Chapter 128
Chapter 128
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 12
Chapter Title: Confrontation
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What could he be thinking?
Is that horrific gem Rophuk is creating truly for us? Or is it to fill his own deficiencies using life force extracted from other creatures?
No matter how much I rack my brain, I can't help but twist Rophuk's intentions in the worst possible way. The photo of him with his younger sibling that he showed me last time flashes through my mind.
Maybe he's ground up countless others just to save his own brother.
The males who came to this place,
and all the monsters living in the desert,
compressed entirely into that gem.
It emits an unbearable amount of energy, and I can't shake the thought that this unknown power might even be enough to bring the dead back to life.
What wouldn't be possible?
The gem, formed over eons too vast to even imagine, harbors an immense presence that no human or creature could withstand.
A bizarre energy that seems capable of twisting even the laws of the universe and nature...
Squish-
The thorns and tubes connected to Jenny and the succubus make an eerie sound as they suck up blood and nutrients.
I can't just stand by and watch these two women suffer any longer, so I start pulling out the thorns embedded in Jenny's body first.
Even extracting them all is grueling work. There are so many that no matter how many I pull, it feels endless.
What's more, the thorn tips have burrowed into her flesh and blood vessels like tree roots, forming a single structure. Every time I remove one, Jenny whimpers and her body trembles violently.
If this were the Jenny I knew, she'd shrug off these impurities in an instant and get right back up like nothing happened. But these strange thorns are devouring even her regenerative powers, thrashing desperately to create that gem.
Crack-
"Kyaaak...!"
Jenny thrashes about. Her weakened body convulses as if overcome by the pain.
But my hands remain eerily steady. Nothing is certain, and ominous delusions and fear swirl through my entire body...
"Daddy, it hurts..."
Hearing Jenny whimper like that for the first time douses my mind in ice water. A forced calm and rising fury spur my soul onward.
"...Just hold on a little longer. Okay?"
There are still so many thorns left to pull out.
And once I've treated Jenny, I'll have to rush to the succubus and remove hers next.
She's essentially unconscious at this point. Her upper abdomen has been sliced open, and without a heart, the remaining parts of her body are slowly dying.
That's exactly why I'm treating Jenny first. Right now, I have no way to replace the succubus's missing heart.
At best, I could keep her going for a few more dozen minutes. After that, it'll all depend on her own life force.
Otherwise,
I'll have to take back the heart that Rophuk is holding.
It takes another five minutes before I finally pull out every last needle from Jenny's body. But even that isn't enough for her to regain her strength on her own.
"Jenny, open your mouth."
Still, she's definitely alive.
For Jenny, who hasn't had proper rest since that brutal fight with the sandworm, I squeeze thick honey from my fingertip and feed it to her directly.
Producing this fluid means yielding a huge portion of my body's stored nutrients, and on top of that, an intense wave of fatigue crashes over me.
But if it means saving Jenny, I'll gladly give it.
The dangerously monstrous creature cradled in my arms suckles it down like a baby nursing milk.
"Just wait a little longer. Okay?"
"Kyaaa..."
Now it's the succubus's turn.
Her gruesome state leaves me wondering where even to begin,
but we don't have much time. Somehow, we've got to wrap this up fast.
I carefully extract Rophuk's thorns one by one from the succubus's nerves, tendons, and blood vessels.
She's still showing no signs of regaining consciousness, but as the thorns covering her pale skin are removed, the beams of light from the gem start to fade.
However, this observation reveals one clear truth and one mystery,
The truth is,
that when Rophuk first saw me, he didn't kill me right away—thanks to Jenny and the succubus being thrown into mortal peril and exploited here, he had no need to extract anything from me...
And the mystery is,
given the gem's agonizingly slow crystallization speed and the number of corpses I've observed so far, the massive quantity of gems in the storage room just doesn't add up.
"..."
Cold sweat trickles down.
And then,
the puzzle pieces that didn't fit start clicking into place, one by one.
"Elder!"
Nephyr's voice calls from far away.
She must have been searching the basement for Jenny and the succubus, but now that she sees me with the two women...
So then,
what exactly did Nephyr see way over there?
"Elder, y-you're here. Over on that side... Hup..."
