Chapter 36: The Difference Between the Strange and the Uninvited (9)
Divine power was something that underwent a thousand changes and ten thousand transformations.
Something that shone brightly but wasn’t light, could burn hot but not possess heat. A power that could harden yet contain warmth, fluttered, and could harbor sharpness that could carve skin.
[ Kwaaaa! ]
The dog unleashed its divine power in all directions like a burst of energy.
Its shining body transformed from the shape of a dog into a sharp hedgehog and wore spines all over itself, then swelled into the shape of a sea urchin before finally bursting.
Bang!
Though not made of matter, the divine power that burst out, tearing through the air, emitted light in all directions like a flash grenade and completely crushed the mosquitoes approaching it.
Crack!
Pop!
The curtain rushing towards the dog burst.
Crunch!
Like animals hit by spears, the mosquitoes that collided with the tips of the spines made of divine power fell helplessly to the ground, and those hit by the continuously bursting shockwaves were shattered to pieces, losing even their form.
Thus, the mosquitoes, now corpses, piled up on the ground like snow, having lost even the strength to flap their wings.
It was like a scene of black contaminated snowflakes falling from the sky and polluting the ground.
Especially since the rotten blood within the mosquitoes began to emit a foul odor as it settled on the ground, it was a sight that could be believed to be a mosquito-shaped disaster rather than actual mosquitoes.
[ Grrrrrr! ]
But no matter how black the mosquitoes dyed the ground, could it be blacker than the sky?
Buzzzz!
As if they were being copied, the mosquitoes continued to approach the dog, dyeing the entire shrine black and surging like waves.
The mosquitoes approaching the brightly shining dog were like darkness trying to stain the light, like waves made by gathering only the most disgusting and horrible parts of darkness. The mosquitoes, carrying rotten blood inside their bodies, kept surging and rushing towards the dog like moths drawn to a burning flame.
Baaaang!
The dog continued to emit divine power and kill the mosquitoes.
[ Groooowl! ]
The dog spewed light from its mouth, and used its front paws like whips to lash in all directions. It grew wings on its back to push the mosquitoes far away, and turned its tail into a huge iron mace to crush the mosquitoes.
Buzzzzz!
The mosquitoes rushed in.
Crunch!
The mosquitoes died.
The mosquitoes only rushed towards the dog without inflicting any significant damage. The divine power emitted by the dog was something that such insignificant creatures could never resist against, so as soon as they touched the divine power, the mosquitoes could only end their short lives with contaminated blood in them.
Moreover, even if they broke through the dog's attacks and touched its body, they only met the same end as moths drawn to a flame. The mosquitoes couldn't suck on the dog's body made of divine power, nor could they withstand the divine power composing the dog's body. They sparked like being fried by electricity and dropped their corpses to the floor, or burned up instantly like insects rushing into flames and lay their shrunken bodies on the ground.
From the start, no matter how many mosquitoes there were, there was no way for them to inflict damage on the dog whose body was composed of divine power rather than flesh and blood. So while the waves made of mosquitoes were disgusting to look at, they didn’t seem to have any effect.
However, the reason why the dog was desperately wielding its divine power and killing the mosquitoes was probably due to the instinct that animals possessed.
[ Woof! Woof! ]
Instinct.
The instinct that the dog was born with and had honed and strengthened over hundreds of years, on the verge of stepping into the realm of foresight, was warning that if those mosquito swarms were left alone, something terrible would happen.
But no matter how many times it killed and killed, the number of mosquitoes didn’t show signs of diminishing. This was not because the dog's power was lacking, but because there were too many mosquitoes. Just as the water level in a pond didn't decrease easily even if you diligently scooped out water with a bucket, no matter how many the dog killed, there was no end to the mosquitoes covering the shrine.
"Just as fallen hair doesn't forget its roots, and cut nails remember their owner's flesh, so too should the blood they've sucked."
And finally, the time came.
Ding!
Ding!
Unfortunately, Mukurikokuri no Inugami couldn't prevent the terrible thing its instinct had been warning about.
Jinseong used space contraction to climb onto the roof of the main hall and struck the small bell hard with his fist.
Then the small bell released a huge vibration that stimulated spirit and flesh like a (large) bell, and the mosquitoes that were hit by the vibration shivered and changed their movement.
