Chapter 184: By the Hand of the Insect 2
A miracle might resemble magic or sorcery, but its foundation is of a wholly different dimension.
A miracle, by definition, is something that cannot happen naturally; it brings the impossible into reality with an absurd fuel efficiency unimaginable through magic or aura alone.
Holy Power, which is rooted in vitality, is considered a force of a higher dimension than mana or aura. Every living being has a slight amount of Holy Power, but very few can truly wield it.
This is why, though research into magic, sorcery, and aura is active, miracles remain a mysterious realm. It’s widely said among the Awakened that only those chosen by the gods can convert life force into Holy Power to manifest miracles.
This was the absolute and unchanging system of miracles.
“Ugh… What… happened…!”
Jeongbaek couldn’t understand what had just happened.
It was just one moment.
Centered around the girl with a centipede-like appearance, a dark wave seemed to spread, and before he knew it, every member of the mountain guild in the vicinity, including himself, had fallen without even being able to scream.
He felt like his very insides had burst open from the sheer agony of a critical blow, yet he had survived only because he, as one of the higher-ranking members, had instinctively shielded his entire body with aura before the black wave could engulf him.
If it had been a visible attack, Jeongbaek could have avoided or blocked it with his sword.
However, Yane's invisible assault wasn’t an ordinary mana or aura-based technique; it was a miracle, unpredictable in its trajectory and activation time. This one miracle had felled numerous members.
“Ku…gurk…”
“Ug…urgh… ack…”
“Cough… gu… ack…”
Jeongbaek steadied his aura as he watched his comrades bleed and perish miserably, their insides spilling from every opening.
“Y-you’re… not dead…?”
Yane, seemingly surprised to see Jeongbaek standing, met his eyes with an intrigued expression.
The miracle had targeted all enemies in the area, more precisely those threatening her beloved Yoon-jung. For Jeongbaek to survive this was unexpected, even to Yane.
But that was all it was.
Yane, always smiling brightly and innocently, stood up with no hesitation, even more ruthlessly prepared to finish off Jeongbaek and the other fallen members of the mountain guild.
“Yoon-jung, Mamaaa.”
“Yane…”
Yoon-jung was no fool.
It wasn’t the first time the mountain guild had tried to harm or kidnap her, so she wasn’t about to lecture Yane about human morals for killing them.
Of course, she was surprised to see Yane, who had always shown her such innocent affection, kill humans without hesitation, but it didn’t go much beyond that.
Yoon-jung was a Returnee, and although she was low-level, she had also lived as a Hunter.
Monsters weren’t the only foes Hunters faced; often, even other humans or Hunters became enemies.
While society in 2088 seemed peaceful and stable, Yoon-jung had lived the dirty life of a low-ranking Hunter since childhood, experiencing death and witnessing such sights multiple times before.
“It’s dangerous… kiiii…”
“Yeah…”
Thus, Yoon-jung quickly assessed the situation, trusting Yane and stepping back.
Once she was sure Yoon-jung had retreated far enough, Yane, swaying her tail, focused on Jeongbaek, who held his sword ready.
“I intentionally waited for Hunter Shia and the members of the Yeon clan to be away from the Compatible One, but it seems I didn’t account for someone like you.”
“Kiik?”
“Fine. The information here is already being relayed to the Leader in real time.”
In reality, Jeongbaek had all but abandoned his life.
Believing that even if he perished, his guild’s master, Cheon Dana, could replicate him to serve the Leader, he was determined to extract as much information as possible from this centipede-like girl, giving everything to benefit the future of his guild.
“Running isn’t an option with my insides shredded. So, I’ll brace for death here.”
“…Kiie…”
“Come. I’ll drag out every bit of information from you, so it may aid the Leader. I don’t mind if my life is worthless; as long as it helps the Leader, that’s enough.”
Jeongbaek, raising his sword resolutely and emitting a sharp aura, sincerely prepared to die.
Aura reflects the user's mindset, soul, and resolve. Despite the critical injuries to his organs, Jeongbaek’s aura shone more brilliantly and sharply than ever.
Of course, whether Jeongbaek took this stance or not mattered little to Yane.
“Kihi, kihihihi…”
Yane, mentally young, acted and thought in a simple manner.
You all started it first.
You dared to touch my Yoon-jung Mama.
You must never mess with my precious Yoon-jung Mama.
