The Occultist’s Gambit and Dianna’s Monstrous Revelation

“Dianna, what are you doing?!”

“Everyone, drop your weapons and put your hands up! Otherwise, I’ll shoot.”

Dianna, completely devoid of her previous innocent and adorable demeanor, glared coldly at Shirley.

“I’m counting to five.”

“Come on! This isn’t funny!” Ji Bingyao exclaimed.

“Guns are dangerous; children shouldn’t play with them.”

“Bang!”

No sooner had Ji Bingyao finished speaking than Dianna fired a shot at her feet.

The bullet embedded itself in the tiled floor beside the swimming pool, sending a shower of debris flying.

“Four!”

“Wait, there must be some misunderstanding!”

“Three! Two!”

“One.”

Another voice suddenly spoke from behind her.

Immediately afterward, a powerful electric shock coursed through Dianna’s small body, causing her to tremble and collapse to the ground.

“Xia Hua?”

“Hehehe, it’s me.”

The ‘Occult Researcher’ from St. Lian Academy smiled, lifting the personal alarm taser in her hand.

“Good thing I came prepared.”

“How did you get that thing?” Shirley asked.

“Ah, I snuck it in myself.”

“While there’s no need to worry about… *that* sort of thing in a girls’ school, when conducting occult research, one inevitably faces the invasion of malevolent supernatural forces!”

“So, as an occult researcher, it’s perfectly normal for me to carry self-defense equipment!”

“That’s not normal at all…” the other three muttered in unison.

‘Who researches the occult with “self-defense equipment” in this world? What does this person think they are? The Ghostbusters?!’

‘Moreover, if “malevolent supernatural forces” truly exist, how could a taser possibly deal with them?!’

Nonetheless, Xia Hua’s actions had undoubtedly saved the others.

Being the only one without a weapon and appearing utterly meek, she had been momentarily overlooked by Dianna during the armed threat.

This lapse allowed Xia Hua to seize the opportunity, sneaking up behind Dianna to deliver the decisive blow.

“You just said you ‘came prepared.’ Did you know Dianna would do this from the start?” Shirley asked, retrieving her pistol.

“Hmph hmph hmph, as an occult researcher, I naturally possess keen perceptive abilities far beyond the average person!”

Xia Hua swept her bangs aside with one hand, striking a dramatic, chuunibyou-esque pose.

“The moment I saw this little loli, I sensed something was amiss.”

“Oh?”

“Based on my experience, most little lolis are timid.”

“Upon suddenly encountering someone with a firearm, they should feel uneasy, or at the very least, curious about where the gun came from, rather than boldly claiming to feel ‘at ease.’”

“Furthermore, while today’s fog is dissipating, yesterday evening’s great fog was still very thick, with extremely low visibility.”

“How could Dianna, who hadn’t left the administration building, possibly have noticed many insects near the gymnasium?”

“These details, when considered, clearly indicate something is wrong,” Xia Hua explained.

“Therefore, after realizing the oddity, I deliberately set a trap, asking if she knew Lu Ying from ‘Fifth Grade Class C.’”

“Uh, that’s right!” Shirley belatedly recalled.

“The elementary division has no Fifth Grade Class C!”

“Precisely.”

Xia Hua nodded.

Although St. Lian Academy, as an aristocratic school, employed small class sizes with fewer than 20 students per class, the student body was small enough that both the elementary and junior high divisions only had Class A and Class B for each grade level.

Only the kindergarten and high school divisions had slightly more students, divided into Class A, Class B, and Class C.

Therefore, Dianna, who was unaware of the non-existence of “Fifth Grade Class C,” was clearly not a genuine student.

“Of course, since I wasn’t sure what she intended, I simply kept my distance and remained vigilant, and in the end, my suspicions proved correct,” Xia Hua said proudly.

“Well? Aren’t I amazing?”

“Indeed, I miscalculated,” a hoarse voice replied to her.

Then, to Xia Hua’s astonishment, the little loli who had just been electrocuted and lay sprawled on the ground like meat on a chopping block, appearing utterly helpless and awaiting her fate, actually rose to her feet once more!

Even more astonishingly, with a ripping sound of fabric, the upper part of her elementary school uniform suddenly tore in two.

Emerging from Dianna’s bare back was a pair of grotesque wings, resembling bone claws yet connected by a layer of membrane between their sharp talons!

In contrast to the ornamental white feathered wings on Salome’s back, these wings boasted a total wingspan exceeding three meters, their tips adorned with barbed, sharp claws.

They bore a striking, yet far more terrifying, resemblance to a certain Level 12 psionic powerhouse from *StarCraft*.

“Saah! Let’s have some more fun, big sisters! This time, Dianna won’t be careless!”

“What in the world is that?!”

Shirley barely managed to utter that single exclamation before she was forced to dive to the ground.

The enormous bone-clawed wings, like two massive blades, suddenly swung towards her.

Had she been even a second slower, she would likely have been sliced in half like a fish prepared for sashimi.

However, this initial attack was far from over.

Before Shirley could even struggle to her feet, the next round of fierce slashes followed in rapid succession.

“Damn it, come at me if you dare!” Ji Bingyao shouted from the side, firing her gun.

