The two men widened their eyes at the sight of Alya blocking the movement of the serpent. Strands of her long green hair fluttered gently as she turned around to face the men behind her with a stern expression.
"Hey! You two are you perhaps from the village north of here?"
She asked. At that, the men could only nod their heads in response, as Alya's expression became even more serious.
A black serpent was a dangerous monster. If someone were to make a list of some of the deadliest monsters in this world, then Alya was sure the black serpent would make it into the number ten spot; their poison was strong enough to kill a fully grown human in mere minutes.
And their speed and regenerative abilities make them even scarier.
Even for someone like Alya, it would be difficult to deal with a black serpent while protecting others.
"This thing… Could it possibly be an offspring of the Black serpent of the apocalypse?"
She uttered to herself.
The Black Serpent of the apocalypse was an ancient Nullborn beast that once induced fear and terror into the hearts of humans in the ancient past.
But for some reason, that beast had fallen into a deep sleep.
"… Though as long as that thing doesn't wake up, ridding this world of this beast shouldn't be a problem."
She said to herself, but her face contorted into a small frown.
(Sigh, is this even a D rank quest anymore, I wonder?)
She thought with a long sigh.
"I see... in that case, stay behind me, and don't move from that spot!"
She shouted as she prepared to face the black serpent. The black serpent hisses at Alya warily, it seems it realises it was up against a stronger foe as it glared down at Alya.
Soon, it opened its large mouth attempting to swallow Alya whole, but before the black serpent could, Alya leapt away, lightly evading the serpent.
She jumped high into the air, easily appearing above the black serpent's head. Then at that moment, countless orbs of green light materialised in the sky. Alya, whose figure was now hovering a few meters above the black serpent's head, lightly motioned her hand downwards, and as though responding to her gesture, the orbs of light were sent hurtling down towards the black serpent.
"!!"
As though the serpent could sense the danger towering over its head, the black serpent slithered away in a zig zag like pattern, easily dodging the orbs of light.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
A thunderous sound resounded as the orbs impacted the earth, exploding and gouging out the soil, lightly raising a cloud of thick dust.
Alya narrowed her emerald eyes as she scanned the surroundings.
(That serpent is cleverer than I thought, using the dust as a smokescreen. A normal monster wouldn't be Intelligent enough to think of such a plan)
She thought, and she decided to raise her wariness against this kind of monster. Alya focuses on the spots that were still covered with thick dust, obscuring her vision. When suddenly—
"!!!"
Two pairs of red reptile-like eyes glowed from within the dust. The black serpent's giant body jumped out, once again attempting to swallow her whole, but—
"Tch, such an annoying creature."
Alya wasn't about to fall for the same trick twice. She gazed at the black serpent while muttering hatefully. As the giant serpent's body came within reach, she released a blast of wind towards the black serpent. However, it skillfully manoeuvres its giant body midair, effectively dodging the wind blast. Alya couldn't help but widen her eyes in a show of surprise. It was clear she wasn't dealing with any ordinary creature.
However, instead of feeling despair or discouragement, what she felt was a strong desire to eliminate this foe before her.
The atmosphere around her became tense, her emerald eyes grew sharper, and her soft, glossy pink lip curved upwards into a slight smirk.
The black serpent's body flinches slightly, its body backing away in a show of momentary fear, but—
"Hiss!"
The black serpent hisses as though to shake off such feelings, charges straight towards Alya, who had just landed on the soil, its huge body trampling the trees in its path as it made a beeline towards Alya.
The two elderly men behind her would most likely get dragged into the fight from that distance. With that thought in mind, Alya made her move.
"!!!"
"Huh?!"
"Wha?!"
The two men let out surprised voices as they suddenly felt a floating sensation. Their eyes grew wide as they saw the ground beneath their feet growing distant in their gaze, before the black serpent could reach them, Alya had appeared behind them and took them by the collar of their shirts, before leaping into the air.
They were now at a distance of roughly 60 meters above ground.
Beneath their feet was a circular-shaped transparent barrier that was 20 meters in diameter. Alya had most likely created it as a foothold.
Alya fired a wind-like blast towards the black serpent's huge body, sensing the incoming attack from the skies, the black serpent instantly swept the trees using them as shields. Seeing this, Alya widened her eyes despite herself.
Boom!!!