She’s my master’s mother, but she’s also my mother.
Do you want a noble death?
Did you wish to die cleanly?
Were you hoping to accomplish something and pass on peacefully?
No, no… you…
Master.
Master.
Saintess of the Dead.
My master.
This one wishes for a grand finale.
But I don’t like that.
I hate it. I hate it. I hate it.
If you touched my Yoon-jung Mama, there’s no way you can die peacefully.
So…
Master.
I’ll borrow your memories.
[Heavenly Dragon Miracle]
I swear, Master…
This wretch…
I’ll give him a filthy, disgraceful end.
[Karniktis Sordicus] (Defiled Flesh Eater)!
Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!
A horrifying sound of bones shattering began emanating from Yane’s tail, shaped like a blade-tipped centipede.
The orderly segments vanished, and the once-glistening exoskeleton took on a repulsive, gelatinous appearance. Her singular tail gradually tore itself into multiple branches.
In a different sense, it resembled her master, the Saintess of the Dead.
It was said that servants resemble their masters. Her tail transformed into tentacle-like shapes, though with a key difference.
Shia’s tendrils were soft, with a gentle pinkish hue, resembling the tails of a nine-tailed fox. But Yane’s tail, at a mere glance, was insectoid, arthropod-like, or even parasitic in its hideousness.
The main difference from a typical leech was the numerous centipede legs attached along its entire body and the hundreds of teeth protruding beneath the flesh-like surface.
“…This is…”
The grotesque mass of flesh squirmed and writhed, instantly leaking humid, lukewarm fluids that transformed the dry, cold alleyway into something that felt like the atmosphere of a muddy swamp.
Even Jeongbaek, despite himself, took a step back at the revolting sight.
“What… kind of horror is this…!”
One of the leeches split from Yane’s tail and fell with a squelch to the ground.
From one, came another.
And another.
Two turned to four.
Four turned to eight.
Eight to sixteen… then thirty-two. Sixty-four…
The leeches twisted and writhed, and as they split themselves further, the once desolate alleyway filled with these repulsive creatures, transforming into a scene straight out of a horror film.
“Kii, hihi… hihihihi…”
As Yane laughed, countless leeches oozed sticky, warm fluid and rose.
The centipede legs attached spirally around their bodies were horrific, and as they undulated back and forth, nauseatingly large teeth became visible inside their outer skin.
They were unnatural, obscene, and moved with grotesque, repulsive motions, resembling huge, pulsating stomachs.
Having received her master’s command, she, as a servant, would carry it out…
Yane lifted a finger toward Jeongbaek.
She mimicked the way Jeongbaek had aimed his aura at her forehead just moments before.
Crrrrch
Creeeak
Sssrkr
Pluck
Chiiirr…
Crack.
Squelch.
Screech.
Having pointed at the target, I shall pray in the name of the Heavenly Dragon.
Let that wretch die a filthy, miserable death…!
Immediately afterward, the alley, now packed with countless leeches, rushed toward Jeongbaek in unison.
Though they were slow, it didn’t matter.
Jeongbaek, whose internal organs and body had been ravaged, could no longer move quickly, and the leeches—swarming the alley in loathsome numbers—oozed sticky fluid as they exposed their teeth in his direction.
“I can’t die such a pointless death…!”
I have to gather as much information as possible.
I must extract as much information as I can about that mysterious centipede girl and report it to the Leader.
Yet Jeongbaek was not about to allow himself to die in vain, devoured by leeches before he could retrieve any meaningful data.
Sparks erupted from Jeongbaek’s sword.
The excessive concentration and compression of aura were so intense that it generated friction, enough to produce sparks in the air.
In an instant, his aura-clad sword cut through the leeches.
As an upper-tier A-rank Awakened, Jeongbaek could sever a Minotaur’s skull with a single strike.
Those flimsy pieces of flesh should certainly have been sliced to bits by the dozens.
“Kihi?”
“…!”
Yes, if they were ordinary leeches.
If they were typical monsters, Jeongbaek could have easily overcome this situation.
“Not a single hit…?”
With the finest aura he’d ever wielded in his life, he’d delivered his strongest sword strike.
Yet, why were these mere hunks of meat—the leeches—completely unfazed?
The concrete floor and walls split cleanly from his sword strike, but the leeches, who should have been sliced in half, continued to crawl toward him undeterred.
