Yandere Monster Evolution: My Blind Wife Will Become a Demonic Queen

Chapter 123: Stone Guardians

The sound of cracking stone echoed through the massive hall.

Dozens of ancient stone guardians stepped off their pedestals. Each of them was easily over seven feet tall, with stone wings and claws.

Gradually, their rocky skin peeled back to reveal glowing crimson circuits running beneath the stone.

[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]

[Warning: Ancient Castle Guardians have been awakened.]

[Quantity: 30]

[Danger Rating: High (B-)]

"...Shit," I muttered beneath my paper bag mask, my fingers tightening hard around the hilt of my dagger.

I had known there was a variable, but my fuzzy memory of the original novel had completely skipped the fact that the statues weren’t just decorative ornaments. They were literal autonomous defense units meant to ensure nobody disturbed the slumber of the Vampire Lord lying on the stone bed.

"I thought you said we shouldn’t wake him up!" Grog roared, his voice cracking as he swung his massive broadsword into a basic guard stance.

"We didn’t wake the Lord, we woke his security system!" I shot back, my voice perfectly casual despite the drop of sweat sliding down my temple. "Form up! Hana, light up the ceiling pillars!"

"U-Understood!" Hana screamed.

She slammed the base of her staff against the stone floor. A brilliant wave of blue-white light surged upward, catching the nearest stone guardian right in the chest as it tried to drop from a pillar. The frost element instantly coated its rocky wings, slowing its descent just enough for Seok to move.

Seok didn’t say a word. His bright, cartoonish mask rustled in the sudden wind as he lunged forward.

Clang!

The tip of his spear struck the stone guardian’s throat, sparking violently against the hardened rock before the dense physical force behind his strike shattered the creature’s neck entirely.

"Behind you!" Jisu yelled.

Her ring-covered hand flashed with a brilliant red aura, and the armor covering her fist expanded into a heavy gauntlet. She threw a brutal right hook straight into the jaw of a guardian that had crept up from the shadows. The impact sounded like two trucks colliding, sending the statue flying across the hall until it smashed into a pillar.

The fight heated up instantly, and it definitely wasn’t an easy brawl. These weren’t the fragile vampires from before.

BOOM!

A massive shockwave of gravity flattened three guardians simultaneously right in front of the stone bed.

Black walked slowly through the center of the chaos, his hands still casually buried deep inside the pockets of his dark gray coat. The air around him was vibrating violently, creating a miniature distortion zone that crushed any statue that came within three meters of his boots.

"You’re slacking, Brian," Black’s deep voice echoed through the hall, filled with that same irritating amusement. "I thought someone like you would have a cleaner manual for a low-rank Gate like this."

"The manual is working perfectly, Adrian," I countered, dodging a sweeping stone claw by a hair’s breadth and driving my dagger into the glowing crimson circuit on the guardian’s flank. "You’re still breathing, aren’t you?"

As the battle raged, with stone splinters flying and Hana’s magic exploding across the columns, I noticed something strange.

Carmilla wasn’t moving.

The quiet girl who had just one-shotted a Vampire Duke on the avenue was currently standing completely still at the very rear of our circle. Her dark blade was still sheathed, and she was simply hugging it close to her chest like a fragile doll again, her dull crimson eyes staring blankly at the stone floor. Even when a guardian lunged toward her, she didn’t lift a finger.

Seok had to step in, snapping his spear sideways to deflect the claw before driving the butt of his weapon into the statue’s chest. "Carmilla! Fall back to safety!" he ordered loudly, but the girl didn’t even blink.

My eyebrows furrowed beneath my paper bag mask. I leaned my head slightly back toward Vera, who was standing still right beside me, her small hand lightly touching my elbow.

"Vera," I whispered, my voice cutting through the sounds of shattering stone. "Why isn’t she fighting? If she uses that red lightning right now, we can clear this room in ten seconds."

Vera didn’t turn her face toward me, but her posture went slightly rigid.

"She can’t fight right now," Vera murmured softly. "The skill she used outside—the High-Frequency Bloodline Inheritance thing—it has a massive toll. To move that fast and cut through the defense of that powerful entity, she had to burn through her entire mana core’s baseline."

"An aftereffect?" I asked.

"Worse," Vera whispered, her grip tightening on my sleeve. "For the next twelve hours, the cooldown keeps her mana channels completely locked. Right now, Carmilla is physically weaker than a normal human. If a single stone splinter hits her, she could bleed out."

’So that’s the catch,’ I thought, a sudden wave of clarity hitting my brain. A skill that can one-shot a boss but leaves you completely defenseless afterward. It was a classic high-risk, high-reward mechanic from progression fantasy tropes.

"I see," I muttered. "Then we protect the rear."

Before I could finish my sentence, two massive stone guardians broke through Grog’s defensive line on the left side. Their ruby eyes were locked directly onto my mask, and their heavy stone wings snapped back as they charged toward us with terrifying speed.

I lifted my dagger, preparing to engage, but Vera suddenly stepped ahead of me.

She didn’t use her full power. I knew the depth of her strength—I had felt it back in the Mermaid Gate—but right now, she was deliberately holding back, maybe to keep her presence entirely masked from Black and the other veteran Hunters.

Whoosh!

Moving with a soft, elegant grace, Vera simply shifted her shoulder, dodging the first guardian’s lunging claw by a fraction of an inch. She extended her left hand, her small fingers wrapping around the creature’s rocky wrist, and with a clean, fluid twist, she redirected its massive momentum straight into the second guardian rushing from behind it.

CRASH!

The two statues smashed into each other, their rocky bodies cracking violently from the pure physical impact.

Vera didn’t follow up with a lethal strike. She didn’t trigger any massive aura explosions or high-rank skills. She simply stayed near me as she constantly tracked the vibrations in the room, using just enough reflexes to deflect any attack that dared to come near me.

"Don’t leave my side, Brian," she murmured.

Hearing her words, a small, helpless smile formed beneath my paper bag.

"Don’t worry," I whispered back, locking my fingers with hers for a brief second before snapping my dagger forward to shatter the remaining part of the guardian in front of us. "I have no intention of dying in a graveyard."