Paradigm Parasite

Chapter 194: “Inside the Stomach”

I thought it would be pitch black in the mouth, but for some reason the reddish-black flesh around it is faintly glowing, and although my vision is poor, I can't see a thing.

And perhaps the biggest surprise was the lack of water.

I looked at Aspizal to see if I could remove the barrier, and he gave me a small nod in return.

I release the barrier, albeit fearfully.

I can breathe - it seems I can.

Aspizal slowly descends the carpet.

He jumped off when he had lost a reasonable amount of altitude.

"What?"

After an unusually long dwell time, he landed.

I was surprised.

What was that dwell time? I didn't do anything.

It's as if we're on the moon. I've never been there, so I can only imagine.

I would like to say I feel like an astronaut, but I'm in the right place. I can't relax.

Other people seem to have noticed, and confused voices are raised here and there.

What's going on?

I lifted the axe, which I had left in my grip, and released it, and it slowly fell.

Catch it in the air as it has been confirmed.

Is there some kind of action in space rather than gravity?

When I move, it feels like something is clinging to me.

Other than that, there is nothing strange about it, and it doesn't seem to be suddenly digested.

"There's something strange about this place."

"...I don't know if there's something wrong with the gravity, but my body feels heavy."

Yonomori keeps her guard up and keeps an eye on her surroundings.

"Hey, I can't help standing there, I want to move, is that alright?"

Hie was also somewhat puzzled, but he probably thought it was no use thinking about it.

The tone of voice is infused with the idea of getting it over with quickly.

I agree with that. I want to get the hell out of this dangerous place as soon as possible too.

The other followed suit and began to move without letting down their guard.

The visibility is not as good as it could be, but it's not as flattering... or as bad as it could be.

... what's going on?

I have good night vision, so I should be better off than most, but for some reason it's hard to see and I can't see very far.

Is it because of this space?

When I looked beyond the darkness, there was a change.

I had a bad feeling, so I leaned back and took evasive action.

A moment later, a ray of light snatches my shoulder and shoots through a beastman standing nearby.

The beastman, whose forehead was pierced by the wind, slowly collapses without a sound.

...That was close.

To be honest, if I hadn't had experience with similar attacks, I might not have been able to react.

The one that appeared from beyond the darkness... what is he?

It was a fish that emerged from the darkness as if swimming through the air.

It had a rounded shape overall, and if it were just a shape, it would be an ordinary fish, but it was less than two metres in size.

If that were all, it would not be particularly surprising, but what is bizarre is its head.

For some reason, the head is transparent and glows.

I could see what looked like eyeballs and brain-like things floating around inside its transparent head.

Hey, hey, hey. What is that fish?

While I'm being surprised, the strange fish appear one after another from the depths of the darkness.

Were they the ones who shot those rays of light?

I'm sure of it, given the circumstances.

The fish's foreheads emit a violent luminescence and the light gathers in one spot.

"The attack you just saw is coming!"

I click my tongue and send out a warning to the surroundings.

"Disperse, all of you! Don't let them move around and take aim!"

Hieda, the first to recover, gives the order, spreads her wings and flies up.

The others, who have recovered from their shaking, also begin to move.

At the same time, more creatures of additional and strange design appear from the depths of the darkness.

It is a translucent creature resembling a jellyfish, with streak-like objects lined up on its surface in seven different colours.

A shark-like creature with an unusually long nose.

A caterpillar-like creature with a bright red body and a flower-like spreading head.

Various other oddly shaped creatures are pushed in from the back.

"Is this the creature's digestive system? Or--"

Aspizal muttered quietly, but he couldn't care less.

The other people are also ready to intercept, each with their weapons at the ready, as if they too are prepared.

The first to rush into the crowd of enemies was Yonomori, whose head, which was close at hand, smashed the glowing part of the transparent fish.

Next to set up was Hie.

He was poking the shark-like creature to death with his horns.

"It's hard to do because there's nothing available."

