Chapter Thirty-Two: The Envoy of Demons

The thunderwater ray in the sky let out a triumphant cry, then unleashed several more bolts of lightning, striking down around the adventurer and injuring seven or eight people at once. Those directly hit were reduced to charred corpses—hardly the kind of food the thunderwater ray desired. It was the freshly wounded, those paralyzed and on the verge of death, that it craved as a delicacy.

Watching the panicked retreat of the crowd, the thunderwater ray’s eyes flashed with a hint of almost human contempt before it swooped directly from the sky. Its target was the cluster of fresh bodies.

Those adventurers with ranged attacks now ceased their assault; if the beast could be “satisfied” and leave, perhaps that would be the best outcome for all.

From within the mirror world, Chu Yun shook his head in silence. He had planned to strike with his twisting law magic as the thunderwater ray descended, hoping the other adventurers might join in to deal a heavy blow—perhaps even kill the creature. But seeing their current state, cooperation seemed impossible, so he held back his once-per-day ascending spell.

The thunderwater ray was a flattened, manta-like flying creature, with a hard back but a relatively vulnerable underbelly. Its mouth was ringed with numerous tentacle-like appendages, and as it landed, these tendrils wound around the paralyzed adventurers one by one.

“Help me, someone please save me!”

“Master Mage, I beg you—help me!”

One adventurer, still able to speak, pleaded desperately to those below. But at that moment, everyone wished only for the troublesome monster to leave quickly; no one dared attack, though their hearts ached with guilt. Otherwise, the next to die might be themselves.

The thunderwater ray seized five people and soared upward, blood raining down with the storm. The torrential rain could not drown out the savage sounds of its feasting—it had no intention of leaving. When it had devoured their innards, the remains were discarded, and its body began to glow with an even stronger electric light.

“This is bad. The creature only eats the organs; expecting it to leave with a full belly is unrealistic...”

The thunderwater ray rarely appeared on land, so few here knew its habits. They had thought that, like a wolf among sheep, leaving a few behind would appease it and send it on its way. Now, it seemed that even if everyone here died, it might still not be sated.

Recharged, the thunderwater ray once again released the lightning orbs that Chu Yun had interrupted earlier. This time, it unleashed three at once, each flying to a different part of the camp.

But these were not attack spells; they were the anchors for a sustained magic formation. The three orbs hung in the sky, forming nodes for a terrifying electric net that spread to cover the entire encampment.

The earlier adventurer had been correct: the ray’s magic was indeed limited. What he didn’t know was that the thunderwater ray could rapidly replenish its mana by consuming fresh flesh, allowing it to cast a formidable number of bloodline spells.

As the apocalyptic scene unfolded, the crowd fled in madness, but any who touched the electric web fell instantly. They were trapped, helpless, waiting for death.

Chu Yun’s situation was slightly better. Though the electric net covered the mirror world as well, as long as he kept his distance from the thunderwater ray, he could wait out the battle and leave unharmed. Paimon, however, might not be so lucky.

At that moment, following Chu Yun’s instructions, Paimon was cowering in a corner, trembling with fear. As a fellow monster, it knew all too well the power of the thunderwater ray—not only was it a rank higher, but it was also an elite creature. Paimon worried for its master, but unable to find Chu Yun, it could only stay hidden, anxiously peeking out.

In doing so, it noticed something odd: the mother and daughter who had been near Chu Yun before, Eve and her child, were hiding in a corner without the slightest trace of panic. Their faces betrayed not fear, but mockery and disdain—the very same expression the thunderwater ray had worn as it looked down at the people below.

Sensing Paimon’s gaze, Eve turned and called out to it, “Don’t be scared, little one. No harm will come to you. Once Mommy has killed all these hateful humans, you can be my pet.”

Paimon shrank back, shaking its head in desperate refusal.

Eve pointed at the thunderwater ray in the sky, persisting, “We of the Lalafell tribe are natural monster tamers. If you follow me, you can become an elite monster yourself.”

In the past, such a temptation might have swayed Paimon to betray Chu Yun. But having tasted the thrill of growing stronger, Paimon believed its current master could help it evolve as well—and even communicate with it. All things considered, though it had not been with Chu Yun long, Paimon preferred to remain loyal to its original master, rather than become the pet of two seemingly sinister monster tamers.

“Heh, don’t be fooled by my size—I’m already a thirty-year-old first-rank monster tamer. You’d better behave!” Eve, angered by Paimon’s refusal, lunged forward to subdue it by force.

She was fast—she leaped onto Paimon’s back in an instant. Paimon, intelligent as it was, now understood the situation thanks to Eve’s explanation.

“Roaarr! (Master, help Paimon! There’s a monster tamer!)” Its desperate roar was lost in the thunder and rain; no one spared a glance for the rampaging earth drake.

Yet Chu Yun, with his monster communication spell active, caught the meaning behind Paimon’s cries.

“A monster tamer? Those two Lalafell?” Chu Yun was shocked.

Most of the time, the Lalafell people behaved with great kindness, acting as friends to humans. But just as there were good and evil among humans, not all Lalafell were virtuous; some could be wicked as well. The presence of these two alone in the camp had always been strange—now it seemed likely that this attack had been orchestrated by them.

Chu Yun hurried from the mirror world toward Paimon’s location. Paimon was struggling desperately to resist the forced pet contract. Eve sat astride its back, unmoved by its efforts, as if bound to Paimon by some inseparable force.

Eve’s mother looked on with disapproval at her daughter’s actions, but she was too focused on controlling the thunderwater ray above to intervene. In her eyes, the earth drake was a worthless creature, unfit to be her daughter’s pet.

“If I kill the monster tamer, her pet will be gravely injured, if not dead. But her magical shield is a second-tier spell—not easy to break.”

There were many ways to identify spells—observing their effects with the naked eye was the simplest. Chu Yun’s spell identification was at Level 4: he could recognize most first-tier spells by their effects, and some from other tiers as well. However, when it came to recognizing spells from incantations or gestures alone, he could only identify about forty percent of common first-tier spells.