Jeongbaek didn’t understand, nor could he know, but these leeches were no mere summons; they were a miracle.
For the sake of a dirty, foul death.
Since Yane wished to impart hideous, disgusting pain, the miracle she conjured manifested in these forms.
Each leech was not simply a living being but a selfish crystallization of a miracle. Cloaked in a violet Holy Power like armor, they absorbed Jeongbaek’s sword strikes as if melting into the Holy Power itself.
Creak, creak, crreeeak!
Squelch, squish!
Crack, creak!
Scriiitch…
The leeches, realizing Jeongbaek’s resistance was useless, continued without hesitation, contracting and expanding their flesh-like bodies as they crawled closer.
“Die, die! Die! Die!!”
As the revolting creatures surged forward, a now-pale Jeongbaek swung his sword again.
But the leeches didn’t stop.
One of them bared the teeth hidden inside its flesh-like surface and sank them into Jeongbaek’s leg.
The aura shielded him like armor, yet the leech’s teeth pierced through effortlessly. Jeongbaek quickly tried to slice the leech clinging to his leg, but, as if rusty scissors struggled against tough fabric, his sword barely affected its body.
“…Urgh…!”
When the sword failed to cut, Jeongbaek repeatedly struck the leech biting his leg with the back of his blade until it finally released him.
The aura-clad sword, which should have sliced it to pieces, was instead being used like a club against a single leech.
But that was just one leech.
By now, leeches writhed behind Jeongbaek. They oozed their filthy, lukewarm liquid from the ceiling above, the walls on either side, pressing him into a trap.
Slowly and sluggishly.
Yet, with the certainty of an encroaching death, Jeongbaek began to think he wouldn’t even meet the death he had intended.
“Kiiiiiieeek~”
Watching this, Yane laughed.
Jeongbaek struggled, igniting his aura in great sparks and explosions, but the slow-moving, writhing mass of flesh-leeches leisurely closed in, and with each advance, the centipede legs embedded in their bodies grazed him, leaving small wounds.
Even minor scratches, when accumulated, turned into injuries.
With more injuries, his movement became more difficult, and as the pain made it hard to focus on his aura, the leeches found even more openings.
Crunch!
“Aaargh!”
Snap!
Creak!
“Let go, let go of me, you wretched bugs…!”
Crack!
Crrk!
Creeeeak…!
“Kihihi, hihihihihi…”
Do you see this, Master?
The man who wished for a noble death.
The man who wanted to die gloriously.
He’s meeting a dirty, foul, wretched, vile end…
“Help, help me, help…! I don’t want to die like this, not like this…!”
But leeches don’t understand words.
Crrrrunch!
Snap!
By now, the alley where Jeongbaek had stood was filled with leeches devouring him like hyenas tearing into a corpse.
Eager to consume even a bit more.
Despite being the renowned Commander of the Mountain Guild and an A-rank Awakened, he was ruthlessly torn apart and devoured, a man once determined to meet a valiant end for the cause.
To Yane, witnessing this filthy, dishonorable death of a man who had wished for a noble end brought an unusual thrill.
“Hihihi, hihihihihi.”
Some time later, as Yane extended her hand, the leeches filling the alley converged on her hand and melted away, as if they had been mere illusions, absorbed into her flesh.
With the countless leeches disappearing, as if the horror had been but a dream, Yane wagged her tail and approached Yoon-jung, who had been watching in silence.
“Ki-ek!”
“…Ugh…”
Yoon-jung’s expression was far from pleased.
To be honest, she was amazed she hadn’t vomited on the spot.
When Yane drew near, Yoon-jung instinctively resisted the urge to step back, keeping herself in check.
Anyone would be disturbed by the sight of a human being torn apart by hundreds of giant leeches.
Yet, as Yane lowered her head, looking up at Yoon-jung, clearly hoping for the usual head pats, Yoon-jung eventually reached out and cautiously placed her hand on Yane’s head.
“Kieeeng~”
“Yes, yes…”
With each stroke of Yoon-jung’s hand, Yane’s antennae twitched in delight.
“…Well done. Well done…”
“Kieeeng~ Kieeeeng~”
To calm herself, Yoon-jung continued stroking Yane’s head for a long while.
And so, on that day,
the Saintess of Vermin, who bestows foul and filthy deaths, was born.