Chapter 265 – Awakening Chaos – 5

‘Is it like they’re really determined?’

The unique regeneration ability that restores itself no matter how many times it’s crushed by a clang of the flail, and its centipede-like appearance definitely confirmed it was an Immortal Centipede. But many details were vastly different from what I knew.

I moved closer to the battle nuns surrounding the Immortal Centipede. The battle nuns who recognized me parted to the sides. As I drew my Immortal, the monster’s attention immediately focused on me.

‘Not backing down?’

The Immortal Centipedes I had encountered in this world had always slinked back or hesitated at the sight of the Immortal, but this one did not.

Rather, it seemed ready to pounce, its jaw clicking in anticipation. It seemed just like the particularly ferocious group of centipedes I had seen before.

With its disgusting multitude of legs, it kicked off the ground and leaped high. Its jaw swung wide open. I seized a segment just out of reach of its head with my opposite hand holding the Immortal.

ㅡCRUNCH!

The lower jaw, at least twice as thick as a typical Immortal Centipede, snapped at the air. Its jaw stopped right in front of my face. Almost as if regretting it, the creature nervously clicked its jaw again.

Then, it attempted to wrap its body around me with its tail segment. A centipede segment as thick as a human torso coiled around me.

“D-Delta!”

“Danger—”

As the relationship became clear, the Pope Sister, now calling me Delta, shouted urgently.

I calmly swung the Immortal, severing the centipede’s body just before it could encircle me. The severed segment fell to the ground with a thud, green blood gushing from the cut.

Floretta and Luna’s worried voices suddenly halted.

“Both of you, calm down. The things you’re worried about won’t happen.”

Chuckling darkly, Nix approached to soothe the popes. I left the Immortal planted in the ground and inspected the motionless corpse of the Immortal Centipede.

“This is… the eyes, right?”

“Looks like it, kihihit.”

The deep red eyes, vertically slit and attached to the front of the head, stared blankly at me. The armored shell covering the top half of its body was also changed, resembling dragon scales. I pressed down on the shell with my hand. It felt much sturdier than I remembered.

It wasn’t hard to guess why the Immortal Centipede had taken on this form.

“Floretta, Luna. Can you come over for a moment?”

I briefly thought about calling them Evangelina and Seraphica instead now, but decided to ponder that later.

“Yes, Delta.”

“What do you need?”

The two came running, their footsteps quick. The battle nuns collectively inhaled sharply at the sight of the popes in see-through outfits, only to settle down immediately upon realizing I was the target of their surprise.

“I’ll be stepping out for a bit, so can you explain these to them? You can do that, right?”

The situation was moving more urgently than I expected. I had to meet Eclipse as quickly as possible.

“Yes, understood.”

“I will follow your orders, Delta.”

Although I had only said I’d be stepping out for a moment, the popes seemed to realize my destination and nodded with smiles. I made a request to Nix as well.

“Nix, while I’m gone, see if the popes can learn True Death. It’d be great if they could, but it’s not a big loss if they can’t. You never know.”

“Kihihit, got it. Going to meet the Goddess?”

“That’s right.”

“Eclipse? The Goddess?”

No matter how loudly I shouted, there was no response, so I hesitated for a moment. I thought she might be holed up inside like last time, but that wasn’t the case.

I wandered through the silver-lit forest under the moonlight and through the flower fields blooming brightly under the sunlight, but I couldn’t find Eclipse anywhere.

“Where did she go?”

Was she possibly busy with something else?

As I seriously contemplated whether to backtrack, the ground rumbled with a thud, and an Immortal Centipede burst out, digging up the earth.

“What the—”

In an instant, I summoned the Immortal and swung it. The rusted blade sliced through the monster’s body cleanly. The Immortal Centipede couldn’t withstand its own momentum and flew far away, scattering green blood.

Even after having its lower half completely severed, its head was still alive and wriggling as I inspected it. Red vertical pupils and a scale-like carapace. It looked just like the one that appeared in the Holy Kingdom.

‘An Immortal Centipede has made it this far?’

A bad feeling crept up on me. As I discarded the corpse and resolved to find Eclipse somehow, the Immortal in my hand began to tremble madly.

There was only one reason for the Immortal to react this way. I quickly scanned the surroundings, but there were no signs of the Immortal Centipedes appearing. The ground remained still.

Despite this, the Immortal continued to shiver. My gaze fell on the night sky, which felt extremely out of place.

‘There are no stars nearby.’

Unlike the densely packed sky filled with countless stars, a patch of the sky was engulfed in complete darkness. I stopped moving and observed that spot intently.

The darkness was steadily expanding.

‘…Wait.’

Thinking the sky hadn’t been this turbulent before, I squinted my eyes and realized the truth with horror. It wasn’t the night sky.

Countless Immortal Centipedes had clustered together, making it look like the night sky.

With that size and density, there must be at least hundreds of thousands. I tightened my grip on the Immortal. How did they get into Eclipse’s world?

“You?! How did you get here?!”

As I pondered how to deal with such a massive swarm, a startled voice rang out nearby. The owner of the voice landed on the ground immediately.

