Comment and Thanks to All Who Gave Coupons! Episode 214
67. Magical Beasts and Returns
213 – Magical Beasts and Returns #1
“No way! This can’t be happening! The Beast, the World Tree’s son, could never escape that brutal temperament!”
I frowned at Satan’s loud wailing.
━I usually have mood swings. And why aren’t you using honorifics anymore? It feels awful being talked down to by a kid.
“Shut up! Nobody can call me small!”
Suddenly, squished.
Satan’s body, pinned beneath Azidahaka, quivered and twitched beneath its thin skin—like dozens of worms and leeches wriggling around under a flimsy layer of flesh. Gross!
“Stop messing around!”
Azidahaka pushed down harder on Satan’s nape. Satan could only scream and struggle helplessly.
“Noooo! This can’t be! My plans… my ambitions!”
“Only you would call smashing and burning everything a plan. Pull yourself together!”
Creeeak.
Satan lost consciousness, drooping under Azidahaka’s grip. I thought he might be dead, but a slight rise and fall of his chest showed he was just fainted.
‘Well, that’s settled. Both sides, I suppose.’
I looked at the massive magical beast Behemoth sprawled out in front of me, inhaling deeply. Its injured eyes blinked slowly, staring back at me.
━….
It looked like it wanted to say something, but all I heard was its rough, bl**d-scented breaths.
━….
After muttering whatever incomprehensible words, it closed its eyes. Just like resurrected Ojimann Dias, it crumbled into sand.
━Not a bone or a single hair left.
Azidahaka, dragging Satan by the scruff, walked towards me.
“What did that beast say to you? Did you two communicate in some way?”
━Nah.
I shook my head honestly. It was my first time seeing a magical beast like Behemoth in person, but I didn’t feel any kinship—only hostility.
Just like the lion, the territorial beast doesn’t tolerate any other males; it seems Behemoths have that same instinctive animosity towards each other.
━Looks like using the jewel to become a mythical creature was all for nothing. The amber stone and its insides are completely shattered.
I shifted my gaze from the sand-dusted beast to Satan, held by Azidahaka.
Swoosh.
The LA’s nail held by Satan also turned to sand. Azidahaka sounded a bit flustered when she spoke.
“The sacred artifact… has disappeared.”
━Hmm.
‘Could it be….’
I narrowed my eyes at the plump Yingyi. Originally, Yingyi had been obliterated by a meteor and was revived by the LA’s sacred artifact, right?
‘Maybe I thought too deeply. Anyway, it’s all over now. Really done for.’
Left with nothing but a fainted Satan, I glared at him.
━All that threatening and deadly persona, and now you’re just out cold. What’s this guy even doing?
“I must admit, it was too easy to subdue him. If mythical creatures fought each other, it would take days for a winner to emerge. Rather than say Satan is weak, it feels like I’ve become too powerful…”
━Must be because I injected you with high-purity magical power.
“Could be. Right now, I feel like I wouldn’t lose to anyone.”
━Anyway, I have a lot of questions for this Satan. I’ll need to extract his inner core too. Just like last time, please do it.
I instructed Azidahaka to extract Satan’s inner core as she had done with the demon king and Nialli.
She nodded.
Azidahaka nodded her head heavily, placing her palm on Satan’s lower abdomen.
Sizzle.
The smell of burnt flesh and clothing filled the air as her heated palm sizzled.
“Meeee…!”
Satan, roused from the living agony of being burnt alive, let out a scream. That’s when Azidahaka raised an eyebrow, mumbling, “Hmm?”
━What? Is there a problem?
“No… but this guy… has two inner cores!”
━What do you mean by that? Isn’t a mythical creature supposed to only have one inner core?
According to Azidahaka’s explanation, an inner core is a divine power gained through the Fruit of the World Tree, which hasn’t been absorbed completely by the beast’s body and crystallizes inside like gallstones or kidney stones.
A beast can only obtain one power, and thus only one inner core can form. Having two inside the body is unusual and definitely strange. As I pondered that, Satan, still screaming, wore a grin that cut across his face like a crescent moon.
Maybe the pain had made him go loopy.
“Meeeeh… haha! The ‘Black Flame’ inside of me is… awakening…! I am the master of magic and the ruler of the black flames, Black Flame Goat Satan! I cannot d*e like this! I must unleash my true power…! Huh!”
Bam!
I smacked the tilting head of the weird Satan with my front paw.
━Just shut it. I’m done fighting for today. What’s with the black flame goat nonsense?
“Grraaaah…!”
Satan screamed.
Azidahaka extracted two orbs—one golden and one black—from Satan’s body, wiping the sweat from her forehead with her sleeve.
“Phew… I’ve removed two inner core orbs.”
“Graaah! My orb! My inner core…!”
Satan was frothing at the mouth. But, now that inner cores had been extracted, he was nothing more than a pitiful little boy.
━Well, look! Already gathered four orbs.
I took the inner cores from Azidahaka and carefully placed them in my leather pouch at my waist. Opening the pouch, the inner cores greeted me with their different colors shining brightly.
‘I really want to gulp these down at once, hehe. I mean, this bag is really sturdy. Not a scratch even after all that chaos.’
The pouch from Azidahaka was an unimaginable storage that could never tear, no matter how dire the situation.
━What’s this bag made of? It’s super tough.
“Maybe it’s better if you don’t know…”
Azidahaka’s words trailed off ambiguously. She fried Satan’s belly and neatly stitched it back up.
━Made of something weird? Why is it better not to know?
“It’s made from Behemoth’s hide.”
━Eww.
I nodded, as if I had just heard something unbelievable. Perhaps it would have been better not to hear it.
