Ah, this is dangerous.
Puhak!
“Ow, ow…”
This is really dangerous.
I’m not joking; it’s truly dangerous.
Wooooooo!
Ahhhhhh!
Dah-gak
Dah-gak
Dah-gak dah-gak dah-gak dah-gak
From within the stagnant darkness that clung like a dense fog, something leaped out.
I was taken aback to see the skeletal sharks I had just shattered swimming towards me completely intact again, but I felt an odd sensation surrounded by countless corpses of fish.
I thought the sea was a safe place, with only mermaids and salmon around, but to find so many corpses stacked in the deep sea darkness…
The number of fish corpses surrounding me was already beyond what the naked eye could count.
‘One, two, three… ten… a hundred? No, could it be more?’
When a kraken with hundreds of distorted tentacles appeared, even the god’s corpse that was parasitizing me freaked out.
Even though they were all tentacles, it seemed especially scary with the kraken’s tentacles. When I expressed my confusion, the god’s corpse merely muttered some incomprehensible nonsense about, “There is beauty in tentacles!”
There was more than just that.
A dead whale with an alien-like protruding mouth mixed with a shark-shaped corpse.
The feast of corpses laid out before me was, in fact, me.
Up, down, left, right.
And even in the darkness of the deep sea, the distorted corpses were all staring at me.
“Ugh, the visuals are really horror-like…”
The gigantic deep-sea fish corpse was rather on the cute side.
What was more disgusting than those were the thousands of horrifying sea spiders wriggling with long legs, thrashing the seawater or crawling slowly up the reefs.
Even if they had six pairs of legs, the image of those little, thin bodies adorned with hundreds of human-like eyeballs was quite chilling.
If only they had been well hidden in complete darkness, it wouldn’t have bothered me, but the place I was in formed a basin topography, surrounded by numerous deep-sea reefs that grew like mountain ranges. Thanks to the plankton infused with mana illuminating the deep sea and the reflective crystal corals, the sight of the white sea spiders covering the vicinity was abundantly clear.
The sea spiders looked like a bite-sized delicacy, but even I couldn’t eat so many, could I?
No… could I even manage to eat them?
With so many eyeballs, they might taste like eyeball candies…
Hmm, anyway, the situation wasn’t good for testing.
At that moment, the water’s current shifted.
Kyaaaaaaa!
Kikiikikikikik!
The legion of corpses, which had merely been glaring at me, began to move.
Well, if they come closer, that’s good for me.
Thud!
As a massive school of piranhas rushed towards me from behind, I unleashed divine power from my hands.
[Miracle – Divine Body Destruction]
Kwoom!
The colossal shockwave that erupted from under the sea slammed into everything around me like a long-dormant whirlpool bursting forth.
Thud!
Thud!
Boom!
The first Divine Body Destruction obliterated all fish corpses below a certain strength threshold.
“Get up.”
But the necromancer mermaid wasn’t just sitting idle either.
Before I knew it, the mermaid, as if to befriend the darkness, stretched her aching body, reaching out her hand. Each time she gestured, the sinking corpses began to reattach themselves.
Then, the many thin, clothing-like sea spiders began to crawl back up from the bottom, and the kraken’s tentacles that had sunk into the darkness began to rise towards me once again.
‘Sigh, they just won’t stop, will they.’
Just breaking off some head or bone wasn’t enough to stop the corpses controlled by the necromancer.
That must be one of the necromancer’s most terrifying tactics.
Once dead, they cannot be killed. No matter how much you break them down, they crawl up steadily from the ocean floor, tightening their grip around the target’s neck.
What crawled up from among the veils of deep sea darkness were all corpses.
‘But if I just break them again, that ends it.’
Clenching my fist, I prepared the miracle of Divine Body Destruction.
Even if it’s a meaningless war of attrition, someday that necromancer mermaid will get exhausted and fall over.
I have nothing but confidence in fuel tank struggles.
However, I momentarily forgot that the necromancer mermaid was a necromancer.
Thud!
“What the?”
The necromancer mermaid looked at me through her mechanically creaking gaze, then plunged her hand into her own chest.
From the spot where she inserted her hand, a black malicious entity writhed as if alive, and soon after gathering enough malice, the necromancer commanded all the corpses.
[Corpse Manipulation]
“Ah…”
[Soul Absorption]
At that moment, I felt something being pulled out from my entire body.
