Invincible
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#171
🕑 Added 2024-12-28 19:58:08 +0000 UTCSpirit Gate (2)
The feeling of becoming a snake would be almost impossible to put into words. His vision was generally blurry, and despite the chilly weather, he didn’t feel any increase in body temperature. His tongue flicked uncontrollably, tasting dozens of flavors through an unusual sense of smell. If he had been born with such senses, it might have been different. But for Hamendal, who had lived as a human, this was torture.
"Ugh, I feel nauseous. I’d rather be possessed by an undead," he muttered. Being undead, most senses were dulled, so there was no particular feeling, and walking on two legs wasn’t strange. However, moving in a snake’s body was challenging from the start.
‘How am I supposed to move forward like this?’ Hamendal twisted his entire body with all his might, only to squirm in place. Just then, Rockefeller’s voice rang out sharply through a sound transmission spell.
“What are you doing, flailing about so pathetically? You're in the middle of enemy territory! If you're discovered, you could be torn to pieces. Act like a snake!”
As if it were that simple.
"It’s easy to mimic a familiar body, but this is a completely different form! I can barely even crawl," Hamendal replied, hoping Rockefeller would understand by now.
But Rockefeller had an impressive knowledge of things most people didn’t. “There are four main ways a snake moves. The easiest are undulating like a wave or contracting the body for straight-line motion.”
Sighing deeply, Hamendal tried what Rockefeller suggested. After several attempts, he managed to move forward. Imagining himself as more of a worm than a snake… still, it worked.
“Hmm, but there’s another issue. My vision is so blurry, I can’t see where I’m going. Reaching the slug’s body is tough.”
“Think of using your tongue to smell. Concentrate on the cells below your eyes, and the world will appear in infrared,” Rockefeller advised.
Following his instructions, Hamendal truly began to feel it. He could sense the scent of nearby spirits with his tongue, and the world appeared in shades of red and blue, and colors in between.
'Was this guy a snake in a past life?' Hamendal thought with unease, moving towards the giant body of the slug. Soon, Rockefeller would make his move. As before, he would create an entry-sized hole in the barrier with his staff.
The spirits, noticing Hamendal moving backward, looked at him suspiciously. Just then, an arrow, gleaming with light, shot from the barrier.
Thunk!
The arrow struck the slug’s body, and it instantly grew large. As the arrow disappeared, Hamendal quickly pushed himself into the now-enlarged hole. But the slug’s regeneration speed was bewilderingly fast.
"Huh?"
The regenerated organ of the slug wrapped around Hamendal, trapping him without letting him fully enter.
"Professor Rockefeller? I’m… I’m stuck here."
"What?"
Then, Hamendal began to sense something strange. Small red dots, like grains of rice, were wriggling tightly within the crimson interior of the slug’s body. Additionally, the smell on his tongue was different.
'What is this?'
As he heightened his senses, he felt a gripping pain, as if something were tightly holding onto his tail. He was pulled away from the wall by this force.
"Ugh!"
As the outside air touched his skin, he heard a voice with a tone far removed from human sounds.
"How surprising. Have you developed a new magic in the time I’ve been away? I never thought you'd stoop to stealing a spirit’s body."
Jurette sneered as he threw Hamendal onto the ground.
"Still, to think you’d evolve magic in such a manner. Then again, you've always been like this. Using the power granted by the world for prosperity, only to obsess over harming others with it—relying on your remarkable creativity, which no other race possesses."
And with those words, Jurette stomped on Hamendal's head, crushing it.
Splat!
“Gasp… gasp…?”
***
Hamendal, now back in his human form, opened his eyes, panting heavily. He was lying on the ground, and the first thing he saw was the ceiling. He had narrowly avoided excruciating pain; if he had delayed releasing the possession, he might have been too shocked to wake up for some time.
As he collected himself, Rockefeller’s face suddenly appeared.
"Hamendal, what on earth happened?"
Rockefeller seemed unaware of the recent events. Since Hamendal had gone deep into the spirits’ ranks, there was no way he could have seen it. Hamendal then explained about the bat that had appeared blurry to him.
"It was a giant bat, about the size of a person, that pulled me out and killed me. It even spoke, so I assume it was a high-ranking spirit."
Hamendal also explained the slug's formidable regenerative ability.
"And above all, the speed at which the hole healed. I think this is why those inside couldn’t escape."
There was no way that the carefully selected individuals had died inside its stomach. Talented as they were, they were likely struggling to break through the slug's insides. But the lack of news until now likely indicated that they were having a hard time because of this unique trait.
"...This is quite the headache," Rockefeller clicked his tongue and looked out at the barrier. The spirits' forces were still concentrated around the slug's body.
“Even if they manage to escape on their own, it’s a problem. Enemies are surrounding us on all sides.”
Hamendal immediately understood what Rockefeller meant.
