Second World

When Mistress fled the palace, she also warned the eldritch beholder. If the eldritch beholder followed them to Liguritudum, she would be a formidable ally.

Normally, if a sovereign lost a country but was still alive, the country guardian didn't have the duty to continue following said sovereign. The country guardian was released from his contract and was free to leave. So, unless the relationship between the country guardian and the sovereign was deep, the country guardian most likely left once the country lost.

The eldritch beholder didn't have any meaningful bond with Mistress. She came into Mistress' service out of the agreement for freeing her from Broidrireg's seal. So, rationally, Mistress shouldn't have told the eldritch beholder about her relinquishing her throne because this should just caused the eldritch beholder to leave both her and the country.

However, Master had built another nest in Liguritudum suitable for the eldritch beholder's broods. He even installed a high-grade dark mana site inside the nest, which gave the beholder eggs a fast-growing effect.

When the joined Verremor and Themisphere forces were on their way to Lorethion, the eldritch beholder traveled to Liguritudum with a few of her more mature broods. There, she laid her eggs for a few days before returning to Lorethion to deal with the siege. She left the mature beholders to look after those eggs.

So, even if the eldritch beholder was no longer tied to a contract with Mistress, she should still go to her second nest in Liguritudum if she was freed. This nest was near Liguritudum's capital, Dritzuut.

Unfortunately, even if she wanted to, she couldn't remove herself from combat. Broidrireg and the others kept her on a tight leash. The four didn't group in one place. They spread out and covered all four corners while Jack continued to drain the eldritch beholder's HP from inside her body.

Even Broidrireg was amazed by Jack's feat. He knew how erosive the dark energies inside the eldritch beholder were. It was nothing compared to the dark fume she breathed out.

Jack wouldn't have been able to last as long as he did if not for the Life Elevating Art. Not only did the skill give him incredible HP recovery on top of his already high HP recovery, but it also lasted for a long ten minutes and shortened his skills and spells' cooldown, allowing him to dole out more punishments to the eldritch beholder. The skill also lowered the loss of his equipment's durability, but almost all his equipment was indestructible anyway.

The eldritch beholder had tried all she could to drive Jack out. She tried blowing with all her strength. Dark fume poured out violently as she did. Arlcard and the rest had to move away to avoid getting hit by this fume. Only Broidrireg dared to remain close to the eldritch beholder after casting a protection spell.

But even after that forceful blowing, Jack remained inside. Jack stayed by stabbing his Storm Breaker into the fleshy ground. With his Gold Scale Armor active, he cast Myriad Venomous Vipers. He was using the same trick as when he tried to stay on Broidrireg's back during his beast form trial. The vipers coiled around his body and held him in place.

With those tricks, he resisted the eldritch beholder's effort to drive him out. All the eldritch beholder did was push out most of the dark energies inside him. With those dark energies significantly decreased, so was the damage Jack received. The eldritch beholder ended up giving Jack a breather.

After the Lightning God Incarnation ended for the second time, Jack used the Strength of Hope. Previously he had used it to conjure Hope's Light when he first arrived. After using Reset, this divine skill was available again. With that boost, Jack again unleashed his mega spell and rune technique.

The eldritch beholder's HP was now down to one-fourth. She had run out of ideas to drive Jack out of her. While her mind was tormented by Jack who never stopped ravaging her inside, the four outside gained many opportunities to get close and land free strikes.

Out of madness, the eldritch beholder unleashed another mind blast with a soul-piercing shriek. She decided to give up on driving Jack out. If that outworlder wanted to stay inside, then so be it!

Broidrireg and the others were in close range again, sending as many physical hits as possible. Broidrireg noticed the change in the eldritch beholder's disposition.

"Be careful!" Broidrireg yelled.

But it was too late. The eyeball tentacles around the eldritch beholder's body suddenly moved with lightning speed. Arlcard and the others had become complacent after scoring multiple easy hits with the eldritch beholder's mind occupied by Jack's torment. Now that the eldritch beholder calmed down and focused on them, it was them whose reaction was slow.

Only Broidrireg managed to break free of the tentacles' attempt at grabbing him, but that could also be attributed to Broidrireg's powerful strength. As for Arlcard, Therras, and Spark, they were fully entangled by the tentacles.

Arlcard broke free by turning into a swarm of bats. The eyeballs on the tentacles shot their green rays, incinerating several bats, but most managed to escape.

Therras was incapacitated but its defense was high. It was also protected by its armor, so it was still fine. However, its Elevate Beast was coming to an end soon. If the skill ended while it was still in the eldritch beholder's grip, then it would likely be a goner. It used its two powerful hands to try tearing apart the tentacles that bound it, but more and more grabbed onto it. All the while, they continued shooting green rays at Therras.

Spark had it the worst. Its defense was not as high as the other three, and so was its HP. As the tentacles continued to shoot green rays at it, they also tightened their grips, causing continuous damage number as the pressure was applied.

With its bladed limbs completely ensnared, it couldn't use them. It resorted to using the Nine Yin Phantom Sword to try cutting the tentacles. But many more replaced the one it cut and it couldn't use the ancient art that often.

Seeing that it had no way to break free and its HP was dropping to a critical, it activated its finishing mode. Unfortunately, the powerful explosion only blew apart the tentacles that bound it. It didn't harm the eldritch beholder because the explosion was chaos damage. Even chaos damage was nullified by the eldritch beholder's anti-magic planar wall.