The slightly roughened breathing and the warmth felt on my skin explained where she had been and what she had been doing.

“Immortal Centipedes have shown up. I came to find out what’s going on, but… looking around here, I guess I don’t need to ask. I think I understand why.”

It wasn’t that Immortal Centipedes began to appear in the lower world; instead, those that overflowed from Eclipse’s world had started spilling over into the lower world.

“So, Immortal Centipedes have started appearing?”

Her gold and silver odd eyes widened in surprise.

“I’ve already killed off all those that appeared, so it’s okay. The problem is what comes next.”

“S-Sorry, you! I couldn’t properly stop them…”

“With that many around, it’s impossible to stop all of them, is it? Don’t worry about it. What I want to ask is something else. What situation led to so many Immortal Centipedes appearing?”

Eclipse’s expression shifted to one of gloom.

“As you know, they emerge from the twisted rifts. And right now, there’s only one world that isn’t ‘twisted.’”

“…Are you saying the worlds swallowed by that lizard have all turned into Immortal Centipede breeding grounds?”

“Yes. It seems it has been scheming. This has never happened before. The twisted ones and those swallowed by it are distinctly different…”

It was maddening. The worlds it had swallowed must be countless, yet they have all turned into breeding grounds for Immortal Centipedes. This meant the longer we dragged this out, the worse it would be for us.

“The fact that its appearance has changed is likely influenced by it.”

“Yes. It’s the only external entity in this world. I’m sorry, you. If I’d had just a bit more power, this wouldn’t have happened.”

“The Goddess doesn’t need to apologize. You’ve been managing to fend them off remarkably well. Do you happen to remember how many you’ve killed until now?”

“I’m not sure. After a few hours at the start, it exceeded the hundreds of millions, and there wasn’t even a moment to count…”

Exceeding hundreds of millions just in the first few hours? That’s an incredibly daunting number. I tightly gripped the shivering Immortal that radiated a deep crimson light.

The pitch-black night sky had widened far more than before.

“Goddess.”

“Yes, yes?”

“After I finish off those guys, please find out where that lizard is as quickly as possible. We need to settle this as soon as possible.”

I was initially planning to prepare as much as possible while that thing recovered from its injuries. But given the circumstances, I couldn’t afford to delay any longer.

The day I regain all my memories might arrive sooner than the day this world is covered in Immortal Centipedes.

“Ah, understood. You.”

Suddenly, I had a lot to do. I also needed to request Parnari to expedite the preparations for the draconic language, and I had to make sure to gather experience points to raise my stats as much as possible.

Even if that draconic language might not work on the Creature that Devours the World, it was better than nothing.

“Well, at least there’s a benefit to having to tackle those things.”

Since Eclipse had visibly shown signs of anxiety when I mentioned that Immortal Centipedes were appearing in the lower world, I attempted to ease the tension by casually speaking up.

“Huh? What do you mean by that?”

“If I kill them all, I’ll gain quite a bit of experience. That means I’ll level up quickly. The level and experience indicate how much my body has recalled past memories, right? In any case, it’s a good thing during the process of recovering my memories.”

“…That’s true. It might not be entirely unhelpful.”

Noticing my intent to ease her anxiety, Eclipse smiled slightly. Meanwhile, the night sky gradually lowered. The tangled mass of tens of thousands of centipedes became clearer.

“Eclipse.”

“Speak, you.”

“I haven’t given you any reward or punishment yet, so don’t be disheartened here. After this is over, I’ll go through the rewards and punishments one by one.”

It began to rain Immortal Centipedes. However, even in such a situation, Eclipse’s voice rang clearer than anything else.

“Yes, you. I’m looking forward to it.”

“…Huh.”

“It seems like we managed to hold them off somehow. You really did well, you.”

Eclipse gently wiped away the beads of sweat beading on my neck and forehead. I planted the Immortal into the ground vertically. Honestly, I hadn’t felt this exhausted in a long time.

Ever since I started regaining my strength, it was mostly about pressing down on enemies with stat advantages rather than rolling or bouncing around as I used to.

Eclipse gathered all the corpses of the Immortal Centipedes piled like a mountain and discarded them into a white space. One of the fragments consumed and shattered by the Creature that Devours the World, perhaps.

“This should be fine for a while. As long as they’re around, Immortal Centipedes will continue to pour out, so it’ll only be a brief respite.”

“Yeah, that might be— ugkh?!”

As I was about to respond, a sudden intense headache hit me, making me cradle my head in discomfort. One knee buckled, pressing down against the flower petals scattered on the ground.

“Why, what’s happening? You?!”

Startled, Eclipse rushed toward me. She seemed flustered and anxiously paced around before, realizing the source of my headache, she gently embraced me.

“It really is as you said. As my body regains the old sensations, the memories are returning as well. Don’t worry, you. It’s just a passing phase.”

‘…No, I was just trying to make a joke…’

This was genuinely happening. I collapsed into Eclipse’s embrace, feeling as if something previously suppressed was rummaging through my head.

The last sensation I remembered before losing consciousness was her gentle hand stroking my head, buried between her chest.