Just one finger of the enormous shadowy hand inside the palace's main entrance was as large as a human. Its entire palm and arm filled the gap between the doors, making it hard to imagine just how huge its owner was.
Perhaps this palace had been built for him, and this arm was merely pushing open the doors, dozens of meters tall, so that his whole body could emerge into the twilight outside?
The moment Franca saw that enormous hand reach toward Christina and Dorothy, this thought surfaced in her mind.
The best response now was naturally to leave immediately. Even without supernatural powers, a creature of that size had enough weight and strength to kill any Beyonder below high sequence. Moreover, in this world, size often implied supernatural power. This was not an enemy she, a Demoness of Affliction, could handle—not even with Jenna, a Witch, helping her.
Within The End Church, the correct response to this situation was, of course, to leave the danger zone immediately, then find a nearby Orthodox Church cathedral and seek help from the local Beyonder forces. If there was no help nearby, she could pray to the Goddess and explain the threat. The Goddess of Calamity paid sufficient attention to supernatural incidents like these that she might send a nearby Saint or even an Angel to deal with it.
Nor was Franca worried about being unable to escape. A sheer cliff lay right beside her. All she had to do was vault the railing and leap down, and an Assassin's Feather Fall would let her land unharmed, taking her straight out of the Giant King's Court. The same applied to Jenna.
The only problem was that this would mean abandoning the two girls targeted by the shadowy hand. Their fate was easy to