The Black-Furred Dog Yokai (3)

On my ascent up Namsan, I came across numerous human corpses.

The dead lacked limbs, yet

Bizarrely, all their expressions were frozen in cheerful smiles.

A good death, perhaps a state of hoesang?

No.

This was gewgeuk – an ignominious demise.

Smiling faces did not constitute a good death when mocked by a yokai.

This was an ignoble gewgeuk death.

I had not hesitated, yet failed to save them –

This…

Saving these people was beyond my capabilities.

“…”

No.

That too was mere self-consolation.

Had I used fox sorcery from the hotel to fly towards the scent’s source, I could have saved them.

In the end, my accursed hesitation prevented me from rescuing them once more.

The sight of dead humans was still an unfamiliar experience, and

Though nausea welled up within me,

I nonetheless continued moving towards the source of the scent.

The stench grew thicker.

A garbage stench?

The reek of rotting corpses?

No.

No words could aptly describe this odor –

A foul, malicious stench permeated the air.

Upon finally reaching the source,

There, as expected,

A jet-black canine darker than the blackest pitch

Was devouring a person.

“Heheheh, it tickles!”

That person was

Still alive.

Assessing the situation, I immediately channeled spirit energy to separate the fallen person from the black dog, then healed them.

“Y, you’re a… A yokai!”

Unsurprisingly,

That person too was not of sound mind.

As they hurriedly fled after I saved their life,

I began carefully scrutinizing the black dog before me.

Most striking was the stench, of course –

A malicious reek potent enough to numb the nose.

Its fur was so impossibly dark that without the streetlights, its form might have been imperceptible.

I growled at the black dog:

“Are you the one?”

Grrrrrowl.

“The yokai responsible for leaving those people in such ghastly states?”

The black dog gazed at me intently before opening its mouth in a low voice:

[A spiritual beast, I see.]

“No, a Grim Reaper. I’ll be the one killing you shortly.”

[There was another spiritual beast who spoke those words in the past. The Crimson Snake of the Five Colored Snakes, was it not? So even in this era, some still remain… I had thought you were all dead or ascended.]

“Beating around the bush like that, you must find me rather frightening. Why, is my ability impeding yours, leaving you flustered?”

I did not fully understand, but

In my spiritual beast form, its ability seemed ineffective against me.

At least for now, my cognitive faculties remained intact.

Before striking down the black dog,

There was one thing I needed to confirm:

“Answer me. Are you also a yokai serving the Taejasingi?”

[The Taejasingi…?]

“Don’t play dumb. You too must be aiming for that ‘ascension’, am I wrong? Did the Taejasingi make some ludicrous promise of ascension if you tormented a thousand humans?”

[Ah, the Taejasingi. Ascension. Now that I recall, there was something like that. Truly, nostalgic names indeed.]

“…”

What was its agenda?

It acted as if this matter had nothing to do with itself.

Though clearly lying, for some reason

I gained the conviction it was not actually deceiving me.

…Was my cognition being impaired?

If so, I could no longer leave this black dog be.

[Fox Sorcery]

Fox-fire

My remaining spirit energy was not abundant, so

I would have to resolve this in one blow.

I summoned myriad golden fox-fires and unleashed them upon the black dog.

Though spirit energy was not mere physical force,

If equated to such, each fox-fire rivaled the firepower of a 5.56mm military rifle round.

Babababababang!

An ear-splitting shockwave thundered across Namsan.

With each fox-fire impact, the black dog’s body explosively ruptured.

And there were thousands upon thousands of such fox-fires –

Leaving not a shred of the black dog’s form intact.

After some minutes had passed,

I dissipated the fox-fires,

As the target could no longer be visually confirmed.

Sniff sniff.

The stench lingered.

It was too soon to declare it ‘exterminated’.

[How painful.]

…Damn it.

It was still alive, after all.

The black dog’s scattered flesh fragments converged into one mass,

Kneading itself back into canine form.

Despite withstanding all those fox-fires,

The black dog remained unscathed.

I did not expect it to be easily exterminated, but

I never imagined it could revive completely unharmed like this.

Spirit energy possessed the power to incinerate yogi,

And as a spiritual beast, I held an innate advantage over yokai –

There was no way this black dog, if truly a yokai, could remain intact after my fox-fire barrage.

What was…

The meaning of this…?