"In that case, we may need to take a bolder approach….”
For better or worse, they had no choice but to break the barrier and deploy a large number of defenders. They might position a minimal force near the fortress, but that alone wouldn’t guarantee their defense. Fortunately, the spirits were concentrated in one area, so the risk of enemies attacking from all directions was reduced. Additionally, they had placed Arkandric, the core of their defense, in the engine room.
And then there was Hersel...
Hamendal frowned. Hersel, who had apparently been elsewhere, was now trudging back with a staff in hand.
‘That guy… has he been carrying that staff around all this time?’
He proudly gnawed on a piece of jerky with telekinetic magic, asserting his identity as a wizard.
‘This insufferable guy... Is he really just going to let us handle everything?’
Hamendal wanted to say something, but it was hard to argue with Hersel, who had already achieved results by catching that massive fish. Feeling exasperated, he looked over at Rockefeller, intending to report any other unusual details.
Rockefeller, however, was focused on the bat perched atop the slug's back.
"By the way, we don’t have any information on that thing. I guess we’ll just have to figure it out as we fight."
“Professor Rockefeller, about when I was stuck inside that creature’s body earlier… well, it’s hard to explain. I don’t know how to put it…”
It was difficult to express what he sensed with the snake's instincts.
"There was something embedded throughout the inside of the slug’s body. The smell was different, and there was a significant temperature difference."
“I’m having a hard time understanding what you’re saying.”
“Well, it was… like independent organisms moving on their own? I could sense other life forms that seemed to be of a different species.”
As Hamendal spoke, he realized a more precise way to describe it. The wriggling entities within the slug’s organs weren’t just one or two; they seemed to have mouths that gnawed away at the flesh. And as time passed, they even grew larger. These things felt like parasites, living by devouring their host.
***
Meredilla closed her eyes to the sensations coming from her organs. Dormant parasites had awakened and were gnawing away at her flesh, a reaction triggered by the prey that had entered and activated her digestive system. To Meredilla, this was a familiar feeling, no longer painful, though it stirred past trauma.
Memories of her owner, who used to race snails, came flooding back…
- "Here, eat. You need to win the next race."
- "W-what is this?"
- "Shut up and eat before I sprinkle salt."
What he’d forced into her mouth were parasite eggs of an unknown species. Later, she learned something distinct about these creatures: in moments of danger from predators, they instinctively fled, giving back a portion of the strength they had gained from their host.
‘Because of that bastard…’
Meredilla resented these parasites she was forced to coexist with for life. Though they had helped her survive each race when her owner sprinkled salt, they also cursed her with vivid memories of those times, even after many years had passed.
"Ugh."
Once again, Meredilla felt a sharp pain in her stomach.
***
Bellman used a barrier to split the wall. First, he created a single line of barrier magic, which he drove into the wall, then expanded it into a rectangular frame. As a tunnel-like path formed, the nearby onlookers murmured in awe.
“This method makes the regeneration irrelevant.”
“So, all we had to do was install a barrier like this,” Silla said, walking at the front.
“The wall’s thickness is around five meters. Isn’t that quite a bit of mana?”
Indeed, Bellman had made the barrier large and spacious, not knowing the wall’s thickness and using a bit of caution. If the barrier hadn’t been big enough, it would’ve wasted his mana.
“I’ll keep making barriers generously until we know the average thickness.”
They emerged from the short tunnel, and suddenly, the smell of burning filled their noses. Bellman felt his head spin. The first to show symptoms was Silla.
“Wait, I’m feeling short of breath…”
As Silla started to stagger, Leana quickly checked her pallor, eyes wide with alarm, and lifted her up.
“I think I know this feeling. It was like this during training at high altitudes,” she said.
The oxygen levels must be low, given the burning smell. Someone must’ve used a flame here, wasting precious oxygen.
“Just so you know, carbon dioxide is heavier than oxygen. In a confined space like this, it’ll settle at the bottom, so don’t lower your head if you don’t want to suffocate.”
Bellman cautioned and then asked Edina, “Edina, can you change carbon dioxide into oxygen?”
“That’s easy enough.”
“Let’s conserve it for now. We might need it if anyone passes out.”
Bellman stood on tiptoe to address the third-year magic division seniors nearby.
“The barrier magic is consuming a lot of mana. Would you mind keeping an eye on the surroundings for us?”
The seniors nodded and began swinging their staffs.
Water droplets formed in midair and swirled through the labyrinthine interior.
“There seems to be someone over there,” said a senior, taking the lead. Bellman followed closely behind. But suddenly, the senior stopped dead in his tracks.
At that moment, a faint chewing sound echoed.
“...”
As the senior looked puzzled, Bellman moved up beside him, but then froze, his eyes widening at the strange sight before them.
A thin, emaciated figure with white, shell-like skin crouched, tearing into a corpse with clawed hands.
