The Grill-Wielding Saintess of the Dead – Chapter 174

Chapter 174: Aftermath 1

Crunch!

“Ugh… argh…”

After extracting the final memories from the last remaining human, the surroundings grew so quiet that only the faint sounds of insects echoed from all directions.

Although it wasn’t yet the season for insects to be out, ever since the Great Rift, resilient bugs from other dimensions had crossed through the gate and spread throughout the Korean Peninsula; now, their chirping could even be heard in winter.

‘From what I saw in Memory Consumption… there’s something underground?’

Originally, Memory Consumption could devour every memory without leaving a trace, but now that I’d become human, I couldn’t extract memories as clearly as before.

Lirisia paused briefly to enjoy the chorus of insects, then opened the door to a building—whether it was a factory or a warehouse, she couldn’t tell.

A voice announced a biometric scan was needed, but Lirisia ignored it and simply tore the door off its hinges with her bare hands to enter.

Ssshh—!

In the next moment, she subtly tilted her head to the side, narrowly avoiding the sonic wave that brushed past her ear.

It was no ordinary sound wave.

It was a devastating attack, something like a fusion of a physical blade and a spiked club.

‘It wouldn’t be a big deal even if it hit me, but covering my whole body with holy power is tough these days…’

Though her body could regenerate, her clothes were a different story.

Lirisia’s outfit, already minimal from her terraforming work in the desert, would slip off entirely with a single loose strap.

She had no intention of returning with the appearance of some debauched woman with a fetish for exposure.

“First, one down.”

As Lirisia glanced toward the direction from which the sonic wave had come, a tentacle emerged from her spine, smashed through a concrete wall in a straight line, and surged toward her attacker.

“W-What!?”

Oops.

If I break through like this, his body will be sliced in half.

Lirisia hastily commanded her tentacle to halt and, taking advantage of her opponent’s confusion, approached and kicked him.

Of course, with her strength, Lirisia could pulverize someone with a single kick, but she’d promised Shia and the Hero not to kill; she held back just before her foot connected with the man.

“Ugh!”

The man, struck by Lirisia’s powerful leg, spat out blood and collapsed, but with the strong physique and regeneration abilities of the Awakened, he’d survive.

He had fired such a lethal attack, likely after observing her approach, aiming to kill her outright with the formed sonic wave that shredded the area where Lirisia had stood.

With a power focused on sound, a less skilled ability user wouldn’t have anticipated the attack and would have been struck without any means to retaliate.

The commotion had probably alerted the other Awakened inside the building, and they were likely preparing to engage.

Perhaps they’d been moving even before then.

“Hah… such a bother.”

The first thing Lirisia did upon entering the building was use ‘Discernment.’

Identify those inside with strength.

Among those known as the Awakened or Hunters, there was a risk that ordinary civilians could be mixed in.

Normally, she would have used miracles for more precise searches and tracking, but the Awakened had a distinct taste and smell due to their mana, so Lirisia, like a sommelier identifying wine, could recognize them by scent.

There were even more Awakened inside than outside.

‘No one on the upper floors… they’re all underground.’

The human scents coming from below seemed to come from quite a depth.

There were no stairs, only an elevator—indicating the place was indeed very deep.

The upper floor seemed to be disguised as an ordinary food company.

And underground, something incredibly deep lay hidden.

Since they’d expected an intruder, they’d even set explosives; if she took the elevator down, she’d likely be caught by countless traps or bombarded by heavily armed Hunters.

What could they be plotting inside this brand-new building disguised as a mere food company, with guns, bombs, and a fair number of A-ranked Awakened?

The scale of this operation clearly exceeded that of a mere human trafficking ring.

‘Could this be more than just a criminal organization?’

Lirisia felt something was oddly off, like the situation was deliberately contrived.

It almost felt as though someone was playing a game with her.

It was absurd enough that someone would try to brainwash the elves who could recite the Blue Mountains Chant, but it wasn’t entirely impossible.

Human greed is endless, and there had been attempts to enslave elves in the darker parts of Earth even before the arrival of the elves of the Great Forest. There had been cases where enslaved elves were rescued from the homes of wealthy collectors.

However, even after using Memory Consumption along the way, Lirisia still had no clue about the mastermind behind this absurdity.

She’d gathered fragmentary memories indicating that people had come here on a guild commission or from the Mountains Region, but the memories about who gave the orders were all ambiguous, suggesting some vague, hired agency or a hazy reason for coming here to brainwash the elves of the Great Forest.

Even with memory consumption, she found no real clues.

All she’d learned from the memories was something like ‘The Mountain Guild is the culprit and the bad guys!’ as if a child were kindly spelling it out for her.

Of course, if Lirisia consumed someone’s brain cells entirely to the point of death, she might uncover the full story behind this, but even aside from her promise to Shia and the Hero, she had lost all appetite for human flesh; this method was off the table.

Well, enough of that.

She didn’t really care to know any profound or complex details.

All Lirisia wanted was to quickly crush the heads of those who messed with the elves and see the place converted to a legitimate food supply company that could deliver her meat tomorrow.