The mosquitoes flying in the sky began to clump together.
With a roaring sound, the mosquitoes that had been busy rushing in like moths to a flame moved in unison as if receiving orders from a commanding individual and tightly compressed together, and eventually, as the darkness covering the shrine disappeared and sunlight fell, they clumped and clumped again, forming the shape of an animal.
Grrrr---rrrrrk---kyaaaa.
What was created by the mosquitoes together was an incomparably strange creature.
This animal, which looked as if it had been formed by clumping black powder together, had a truly bizarre appearance.
Standing on two legs like a bear, it had legs in the form of reverse joints reminiscent of a goat, but these legs were unnecessarily long, making them look more like pillars than legs. Moreover, the thighs were so muscular they reminded one of a horse, but in contrast with the extremely thin calves that brought insects to mind, it only looked grotesque.
The body was plump, reminiscent of a water balloon, but instead of fur, it was emitting a black luster as if covered in insect shells.
And where arms should have been, long tentacles reminiscent of whips were drooping to the ground, oozing disgusting body fluids, and their length seemed to be easily 3-4 meters even at a glance. At the ends of these whips hung large, sharp claws reminiscent of a cassowary's talons, like hooks.
But the strangest part was the head.
The head of this strange lifeform had a shape that seemed a mix of insects, wild boars, deer, goats, and birds. This appearance, which seemed to completely disregard the function of a head in the first place, was so disgusting that one could vomit just by looking at it. It looked as if a child had kneaded a bunch of animals like clay and just slapped them together.
The strange lifeform born from mosquitoes spoke, spewing rotten blood that emitted a foul odor from a mouth on its crown.
Kaa-ak.
It was a tiny sound.
Baaaang!
With that sound, the strange lifeform rushed towards the dog.
Its springy legs, reminiscent of actual springs, reached in front of the dog as if folding space, and it kept slashing the air, wielding its writhing whips.
[ Grrrr! ]
Bang!
Boom!
The dog kept dodging the whips flying at a speed barely visible to the eye and exploded its divine power. Just as it had done to the mosquitoes earlier, it intended to push back the strange lifeform with shockwaves.
However, the shockwaves that had so easily killed the mosquitoes were blocked by the stomach that the strange life form thrust out like a shield and shattered, and the spines created with divine power were only bent by the chitin covering its body.
"Just as divine power contains the power of breaking evil and exorcism to purify impurities, impurities also corrupt and contaminate divine power. It won't be easy."
Jinseong muttered this as he levitated the mosquito bodies strewn on the ground.
"Like begets like, and like follows like."
With his incantation, the levitated mosquito bodies gathered in one place to form a sphere.
"As malaria grows to form a shape, it truly resembles that which has no form. Both are formed as one and contain a nucleus, so how could they not resemble each other?"
The sphere melted into a black liquid. The black liquid kept undulating as if alive, gradually changing color and becoming clearer, increasingly resembling slime.
The mosquito bodies came out, and the mosquito wings also poured onto the floor.
Only the mosquito stingers moved towards the nucleus.
Thus, the sphere became a slime with needles throughout its clear body and a nucleus made of black liquid.
Slurp.
The slime made from mosquitoes settled down to the ground like melted jelly pouring out and began to mercilessly devour the mosquito corpses on the floor. Like hydrochloric acid melting the ground, no trace remained where the slime passed, and the more mosquito corpses it ate, the larger the slime's body grew.
Slurp.
[ Grrrr! ]
The dog recognized the existence of the slime while fighting the strange lifeform. As before, the dog's instinct was screaming that the slime was as dangerous as the strange lifeform in front of it, but the strange lifeform clung to the dog, shaking its tentacles and spraying disgusting liquid from its mouth as if to prevent it from approaching the slime.
[ Grrrr! ]
Meeeeee------
The danger approaching.
The threat in front of its eyes.
What should it do?
What call should it make?
The dog thought and thought incessantly.
But no matter how much it thought, what could it do?
Mukurikokuri no Inugami was merely a beast that hadn't gained spiritual nature, so since it could only entrust itself to instinct–
[ Woof! ]
The dog chose to face the threat in front of its eyes rather than the future crisis.