Ch.175Chapter 175. Spirit World Escape No.1 (5)

Chapter 175. Spirit World Escape No.1 (5)

First, let me explain how we got here. It was when dusk had fallen. We had just left Gapun’s territory.

“Damn it! What the hell are those things?!”

Gukbap ran frantically, wielding his war hammer.

Shhhh-!

Behind him, ladybugs the size of elephants were in pursuit. The sight of them parting the undergrowth with their six rapidly moving legs was terror incarnate.

I tried to do something with my blessing, but it didn’t work.

“R-run!”

“Huaaah~!”

Gukbap wasn’t the only one running. Everyone in our party, including myself, was fleeing from those creatures. Gukbap was just at the very back.

“W-what are those things?”

I asked Nike, who was hopping along at the front of the group. Somehow she seems faster when fleeing.

“They’re spirits called Rabak. They appear after sunset. I didn’t expect them to come this far. It’s my oversight.”

“How dangerous are they?”

“They suck out human souls.”

“What?!”

Aren’t they demons rather than spirits? Lower and mid-level demons are artificial spirits created by higher demons, so maybe they’re similar?

Anyway, that’s not the important thing.

“Wait, isn’t this the spirit world? Do people still kill and get killed in the spirit world?”

Aren’t people in dimensions like this supposed to be immortal? Wasn’t this supposed to be a world where no one gets hurt?

…Though there were carnivorous plants too, now that I think about it. I guess survival of the fittest applies even in the afterlife.

“When morning comes, souls recover naturally, so you don’t need to worry too much. They don’t actually eat souls, they just absorb their energy.”

“Then why are we running?!”

“You might lose some memories during the recovery process.”

“This is driving me crazy, seriously!”

So we ran like hell.

“Huff, huff.”

Even though my body is made of soul, I guess I’m still at the level of an ordinary person because I get tired faster than the other believers. In a way, this is my fault.

It means that the form my soul thinks represents me is this unfit young man with poor stamina.

You idiot! You should have thought of True Malak’s body as your representative form! Or at least thought of it as a totem!

Then I could have carried you while running!

“Get on my back!”

It’s embarrassing, but I have no choice. I’m not a sports team captain, gym rat, or soldier. I climbed onto Nike’s back.

The supreme cosmic dignity god Malak getting tired while running and riding on Lakye’s mother’s back? Oh, this is a secret that absolutely must not be known to Lakye or any other believers.

I’m glad I introduced myself as Malak’s messenger to the believers.

“Where are we going?”

“We need to get back to Gapun’s territory! Those things won’t follow us there!”

Ah, we should have just had our campfire there.

Actually, before we left the territory, Nike had suggested we rest since dangerous spirits appear at night.

I felt like we shouldn’t stay here long, so I decided to keep going, which was a big mistake. I was too complacent, thinking there wouldn’t be any danger in the spiritual world.

“Damn it!”

“I’m getting tired!”

Even the believers with their trained bodies, or rather souls(?), were starting to pant. The ladybug creatures were faster and had more stamina than expected, continuing the pursuit.

“Go ahead! I’ll buy you some time!”

Denzo stood blocking the path with his iron club. They say a man speaks with his back. The cracked back of this middle-aged man was beyond cool.

“I’ll hold them here!”

“Me too!”

“Memories can be recovered anyway, right?”

“Let’s hold them off so the messenger can escape safely!”

Seeing Denzo’s gallant back, one by one, believers stopped to block the creatures.

It was about a quarter of our entire group.

“You beasts! You shall not pass! I, Denzo, will—ugh!”

The ladybug spirits caught Denzo and chewed his body with crunching sounds. No blood splattered. His body just turned to dust and scattered.

“Don’t worry! If you come back here tomorrow morning, you’ll see them again!”

Nike shouted.

“Hmm.”

Something feels strange. It’s a sacrifice, but it lacks weight somehow.

And so I escaped this place, leaving behind Denzo and the believers who became the ladybugs’ meal.

“How about finding Gapun’s believers? They’ll provide us with lodging.”

“Let’s do that.”

After wandering through Gapun’s territory, we were able to reach the place where his believers lived.

There, I met this woman before me, Mera. She’s Charon’s older sister.

“Is something wrong?”

“Ah, no. I just don’t think you look much like Charon.”

I have to use honorifics here. Even as Malak’s messenger, I’m not higher than the leader of Gapun’s believers.

