Malphegor
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Ch. 89: The Sage and The Monster
🕑 Added 2024-09-18 19:07:32 +0000 UTC"You know?" Jiraiya asked, looking back at the imposter.
The Imposter, trying to hide his nervousness, recited, "8. 2. 4. 2. 1."
"How did you...?" Jiraiya's eyes narrowed with suspicion.
"Just a hunch," the imposter replied quickly. "Why don't we try it?"
Too convenient. Jiraiya watched the imposter walk directly to the combination lock and input the numbers.
As the five dials clicked into place, the sound of the lock mechanism activating could be heard from within.
Click.
The heavy iron door automatically cracked open.
Seeing the secret chamber's door unlock, the imposter smugly rubbed his nose and raised his head in pride. "This is the brilliance of a genius."
In truth, he was only guessing, assuming that the recipe, being one of the original creator's masterpieces, was likely to be the code. Just as he was about to continue boasting, Jiraiya had already stepped into the secret chamber. He glanced back at the dark space behind him, feeling a sudden chill, and quickly followed Jiraiya inside.
The chamber was small, no bigger than half a traditional Japanese room. In its center was a single chair, and the walls were covered with exquisite works of art. Though Jiraiya wasn't familiar with famous paintings, the imposter recognized many of the pieces immediately.
"That's a Hokusai! It's the Great Waves!" he exclaimed. "And that's a work by Yoshitomo Nara! Ahem, even a drawing by Eiichirō Oda!"
Although he nervously shook his head to ease the tension creeping up his neck, he couldn't contain his excitement as he named the famous artists whose works were on the walls. "These paintings… they were all hidden here."
"You seem quite knowledgeable about these?" Jiraiya asked.
"Of course! I used to be…," the imposter started to brag but quickly caught himself and changed his tune. "I'm just really into art."
Jiraiya smiled slightly and continued to explore the walls, checking if there were any hidden items in the chamber. A secret room full of art. What's the connection to the disappearances?
The imposter, while tempted by the valuable artworks, couldn't act with Jiraiya around and settled for just admiring them. These could set me up for life. But with him watching...
Leaning in closely to one of the paintings, he examined it carefully. It was an oil painting in a realistic style, showing a countryside path covered in fallen leaves, winding toward a distant village cottage. The perspective of the painting was remarkable, making the path look as though it stretched endlessly into the distance.
His eyes were drawn deeper into the painting's peaceful scene. He imagined himself walking along the leaf-covered path, feeling as though he had entered the space of the painting itself, strolling down the rural road. As he 'walked' further along the path, he noticed a warm light from the windows of the distant cottage, with smoke gently rising from the chimney.
He couldn't help but tear up. His real name was Momoi, and he had once been a petty thief. After hearing of Jiraiya's fame, he began impersonating the Legendary Sannin to scam people. Though he now wandered from place to place, he once had a home too.
While the house in the painting wasn't identical to his childhood home, it evoked a similar feeling. No matter how beaten he'd been from fighting with the local kids, he could always come home to a warm meal. At this moment, Momoi felt like he was back in his childhood, standing outside his house, where his family would soon open the door and welcome him inside.
Home... I'd almost forgotten what that felt like.
Suddenly, the door of the cottage in the painting moved. Momoi's happy expression froze. He wasn't hallucinating, so how could something in a painting move? But it was true—the door in the oil painting was slowly being opened from the inside.
Then, it swung open entirely, revealing the shadow of a figure standing at the threshold, illuminated by the soft light.
But this was no human figure!
It was a massive, grotesque shape with disturbingly long limbs, resembling a gibbon. Even though its twisted arms hung limply at its sides, its fingers nearly touched the ground. Or rather, Momoi couldn't tell if they were fingers or scythe-like claws.
The figure moved like it was drunk. Its head wobbled back and forth. Even though it was merely a painting, the scene looked so lifelike that Momoi half-expected the creature to claw its way out of the canvas with its scythe-like fingers.
"Ah!" he screamed.
Jiraiya, hearing the noise, turned quickly. "What's wrong?"
"The painting… the painting…" Momoi trembled, pointing at the countryside oil painting. "The painting moved! There was… someone inside! He opened the door! He's coming toward us!"
At that moment, he couldn't find words to describe the unimaginable horror he had witnessed and could only use 'someone' to refer to the figure.
Jiraiya rushed over to inspect the painting. Upon closer look, however, he found nothing unusual. It was just a regular oil painting—nothing seemed to be moving. In fact, the painting was purely a scenic piece; there wasn't a single humanoid figure in it.
Visual illusions can trick the mind, so he touched the surface of the painting. The familiar texture of oil paint confirmed that it was just a normal painting.
Momoi's cries had also stopped, but he continued to stare at the painting, trying to see beyond it. Even though Jiraiya saw nothing wrong, he didn't immediately dismiss what Momoi had experienced.
"Let's go. There's nothing here." he said calmly.
Momoi nodded slowly, his eyes still fixed on the painting, which had returned to its original state. Nothing moved within it now. The grotesque figure had vanished in an instant, and the cottage door was closed again, as though nothing had ever happened.
Was it all in my head?
As they left the chamber, he followed Jiraiya up to the second floor of the mansion. He raised the oil lamp in his hand, hoping its light would ease the fear from the encounter.
Something's off. The air feels... wrong, Jiraiya subtly scanned their surroundings.
Passing a mirror in the center of the staircase, Momoi tried to fix his hair, which had been tousled by his panic. Get it together. It was just your imagination.
The mirror revealed a sight that would haunt him forever. Clinging to his neck was the same grotesque figure from the painting, its twisted body wrapped around him like a monstrous parasite.
Momoi's body froze, unable to move or scream. You are only dreaming. It will go away. This can't be real. This is not real!
