Ch.258258. The Yokai of Yokai

Horror movies and ghost stories.

For horror stories to be effective, the antagonist needs to be overwhelming.

The victim must be helpless, unable to escape no matter how far they run, with no solution in sight.

The subjects of fear in movies and ghost stories need to be like that.

If they can be easily manipulated or defeated by humans, there’s no reason to fear them.

So unlike now.

No matter how menacing they look as they lunge at me, threatening to tear me apart.

I didn’t even feel my heart skip a beat.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

“Come out!”

Scratch! Scratch! Scratch!

“I’ll chew your face off!”

Monsters surround the small protective magic barrier around me. Despite their overwhelming numbers from all directions, the barrier remains unbroken.

Crack!

“Arghhhh!”

Instead, the protective magic shattered the teeth of monsters who applied too much force, causing bizarre screams to rise.

Defense is the best offense.

That’s exactly what this situation brings to mind.

I silently watch as the monsters grow tired of repeatedly charging, colliding, and breaking themselves against the barrier.

[Don’t die.]

Suddenly, I felt like I heard the Dark Spiritmaster’s voice.

This overwhelming protective magic she created for me despite being dead herself. A miracle that prevents death, unsuited for a necromancer.

“……”

Though inappropriate for the situation, I felt a numbness rising within me.

Hot breath escapes quietly as longing weighs heavily on my chest.

‘I shouldn’t be doing this.’

Strictly speaking, I’ve grown somewhat as a person compared to my formerly cold self. But I shouldn’t be buried in the past so often.

There’s no point in holding onto those who have departed.

“……”

As I mentioned earlier at Lanlan Restaurant, I need to be careful about getting lost in memories too frequently lately.

Looking around again, I notice the monsters have already retreated hesitantly.

Some appear injured from colliding with the sturdy protective magic.

The most notable among them was the monster that had been devouring people in the alley, the man-eating ghost.

“Kuh! Huu!”

Wet blood dripped from her mouth as she caught her breath.

Her once massive teeth were now shattered hideously, fragments falling with the flowing blood.

The Dark Spiritmaster’s magic was indeed particularly effective against these types of enemies, just as she had promised.

“Is it over?”

At my casual question, the monsters trembled with rage but seemed to lack the courage to charge again.

Ramming your head against solid stone with full force requires excessive courage, not just for humans but for monsters too.

“I’m… huuungry!”

But there are always exceptional individuals who defy common sense.

The man-eating ghost pounded the blood-stained ground with her fist and charged at me again.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

She extended her long fists recklessly.

Though her posture was utterly sloppy, her strength was so immense that it would have been sufficiently threatening.

Or rather, it would be threatening.

To ordinary people.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

“Kya! Kyaha! Huaa!”

Blood sprayed everywhere along with the excited man-eating ghost’s rough battle cries.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Her frenzied punching might have momentarily boosted the morale of the other monsters.

But her passionate and aggressive will didn’t lead to good results.

“Hee, ee.”

The man-eating ghost looked down at her own limp hands while exhaling.

They were now grotesquely mangled lumps of meat that could no longer be called hands.

Despite groaning in pain, her desire and hunger to eat me remained unfulfilled.

Finally, she charged at me with her mouth wide open.

Slash!

A blade of magical power split her body in half.

Though this was my first time using magic this way, it was one of the methods I’d been practicing as Shinwoo Kim rather than Deus Verdi.

The man-eating ghost, now bisected and sprawled on the ground, began to slowly disappear.

Seeing this, the other monsters seemed to finally grasp the situation clearly and immediately turned to flee out of the alley.

“R-run awayyy!”

“Monster! It’s a damn monster!”

“Goblin, you bitch! What kind of mess is this because of you?!”

Their voices of reproach pierce the night air. As disappointing as it might be for those frantically fleeing.

As I mentioned before.

I’m somewhat lacking in the ability to chase fleeing enemies.

“Huh?”

“I-it’s blocked!”

“Don’t push! You bastards! Stop pushing!”

“Climb up!”

“The top is blocked too! Shit!”

I had no intention of turning this into a chase.

The most excellent aspect of the Dark Spiritmaster’s magic was undoubtedly its durability.

Its power made me deeply understand how desperately she wanted to save me.

Additionally, the Dark Spiritmaster’s familiar magic was easy for me to learn and utilize.