No, I wasn’t the only one.
The corpses I had smashed also ooze out something ink-like, and eventually, those black shadows that resembled souls began to gather into the mermaid’s hand.
My heart, feeling as if all its blood had drained away, started to feel colder.
As something wriggled out of my body like vines, I instinctively thought I must not lose it.
Without realizing it, I clenched my teeth to catch what was trying to escape from my body but it was of no use.
“Ugh, extreme…!”
[Soul Absorption]
Ah, ah…
No, no, no…
They’re going to take it from me… really going to take it…
“Uh!?”
[Soul Absorption]
Ah, it’s bad… I’m in trouble.
I’ve lost something.
I don’t know what the necromancer mermaid has taken from me, but I know it’s something precious.
My body felt heavier than usual.
When I tried to move my fingers, even the slightest movement made my fingertips tremble a bit.
It had been a long time since I had felt the fatigue of the flesh in the body of the holy maiden.
Most of my complaints about being tired had been mainly mental, but it had genuinely been a long time since I felt real physical fatigue.
It seemed it wasn’t just me. Even the jellyfish hat, which resembled tentacles, felt like it was sinking weakly.
‘No, this isn’t fatigue…’
Numbness?
No, it was closer to physical loss.
It wasn’t just my hands trembling; the muscles or body parts that composed my hands.
Or perhaps tendons or ligaments weren’t moving at all.
As if the soul of that part had been completely taken away.
‘Divine power… it’s not working well.’
It’s not that the divine power has completely disappeared, but it was harder to utilize miracles because it’s been a while since I felt the fatigue of the flesh.
The miracle of Divine Body Destruction essentially involved tightly compressing divine power into my hands and then exploding it, but since my hands wouldn’t move properly, I couldn’t compress the divine power.
If the miracle couldn’t work properly, it was already too late to call Menelapie.
If I were given just a bit more time to adjust to my current body, it might have been fine, but it seems I wasn’t given much time at all.
[Soul Distribution]
As the mermaid who absorbed something precious from me began to redistribute it to her corpses, the shattered bones reattached more perfectly than before, and their spikes and teeth gleamed sharper.
‘There’s definitely a reason they referred to drones as S-grade monsters…’
Though, it wasn’t another S-grade monster; it was precisely the necromancer who could create my most vulnerable state.
Of course, despite the capabilities of an ordinary necromancer, one wouldn’t even be able to interfere with me because of the abstract counters.
No, the necromancers until now couldn’t even try to meddle with me before being directly traced and suffering from backlash due to my resistance and divine power, bleeding and deteriorating their bodies.
But that mermaid somehow managed to create the theoretical situation.
That meant that the necromancer mermaid was of higher caliber than those cursed necromancers I had encountered countless times during the war against the Demon King in my previous life.
Eventually, the necromancer mermaid pointed a finger at me.
[Eat.]
Hey, eating is the content of my broadcast!
Don’t steal from me, you brat!
Kiieek!
Kyaaaaaaaaa!
Kikikikik!
Kikiririk!
Gurgle!
With the necromancer’s command, the reanimated corpses surged towards me again.
I thought it would end simply… but now my head began to ache.
I decided to force my immobile body into action.
I guess I would have to take some damage. After all, there weren’t any fish that could pierce through my steel-like body…
Thud!
“Kyah!?”
Wait, how did it pierce me!?
My skin is tougher than steel!
I had to crush the jaws of the ghoul that was gnawing at my neck with my bare hands.
Even after breaking its teeth, it still tried to bite at me, so my tentacles quickly wrapped around the entire body of the ghoul, crushing it.
‘Oh no… did it really redistribute my soul among those corpses to enhance them?…’
I wasn’t Teresa, and my understanding of necromancy was nearly nil, so that was all I could think of.
That meant those corpses could easily bite into my skin one by one as well, right?
“Ah, crap…”
It looks like I’ll have to engage in a dirty, sticky mud fight after a long time.
Running away would be pointless.
After all, the holy maiden had no option to flee.
I wasn’t scared.
I had endured through too many maddening experiences to fear the darkness of the deep sea and the legion of corpses.
Without hesitation, I slightly crouched and then fiercely swung my fin, charging directly toward the corpses that were baring their teeth towards me.
Brrrddddd!
