The Mindless Frog Drop
The place was mired in a swamp of bitter division.
Before the calamity struck—no, even after the world had been shattered into pieces—there had been a time when the flock of pure sheep clung to one another with a single heart and mind, offering desperate prayers to Lumen, the God of Light. But that flock was nowhere to be found now.
The white loaves of bread and the coarse, sack-cloth bags filled with thick, white salt that the Outer God had dropped onto their altar were simultaneously their lifeline and the seeds of a disaster that shattered their fragile faith.
The group, based in the castle’s chapel and infirmary, was perfectly split into two factions by an invisible line.
"You fools! Are you still going to curse the bread as heretical filth, ungrateful for the grace that saved your lives?"
This was the 'Conversion Faction,' led by a young nun who insisted they accept the Outer God's contract immediately.
"Shut your mouths, you apostates! We will never sell our souls! The God of Light will surely return once this trial is over!"
This was the 'Martyr Faction,' centered around nuns who grew red in the face, swearing to uphold the faith of Lumen until the very end.
They glared at each other with eyes full of hatred, picking fights at every opportunity.
Yet, amidst that savage confrontation, there was a bizarre comedy at play.
Even the Martyr Faction nuns, who ranted and raved about apostasy, kept a loaf of the white bread and a pouch of salt from the Outer God hidden deep within their robes, never letting them out of their sight.
Even as they foamed at the mouth, calling it the dirty rations of a heretic, they would secretly tear off pieces of bread to stave off starvation and cling to their lives.
In the end, both factions were busy securing and hiding their own stashes of bread and salt.
The greed and division of the adults were passed down to the children as well.
"Give us your bread! Our nun said you’re heretics and you’ll fall into hellfire!"
"No! Our nun said you’re stubborn and you’ll all starve to death!"
Even the once-innocent children were split into factions, growling at each other while eyeing the other side's food. A grim atmosphere weighed heavily inside the old castle walls.
In the midst of this horrific mess, Aria, the Saintess who was the only one capable of controlling the situation, had completely collapsed.
As the highest-ranking leader, she should have seized control of the bread and salt distribution, managing it strictly to prevent the division. But at barely twenty years old, burdened by responsibilities and choices she couldn't possibly handle, and with her mental state shattered after burning the contract, she had no strength left.
Aria lay curled up on her bed, staring blankly at the ceiling with eyes as lifeless as a dead fish.
Knock, knock.
With a cautious knock, the door opened.
"Saintess... it’s me."
One of the young nuns, who had been closest to Aria, entered carrying a small wooden tray. On the tray sat a slice of white bread, some salt, and a crude wooden cup filled with water.
"You must eat something. You haven't been able to keep anything down since yesterday," the nun said pitifully as she set the tray down by the bedside.
Aria turned her head slowly to look at the nun.
"I... I am not worthy. I tried to save the children, but in the end, because of my own shallow convictions, I divided everyone and burned away even the mercy of the Outer God. I don't even deserve to eat this bread."
"Please don't say that! We all understand the noble intent you had in trying to protect our souls!" The nun gripped Aria’s thin hand tightly, offering comfort. "The brothers and sisters fighting outside are just sensitive because they are exhausted from hunger and fear. If you regain your strength and lead us firmly once more, everyone will be able to unite as one again, just like before."
At the nun’s warm words, Aria’s eyes welled up with tears. But before she could respond to the comfort, a desperate and sharp cry rang out from the hallway outside the open door.
"W-what is that! Something is falling from the sky!"
Aria and the nun jumped in surprise and looked at each other. Was this a new miracle from the Outer God, or had the punishment of a wrathful Outer God begun?
Aria stumbled as she forced herself up from the bed. Supported by the nun, she limped through the infirmary hallway.
And then, an unbelievable sight unfolded before their eyes.
Thud. Plop. Splash!
Bizarre objects were pouring down like hail from the sky onto the murky river outside the castle walls and into the muddy fields along the banks.
"What... what on earth is that?" The nun covered her mouth in horror.
What was falling from the sky wasn't bread or water bottles. It was a living creature, contained within a transparent plastic bag along with a bit of water.
It was an amphibian with a terrifyingly bright red belly and bizarre green and black mottled patterns on its back.
Hundreds of these objects, each containing a strange frog, were pouring down from the sky like a rainstorm.
"W-what is this?" Aria muttered with a dazed expression. At that very moment—
Whack!
A transparent plastic bag hit the old roof—which had been barely holding on despite the collapsed rafters—with a dull thud. The impact tore the plastic, spilling the water, and a frog with a bright red belly rolled right to Aria’s feet.
