Starting with the defeated female knight

And later, with his desire for revenge after losing everything, as well as his extremely developed limbs and physical talents, he became the chief knight he is today.

She herself can't say for sure how strong she is now.

However, her battle record shows that when the demonic tide broke out before, she single-handedly held off the demonic tide, which was at its most ferocious moment, for three whole days.

Moreover, her blocking wasn't like the defensive line formed by the others earlier, where they used every means to hold a line.

Instead, he took out a map, drew a line on it, marking all the possible directions from which the demonic tide might invade, and then—

kill.

He single-handedly cut down the demonic tide, preventing it from advancing an inch.

In addition to blocking the demonic tide, she also sent people to the villages and towns along the way to deliver messages and urge them to evacuate as soon as possible.

At the same time, she also sent a scout back to report the situation to the capital.

This time, however, the scale of the demonic tide exceeded any previous record, and it seemed to have a mind of its own, infiltrating the rear while she was trying to stop it, cutting off the retreat route of her team, and even deliberately letting some people go, driving them to her side. This not only forced her to be distracted by protecting those burdens, but also seriously slowed down the team's retreat speed.

Cecilia's reason told her it was a trap, and she should abandon the civilians and retreat immediately, otherwise everyone would die.

But when the demonic tide truly spread, and one saw the blood, the death, and the despair...

She felt as if she had returned to that burning village many years ago.

So many years have passed, she thought she should have moved on by now.

But it wasn't until she faced it again that she realized that although her body had long since left, her soul still lingered in that desolate place.

They guard the graves of the past, never leaving them for a moment.

Therefore, she cannot leave.

She tried to persuade others to leave, but to no avail.

The demonic mist spread, and a crimson glow surrounded everything.

Breaking through has become a pipe dream, and even whether they can survive until the next dawn is in doubt.

In her despair, Edith suddenly remembered that many 'taboos' were recorded in the church's scriptures.

Nearby was a place marked 'forbidden', which Edith remembered particularly well because of the strange way it was recorded.

"Generally speaking, the church records 'taboos' in as much detail as possible. Even if a taboo is not explicitly stated, at least the circumstances will be recorded, such as who did what at what time and what the consequences were. Even if there is no conclusion, some speculations will be written down..."

"But as for that mountain range, there is only one sentence."

"The more ferocious the monster, the further away it will stay from that mountain range. Even the surging demonic tide will avoid it."

Taboos are dangerous.

Moreover, according to church custom, the fewer the words, the bigger the matter.

But since staying in the demonic tide is a death sentence anyway, going there won't necessarily mean death either.

Then, thinking that rather than being manipulated by the mist and turned into a monster in the Demon Tide, he might die a quicker death in the Forbidden Realm.

Exhausting her last bit of strength, Cecilia led everyone, including the wounded, into the mountains without missing a single one.

Then, they encountered that tentacle with dark green eyeballs flowing from it, exuding an ominous aura.

everything is over.

These were the last thoughts in her mind before she lost consciousness.

but......

"It seems that it's far from time to end."

With a single sword strike, a chimera was cleaved in two. The regenerating flesh and blood became fuel for the golden flames, causing it to wail incessantly.

As she slashed, the chimera behind her raised a scythe as big as a person. Before it could strike, a silver-white fist burning with holy flames appeared in front of it.

With a single punch, it pierced through the body, and then a surge of holy power erupted, instantly tearing the body apart into chunks of flesh of varying sizes.

"I was taken care of in the thick fog before, and now it's time for me to return the favor."

Golden holy flames burned fiercely, and the silver-white armor swept through the enemy like a whirlwind.

Those monsters that caused others to struggle and fight with all their might were as vulnerable as chickens and dogs in front of Cecilia.

She had no responsibilities to worry about, and there was nothing around her that needed her protection. After shedding all constraints, all that remained was herself and the demonic tide before her.

New grudges and old hatreds were thoroughly settled at this moment.

When everything was over, the demonic mist slowly dissipated.

The place, once shrouded in demonic mist and teeming with monsters, now only has a silver-white figure wielding a greatsword, surrounded by a circle of corpses being burned by holy flames.

She stood still, her gaze fixed on the mist that had retreated beyond the mountains.

"It's not over yet."

She will not stop until the demonic tide is completely eradicated.

After Cecilia's battle ended, the demonic tides from all four directions receded.

The demonic tide on the human defense line left behind a field of corpses, each with complex and varied wounds, clearly the work of different attacks. Edith is currently directing the cleanup.

As for Cecilia, although she killed even more monsters, due to the presence of the Holy Flame, there was not much left. Most of them turned into ashes, with only a small amount remaining.

As for the other two directions, which are the areas Green said he was responsible for...

Nothing.

There were no corpses, no tentacles, and not even any trace of a battle.

Even during the battle just now, Cecilia and the other humans subconsciously overlooked the two defensive lines that Grin was in charge of.

Since the start of the war, while the humans were fighting fiercely, Cecilia's side was fighting an even more earth-shattering battle.

However, there has been no movement from the two areas that Green is in charge of, as if they have not been invaded at all.

However, upon closer inspection, one would notice that there were a few inconspicuous bloodstains on the ground, which was almost unchanged from before the thick fog.

In the center of the ground between the two directions, the tentacles with flowing eyeballs scanned the surroundings, and after confirming that there was nothing else left behind, they disappeared from the spot.

