*Shing*
Her head fell off again. To prevent her from resurrecting, I even threw it far away.
Then, I kicked her body away as well.
“Can you still live?” I asked curiously.
The headless body clawed at the ground, looking quite ridiculous.
Hehehe.
Taking advantage of this time, I pulled out my bone blade and swung it twice, mincing her body into countless pieces. I stuffed a chunk into my mouth while I was at it.
No taste?
There weren’t any memories, either…
It was like pure emptiness.
It felt like I had just eaten a mouthful of air.
[**Have you chosen to refuse?**]
“You’re not dead yet?”
[**I will not die.**]
“The last one who said he wouldn’t die is already dead,” I said, slicing the small meat chunks into thin pieces.
[**In this world, there are countless versions of us.**]
“Oh.”
After slicing the meat into strips, I stood up and looked at the blood covering the ground, feeling a bit guilty.
‘Lu Xiu won’t blame me for this, right?’
‘I did it to protect the world, after all.’
Time was still frozen, which meant she wasn’t completely dead yet.
“How can you die for good?” I shouted.
[**I will not tell you.**]
“Why?”
[**Because that is a foolish question.**]
I felt like I had just been insulted.
I licked the blood off my hand, but it still had no taste.
‘I can’t kill her, I just can’t…’
‘Don’t tell me I’m going to be trapped here?’
Just as I thought that, the thousands of meat fibers on the ground began to squirm. I immediately stomped on them.
Refusing to give up, I kept stomping until the gaps between my toes were filled with disgusting meat paste — slimy and a bit itchy.
Itchy?
I lifted my foot and found that the mass of meat paste was continuously moving upward, covering my skin.
‘Is it… eating me?’
*Tap, tap.*
I stomped hard on the ground several times, but I couldn’t shake off the spreading pink flesh.
Furthermore, my entire foot seemed to lose all sensation, twitching in a bizarre manner.
*Shing —*
A white flash of sword light flickered, and my foot was sliced off.
Enduring the pain, I hopped away on one leg.
I pulled a stored grotesque core out of the mouth on the stomach and stuffed it into my mouth.
A moment later, granulation tissue squirmed at the site of the bleeding stump, and a brand-new little foot grew out.
‘This thing can devour other people’s bodies?’
‘How disgusting, how terrifying.’
During that time, the minced flesh restored itself once more, transforming back into the pale Angel.
“You… cannot kill me.”
She spoke again. This time, it was the sound of countless female voices — girls, young women, ladies, and old hags… even mixed with the cries of various animals.
This was going to be difficult…
Lu Xiu was acting like a wooden statue, and I couldn’t kill her on my own. Could I run?
But she was definitely trying to catch me.
I wouldn’t be able to escape.
‘What a hassle…’
‘I really want to just bite her to pieces.’
I reached out, and large clusters of white bone entwined with thorns surged forth. Since this thing liked to bite, I’d let her gnaw on some bones!
*Thump, thump, thump —*
Three hand bones burst out. I clapped my palms together, splashing her directly into meat paste. Then, my other hand gripped the mass tightly, grinding and crushing it.
A piercing *creeeak* sounded as blood continuously dripped from within, turning into crimson foam.
But soon, I realized something was wrong.
Those hands seemed to be stuck. They moved slower and slower until they finally came to a complete standstill. An eye grew out from the surface of the bone.
“Eh? My big hand?”
‘I lost control?’
The mass of flesh squeezed out again, sucking in and devouring the entire giant bone.
I hurriedly severed the connection to the bone hand, but the monster before me…
A mouth of flesh split open on her back, and two bone hands extended from it. They pressed against the ground, propelling her high into the air.
The Angel closed her eyes, tilted her head back, and spread her arms wide, announcing:
“Whatever does not kill me only makes me stronger.”
A male voice rang out, a confluence of many tones.
‘This thing… can eat too?’
‘Just like me?’
‘That’s impossible.’
‘Then why is it useless when I eat her, but useful when she eats me?’