From above, Jiraiya's voice called out, oblivious to Momoi's terror. "Coming, Lord Jiraiya? We've got a monster to catch."
---
In the mirror, the monster's beast-like clawed upper limb wrapped around Momoi's neck, its hunched body hanging in midair before him. It appeared as though Momoi was wearing a giant, human-shaped necklace.
For a brief moment, he felt his neck grow unbearably heavy, as if a large weight had been hung around it. The monster then turned to look at him. One hand still clung to his neck, while the other reached toward the real-world Momoi.
The five scythe-like nails slowly spread apart. As the longest nail extended, its sharp tip pierced through the mirror, becoming an object in the real world.
At that moment, he finally reacted.
"Ah!"
Jiraiya immediately turned at the sound. He saw a wrinkled, shriveled gray arm, bent unnaturally, slowly extending from the mirror, almost touching Momoi's head. Not genjutsu. This is real, Jiraiya realized.
"Art of the Raging Lion's Mane!"
He quickly formed hand signs, and his white hair suddenly grew longer, wrapping itself around the gray arm as if it had a mind of its own. The living strands of hair coiled tightly around the grotesque limb, like a python constricting its prey.
"Get out of here, quickly!" he shouted.
Momoi scrambled away, his feet slipping on the floor in his haste to escape.
He didn't look back.
Jiraiya maintained his hand signs, confronting the gray arm. Such strength, he felt the creature's power through his hair. Though the arm looked frail, its power far exceeded his expectations.
Still, this much wasn't enough to trouble him. He intensified his chakra, his hair glowing with a faint blue light as he channeled more into it. With a forceful toss of his head, a gray figure was yanked out of the mirror, crashing onto the floor of the first-floor hall.
The impact echoed through the mansion as the figure hit the ground hard. Jiraiya immediately leaped onto the railing, jumping into the center of the first-floor hall. His eyes scanned the room, searching for his strange opponent.
In the dim corner of the hall, the gray figure slowly stood up. It was a hunchbacked yet tall monster, its appearance resembling both a monkey and an insect. Its gray skin hung loosely on its body, folding and piling up in layers like melted wax.
The head, filled with wrinkles, had hollowed sockets where its eyes should have been, indicating severe degeneration. Its face, now devoid of most facial features, retained only one, with no visible expression—just a mouth that could open to an astonishing degree.
Inside that gaping mouth were two rows of hook-like teeth and a dark red tongue that extended outward. The gray monster swayed as it stood, moving like a drunkard, yet he could feel the cruel and malevolent aura radiating from its body. What kind of monster is this?
This figure resembled the most terrifying nightmare, fitting every horrifying description imaginable. Though it had a humanoid form, Jiraiya sensed no trace of humanity or any other known life form. This was undoubtedly some being from the old time.
The creature slowly advanced toward him, its heavy, deliberate steps akin to a stalker from the abyss. An ordinary person would have felt their blood run cold just hearing the sound of this hellish being's approach.
He began analyzing the monster before him. This was the being responsible for the disappearances in the town. Moreover, the monster had emerged from the mirror earlier, suggesting it had some special ability.
What kind of ability allows it to appear in mirrors? From the way it reached out from the mirror, its movements had no hesitation, as if it was truly one with the mirror.
Ninjutsu that achieves similar effects does exist, such as the Hidden Mole Jutsu, which allows a ninja to move freely through the ground. But a mirror's surface is different from solid earth. As for techniques that manipulate two-dimensional forms, they aren't unheard of. Jiraiya himself could use the Toad Subjugation Shadow Manipulation Jutsu, allowing him to hide in the shadows of others and control them from within.
Shadows exist as two-dimensional entities. However, the technique couldn't match the speed of the monster's dimensional transitions, nor could it achieve the same level of smooth integration between two- and three-dimensional space.
Earlier, the monster's body was half-submerged in the mirror's two-dimensional world, while the other half remained in the three-dimensional realm where Jiraiya could physically grab it. This ability to switch between dimensions without any preparation and to selectively convert parts of its body surpassed Jiraiya's understanding.
It was as if the monster wasn't simply transitioning between forms but was traveling between two worlds, with only the thin surface of the mirror acting as a membrane separating them.
This went far beyond ordinary stealth abilities. Regardless, Jiraiya had to deal with the monster now advancing toward him.
Keep your distance. Test its defenses and abilities. He quickly formed hand signs, his fingers moving with practiced precision.
"Fire Style: Flame Bullet!"
A medium-sized fireball shot toward the gray monster, its orange glow illuminating the dark hall. The flames roared as they struck their target, engulfing the creature in a fiery explosion.
Though it was a direct hit, Jiraiya remained vigilant, his eyes fixed on the smoke from the explosion. Where are you?
Within the smoke, a figure resembling a standing gibbon suddenly darted forward. Its speed was completely at odds with the stumbling, drunken gait it had displayed earlier.
Fast! Too fast! He quickly reacted, forming more hand signs.
"Ninja Art: Needle Jizo!"
His hair grew long again, wrapping around him like a blanket, its surface bristling with sharp needles. The monster lunged at Jiraiya just as the hair enveloped him, its scythe-like claws striking his needle-covered hair with incredible force.
The sharp needles pierced parts of the monster's limbs and claws, sending foul-smelling green blood spraying through the air.
The monster let out an ear-piercing screech. It yanked its pierced limbs free, leaving strips of its own flesh caught in Jiraiya's hair-needles, then turned to flee.
When Jiraiya unwrapped his hair and turned to look in the direction the monster had fled, the creature had already vanished from the hall. But in the dim light of a fallen lamp, Jiraiya noticed a strange mural on the wall.
At the center of the mural was an eerie image: a mountain of corpses, drenched in rivers of blood.
