LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 36
Divine power is ever-changing and dynamic.
It shines brightly yet isn’t light, it burns hot yet carries no heat. It may harden but still holds warmth, and it harbors a sharpness that can shred the fabric of the sky.
[Kwaaa!]
The dog unleashed its divine power, spreading it in all directions. Its shining body transformed into a sharp hedgehog, planting spikes everywhere, and swelled up to become a sea urchin before bursting forth.
Puff!
Though it wasn’t made of substance, the divine power erupted with the force of a flashbang, showering light and obliterating every mosquito that approached.
Pachik!
Thud!
The barrier that rushed at the dog shattered.
Crack!
Mosquitoes struck by the divine spikes, crafted from its power, fell helplessly to the ground, their bodies mangled beyond recognition by the relentless shockwaves.
And so, the corpses piled high like a snow-like heap lacking the strength to flutter their wings. It was akin to a blackened, tainted snow falling from the sky, polluting the earth. The rotten blood the mosquitoes bore began to seep into the ground, emitting a foul stench—so grotesque it resembled a calamity-shaped thing rather than mere insects.
[Grrooo!]
But could the darkness that stained the earth truly surpass the sky?
Aaaah!
The mosquitoes swarmed, darkening the entire shrine and rushing toward the dog. The mosquitoes approaching the dog radiating light seemed like a wave of darkness, gathering the most putrid and horrifying parts of the shadows to crash into him. The mosquitoes, filled with rotten blood, lunged like moths towards a blazing flame.
KRAAAANG!
The dog continued to unleash its divine power, slaying mosquitoes as it went.
[Grrooo!]
The dog emitted light from its mouth, whipping its front paw like a scourge and batting aside its foes. With wings sprouting from its back, it pushed the mosquitoes away, while its tail transformed into an enormous flail that crushed them.
Aaaah!
Mosquitoes kept charging in.
Thud!
Mosquitoes kept getting obliterated.
Those mosquitoes couldn’t land a single meaningful blow, as the insignificant creatures couldn’t possibly contend against the divine power emanating from the dog. Any mosquito that dared to draw near would have its brief, wretched existence ended the moment it touched that divine force. Moreover, even if they managed to slip past its defenses, they would merely meet a fate akin to that of a burnt moth. They could neither suck the divine energy’s life force nor withstand the essence which composed it. Like sparks scattering from electric frying, they dropped the corpses onto the ground, burnt to a crisp in an instant, unable to lay themselves down.
For the dog, made not of flesh and blood but of divine power itself, a swarm of mosquitoes posed no threat at all. Hence, the wave of mosquitoes appeared grotesque to behold but bore no apparent effect.
Yet, despite this, the dog’s desperation in slaying mosquitoes stemmed from its instincts.
[Bark! Bark!]
Instinct.
The innate instinct honed over centuries warned that if those mosquitoes were left unchecked, a horrific calamity would ensue.
However, even as it persistently killed, the numbers of mosquitoes showed no signs of dwindling. This wasn’t due to a lack of strength on the dog’s part, but rather because the sheer number of mosquitoes was overwhelming. Even pouring water from a bucket into a pond, the water level rarely dropped; thus, no matter how many the dog killed, the swarm enveloping the shrine refused to reveal any ground.
“Even if a hair falls to the earth, the root remains unforgotten. As a severed nail remembers its owner’s flesh, so too does the blood absorbed by the mosquitoes.”
And finally, the time had come.
Ding!
Ding!
Regrettably, Mukuri Kokuri no Inugami couldn’t prevent the nightmare its instincts had warned about.
Jinseong used teleportation to leap onto the roof of the main hall, slamming a small bell with his fist.
The small bell rang out a massive vibration that stimulated souls and flesh, washing over the surroundings. Mosquitoes, caught in the vibrations, trembled and changed their movements.
The mosquitoes in the sky began to cluster together.
