Chapter 612: While everyone else is horrible… They are doing very well.
While the sea still roared in the distance, carrying echoes of Strax’s destruction, on another island, the reality seemed completely different.
There, there was no despair, no stifled screams of monsters, no frantic rush to escape the relentless hordes.
There reigned… peace. Or at least something that, compared to the horrors of the other islands, could only be described as a vacation.
Frieren lay on a sun-warmed rock, arms behind her head, eyes half-closed. The golden light kissed her skin, and she sighed with lazy pleasure, as if she were on the porch of a peaceful inn and not in the middle of a doomed battlefield.
“Finally,” she murmured, leaning slightly to adjust her position. “This sun is perfect for tanning.”
A few meters away, Rogue whistled a leisurely tune, crouched before a makeshift fire. On it, improvised skewers held chunks of grotesque flesh from already dead creatures. The smell… well, the smell was still demonic, acrid, and heavy, but the huntress seemed content to transform the inedible into something almost appetizing.
“Xyn, a little more heat here,” she demanded without even looking up.
The other dragoness, with silver hair and sparkling eyes, snapped her fingers and released a controlled blue flame that enveloped the wood and made the flames grow evenly. She smiled slightly, satisfied with the perfection of the fire.
“Like this?”
“Like this,” Rogue replied with a nod, turning the spit. “Let’s see if we can make this less… toxic.”
The scene could be called absurd, if not for the backdrop.
Because, all around them, dozens—perhaps hundreds—of grotesque monsters advanced. Beasts of misshapen flesh, multiple eyes, claws, and fangs that glinted in the sun. Creatures that on any other island would have forced desperate struggles for survival.
But here… no.
Because, between them and the three carefree women, stood Kali.
Her figure was a dance of carnage.
Her black hair whipped like serpents, her eyes burning a deep purple. Every step she took cracked the ground, every wave of her arms was accompanied by currents of demonic energy that tore monsters apart.
She didn’t fight.
She obliterated.
With a snap of her fingers, five creatures exploded in violet flames.
With a twist of her fist, ten more were crushed as if an invisible hand had closed over them.
And when she raised her hand to the sky and muttered something in a forgotten language, entire columns of darkness erupted from the ground, piercing entire ranks of aberrations like divine spears.
The horde roared, advancing relentlessly.
And Kali laughed.
“More!” she roared, kicking a beast in the chest with such force that the impact reduced it to pieces that scattered across the field. “More, come on! You’re nothing!”
Her body was a blur of motion. In less than five minutes, the field that had once teemed with creatures was now a carpet of charred, crushed, dissolved bodies.
Frieren yawned.
“It’ll be over too quickly this way.”
Rogue chuckled softly.
“She’s having fun. Leave it.”
Xyn, watching the spectacle, crossed her arms.
“It doesn’t look like a fight. It looks like a child crushing ants.”
Indeed, it was.
The difference was that each “ant” had enough strength to devastate entire villages. But for Kali?
Nothing.
She spun on her axis, and a wave of cutting energy swept fifty monsters in a straight line. Then she raised both hands and clapped them together. The air vibrated, and a black explosion swept across the field, obliterating everything within a hundred meters.
The silence that followed was punctuated only by the crackling of Rogue’s fire and Frieren’s satisfied sigh.
Kali stood in the center of the field of bodies, breathing deeply, her shoulders rising and falling slowly. A feral smile lingered on her lips.
“Ah… that’s right,” she murmured, raising her eyes to the sky. “This place is perfect.”
Frieren lifted her head just enough to look at her.
“If you keep this up, there won’t be any meat left for us to try.”
Rogue lifted the spit and shook it.
“I agree. At least leave some whole pieces.”
Kali arched an eyebrow in amusement.
“You think I fight to feed you?” She pointed at Rogue with a wicked grin. “Get your own meat.”
“I fixed it,” Rogue replied seriously, turning the skewer. “You killed it. So technically, it’s collaboration.”
Xyn snorted, trying not to laugh, as she adjusted the flames of the fire.
The contrast was almost ridiculous.
On an island where the sky was covered in menacing runes, where hordes of monsters surged relentlessly, the group wasn’t just surviving. They were… living well.
Because Frieren, as soon as they arrived, had noticed the marks glowing discreetly on the ground. Ancient runes, designed to limit their strength. The same ones that had forced Xenovia, Kryssia, and so many others to fight desperately against multiplying enemies.
But Frieren wasn’t content to accept limitations.
She studied, analyzed, and, with precise magic, broke the containment rune.
And the result was this: Kali completely free to use her full power.
The consequences were obvious.
While on other islands, the fight was a matter of life and death every second, here it was… trivial.
Frieren sighed again, closing her eyes.
“Nothing like an unexpected vacation.”
Kali laughed in the distance, wiping the demonic blood from her hands with a magical snap that dissolved the residue into the air. She walked back with firm steps, as if she had just finished a simple morning workout.
“You really don’t care, do you?” she asked, tossing her hair back.
“Care about what?” Xyn replied.
“The fact that we’re in a hell designed to break anyone’s mind.”
Frieren opened one eye, looking at him calmly.
“The difference is, we’re not just anyone.”
There was a brief silence, until Kali began to laugh out loud, laughter that echoed across the empty field.
She dropped to the ground, lying on her back on the scorched grass, staring up at the sky laden with black clouds.
“You’re the best chaos companions I could ask for.”
Rogue lifted the spit, blowing smoke from the roasting meat.
“And you’ll thank me when you taste this.” She bit into a small piece to test. Her expression tightened. “…Okay, maybe it needs more seasoning.”
Xyn leaned closer, tilting her head.
“More fire?”
“No, less fire.” Rogue sighed. “This thing cooks weird.”
Frieren yawned, turning onto his side.
“Just don’t burn my tan.”