Stray

Except for the four members of Tumbleweed, no one could tell what the serpentine demon that suddenly appeared in front of them was. Just looking at the bones and general appearance, it was very close to the intermediate demon Corewen Flat Snake.

Generally, Flat Snakes could grow up to 500 meters long. Those timid demons are usually dark red, with slippery scales and mucus on the skin. The Flat Snakes burrowed around in the rock crevices and rotting soil of the Abyss, looking for the corpses of other demons, and never took the initiative to join any battle.

However, the serpentine demon in front of them was more than 800 meters long, with a black and red body, hard and rough raised scales, and bright red sparks flickered between the gaps in the scales. Its head had more bark-like alien scales looking like a weird crown from a distance.

That suffocating aura and sense of oppression definitely belong to a superior demon.

The serpentine demon opened its huge mouth and sank its dark sharp teeth at its opponent’s forelimbs. While it tightened its body, it dragged the other behemoth far away. The entangled demon roared loudly, and then bit the snake body tightly wrapped around him. The dark shadow of abyssal magic diffused from it, forming countless shadow cones, shooting straight at the serpentine demon.

A bloody wound was torn open on the snake’s body causing the serpentine demon to howl and let go of its mouth in pain. Countless huge black balls of light suddenly blasted back.

The waves of energy exploded like a tsunami of murderous intent.

The vast stone platform on which the reconnaissance team was standing suddenly looked a lot smaller, like a dead leaf that might dry out and fall at any time as it dangled between two fighting lions.

The energy wave aroused by the battle quickly pushed the stone platform in the opposite direction, and the direction of gravity began to change. The world was about to turn upside down again…

Danger.

Before Nemo’s mind had yet to completely collect, his body acted instinctively.

The great Demon King knocked his staff on the ground and countless dark shadow chains shot from the stone platform, shooting into all the floating rocks and mountains that could be seen around. With the new rock mountain attached as a connection point, the shadow chain once again spread to the farther rocks further away— Thousands of shadow chains fixed the bumpy stone platform firmly in place.

“Ollie!” Amidst the roars of the demons and the cracking of stones, Nemo shouted loudly.

Now he began to concentrate on controlling the shadow shield to offset the oppressive aura so that the members of the reconnaissance team behind him wouldn’t have a nervous breakdown.

He didn’t have much time to explain, but Nemo believed Oliver would understand what he meant— The great Demon King fixed the stone platform for the time being, but under the impact of the waves, cracks were beginning to appear on the surface.

“As you command.” Oliver cocked the corner of his mouth.

The leader of Tumbleweed didn’t hold back as he leaned down and pressed one hand onto the stone slab. Although the heat wave rolling from the Gravity Maze was extremely hot, a diamond-like layer of ice still instantly attached to the rock, almost encasing it in its entirety.

“There’s too little moisture here,” Oliver shouted back loudly. “I have to keep reinforcing it. Is there any problems back there?”

“No problem!” Seeing that the rock was no longer cracking, Nemo quickly turned his head to confirm the status of the reconnaissance team behind him.

Under the fixation of the shadow chain, the stone platform tilted a bit. The two dragons returned to their proper size and opened the fleshy wings on their backs and surrounded the reconnaissance team to cover them. It didn’t take long for the red-brown dragon to start nodding sleepily again and was awakened by the blue dragon who arched its head.

Godwin and Debby stood outside the two dragons, jointly maintaining a defense formation to prevent the dragons from being hurt by the abyssal magic flying around. Adrian Cross stood on the neck of the blue dragon as he shot dazzling white light arrows from his metal bow, constantly dispelling the intermediate demons who wanted to take advantage of the chaos and sneak in to take a few bites of human flesh. Jesse cruised on the outermost side, occasionally poking one or two fish that the net missed from under the slate with his daggers.

The situation was improving.

Nemo breathed a sigh of relief and turned his gaze back to Bagelmaurus and Witherspoon.

The flat snake, which was upgraded with the Demon King’s blood, quickly gained the upper hand. Under the influence of the original power, the shadow cone couldn’t hurt it efficiently. Dozens of eyes on the side of the flat snake flickered with red light. It roared loudly, and at first glance, its poisonous purple-black tongue poked bloody holes in Witherspoon’s body.

Witherspoon’s roar gradually changed. It had to be said that it clearly knew how to fight better than Bagelmaurus…

When the magic damage wasn’t as effective as it should be, its sharp claws and teeth alone left countless wounds on the flat snake that was wrapped around it. On the other hand, it seemed to have judge that it had no chance of winning this battle.

Witherspoon suddenly struggled violently. With wounds all over its body, it moved to a certain position and then canceled the vacating magic on its six hands. It’s heavy body suddenly fell diagonally above the reconnaissance team.

Bagelmaurus was taken aback.

