345 - Quick and Easy Blasphemy 5
TL/Editor: raei
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The sudden declaration of betrayal startled the group, but the fourth princess, despite being held by the neck, passionately continued her speech.
"...Is the empire's history so short that it's not as rotten as I thought?"
Flying is noble, treading the earth is inferior, and crawling beneath is wicked!
Not a very ancient empire and was founded by slaying underground monsters, the imperial family seemed more deranged than corrupt.
"Um, this might sound odd, but... we're going to kill your mother. Are you okay with that?"
"What of it?"
"Huh?"
Katie was bewildered by this conversation, while Grace just rolled her eyes and gave up on speaking. Despite such reactions, this harpy princess continued to rant about the imperial education she had received.
Those who fly are noble, those who control thunder even more so, and thus bear a great mission. However, the underground monsters have grown so powerful that fulfilling this mission has become difficult.
Even if it means dying alongside the underground monsters with the help of humans, her mother would be happy... that was her argument.
"Then shouldn't you ask us to help your mother defeat the monsters?"
"But you came with the outside invaders, didn't you?" freeweɓnovēl.coɱ
"...?"
"Those who killed the imperial guards and invaded the palace wouldn't help my mother without reason. If so, rather than throwing away my life, it's better to fulfill the mission of dealing with that terrible thing underground, as befits wings that fly high!"
So she was asking us to kill the monster along with her if we were going to kill her anyway. Come to think of it, this harpy princess never tried to escape from my grasp, even while begging me to spare her life. She never left the hall.
No matter how massive the tentacle monster was, she could have easily avoided it by flying high. Yet she risked her life circling above the altar. Her attendants must have done the same, sacrificing their lives to protect a single altar.
Faced with this display of fanaticism surpassing even the average religious zealot, the group nodded in resignation. After all, we had no reason to refuse a useful guide who would show us to the boss monster.
Katie seemed to have other plans.
"Once we hunt the Harpy Empress and the underground monster, that princess might be useful."
"How?"
"We can't hunt all the flying harpies ourselves. We just need to use magic contracts to bind her as a puppet empress."
-Who are you! What happened to our innocent Katie!
-I guess if we want to use the city, it might be better to just occupy it
-But aren't the knights slaughtering everyone already?
-Even if the knights slaughter some, they'd only occupy part of the area and kill the soldiers, so the civilians would still be there
"Wow... that's a good idea. The other harpy princesses were unfortunately eaten, and the empress sacrificed her life to protect the empire. So the fourth princess forms an alliance with the heroic party that helped save the empire and begins trade. That story would work smoothly."
[Paving the Way donated 10,000 won!]
You should be the one coming up with that, why are you leaving it to Katie
Katie suggesting to use her politically, and Han Se-ah admiring the idea before getting scolded. Despite the chaotic situation, we decided to trust the harpy princess's words and move forward.
A harpy princess willing to off her mother for honor's sake. Her reason wasn't to become empress herself, but a fanatical belief that sacrificing her mother to deal with the underground tentacle monster was an honorable act of filial piety.
A lunatic princess who firmly believed that killing her mother to kill the tentacle monster was filial piety. There's no way such a madwoman would refuse an alliance with humans.
"This way, humans!"
Following the harpy princess who, without hesitation, began guiding us the moment she escaped my grasp, we moved forward.
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Raei Translations
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The direction she led us was completely different from what Han Se-ah had anticipated.
If the imperial garden we entered was the side, and the empty hall we mistakenly entered was the entrance, then the throne and altar should be this way~
But the princess led us in a direction exactly 90 degrees from where Han Se-ah thought. Han Se-ah, who had suggested entering at 9 o'clock, finding nothing at 6 o'clock, and now heading to 12 o'clock, was once again enduring snarky comments in the chat.
I suppose even if there's a monster sealed beneath the palace, they wouldn't place the throne directly above it. Maybe they hid the sealed location in a garden or annex building.
So, leaving the palace and entering a new garden led us directly to a distant pavilion that had turned into a chaotic mess.
“It looks like they're still fighting.”
"That tentacle is as thick as a temple pillar."
A tentacle as thick as a pillar stretching towards the sky. And a throwing spear striking down like lightning towards that tentacle.
The massive monster crushing more than half of the pavilion with its body, and the red-feathered Harpy Empress opposing it – even from a distance, the scene was captivating.
Crackle―
Sizzle―
The ashen sky, untouched by sunlight, darkened ominously.
The ashen hue turns inky black as storm clouds, drawn by wingbeats, rumble menacingly like a starving beast, growling.
Even the most oblivious person would look up at the sky and think, 'I might get struck by lightning and die today,' given the deafening sound. The Harpy Empress, enveloped not in storm clouds but lightning clouds, hurls bolts of lightning indiscriminately, like Zeus from mythology.
"I'm not planning to rush in right away. Let them wear them down a bit, then help whichever side is losing to aim for a double victory."
"That's the way. Apart from their strength, that huge body would need siege weapons to chip away at."
"The flying one's wrapped in lightning clouds too, so I doubt even intermediate magic would work, right?"
But the underground monster extends its tentacles relentlessly, undeterred by the barrage of lightning. If the mid-boss on the 45th floor looked like a mix of hermit crab and octopus, the 50th floor boss resembled a blend of slug and sea anemone, with countless tentacles writhing upwards.
Though we call them sea anemone tentacles, in reality, this behemoth has been gorging on underground magical ore for well over a century. Even the tentacles in the hall were as hard as boulders, so who knows how tough these thicker ones are.
A few tentacles may be severed and scattered, but the damage is minimal. The Harpy Empress also seems to be going all out, her magic still appearing strong... Should we jump in when she descends to about half health and starts looking ragged?
"But why is that monster so fixated on the Harpy Empress?"
As we were sizing up the situation, Grace muttered puzzledly.
"Well, it's being attacked, so naturally– No, that's not it."
"Right? Think about the ones in the hall."
Katie also paused mid-sentence, realizing something was off.
As Grace pointed out, the massive tentacle monster was squirming and flinging rock projectiles like a catapult, trying to grab something far beyond its reach.
If it reacted to magic-infused metal, it would make more sense to ignore the lightning from above and devour the entire crumbling palace. The tentacles in the hall were obsessed with me, but that was because of my armor, and...
...If it was because of my armor, could the Harpy Empress be holding something?
Whether it's an imperial treasure or the Harpy Empress's trump card, something seems suspicious. As it's grown larger and consumed plenty of mana, it should have become smarter, yet it still fixates solely on the Harpy Empress. There must be a reason.
Surely the 50th floor boss doesn't have an A.I. on par with a single-celled prokaryote?
"Hey, princess. Do you know anything?"
"Hmm... It must be the Sky Lightning my mother is holding. By the way, mother alone is clearly not enough. So she'll gladly welcome you, there's no problem."
"Sky Lightning? What's that?"
"The empire's holy artifact on mother's ankle. A great weapon bestowed by the First Emperor, allowing free control of heaven's thunder and lightning, and the symbol of the empire."
Listening to the harpy princess and looking closely, I realized the Harpy Empress wasn't holding a throwing spear or anything similar. She wore only jingling jeweled anklets and flowing silk robes instead of armor. I suppose all that silk and jewelry must be magical items and holy artifacts.
As the frequency of lightning strikes from the sky slowed and the number of extended tentacles gradually decreased, a thought occurred to me.
What if the tentacle boss consumes the empress's magical item... Don't tell me it'll start spewing lightning with that massive body?
"We're going in right now to deal with the tentacle monster first."
Ah sh*t, why add magic on top of that huge body?
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