WITCH OF THE END

“Wow…”

Luna froze at the sight of what was in front of her. As predicted by Shin, the cohort had caught up with the first unit by the second day despite all the breaks and small battles they fought along the way. Of course they hadn't yet caught up to the first unit. But they knew they were pretty damn close because of the disgusting display ahead of them.

Luna and her cohort had stumbled upon a field of rotting monster corpses. The image was even more grotesque-looking now that it was under the faint crimson light of the moon. The disgusting smell of rot permeated most of the air and the desert wind only made it worse.

Luna wanted to throw up once the smell reached her nose. Why couldn’t these things just turn to dust like the sandworm?

“This…stinks…” Gail commented as he used his hand to cover his nose and at least try to block the smell. The ascender hadn’t changed back to his uniform and was still in the white tunic. This…was a big distraction because he showed too much skin than usual.

Luna of course shook it off, but Darkness and Monic kept giving the young man lustful gazes that he accepted with a smile.

The arachnid pilot too kept staring at Gail’s physique and looking at his from time to time. The man was probably feeling less attractive and insecure in the presence of an actual divine.

Wait. Not an actual divine, Gail was still human after all.

“The bodies look fresh. We should move forward.” Darkness suggested as she stared at the former battlefield.

While scanning the area, Luna happened to notice that one of the creatures had a white javelin running through it. The creature looked like a grey-skinned man with claws and a face covered in holes. She wasn’t interested in the creature’s appearance....but the white javelin that growing out of its corpse.

"Len."

Immediately, Luna smiled after feeling relieved by the spear’s appearance. It was made of pure ice. And not just any ice, but the ice created from an Aura which was denser than normal ice.

“The first unit is just beyond this point. I will go forward first.”

Darkness was about to move when Shin suddenly grabbed her arm and said with urgency:

“We can’t cross the battlefield now.”

“Why?” she asked with a troubled frown.'

Shin didn't bother to reply. He pointed at the field of corpses. Actually....he pointed at a specific creature lying on the sand. It was both silent and motionless.

Luna and everyone else turned and followed the direction of his finger to the silent corpse.

Darkness growled. "What?”

"Wait for it…”

Suddenly, a giant black serpent emerged from the sand and swallowed the creature in one bite. Its eyes were a dark crimson like the moon itself and its massive black scales shimmered in the moonlight. It had a pair of horns growing on its head and a third one right above its nasal.

Just then, Darkness paled and stepped back from the edge of the dune they were standing on.

“A Cursed Emperor.”

Luna gritted her teeth at the sight of the cursed creature. Emperors were believed to be ancient creatures with powers that were not to be taken lightly. If Sovereigns were the strongest ones among the devils, then Emperors were their counterparts in terms of cursed creatures. These powerful monsters possessed Four cores and a very strong life core because of how old they were.

“How do you know it's a cursed emperor?”

Gail asked as he stared at the giant snake consume every dead body on the field in one bite. The Creature let out a crashing presence that forced them to remain still as if trapped in place by its otherworldly powers but that wasn't the case at all. The giant snake was larger than the sandworm, its presence was horrifying and its crimson eyes beamed with cunning intelligence as it distinguished between undead corpses and corpses that were once living creatures.

“Because we wouldn’t feel this terrified if it was a tyrant…” She replied, almost failing to catch her trembling breath. The air itself seemed to tremble from its aura, turning her blood cold.

This was not a fight they could handle. So, even though it pained her a little, they needed to retreat for now and cross the field in the morning if the night didn’t stretch on for too long.

With a regretful sigh, she let out a command that everyone, even the warmonger agreed to. “Everyone. Quietly retreat.”

With that, everyone here gathered the strength to move and returned to the lower end of the dune where the arachnid pilot and Mira were waiting. They too were pale after sensing the giant snake’s presence.

None of them asked what they saw, no one dared to talk about what they saw.

The cohort stayed silent.

Fear was still fresh in their hearts.

Luna on the other hand felt so much fear that she wanted to burst into crazy laughter. What were the odds that she would get to see a cursed emperor this early in her life? They were so rare because these cursed creatures were too powerful and ancient to crawl into the mortal realm. The Few that had made it to the Mortal Realm were asleep and were being monitored by both the World Government and the Great clans. So far, there were only three cursed emperors in the world...

....The Great Leviathan of Antarctica...The Mountain Beast of Everest...And the Dragonic creature resting on the moon. It hadn’t been given a name yet.

All of them were Level Seven threats, recognized as Kaiju to make it simpler for the mundanes to understand.

A twisted grin found its way on her lips as she stared at the red dune she had just come done. What made these bastards so powerful that even sorcerers avoided them?

Was it their intelligence? Or their fierce and unknown abilities?

A voice in the corner of her mind kept whispering, telling her to go try and challenge the creature. Maybe it would show its ability if she provoked it.

‘No. I would be dead before it even tries using its powers.’

After confirming that it was a stupid idea to the core, Luna was able to shake off any ideas that would potentially lead to her and the cohort’s demise.

Staying away and lying low was the only was the only they could survive the cursed emperor.