Parallel Vol. 4 [LEGACY EDITION]

Chapter 20.1: Marilith

Kirckour Woods,

16th Banem 1092

Malevolent winds whistled through the quiet forest. A stifling aura of death settled over the dense trees, blanketing all living beings within its cold grip. This forest had been abandoned by light, and chilling darkness had taken over.

Somewhere within the forest depths, an odd party consisting of two daebens, a human and a centaur squared off against a creature that could only have been born from the sinister aura surrounding the forest.

Kashi examined the creature with a solemn expression. He recognized the creature as a Marilith, a half-snake, half-human demon with a female human torso and a long snake's tail. It also had six arms on its human part. Usually, the upper bodies of mariliths took the form of beautiful women. They would lure prey over with their upper body, then either paralyze them with venom or, constrict the prey with its tail before it could escape.

Mariliths were tough demons to face on their own, but the one in front of the party was dangerously unique. To begin with, it was at least ten times larger than a regular marilith. Its human torso alone was twice Kashi's height and large enough to fit three average sized men standing side by side. From his current view, Kashi could not make out the entire length of its tail, but he estimated it was certainly not smaller than 20m.

Even more striking than its size, was the fact there was nothing 'beautiful' about its upper body. Its upper body was a mass of seemingly carelessly lumped flesh and scales and a pair of exposed sagging breasts. Its iconic six arms had increased to eight, but where a regular marilith had 'slender' arms, this marilith's arms were muscular and tough, ending in long, clawed fingers.

Kashi quickly came to a conclusion. This marilith was either infected by the blight (unlikely as blight only affects plants) or it was strengthened and evolved through some dark magic. The daeben's gaze narrowed as he considered the second possibility. So far, he only knew of one group with the capability to produce something like this.

Kashi glanced at Larsial, but her expression was grim and tight. Even if she knew something about this monster, she fully expected it to attack her too. Kashi let out a sigh. There was no point worrying about it now. Everything would be revealed soon enough. Kashi looked at the monster, inadvertently meeting its hollow gaze. Just as he had been examining it, it had been examining the new additions to its prey.