The sound of guttural, roaring laughter echoed like a monstrous wind.

I focused my magically enhanced vision on the mummified figures scattered throughout the forest, then took a step back to scan the area more broadly.

There wasn’t a single normal tree in sight.

What had appeared to be a lush valley filled with trees, like something out of a Chinese UNESCO World Heritage site, was instead a grotesque landscape of withered, mummy-like monsters. The sheer eeriness of the sight made my skin crawl.

Fortunately, they didn’t seem to be making any aggressive moves toward us. Still, it wasn’t the kind of scenery you could simply ignore.

I turned to the one-eyed monster.

“…Are all of those things monsters?”

“They are,” he replied, nodding swiftly.

“They’re husks, really. Barely able to move, half-dead even as ‘demons.'”

“So, they won’t attack us with magic?”

“Hard to say. If you get too close, there’s no telling what they’ll do. Be careful.”

Easier said than done. There wasn’t a single space in this forest free of those creatures.

Aya and Nina finally took in their surroundings, their tense, shaky voices betraying their shock.

Before they could process it fully, I turned back to the one-eyed monster.

“Those tree-like monsters… If we can’t get close to them safely, how are we supposed to find the

Oni Blight

?”

“Good question, kid. Lucky for us, we don’t need to go looking.”

“What do you mean?”

The monster grinned slyly.

“The

Oni Blight

is drawn to human life. It’s got no brains, though—not much room for cleverness in a place like this.”

He shrugged, as if this were the most obvious thing in the world.

“Think of the

Oni Blight

as a baby. It moves purely on instinct, chasing power wherever it senses it.”

“So, if we just wait here, it’ll come to us?”

“Not quite. We’ll need to

call it

.”

With that, the monster reached into his chest pocket and pulled out a small bell. It was heavily tarnished, its color somewhere between green and blue, its surface etched with the marks of long use.

Holding the bell carefully, he glanced up at us.

“You kids ready?”

“Yeah.”

I nodded, and Aya and Nina followed suit.

Satisfied with our readiness, the monster gave the bell a small shake. The sound that rang out was pure and crystalline, spreading across the Immortal Realm like a ripple in water.

The

Oni Blight

was a “Fifth Rank” entity. Not unbeatable, but definitely dangerous enough to require caution. I clenched my fists, steeling myself for the fight ahead.

We waited in silence for it to appear.

“…”

The clear, resonant chime of the bell slowly faded into the background. Nothing moved, no threads of

Silveit

lashed out toward us.

As the sound melted into the stillness, I spoke up.

“Nothing’s happening.”

“Not yet,” the monster replied, shaking his head.

And then it came—a great Discover more stories at empire

whoosh

, as if a gust of wind had swirled into being. This time, the wind was real, and it swept through the withered mummies, lifting the dry leaves atop their heads in a spiraling storm.

The leaves coalesced into a swarm, rising into the air and darting toward us.

“That just woke up the others!” the monster yelled.

The writhing swarm twisted like a snake in the sky, and then without hesitation, it shot toward us.

“Flying leaves?!”

“No, Aya. That’s not leaves,” I said, my magically enhanced sight revealing the truth.

“That’s a monster.”

What looked like leaves were, in fact, countless

green fingers

. Human fingers, squirming like caterpillars, weaving together into a mass that rose into the sky and dove toward us.

I quickly wove a net of

Silveit

and cast it forward.

“Do they need to be burned to be purified?”

“Smart boy! You’ve got it right!” the monster cackled.

I’d guessed as much, recalling the long-armed monster we encountered at the blacksmith’s workshop. The Immortal Realm’s monsters, it seemed, all required fire to be defeated.

Beside me, Nina raised her hands as if praying, summoning her magic.

“…’Burn,'” she whispered.

But nothing happened. The fairy’s form didn’t materialize, leaving only her trembling hands cutting through empty air.

She still couldn’t use magic.

“It’s okay, Nina,” I said, reassuring her as I expanded my

Silveit

into a broad, flaming net.

“

Blazing Spider.

“

With a roar, the

Silveit

web ignited, engulfing the writhing swarm of fingers. The flames consumed them with startling ease, as if the monster was coated in oil.

“Wow… That burns fast,” Aya muttered, her voice tinged with unease.

“Which makes it easy to purify.”

I manipulated the blazing web, sweeping it across the sky until every last flying finger was reduced to black smoke.

As the smoke cleared, Aya grabbed my arm.

“Itsuki, look down! Below us!”

Following her lead, I looked down at the high ground we stood on—and saw them.

Monsters were swarming up the cliffside toward us.

Their appearance was horrifying, to say the least. Imagine a snail, but with a human face instead of a shell. Then replace its eyes with grotesquely elongated arms that wriggled and reached, desperate to grab us.

They scrambled up the cliff at a speed no snail should have, their voices rasping in unison:

“Leave something behind!”

“Just your face will do!”

“An arm is fine!”

“Even a leg!”

“Anything at all will do!”

There were dozens of them, each clambering upward with unnerving speed.

I extended ten threads of

Silveit

, aiming for the group.

“

Blazing Spears.

“

The fiery lances shot down, propelled by both my magic and gravity. They struck the monsters in an explosion of flames and force.

With a heavy rumble, the ground quaked slightly beneath us.

The effect was devastating. The cliffside swarm was caught in the blast, the flames reducing them to black mist that quickly dissipated.

As the last of the smoke cleared, the one-eyed monster clapped his hands in delight.

“Amazing! You’re something else, kid. No wonder you’ve taken down

Second Rank

entities!”

I’d just purified his fellow monsters, and he was applauding me. Did that count as betrayal?

No time to dwell on it. I scanned the surroundings, looking for the next wave of attackers.

But then I noticed something odd: the ground beneath us was still trembling.

“…An earthquake?”

Earthquakes weren’t uncommon in Japan, but was that possible here in the Immortal Realm? As I pondered, the ground beneath us suddenly tilted violently.

The high ground we were standing on started to shift.

Before we could react, we were flung into the air. Gravity seized us, and we plummeted toward the ground below.

“Whoa?!”

“AAAAAAAH!”

“Ahh!”

“…!”

Everyone screamed in their own way as we fell. I quickly glanced down.

The ground was dozens of meters below.

I began weaving

Silveit

, ready to slow our descent, when the one-eyed monster’s voice cut through the chaos.

“Kid! Look! The

Oni Blight

! It’s here!”

“Where?!”

“Right in front of us! Open your eyes!”

I followed his frantic direction, looking ahead—and then I saw it.

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me…”

The high ground we had been standing on—the entire

platform

—was moving.

“It’s the

Oni Blight

!” the monster shouted. “And it’s HUGE! I’ve never seen one this big before!”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep