The goat-headed monster effortlessly deflected Knight Captain Arnold's full-power slash—a blow capable of bisecting even a monster of the Deep Zone—with the claws of its right hand.
Furthermore, Wolfman unleashed a devastating, surefire lethal kick aimed at the back of the creature's head, yet it dodged by merely shifting its center of gravity without even looking back.
Then, it casually swung the claws of both hands.
"Kuh!"
"..."
Wolfman and Knight Captain Arnold arched their bodies back to evade by a hair's breadth, but the ground before them was gouged wide open.
Those claws—even Knight Captain Arnold and Wolfman might suffer a fatal wound if they took a direct hit.
"What is that monster...?"
Beside her, a B-rank hunter let out a raspy voice. Watching the battle between the three, the hunter's face had drained completely pale. And naturally so. Knight Captain Arnold and Wolfman, two warriors who had slaughtered even Deep Zone monsters with ease, were merely on equal footing with a single goat-headed monster. No, the goat monster was even slightly pushing them back.
Looking back, those monsters from earlier had been strange. It felt as though they were being driven forward by something. That was the impression she had gotten. However, there shouldn't have been any existence capable of driving Deep Zone monsters like that. That was why she had ruled it out as a possibility until this very moment.
In all likelihood, that goat-headed monster was Pazuzu, the owner of the voice that Raiga and the others had heard in the ruins.
(You've got to be kidding me. There's no way even Kai Heinemann could beat something like that!!)
A monster on par with two S-class-hunter-tier combatants—even the remarkable Kai Heinemann likely wouldn't be able to handle it.
To be sure, Raiga and the others' ruin exploration had violated several taboos of treasure hunting. But to encounter such a monster so easily, that place must have been riddled with hair-raising traps. In the end, the outcome might have been the same no matter who stepped foot inside.
As the fierce battle between the two men and one beast unfolded, a magic circle suddenly appeared at the goat head's feet. Countless chains of light extended from it, binding the goat-headed monster's entire body tightly.
"Now! Do it!!"
A petite yet muscular man clad in red robes—Ralph Excel—bellowed his orders while aiming his staff at the goat-headed monster.
"GWOOOOOOH!!"
Letting out a roar like a true beast, the goat-headed monster grabbed the chains of light binding it with both hands and tore them apart.
The chains of light dissipated, but in the same breath, Knight Captain Arnold's greatsword severed the goat-headed monster's head, and Wolfman's heel sank deep into the headless torso.
With a sound like crushed fruit, the goat-headed monster's torso burst in all directions, scattering chunks of meat across the surroundings.
"We did it..."
"We won!!"
When one of the spectating hunters thrust his right fist into the air with a victorious battle cry, deafening cheers echoed across the Balse East Gate Wasteland.
"Are we... saved?"
The thread of tension that had kept her entire body taut finally relaxed, and she let out a long breath.
"It is not over yet! Do not let down your guard!!"
A voice like a striking blow came from the guildmaster—Ralph. And it wasn't just Ralph. Knight Captain Arnold and Wolfman were also gazing intently toward the Silke Sea of Trees. Plastered across all three of their faces, without exception, was a thick emotion of dread.
Guildmaster Ralph was a man who had once served as Chief Mage of the World Mage Academy Babel. In terms of sheer combat power, he was, like Wolfman, a superhuman-class hunter. In other words, he was one of the absolute strongest pillars of this world.
For a situation to strike fear into all three of them simultaneously—that meant...
"No way..."
Absolute despair manifested before Ilza.
"Ugh..."
Groans and screams arose from hunters all around. Emerging one after another from the Silke Sea of Trees were beast-headed monsters dressed in foreign garb.
The monsters already numbered in the hundreds, the thousands, completely blanketing the wasteland.
She didn't want to think about it. She didn't want to think about it, but could all of those possibly possess strength equal to the monster the guildmaster and the others had just defeated? If so, taking down just one had required the coordinated efforts of three of humanity's strongest-class combatants. There was no way they could stand a chance.
"Oh myyy, looks like one of my precious boys went and died."
A thick, deep male voice devoid of any tension resonated directly inside their heads.
The horde of beast-headed monsters parted down the middle, kneeling and bowing their heads in unison. At the end of their path stood a gigantic, red-haired man with a blue beard, leaning slightly back in a pose as he swept his hair back. The man was clad in red briefs, a cape, and shoes, with a round green hat perched on his head.
"Those things—are beyond us! We will hold them back! Evacuate this city at once!"
The guildmaster's voice cracked. The hunters broke into a sprint toward the city gates all at once.
"Hold us back, you saaaay? Now that's just impossible."
Looking down with the corners of his mouth curled into a smirk, the red-haired giant was right under Ralph's nose as the latter began chanting a spell.
"..."
Ralph's incantation halted halfway through; he could only gaze up at the creature in silence, his entire body trembling faintly.
She hadn't seen it! She hadn't been able to perceive the slightest trace of his movement. Before she knew it, as if by magic, that red-haired giant was standing in front of the guildmaster. And neither Knight Captain Arnold nor Wolfman—figures on a pedestal to Ilza—could make even the slightest twitch.
"Oh dear~, what's the matter? Weren't you going to hold me baaaack?"
The red-haired monster grabbed Ralph's head in a vise grip like a frog caught in the gaze of a snake and lifted him into the air.
"Agh..."
A small, tearing cry leaked from the mouth of the guildmaster, who was usually infuriatingly calm.
"I don't really get how strong little bugs are, you seeee. So—forgive me if you die, okay?"
