Chapter 19
Chapter 19
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 19
Chapter Title: Even at Dawn, the Cult Comes (6)
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“Ha… haha!! Got you, you little shit!!”
A man who had somehow pushed through the zombie-like crowd grabbed my arm and flashed a triumphant grin.
“I'll offer you up and ascend to Nirvana!! Kuhak!!”
“Get out of the way!! I'm the one ascending to Nirvana!!”
But he was immediately kicked in the leg by another guy who lunged from the side and got swept away by the crowd.
“““Kuhwaaaak!!!”””
Flutter—! With no intention of getting caught up in the chaos, I instantly spread my wings and blew away all the cultists swarming around me.
“You damned lizard!! Grab her!!!”
“Get down here right now!?”
After dodging the crowd and flying up to the ceiling, the cultists started hurling whatever they were holding at me.
Ignoring the mob that was desperate to catch me, I turned my gaze to the lump of flesh that had introduced itself as Eristhon.
“You look delicious…!”
The thing smacked its lips at me, drooling an unsettling amount of saliva.
“...Hmm.”
I had a dilemma.
Should I kidnap the branch leader and flee while leaving the commotion behind?
Or should I wipe out the entire Subuti branch of the Arhat Nirvana Cult along with that lump of flesh?
Naturally, I chose the latter.
The reason I couldn't go with the former was simple: the people holding goats inside the chapel were obviously kidnapping victims at first glance.
“Kuhwaaak!!”
I swiftly slithered across the floor, grabbed the fleeing branch leader, and held him up as a human shield.
“Everyone freeze. If you take one more step, I'll feed this guy to that thing over there.”
“Branch Leader!! You vicious bastard!!”
“Using a person as a shield…!!”
The cultists charging at me halted in an instant when I threatened to toss the branch leader to the anomalous flesh monster if they came any closer.
...As expected, a branch leader like him had plenty of uses.
“Hand over that girl to me right now!! Or I'll devour every last one of you!!”
The lump of flesh's voice boomed through the chapel, growing irritated as time dragged on.
“I'll sacrifice myself!!”
At that moment, the branch leader shouted to his followers.
“I'm fine, so offer me up to Eristhon along with this wench!!”
With his resolve steeled, the branch leader gazed at his followers like some kind of hero.
“““Branch Leader…!”””
Moved by his speech, the cultists hardened their determination and prepared to charge at me again.
I'd planned to demoralize them and break their spirit, but I never expected the branch leader to step up with such leadership and boost their morale instead.
“Sorry, but if you die, old man, it's my loss.”
“What?”
I'd been ordered to bring the branch leader back alive, so I had no intention of killing him until I extracted some information.
“Stay put here while I handle business.”
In a flash, I spread my wings, flew up, and draped him over the ceiling fan.
“Kuhwaaak!! N-No, it's high!! Let me down!!”
If he didn't want to fall to his death, he'd hang on himself.
“Move already! I'm starving!!!”
Unable to hold back its hunger any longer, the lump of flesh bellowed and began shifting its massive body.
“R-Run!! Eristhon's moving!!”
“Kyaaaak!! I don't wanna die!!!”
The morale that had boiled over from the overwhelming killing intent shattered in an instant, and the cultists began fleeing the chapel one by one, their faces pale as ghosts.
“If you want to live, offer up that girl!!”
A few cultists who hadn't lost their nerve shoved the people holding goats toward me, ordering them to capture me.
Shifting their own dirty work onto kidnapping victims just because they didn't want to die.
“I don't forgive cowards!”
“Guk!!”
Splat—! I gave those inhuman scum a taste of my body slam as a gift.
“Hiiik…!”
The moment I knocked out over thirty cultists in a flash and landed lightly, the woman who'd been getting pushed around until seconds ago instinctively backed away at the sight of me.
“Run while you can. And swing by Lua's Hamburger sometime if you remember.”
I didn't really care what she thought of me, so I turned away after telling her to get out fast.
...Of course, I didn't forget to plug Lua's Hamburger.
“...Th-Thank you!”
The woman bowed her head and bolted from the chapel.
“Thank you! Thank you!”
“We'll never forget this kindness!”
Led by the woman, the kidnapping victims expressed their gratitude to me as they hurriedly escaped the chapel.
“You useless trash!”
The lump of flesh, which had been inching its massive body forward, let out a roar and gaped its enormous maw.
“I'll swallow you all whole!!”
Shwooooaaah—!!!