Those frantically swarming mosquitoes, rushing in with a noise like a whirlwind, suddenly began moving in formation as if they received a command, tightly compressing together. Until the darkness that cloaked the shrine dissipated, revealing sunlight, they packed tightly together and formed the shape of an animal.
Crrr—rrrrrk—Kyaaah.
What emerged from the swarm of mosquitoes was a bizarre creature.
It looked strange, like a black powder coalescing to create an animal. It stood on two legs like a bear, its knees bending backward reminiscent of a goat’s, its legs unnaturally long, likened more to pillars than legs. Its thighs were muscular like a horse’s, contrasting sharply with its thin, insect-like calves, creating a grotesque sight.
The body was plump, resembling a water balloon, gleaming black as if it were draped in some insect chitin rather than fur. Where arms ought to be, long tentacles resembling whips drooped to the ground, leaking a disgusting fluid. The tentacles appeared to be at least 3 to 4 meters long and ended in large, sharp claws that resembled the talons of a carnivorous bird.
However, the most bizarre feature was its head.
The head of this abnormal creature seemed to combine elements of insects, wild boars, deer, goats, and birds. It gave the impression that it completely disregarded the function of a head, an appearance so repulsive it could induce retching at a mere glance. It looked like a child mashed together various animals like clay.
This monster, born from mosquitoes, belched forth a stench-laden fluid from its mouth atop its head.
Kaaak.
It was a rather weak sound.
KRAAAANG!
With that as its signal, the aberrant creature lunged at the dog.
Its spring-like, elastic legs zipped through space and reached the dog in an instant, flailing its writhing tentacles, slashing through the air.
[Grrooo!]
Bang!
Boom!
The dog dodged the whip that came flying at it almost invisibly, exploding its divine power. Just like it did with the mosquitoes before, it thought to push back the aberrant creature with shockwaves.
Yet, unlike the mosquitoes it easily dispatched, the shockwaves shattered against the creature’s bulging belly, which acted like a shield, and the divine spikes merely bent against its chitinous armor.
“Just as divine power purifies desecration with the strength of exorcism, so too can corruption taint and pollute divine power. This will not be easy.”
Muttering such, Jinseong lifted the corpses of mosquitoes strewn across the ground into the air.
“Like begets like, and the similar gives rise to the similar.”
With his incantation, the lifted corpses of the mosquitoes coalesced into a single point, forming a sphere.
“The longer they gather, the larger they grow until their forms emerge—so similar to the formless. Both contain a core and are of one, hence how could they not resemble one another?”
The sphere melted down into a black viscous fluid. The black liquid writhed as though alive, gradually changing color and becoming clearer, resembling slime bit by bit.
The remains of the mosquitoes poured forth, their wings spilling onto the ground.
Only the mosquito’s saliva moved toward the core.
The sphere thus transformed into slime possessing a core of black viscous liquid, with needles scattered throughout its now transparent body.
Gloooooop.
The slime, born from the mosquitoes, descended toward the ground as if oozing out like melted jelly and savagely began devouring the mosquito remains scattered on the floor. Much like hydrochloric acid melting the earth, it left no trace behind where it had passed, and as it continued to feast on the corpses, it grew ever larger.
Gloooooop.
[Grrooo!]
In the midst of battling the aberrant creature, the dog recognized the presence of the slime. Its instincts screamed that the slime posed a comparable danger to the creature before it, yet the aberrant creature thrashed its tentacles in defiance, splattering repulsive fluid everywhere to ensnare the slime.
[Grrooo!]
Meeeeeeee—–
Impending dangers.
Threats in front of me.
What should I do?
How should I judge this?
The dog pondered endlessly.
But no matter how much it thought and thought, what could it do?
Mukuri Kokuri no Inugami was merely a beast lacking sentience, only able to surrender to its instincts.
[Bark!]
The dog chose to confront the pressing threat before it rather than the distant crisis.