The forest shook fiercely as the trees toppled down one after another; the large body of the black serpent mowed down the trees in its path. It once again looked upwards as it hissed through its wide mouth, its cheeks then inflated as it gazed at Alya with clear hostility.
"Hmmm.... it seems our little friend here is preparing some kind of big attack."
Alya casually said while folding her arms. The two men looked blankly at her in confusion. Even though the situation was bad, she was still being calm and uncaring.
"U-Umm, is there anything you can do?"
A man who seems to be in his late thirties with short brown hair asked. Impatience could be felt in his voice as he looked at Alya with hopeful eyes. The other middle-aged man with a bearded face and bald head also looked at her with hopeful eyes.
(Honestly, these men, begging a little delicate damsel in distress like me for protection, how pathetic)
Alya thought, sighing lightly as she turned her cold emerald eyes towards the black serpent whose cheeks were so big that it could easily pop like a balloon.... Alya held out her hand as green light gathered at her palm, condensing.
A giant orb of green light that was roughly 10 meters in diameter appeared; she hurtled it towards the serpent at a tremendous speed. As though responding to her sudden attack, the black serpent expectorates a large volume of black liquid from its mouth.
The green orb of light collided with the black liquid. An intense flash of light filled their vision. However, something unexpected happened. The orb of light slowly disappeared as though the black liquid had burned its way through. At that, the black liquid was making its way towards Alya and the two men who were panicking from behind her.
"Sigh! How troublesome, I didn't think it would have something like this up its sleeve."
Alya casually held out her hand, and a square-shaped light transparent barrier appeared before her. The place where the black liquid touched slowly started to melt as the barrier flickered, and it slowly disappeared.
Fortunately, the black acid-like liquid also disappeared along with the barrier. Alya's eyes shone dangerously as she glared down at the black serpent from above.
"Hmph, fine then, if you court death so badly, then I shall give you exactly that, I shall grant you the blessing of death."
Alya said menacingly, her petite body was suddenly clad in a green aura. So much magical power swirls around her figure, seemingly changing the flow of the wind.
Her once soft cherry-like lips became a light shade of green, it curved upwards into a crescent shape, depicting the image of what seems to be a beautiful, seductive smile.
A green pattern like marking appeared on her forehead, the symbol had two butterflies winged like shape to them.
At the same time, two butterfly-like wings with a span of roughly 20 meters made out of green light emerged behind her small, slender back. Her body slowly started to grow older and more alluring; she now looked like a woman in her early twenties, both ethereal and gorgeous. Both men couldn't help but subconsciously gulp their saliva at her goddess-like beauty.
This was the original power that Alya had sealed away after forming a contract with Haruto.
Sealing away most of her power had left her with only a mere fraction of her original strength.
Alya is formally known as the second most powerful wind user in the world, second only to the goddess of wind, Hera.
Whoosh! whoosh! whoosh!
The sound of heavy wind resounded as the clear blue skies grew dark in mere seconds, and the ground broke apart as the trees flew into the air by the wind current.
It was the beginning of a disaster that would most definitely change the structure of this forest for a long decade...!
***
Sometime before Alya releases her restraints....
We have just finished wrapping up our discussion with Lady Artina, Nikita, and me, who were leisurely walking around the village; the atmosphere here still seems a little tense.
Though I guess that's to be expected, considering most of the villagers are still missing. I could only hope Alya's search is making progress.
"Master."
Nikita called out as she came to a sudden stop. Her eyes seemed to be staring intensely into the distance as her nine silver fox tails moved gracefully behind her back.
"Hmm? What's wrong, Nikita?"
I asked, tilting my head curiously.
"Something feels off... I-I can sense danger."
She said in an unusual, serious tone before looking in a certain direction into the forest. Her nine tails suddenly stood out as her crimson eyes narrowed slightly. I also turned my eyes in that direction. I couldn't sense anything strange or off about that area. But then....
"Argh!"
I felt a sharp pain in the back of my hand.
"Huh! Master, what's wrong?"
Nikita called out to me in a flustered voice. When I turned my hand backwards, a symbol could be seen there, glowing.
(Hmmm! Isn't this the mark that appeared when I had signed a contract with Alya before? What's happening to it? It hasn't glowed or shown any kind of change since that day, so... why? Could something have happened to Alya?)
At that bad premonition, my face went pale as I frantically ran off into the forest.
"M-Master, wait!"
I heard Nikita's flustered voice from behind me, but currently, I don't have time to think about that.