A fierce wind whipped through the chapel, sucking in everything nearby toward its mouth.
“Ku, kuaaaak!!”
“Save me!!!”
“Haaaaak!!”
The cultists who couldn't escape were unable to resist the powerful suction and got pulled into its mouth one after another.
“Why isn't that one budging at all?!?!”
Amid the massive vortex turning the pristine chapel into a wreck.
Only the dragon girl with her pinkish hair whipping in the wind stood her ground unscathed.
“How the hell are you just standing there?!?!”
...How?
The reason was simple.
“This much wind won't knock me over.”
“Wh-What?! That's impossible!!”
No matter how fiercely the gale howled, to me it just felt like a breeze from a fan.
“Your breath stinks, so shut your mouth.”
Crack!! I closed the distance in an instant and punched its jaw, forcing its mouth shut.
“You let your guard down…!!”
But the thing absorbed the impact with its tremendous layer of fat and then snapped its massive jaws wide open, swallowing me whole.
“...Ku, kuhk?!”
...Or at least, it tried to.
I pried its tightly shut mouth open with brute force and emerged completely unharmed, leaving it with an incredulous expression.
“How did you even get out…! Anything that enters my mouth gets digested completely!!”
“I just came out, and that was that.”
I explained the method to the flustered monster without hesitation and threw another punch.
Snap—!!
A shockwave too powerful even for its thick fat layer blasted through, shattering its jaw to pieces.
“Kuhar…!!”
“I can tell just by looking—you've been getting people fed to you in exchange for performing that 'Nirvana' ritual or whatever.”
It seemed the Arhat Nirvana Cult kidnapped people and offered them as sacrifices, and in return, this thing performed the so-called Nirvana ritual for them.
But that wasn't important right now.
I narrowed my pupils into vertical slits and slowly walked toward it to kill it.
“...Hu, huwaak! Hoiya!!!”
With its jaw smashed and speech mangled, the anomalous monster tried to flee from me by dragging its massive body.
It scraped the floor with its tumor-like arms to put some distance between us, but its speed was slower than a snail's.
“Ha, halyeohuhiphyeo!”
Realizing it couldn't escape like this, it bowed its head to me and trembled.
“Hohweon…. I granht yohu ih hohng…!”
Too terrified to even attack, it desperately pleaded something to me.
“Heen harihikong! I granht yohu ih hohng!”
Its jaw was completely wrecked, so I couldn't make out the words perfectly, but from the context, it seemed like it was saying it could grant wishes.
“...A wish? Then turn me into a human.”
To test if it was telling the truth, I coldly looked down at it and gave the order.
“He! He halhet ihniha!”
It nodded frantically and began focusing, emitting a strange gurgling sound like boiling, clogged water.
“...!!!! Hu, hu haechae henghe ga hweonya?!”
Suddenly startled by some massive barrier blocking its power, it looked at me with a terrified expression and spouted nonsense.
“Hoi… hoiheul…!!”
Seeing no sign of my body turning human, it was clearly just bullshit to save its skin.
“Liar! Execution!!”
Riiip—!
I slashed at it with my sharpened claws, splitting the space itself and crumpling the wall as its massive body was neatly bisected into three pieces.
Gushing crimson blood, the lump of flesh met its end.
“Urk…, ptui…!”
I spat out the blood that had gotten in my mouth and flew over to the branch leader dangling precariously from the ceiling fan.
“Hiiik!”
His face went sheet-white, thinking his turn to die had come.
“Wak!”
“Huaaaak!! Spare me!! I'm sorry!! I'll spill everything, just please spare my life!!!”
Feeling mischievous at his reaction, I suddenly swooped in to scare him. The branch leader flailed wildly, clinging to the ceiling fan and screaming.
He'd been all heroic about offering me up moments ago, but after watching me fight, his mental state had completely crumbled.
Vroom—!! As I pondered what to do with the branch leader, the wall in the corner of the chapel suddenly began melting away.
“Lua!! You okay!?”
A grandpa riding a cyberpunk motorcycle made a cool entrance from beyond the melted wall, calling out to me.
“Grandpa! Over here!”
I waved to Grandpa, who had arrived at just the right time.
A dragon girl flapping through the air and a dazed man.
Enormous claw marks slashing across the chapel, and the massive lump of anomalous flesh lying dead and cold.
“...Wh-What the hell.”
Grandpa took in the total disaster of the chapel and let out a baffled breath.