"Lady Cecilia——"

After the battle ended and the others stayed behind to clean up the scene, Edith jogged over to Cecilia. Just as she was about to speak, she felt the tentacles in her arms tighten.

Edith paused for a moment, then realized something was wrong.

Even though she had almost run to Cecilia's side and called out to her.

But Cecilia remained standing, neither responding nor even glancing at her.

She fainted.

Green shook his tentacle in his arms, and it inadvertently brushed against her chest, causing a slight sensation that made her body tremble involuntarily.

"...He's passed out?"

"Well, it's perfect that you're here too. I can take you both down together, so we can look out for each other..."

What does 'send down' mean?

Edith didn't quite understand what Green meant.

But that's okay, she'll understand soon enough.

Because the ground beneath their feet suddenly became soft the next second.

By the time Edith realized what was happening, the soft 'ground' had already opened its mouth, and dozens of soft tentacles emerged from it, wrapping around their limbs and dragging them into the writhing ground, surrounded by writhing tentacles.

I call this thing a tunnel worm; it's something we temporarily modified to transport the tentacles out.

It's called a tunnel worm, but it's actually just a large hollow tentacle. After loading things in, it uses other tentacles to transport them through the underground pipes it creates.

There was nothing wrong with this in itself. There had been no problems when transporting the tentacle piles before, and Edith and Cecilia had both soaked in the tentacle pool. He felt that there should be no problem with transporting it this way.

But he overlooked a small thing.

That's because the tunnel worm is entirely driven by its tentacles, so it will be a bit bumpy during its journey.

Although normally, the bumps shouldn't have been a problem, to save trouble and to stabilize their condition during transport, he packed the two of them together with a bunch of healing tentacles.

Bumping, touching, trembling.

In addition, there's the fact that Green has complained more than once about Edith's sensitive skin, which is comparable to that of a demon ninja.

A dozen minutes later, Green got Edith, whose body was twitching slightly, whose eyes were glazed, whose little mouth was opening and closing, with a little bit of crystal saliva flowing out, and whose soul seemed to be about to fly away.

Let's get her a private room next time we deliver something.

Fortunately, although Edith's tolerance was appalling, she recovered quickly.

After catching her breath, she got up from the ground, gave Grimm a resentful look, and then walked up to Cecilia. With the help of her tentacles, she removed Cecilia's canned armor, revealing what was wrapped underneath.

Those were tentacles, tiny, soft tentacles.

Unlike other tentacles, these tentacles were covered with various mouthparts and suckers, almost crawling all over Cecilia's body, forming a thinner, still wriggling living lining inside her silver-white armor.

However, like the armor's owner, the living lining was not in very good condition either.

Looking at those withered, trembling tentacles, devoid of their former luster and vitality, quivering like thin paper, and then at Cecilia who had fallen into a coma.

The dark green tentacles swayed slightly, unable to resist making a comment.

No, sis.

You're really squeezing every last drop of juice out of us...

Volume 1: Chapter 11: Living Armor

Living armor.

This is the name Green gave to the live suit Cecilia wore.

It consists of hundreds of tiny suction cup tentacles that almost cover Cecilia's entire body. It uses a bite-like motion to insert its mouthparts into her body, extracting the uncontrolled power inside, and then injecting it into the normal location through the injection needle at its tail, allowing Cecilia to control it.

Although it sounds abstract, this is actually an improved solution.

The first version of the plan was proposed by Cecilia herself, which involved having Grimm enter her body and use the energy storage and healing abilities of his tentacles to restore some of her combat power.

But Green immediately rejected the proposal.

Just kidding, I'm not going to talk about how to enter her body, or the visuals and incongruity, and his current fine control over his tentacles doesn't support him doing that.

He can't even guarantee precise control over the tentacles attached to Edith at all times. If he just goes in carelessly, and there's a moment of carelessness, or a slip of the hand while manipulating the battle, Cecilia could suffer a severe internal injury, and it's not impossible for her to die on the spot.

There's no way you can go in. You'll just have to stay here.

But Cecilia still didn't want to give up.

She brought the people here, and she was responsible for protecting the civilians. Although no one else thought she had done anything wrong, she still believed it was all her responsibility and couldn't accept that while others were risking their lives on the front lines because of her mistakes, she was lying here resting.

"Please, no matter what, I want to participate in this battle..."

Looking at Cecilia's sincere attitude, and unable to resist Cecilia's pleading, Edith also stared at it expectantly.

Green pondered for a moment, then rummaged through his tentacle collection, his gaze settling on a tentacle with suction cups.

I think I have an idea!

But it requires the cooperation of both of you.

Green's solution was a living armor, but although it had suction cup-like tentacles, its size and scale were clearly unsuitable.

So, in order to mutate into a suitable pattern, he got a few miniature tentacles and had Cecilia and Edith catch some leeches, mosquitoes, parasites, and the like. After crushing them, he sent them to the incubation chamber along with the miniature tentacles—a place he had previously set up where the temperature and humidity were suitable for the tentacles to grow.

However, the process of mutating the tentacles did not go smoothly.

The first batch of tentacles all perished instantly, it's unclear whether they died from infection or something else.

Although two tentacles survived from the second batch, one only mutated into a mouthpart that could suck blood, and the other did not mutate at all, so neither met the requirements.

Fortunately, Green was used to this gacha-like mutation. After two failures, he simply waved his hand and brought over ten batches of tiny tentacles, which mutated simultaneously.