Chapter 75 | Survival Guide for the Otome Game's Villain

Lilith's tearful cries dissolved into the night wind. Erich was much more decisive; he reached out, took the box from Lilith's arms, and slung it onto his back.

“Stop looking,” he said. “Let's go. We need to call for help as soon as possible.”

Lilith kept looking back, but Erich gave her a hard tug, and the two of them sprinted along the side of the street toward the city outskirts.

The city was in utter chaos. After the giant serpent revealed itself, half of the prostrating snakefolk remained kneeling on the ground, some even devoutly offering themselves to be devoured by the giant serpent. The other half ran around like madmen. But what truly worried Erich was the influx of outside snakefolk surging through the city gates.

That pillar of light had indeed drawn them here.

He had expected the pillar of light to bring trouble, but he hadn't expected it to arrive so quickly. A large number of snakefolk, armed with weapons, poured through the city gates, hissing loudly. They moved with a clear purpose, heading straight for the ruins in the center of the city. They rushed past Erich and Lilith, their scales brushing against their clothes, but not a single one stopped to spare them a glance.

Erich let out a sigh of relief. Whatever these snakefolk were planning to do, their target wasn't them. However, his expression quickly soured. The center of the city was where the giant serpent and the captain's group were fighting. These snakefolk didn't look like they were going to attack the giant serpent at all, so their target seemed painfully obvious.

Should he go back? But what could he even do with his first-tier magic?

Lilith cut through the conflict in Erich's mind. She grabbed the dazed Erich and dragged him southward. The teleportation array was in the south; as long as they reached it, they could return to the second tier, and eventually back to the surface.

If only they could get there.

The ground beneath their feet suddenly shook again. Erich stumbled a few steps, steadying himself against a wall, and then he saw something crawling out of the cracked fissures.

Dozens of grayish-black snakes crawled out of the fissures. They looked identical to the sky-reaching giant serpent in the center of the city, only smaller, though they were still the size of houses. As soon as they reached the surface, they began to devour everything—humans, snakefolk, buildings, and even their own kind. Wherever they passed, nothing remained.

“Stop looking, run!”

Lilith yelled, pulling Erich into another street. But Erich quickly noticed that after these grayish-black snakes finished devouring whatever was in front of them, they turned around one after another and chased after the two of them.

At first, Erich thought it was an illusion. He pulled Lilith to run in a different direction, but the snakes adjusted their course accordingly. One by one, they reared up the upper halves of their bodies, flicking their tongues in his direction as they followed right behind them in unison.

They were fucking coming for them.

“Lilith, split up!”

He shoved Lilith away and ran in the opposite direction. The grayish-black snakes ignored Lilith and swarmed toward him. The closest of the smaller giant snakes lunged forward, slamming into Erich's waist and sending him flying into a wall.

Lilith stopped a few paces away, turned, and immediately began chanting.

Flames rained down upon the snakes, scorching the scales of a few, but they didn't even pause. They simply slithered around the burned areas and continued crawling toward Erich. Lilith switched to plant-attribute magic, summoning vines that sprouted from the ground to bind several snake tails. However, the snakes broke free with a simple tug, completely unfazed.

“Erich! Erich!”

Lilith cried out anxiously from outside the encirclement. Erich could hear her, but he didn't have the breath to respond. There were too many snakes. His body was already riddled with puncture wounds, and blood was flowing freely.

Yet, Erich felt like he was in great condition. A warm current was flowing through his body, and the blockage he felt when trying to cast second-tier magic was dissipating along with it. The comforting sensation actually caused Erich to daze off momentarily amidst the surrounding snakes.

One of the giant snakes seized the opportunity to ram into him, its momentum slamming hard into Erich's stomach. He fell to the ground and rolled over. The box on his back finally gave out, crashing onto the ground, and the object stored inside rolled out.

It was a staff, roughly as tall as Erich. It was entirely pitch-black, its shaft wrapped in cyan patterns that glowed faintly in the shadows. Upon closer inspection, the shaft was actually a straight handle formed by several small, intertwined snakes. The snake heads parted at the top, coiling around to form a circle. Suspended in the center of the circle was a white fragment, emitting a soft halo as it slowly rotated, surrounded by the snake heads.

Erich reached out and grabbed the staff. Mana immediately flooded into it, flowing through the shaft and finally converging at the white fragment.

The quality of this staff was exceptionally high. Erich could clearly feel his mana being amplified. If he were to cast a spell, its power would undoubtedly be several times greater than casting barehanded.

But the situation didn't allow Erich to savor the feeling. Countless snake heads were already lunging down around him. Erich raised the staff, and the spell model of a second-tier spell he had studied countless times but had been unable to cast before flashed in his mind:

“O drifting ice spirits, gatherers of winter's breath—”

Mana swirled at the tip of the staff, and the lunging snake heads suddenly froze.

“Condense dew into a spear, and pierce the enemies before me—【Ice Spear】!”

As the words fell, the temperature around him plummeted. Several massive crystalline ice spears materialized out of thin air beside him. Their tips radiated a bone-chilling cold, and the moment he raised his hand, they shot forward in unison.

The ice spears tore through the swarm of snakes, skewering one grayish-black head after another before they could even hiss. The surrounding snakes were harvested like wheat by the ice spears, their headless bodies collapsing limply to the ground.

With the crisis resolved, Erich pushed himself up using the staff. He was covered in blood, but the warm current within him was still surging, and his mana flowed more smoothly than ever before.

【Skill Acquired: Ice Spear Lv.1】

“Erich!” Lilith ran to his side, her voice shaking uncontrollably. “When... when did you...”

A sudden, thunderous boom echoed in the distance, shaking the ground. Erich and Lilith looked up to see that the already crude city wall had collapsed, kicking up a massive cloud of dust.

Through the dust, Erich saw Marcus take a direct hit from the giant serpent, crashing into the ground like a stone and failing to rise. Grace tried to rush over like mad, but she was surrounded by a dozen smaller giant snakes, unable to even complete a chant.

“Dad! Mom!”

Lilith spun around, about to run toward them.

“Take the staff and evacuate!” Lilith shouted to Erich. “I'm going to support them!”

Erich shook his head.

Lilith tried to wrench her hand free from Erich's grip, but the difference in their strength was too great. The tears in her eyes finally spilled over. “Let me go!”