Not wanting to delay the inevitable or get embarrassed any further, and armed with a much more powerful artifact, the devil decided it was time to face the snail. The adventurers watched her behind the cover as she confidently strode towards the giant, magical beast.

Taking a good look at the snail, the devil realized that nothing had changed. It was still inside of its shell, completely unexposed. It didn’t even move. It stayed in the same place where it was during their previous encounter.

The devil smiled confidently, knowing that would make things easier for her.

This time however, she had a pouch strapped to her waist to hold the artifact. She needed it because she had to do some acrobatics to get on top of the snail. And since the snail didn’t move, the same trick would do. She would usually be against using the same trick twice, but with snails being too stupid to understand anything, she decided to use a tested and already proven method.

Magical or not, a snail is a snail. And even if this snail was somehow special, there was no way a snail could be faster than her and catch her in the air.

If there is one thing snails are known for, it’s for how slow they are.

Besides, she couldn’t see its eyes poking out of the shell, so it was safe to assume it wasn’t even aware of her presence.

Or … a thought formed in the devil’s mind. If the snail is magical, wouldn’t that mean it could sense magic? So, wouldn’t it be able to feel her?

That didn’t help it act previously, though. She landed on top of the snail without an issue. It didn’t even move after she had kicked it. All it did was look around to see who was making the noise.

And that made her blood boil with rage. The idea that a mere snail could ignore a devil like her in such a manner made her go crazy with genocidal hate. A snail of all creatures. One of the weakest and most pathetic creatures imaginable. Dungeon Master clearly had a very sick sense of irony and sadism, one that even a devil couldn’t match.

But she quickly realized that didn’t matter at the moment. What did matter though, was that a thick snail soup would become her favorite dish from that point on.

But first, she was about to roast one.

She dashed forward at full speed and did the same thing she did before, running on the wall when reaching the slime before jumping with full force towards the rooms in the back. Landing on one of the windows, she looked back towards the snail to check for any reaction.

There was none, drawing an angry frown to her face. It was insulting, not just the snail but this whole situation. The beast was stupid, and it simply didn’t know better. But the fact that a devil as powerful as her couldn’t do anything to it and had to rely on someone else’s help to deal with it was against everything she had fought for her entire life. The very point of working hard and becoming a devil is to become strong and independent, so you’d never have to rely on anyone. So you’d never have to depend on others or beg anyone for help.

Yet, there she was, having to depend on pathetic Eric to kill a pathetic snail. Eric who just happened to be in possession of one of the most powerful artifacts in the world without him even realizing it. He was so pathetic that he couldn’t even understand his own true nature, yet she had no other choice but to depend on him and count on his help, even though she could easily make him burst from the inside out if she just felt like it.

Dungeon Master clearly had no intention of sparing her from any shame. In fact, it was pushing it as far as possible.

The one thing that made everything bearable for her was that she held literal lightning in her hand, which was something no one else could brag about anywhere in the world. And she was eager to test it out.

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Jumping out of the window, she easily landed on top of the snail. As she rightfully assumed, and despite its magic, the snail proved itself to be a very simple creature and didn’t even notice her landing on top of it.

But now came the hardest part.

Checking her waist, Phisola saw that the pouch was still on her and that the artifact was ok. At least it looked like it. She took it from the pouch, placing it between her fingers as Eric showed her. It was so funny to her, how such a tiny thing could hold such a vast power. The artifact was the size of a ring, yet it could summon lightning bolts without any magic whatsoever. And the most impressive thing about it was that the people who made it had no idea what they’d created in the first place. She remembered how Eric told her that his people are using such artifacts to light up a fire. Pearls and pigs and all that stuff.

She lowered the artifact, placing it right next to the snail’s shell and making sure its thin, dangling part was facing downwards, towards the snail.

Then, after taking a deep breath, she turned her head to the side, closed her eyes, and pressed the small button.

Instantly, a loud bang echoed all over the room, and she felt a massive power pour out of the artifact in one single moment. Unlike the previous time when she felt nothing, this time her senses felt the enormous power of the energy released. It was more powerful than the strongest spell she had ever felt, so powerful that the sheer force of it threw her off, making her lose her balance and fall off the snail down onto the ground below.

She landed in the pool of disgusting slime, right next to the snail.

“Oh, fuck me sideways!” She yelled after spitting out the slime as she got up, her face and hair completely covered in filth. She tried wiping it off her, but without any clothes for the slime to latch on to, she had a hard time getting rid of it.

She did her best to wipe her eyes clean as quickly as possible, after which she saw that the snail was no longer hiding in its shell. Its head and tail were out of the shell, and she understood that meant she was in a world of trouble. She tried summoning a spell to fight it off, but the spell failed, making her realize that the slime had anti-magical properties too.

She turned around and ran towards the rooms in the back, only to slip on the slime after two steps and fall into it face-first.

She cursed again, doing her best to wipe her face off as quickly as possible, but even though she couldn’t see well due to slime covering her eyes, she realized something was odd.

Snails might be incredibly slow, but it had plenty of time to hurt her. It could’ve smacked her with its massive tail, if nothing else.

Once her eyes were free again, she looked at the snail. Yes, its head and tail were out, but it didn’t move. It didn’t react at all.

Even its eyes were lying flat on the ground.

And then it started dawning on her. If the snail isn’t moving, then … could it be dead? Or at least unconscious.

But once she smelt the scent of grilled meat, it became crystal clear.

It looked like the plan actually worked.

She heard arrows impacting the snail’s head. The adventurers were testing if it was dead too. Still, it didn’t react. She waved her hand towards the corridor. However, the adventurers advanced cautiously.

“Is it dead?” Ghilanna asked.

“It smells delicious,” the devil responded.

Ghilanna’s nostrils widened as she inhaled deeper, “Hmm … yes, it does. Does that mean it’s cooked?”

“Hell if I know. But it would’ve eaten me by now if it was alive. At the very least, it should be knocked out.”

“Let’s smash it properly just to be sure,” Ghilanna looked at Rutmuik as she said it.

The dwarf nodded before lifting his massive, two-handed war hammer on his shoulder as he walked towards the snail with confidence. He climbed onto the snail’s head slowly, with the help of two other adventurers. Once on top of it, he tapped the snail’s crown a few times with the spiked end of the hammer’s head before lifting it up in the air and slamming it down with all his strength.

The spike pierced the snail’s skin effortlessly, creating a large hole on top of its head. Still, there was no reaction.

“If it didn’t react to this, then it never will,” Rutmuik said.

“So … is this it?” Vulin asked, almost sounding disappointed.

“It looks like it,” Ghilanna said.

“This has to be the most anti-climactic thing in the history of everything,” Vulin pointed out, sounding a bit irritated with the outcome, “Fighting the guardian is supposed to be the grand finale! An event full of danger, high stakes, and excitement! I bet the gods must be very displeased with how boring this turned out to be. Can you imagine them watching us, expecting to be entertained, and then it’s all over in a single moment without any fighting happening at all?”

“Yes, you’re probably right,” Ghilanna agreed, “But we’ve played our roles well and have nothing to be ashamed of. Besides, that lightning artifact was here for a reason. Dungeon Mater certainly knew about it. But the gods aren’t our concern, and neither is their entertainment. Let’s find the key and see what we got.”