If I revealed that I’m his proxy, I’d get better treatment, but I don’t know what variables might arise. I don’t know what Gapun might do if he learns this from Mera.

“How is Charon doing? Being here, I’ve lost track of how much time has passed on earth. I wish he would come to the spirit world soon. With his abilities, he could surely achieve the feats necessary to enter the spirit world.”

Mera smiled slightly as if reminiscing about memories with her brother.

“Um…”

How should I put this? That bastard is alive and well? As an evil spirit, or perhaps something even beyond that?

They seem close, so I probably shouldn’t say that.

“Well, he’s alive.”

Mera died earlier than Charon, even before he lost his three children. So she probably only has good memories of him.

Let’s just move on. No need to make trouble.

“He was a child who followed Gapun more devotedly than anyone… what is he doing now? He had exceptional spiritual abilities, so he must have succeeded me as priest.”

Not a priest, but a villain trying to create a day of reckoning for the Roas.

“He was a priest, yes.”

I glossed over this too. I briefly told Mera why I came here and what my goals were.

I didn’t mention the demon invasion. The tribes that served Gapun, including the Autumn Leaf tribe, were massacred by civilized people before the demon invasion, so they didn’t seem to know about it.

No, they seemed uninterested in earthly matters to begin with. Perhaps after staying in the spirit world for so long, they stopped caring about the mortal realm?

Anyway, I skipped explaining the demon apocalypse because it was too troublesome.

“It’s nice to talk with someone who’s been on earth recently. It feels fresh.”

Mera wasn’t a nasty bastard like Charon. She felt like an ordinary middle-aged woman who enjoyed small talk.

“Yeah.”

As we chatted, I suddenly became curious.

“What kind of person was Charon? I mean, the Charon that you knew.”

“Charon? Hmm…”

Mera thought for a moment before speaking.

“He was devoted to his family. So much that he handed the priest position to me to take care of his children. In other words, he lacked a certain manliness.”

Charon? That bastard?

“If you snuck up behind him and grabbed his shoulders, he’d jump in fright. He looked like a scared mouse, so I used to tease him by calling him ‘little mouse.'”

“Hmm.”

Little mouse. That’s a familiar term. Isn’t that what Charon always called me?

“Also… he was fragile and sensitive. He acted tough, but never truly became a strong person.”

This is like a million light-years away from the Charon I know.

***

[TrustedMonkeyUncle: Charon you pathetic bastard, caught red-handed? lol]

[GreatWayMan: Ack! You’re too good at inciting people, Marine Charon!]

“Failed, huh.”

Charon, who was monitoring the community through the body of the paladin ‘OneSlice,’ clicked his tongue.

It seemed hopeless to expect the possessed individuals to destroy the totem.

“Um, excuse me.”

The three children Charon had rescued from Bolbano approached him. They seemed to want something.

“What is it?”

The community users said these children were criminals who had been banished.

Even if that were true, Charon couldn’t kill these children.

Three of them. The same number as his dead children. No matter who he was now, it was difficult for him to easily take lives that reminded him of his children.

You could call it what little humanity Charon had left.

“Could you move the people near our house… ah, is that not possible?”

They were referring to the worshipper zombies he had set to guard their homes.

“They are helpers. They won’t harm you.”

“They’re s-scary. Their eyes have no focus… and they just repeat strange things…”

One child who had been hesitating spoke up.

“I’ll move them back a bit. Now go home.”

After sending the children away, Charon alternated his gaze between the cathedral and the evil god. Tomorrow was the day he had decided to destroy the cathedral. It was time to make his decision.

However, it would be difficult in his current state. He needed to deal with the evil god that continued to resist his control first.

He needed to finish it off before he could focus on destroying the cathedral.

“…”

Charon’s soul switched to the red monster’s body. He needed to approach the evil god in this body and fight for control of its soul.

His opponent was Shamishur, possibly the first god on earth. A being on a completely different level from ordinary high-ranking demons.

In the worst-case scenario, he might lose control instead. But if he succeeds, he could gain the power to challenge heaven.

“…Rama, Radan, Ratu.”

Charon’s voice trembled slightly.

Speaking his children’s names for the first time in a long while, he slowly moved toward the evil god. He could feel the dense, sinister energy surrounding the evil god’s body.

“Daddy will…”

Unlike his usual self, his voice sounded somewhat frightened and sad.

“Daddy will finish everything and leave. I promise.”