From the beginning, I had already cast two protective spells.

One to protect myself.

And another to surround the entire alley to prevent the monsters from escaping.

The monsters, who had been searching everywhere for an opening, suddenly noticed Soho watching them from the rooftop.

She was crying endlessly, tears rolling down her cheeks, seemingly choked up with hiccups.

“S-Soho! Help us! Help from outside!”

“Everyone’s going to die! Soho! Soho!”

“We helped you the other day, sister! Damn it! Open the door! Help us break this!”

The monsters flocked toward Soho, begging for their lives. But being outside didn’t mean she could break through my magic.

It was a scene reminiscent of a hellscape.

Where everyone begs for their lives in agony, but the suffering continues eternally.

They were shouting at Soho on the rooftop as if she were their savior.

“Don’t close your eyes.”

Whoosh.

Blue flames ignited on the man-eating ghost’s body that was disappearing at my feet.

It was the blue flame so familiar to me.

The necromancer’s fire that burns souls to cause pain or, in severe cases, annihilate them.

“Watch until the end.”

Despite the chaos, my voice reached Soho’s ears, and though she was pouring tears, she couldn’t close her eyes.

She couldn’t even move her hands to wipe away her tears.

She could only watch.

The true nature of the village she had loved and the responsibility they had to bear.

The flames began to spread.

“Kyaa! Kyaaaaa!”

“Save me! No! No! Nooooo!”

“Open! Open this damn thing!”

“Soho, you bitch! Help uuuus!”

“Are you happy being the only survivor?! Happy? Happy? Happy? Happy? Happy?”

“It’s hoooooot!”

The screams and struggles coming from all directions weren’t particularly pleasant to hear.

But even so.

The fire continued to spread.

Quickly and without hesitation.

Eventually, blue flames of judgment engulfed the entire interior of the protective magic surrounding the alley.

And from within the fiercely burning sphere of flames.

I walked out calmly.

Moonlight peeked into the now ordinary alley.

Nothing remained in the gradually subsiding flames that had completed their role.

Going back to the beginning.

I remembered talking about horror movies.

While monsters easily took the position of perpetrators.

Today, the positions were reversed.

I was their nightmare.

Their ghost story.

And their monster.

The village of man-eating ghosts met a bad ending.

The cold wind cooled my heated body while calming the stirred mana.

Since I couldn’t use much mana with my artificial body, it took some time to deal with these monsters.

“……”

As I was shaking off the heat from my body, a girl landed from the rooftop.

She had cried so much that her eyes were swollen, and they were so red they looked bloodshot.

“Am I…”

Soho forced words through her trembling lips.

“Am I not going to be annihilated?”

It was a bold question, but from her perspective, it might have been what she was most curious about.

“Huh.”

Soho, who claimed not to eat souls but to eat food, was a somewhat different kind of being from the monsters I had just annihilated.

Hearing my answer, Soho gritted her teeth and clenched her fists tightly. Sharp fingernails dug into her flesh, drawing blood.

“I knew they were all bad monsters.”

“……”

“I understand they killed and ate humans, so they must bear that responsibility.”

But.

Adding that, Soho glared at me.

“I hate you.”

If I had to compare, she was like the family of a murderer.

She couldn’t easily sever her love for the monsters who had been her lifelong companions and provided her shelter.

Rationally, she knew they deserved punishment, but emotionally, she couldn’t accept it.

“Someday, I’ll kill you.”

Ominous killing intent.

The air around her rippled, pouring out hostility toward me.

“Sure.”

A girl who lost her shelter and village.

Too extreme to be called a perpetrator, too shameless to be called a victim.

“Do as you please.”

I said that and moved on. The village of man-eating ghosts had ended like this, but.

There was still an epilogue remaining.

“Where! Are you going!”

To Soho’s urgent question, I answered calmly.

“The dragon.”

They seemed to have sent monsters to cut off the tail.

Unfortunately, I had no intention of letting it go so easily.

Soho, realizing I was going after the dragon, followed me in surprise.

And so, in a somewhat awkward atmosphere, we headed to the underground waterway of the city where the dragon was sleeping.

“T-this can’t be.”

Soho’s voice echoed through the underground waterway.

“……”

What greeted us was the dragon’s corpse, its head exposed, growing cold.