“Hah, whatever.”

Let’s finish this quickly—

What’s the point of thinking about it?

I’ll just think of it as squashing some pesky bugs.

Shaking off her stray thoughts, Lirisia raised her hand with a gesture full of irritation.

Crunch!

Responding to her movement, the massive tentacles protruding from her spine twisted in understanding.

Two tentacles lifted her into the air, while the other three embedded themselves in the surrounding walls and ceiling, anchoring her securely.

Meanwhile, below ground, the Awakened had detected Lirisia’s intrusion and prepared to face her.

The only access to the basement was a single elevator.

Before that hallway lay dozens of mana-piercing Claymores that could affect even the Awakened, and dozens of B-rank Awakened were ready to attack at any moment, watching Lirisia’s movements on the CCTV.

Since she couldn’t escape anyway, they’d sharpened their resolve for a last stand.

Anytime—come at us. We won’t go down easily.

That was likely their resolve.

“…..”

“Why isn’t she coming down?”

But on the CCTV, Lirisia merely looked down the path to the basement.

“Is she giving up and leaving?”

It would have been a shame not to use their prepared traps, but if she turned back, that would be a relief.

This strange, monstrous woman had tossed aside the Awakened guarding the upper floors like trash, so it would be natural for them to feel fear.

And soon, the A-rank Awakened monitoring the CCTV saw Lirisia suddenly raise herself into the air with her tentacles.

‘What is she doing?’

Three tentacles anchored themselves to the floor and walls, while the remaining two lodged in the wall behind her, bracing as though she was pulling with all her might.

With her back arched and her body curled as far as possible, Lirisia looked like a steel ball loaded into a slingshot.

Wait—a slingshot… steel ball…?!

“Dodge—!”

Boom!

What the hell—how sturdy is her body…!

“Aagh!”

“Ugh?!”

“The ceiling—it’s collapsing—!”

Since walking directly down the stairs or hallway would have triggered the traps head-on, Lirisia chose to use the elasticity of her tentacles to launch herself like a slingshot, bringing down the ceiling itself.

The ceiling and concrete debris fell in an instant, and the B-rank Awakened were either knocked out from the pressure in their eardrums, buried under rubble, or left incapacitated as the traps they’d set off exploded.

The mid-rank Awakened managed to dodge or shield themselves from the triggered Claymores in their own ways, surviving the sudden collapse.

But, of course, Lirisia had no intention of leaving them be.

Seeing that a few were still ready to fight, Lirisia kicked off the debris in mid-air and struck the ground powerfully, even before the rubble had fully settled from the collapsing ceiling.

Thud!

The moment Lirisia’s body crashed to the ground, a powerful shockwave spread through everyone present, and for a brief moment, every Awakened felt the scream of their bodies as they were forcibly disarmed.

They hurriedly tried to activate the mana within their bodies to get back into combat mode, but allowing Lirisia that opening proved fatal.

In an instant, her tentacles stretched toward the surviving individuals.

Some fired guns, while others attacked her tentacles with powers that seemed to control wind or fire, but they had no effect on her; after all, even if decayed, her body was once that of a god.

Lirisia herself no longer moved.

With her arms crossed, she walked leisurely, while her escorting tentacles did the work—tossing aside the living, skillfully breaking the arms and legs of those who resisted, and knocking out anyone who continued to show signs of defiance with a blow to the neck.

It seemed a few might have had their necks broken in the process, but given the tenacity of the Awakened, they wouldn’t die from something like that.

‘Sigh, sparing lives and holding back my strength is much harder than just killing them.’

Honestly, was this really necessary?

Lirisia suddenly found herself wondering.

Since becoming the Witch of the Dark Star, her hands had twisted the blood of countless living beings into a sea.

And here she was, not only plagued by a promise not to kill but also going out of her way to check if anyone had died. Even to herself, it felt more than hypocritical—she found it downright revolting.

Tap, tap.

At some point, the gunshots, trap detonations, collapsing debris, and the screams of resisting Hunters had all faded, leaving only the sound of Lirisia’s boots echoing through the hallway.

Given the high concentration of Awakened in the basement, it seemed there was definitely something worth protecting here.

Though she wasn’t particularly curious about what they were hiding, Lirisia decided to go wherever her feet took her.

The hallway, resembling a lab in some high-tech company, was devoid of warmth. Occasionally, small explosions or Claymore traps targeted her, but her tentacles shielded her without her needing to dodge.

The building above was no taller than three floors, but the underground facility was vast, almost like some ancient kingdom’s ruins.

After wandering around for about thirty minutes, Lirisia finally arrived at a massive underground space where a green powder and liquid were being manufactured.

“It’s… not drugs.”

Upon closer inspection, she realized the greenish substance was the same mind-altering drug used in the brainwashing of the elves, essentially the foundational material for their indoctrination.

She had wondered how such a peculiar, deliberately crafted hypnotic substance could even exist, but its origin turned out to be crystallized [Hunter Cells], tiny mana cubes harvested and manufactured like a drug.

However, Lirisia wrinkled her nose as she looked at the green powder.

