Chapter 19
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 19
Chapter Title: Fury of the Empress
-----------------------------------------------------------------
A hulking man, Guardian, approached Jang Manager, who stood frozen in place.
"What the hell? It's just a kid? Hey, isn't this bad intel?"
He set down his shield with a click of his tongue.
Then he strode up to the girl and lightly tapped her on the head.
"Hey, little girl. Where's the big sis who lived here? Speak up, or you're in trouble."
At that moment.
The girl's head turned slowly.
[...Minwoo...?]
An eerie voice echoed out.
A bizarre resonance that seemed to scrape directly at the brain, bypassing the eardrums.
The gang members standing behind clutched their heads with groans of "Ugh!"
Jang Manager instinctively staggered back.
The instincts he'd honed through years of playing detective were screaming bloody murder.
Run. That's not human!
[Was it Minwoo who reported me...? To those bureau bastards? Did you... betray me??]
Even without any light, the girl's golden eyes gleamed in the darkness.
The moment their gazes met, Guardian's expression hardened.
Having faced dozens, hundreds of monsters in his lifetime, he was certain. The girl before them was beyond anything they could handle.
"Th-this... is dangerous..."
Guardian tried to back away. But his feet wouldn't budge.
The floor had turned into a swamp-like mire, dragging him down.
"Wh-what the hell is this! Hey!! Help me!!!"
"G-get out of the way!"
Striker charged in, swinging his dagger.
But the girl didn't move. She merely tilted her head in an unnatural twitch.
Thud—!
With a bursting sound, Striker's upper body vanished.
No blood sprayed.
A massive maw had erupted from behind the girl, swallowing him whole—space and all.
"Ah... Aah..."
Jang Manager's legs gave out, and he collapsed to the floor.
What was happening before his eyes couldn't be real.
A B-rank hunter—no, a veteran Striker—gone in one second?
"Gaaah! What the fuck! The hunter's dead!"
"Shoot! Fire!"
The gang members behind fell into panic, firing their pistols wildly.
Bang! Bang bang!
The bullets lodged into the tiny girl's body. But no blood came out.
The punctured flesh writhed, spat out the bullets, and sealed itself shut.
[Humans are so treacherous... Running when it's disadvantageous, betraying at the drop of a hat.]
Apophis rose from her spot.
Her small frame began to swell grotesquely.
Crack, crunch.
The sounds of bones shifting and flesh tearing rang out.
Rage.
Utter rage had paralyzed even her exquisite camouflage ability.
Her face mashed together, her mouth split wide, new eyes bulged forth.
A writhing mass of worm-like tentacles burst from her back.
[I'll devour them all... and confirm for myself.]
Blood streamed from her newly sprouted eyes, like tears wetting her cheeks.
"Gaaaaah!"
"Run! Hurry!!"
"M-move! Don't block the way, get out!!"
The dozen or so gang members tangled with each other, scrambling for the entrance.
But the doorway they'd come through was no more.
Squelch— squelch—
Black tentacles undulated grotesquely, sealing the exit tight.
Golden eyes like those of the girl glared at them from within the tentacles.
"Wh-what is this!?"
"W-wait, something grabbed my leg!"
"Gaaah!"
One by one, the gang members began vanishing into the pitch-black darkness.
"S-save me!!"
"No! I don't wanna die!"
"M-Mommy!"
As the thugs wailed, the cramped semi-basement filled with the slithering of something enormous and a chilling wail.
...
...
A moment later.
Crunch. Slurp, smack. Gnaw.
The narrow semi-basement had become a giant maw.
Guardian had been chomped shield and all, while the gang members dangled in the air like skewers, pierced by tentacles.
Deflating groans, snapping bones, and sticky devouring sounds mingled together.
And Jang Manager?
He'd barely survived by hiding.
The instant things went south, instinct drove him to cram himself into a corner crevice by the shoe rack. He held his breath, squeezed his eyes shut.
Erasing his presence. That was his only way to live.
[...Minwoo...]
After the feast ended, a brief silence fell.
Jang Manager, trembling in his hiding spot, heard it.