“The hide was obtained after I hunted the previous magical beasts for my share. A magical beast’s hide is like a whole new world. So, you can endlessly store any number of items, no matter their size.”
━Ah, I see.
I got a slight epiphany like a light bulb turning on in my head.
No matter how much I eat, I never feel full because my stomach must form another pocket dimension, just like an inventory in a game.
“Gyaah….”
Satan rolled his eyes in pain as his belly growled. I turned my focus back to him and thought quietly.
‘This guy claims to know a lot of things. I’ll have to dig for information before killing or eating him.’
As I softly smacked Satan’s face with my front paw, he glared at me with his red, bloodshot eyes.
━Hey, you were rambling about Behemoths. Didn’t you say I’m the legitimate heir of Laplace or whatever? Let’s hear about that. You’re a spectator who’s seen a lot, right?
“I am no longer even a spectator. Just k*ll me.”
Satan displayed some useless defiance. Whether it was a bravado or genuine, I had the perfect item for this situation.
━Ah, just the thing for this. Not what I brought it for, but…
Digging into my belt pouch, I pulled out a hard, blue glass vial.
“That, that’s…!”
Satan widened his eyes in shock at the fist-sized glass vial I held in my front paw. I leaned it closer to his face and growled.
━That reaction means it’ll definitely be effective. You must not have seen this at Mole Mogu’s shop. I bought this for a hefty price—a single thorn just for you! Behold…
“The Sacred Grenade of Chintao…!”
━That was its name! They say this one has enough power to roast you over a spit. Want to test it out?
I squeezed the vial tightly in my front paw. It crackled ominously, like it was about to shatter any second.
“Pleeease! Stop!”
━Then calmly answer my questions. What does the World Tree and Laplace want to do with me?
“Umm…”
Satan hesitated, not saying anything. As I shook the vial, making the contents slosh inside, he shivered.
“Leviathan Laplace… she wants to k*ll you. Since you carry the bl**d of her enemy, the Divine Being.”
━Just as I thought…
Nodding at information I already knew, Satan continued.
“And she also wants to save you. Has she awakened some maternal instincts? Unlike other Behemoths she’s killed, she left one fruit to ripen until it fell tenderly to the ground. She even hid it from other beasts. That fruit, that egg, birthed you…”
━That’s me. Huh….
I finally started to understand why I, the fruit of the World Tree, was safely born in this world; like the goods of the forest’s owners.
━But why?
“I don’t know. No god can fathom that female’s whims for certain. What’s clear is, you, from the seed that ripened and fell, possess the endless potential for destruction.”
━Destruction?
“That’s right! Like Leviathan Laplace, who shattered the age of gods, you too are destined to destroy and trample something!”
“Nonsense. You’re just trying to deceive me and use me—ignore this.”
Azidahaka firmly stepped on Satan’s arm, which lay on the ground. Grimacing in pain, Satan continued his rambling.
“Laplace, who ended the age of gods, what world will you end? The age of beasts? Or will it be the dwarves’ world? Hahaha!”
━All wrong. The one I’ll finish off is your neck.
I shoved the Sacred Grenade of Chintao into the mouth of the grinning Satan.
━This is why I love quizzes!
Crash!
As the vial shattered, the yellow liquid inside poured down Satan’s throat.
“Guuurrrgh, uuuugh…!”
Satan grimaced, experiencing extreme nausea. His once-boyish body began elongating and sprouting fur until he transformed into a fluffy black goat.
Could this be the size of a newborn kid?
━Meh, eek, eek!?
Satan, now a small black goat, couldn’t form words. He merely quivered, making pitiful sounds like a real goat.
━Meeee!
Desperate to escape the odd situation, Satan thrashed his body around wildly.
“Looks like he’s gone completely downhill now. Pathetic and ugly it is.”
Azidahaka mercilessly stomped down on the transformed Satan, overpowering him with ease.
━This looks delicious! So small and cute, just like a little lamb.
━Meee!
Satan, pinned down by Azidahaka’s foot, bleated at me as if he’d charge.
━Wow, doesn’t seem like his temper has died down.
“Satan has always been sensitive to being called small and weak, so maybe that’s why he turned out this way.”
━So even in this world of beasts, appearance matters.
My eyes drifted past the black goat that was Satan to the fainted sand cat and the bearded blacksmith Totuga lying sprawled on the ground.
━The rare sand cat who wishes to have its tail lengthened or the stone dwarf who asked for a beard to grow…
“While I don’t know about other things, size is a sensitive topic for any male.”
━Hmm, size… I understand that much, but is that enough grudge to want to destroy the world? Because of this guy, I couldn’t acquire the jewel or the sacred artifact, and it’s really grinding my gears.
To gain the power of a mythical creature, or something like it, it seems my only option is to return to the World Tree’s forest, become the forest master, and obtain that fruit.
━But I just realized I didn’t make a single wish. Dammit! If I had known this would happen, I should have asked for a peach. Hey, Yingyi, couldn’t you have left me some too?
━Grrr.
“You really don’t need to think so pessimistically. The only remaining troublemaker among the mythical creatures is O Kong.”
━Right, aside from O Kong, Satan, and Nialli, they’re the only ones who communicate, huh?
“They tend to avoid taking on troublesome tasks, so they’re unlikely to interfere unless necessary. If we play our cards right, they could become our allies.”
‘Looks like he also wants to go back to the World Tree’s forest with me. That could be a valuable strength, so I’m okay with it.’
━Yawn… I’m dying over here.
I stretched, tired from the series of battles.
Anyway, the journey in the desert was truly over now. Tonight, I’d dig into some tender lamb and happily crash out with my face buried in a curvy lady’s soft chest.
But that plan was scorched to ashes the moment I made my way out of the pyramid.
━Hey, puffy boy…!
━What the… What’s this…?
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