Cold sweat beads on her forehead too. Nephyr, who rarely sweats thanks to her unique metabolism and stays perpetually calm and composed...
"Y-you have to see it for yourself..."
She's utterly terrified, at a complete loss for what to do.
After removing all the needles from Jenny and the succubus and finishing our brief emergency treatment,
Nephyr and I each hoist one of them onto our backs and hurry to the basement area on the opposite side.
Jenny is on my back,
and though she once had a decently developed figure, she's lost so much blood and muscle that she feels terribly light now.
It hurts my heart. Since I think of her like a daughter, this situation fills me with an especially bitter emotion.
Well, strictly speaking, she's not my daughter. She's an alien monster born from devouring my closest comrade, Dan.
Still, that's not Jenny's fault. Even if her species' instincts are inherently cruel, I can never forget the sight of that tiny, fragile creature wandering in search of parents just to survive.
Different species,
or differences between carnivores and herbivores,
or instincts and traits that include significant cruelty—
none of that means we can label it as bad or evil. In the first place, good and evil become extremely ambiguous standards in an environment this harsh just to survive in.
From here on, I have to divide allies from enemies based on whether they benefit me or block my path. Jenny and the succubus are definitely my allies, so I have to save them somehow.
But my view and thoughts toward Rophuk are slowly shifting to see him as a hostile entity.
All the big and small clues are guiding me to perceive Rophuk as a dangerous being. Now, confrontation with him is inevitable.
"Here?"
"Yes..."
Nephyr and I finally cross the basement to reach a new sector. There's a space there with even larger doors and a vastly more expansive room than anywhere else—
"E-Elder! It might be dangerous."
"What's going on?"
Nephyr grabs my wrist to block my entry. She's genuinely worried about me.
"...The Guide is inside."
"The Guide?"
That word definitely referred to the finger, right?
If so, there's even less reason not to enter the room. This brings me closer to the truth of the planet. Plus, I can confront whatever Rophuk was hiding head-on.
"Then we should go in."
"Y-your eyes!"
Even so, the reason Nephyr urges me more fervently is
probably due to the thick stench of decay overflowing helplessly from the open door and the maddening sense of presence.
I know that much.
I have no idea what the finger actually is,
but it's clearly the key to the bizarre relationship tying together this planet, moon, and sun.
At the very least, the finger has been in contact with me from way back and has helped me out, so there's no reason it would harm me.
"...Keep your eyes downward, Elder. You mustn't stare at it too long. Never lift your head. If you absolutely have to look, use only those black eyes. Understood?"
Even so, I can't ignore Nephyr's warning.
"It loves you and me, Elder, but our small bodies can't handle that excessive love and attention..."
It feels similar to the moon.
Last time I faced it, just a few dozen seconds of eye contact left me wracked with horrific nausea and headaches.
The finger probably gives off a similar impression. That must be why it approached me mimicking a strange finger gesture.
Inside the room, faint lights line up in rows. They all illuminate the bizarre patterns etched into the floor and the thick thorns...
Without even lifting my head fully,
I can see something impaled and fixed in place on those thorns.
A withered, twisted body,
yet tentacles of enormous, bulky size,
writhing maggots,
an appearance that can only be described as decay.
That's my name being called. I barely manage to raise my head, opening only my blackened eyes to stare at it.
Normally, things born on this planet show pale flows of energy,
but from the creature called the Guide rises something dark and murky...
yet warm and hazy.
But before we can even exchange words,
urgent, heavy footsteps echo from far away.
Thud- Thump-
Rophuk is coming here.
It seems it's finally time for the three of us to talk.
"Joo-ho!"
Voices call from both front and back at once.
"Hoo, this is truly disappointing. I explained everything, and yet."
Rophuk drags his creaking body into the room. Nephyr, Jenny, and the succubus are already nowhere in his sights.
"This is for all of us—for you too! Haah, fine. No helping it, I suppose. You've kept it secret all this time."
Rophuk's expressionless face,
and the Guide's rotting eyes.
"Joo-ho, calm down and let's talk. I can get you out of here. I'll make sure you escape this planet!"
I stand between the two, gripping my wire cutter and dagger, tormented by one final dilemma.