Doomsday Priestess

Uriel's POV

"Is Uriel sure about this?" Elaina asks me, but she still follows me, it's kind of uncomfortable, to be honest.

"Yes, I'm sure she can know where Ayla is, Ayla is your sister, shouldn't you be more excited about this?" I say without much interest in Elaina as we move forward.

It's been 30 years since humans won the war against the demons, for some reason the demon lords disappeared, and with that, the tides of war turned, but even after winning, I couldn't find Ayla.

All I found was an empty castle filled with monsters that took advantage of the lack of an owner and a 100% empty library, so now I'm the greatest hero in the world, but I couldn't even save the girl I love.

And the worst part is, I was forced to marry Elaina, who is Ayla's older sister in the royal family. Honestly, I didn't want to, but it was that or I would have had problems and lost all the support I have, and I need that to try to find Ayla.

Those greedy pigs did everything to screw me over, and when I became the hero of the world, they forced me to stay close just to take advantage of my new hero image.

They even made some serious threats related to tarnishing Ayla's image if I didn't marry Elaina.

I've been searching for Ayla for 30 years, but there are no signs of her, and the world has changed a lot in these last few years, the system itself has also changed and now better indicates what each one is.

If you look at someone, the system can evaluate that person and say some known things, it's not everything, but if the person is famous, things about them become visible in the system, like their title, age, etc.

Of course, the system only provides limited information, but it's still an advantage to recognize various types of monsters, as the system now shows their name, type, and sometimes even their weakness.

Basically, the system now helps adventurers who need to hunt monsters a little more.

However, there was a change that shook the whole world, this change happened 15 years after the war ended, a level [???] monster appeared, which is basically too strong to be ranked and is above the SSS+ level.

SSS+ = beings that can destroy the entire planet, when this type of monster is born, usually many races come together to try to kill it.

This monster gained notoriety for a reason, first, its "natural habitat" is a location it has dominated and created, a desert where there is no sand, but sugar, no matter how deep you dig into this monster's territory, everything is sugar.

Basically, the area was once a dense, closed forest, but when this monster appeared, it destroyed everything, killed all the monsters in the area, and replaced the entire terrain with sugar, forming a sweet desert that is somehow stable to walk on, although it's a somewhat hot place.

This monster became known as the [Doomsday Priestess], a "neutral" monster that never leaves its territory and only attacks if attacked first, it gained fame for being able to speak about the "future".

They say this monster can answer any question if you give the right payment, and I've been looking for Ayla for so long that I decided to try to find and talk to this monster to have it tell me.

Elaina decided to come with me, not because she cares about Ayla, but because we're married, so she decided it was better to follow me since she is a skilled mage.

Since the monster is neutral as long as we don't attack it first, it probably won't attack, not that it's much better, considering that the now known as the Doomsday Sugar Land is infested with wolf and dragon-type monsters.

In other words, it's a dangerous place even if the monster doesn't attack us, of course, what stands out the most in the Doomsday Sugar Land is a giant structure that is a cube that slowly rotates and floats in the sky.

The structure is so large that it can be seen from miles away, just look at the horizon, and you can see that colossal structure floating.

All I can do is hope that the Doomsday Priestess can answer my question, Elaina and I have been walking for days in this infernal place, killing a large number of wolves and dragons.

So we're a little demoralized, the place is quite hot, and there's no food or water no matter where we go, and eating the sugar isn't a good idea since it would only increase our thirst.

And because it's a hot place, it never rains, so the only water we have is what we brought with us and the water made by magic.

At least we've finally approached the monster's lair, the monster can usually be found in the center of the Doomsday Sugar Land, right below that colossal cube.

"We've finally arrived," I murmur, feeling an irritating sweet taste in my mouth, the breeze of this place is unpleasantly sweet due to the sugar.

"S-So that's where that thing lives?" Elaina asks as we both see a small hut made of sweets, it's literally just candy, the walls, beams, roof, and windows.

'What's with this monster's obsession with sweets?' I really can't understand the sweet addiction this monster has, as it made everything out of sweets, we just walk forward, approaching, but before we reach the house area, the door opens.

I see the monster, it's a humanoid monster very similar to a human, the monster has long white hair and wears a black and purple dress with long black gloves that go up to the elbows and a purple sash around the waist.

While it has earrings and a necklace that represents eternity, the most striking feature is a black and white mask the monster wears, half of the mask is white with a sickly happy expression, and the other side is completely black, but it has no expression, not even a face, so the mask only symbolizes one side.

The monster is holding a large staff that has a floating cube at the tip that slowly rotates.

"What do you want here?" She speaks, and we hear a roar, and a large black dragon descends from the sky, it has black scales as dark as night and small cyan-blue parts that would be beautiful if they weren't terrifying.

