The Grill-Wielding Saintess of the Dead

All monsters have intelligence.

Of course, there aren’t that many high-tier intelligent beings equivalent to humans.

Elves, dwarves, and beastfolk who form civilizations in the Erosion Dungeon are generally regarded as high-tier intelligent races. They not only don’t have an unconditional hostility towards humans, but they also interact in various ways. Some even venture outside to act as hunters, supporting their tribes and civilizations trapped inside the dungeons.

Anyway, the Bladed Centipede is also intelligent.

Though its intelligence level is below that of an infant who can’t throw a stone, it possesses enough reasoning ability to analyze its primal emotions.

And today, a Bladed Centipede was living harmoniously with its kin at the edge of Rotten Mountain.

It was a Bladed Centipede about 10 meters long with 120 pairs of legs. It felt good after catching a large sewer rat before the morning dew on the leaves had dried.

[Creeeak…]

The Bladed Centipede is capable of functioning efficiently enough that it only needs to eat once a week without any nutritional issues.

Having eaten, it thought it would crawl under a damp rock it likes and rest until it got hungry again.

Unfortunately, when it tried to squeeze into a gap between rocks, it found many of its kin had already made themselves at home there.

In this Rotten Mountain Dungeon, even a small dig into the ground reveals swarms of its kind.

In any damp place, there were always kin around.

Whether under shadowy trees that don’t get much sunlight, in humid caves, among soggy moss, beneath decaying tree trunks, or even in the habitats of sewer rats, there were always kin resembling itself everywhere in this Rotten Mountain.

It squeezed between the fidgeting legs of its kin and found a somewhat decent spot to lie down.

Given its size, it was fortunate enough to be stronger than its kin.

If nothing out of the ordinary happened, it could peacefully sleep at least a week until it got hungry again.

There was no creature capable of threatening the apex predator known as the Bladed Centipede in the Rotten Mountain Dungeon.

The only potential threat would be the occasionally frenzied giant kin that go berserk and try to eat their own kind.

“Those guys should just sleep if they’ve eaten. I just don’t get why they’re going crazy.”

Grumbling softly, the Bladed Centipede relaxed its body to fall asleep.

But just then, it sensed something strange happening.

“Kuh, oooong!”

What is this? What’s happening?

The rock is moving.

And at that moment, it instinctively realized that something unusual was occurring.

Its kin still seemed blank, not understanding what was happening.

But the Bladed Centipede realized that the rock it had been lying on was being lifted completely.

In the slow passage of time, the rock was suddenly raised by sheer force, and as the cold wind rushed in after the rock was lifted, its kin finally began to wake up and noticed something was wrong, their legs fidgeting.

“Hehe, found you!”

“Found you? What are you talking about, you crazy woman!”

“Aaaaah! Please stop, streamer!”

“I want to get out, but I can’t!”

What is going on…?

The Rotten Mountain Dungeon was home to many Bladed Centipedes, and among them, many had likely never seen a human.

The Hunter Association sometimes organizes subjugation teams to prevent a surge in the population of Bladed Centipedes overflowing into the outside world. Yet, even so, countless Bladed Centipedes still remain in that dungeon, and surely, some have never encountered a human.

And so it saw it.

For the first time in its life, it encountered a natural predator.

The Bladed Centipede is ferocious and will become enraged and attack en masse to devour invaders if humans intrude upon their habitat.

As Shia lifted the rock, countless Bladed Centipedes swarming below appeared to be in the thousands.

As a high-resolution drone camera zoomed in on the Bladed Centipedes, viewers were disgusted by the sight, while Shia smiled brightly.

Awakened from their disrupted slumber, enraged Bladed Centipedes collectively turned to assault the audacious intruder who had disturbed their home.

“Eeeeeek!”

“What is thaaaat?!”

“What the hell?”

“Get it off me!”

“Yucky!”

“Aaaah!”

Thousands of centipedes poured toward Shia.

To the viewers, it must have looked like thousands of Bladed Centipedes were simultaneously charging at their screens, and some faint-hearted spectators even tumbled off their chairs in shock. Even those who remained seated were stunned, each having received a jarring shock.

Bzzzzzzz…

Chirp-chirp…

Crack-crack…

Crackle…

With seconds to spare, Shia was completely buried by thousands of centipedes without so much as a chance to evade.