Wait, that wasn’t right.
I immediately noticed a blind spot.
The reason I gained power from eating was because I ate cores or containment items.
But the things I used to attack her were just plain bones…
There was nothing special about them.
So, she was still different from me.
If she really were the same as me, why would she want to cooperate?
‘I’m just too brilliant!’
“…Only through unification can pain, conflict, and destruction be eliminated…”
The entity was chirping away in the sky about I-don’t-know-what.
I ran straight to Lu Xiu’s side, pried his fingers open, and snatched the spirit talismans from his hand.
Since he couldn’t use them, I might as well.
I couldn’t let them go to waste.
I slapped two talismans directly onto my bone blade. In an instant, golden flames surged, making my eyes blurry.
‘This is way too cool!’
“…What do you think? Only the Heavenly Kingdom can lead to the Supreme and bring about the final law of all things. Do you still intend to refuse me? To refuse your own destiny?”
As soon as she finished speaking, the flaming sword pierced straight into her body. The squirming flesh boiled weirdly upon contact with the fire, trying to push it out.
However, the golden flame seemed to find fuel, burning brighter and larger until it completely swallowed her, leaving only a flickering phantom.
I withdrew my hand and swapped to a bone spear, slapped a talisman on it, and aimed at the fixed target in the sky.
“*Whoosh —*”
With my own self-made sound effect, another bone spear pierced through her body, knocking her straight out of the sky.
Crash!
A giant bone hammer appeared in my hand. I slapped a talisman on it, enchanting it. I licked the corners of my mouth in excitement and raised it high, smashing it toward her.
“Die! Hahaha!”
*Crack —*
With a sharp sound, a sudden force hit me from behind. It knocked into me, causing the high-raised hammer to miss its mark.
It smashed into a fire hydrant on the roadside, sending a pillar of water exploding into the air. Water rained down, washing away the dried blood stains.
“Hiss… Who was that — “
“Ouch… it hurts, it hurts — “
I looked back angrily, only to see Lu Xiu leaning on me, clutching his head in pain.
“Eh? Lu Xiu? You’re alive!”
“…The way you say that makes it sound like I was dead…”
He pushed himself off me somewhat awkwardly and stood up. Then, his face stiffened.
“That monster…”
“Right there.”
I scrambled up and pointed at the giant bone hammer… and the fire hydrant next to it.
“Oh my god! A monster! There’s a monster on the street!”
“Quick, call the Response Division…”
Noisy voices came from the surroundings. I turned my head and saw finger after finger pointing at me. In the crowd, there was disgust, fear…
And rejection.
The index finger I had extended curled slightly before I pulled it back.
“It’s… it’s under that traffic light,” I spoke, looking at Lu Xiu.
“…Yeah, I see it.”
He nodded and looked at the surrounding crowd.
“I am a Response Division Agent! An anomaly has occurred here. Everyone, please leave immediately, or suffer the consequences!”
Sure enough, as soon as Lu Xiu shouted, the people immediately scattered and ran off into the distance, afraid of being caught in the crossfire.
“Where are my talismans?” He sighed, then immediately realized something and looked at me.
“There’s still one left…”
I reached out and handed him the crumpled yellow paper.
“…There were five in total. You used four?”
“Uh, probably.”
He took a deep breath and then reached out with his large hand, ruthlessly messing up my hair.
“Ah! My hair! Let go!” I protested.
After venting his frustration, he took the remaining yellow paper and walked toward the crater.
“It’s gone?”
When I came up behind him, my eyes widened.
“But it was just here a moment ago…”
“It probably ran away.”
He pulled out a compass and aimed it at the pit. The compass needle spun wildly but never settled on a direction.
“I can’t find it.”
In the crater, nothing remained except for some black powder and the puddle of water that was gathering.
I spoke hesitantly, “Then we…”
“We’re going to the Response Division.” He pulled out his phone. “To submit a report.”
“And to apply for talisman reimbursement… I hope it gets approved, otherwise I’ll be eating dirt again this month.”