After gaining the power of the Demon King, it had never really fought with other superior demons. Now it seemed that it had defeated a member of a race who was madly obsessed with fighting— Witherspoon, who was part of the magma wyrm.

The magma wyrms were a true superior demon race that were natural born warriors, and it had beautifully injured one in its prime. The flat snake was stunned in place as its wound was still bleeding out, but it just wanted to spring up and roll wildly.

Not only for the strength that was so exaggerated enough to scare itself, but the successful recovery of its flesh surprised it even more.

Usually, when the consciousness of a superior demon returned to the body, the surface flesh, which had been infused with a lot of power, was often unrecoverable. The only innate ability of the corowen flat snake, however, gave it a huge advantage.

Bagelmaurus knew very well that the flat snakes could digest the power of the flesh they devoured. If it was honest, it was because of this piece of flesh that had been transferred from the surface to the Abyss that it dared to give it a shot. It turned out that it could use it and could even retrieve the drop of blood that Nemo had specifically gave away by swallowing its own flesh again.

It was really powerful and smart.

Bagelmaurus raised its head proudly and let out a triumphant roar into the void, then it lowered its head and looked down at Oliver and Nemo, who looked like two small black spots.

The next second it realized for the first time that it could just leave.

The moment this thought passed through its mind, the body of the mutated flat snake stiffened.

He helped the reconnaissance team drive away the superior demon Witherspoon. Even if it left now, Nemo Light wouldn’t catch up with it in front of the reconnaissance team and take it back. It was now undoubtedly the king of flat snakes, and it could burrow into the shallow depths of the Abyss to enjoy a comfortable life for decades and wait for this unlucky team to be completely disbanded and submerged by history before it attempts to visit the surface again.

In any case this kind of things can be repeated. It can even recover the flesh it gave up— Which made the cost of traveling to and from the surface surprisingly small. When the wind blows over, it could find a much better host than a parrot…

Thinking of this, Bagelmaurus twisted its body hard in front of the two of them.

Did you two see it? It sprayed hard. Look at these wounds! This is a medal of courage, a proof of sacrifice! We don’t owe each other!

But after twisting a few times, it began to feel bored again.

During its time on the surface, Bagelmaurus paid attention to the way of life of some of the superior demons. When it was in the Abyssal Church, it was also worshipped for a while. Although it felt good to be admired and praised, compared to the Tumbleweed’s wandering adventures, that life was a little… too calm.

It used a few eyes on one side of its body to aim at Jesse Dylan in the distance, and its eyes on the other side to look at Nemo’s blood-stained sleeve that had blocked an attack against it, struggling frantically in its heart.

Staying in Tumbleweed, it might be able to take advantage of them again. Not everyone had the opportunity to become friends with the Demon King. With a few more drops of blood, maybe it could become the strongest superior demon at the bottom of the Abyss. Leaving Tumbleweed, it could stay away from the dangerous surface god and roam freely in the Abyss, but if it thought about it carefully, Jesse Dylan hadn’t done anything to it either…

There were also those almond cookies on the surface.

And there was also souffle it wanted to eat but didn’t get the chance to.

It had not succeeded in getting Nemo to call it “Lord Bagelmaurus”

Also, Ann Savage was now queen, and no one would choke its neck again and use it as a magic gun. The guys in Tumbleweed… were barely okay.

The huge serpentine demon grinded its teeth, and it shrank back in the direction it came. The Flat Snake quickly returned to the secret cave where it placed its body and decided to recuperate its wounds by sleeping. Then it smacked its mouth and shook its lower body…

A mass of purple-black flesh shot out from the void and fell to Nemo’s feet and was wriggling.

Knowing nothing about the entanglement in the gray parrot’s heart, Nemo knowingly threw the parrot’s body under his arm, wrapped the parrot in the flesh which melted smoothly into it.

“How’s that, huh?” The gray parrot spoke as it gotten it vocal cords that could use human language again. It jumped up quickly, its voice was full of energy. “How was it—?”

“Very powerful.” Nemo picked it up from the ground. “I never thought you were that—”

The gray parrot jumped twice, staring at Nemo’s lips with shiny bird eyes.

“—Big.” Nemo exclaimed in shock.

The gray parrot was stunned, it was silent for a few seconds, then let out a dissatisfied huff.

“Strong, he means strong,” Oliver quickly added, scratching the feather on the neck of the gray parrot. “This is the first time I have seen such a powerful battle. We underestimated you. You’re really amazing.”

The gray parrot raised its head high again, full of energy.

Nemo snorted. He took out a macaroon from his pocket and stuffed it into the parrot’s mouth. “Don’t worry, don’t worry. You’ve worked hard, and really helped a lot! Speaking of which, is your injury okay, Bagelmaurus? I can’t treat you in front of the reconnaissance team, sorry.”

“Bah, I should have just left,” the gray parrot said fiercely as it quickly swallowed the macaroon.