"Eek!" The nun shrieked and scrambled backward.
The fire-bellied toad that landed at her feet didn't seem to care about the impact; it puffed out its throat and let out a strange, chirping cry. It looked back and forth between the frozen Aria and the nun with its bulging, unpleasant pupils, as if scouting them out.
Then, as if it had lost interest in the two, it pressed its sticky feet against the floor and hopped away toward the dark, damp drain in the corner.
"A frog... a frog with a bright red belly falling like rain..."
Aria’s legs gave out, and she sank to the floor. Her pale pupils shook uncontrollably.
The terrible water monsters outside the walls that had isolated them in the middle of the river. That perverted Outer God, the one called the Seven Calamities, must have finally lost his patience and was playing another trick, pouring down a swarm of creepy amphibians like a torrential rain.
Aria was convinced this was a horrific psychological tactic to turn their last refuge into a disgusting frog den, forcing them to kneel and surrender.
However, her conviction was shattered right in front of the strange trace left at her feet.
"Saintess... look at that." The nun pointed at the floor with a trembling finger.
It was the transparent shell, torn and rolled to Aria’s feet. A strange substance was still trickling out of it in tiny, steady droplets.
Aria swallowed hard and carefully leaned down to pick up the transparent shell. The texture against her fingertips was cool and unpleasantly smooth.
It was the exact same material as the unknown substance that had covered the white bread dropped onto the altar.
"This is... that transparent shell..."
Aria’s lips trembled. Her mind felt as if it were being bleached white.
It wasn't the work of the Seven Calamities.
"Why... why on earth?"
A stifled scream escaped Aria’s lips.
Meanwhile, I smiled with satisfaction as I watched the transparent plastic bags that had been filling the floor of my room disappear into thin air, one after another, with a cheerful *pop! pop!* sound.
The bags, filled with hundreds of fire-bellied toads handed over by the quick-delivery riders who had ridden their motorcycles right to my apartment entrance, were being transformed into biological drop pods that would ravage the ecosystem of Eden, and were currently being transmitted to the other world.
"In terms of miniature board games, this is the perfect 'deep strike' tactic."
I sipped my canned beer and enjoyed the feast of overwhelming bombardment happening on my monitor screen.
Whoosh—! Thud! Splash!
The sky around the old castle walls on the other side of the monitor distorted madly, and plastic bags containing hundreds of fire-bellied toads began to pour down mercilessly.
It was a magnificent sight, reminiscent of the famous 'Rain of Steel' tactic where space marines from the distant future ride drop pods from orbit, pierce the atmosphere, and smash ignorantly into the middle of enemy lines.
The plastic bags that hit the hard castle walls or the rocks by the river burst with a *thwack*, and the frogs that were bounced out by the impact were scattered everywhere. The bags that luckily landed on the soft water surface sank, and through the gaps I had pre-bored as air holes, they began to vomit the red-bellied frogs into the river.
"Alright! Now, let’s see how those amphibians react."
I gripped the mouse and zoomed the view in on the group of Kappa lurking in the middle of the river.
At the sudden anomaly in the sky, the Kappa were initially terrified and buried their heads in the water.
But as soon as they realized the objects falling like rain weren't magic or pillars of fire threatening them, they began to poke their green shells back above the water.
"Krook? Kroo-krook?"
The Kappa, having discovered the transparent plastic bags floating on the surface and the fire-bellied toads swimming between them, let out curious, bizarre cries.
They reached out with their long, webbed claws and snatched up a fire-bellied toad. The frog's bright red belly and flashy back patterns seemed to have strongly stimulated their grotesque aesthetic sense or appetite.
The Kappa smacked their lips and, without any hesitation, pierced the frog's small body with their sharp, clawed fingers.
"Kaaaaaah!"
Then, as if eating a skewer, they shoved the pierced frog whole into their maws and began to chew and swallow it. As one swallowed its prey, dozens of other Kappa nearby flipped their eyes and began to leap above the water, going wild in their hunt for the fire-bellied toads.
"Ah, wait. That’s not the ration I gave you to farm."
I let out a dry laugh at the absurd sight of the monsters chewing on the biological weapons I had sent as snacks.
"Well, it doesn't matter. The fire-bellied toad’s skin mucosa is covered in toxins anyway, and if those guys bite them with their mouths and rub against them with their bare skin, the chytrid fungus will penetrate their respiratory systems even faster and more perfectly."
In fact, rather than the frogs swimming peacefully and spreading the fungus, the Kappa acting as predators and actively biting and making contact would serve as the perfect catalyst to exponentially increase the rate of infection.