[Curious about the meaning of this?]

“…”

[Simple. A spiritual beast like you is the darkness of this world. How could you ever defeat the light that I am?]

“Shut your trap!”

To torment and toy with scores of humans, then call itself the ‘light’?

If that was meant to provoke me, then

I should commend its success.

[My trap? Ah yes, a dog. So even to you, I appear as a black dog.]

“Just die already!”

Unable to comprehend its nonsensical words, I redoubled my spirit energy assault, but

None of my attacks proved effective against the black dog.

[It seems you have yet to awaken the spirit eyes, young spiritual beast.]

“Shut up and just die, please.”

[Do I still appear as a black dog to you?]

[Still?]

[Still?]

[Still?]

[Still, do I]

[Appear as a black dog to you?]

I relentlessly unleashed wave after wave of spirit energy –

Reckless, thoughtless attacks in hindsight.

After being blasted into fragments by my onslaught, it would revive once more

And continue uttering those words:

[Still.]

[Do I.]

[Appear as a black dog to you.]

Vertigo set in.

With each phrase it uttered, tangible power weighed down upon me –

Not mere figurative speech, but

A profound, physically inexplicable force.

The power of speech.

Eonryeong, the Decree of Language…

According to my knowledge, there was only one type of being capable of wielding eonryeong:

Ah.

Surely not…

[Still.]

[Do I.]

[Appear as a black dog to you.]

No.

Not a black dog.

It was never a black dog.

“…A goblin.”

I finally realized why my yogi-incinerating spirit energy proved ineffective –

From the very start,

It was never a yokai,

But a goblin.

My enemy.

No,

The enemy of humans and yokai alike.

What I perceived as its ‘face’ was an infinite spiral.

Clockwise or counterclockwise?

Both directions simultaneously –

A spiral revolving in dual opposition.

Its physique was utter chaos,

Darker than the blackest pitch, darker than the farthest cosmos.

On its left arm glimmered starlight, its right cradling moonlight.

Its form defied comprehension –

Infinitely more tumultuous than even the ‘Formless Shadow’ goblin’s semblance.

Was there any word that could encapsulate this entity’s appearance?

If one term could be apt, it was:

Chaos.

Sheer, unadulterated chaos.

Tremble tremble.

Upon realizing this being’s true nature, my body began quaking –

Not mere fear, but the primal terror of confronting something fundamentally, cosmically alien.

Did it breathe?

Did it perceive through eyes and ears?

Did it sleep, did it even have a heart?

This ‘goblin’ being utterly defied such basic biological norms.

The black dog –

No,

The goblin stroked its wand and spoke:

[Since the half-god Duergsini vanished,]

[Centuries have passed.]

[We have awaited this time.]

[And now, the time has come.]

Swish!

With my spirit energy depleted, I manifested razor-sharp claws to slash at the spiral ‘face’.

Gouges appeared on the spiral, yet

It offered no resistance whatsoever.

I continued raking it with my claws –

Its spiral gradually losing rotational momentum.

Unlike before,

Now that I could perceive its true nature,

My attacks were finally inflicting damage.

Though uncertain why it did not retaliate,

This seemed my sole opportunity to slay it, so I persisted…

“Over here!”

It was then that

Three Martial Artists appeared.

“Whoa, it’s the real deal! Looks like you almost had it too?”

“A black dog and a seven-tailed fox… Which side are we on here?”

“You idiot, didn’t you hear the Minister? The fox is our ally.”

“Hey, fox! We know the situation, so just help us out. We’ll exterminate that black dog right here.”

Ah.

This seemed to be…

Checkmate.

While it was certainly positive that the director had briefed them properly, prompting their welcoming attitude towards me,

The situation was far too dire for me to feel relieved.

No,

Not just dire – catastrophic.

I urgently called out to them:

“Get back!”

“What?”

“Get away, as far as possible! This goblin… I mean, this black dog, it impairs human cognition…”

[Spiritual beasts.]

[Are the enemy of all.]

[The darkness of this world.]

I understood now –

The ‘Black-Furred Dog Yokai’ did not inherently impair human cognition,

But was employing the innate goblin ability of ‘eonryeong’ to disrupt human faculties. cognition could be

Shattered with terrifying ease.

Crack crack.

The sound of shattering ribs echoed out as

The three Martial Artists’ combined strikes struck me directly.