Chapter 189: Otherworld (3)
Chapter 189: Otherworld (3)
I kept walking forward.
A stifling substance that felt like it was stealing something from me hindered my movements, but...
"Ah—."
Whoosh.
When I swung my arms wide, everything around me was blown away, and the pressure vanished.
【…】
Whenever that happened, I felt as if someone was watching me, accompanied by an indiscernible whispering, but I wasn't particularly interested right now.
There was something far more intriguing.
A bright halo of light filled one side of my vision.
Fascinated by it, I chased after it.
I didn't know how long I had been pursuing it.
It never seemed to get any closer.
I couldn't reach it.
And then, a long whisper tempted me once more.
I don't need it.
Every time I followed those words, my sponge-like, empty head filled up a little more, but now I had lost interest in that as well.
I knew enough.
And so, I chased the halo of light.
I walked forward and upward, chasing the light fluttering above my head.
To avoid falling downward, I spread my arms wide, using The Hammer in my right hand to maintain my balance.
I kept walking.
And when I grew hungry, I took something from the pouch that had been hanging from my waist for some time.
I chewed on something that tasted different from meat.
A taste that stimulated the sponge in my brain.
It tore away in strips, filling my insides.
In the center of that "something," there was a part with a completely different flavor.
At first, I tried chewing and eating it a few times, but it provided no stimulation at all.
So, I threw it into the void every time.
When I did, the things surrounding and watching me would scramble toward it.
The whispering would turn sharp and loud, and the things that moved like a current would collide violently and gradually vanish.
Then, the whispering around me would grow a little quieter than before.
If I ignored them for a while, the whispering would eventually increase again.
But that was fine.
It was more beneficial to reduce the attention they paid to me, even for a moment, than to chew on something that offered no stimulation.
And so I walked.
And walked some more.
As I walked, at some point, the whispering filling my head grew quieter, and I felt more gazes from further away.
A single question surfaced.
Where does that halo of light come from?
In this dark place, moving slowly but steadily without stopping.
A massive wave of light.
Despite emitting such a brilliant glow.
A halo of light that shone loftily, without dispelling the surrounding blackness.
I had moved forward, entranced by it, but the curiosity about what that light actually was had probably surfaced for the first time.
And at that moment.
"Ah—."
Countless light halos rose up around me.
There were so many filling the surroundings that I wondered why I hadn't seen them until now.
However, those halos were not as bright as the river in the sky.
At most, they were flows formed by dozens or hundreds of lights clustered together.
The smallest halos, consisting of only one or two lights, were slowly ascending like me, heading toward the light in the sky.
Slowly. Very slowly.
So slow that they lagged behind my own pace.
One by one, the light halos rose.
I turned my head to watch them.
And, thanks to the glow of the halos, I was able to see a new stimulus.
The crowd that had been whispering around me.
Merged with the darkness beyond, their boundaries were blurred.
Made of shadows and geometric shapes.
Tangled together haphazardly.
Yes. Mosaics.
Mosaic beings.
Their blurred forms were revealed beneath the light halos.
Even under the light, it was difficult to grasp the true nature of their grotesqueness.
The countless beings stopped whispering to me and lunged toward the light halos.
They tore open the shapes that made up their bodies to create gaps, shoved the light halos inside, and then closed the gaps, swallowing them into their interiors.
In the process, the shapes and shadows of other beings were swallowed as well.
Those whose shapes were partially consumed could not maintain their structure and collapsed, yet they did not stop.
It was as if swallowing the light was more important than the collapse of their own kind.
One being had worked so hard to swallow a light halo, only for others to swarm around it.
They, too, opened their shapes to create gaps.
And they thrust themselves into the other being that had swallowed the light.
The being that had first swallowed the light struggled, but with so many others thrusting into its body, it eventually couldn't hold on and crumbled.
From within the scattered shapes, the flickering light halo slowly rose again.
And the same action was repeated.
It was a scene I happened to witness by chance.
But when I turned my head, I saw that such things were happening everywhere.
Countless shapes poured down, and the light halos vanished for a moment.
However, not a single light halo among those I could see actually disappeared.
They merely stayed inside the beings for a while.
Amidst the chaos of swallowing one another, the light halos continued to rise.
Watching that sight, a thought occurred to me.
'Is that... delicious? As much as meat?'
I stopped walking forward and moved sideways toward a nearby light halo.
I worried that this halo might be as far away as the giant one ahead, but I reached it with surprising ease.
I reached out toward it.
My hand was submerged in the bright halo.
I felt nothing, so I thought I had gained nothing and pulled my arm out, but...
"?"
Light leaked from between my fingers.
When I opened my hand, a light as small as a dot was tumbling in my palm.
The light resting in my hand was trying to move upward as slowly as the other halos, but it was so slow that it couldn't escape my palm even when I shook my hand slightly, merely circling my hand.
Something small and fragile.
Yet, something that emitted light.
I was captivated by it.
Even though I knew I was being enchanted, it looked so beautiful that I couldn't help it.
