Chapter 33: Headache and the Gaze of the Saint and the Goddess.
“Uh, isn’t that good for the Demon Lord’s domain…”
Kerol’s instinctive comment was cut off by a flick to her forehead from Pepas, sending her tumbling backward.
Her water orb morphed into a cushion, catching her. Flicking her tail to sit upright, she rubbed her forehead, muttering.
“I messed up, but did you have to flick me?”
Pepas didn’t correct Kerol’s error herself, instead pointing at Suna.
“Suna, explain what’s wrong with this.”
“Me?”
Caught off guard, Suna pointed at herself but began under Pepas’s stern gaze.
“If half the Dustni Empire is destroyed, the biggest issue is vulnerabilities in the next Iron Wall Defense War. Unable to resist the Starry Ancient God forces, many creatures in the empire would become ancient god constructs, worsening the war’s outcome or leading to even graver consequences.”
After Suna’s explanation, Pepas reiterated the purpose of [Web Beneath the Grove].
“Our goal is to curb the empire’s warlike tendencies, prevent attacks on the Demon Lord’s domain, and ensure its safety. If necessary, we must even stop their internal conflicts from escalating.”
“Every fifty years or so, the Starry Descendants breach the Iron Wall, sparking a brutal war. The last was twenty-nine years ago… the next is near.”
Stone’s comment followed Pepas’s words, and Suna lowered her head.
Unlike her quiet demeanor, her magical aura fluctuated abnormally.
Cracks spread across her pale skin, revealing writhing tentacles, eyes, and toothed mouths. The tips of her golden hair turned blood-red, as if steeped in blood.
“Suna! Snap out of it!”
Pepas acted first, origami butterflies flying from her sleeve, transforming into square sealing array stickers as they landed on Suna.
The other three agents reacted swiftly.
Darkness gripped her rune greatsword’s hilt, Stone clutched his short bow with floating palm-sized rocks, ready to strike.
As the dozen sealing stickers took effect, Suna’s erratic magical fluctuations subsided.
But the stickers turned crimson, not from pigment but from blood-red tendrils invading them.
Flashing with magical light, the sealing effect failed, and crimson mist began emanating from Suna’s body.
Her trembling form seemed on the verge of unleashing something, with multiple faces appearing to split from her body.
As Pepas prepared stronger magic to counter the eroding stickers, a different magic activated automatically on Suna.
Golden raindrops materialized in the room, falling onto her, washing away the crimson from her hair. Her abnormalities subsided within two seconds.
However, golden-brown branches sprouted like antlers from her head, blooming with radiant Corona Flowers.
“Ugh, why’s my head throbbing? What happened? Half my mana’s gone…”
Removing her veil and rubbing her head, Suna saw Pepas sigh and address the others calmly.
“It’s fine now. Stand down. Suna, write a two-thousand-word self-critique on efficiently self-checking for curses and delayed magic traps after exposure to ancient god forces.”
Seeing her colleagues’ odd looks as they relaxed, Suna muttered aggrievedly.
“Huh? Why?”
“Can’t figure it out? Touch your head. Lucky you have a goddess’s blessing, or we’d have to knock you out. You’d be billed for the outpost’s repair costs.”
Hearing Pepas, Suna touched her head, feeling the two clusters of flowering branches. With Pepas’s words, the golden puddles on the floor, and her drenched robes, she pieced it together.
“Talk about bad luck. I haven’t lost control in years. I was careful, just glimpsed that silver-haired man, and he still linked a curse.”
“From now on, keep your disguise blessing active outside this outpost, or you might start bleeding from every orifice mid-walk.”
Heeding Pepas’s advice, Suna, feeling her headache ease, responded earnestly.
“I’ll learn from this and be more careful. I feel mentally lighter now, and somehow, the [magical link] was severed. Without recontact, he shouldn’t curse me again.”
As Suna met Pepas’s gaze, Pepas noticed a faint sun mark in Suna’s crimson right eye, blurting out a demonic curse.
“[Demonic curse], Suna, double your critique!”
“What! Why?!”
Pouting indignantly, Suna watched Pepas scatter paper scraps with an unknown spell, frowning irritably.
“Wait a moment…”
As the sun mark in Suna’s eye faded and Pepas confirmed it magically, she rubbed her throbbing temple and snapped.
“Your blessing wasn’t conditionally triggered—the goddess was watching.”