NOVEL WEB Chapter 27: The Victor
In a vast desert that was once yellow, the sands had turned to a dark red.
The desert was littered with the remains of countless insects. Due to the intense heat, they had mummified before they could even decay, their blood seeping into the sand and staining it a deep crimson over time.
Amidst the mountain of insect corpses, a young girl stood atop, gazing out over the endless expanse of dark red sand below.
She had lost track of how long she had been fighting. The insect hordes seemed endless, crashing upon her like a relentless tide. At first, she could only kill one insect at a time, but soon she could slay a group with a single strike. However, as she adapted, stronger and more formidable insects appeared, bringing her back to the struggle of killing one insect at a time.
Throughout this ceaseless battle, her movements remained agile, though her body was numb from the constant wounds that healed and reopened. Her will was unyielding, but her mind was fraying from the endless slaughter.
At some point, she had started relying entirely on instinct. Her techniques were engraved into her body, and her memory had been severed.
Only now had she begun to regain her awareness.
BOOM!
Suddenly, the ground began to tremble violently. The intensity of the quake far surpassed that of the giant centipede she had faced before.
“...!!”
A colossal insect, over a hundred meters long, emerged with an incomprehensible sound.
At the same time, the desert's scenery began to flicker, shifting from oasis to forest, from city to sea.
“Didn’t expect you could make it this far. Had I known, I would have used illusions from the start to crush you in the cradle.”
The gigantic insect had the scythe-like claws of a mantis, the armor of a beetle, and the stinger of a bee, as if it were a fusion of various bugs. Its sides were lined with numerous long legs.
“…”
The girl raised her head, staring at the giant insect hovering in the sky, saying nothing. However, her gaze made the insect feel a sense of contempt.
“Lowlife heretic, prepare to die!”
The insect’s transparent wings flared outwards, creating a gust of wind that blew away part of the mountain of corpses beneath the girl, scattering them across the desert.
Yet, the girl remained unmoved.
“Impossible! You blasphemer!”
A massive sphere of energy gathered in the insect’s mouth, forming a dazzling ball of light.
As it unleashed the sphere, a destructive beam of light, as wide as the giant centipede, erupted from it, obliterating everything it touched.
After a long while, the light faded, leaving half of the corpse mountain reduced to rubble and a massive canyon carved into the desert, as though the sea had been split apart.
“Although my kind suffered severe casualties, and I could not use it to our advantage, it’s still…”
Before the insect could finish, it sensed a strange presence, identical to the one that should have vanished under the destructive beam.
A powerful shockwave erupted from its back, reducing its flying height by over a hundred meters.
“Damn it! Illusions… Activate!”
As it spoke, the flickering illusions on the ground stopped, focusing on the human on its back.
The illusions in the desert she had encountered before were mere games, far inferior to the concentrated power of the desert’s illusions.
However, with another powerful impact, the illusions created by the insect were shattered in an instant, along with its arrogance.
“Why aren’t you affected!? … No, you’re hiding your true power!”
At this moment, the aura emitted by the girl was undeniably on par with the insect's.
The insect’s offspring were merely at the peak of the sixth level, while it was more than two levels higher. Even if the girl could eliminate its strongest offspring with a wave of her hand, it was inconceivable that she could match it. Moreover, it had calculated everything precisely, and there should have been no errors.
Yet, a mistake occurred. The girl’s power, gained from the life forces of those she had slain, had grown beyond the insect’s expectations.
“Stop! Stay away!”
The insect thrashed its body, trying to shake the girl off.
The higher the level, the less advantage size gave. Unless the difference in power or size was enormous, a large opponent was merely a target for the other side to attack with ease.
Now, the insect was the one with the massive size, and its attacks couldn’t harm her, while she could bombard it relentlessly.
As expected, numerous magic circles appeared around the insect, bombarding it from every angle like an oven.
“No! I don't want to die! I pledge to a revered deity, grant me strength!”
The insect abandoned its self-proclaimed divinity and dignity, offering a sacrifice to an unknown entity.
However, as if sulking, the entity did not respond.
“…It’s come to this. If I die, you won’t live either!”
In its desperation, the insect decided to self-destruct, taking the human with it.
In an instant, the insect’s body expanded to twice its size and continued to swell like a balloon on the verge of bursting. But the explosion’s power was far beyond that of a mere balloon.
BOOM!!! !!!
The explosion’s shockwave and gale swept across the desert, lifting a vast amount of insect corpses and crimson sand, creating a sandstorm. The sky was darkened by the red sand, turning the desert a grim gray.
At the center of the explosion was a massive crater, completely empty of both corpses and living beings.
...
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“It’s been a long time since we last investigated here. Do you know why the master suddenly interrupted the investigation and then resumed it?”
“How would I know? The master’s wisdom is beyond our understanding. Just focus on the task… What’s wrong?”
“Look over there…”
A girl with deer antlers was patting another girl with fluffy ears while pointing forward at the once-yellow desert now turned dark red and emitting a strong smell of rust. If they hadn’t repeatedly confirmed their location, they would have thought they were lost.
The only similarity was that the desert still had clear weather, albeit somewhat annoyingly so.
“…No wonder the master gave us anti-odor medicine in advance. The master is truly unfathomable.”
“Don’t praise the master just yet! We need to investigate thoroughly. Something serious might have happened, which is why the master sent us here.”
The girl with fluffy ears swallowed the anti-odor medicine and, pulling the girl with deer antlers, hurried into the desert.
