One Day I Became a Hatchling
THUD!
The spear driven into his heart shattered his soul.
At the same time, a devastating headache assaulted him as if his skull was about to crack.
The agony tearing from deep inside his body made his brows knit tightly together.
KRRRR...
His crimson pupils flashed and narrowed sharply. Just like a beast's, they were scrunched up and distorted. His pointed fangs emerged, and the black imugi roared viciously.
[Th-that kid…!]
Thick blood-scent filled the air from his labored breathing.
SPLASH!
The imugi vomited blood and thrashed painfully.
He hadn't been doing anything good in life, and he hadn't wronged any humans either.
That was him.
Yet he never imagined someone would come to reveal such intense murderous intent.
[Who… are you…?!]
When he tried to ask who he was, thick dark-red blood gushed from his mouth in thick pulses.
Looking at that blood, the man smiled.
“I did it.”
Mad bastard.
The imugi sighed.
The man's face was blackened and rotten from the curse of the imugi, but the intact eye twitched with excitement.
He looked like a murderer, not a human.
Can someone even smile in this situation and still be human?
A chill ran down his spine. Scales prickled across his body.
Because the fool hadn't cared for his own body and attacked like a mad dog trying to kill him, the imugi's flesh was in tatters too. The man had a torn right arm and his left waist exposed with ribs showing white.
It was an evenly matched brawl; there was no telling who was winning.
His blackened feet and thighs were likewise rotting dark.
The movements of the man who kept attacking him without dying under those horrific conditions had already worn him out.
No matter how you look at it, I'm going to die soon, but I'll be the first to go.
The imugi ground his teeth. Then he roared with all his might.
[Why…! What grudge did I have against you…?!]
“…Die.”
The instant he saw the spear soaked in blood, the imugi felt his death approaching.
Rage surged in his chest.
Just one year!
One year, and he could have become a dragon.
Even though he hadn't ascended yet, he had lived as a spirit for 999 years.
Who could have imagined this imugi would die at the hands of a mere human?
He had lived quietly without harming the flow of karma, tuning everything around him.
Yet a madman had come to a remote island where no map marked his location and driven a spear into his heart to kill him.
Thus he had been killed just a year before his ascension.
Cough…! Hic… Damn it…!
Decaying blood flowed from the corners of his mouth. Blood spurted out in violent gushes, spilling over the torn flesh.
So empty like this.
A shiver ran through him with the feeling that his life was slipping away.
That damned bastard.
Even the imugi's killing intent, thickly spewed, carried an aura of pure malice.
It felt as if he would burn away every last drop of the dying life just to end the imugi.
Damn! Is this really the end? Am I dying like this?
Grievance and fury rose in his chest.
The black imugi, already suspected of being ill-omened, had lived a life without receiving any blessings.
It wasn't a source of regret.
The imugi had lived inconspicuously without associating with them anyway.
He knew what humans thought of him, but he had never felt the need to change it.
They weren't neighbors, and as long as he didn't touch them, they left him alone.
A revered spirit.
Something that harmed humans.
An existence that trained for a thousand years to ascend.
Anything people gossiped about was just the image they imagined since no one had truly seen him.
He never needed to resist or be controlled, so he never paid attention.
Except for rare cases, only fools who couldn't properly see an imugi existed.
But now.
Is this the price…?
Dying like this within their preconceptions.
What good is it thinking this now?
The imugi let out a bitter laugh.
What do I gain by dying this way?
It was half mocking.
If he took the imugi's corpse, the spirit's body—arms, scales, everything—could be taken, but this madman would die here too.
In the end, he had died together with the imugi.
The man with blind eyes stared at a distant point with unfocused eyes.
“I only repaid the debt owed to my benefactor.”
His words mixed with breath that sounded like it was vomiting guts.
The man, having used excessive strength, stood straight while staring at the imugi, his white hair disheveled.
Grudge? Desire?
Nothing of the sort.
In his eyes burned a purer and stronger conviction than his own.
“Now… is it over? ■■■.”
Before the imugi could ask who, his consciousness faded.
The pain from his shattered heart and soul was excruciating.
With the sound of his body breaking apart, sensations ripped across his entire form.
CRACKKKK!
Eventually, the explosion from the imugi swallowed an entire island whole and erased his existence from the world.
***
I have no idea how much time has passed.
Although I couldn't move my body at will, I remained conscious. This strange state continued for a while.
Annoying.
The imugi wrinkled his brow.
In the pitch-black place where he couldn't even open his eyes, he heard a gurgling liquid sound.
Thud… thud.
Then a soft, beating sound began to resonate again.
The imugi listened to that sound.
My heart is beating.
The sound of living life.