Crack!
Splash!
Thud!
Smashing the teeth with bare hands.
Repeatedly shattering with punches.
The tentacles gnawed at the kraken’s spikes, tearing and smashing through the bodies of countless nameless corpses. I continued to repeat the process of smashing and tearing them apart.
In the meantime, quite a few spikes and teeth lodged into my skin, but they weren’t fatal.
After all, being dead, the concept of fatal wounds didn’t really fit me.
One. Two.
Puhak!
Three, four.
Splash!
Thud!
Five, six.
SDVIMVFoanVzY1YwSVhjamMzUkt1Ukw1enk4TVJUTmV1UEtPNUE5S0ZnS2Zhb3dXSmdadXJzREZnZXJOS0VSNg
Seven…
Puhak!
Thud!
Twelve, thirteen…
Thud!
Thirty-two…
Forty-four…
Thud! Puhak!
Fifty-one.
Fifty-two…!
“Are there no ends to these bastards…?!”
They were mindless corpses.
Being corpses, they had no fear, and being corpses, they followed commands diligently.
I managed to force off the jaws of the ghoul that was gnawing at my neck and whipped my tentacles to smash its body.
Once the body was shattered, only the teeth, lacking any swimming ability, clattered and sank into the deep sea.
○○○○○
Even though Shia had hidden the broadcast chat window, the broadcast itself had not stopped. Every moment of fighting against the legion of corpses was captured by drones, continuing the broadcast.
-Wow, is that a movie?
-The movements are insane.
-Wow, you’re surrounded, but you’re swimming through the gaps…;;;
-Noona… so strong….
This was different from usual, even Shia’s aura was diminishing, and the content centered on cooking was different, but her combat was invaluable in itself.
The battle of an S-grade hunter isn’t something you can see easily.
Shia hadn’t received an S-grade hunter certification, but she was already recognized for having strength surpassing S-grade, a consensus in the genre hunter gallery. Therefore, witnessing the battle of someone with such abilities was significantly fancier than watching an ordinary movie.
In fact, many among those who came to watch Shia didn’t do so to see her but rather longed to observe her overwhelming yet magnificent combat, seeking dungeon raid footage.
-Wow, what is that?
Grwawww!
The massive sea serpent swallowed Shia whole, yet even as spikes like Spiked Hell pierced Shia’s body, the viewers didn’t worry.
Shia quickly shook it off and broke free by smashing the inside of the serpent’s mouth.
While the numerous spikes embedded in her body looked painful, Shia pragmatically brushed them off with her hands and gracefully moved her fins towards the mermaid princess of Hyung-An.
The basic strategy in battles against necromancers is to target their body.
That is, focusing on the necromancer herself, and Shia was charging towards the necromancer with diligence, piercing through thousands of the corpse troops.
[Advance]
[Kill]
[Eat]
[Rush]
[Get Up]
But the necromancer mermaid was no pushover either.
The mermaid princess of Hyung-An ripped her own skin or inflicted wounds upon herself, releasing black malice. Each time that malice burst, the movements of the corpses became even more energetic.
Due to suffering horrific self-harm multiple times, the face of the mermaid princess of Hyung-An turned pale from the agony, yet she still rejected Shia.
As the previously destroyed corpses began to reattach themselves, they gnawed at Shia from every direction and from her blind spots.
“Ugh…!”
Miracle had become nearly unusable now. Shia’s entire body had completely morphed into the anatomy of a mermaid, and finding it hard to move was a bit annoying.
If it were usual, she would’ve kicked them away at this moment, but unknowingly she extended her fin, or having not adapted to swimming in the deep sea, her body would move in the wrong direction, resulting in unfortunate mishaps where she couldn’t dodge attacks that she normally would’ve avoided.
She had already taken multiple hits from attacks that wouldn’t have landed in normal circumstances.
But the viewers weren’t worried.
-Wow, Noona is rolling around today! Kkkkkkk
-That does seem to be an S-grade mob; the necromancer is so strong as well.
-But isn’t it really strange that a mermaid is a necromancer?
-Strange as it is, she’s really strong.
[‘KawaiiHorned’ has set a mission of 1,000,000 won!]
If the gallery master wins, it’s double.
[‘HighLegHousewife’ has donated 50,000 won!]
Browser, you’re so pretty.
