seized one of the prisoners. Amidst its screams, it tore its flesh apart and ripped out its entrails.

The other three prisoners immediately trembled and stood there timidly, no longer daring to show the same attitude towards the terrifying human witch.

"I still prefer the way you two were when you were determined to fight to the death."

Ivy Beatrice said, “There’s something you need to understand. I just went through something that… well, anyway, I get really irritable and want to kill and skin anything with green or yellow scales. So for the sake of our health, if you know anything about the meteorite that fell from the sky a few days ago, or that tsunami, you’d better tell me right now and get the hell out of here.”

The three prisoners immediately confessed everything, one after another.

They were neither lizardmen nor greenmen, but a type of marine creature called "Shahua Fishmen." This calmed Ivy Beatrice somewhat, but what followed infuriated her completely.

"So, you were the first to find the meteorite that fell from the sky?"

Ivy-Beate's emerald green vertical pupils widened in anger. "And you were attacked, and the meteorite was stolen?"

The three Shahua fishmen nodded tremblingly.

The Shahua fish-men live in the ocean, and their tribe is not far from this area. They worship a god called "Sekera." When a meteorite, the incarnation of the Red Dragon Lord's head, fell into this place, the resulting massive tsunami and storm nearly destroyed their tribe.

After that, the Shahua merman priest felt a kind of calling.

It believed that this summons was a divine revelation from Serkora, and before the tsunami had subsided, it bewitched itself and sent the remaining members of its tribe to the epicenter of the tsunami, resulting in the deaths and injuries of more than half of its tribe.

The prisoners captured by the "bomber squadron" were all elite rangers from the Shahua fish-men tribe, and warriors who had completed this deadly mission. They had found a huge meteorite at the center of the tsunami.

Ivy Beatrice rolled her eyes. What happened next was a classic, clichéd Lovecraftian story:

The foolish priest of the Shahua fish-man worshipped the meteorite as divine revelation, and in a semi-mad state, following the whispers echoing in his mind, he carved the meteorite into a dragon's head. During this process, the priest's body began to mutate, and he grew even more insane, constantly performing blood sacrifices.

Therkolla was originally a wicked god who loved killing and war, so it was not unreasonable for the priests to perform blood sacrifices. But this time, the priests did not wage war to capture prisoners for blood sacrifice, but secretly slaughtered their own people and used their blood to paint the dragon's head red.

When the priest's actions were exposed, the few remaining Shahua fishmen fought against the crazed priest. When the priest realized he was outmatched, he committed suicide, using his own blood to complete the final ritual of smearing the dragon's head.

Not long after, a fleet from the north arrived at the area. They almost completely slaughtered the remaining Shahua fishmen, then turned north, taking with them the blood-stained dragon head and the priest's corpse.

Of the entire Shahua fish-man tribe, only these four escaped.

Of course, now there are only three left.

Ivy Beatrice's eyes flickered.

“How many ships do they have?” she pressed. “And who are they?”

"Dragon Seed".

A shahua fish-man prisoner answered tremblingly, "Red dragons, and kobolds, also red. There are a total of..."

It struggled to pry open its webbed fingers, then finally put them down in frustration.

"Many, a lot of ships, an overwhelming number..."

“That is the invincible fleet of the Northern Federation, ruled by the Red Dragon Lord,” Steo said, his tone more serious than ever before.

As Medusa listened, she somehow sat up from the recliner.

"If it's a full-strength deployment... there could be over three hundred warships at most."

With a grim face, Ivy-Beate used "Mind Detection" to probe the prisoner's brain and memories.

The next second, she held her breath.

Through the surface of the shaman's brain, she saw what it had seen before:

Under the pale blue midday sun, countless warships of all sizes stretched as far as the eye could see, almost covering the entire sea!

Author's Note: First, I want to apologize to everyone. My family member was sick recently, which caused me to fall ill as well. It's an old ailment, iritis, that flares up whenever I'm tired. It's incurable, so I was practically blind for two days before finally recovering today. That's why I haven't been able to update regularly these past two days, or even let you all know. I'm extremely sorry. Now I'm finally better, and everything is back to normal. I will resume regular updates starting today, and of course, I'll start making up for lost time tonight.

Chapter 130 High-Quality Cannon Fodder

Ivy Beatrice, with a cold expression, terminated the "mind detection" spell.

Everything is clear.

The Northern Federation's invincible fleet utterly annihilated the tribe of the Shahua fishmen and took away the meteorite carved into a red dragon's head.

The Shahua fish-men are creatures with an extremely strong sense of revenge. So the four Shahua fish-men who managed to escape decided to find other tribes of their kind and persuade them to unite and take revenge on the land people. They hadn't gone far when they spotted a squadron of bombers flying overhead, mistaking them for part of the Northern Fleet—which was understandable. The bomber squadron members had all received organs from the half-red dragon Grandel, and their red dragon wings were a typical feature of red dragons.

The four men then tracked the bomber squadron underwater and located the three-masted sailing ship. This maneuver was both intelligent and courageous, but they then made a fatal mistake.

The three-masted galleon captured by Ivy-Beate was originally a treasure-hunting ship from the northern city-state, much like the fleet's warships. As a result, the four Sawa fishmen naturally mistook it for a stray warship from the fleet. Driven by a strong desire for revenge, they climbed onto the hull of the galleon under the cover of night and launched a tragic, suicidal attack on their imagined enemy.

And then, that was it.

The four overconfident and unlucky fellows had just nimbly flipped over the ship's gunwale when they bumped right into Stewart, the Medusa girl who was idly enjoying the night breeze on the deck. In less than a second, they were turned into four stone statues.

If it weren't for the bomber captain, Sink, having a better eye and ordering them to be stored in the hold until the mistress returned to deal with them, Steo would have simply thrown the four statues back into the sea, as he had suggested.

After learning the whole story, Ivy Beatrice remained silent.

The three saka fishmen awaited their sentence with trepidation, their companion's mangled corpse lying at their feet. The courage they had shown before attacking the three-masted sailing ship had been completely exhausted by Medusa's petrifying eyes and the red-haired woman's terrible magic.

Finally, Ivy Beatrice made her decision.

She raised her head, her emerald vertical pupils sweeping across the faces of the three prisoners, while at the same time, magic gently caressed their brains.

The fish-men of Shahua bulged their eyes.

They didn't know why, but they suddenly felt that the red-haired woman in front of them had become incredibly kind.

"So tell me everything you know."

She said, "You plan to unite with other Shahua fish-people tribes to take revenge on the northern dragons who ravaged your homeland, is that right?"

Her voice penetrated their heads.

Under the influence of "suggestion," the sound was like warm blood gushing from an enemy's wound, or like the brutal biting and struggling of a female Sakawa fish-man... making them intoxicated and obsessed.

"Yes, it is."

The people eagerly answered.

The waters of this area are home to numerous marine tribes, many of whom are Shahua fish-men. The four Shahua fish-men's original destination was the Coral Tribe, not far to the east. That was a large Shahua fish-man tribe, and the leader of their former tribe. If they could persuade the Coral Tribe to avenge them, they could gather even more Shahua fish-men.

Ivy-Beate asked hopefully, "So, how many Shahua fishmen can be gathered in total?"

The answer I got was similar to the one I got before: "Many, a lot, a great many."

She had a headache.