Blessed By A Yandere Goddess

Chapter 47: Threats

The boss chamber was a hollowed-out clearing at the forest’s heart, the trees bent outward in a perfect circle. And in the center, a creature waited.

It was easily the largest thing Ronan had seen since the flesh golems. Four-legged, its body covered in bark-like plating that shifted and cracked as it breathed.

Vines crept from the seams in its armor, dragging across the dirt like serpents, and its head was mostly mouth. A split jaw that opened sideways, revealing rows of thorn-like teeth.

Think of a centaur but more... tree-themed.

A forest guardian. B-Rank on paper, but in its home territory, with roots to draw from and the whole grove feeding it energy, it might as well have been A-Rank.

"Same strategy as before?"

Tristan asked, his voice carefully neutral. Ronan could see the tension in his shoulders. He was ready to move the moment things went wrong.

Even for two A-Ranks like them, a dungeon boss was still a dungeon boss.

"Not this time."

Ronan rolled his shoulders and stepped forward. Sarael’s hand slipped from his arm without resistance; she’d already sensed what he was about to do.

By now, the two of them had likely already marked Ronan as their prime suspect. There was no point in holding back anymore.

If anything, he needed this display to make them too afraid to act. And if fear wasn’t enough, then he would simply kill them.

"This one’s mine."

"Yours?"

Yeula’s spear dipped slightly, her star sunglasses hiding whatever expression she was making.

"You said you were a mage. That thing’s going to shrug off fireballs."

"Who said anything about fireballs?"

Ronan didn’t wait for a response. He walked toward the creature, his boots crunching softly against the dead leaves, and the guardian’s massive head swiveled toward him.

Its split jaw opened, and it unleashed a powerful roar that rippled the air around it in a circle.

The guardian lunged, and its massive body crossed half the distance in a single bound, vines lashing out ahead of it like grasping hands. Ronan didn’t even dodge or summon a weapon.

He caught the first vine in his bare hand and pulled.

The guardian’s momentum worked to Ronan’s advantage. Its massive body left the ground, yanked forward by the force of Ronan’s pull.

FWOOSH!

The moment the guardian arrived just meters away from him. He closed his fist and threw a straight punch directly into its chest.

BOOM!

The shockwave ripped through the guardian’s torso, shredding bark and wood and flesh apart layer by layer. The vibration traveled faster than the creature could react.

Its body came apart in chunks, vines snapping, jaw unhinging, until nothing remained but a rain of debris and black ichor that was definitely just mud.

[Soul Absorbed: 4,000 EXP]

[Level Up: 15 → 17]

The guardian wasn’t weak. In its own territory, with the grove feeding it energy, it could regenerate and hit hard enough to wipe most parties.

But Ronan’s stats were now the same as flesh golems whose entire existence was built around overwhelming power.

As long as he landed the first blow and didn’t let it reach its second phase, the fight was over before it started.

A guardian was a well-balanced creature. But it definitely wasn’t built against someone that min-maxed sheer destructive power.

[Ronan Night]

[Class: God-Bound (???)]

[Level: 15 → 17]

[STR: 30 +20 +110] → [STR: 32 +20 +110]

[AGI: 28 +20 +15] → [AGI: 30 +20 +15]

[CON: 26 +20 +150] → [CON: 28 +20 +150]

[MAG: 20 +20 +0] → [MAG: 22 +20 +0]

[Shadow Stored: Forest Guardian (B-Rank)]

[Shadow Storage: 3/3 Slots Occupied]

[Slot 1: Sebastian Filgree (B-Rank)]

[Slot 2: Flesh Golem (B-Rank)]

[Slot 3: Forest Guardian (B-Rank)]

Ronan lowered his fist and rolled his shoulder. His knuckles weren’t even bruised.

Something the two definitely noticed.

"W-What the fuck...?"

Yeula’s spear hit the ground. Her fingers just stopped working. Her mouth hung open behind her sunglasses.

Tristan’s lightning had fizzled out completely. He’d seen S-Ranks fight. He’d seen hunters level buildings.

But he’d definitely never seen a non-S-Rank do the same thing, let alone punch a B-Rank boss so hard it exploded.

"So... investigators, right?"

