Back to the inside of the sacred artifact.
Yeon Taeseon was in his own dilemma.
‘The parasites didn’t have much of a presence.’
Parasites that mimic food, making their hosts ingest them directly, and taking control of their bodies as soon as they enter.
Those guys had been killing the survivors one by one and replacing them, but they hadn’t had much of an impact.
So much so that Yeon Taeseon had even tolerated the corpse where the parasite resided and had even become friends with it.
That’s how little of a threat they were.
‘But to think that they’re strong enough to block a Constellation’s approach…’
Yeon Taeseon looked at the parasite in the form of Han Deokgu, which had stopped even its wriggling before him.
And he also looked back and forth at the search party, which was being joyfully stabbed and beaten by the stilettos.
“Aak! F*ck, it hurts!”
“What is this! Save hyungnim!”
“What did we do to deserve this! Aaaak!”
Even though the parasites were clearly in control of their bodies, it was funny how they were still acting like humans.
The parasites start to form an ego the moment they take root in a body, and it doesn’t take long for them to realize that they are not human, so those guys must be corpses that have died very recently.
“Hmm.”
Well, is there anything to think about?
Parasites that have fully awakened their egos are useful in many ways, but my Constellation has given a scenario.
Then it was right to exterminate them without much thought.
‘The problem is how widespread they are.’
There was no particular way to identify a parasite before the regression.
He gathered starlight in his eyes.
The stars, which gathered and orbited in his deep blue eyes, were like bioluminescent plankton scattered in the sea.
It was the Starlight Eye he had obtained after his regression.
His vision changed in an instant.
Ordinary people looked just white, contractors sparkled like stars, and contract breakers were ashen, as if dead.
And the people infected with parasites… were quite grotesque, with holes gaping open.
Someone with trypophobia would have fainted if they had seen it.
And…
He blinked.
He returned to his normal vision and looked at the girl named Mina, who had been brought by Seoah.
He blinked again.
His vision changed.
There was nothing.
Nothing was visible.
‘…It’s been consumed.’
A complete darkness, not even a hole, not even a remaining white part of the soul.
The child named Mina had been a parasite for a long time.
In fact, it was extremely difficult for a child of a small build to survive until this time.
Unless they were with their parents, and those parents had sacrificed themselves to protect them, or they had entered a camp early on.
But the child named Mina had the appearance of having wandered outside, and Seoah, who had brought her, did not seem to know much.
It’s a cruel thing to say, but it was a situation where it would have been natural for her to have died long ago.
‘But well, if she had become a parasite…’
The monsters would have judged her as one of their own and wouldn’t have attacked her, and she could survive without eating.
The most likely scenario right now was that the thing called Mina had coaxed Seoah and had accompanied her for fun.
“Woong?”
Mina, who had received Yeon Taeseon’s gaze, tilted her head innocently.
At first glance, it was a lovely expression, but Yeon Taeseon could not read any vitality from those eyes.
And soon, it said with its mouth.
‘You’ve noticed, haven’t you?’
Yeon Taeseon had to kill that thing.
The commotion of the search party passed quickly.
The people who had been confused by Han Deokgu, who was spewing writhing tentacles and a flying blade at first, were terrified and stepped back when they saw all the search party members spewing snow-white tentacles like Han Deokgu as soon as they died.
“It’s a parasite. A type of monster.”
Not only Lee Hyeono, who had heard the explanation, but also the faces of the people hardened.
A type of monster that mimics food.
Disposing of their corpses was quite a disgusting task, but if they left the smell of blood flowing in the camp, the monsters that liked blood might flock, so this was entrusted to Kim Seoah’s doll.
“Ppuk!”
About a dozen teddy bears, who had saluted with a strange sound, disappeared into the distance with the tentacle-filled corpses.
“So there are monsters like that too…”
“Maybe we were too complacent.”
“There’s nothing like that in the food given by the Constellation, right?”
“Our Constellation-nim is a benevolent person!”