Only the round outline where Shia had been was visible among the mass of massive centipedes. Surrounded by swarming centipedes, the smallest among them was over a meter long, and the horror and disgust were beyond words.

“Wait, what’s happening to the streamer?!”

“Is she dead?!”

“Is she okay??”

“This cannot be good!”

“What’s going on?!”

“Is the streamer fine?!”

“Is she going to die?!”

“LOL, this is great!”

The drone camera drifting in the sky registered a clear image; viewers were able to clearly see the state of the streamer.

Watching in high definition, many people screamed as they saw Shia, confidently raising the rock, now completely trapped in a mass of centipedes.

“Wait, if she was so confident, why is she now completely stuffed in there?”

Viewers thought they might soon witness a horrific scene of a hunter dying right before their eyes.

If someone were to be buried under so many Bladed Centipedes, even an S-rank hunter might perish.

Each leg of a Bladed Centipede had the hardness of steel, and just them crawling over a human could shred flesh. And with hundreds, thousands surrounding her…

Even a skilled hunter wouldn’t guarantee their survival against such a throng.

Incidents where hunter streamers die in dungeons aren’t unheard of.

Usually, hunter streamers either have good confidence in their skills, hire higher-ranked hunters, or pull off some dramatic stunts to prioritize safety while streaming.

But dungeons are places where it’s unusual not to have unexpected disasters or deaths; accidents can happen at any time.

Even the most ruthless viewers, watching a beautiful, well-endowed female hunter who had been the talk of the week suddenly get engulfed by Bladed Centipedes, could only gasp in horror.

“Wait, what’s that?”

“Hey, what’s that over there?”

Just then, a viewer spotted something out of the ordinary.

Amid the wriggling mass of Bladed Centipedes, something white suddenly emerged.

An arm.

Shia’s arm, clad in a white sleeve and boasting skin even paler than that fabric, shot up from within the squirming centipedes.

Like a pyramid or ruin uncovered in the vast desert, Shia’s arm slowly rose amid the fidgeting legs of the Bladed Centipedes.

“What the…?”

“What is going on?!”

“No way!”

“Ah, is that an arm?!”

“No, it’s moving!!!”

“Look, it’s wiggling its fingers!”

“Wait, let’s really think about this. Look at the streamer’s skin! It’s unharmed!”

“For real?”

The hand that emerged from the mass of centipedes was immaculate and pristine.

It appeared as if it was saying, “Don’t worry, I’m fine, LOL,” as it wiggled.

Finally, the fingers spread wide toward the drone camera.

Then, as if demonstrating something, it began to fold its fingers slowly.

5…

4…

3…

2…

1…

And just as the last finger folded and Shia clenched her fist, the noise of the Bladed Centipedes abruptly stopped.

Not just the racket of the centipedes; all sounds the drone camera had been capturing vanished, replaced by a sudden, piercing noise in the viewers’ ears.

“Miraculous Demise of the Enshrined!”

The sacred sound reverberated like an echoing divine voice.

Boom!!

The moment of explosion was fleeting.

Rather than an explosion, it was a colossal shockwave.

From the very center where the Bladed Centipedes had writhed, a pale white light instantaneously erupted, blasting the centipedes to smithereens, and the thousands that had encircled Shia, moments before eager to take a bite, vanished without a trace in less than a second.

“What just happened?”

“Where did all the centipedes go?”

“What’s happening? What’s going on?”

“Whaaaat?!”

“OMG…”

“What the heck?”

As quickly as the white light had appeared, it vanished, leaving only Shia clearly visible in the drone camera.

“Did you miss me?”

Her slight smile was both enchanting and eerie.

Shia’s body was completely unharmed.

Not a speck of dirt, dust, or even the remnants of blasted Bladed Centipedes could mar her pristine, white clothing and skin. Standing nonchalantly at the epicenter of the shockwave, she looked up at the camera as if completely at ease.

“Unfortunately, there aren’t any A-ranked Bladed Centipedes here.”

Then, from her waist, a tentacle, clicking its teeth, glided out and began voraciously consuming the scattered remains of the blasted Bladed Centipedes.