He stopped trying to move his body and felt the throbbing.
I'm still alive…
The fact that his life hadn't ended was faintly exhilarating.
He gathered his strength and moved his hands and feet a little at a time.
Very weak twitches.
Just sensing them was astonishing.
With all his might, he twisted and writhed his body, which had turned to stone.
How long had he been moving?
Thud.
His toes touched a solid wall.
His hands, tail tip—everything was a wall.
I'm trapped?
The soft, beating heart gradually became rough with anger.
Who the hell… dares imprison a spirit like me?!
The imugi, frustrated, couldn't hold back his deep anger and slammed his hands against the wall.
Clang!
The wall is intact?
He had thought the wall would break.
His tail alone had dug the ground, yet a wall stopped him and his hand hurt.
Those bastards weakened my power!
He exploded in frustration and kicked the wall.
This is it!
Thud!
This wall!
Clang! Clang!
Inside the trapped wall, he pounded it with all the strength he could muster.
UAAAAH!
Crack.
A fissure appeared in the wall, and faint light seeped through.
Yes! I can get out. Just a little more!
He reached his arm through the crack and pressed his palm against it, concentrating.
There's only one chance.
His body, which didn't feel like it had a dantian.
With his body's energy gathered, he had to stake everything on this one chance to operate it.
He pulled every last bit of his limit.
Break!
CRACK! SHATTER!
Shatter.
The broken wall pieces and liquid burst outward.
Done! We're out!
A surge of relief flooded him at the fact that he had pierced the passage leading outside.
Uh, ugh.
Having depleted his energy, he staggered and clutched the broken wall, panting.
I can't stay sitting down. Who knows when those who imprisoned me will come?
He clenched his fists, took a deep breath, and forced strength into his trembling legs.
Sweet air filled his lungs through his nose and mouth.
SWOOSH.
The air is filled with pure qi.
At the place below his waist, he freely inhaled the qi contained in the dry air.
With qi returning to his body, he drank water and emerged from outside the wall.
Sip… sip.
I'm powerless.
Right after coming out of the egg, all his strength drained away, leaving him unable to stand.
Finally, he crawled on all fours, dragging his unnaturally slow body.
The sight he saw while pulling his body out was breathtaking.
Gems and equipment filled with mysterious qi. All kinds of armaments, raw minerals. Black ores that gave off a sense of both ferocity and nobility formed a horizon and hills.
Is there really such a place in the world?
Golden mountains, clothes and accessories filled with beauty and qi made by the gods' craftsmanship.
From patterns on gold coins to armaments. An exotic atmosphere permeated everywhere.
I'm not dead. Could I have been taken to another country…?
While crawling, he looked around.
Gold trays he trod on. Artifacts drawn with mysterious patterns by the hands of craftsmen. Ancient books. Items whose use he couldn't guess. Mountains of gold coins stacked endlessly.
Just looking, these are not ordinary items.
He could feel overwhelming wealth and power without end.
Who is the owner of this place that has gathered such vast treasures?
As someone confined on an island, it was unimaginable.
Sip… sip.
While carefully observing his surroundings, his eyes caught something that wasn't an armament or a gem.
It was a stone neatly carved, with words written in heavy brush strokes.
Even though it was characters he had never seen, he could read them.
[A child who has never seen the light of the world. Even if we can never meet again, may you find happiness in that distant place.]
It was an epitaph honoring the death of a young life.
This… is a tombstone.
Only then did he realize this place was for the child who had been sent away.
It was probably for the child who hadn't been born and died, burying them with unimaginable things.
The imugi clicked his tongue lightly.
In his heart, he reached out his arm to place his hand on the tombstone, thinking to recite a short oath.
Eh?
Instantly, he wondered if there was someone else besides him.
His outstretched arm touched the mirror-like transparent tombstone.
The face there was completely different.
…Why is my face like this?
The toes on his extended foreleg were short and chubby.
…Toes this small?
Looking down, his belly was swollen and rounded.
…Why is my belly so big?
Turning around, his agile and destructive steel-like tail had shrunk like a lizard.
Something was wrong.
What is this?!
His already large red eyes grew even wider in shock.
He opened his mouth wide while looking all over his body.
This is who?! There's a weird little one here!
A chill ran across his entire body.
Staring blankly at the tombstone, he pinched his own cheek.
TAP!
Instead of the hard black scales of the indestructible golden bull, his soft and tender skin stretched taut, then snapped back to its original place with a TICK.
My… my body is so small and chubby?
He felt his short hands on his waist and belly.
Then he poked his short legs and head with his hands, confirming, and his face went blank.
Thud.
I'm… doomed.
The imugi sat down on the ground, his face showing he had lost everything in the world.