Even the moonlight seemed too bright for him; Gongyangsin, squinting the eyes he had received from the shaman, moved his colossal body of over three meters.
[It is done. What would a mere appendage know of this body’s desire to become an even greater being?]
“G-Gongyangsin!”
The Immortals, seeing their god awaken from his long seclusion, prostrated themselves in fear. Gongyangsin was a native god. Though they had each seen him once or twice, it was unprecedented for him to awaken and venture outside.
“Oh! Gongyangsin! You are awake! This is good timing.”
But Raswi, upon seeing Gongyangsin, welcomed him with a wave as if greeting an old friend.
“Earlier I heard you ordered the guest to be killed! But is it true you gave the order to kill him?”
“Raswi, you damn wretch! What manner of speech is that before Gongyangsin!”
“What, can I not even ask? Wouldn’t Gongyangsin also wish to speak?”
Raswi is definitely more open-minded. He doesn’t hesitate to talk directly with a god face to face. Is this what they call a scholar?
The Immortals cowered at Raswi’s bold question, but Gongyangsin was not a god of few words.
[Indeed. He is the King of Humans. A great being who, in the distant past, hacked this body to pieces.]
“Oh? Teacher, were you such a great being? But what? King… of humans?”
[But he has now lost his power. This is the only chance to devour him. If he regains his strength, this body will remain forever a pathetic worm groveling before that great existence.]
When the opponent is strong, bow; when weak, bite. For Gongyangsin, this is the most natural law of the wild.
Moreover, Gongyangsin is a jungle god who nearly achieved immortality through the power of devouring. He was blinded by the desire to consume my power.
“Gongyangsin. Then you truly mean to devour Teacher?”
[Right arm. Will you do it?]
“I will stop this! Gongyangsin is already a great being who has gifted us immortality; must you go as far as to devour Teacher?”
[If one can devour, one must. If left alone, he will soon devour this body.]
Eliminate the enemy and make it my power. From time immemorial, devouring has always been the survival strategy closest to the answer. Though now taboo, to Gongyangsin, devouring is as natural as breathing.
Realizing Gongyangsin’s firm intent, Raswi hesitated before answering.
“…Uh. Mother Gongyangsin. As your child, I wish to dissuade you, but?”
[You who worshiped this body as a god, borrowing your lives and power. And now you refuse this body’s will?]
“Yes. Well, though we live in this land, should we not also interact with foreign lands? If we devour a guest from beyond the grasslands, our honor will be utterly ruined.”
[You’ve spent time beyond the grasslands and now come back putting on airs of a scholar.]
“No, that’s...”
[Enough. I have no need of you.]
Gongyangsin waved his hand.
Then the Immortals staggered, a sudden weakness causing them to collapse to the ground. Their bodies, which they had offered to Gongyangsin, writhed, stealing their vitality.
[In the end, this body must act directly.]
Gongyangsin’s body swelled. The roughly stitched-together form filled with power. Gongyangsin, who after death had barely clung to life by using others’ bodies, now, after two thousand years as Ankh, broke his long seclusion and unleashed his strength.
At me.
The ground splits. The moment I read his thought, Gongyangsin had already arrived. His giant hand tried to seize me in one grip.
I must not be caught. If I am devoured, demon god or not, it will mean a direct loss. I immediately moved, slipping out of Gongyangsin’s fist. Fingers of varying sizes grazed over my shoulder.
Whoo, he’s fast. Even though he’s not at his peak, it’s this much? Still, his body doesn’t look sturdy, so if I can disassemble it well...
I spun half a turn and thrust a skewer between the stitched seams. For someone who once made a living as a pickpocket, tearing human hide is—
[Fingers.]
The moment Gongyangsin murmured that, his five fingers suddenly bent backward. The joints inverted, his palm became the back of his hand, and his right arm became his left, bending outward.
Crack. My skewer was caught in Gongyangsin’s backhand.
“What?”
[Indeed. You’ve grown weaker.]
Muttering, Gongyangsin squeezed my hand and crushed it. A crunch, the sound of grinding, came from within my grip. I vividly felt the sensation of my fist being pressed and turning to liquid.
The inverted joints were no problem at all. Gongyangsin’s body was originally cut and stitched together. How the joints are attached matters little.
Coming to my senses, I turned the skewer back into a card and used the reduced volume to slip out of Gongyangsin’s grasp.
[Oh. How did you do that?]
Gongyangsin, still intrigued, swung his arm with the broken joint. A fist came at an angle not permitted to humans. Before I could react, I was struck squarely.
“Ugh!”
I felt as if the world was repelling me. My body, tossed for a while, caught on bushes and snapped branches before finally slowing.
His arm bent outward? I shouldn’t expect common sense. Just as I was struggling to rise, Gongyangsin suddenly leaped before me.
[Caught.]
Even though he was still ten steps away, his arm stretched out long and swallowed the very space I occupied. The stitched-together body also had outstanding elasticity.
It’s not even a human body anymore! I urgently rolled to dodge the fist, when suddenly a shadow burst in and blocked my front.
“Gongyangsin!”
Wham!
Raswi grabbed Gongyangsin’s right arm. Even his massive frame, over two meters tall, could not withstand Gongyangsin’s power and was dragged along helplessly.
“Hup!”
Raswi inhaled and used his Inner Energy Technique to grip the ground. His feet dug halfway into the earth as he endured the tremendous force. Rrrrip. After churning up the ground completely, he succeeded in halting Gongyangsin’s arm.