Chomp, chomp…

Snatch, snatch…

Smack, smack…

“Sorry! I was going to fry some Bladed Centipedes, but my little ones were clamoring to be fed, so I’ll give them these for now. Still, I haven’t eaten anything myself, so it’s all good, right?”

“Huh???”

“What on earth is going on?!”

“LOL…”

“This is just absurd!”

“What the heck…”

The viewers, momentarily spellbound, began to type frantically in the chat.

Initially, they responded with disbelief, then a confusion that they still couldn’t believe what they’d seen, followed by a near-sigh of resignation.

“Yesss!!!”

“Noona!!!”

“I’m subscribing to you as of today!”

“What about the explosion?? LOL!”

“So freakin’ cool!”

“That’s what I’m talking about!”

“For real, LOL.”

“Oh wow…”

It was sheer elation.

Surrounded by thousands of centipedes and then causing a massive explosion, showing herself completely unscathed, was more magnificent than any dramatic moments seen in movies.

As the chat ignited with a variety of reactions, Shia smiled.

Shia had once defeated the Demon King’s army when they attacked her village.

As the village people, well-versed in both monsters and the Demon King’s forces, were initially taken aback by Shia’s sudden appearance, watching her ruthlessly use her grotesque tentacles to butcher the Demon King’s horde made them wonder if she were their ally or yet another monster.

But as soon as she crushed the head of one of the Demon King’s minions, their surprise changed to an uproarious cheer.

Shia felt a similar thrill coursing through her now.

“Is this what you like?”

“Yesss!!!”

“Absolutely!”

“Wait, I thought she was done for, but she just wiped them all out in one shot? Who wouldn’t like that? LOL!”

“For real, that was epic!”

“Noona!”

“Hehe…”

Gathering her forces and then blasting them away all at once without getting a speck of dirt on herself was astounding.

To be encircled by over a thousand Bladed Centipedes yet remain untouched was surprising, but even more curious was that not a single part of her sleeve was torn.

Then, she spotted a large Bladed Centipede squirming at the edge of the area she had just lifted.

It was pretty big.

While others measured between 2 to 4 meters, this one seemed to be over 10 meters long.

It had some noticeable girth, too.

“………..Slurp.”

“Huh?”

“Is the streamer just licking her lips?”

“Hey, look! That one is still alive!”

“That one’s long.”

“Could it be A-ranked?”

“Not A-ranked, but it looks B-ranked to me.”

The viewers watched as the surviving centipede wriggled out from between the rocks, eyeing Shia with intent.

Its single pitch-black eye stared at her, its antennae and venomous claws twitching.

“Looks delicious…”

Smack!!

As soon as Shia muttered her thought, the centipede seemed to understand, twitching noticeably and then bolting for its life.

“Huh?!”

Shia was startled by the centipede that smartly evaded her.

It’s bizarre…?

Why is it running away??

“Wait, this is hilarious; it’s actually fleeing!?”

“LOL, the centipede’s running!”

“Centipede running, no joke!”

Additionally, it was moving at an astonishing speed.

Although Shia was no slowpoke, her speed was derived from her immense strength and agility, so it was surprisingly difficult to catch up to a creature biologically attuned for speed like the Bladed Centipede.

And the 10-meter Bladed Centipede was sprinting for its life, to the point of expending not only the energy it’d just gained from the sewer rat it ate but its surplus life force as well.

While a Bladed Centipede has no intelligence to speak of, if it could feel fear, it would be screaming, “AAAH!! What the heck is that monster?!”

With that strength, it had obliterated thousands of its kin without leaving a trace, and yet here it was, facing something that displayed clear signs of ‘hunger.’

Look at the drool, and that crimson, bloodshot gaze. It reeked of gluttony and devouring intent.

At that moment, the centipede felt fear for death for the very first time.

“Stop!! Just let me fry you a bit!”

“LOL, she’s trying to fry it!”

“Wait, is the streamer that fast?! This centipede must be fast too!”

“I can totally see myself running if something like that were chasing me.”

“LOL, wow!”

“Isn’t the Bladed Centipede supposed to have a higher intelligence?!”

“How is it running for its life?”

“LOL!”

And thus, the frantic escape of the 10-meter Bladed Centipede, escaping for its life, became a trending topic in genre hunter galleries.

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