“Ku…, aaaak!”
Soon after, the branch leader, who'd run out of strength, lost his grip on the ceiling fan and plummeted toward the floor.
Vroom—! Just before his head could smash open, Grandpa nimbly maneuvered the motorcycle and scooped him up princess-style.
“...Th-Thank you….”
Being held princess-style, the branch leader blushed and thanked Grandpa.
“Kuhak!”
Grandpa grimaced, flung the branch leader aside, then stomped on his back to pin him down and prevent escape.
“Lua. So what the hell happened here?”
“Things just kinda turned into a fight… Ehehehe….”
When he asked what had gone down, I answered with an innocent smile.
“And that bisected lump of flesh over there…, you killed it?”
I looked where his finger pointed and saw the coldly deceased anomalous flesh monster.
“That guy's an anomaly working with the Arhat Nirvana Cult, so I took it out right away!”
“You brat!”
“Kyung!”
Puffing out my chest proudly to boast about my feat, Grandpa suddenly flicked my forehead hard.
“What do you think you're doing, just killing something tied to the Anomaly Association like that!”
“Kyahung!”
I made a wronged face after another flick to the forehead.
“I was just trying to save people by killing the anomaly…. Hiiing….”
Grandpa sighed, at a loss for words at my convincing argument, and glanced at the branch leader.
“Haa…, whatever.”
He grabbed the branch leader by the collar where he lay at his feet, yanked him up, and slapped his cheeks.
“Kwiik….”
“You. I've got questions.”
“…….”
“I won't ask a third time. Remember that.”
“Y-Yes…! Got it!”
Unlike the grandfatherly vibe from moments ago, Grandpa's gaze turned icy cold, making the branch leader gulp and nod frantically.
Emitting an aura of dignity unbelievable for an old man, Grandpa spoke coldly.
“Explain exactly what this ritual of yours is.”
“It's a ceremony to guide all foolish humanity to Nirvana… turning them into anomalies for salvation.”
“Spit out your main base and the ritual location right now.”
“I-I can't say!! Kuhwaaak!!”
The instant the branch leader clammed up, Grandpa snapped one of his fingers without hesitation and issued a cold threat.
“You planning on not talking?”
“Huk…. Huk…! Mye-Myeongdong! That's all…! Kuk!”
Thwack! After admitting their base was in Myeongdong, the branch leader took a punch from Grandpa and slumped lifelessly.
“...Did you kill him?”
“Nah, just knocked him out. Planning to hand him over to the intel division like this…. Ahem. Never mind.”
He habitually mentioned the Management Bureau before catching himself.
Seeing Grandpa trying so hard to hide his Management Bureau affiliation, I flashed a devilish little smile.
“Fuheung~?”
“...Lua, you knew I'm with the Management Bureau, huh.”
“Weung?! How'd you know?”
“It's all over your face, you rascal.”
My expression must've been too obvious, because Grandpa finally admitted he was with the Management Bureau.
No…, spilling it like that so quick kinda ruins the fun….
With my prank plan in my head falling apart, I swished my tail side to side in disappointment.
“...Anyway, good work. Didn't expect you'd cause this much of a ruckus….”
“Meow.”
With the situation wrapped up, Grandpa patted my head and praised me.
“Job's done, so head home and rest.”
“Already? What about you, Grandpa?”
“I've gotta deliver this guy and the ledger to the Management Bureau's intel division. It's cold out—go on home.”
Shoo shoo. Grandpa waved me off, issuing his goodbye, then rolled his stiff shoulders and revved the motorcycle.
“I'll pass the intel to you first thing tomorrow morni—.”
——Boom!! Kwang!! Crash!! Rumble boom boom!!
At that moment, an enormous noise erupted as the building's outer wall collapsed.
“...?”
Finally, the entire structure crumbled to pieces, and as the thick cloud of dust settled.
Grandpa stared at me with a dumbfounded look, utterly baffled by the situation.
The reason the building collapsed was simple.
...I'd swung my claws without holding back at all.
“E… ehehehe…. I might've overdone the strength control a biiit…. Whew~ wheee~.”
I whistled a lame tune, looked off into the distance, and slowly backed away.
⋯My job here's done.
Anyway, nothing more to do here. Yeah, that's it.
Grandpa said I could go home, so it should be fine, right?
“S-See you tomorrow, Grandpa!”
I immediately bowed 90 degrees to Grandpa and shot into the sky like I was fleeing.