Seeing his follower rebel surprised Gongyangsin. It wasn’t just because he blocked the way. Unlike the other Immortals, Raswi still remained healthy.
Gongyangsin spoke.
[I clearly withdrew my power, yet your right arm still harbors this body’s strength. Has your body been away from the grasslands too long?]
“I don’t know! This too must be Gongyangsin’s will!”
Even so, Raswi held the arm and did not let go. Gongyangsin asked.
[This body’s actions are its will, so why do you obstruct this body?]
“Those who helped me when I was trapped in Mujeogaeng! After we met by chance, I even received the wool of Yangwang as a gift! I welcomed such people as guests myself; if I now ignore all ties and let them be killed, wouldn’t it go against tradition!”
[Obeying this body’s will is also tradition.]
“I know! But if two traditions speak differently, shouldn’t I follow the one that suits my heart!”
Raswi’s position was different from the other Immortals. He had personal ties to me, and was the one who had guided me here. With his straightforward personality, he could not betray loyalty just because a god commanded it.
Raswi grinned and continued.
“And if possible, I would like to uphold the other tradition too! Gongyangsin, do you truly have a reason you must devour Teacher? How about reconsidering now?”
[Hah. This body’s appendage seeks to control this body.]
“Not control, exactly; I’d rather call it sincere advice...”
[I need none of it.]
Gongyangsin swung his arm lightly.
In that moment, his arm bent like a whip. As though carrying Raswi’s huge body was no problem at all, his arm stretched all the way to a distant boulder. Before Raswi could even let go, he was slammed headfirst into the rock.
[I must cut off limbs that do not obey. Even if it brings tears of blood.]
Bam, bam, bam. Gongyangsin pounded Raswi’s body against the ground repeatedly, then irritably tossed him aside. Raswi’s body soared with terrifying momentum and vanished from sight. Having dealt with the troublesome nuisance, Gongyangsin turned his head and sought me again.
At that moment, I was behind his shoulder.
The right arm. Whether due to Raswi or not, Gongyangsin’s right arm was oddly sluggish. Additionally, perhaps because his stitched body was still unfamiliar, he was unaware of his own blind spots.
[Hm? Where are you?]
“Right here.”
Gongyangsin didn’t even notice when I slipped a card between the gaps of his skin. Just before he noticed and moved his arm, I channeled lightning into all the cards at once. The cards wrapped in lightning trembled, burning the flesh and causing the muscles to move erratically.
Gongyangsin cried out in shock.
[What have you done to this body!]
“Less miraculous than stitching skin together.”
Gongyangsin’s body was filled with a strange energy, making it impossible to control, but Gongyangsin himself did not have great control over his own body either. His arm convulsed, and the joints bent and twisted as if there were five or six of them.
[You!]
Furious, Gongyangsin tried to move, but it was not easy. Unable to control his wildly twitching body, he could only flail around.
Crack, boom. Trees caught in Gongyangsin’s rampage were uprooted, and churned-up earth and sand rose like clouds. I dodged the uncontrollable body, rolling on the ground, and randomly grabbed nearby bushes.
The first thread was made by extracting tree fibers. Using the Tree of Origin, I transformed the bushes into tough vines. I roughly scattered them over the rampaging Gongyangsin’s body. There was no need to fashion a noose. Gongyangsin’s body, bumpy from all the stitching, was itself a snag. Tangled in the vines, he tripped over himself and fell.
I stretched the vines little by little and launched myself toward a nearby giant tree. With a card in one hand, I swept it past the base of the tree. A portion of the tree turned into a card, and the thick pillar began to topple diagonally.
[Insolent tricks!]
Just as the enraged Gongyangsin mustered all his strength to charge at me, I focused magic power into my finger and cast a spell.
“Set, Ri. Bolt!”
[Graaah!]
Lightning surged from within. Muscles convulsed and paralyzed against Gongyangsin’s will. For a brief moment as he writhed, the giant tree continued its fall, accelerating toward him.
Boom. At last, the giant tree crushed down on Gongyangsin. Under nature’s weight, accumulated over hundreds of years, even Gongyangsin could not endure and dropped to one knee. Yet Gongyangsin was also a god who had cultivated his power for over a thousand years. With amazing brute strength, he withstood the weight of the tree.
[This much...!]
Tsk. Was using the environment not enough? As I was feeling my lack of power and looking around, Raswi’s shout came from above.
“Gongyangsin! As your child, I shouldn’t dare strike you, but!”
The voice rapidly drew near. Raswi, pulling back his thick right arm as far as it would go, locked his eyes on Gongyangsin and descended like a meteor.
“My right arm is Gongyangsin! This fist is struck by you yourself, so it should be fine!”
[Right arm...!]
“Come to your senses! This is a strike of sincere advice!”
With a gallant shout, Raswi thrust his fist at Gongyangsin.
Though Gongyangsin had shown little reaction to any attack so far, this one was different. Raswi’s right arm was Gongyangsin’s power itself. Gongyangsin’s body crumpled, twisted, and warped. Crushed by the fist, Gongyangsin crashed into the ground with terrifying force.
An impact that shook the earth. Pinned to the ground and crushed by the giant tree, Gongyangsin spat blood and howled.
[Graaaah! You...!]
“Set, Ri, Celsius! Fahrenheit!”
An incantation was heard from somewhere, and a moment later, a massive curtain of flame descended.
A tremendous firepower, difficult for me to achieve alone, engulfed Gongyangsin. The magical flames climbed my vines and burned Gongyangsin’s entire body.