[‘IAmNotAnIdol’ has donated 10,000 won!]
Do a 720 while smashing the bone shark, Noona.
Instead, they faced…
Even as Shia was bitten into, the giant shark had already turned into mere bones, they remained unfazed.
Shia emerges unharmed even after covering herself in the digestive fluid of Shiplani, and regardless of the worse circumstances that happened to her.
She always told her viewers.
Not to worry at all.
-But isn’t this a little weird?
-Are you okay?
-The gallery master wouldn’t just be the gallery master for nothing, right? Kkkk
But the atmosphere began to turn strange.
[Soul Absorption]
“Ugh…!?”
[Soul Absorption]
“Ah, th… that… ha… ha… ha…”
Initially swift and unhindered, Shia’s movements began to noticeably slow down.
-Those moans are too funny!!! Kkkkk
-This is it today.
-Ooooh…
-But is this not dangerous?
-What is the streamer doing?
-Nah, she’s coming from above!
-What’s she doing? It’s not on-screen?!
-What’s happening?
-Get out!
-Get out!!!
-Run!
“Ahhh…..!”
Naturally, the drone had already switched to stealth mode, so Shia couldn’t see the viewers’ chat, yet even so, the viewers began to realize the increasingly strange atmosphere.
As Shia’s movements slowed down to where they were visible to their eyes; naturally, there were attacks that she would have previously dodged but began to land, and the skin that had boasted the toughness of steel had become quite damaged with countless fish teeth marks.
Shia forcefully pulled out the teeth that had pierced her neck, and the viewers began to observe that she seemed to be visibly fatigued.
-No way, is this actually dangerous?!??
-Did they just enter, really?
-What? You think she’s going to die right now?
Most of the trolls had that confidence, not because they thought Shia would definitely die, but it was more of a mischievous arrogance based on absolute trust in her invincibility.
Yet no one could have imagined that a genuinely acute danger would strike at this moment.
There was a conviction that she could never die.
No, it was more than not dying; there was an unwavering trust bordering on belief in her strength, pushing many viewers from the outlandish idea of hilarity into a state of genuine fear.
Shia pulled out the spikes lodged into her neck, and her arms drooped weakly as if lacking strength from the movements of the currents.
-You’re not dying, are you?
-Move!!!
-Move!
-What’s happening?!
-She’s losing focus!
-Don’t close your eyes!
-Keep them open!!!
-Keep them open!
-No, no way, Noona!!!
[‘KawaiiHorned’ donated 100,000 won!]
Avoid, avoid, avoid, avoid, avoid, avoid, avoid, avoid, avoid…
In the eyes of the viewers,
And the mermaid princess of Hyung-An,
It appeared that Shia’s chances were increasingly waning.
However, there were two things they didn’t know.
[Haaaaaa…….]*
One being the streamer, Shia, was stronger than they perceived her to be.
Crshhhh!*
The other was that the corpse of the holy maiden would summon something to replace lost sanity in case of disappearance.
With a horrendous sound, tentacles burst forth from Shia’s head.
[Block…!!!!]*
The divine corpse, which had been disguised as the jellyfish hat Shia was wearing, began to release an overwhelming number of gigantic tentacles possessing hundreds of threads, even without utilizing the miracle of [Divine Body Descend].
It wasn’t a random release.
Those high-density divine tentacles instantly filled the surrounding corpses and shredded them to pieces, extending further out.
The divine corpse inhabiting Shia’s body momentarily seized control, unleashing tentacles that defied the laws of physics and mass, spilling forth from that little jellyfish hat, leaving the viewers in utter astonishment.
-Wow…
-Crazy, what is that?
….
One tentacle alone would have merely been grotesque.
Yet given its tens, hundreds, and thousands, as they began to fill this vast scene of the deep sea reflected on the broadcast screen, it reached magnificent heights.
And that spectacle… no, the absurd, incomprehensible miracle performed right before their eyes was…
“Kuuhhhh….”
?
-Wait, is that girl sleeping??
Due to the unprecedented physical exhaustion, I had blacked out for a moment.
-What the heck, is she somnambulant??
-What is this?
-Didn’t they say she wasn’t going to lose consciousness due to her injuries!?!?
-Wait, is she sleepy or get more tired than she seemed?
-No way…
-That’s not possible, is it?
“Cooouuuul….”
