"You want to come with me?"
Damien smiled wryly.
He understood her worry, but he didn't understand how her presence would make the situation any better.
After all, if he looked at the situation through her eyes, then the Uruk was far too powerful even if the two of them tried to handle it alone.
Of course, he'd done extensive research on the beast, having been aware of this task for a few days now.
He was confident he could defeat it even with his current abilities, withholding almost all of his powerful laws.
Still, it was a bit amusing that the solution Thalia came up with was accompanying him in the battle.
"Yes. If we cannot fight it, I'll grab you and run."
"Grab me and run?"
"Over the shoulder. Just like last time."
Damien's wry smile only got more pronounced as Thalia spoke.
He just realized how much she'd underestimated his strength.
It was true that they'd hunted together. Damien could handle most of the beasts in the forest alone, but when they hunted together, he never opted for this path.
He was learning about the Gehenna Tribe through its people. As he moved with Thalia, he allowed her to take on most of the fighting so he could see how she maneuvered her energy and techniques.
And, without the context to understand that, Thalia assumed it as weakness.
Yes, she respected Damien, but she wasn't going to view his abilities unrealistically because of that.
In this situation, she trusted their teamwork more than his power, and in the worst-case scenario, she had absolute trust in her own speed.
'What to do…?'
Damien understood Thalia's character quite well at this point, and if there was one thing that stood out, it was her stubbornness.
She was strong, and just like all strong people, she was headstrong as well.
No matter what he said here, he'd surely find himself with her on his tail.
He couldn't prevent her from coming with him once she'd made up her mind.
The fact that she was even here in the first place meant the elders had given up on trying to convince her otherwise.
Damien sighed.
"Alright, you can come with me."
Thalia's eyes lit up.
"However…!"
Damien didn't allow them to stay that way.
"You won't be fighting with me. You can observe, and if, at any time, you think I'll lose my life, you can intervene and save me. How's that?"
It was the best compromise he could make.
In this way, he could keep Thalia out of danger as best as possible. If she was in a place he knew and didn't move, he could keep the battle away from her and finish things before she could act recklessly.
"Hmm…"
Thalia stared at him suspiciously, but after a few minutes of thought, she relented.
"Fine, but if there's even the slightest chance that you'll get harmed…!"
She let her meaning be known without saying it.
'That's not what I asked for, though…'
Damien was a bit befuddled by the leap she'd made so casually, but he had no choice but to accept her words at this point.
In any case, he just had to avoid getting hurt, which was pretty easy for him since his body was nigh-immortal.
"We leave at daybreak, so go home and prepare."
Damien sighed again as Thalia happily pranced around his house, having gotten her way.
"Mm, I'll meet you at the entrance."
She knew his personality as well as she knew his. If she pushed anymore, he was sure to get annoyed.
With those words laced in playfulness left for Damien's ears, she made her way back home.
And her expression immediately faded.
She put up a smiling front for Damien, but she was certain he didn't know the gravity of the situation.
No matter what he had heard about the Uruk, it wouldn't be enough to prepare him for what it truly was.
She clenched her fists until her palms bled.
Flashes of memory went through her head, reminding her of a terrifying time long past.
"Uruk…"
No matter what, she had to see it die.
If for nothing else…
…then for her revenge.
***
The sacred jungle where the Gehenna Tribe lived was home to a plethora of flora and fauna. It was massive, spanning over such a great distance that most of it was unexplored, whether by the tribe or those in the larger societies existing outside it.
However, there were some things that everyone knew. Not because they wanted to, but because they were forced.
The Ancients who ruled the jungle were one of those things.
Ancients were massive beasts beyond imagination, able to destroy populations of the Gehenna Tribe's size with less than a breath.
They were equivalent to Gods in the perception of most, and in the truest sense, that was pretty much what they were.
The concept of Godhood didn't exist in the Gehenna Tribe.
Their elders were definitely around that level, and the Saintess couldn't even be measured, but they didn't necessarily chase Godhood or understand what it was.
They reached it naturally like beasts, which meant they didn't actually possess the divine status they had earned.
The way it worked for people who gained godly strength without Godhood was complicated, but that was beside the point for now.
The Uruk was a creature approaching the level of an Ancient.
And it shared territory with the Gehenna Tribe.
It was a threat that needed to be destroyed for the tribe's continued existence. If it managed to grow into an Ancient, they would be either slaughtered or forced out of their homes.
Therefore, the tribe's elders had been planning to get rid of it for a very long time now.
The problem was that they didn't have the firepower to do it.
Their original solution was technology in the crudest sense of the word.
They would create contraptions that could kill the Uruk, which gave them both power and the ability to strike without risking their lives in close proximity with the beast.
However, Damien fell into their laps before they got the chance to finish designing said technology.
And while the elders and a majority of the tribe didn't think he was powerful enough to act as a perfect solution, the Saintess personally backed his strength, so they could only believe in him.
It was difficult.
Because they had personal experience with the Uruk.
It had attacked the village a little over a decade ago, and in its wake, it left an almost exterminated Gehenna Tribe.
A brave group of warriors from the tribe managed to drive it away, but they sacrificed their lives in the process.
The tribe had been recovering since then, and they'd never left the periphery of their village enough to provoke the Uruk again.
Such a drastic move was completely against the way they'd spent the last ten years.
But Damien didn't know their story.
Nor did he know the Uruk.
All he knew was that there was an enemy in front of him.
And he needed to kill it.
It was true that the Gehenna Tribe still didn't know much about Damien.
Because if they did, they'd have known.
When Damien's mind entered a state like this, hell was guaranteed to break loose.
For anyone he declared his enemy, that is.