The monster's voice, having chewed through the hunters' brains and read their memories.
Thanks to devouring Guardian's head, one memory played before Apophis's eyes.
Minwoo walking happily with a cake.
The hunters' ambush.
The stun gun.
Minwoo's final glimpse, still fixed on the cake as he was loaded into the van.
A suffocating silence stretched through the blood-soaked room, where Apophis stood alone.
And then.
"Puh... Puhh...!"
Her shoulders shook.
It was laughter.
Her mouth split ear-to-ear as a mad cackle exploded forth.
"Puhahaha! Ehehehehehe!"
Apophis clutched her belly, doubled over in hysterics.
Relief.
A dizzying wave of relief washed over her entire body.
"As expected... I knew it wasn't true. My Minwoo, my groom... he'd never do that!"
She cradled her bloodied face in her hands.
Tears even welled up slightly.
Ecstasy dominated her being.
"He didn't run. He didn't betray me! He was just taken!"
The ambush was irrelevant.
What mattered was that Minwoo's heart hadn't changed.
That he'd thought of her until the end.
"Ahh, what a cute boy. Such a good boy. My loveliest boy..."
Apophis writhed in rapture.
Her lower parts grew slick.
It felt like a nonexistent cock hardening.
No—actually, the tentacles on her back were stiffening.
"Sorry for doubting you. I'll come save you. I'll hold you right now."
But the next instant.
Snip.
The laughter cut off like a blade slicing through.
The ecstatic expression twisted into a demonic snarl in a heartbeat.
Her body quivered with rage, unable to hold its shape.
[But...]
Her gaze turned toward the darkness beyond the shredded front door.
[You dare... touch what's mine?]
Rooooar—!
An indescribable killing intent erupted from her tiny body.
The empress's wrath at having her possession—her groom—stolen.
[Filthy worms! Pathetic frauds!! I'll hunt you down and rip you apart!!!]
The air in the room vibrated.
The shapeless monster, Apophis, shattered the semi-basement entrance as she charged out.
She didn't spare a glance for Jang Manager cowering in the corner. A crawling cockroach like him wasn't worth noticing.
...
...
Long after she vanished.
Jang Manager finally opened his eyes.
The room was... spotless.
Over ten people had been there, but with the black something gone, not a drop of blood remained. All traces had vanished.
"Hah... Hah..."
Only then did Jang Manager exhale the breath he'd held.
His pants were soaked.
With trembling hands, he adjusted his glasses.
"W-we're fucked..."
The Viper Gang... no, everyone involved in this was done for.
Anyone with a brain could see it—unless they were complete idiots.
They'd touched something they absolutely shouldn't have.
—
"Hngh...! S-sob!"
In the VIP viewing room overlooking the arena.
My body thrashed like a fish on the cold operating table.
A stinging pain shot from the electrode pads between my legs, followed by forced pleasure racing up my spine.
"Oh my, honey. Cumming already? No patience at all."
The red bob-haired woman, Viper, cackled as she twisted the machine's dial.
"Gaaah!"
Forced ejaculation.
Against my will, white fluid gushed through the transparent tube connected to my dick.
Humiliating. I was losing my mind.
Stripped naked, surrounded by two men and a woman, putting on this show.
"Ooh... Look at that volume. It was backed up good."
Viper shook the beaker containing my semen... or what they believed was the 'drug.'
"Team Leader, check this out. The smell's different too? Not like night-blooming flowers—sweeter, richer..."
"Let me see."
Team Leader took the beaker and sniffed it.
The sight was ridiculous. Seriously analyzing what came from my crotch.
"Not sure about sweet, but definitely... thick concentration. Kwak Executive, take a look."
Kwak Executive approached from the sofa, cigar in mouth.
He held the beaker to the light and scowled.
"This the drug? Looks like plain cum."
"Mimic fluids are hard to distinguish in raw form. We'd need analysis, but this amount..."
"No, the color's off. Lizard stuff was purple, right? This is white."
Kwak Executive grumbled.