Winding up his arm, he hurled Ralph away as if discarding a piece of trash.
Wrapped in a shockwave, Ralph shot in a straight line toward the ramparts at blinding speed and crashed into them. The ramparts shattered to dust, and Ralph vanished beneath the mountain of rubble.
"You're taking us too lightly, zura!!"
Sprinting bound across the ground on all fours, Wolfman thrust his sharp right claws toward the back of the red-haired giant's head, only for them to be deflected with the screech of scraping metal.
"Wha—!!?"
If the beast had dodged with a claw or fist, there might still have been hope. But the back of his head was completely unharmed. On the contrary, Wolfman's right claws, which had delivered the strike, were bent grotesquely out of shape.
"Too baaaad for you."
The giant slowly turned around to face Wolfman.
"..."
Then, as Wolfman stared down wide-eyed at his own claws, the giant struck him with a casual punch. Wolfman rolled across the ground at terrifying speed, finally grinding to a halt without so much as a twitch.
With the guildmaster and Wolfman defeated so utterly easily, her mind refused to function properly.
The guildmaster was a former top combatant of the World Mage Academy Babel and an S-class superhuman. Wolfman was also an active S-class hunter. Both were the envy of Ilza and the others, the peaks they aspired to reach.
We want to become people who can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with figures like them. Hoping for that, ordinary hunters like Ilza had trained day in and day out. Yet those two had been crushed so easily and unreasonably. This shouldn't be happening. That was it. This had to be a dream. It couldn't be anything else. She would wake up in her bed like always and chat about silly things with her companions. A normal life like that had to be waiting for her.
"Now then, my precious boys, it's feast time after so long! Eat your fill, now!!"
At the red-haired man's command, the beast-headed monsters, who had their right hands over their chests, began marching in formation toward them.
"Why?"
Drenched in a waterfall of sweat as he held his sword at the ready and gauged the situation, Knight Captain Arnold forced out the question.
"Hmm, why what, I wonder?"
"Why do you attack us?!"
"Nfufu~. Why, for ingredients, crafting materials for accessories, experimental subjects—the human race can be used for so many things, you seeee."
The gruesome words resonated directly inside their heads.
"Ingredients? Materials? Are you saying that seriously?"
"Of couuurse. The leather made from humans with especially strong souls has a simply marvelous texture, you know. And stew made from the meat of females and human whelps is simply exquisite."
The red-haired man's face twisted in ecstasy, his body writhing and squirming unnaturally.
"You wretched fiend!!"
Enraged, Knight Captain Arnold shouldered his greatsword and dashed at high speed across the ground toward the red-haired giant.
However, he was pinned down from behind by a grey-furred, wolf-headed monster wearing blue-and-white clothes and a round hat.
Beside the red-haired man stood a tiger-headed monster and an eagle-headed monster, both likewise dressed in blue and white.
"Futile. Small fry, a weakling like you cannot inflict a single scratch upon us, let alone Lord Pazuzu."
Delightedly, the wolf-headed monster seized the back of Knight Captain Arnold's head and slammed his face into the ground. A shockwave erupted, and the earth caved in.
The tiger-headed monster walked over to Knight Captain Arnold, crouched down, and spoke:
"Oh boy, Pochi sure is rough. If you give humans too much pain and fear, their meat gets tough and tastes nasty, you know. Decapitating them while they're high out of their minds makes for the tastiest meat. Hey, struggling will only make it harder on you. Just obey us. If you do, it'll be quick and painless—"
He spoke in an admonishing tone, but—
"Scum!!"
Knight Captain Arnold spat directly into the tiger's face, hurling the insult.
Instantly, countless blood vessels bulged across the tiger's face, forming the expression of a demon.
"Hey, Pochi, I changed my mind. Give this guy to me, would ya?"
"Oh boy, Mike's bad habit is showing again. Gross. Gross. This is why I can't stand felines."
The eagle-headed monster shrugged, shaking his head in exasperation.
"Piko! You—"
"Stop your blabbering and capture them alreeeady. Don't damage the young males and females in particular, since we'll use them for breeding in the ranch. You can do whatever you like with the rest. Tear them apart and devour them to your heart's content."
The wolf-headed monster—Pochi—drove his right fist into Knight Captain Arnold's solar plexus, extinguishing his consciousness in a single strike, then stood up and placed his right hand over his chest. The tiger-headed monster Mike and the eagle-headed monster Piko followed suit.
"Yes! As Lord Pazuzu desires!!"
They shouted in unison.
"It's a banquet! Feast upon them all!!"
At Pochi's roar, the beast-headed monsters charged toward the hunters all at once.
The approaching monsters seemed strangely slow. Ilza gazed at them blankly.
As a female, Ilza wouldn't merely be eaten. But that didn't mean salvation. If captured by them, the only thing awaiting her was the absolute worst future, where her human dignity would be trampled underfoot. Being eaten might be far more merciful.
Were these creatures demons under the Four Great Demon Kings? No, those demons didn't eat humans, nor did they possess the grotesque idea of human ranches. They merely had the desire to kill and rule over humanity.
Surely, these things were something far more evil and hideous. Something utterly devoid of salvation, like the otherworldly monsters worshipped by those demons.
A sheep-headed monster closed in right before her eyes, reaching out with its right hand toward Ilza. At that moment—
"Gahk!?"
A black mass plummeted from above, crushing the sheep-headed monster beneath it. The sheep-headed monster burst, scattering into minced chunks of flesh.
That black, humanoid silhouette turned back toward Ilza. It was that mysterious boy they had been waiting for to bring an end to this battle—Kai Heinemann.