I'll be honest, I'm not really rooting for either of them. It's a pair of assholes duking it out.
I feel like the author has been super lost not knowing what to do with this annoying character since her debut harassing dog girl
So now he is trying to sell us on her being a local village protector deity, but it falls flat because she is a tsundere who hasn't done her job for years
Then he is trying to sell us some sob story to build her some sympathy, but it still falls flat because she is still an asshole fighting another asshole who preys on mentally weak people
...isn't she a phoenix? Or am I misremembering?
Thanks for the extra pixels, and the chapters!
Yep he gimmick is that she is the only one allowed to live forever, so the idea is that cat boy found a way to steal her immortality while it seems that this bird woman has been growing less and less powerful
But that's probably part of a cycle, after all phoenix grow old weak, die, and form their own ashes come alive again, so... pretty pointless as far as general lore goes, but maybe she is a cheap version of a phoenix and is actually losing her magic
In the grand scheme of things, the only thing that matters is monster girl titties, so the plot is just... a courtesy to accompany the boobs, but it is not like it matters