Ronan looked behind him, a mischievous smirk on his face. And Tristan and Yeula immediately took that as a sign to retreat.

But they couldn’t. Ronan’s summon was already behind them, carving a huge wall of fire that covered their exit. And when they tried to grab Sarael as a hostage, she was already gone, teleporting herself beside Ronan and wrapping her arms around his.

"So you really are him..."

Tristan clenched his fist. But they were outnumbered. And considering Ronan’s strength, Zero’s vouching for his wife, and the summon covering their exit, they were also far outgunned.

"Let’s make a deal, huh? One that will lead to your death if you refuse. Or if you fail to meet it."

Ronan pocketed his hands, trying his best to look confident and unbothered. But even he knew killing was the last option here.

He’d rather keep his bounty where it was. If Tristan and Yeula died, the Association would stop sending A-Ranks. They’d start sending S-Ranks.

And as much as he liked the idea of adding them to his shadow army, he wasn’t stupid enough to risk dying for it. If he was going to fight an S-Rank, he’d do it on his own terms.

Not because the Association ambushed him while he was buying groceries for Sarael.

"W-What do you have in mind?"

Tristan said, and Yeula immediately looked at him in surprise.

"You’re seriously considering this?"

"It’s life or death. Are you really loyal enough to die for the Association?"

"N-No..."

"Then we don’t have a choice."

Ronan let the silence stretch. Silence made people uncomfortable. And uncomfortable people were easier to negotiate with.

And he definitely knew that firsthand before.

Now that he thought about it, porters really were like slaves...

At least if you’re anyone other than the famed S-Rank Porters, but those were different people entirely.

"Here’s the deal."

He said, his voice calm and level.

"You two stop hunting me. Officially, you keep working the case. You file reports, you follow leads, you do everything the Association expects you to do. But every lead you follow is wrong. Every report you file says I’ve gone underground, or left the country, or died in some gate somewhere."

"You want us to falsify reports?"

"I want you to survive the next five minutes. The falsified reports are just how you earn that."

Yeula had picked up her spear again, but she wasn’t pointing it at anyone. Her gold eyes were fixed on Ronan through her star sunglasses, and her expression was unreadable.

"And if we refuse?"

"I already said what will happen. You both die, and I might even turn you two into summons."

Sebastian’s fire wall crackled behind them, casting shadows across the clearing. The summon hadn’t moved from his position, his hand still raised, ready to tighten the flames into a cage at a moment’s notice.

"And if we agree?"

Tristan asked.

"Then you walk out of this gate alive. You report back to your superiors that the job was a bust, wrong target, dead end, whatever excuse you want to use. And from now on, whenever a job comes through the network that might lead to me, you two take it. You make sure no one else gets close."

"You want us to be your inside men."

"Pretty much it."

Yeula exchanged a glance with Tristan. Something passed between them, a silent conversation that Ronan couldn’t decipher but didn’t need to. He’d given them the terms. Now they just had to decide. freewebnovёl.ƈom

"And what’s stopping us from agreeing now and reporting everything the moment we’re out?"

Sarael giggled, the sound light and musical and completely at odds with the situation.

"Because I’ll know."

Her shadows stirred at her feet, curling upward like smoke.

"I can find anyone who’s been close to my husband. If you betray him, and night comes, I’ll feel it. And then I’ll visit you."

She didn’t elaborate on what "visit" meant. She didn’t need to. freēwebnovel.com

Ronan wasn’t even sure if Sarael could actually back that threat up. She was a goddess, sure, but a fallen one.

Her range had limits, her energy drained in daylight, and half the time she was still figuring out what she could and couldn’t do. For all he knew, she was bluffing.

But the two of them didn’t know that.

Tristan and Yeula had heard the recording from the interrogation room. That laughing voice, echoing through the speakers while seven officers lay dead with no wounds, no signs of struggle, just lifeless bodies slumped over their desks.

They didn’t know how she’d done it. They didn’t need to know. The fear was already there, settled deep in their bones the moment they’d recognized her voice in the forest.

A "visit" from Sarael wasn’t a threat they were willing to test.

Tristan’s lightning had completely died. His shoulders sagged, just slightly, and Ronan knew he’d won.

"Fine."

Tristan held up both hands in surrender.

"We’ll take the deal."