I reached out a finger and picked it up using my index finger and thumb.
And slowly, I moved it toward my mouth.
Because it felt like that was what I was supposed to do.
Because those tumbling around outside were doing the same.
Creeak.
The sound of my mouth hanging open seeped into my ears.
And just as my vision was turning white from the brilliance of the light...
'Why don't you stop that?'
Along with someone's voice.
Thump.
I felt a tap on my head.
The sensation of being struck across the entire head with something hard.
Startled, I dropped the light, and as if only then sensing the danger, the light zipped past my eyes faster than before.
Seeing that, the desire to put the light in my mouth vanished with strange clarity.
Instead, I turned around to find the person who had hit my head.
There stood a Mosaic Being.
'Comparing me to those things... how rude.'
Since the being in front of me said that, I compared it to the ones watching us from over there.
Indeed, it was an insult to compare them.
The one looking at me was...
Me.
...A creature of Earth.
Yes. A human.
Because it looked similar to a human.
If you ignored the fact that it had no arms and abnormally thin legs.
If you ignored the large hole where the left eye should be, through which you could see the other side.
If you ignored the fact that the body, clothes, hat, and hair were all merged into one like a smudged watercolor painting.
If you ignored the fact that there were teeth where the neck should be.
If you ignored the fact that its hands were floating because it had no arms.
If you ignored the fact that one of those hands was holding its own left eye and looking this way.
If you ignored the fact that its mouth was sewn shut with threads made of flesh, like a doll, preventing it from opening.
Then... it looked similar to a human.
'Could you please not make fun of me for being broken?'
No, I was genuinely surprised.
To meet a somewhat human-like being in this messy junkyard.
More than that, talking to a Sentient Being made my consciousness feel clearer.
Do humans need stimulation after all?
'...I knew I shouldn't have spoken to you. Your awakening is much faster than I expected.'
Hmm.
The being in front of me... a woman? Probably a woman. Whatever.
The entity seemed to regret speaking to me.
'Wouldn't you regret it? I thought a incredibly rich and delicious-looking prey had arrived after a long time, but it turns out to be a madman who does things he shouldn't and fails no matter how many times I try to process him.'
Hmm. Did I go through something like that?
I have no memory of it. Or, given the nature of the Otherworld, it might be something I'll experience in the future.
More importantly, even if she looked human, she clearly wasn't.
Seeing as she viewed me as prey.
'Look who's talking. You've been eating the things at your waist too.'
The things at my waist?
Hearing that, I looked down at my hip and saw the pouch Al’shel... no, the Octopus had given me.
Then, memories of eating something throughout my journey flowed back to me.
Dates... they were more helpful than I thought.
'Ah, whatever. It looks like you've regained almost everything now, so I'm leaving. Tsk. I thought I'd finally get a feast.'
The Anomalous Entity said that and began to fade, merging with the shadows before me.
I stared blankly at the sight for a moment.
Hey, wait.
A good idea occurred to me, so I extended my hammer and pulled her back.
Shuck.
With a sound like that, she was caught spectacularly by the head of The Hammer and tumbled down in front of me.
'...What now?'
A strong emotion I could recognize settled on her bizarre expression.
Clear bewilderment.
'No, wait, how did you interfere with me?'
Uh... just because?
I just felt like I could, so I reached out with The Hammer.
'Just because? Wow. You really are a madman. Why? To eat me? I thought you were being quiet, but that was your scheme all along?'
What are you talking about?
You look unappetizing at a glance. Why would I eat you?
'Then why are you holding onto me? Is it really that bad to nibble a little bit off?'
Well, it's probably a bad thing?
But I have no intention of getting angry over something I don't even remember. I only caught her because there was something I wanted to ask.
Have you seen a piece of white trash and an Octopus Head around here?
'What's white and what's an octopus?'
Hmm. A failure.
Let's give up on that, then.
If I float around this unpleasant space, they'll probably find me on their own.
The pouch is still hanging at my waist, after all.
Then let's change the question.
What are those lights?
'Huh? You don't know? They're ■■.'
The word shattered.
That was the only way to describe it.
It wasn't noise, nor was the word censored or pronounced in an incomprehensible way.
It was just that the moment it entered my brain, I couldn't understand the word.
What did you say?
'I said ■■. If you touch those, we all get eaten. Ha. What is this? A guy who doesn't even know what ■■ is was trying to eat it? I thought it was my lucky day, but it's a total dick of a day.'
....
This was a first-time experience.
Then why did you leave those Mosaic Creatures alone when they were eating them?
'I left the trash around here alone because they can never actually eat them, but you have enough power that it could have actually happened. Ugh, why am I telling this guy everything?'
She said that and, looking truly annoyed, shook me off and increased the distance between us.
In an instant.
She moved so far away that she looked like a tiny dot.
'Don't catch me if you don't have business. I'm going.'
Leaving only those words, she gradually faded and disappeared.
And the mosaics that had been whispering while looking at me vanished as well.
I was left alone.
It became boring.
So. I slept.