“Prepare for combat immediately!” shouted the senior. The white creature turned its head and leapt to its feet.
It had a helmet shaped like a shrimp and dark, beady eyes. The creature bared its sharp fangs, emitting a grotesque sound.
Crack-crack-crack—
Was it a kind of signal? Holes began appearing in the wall, and identical faces poked out, just like the creature.
Bellman quickly used a barrier to block their entry.
‘I need to observe the enemy first.’
He left the first creature he’d seen untouched for reference. A senior from the knight division raised a shield at the front, and the creature sprang forward from its place.
Leap!
The creature kicked off the ceiling and shot toward them diagonally. The knight division senior quickly raised his shield at an angle to deflect the attack.
With a clang, the creature collided with the shield and was flung back.
The shield-bearing senior turned to the magic division senior.
“Looks like we can keep up with its speed.”
“But why did those people get taken down by it?”
“Probably suffocated. Look, their swords are still sheathed.”
The creature composed itself and charged again. The knight division senior, confident, lowered his shield and gripped his sword with both hands.
“This looks doable.”
As the creature drew near, a slicing sound followed, and its head dropped to the ground.
Bellman carefully observed the creature’s corpse and then spoke to the seniors.
“I’m planning to turn off the lights. Please hold onto each other’s sleeves and follow me.”
Avoiding unnecessary combat was the best choice. Bellman maintained the barrier and led the group carefully, moving quietly enough that even their footsteps were silent. No more creatures appeared, and they eventually returned to the place they had come from.
This area was now an open space with a single wall behind them, different from before.
Bellman floated a light and addressed the seniors politely.
“In this situation, we need a leader to coordinate everyone. Would one of you seniors be willing to take on that role?”
A senior waved his hand dismissively.
“You’ve already been acting as the leader this whole time.”
“You’re Bellman from the Orus family, right? Watching you so far, you’re doing quite well.”
With the seniors’ approval, Bellman immediately started issuing orders.
“We need to conserve the barrier whenever possible. Stay on guard. These creatures could come out from anywhere at any time.”
“...He’s quick to talk casually,” one senior remarked.
“It’s because of that Hersel guy. His bad influence is rubbing off.”
Everyone gripped their weapons and kept a close watch on their surroundings.
Taking advantage of the brief lull, Bellman pondered the mysterious creatures.
‘Where did these things come from?’
They weren’t spirits. The knight’s sword hadn’t been coated in an aura, so it wasn’t a spirit-slaying strike. Yet they didn’t seem to be monsters from outside either.
"Judging by that armor, it certainly looks like an insect... doesn’t it?”
As Bellman recalled a few more clues, a theory flashed through his mind.
“Parasites...?”
At the mention of parasites, Erucel recoiled.
“N-no way. I’ve never heard of parasites that big.”
“Just watching them move through the intestines shows how well adapted they are to this environment. Those creatures we saw earlier were probably made that way from the start. Considering the situation, parasites are the only explanation that fits.”
Unknown parasites. How many were there, and what kinds? Now, each wall had become a potential threat.
No sooner had he thought this than parasites began poking out from the walls.
“They’re coming.”
“Damn it, they’ve chased us all the way here.”
Bellman watched the creatures engaging his companions, gripping his staff tightly. The battle was a grueling war of attrition, and if they couldn’t breach the parasites and walls quickly, they would indeed become prey, just as the slug had warned. This was far beyond what students should be handling.
‘I can’t just focus on defense. I have to find a way forward quickly. Otherwise…’
Bellman suddenly remembered Hersel’s words and couldn’t help but chuckle bitterly.
—Whether you see it as a missed opportunity or a storm to get through, that’s up to you.
Could there really be room to view this situation as an opportunity for growth?
***
Rockefeller gathered most of the defense team and briefed them on the mission. I already had an idea, having overheard what he and Hamendal discussed.
To overcome the Spirit Gate, they needed to rescue those inside the slug’s stomach. What little they knew was that the slug had a terrifyingly fast regeneration speed, and there was also a high-ranking spirit resembling a bat.
“Our knowledge of them is limited. Although we’d prefer to proceed cautiously, too much time has already passed. So, there’s no elaborate plan. We’ll break through the enemies and hunt the slug and the bat spirit. We’ll improvise as we go.”
All decisions would be made on the spot.
“Then, let’s begin.”
The barrier was disabled, and 90% of the defense team crossed the boundary to advance. At the front was Asley, with Limberton at the rear. Running in the middle, I gripped my staff once more.
Then, I felt a sharp gaze from above.
“It’s here.”
The bat looked directly at me, as if to say those words. It bothered me a bit, but I brushed it off.
“Limberton, you’ve saved up your strength, right?”
“My condition’s perfect. I just finished stretching. But where did you disappear to earlier?”
“The club floor.”
Even if it’s my first time seeing it, it’ll eventually be hunted down.