However, the airsoft pistol’s lead pellets, lacking sufficient penetrating power, merely bounced harmlessly off the opponent’s wings and floated back to the ground.

To make matters worse, after firing that shot, her air pistol’s cylinder and compressed air cylinder were both empty.

In her panic, Ji Bingyao simply hurled the now useless air pistol at her adversary… only for it to be sliced into two pieces in mid-air by the sharp bone wings.

“My, my, you prey are truly strange,” the loli murmured to herself after destroying the air pistol that had been flung at her.

“Although I devoured that little sister’s memories, I still don’t quite understand you lot… but it doesn’t matter.”

“Such plump bait as this would be a loss to our hive if not properly savored.”

“Apologies, little sister, but I have no interest in becoming ‘bait.’”

“Nor will I allow you to turn my friends into such!”

Shirley raised her gun and began firing in rapid succession.

However, the 9mm pistol rounds, propelled by gunpowder gases, proved no more effective at damaging the tough membrane of those bone wings than the 5.5mm lead pellets launched by compressed air.

Clearly, whatever connected those horrifying bone claws was no ordinary skin.

“Oh dear, don’t be so modest, big—sis—ters—”

Perhaps intending to provoke them, Dianna spoke in a saccharine, coquettish voice that sounded nothing like a little loli, but rather more akin to a gold-digger angling for a rich patron.

“The hive desperately needs strong, excellent bodies brimming with potential like yours.”

“So I’ll try my best to bring you back alive, allowing you to birth more individuals like me and become truly great mothers!”

“Well, aren’t you excited? Aren’t you looking forward to it?”

“With all due respect, I already have enough people calling me ‘Mom.’”

“Any more, and I’d be quite troubled.”

Shirley continued firing.

Since a direct hit on the creature’s vital points was nearly impossible, she instead aimed for the tips of its feet, which the bone wings couldn’t fully shield.

After one bullet pierced its small, pink-ribboned leather shoe and broke two toes, Dianna finally erupted into a furious shriek.

“You—are—dead—meat—aaaaaaah! I’ll hack off all your limbs and turn you into brain-dead vegetables!”

“As long as the essential organs remain fully functional, you can still be used by the hive!”

“Tch.”

Seeing Dianna descend into a frenzy, Shirley actually felt a wave of relief.

At the very least, this fierce, quasi-human creature before her possessed emotions akin to a human’s, which implied it likely had human-like weaknesses.

“Are you sure you can manage that?”

“With all due respect, being as clumsy as you are, the chances of you messing things up are probably much higher.”

As a look of pure fury contorted her features, Dianna’s mouth suddenly stretched to her ears, much like the legendary “Slit-Mouthed Woman,” revealing a multitude of nail-like, sharp teeth within.

Next, a strange bulge appeared on her chest, rapidly moving up her esophagus before finally being expelled from her gaping maw.

“Damn, is this thing a relative of the Short X Demon King?”

Shirley and Ji Bingyao swiftly dodged to either side, narrowly avoiding being struck by the goose-egg-sized projectile.

It was a semi-fluid object encased in an organic membrane.

After grazing past the two of them, it struck the edge of the swimming pool, its membrane instantly rupturing.

While no bizarre, green-skinned, filthy creatures crawled out, the corrosive liquid that splattered everywhere rapidly burned the ceramic floor tiles, causing white smoke to billow visibly.

“Shirley, over there, shoot there!”

As Dianna’s chest swelled with a second large bulge, preparing for her next deadly shot, Xia Hua shouted from the side, pointing to her own mouth.

“Ah? Oh, right!”

Shirley instantly understood.

Given that the extremely tough leathery wings acted as shields, direct shots from small-caliber weapons could, at best, only wound inconsequential areas like Dianna’s toes, proving utterly useless beyond merely provoking her.

However, once enraged, Dianna had begun actively launching ranged attacks.

This implied that, at the onset of her attacks, she would temporarily have to forgo protecting her head.

Crucially, this method of attack also had a wind-up time that was far from negligible.

As Dianna once again opened her mouth, preparing to unleash another “acid shell,” Shirley aimed her pistol’s sights at the center of the creature’s maw.

Seizing this less-than-a-second window, she pulled the trigger… but nothing happened.

Only then did Shirley realize the pistol’s magazine had already been emptied.

Such was her intense nervousness that she hadn’t even noticed the slide failing to reset.

‘It’s over!’

After swiftly assessing her predicament, Shirley roughly deduced what would happen next.

Within half a second at most, that mass wrapped in highly corrosive material would strike her.

Having prioritized aiming and shooting over immediate evasion, even if not directly hit, she would certainly be within the attack’s splash zone!

Although Shirley didn’t know precisely what was contained within that organic membrane, it was likely not common sulfuric or hydrochloric acid.

Aqua Regia would be slightly better, but if it were hydrofluoric acid, the trouble would be immense.

Having watched all the *Alien* films in the past, she was acutely aware of the fates of those who engaged in close-quarters combat with the eyeless extraterrestrial monsters and managed to draw first blood…

And now, she too would likely…

For a split second, Shirley instinctively wanted to close her eyes.

However, the very instant that substance was expelled from Dianna’s mouth, it inexplicably exploded…