"Hey, is this really the drug? Or did this bastard just get excited and blow his load?"
"W-well... it might not be fully refined yet..."
Team Leader stammered, at a loss for words.
Even in my dazed state, I nearly burst out laughing.
Of course it is, you lunatics! I'm human. What you milked is just my jizz. You perverts!!
"Tch, boring."
Viper smacked her lips and tossed aside the stun device.
"Guess this level of stimulus won't cut it. Mimics release toxins as a defense in crises, right?"
Her eyes turned feral once more.
"Then... we give it a real crisis."
Clank.
She picked up something from the metal tray.
Surgical shears. No—a cutter for slicing through things.
She clacked the sharp blades together as she approached my groin.
"This has been bugging me anyway. Perfect timing."
"Wh-what are you...?"
"My tastes run a bit niche. Balls are fine, but... cut ones are even better. And mimics have tough vitality, yeah? Losing one shouldn't matter."
Her finger flicked the tip of my cock.
"Eek!? N-no! Don't! Spare me!!!"
I thrashed in terror.
But the restraints held firm, and the men watched this insane spectacle with interest instead of stopping it! Fellow guys!!
"Do it. Real stuff might come out with the blood and tears."
"Never thought I'd watch some homo get his dick chopped. Business is tough."
Kwak Executive lit his cigar and gave the okay.
Viper brought her face close to my groin, spreading the cutter's blades.
The cold metal touched the base of my shaft.
"Don't worry. Pain's just a moment. And it'll be good for you. Cut this off, hormones flip, tits grow, you'll get even prettier. Bet you'd lactate too. Become a cute little cow."
Reason was gone from her eyes.
Just a psycho bitch who got off on mutilating men's junk. Greed to remodel me to her liking burned there.
"Now... relax. I'll make you pretty."
Scrape.
The cutter's edge met skin.
'No... I don't want this...'
Tears streamed down my clenched-shut eyes.
The place Lady Apophis loved.
My last shred of manhood.
Lose this... and I can't please Lady Apophis anymore!
'Help... someone...!'
Utter terror burned my brain white.
My heart pounded like it would burst.
That instant.
Thump—!
A burning heat flared at the base of my tailbone, behind my ass.
Squirmy, limp until now, twitched in response to my scream.
"Grrrumble..."
Memories flashed.
Earlier today, at the waste dump. What Squirmy had sucked up.
The hard, sharp foreleg of that insect monster.
That data, that structure, flowed from my spine into Squirmy.
Crickle-crack—
A bizarre, chilling sound.
The black, soft tentacle dangling between my legs hardened in an instant.
Like crustacean shell. No—like a honed blade.
"Huh? What's this?"
Viper noticed and leaned down.
Her face neared my crotch, inspecting Squirmy.
"Why's it suddenly har—"
It wasn't my will. Survival instinct bypassed my brain.
Slash—
A short, crisp sound.
Like slicing a ripe watermelon.
"Uh...?"
Viper's words cut off.
She blinked blankly.
Her vision slowly shifted, top and bottom misaligning.
Plop.
A red line traced vertically from her forehead, over nose, lips, to chin.
And the next moment.
Splurt—!
Her face split perfectly in half.
A fountain of blood sprayed to the ceiling.
"Wh...?"
"V-Viper!"
Kwak Executive and Team Leader's eyes bulged.
Thud.
Viper's bisected corpse collapsed onto me.
The cutter she'd held clattered to the floor.
"Hah... Hah..."
Drenched in blood, I gasped for air.
Between my legs, Squirmy—now a savage scythe—swayed menacingly.
Drips of Viper's blood and brains fell from the blade's tip.
"This... crazy..."
Team Leader drew his greatsword and backed away.
Kwak Executive yelled.
"It's a combat type!? Fuck, bad intel!"
I lifted my blood-smeared face and glared at them.
Fear?
Sure. But boiling killing intent filled me now, vaporizing any terror.
"Don't... touch me..."
A beastly growl leaked from my lips.
Squirmy shrieked Kieeeek—! and aimed its blade at them.
"Don't touch my body!!"