“Don’t say that, Lord Bagelmaurus,” Nemo said good-naturedly, lifting the parrot up. “Don’t move, let me see your contract status.”

With the words of “Lord Bagelmaurus”, the gray parrot suddenly rolled over contentedly with its feet facing the sky, revealing its belly very cooperatively.

On the other side, seeing two superior demons “both defeated and injured” and then left, the frightened reconnaissance team stayed in place and decided to simply eat something so that their legs would stop shaking. Except for the puzzled Godwin, no one cared about what the two members of Tumbleweed was talking about with their parrot.

Something was fishy.

Godwin frowned. Gravity was a mess here so usually bulky superior demons didn’t like to come to the gravity maze with nothing to do. This was also the reason why people choose the gravity maze to advance.

The magma wyrm did like to challenge all kinds of creatures, but it wouldn’t rush into the Gravity Maze and wander around just to find a team of humans. Even if it was really walking around this hellhole and wanted to have a fight with humans on a whim, it would hide its aura well, unless someone had specifically notified it…

He looked at Nemo and narrowed his eyes.

The timing of the appearance of that unknown demon was also a bit strange. If it was really just a coincidence, this was all too coincidental.

But if these things were really planned by Nemo Light, he couldn’t figure out the motivation and there was no evidence.

“Nemo, try this. This piece of jerky is special—” Debby grabbed a piece of dried bacon and rushed towards her eldest brother happily.

Then Godwin grabbed her back collar.

“Commander?!”

“…Don’t go yet.” Godwin had a headache. As a comrade-in-arms, the captain of Horizon instinctively wanted Debby Light to stay away from the guy whose identity was a mystery. Unfortunately, it wasn’t easy to find a reasonable excuse, not to mention that he was exhausted, and his mind was in turmoil right now.

Godwin pressed his temples, silently took the dried meat out of Debby’s hand, and stuffed it into his mouth.

“I’m hungry,” he said dryly and uncharacteristically weakly.

Miss Light’s expression suddenly became serious. The commander of their team was behaving abnormally again. If she guessed correctly, he didn’t want her to go to Nemo— Godwin Lopez was always lame when trying to find excuses.

Was it because he felt too lonely and didn’t want to be left alone?

Could it be? The commander of her team was still heartbroken after all. Her thoughts shouldn’t be full of her big brother and forget her important companion. Debby exhaled hard and took a few pieces of dried bacon from the small cart of the reconnaissance team.

“Eat, I’ll eat with you,” she said solemnly, stuffing the paper-wrapped jerky into Godwin’s palm with both hands. “Look on the bright side commander. Tomorrow will be a new day, and you’lleventually find a good girl. If you want to cry, don’t hold back. I will never laugh at you—”

“……” Godwin chewed the jerky blankly, without saying a word.

“Excuse me, both of you.” Debby didn’t come over but instead another stranger approached the two members of Tumbleweed instead.

The two people who were soothing the gray parrot raised their heads and eyebrows at the same time.

The member of the choir of the Laddism Church was floating in front of them. The young man was still sitting on the floating chair. The storm that had just been set off by the battle wasn’t small, so the exaggeratedly decorated odd hat had been lifted up. At this moment, the young man showed his long soft hair and was looking at the two of them.

There were no pupils in those eyes. A gray-white membrane covered his entire eyeball which made him send chills down one’s back.

“Are you free to talk, Mr. Ramon?”

“You are…?”

“Hamlin Elmer.” The thin young man with shoulder-length long hair saluted. “You should know my brother. His name is Oliver Elmer. You placed a bet for him on the Wheel of Calamity.”

Perceiving the abnormality here, Jesse, who was nibbling on bread dipped in soup, dragged the knight commander over, and stuffed a piece of bread into Adrian’s mouth, who intended to ask questions.

“He told me about you.” Oliver scratched his head a little embarrassedly, looking up and down at the choir members in front of him. “There is no need to use honorifics. Besides, you are…”

At the beginning, Elmer mentioned that his talented younger brother worked in the choir and provided him with tuition, but the state of the young man wasn’t as “well treated” as his brother said.

“Let me make a long story short.” Hamlin nodded. Then the young man lowered his head with a sincere expression. “You are the benefactors of my family, and I have no malice. Please believe me.”

Then, as if he could see things with both eyes, he quietly pointed to the mage of the Laddism Church who had provoked Oliver earlier.

“After the Gravity Maze is the Phantom Throat. We’ll be dividing our forces there in two. You… You’d better not let Mr. Cross follow the mage.”

The author has something to say:

Grey parrot: I’m super smart, I’m super awesome, I’m super amazing— (Broken voice)

Nemo: It’s super large!

Oliver: (Inwardly) It’s super large!

——

The grey parrot has been trying to create a strong image since the first chapter, but it has still not been successful… You can do it, grey parrot!