The people whispered.
Although it was natural to ask how Yeon Taeseon had recognized the parasite, no one asked.
‘The limit of the sacred artifact.’
He had just guessed so.
Yeon Taeseon, who had created a commotion, took a seat in a corner, and Mina approached with a curious face.
“How did you know?”
“My eyes are a little special.”
Mina’s brown eyes turned snow-white.
It meant that the tentacles were seeing the world properly.
At the same time, it also meant that her body was full of parasites.
“Get rid of those disgusting eyes.”
“Eek.”
“And don’t act cute.”
That child is already a dead corpse.
Even if she acts cute, it just feels disgusting.
“Why don’t you kill me?”
“Because I have something to ask.”
If her ego as a parasite is that firm, there’s a high probability that she is the king.
An individual who was infected in the early stages of the Constellation War and can communicate with all the parasites infected after her.
It was ironic that she was in the form of a little girl, but didn’t they say to be careful of women, children, and the elderly even in the martial arts world?
It was the same even in a situation where the world had been destroyed.
“What from me?”
“My Constellation is complaining that your kind are too numerous.”
“Are you talking about the sparkling things?”
“What are the sparkling things?”
Hmm, Mina crossed her short arms.
“I don’t know since when, but the newborn babies would say they found something sparkling and would run to eat it and never come back.”
“Did it look like starlight?”
“I don’t know what starlight is, but maybe? It was sparkling and had a warm feeling, so I wanted to eat it too, but I held back because I thought I’d say bye-bye to this life.”
Although it was a rather abstract statement, it was also understandable from the perspective of a Regressor.
Starlight is the realm of a Constellation.
If the parasites had rushed to eat the starlight, it was understandable that their form would be erased from reality and they would never be able to return.
And because those parasites are eating the starlight, it’s also difficult for the Constellation outside to break in.
Because starlight has a very large effect on a Constellation.
“Can’t you tell them to stop eating the starlight?”
“I said we can’t communicate.”
Just because you’re the king doesn’t mean you can do everything.
Just as a person can’t control the free will of another, the king of the parasites can’t control all the parasites.
He just communicates.
But if that communication is blocked, then it’s just a long-lived parasite.
Yeon Taeseon clicked his tongue and stood up.
“You’re of no help.”
“Hmm, but there is a possibility.”
Mina raised her hand.
“We have twin princesses!”
“Princesses?”
“They’re the twins who were born right after me. Those kids are connected to each other.”
Mina’s explanation was this.
There were parasites who were born as twins.
They, like herself, recognized the starlight, and one of the twins, who saw the very delicious-looking starlight, rushed to eat it.
And his body was erased from the world.
But the twins were originally one being.
The remaining twin princess in the world is still alive with the other princess who had disappeared to eat the starlight.
In fact, it had become a form where two were parasitic in one body.
“So if you just find that princess, you’ll be able to talk to the kids who are deliciously eating the starlight or whatever. Even the kids I can’t communicate with, I thought they could talk to the princesses. Of course, I don’t know if they’ll stop eating.”
“I understand.”
Yeon Taeseon patted Mina’s head as if to say she had done a good job.
What the Constellation wanted was the extermination of the parasites, but in any case, his Constellation’s purpose was to enter this sacred artifact.
The extermination can be postponed a little.
Killing the king in the form of a human girl can be postponed a little.
‘It’s a dereliction of duty, but even Lee Seonbaek will let this much slide.’
And it’s not like he can even meet that princess he just heard about.
At the same time.
“What are you?”
“What are you?”
I was looking at the crow’s eyes, which had changed from ruby to milky diamond, and I was dumbfounded by the sharp voice that came out of its mouth.
“To think that something from inside a sacred artifact would come out…”
“How insolent!”
A cawing, screeching sound was heard.
Hmm.
I briefly wondered if there was a headache medicine for Constellations.
Why does this sacred artifact keep producing things no matter how much you peel it?
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