The dragon growls at us as if it's about to attack, but it doesn't do anything, as if waiting for something, I can easily see that this dragon is very powerful.

"We've come for information," I say as the dragon lowers its head to her, the Priestess strokes the dragon's head while looking at us for a few seconds.

"Come in... and you, my dear, can go back to patrolling," She says to us to enter while telling the dragon to leave, and it obediently begins to fly.

"Thank you for the hospitality..." I say as Elaina seems nervous, but follows me as we enter the small hut, which turns out to be much larger on the inside.

"..." I look at the walls decorated with monster heads, and I recognize some as very strong monsters.

"Are you sure this is safe?" Elaina asks, hiding behind me.

"No..." I'm not sure, this thing is a monster, it may be neutral, but there's no way to know when it will become aggressive. I open the status that informs about this thing.

[Name = Doomsday Priestess.

Rank = ???

Chance of Victory 0%

Type = Ancestral Monster

Class = Doomsday Sugar Land Raid Boss]

The system only provides these 5 things, and that already makes it clear how strong this thing is, so far the system has never said my chance of victory is 0%, the system only provides known information, so the scarce information about her hardly appears.

'So she's a Raid Boss...' Raid Boss is something new in the system, it indicates a monster that usually dominates a territory, being the most powerful monster in the area.

Soon the three of us stop in a room where I recognize something, it's the head of a monster that I really didn't expect.

"That's..."

"Fenrir, it's his head, what do you think? Beautiful decoration, isn't it?" The Priestess speaks with mockery as she sits on a sofa as if killing the legendary wolf was nothing special.

"...Want to hear the story?" The monster asks, motioning for us to sit on the sofa, which we obey, even the sofa is made of some kind of soft candy.

"Sure..." I simply confirm, not wanting trouble.

"It was 7 years ago? Maybe 10, the time is a bit confusing to me, but Fenrir and I had a little romantic disagreement, so I cut off his head," She says it as if it's nothing.

"Romantic disagreement?" Elaina asks, not understanding.

"Yes, yes, it's related to our children, I fought with him because of our beautiful babies, so I gave him the punishment he needed, anyway, his arrogance eventually exceeded its limits."

Elaina swallows hard, two known titles of this monster are Queen of the Wolves and Queen of the Dragons, which explains the large number of monster types of this kind in her territory.

"So that dragon would be..." Elaina speaks with visible disgust on her face, questioning something we're sure of.

"Ah, the one you just saw? That's my beautiful Aetheris, we also had many children together... children that you killed on your way here," She speaks as I tense up, ready to draw my sword.

"Don't worry, I don't care, it's the cycle of life, isn't it? If they died, it's because they had to die, and anyway, death is a divine blessing," She says coldly while grabbing some kind of candy from a tray and sticking it under her mask, taking a bite.

"Why the sweets?" I question, uncomfortable with the excessively sweet setting.

"Addiction, I'm addicted to sweets, I can't live without them, they're one of the few joys in life, after all, who doesn't love sweets? They're good," She speaks as if sweets were the only food that mattered in the world.

"I... want to know something," I decide to stop beating around the bush.

"I know, believe me, I know well why you're here, Sir Hero Uriel Starfall, the great hero of humanity, married to the princess of the kingdom... what was the name of the kingdom again?" She speaks mockingly, making Elaina feel humiliated.

"If you know, could you tell me what I want to know?" I question.

"Hmm... I can, but the question isn't whether I can tell you where Ayla is, the question is what you can offer me to know that," She says, grabbing the candy and eating it again.

"Well..." I was going to speak, but I hear several screams, Elaina gets goosebumps while I'm already used to hearing this constantly in the last few days during the afternoon, at regular intervals, something common to hear in the Doomsday Sugar Land is screams.

For some reason, it's possible to hear 7 different screams throughout this territory, it's one of the things that makes this place even more bizarre, they are screams of pure despair and terror that send chills down your spine and spread across 100% of the territory.

"Don't mind that, you can continue, they're just the cries of little sinners who have paid a sweet price for the past," The Priestess speaks as the screams continue for a good while, the uncomfortable atmosphere as she bites the candy again.

'I wonder what's behind the mask' This thing gives me a bizarre and inhuman feeling, it may look like a girl physically, but I don't even want to imagine what's hidden behind this mask and clothes.

"I can offer anything you desire in exchange for you telling me about Ayla, even if the price is my life," I say as the monster starts laughing at me.

"Isn't it a bit cruel to say that in front of your wife? Why are you looking for a girl who obviously doesn't want to see you? She's immortal, I'm sure if she wanted to see you, she would have appeared, wouldn't she?"

"Or is your love so blinding?" She speaks with pure mockery of me, annoying me.

"Even so, I want to know..." I say, uncomfortable.