Chapter 206: On their way to the first defense line

The convoy of Sloth soldiers was marching forward through the sea of thin mist.

There were two rather short people walking on the very front.

The ashen-haired Mika, and the rat-faced Shanks.

"Why are so many soldiers joining me to the first line? I thought that you said I was going to do the protecting, sir?"

Mika asked, glancing back at all the people trying to keep up with them.

"The first line needs reinforcements after being hit by that golden beam. You may be strong now, but don't think even for a second that you can take that attack head-on, remember what happened to bruiser 97-F. Also, you won't be able to manage to hold the whole line by yourself."

Shanks scolded her and shook his head in disappointment.

"...sorry..."

The ashen-haired girl realized that she got the excitement got to her and lowered her head in apology.

"Raa."

Suddenly, a large short jawed black wolf with extremely long front claws appeared beside them from the shadow together with three other black jet-black wolves.

"Hello Cinnamon, does your master managed to spot something from up there?"

Shanks, completely unperturbed by the sudden appearance of the wolves who almost gave Mika a heart attack, asked in an indifferent voice.

"Raa."

One bark, therefore yes.

"Dragons?"

"Raa. Raa."

Two barks, so no.

"True deamons?"

"Raa. Raa."

"...so angels..."

"Raa."

Shanks made a sour expression.

"It might be just me but for some reason, we're encountering far more angels who still possess partial self-awareness and intelligence than we ever should."

He complained.

"Young lady, did you know that in reports from two months ago about the monsters of three high classes just below the titan-class attacking the settlements and harassing the convoys with supplies, many different types of monsters were listed, but as of the past seven days, it's extremely rare to encounter anything besides the still intelligent angel-class creatures..."

Shanks furrowed his brows and rubbed his hands together.

"Cinnamon, your master said that she did found a couple of dragons before, right?"

"Raa."

He asked and the black wolf barked.

"What about the past two days?"

"Raa. Raa."

At his next question, the short-jawed wolf shook her head in denial.

"That's bad."

Shanks frowned.

"What is it about?"

Mika joined in the conversation

"Sophia tells me that the most probable explanation is that a titan has somehow slipped past the defense lines and is hunting down the monsters that lost their minds in the sea of mist. We're encountering so many intelligent angels because they're the only ones still smart enough to realize that they should be running away instead of trying to fight it."

The rat-faced man turned to her and explained with a heavy sight.

"B-but that's impossible! If the titans could just sneak past the defense lines they would have done it hundreds of years ago!"

Mika trembled at the mere thought.

"Well, the other option is that the angels started regaining their intelligence because the mist started suddenly thinning out, since they are the one monster class that has the highest MDF. Once they did, they started killing the other monsters in order to dominate the whole sea of mist and take it as their territory."

Shanks shrugged his shoulders and massaged his forehead.

Neither of those options was good for the Sloth territory and its citizens, but there was a chance that they were both incorrect, to begin with.

Sophia wasn't flawless after all.

"Anyway for now we should...!"

The rat-faced man sighed and glanced down at the ground...

...the black ground burnt by a powerful flame and covered here and there with a copious amount of ashes.

"What is it...?"

Mika asked curiously, also looking down but failed to see anything special in the remnants of the fire.

"..."

Without slowing down his walking speed, Shanks reached down and picked up a handful of soil and ash and let it ran through his fingers.

"These are ashes of true demon-class and dragon-class monsters..."

He said with a grave expression.

"Wha...?! Seriously?!"

Mika flinched and jumped up.

"The situation may be far worse than I expected. There is a slight chance that a lord or even a king had appeared amongst the angel-class... at first, I thought that the mist thinning out might be just some anomaly, or that the current avatar of sloth is already getting weaker, but it might just be that an angel-class king is literally using its fire to evaporate the confusing mist..."

Shanks spoke with a face pale as a ghost.

"Are you kidding me? I thought that high-tier monsters are unable to achieve the ranks of lords and kings!"

Mika gulped down her saliva and clenched her fists.

The new suspicion introduced by the rat-faced man was far too scary to think about.

After all, a lord monster was as strong as monsters of a whole class higher than its kin.

...and a king monster usually had the strength of a monster-class two, or even three times higher than the rest of its kind...

If this new monster was a lord then it must have been as strong as a titan-class.

And if it was a king...

Angel-class king? Wouldn't that mean that it could have the strength exceeding that of a titan class?

What would that make it?

A god.

A first god-class monster in centuries...!

"Because usually, there is no need for a lord or a king in the higher tier. Those monsters are already highly intelligent, but that very intelligence is something that prevents them from gathering in enough numbers for a lord-rank monster to appear amongst them. They all want to rule but none of them wants to be ruled over."

Shanks said, already realizing what he had implied.

"But... doesn't that mean that the confusing mist that lowers the intelligence of the monsters, had too great of an effect and made the angels' group up...? And that's how a king emerged...?"

Mika asked.

While they were talking, the amount of ash underneath their feet increased so much that it completely covered the burnt ground and everyone in the convoy was pushing through the ash that was reaching up to their ankles.

"If that is the case then the Sloth family has put themselves and the whole kingdom on the chopping block. Monster wave's from the front and an angel-class king from the side... aren't we completely screwed...?"

Shanks looked away and gritted his teeth.