This powder hadn’t been simply extracted mana.

Extracting mana would have taken too much time and required a lengthy process, resulting in inefficiency until crystallization.

So whoever made this green powder had opted for a simpler and easier method.

“…It smells like human.”

If she had been her old self, Lirisia might have been curious to taste the powder that smelled like human flesh, perhaps even scooping up a handful, but now, it only filled her with disgust.

‘There aren’t separate shamans or brainwashers… this powder was made by grinding up those very practitioners.’

Initially, she had expected that at the deepest level of this organization, there would be shamans or hypnotists who possessed [Hunter Cells] and were masterminds of it all.

But instead of finding the shamans, she found that they had been ground and crushed into powder, leaving Lirisia with a faint sigh.

‘Well, the boss or person in charge was probably one of those Awakened I just took down, right?’

She hadn’t bothered with Memory Consumption all at once to subdue them, but if she went through them one by one, she would eventually find out who was in charge here.

[Dark Jaw]

“Huh?”

But the next moment, Lirisia’s eyes widened at the massive shadowy fangs that emerged from below her feet.

Although it was a surprise attack, this style of attack was something she recognized.

“Is that… Esellatia?”

But thinking it over calmly, Lirisia let out a cynical smirk.

No… it couldn’t be.

There was no way such a sloppy shadow could belong to her.

Brushing off her thoughts, Lirisia gestured at the shadow.

Bang!

Just before the shadowy fangs could close in on her, Lirisia’s tentacle tore through and shattered them to pieces.

“Ah, easy. I… attacked… with… intent… to kill… you.”

Hearing the disjointed, machine-like voice, Lirisia tilted her head.

From the darkness emerged a woman.

A woman with neatly braided hair tilted her head at an odd angle. The mana aura emanating from her was much stronger than that of the B- to A-rank Hunters Lirisia had beaten on her way here, but more striking was her jaw.

Her jaw was mechanical, replaced with a metal one like something from a movie, as if someone had once torn or broken her entire jaw.

The woman smiled, seemingly as if she recognized Lirisia.

“It… has been a while, hasn’t it? Nice… to see… you… Shia.”

“……”

Lirisia’s eyes narrowed at the woman’s polite greeting.

I’m not your friend, you crazy b*tch.

Who the hell are you, freak?

I may have lived a long life, but I’ve never had a conversation with a woman sporting a metal jaw, nor, if I had forgotten, would I care to remember.

And above all…

I’m not Shia.

But, finding it too tedious to explain, Lirisia sighed and replied.

“Who are you?”

“Oh… dear. Have you… already… forgotten? I… never… forgot… you… even for… a moment…”

The woman’s metal jaw started to tremble.

Fear?

No.

It was anger and resentment.

“Did… you know? Our… leader… cherishes… us greatly.”

Who the hell is your leader, you freak?

“He… cherishes… us so much… he doesn’t want… to lose… us. So when… we die… he creates… a new… us.”

“…..So who the hell are you?”

“But… he has… forgotten… me. Because of… you. Because… of you… our leader… thought I… failed… believed I… had died… and so… created… a new… me… even though… I was still… alive!”

Snap, creak!

Snap!

The grating sound from the woman’s trembling metal jaw was incredibly annoying, and Lirisia absentmindedly scratched her ear.

It seemed that cheap jaw of hers was really low-quality.

The sound was irritating, and she couldn’t even speak properly. Maybe I should refer her to a good hospital.

“So… if I… succeed… if I… do something… to please… our leader… he’ll… discard the new me… and take… me back… he’ll surely… take me back!”

Ah, finally.

Now you’re telling me your name. How considerate.

Lirisia glanced at the writhing shadows at Wang Soyeong’s feet and tilted her head.

Ah, so that’s why this girl didn’t run away and appeared right in front of me…

She had something to rely on.

“This… wasn’t… the original… plan, but… our leader… would be pleased… if I captured… you… wouldn’t he?”

“……”

“I… told you before… didn’t I? I don’t… enjoy fighting… unlike that… pig… Baekwoon… I prefer being… calm and quiet…!”

Lirisia sighed as she noticed a dark, gem-like mineral glowing in the center of Wang Soyeong’s chest.

‘Damn, I’ve seen one of those shards here too.’

“But today… at least this… moment where I… offer you… to our leader… I’ll take… great joy in…!”

Thwack!!!

Wang Soyeong’s face twisted in horror mid-sentence.

Though she had seemed to be listening absentmindedly, Lirisia suddenly burst into motion, lunging past Wang Soyeong in a blur of force. In an instant, a large hole was left in Wang Soyeong’s chest.

And in Lirisia’s hand was the dark shard.

Seeing the shard, she abandoned all forethought and simply crushed it without hesitation.

Crack!

Lirisia clenched her hand, shattering the shard into dust.

Even in that moment, Wang Soyeong’s face contorted with disbelief, mixed with frustration and anger.

“You… talk too much.”

Lirisia sighed.

I said I wouldn’t kill anyone, but I just did.

And she fell atop the shadows writhing beneath Wang Soyeong’s collapsing body.