Aspizal, muttering in a muffled voice, uses his magic to cover them.

A fireball flies into the school of fish, but it's strangely slow.

It lands. Then it explodes, but on a small scale.

The aspizal that released it also frowns, perhaps thinking it strange.

"...Maybe, but the magic power has been sucked out. The power of the magic seems to be attenuated here."

I used a small magic to try it out too, but it is indeed much less powerful than I imagined.

So I shouldn't expect much cover from Aspizal, then?

Well, if you don't have it, you don't have it, or if you can't get through with magic, you can just hit him directly.

I smashed the head of the crayfish-like one that was close at hand with a hatchet.

The jellyfish attacked from above, but I reaped it off with my invisible left arm, the Human Centipede.

The gelatine-like body is easily shattered by the centipede's blow.

Looking around, it seems that the beastmen outnumber them in terms of individual combat power, but not in sheer numbers.

A jellyfish bites into a beastman's head, and the beastman inside burns to a crisp inside.

A caterpillar-like creature breathes fire and burns the beastman to a crisp.

A shark opens its mouth unnaturally wide and engulfs the beastman.

Poisonous-coloured anemones grow out of nowhere and attack the beastman.

No, it's a total surprise box.

I thought that as long as I got inside, I could just crush the organs properly and be done with it, but I didn't expect to be greeted so grandly.

You've been clearing out the enemies in front of you, but there's no end in sight.

A jellyfish tries to bite me, I move back and duck and hit something.

When I looked back, it was the back of Yonomori.

"If they keep coming like this, we won't be able to proceed."

"Exactly. When there's this many of them, just fighting them off is all we can do."

You could try to force your way through, but with this density, it's obvious you'll be stopped in the middle. It would be futile.

"I thought we could go as long as we got in, but it's going to be tough."

The Aspizal, which has magically burned away those deep-sea fish-like creatures, joins us.

"What shall we do?"

"No matter what we do, we're just going to have to push them in like this, aren't we?"

As I reply, Aspizal shakes his head.

"I think if we keep going we'll just jump into its stomach. The fish's structure means that the brain is at the top and the heart is at the bottom, so we'll have to pull out either the top or bottom wall along the way..."

Seriously.

It's certainly plausible if you ask me.

It's not a game map, so it's too convenient to just follow the road and get to where you're going.

"So, do you want to somehow wind your way up or down?"

"I'd like to, but it's still too shallow. I don't think we'll be able to reach the brain or the heart in this position, so I think it's better to go a bit further back."

"As for me, I want to take it down as soon as possible!"

Yonomori shouts as she tears apart a strange, big-eyed fish with her bare hands.

I could hear from her voice that she was slowly losing her composure.

The situation is tough.

Looking at the back, those grotesquely designed deep-sea fish-like creatures are springing up one after another, and there is no sign of interruption.

The beastmen around us were decreasing in number one after another, and some of them were losing their spirit in the battle with no end in sight.

It's bad enough to have your numbers reduced, but it's even worse to have your morale destroyed.

"Hey! What are you going to do with this? There's no way to cut through it!"

Hieda spun and flew around, cleaving off the deep-sea fish, and came to join us.

"Ah, you've come to the right place. Hieda-san! I'd like to go a little further - about 30 metres, can't you do something?"

Aspizal, who had found Hie, switched to Japanese on the way and called out to Hie.

"Thirty metres? That's reckless of you."

"You can do it, right? 'I don't know what's going to be there when we get to our destination, so I'd like to keep it to one or at worst two people to use it if possible."

Use it? What are you talking about?

Hie leaves my question behind and exhales a small breath as if he has made up his mind to do something.

"...... I understand. I'll do it. You'll follow up if we run out of time, right?"

"I'll take care of that part."

"I don't know. I don't know, but I'm pretty sure I don't have a hand in it. I'll gut it out."

What is it? What are you doing?

Everyone has a knowing look on their face except me. What do you mean?

"Everybody get behind me!"

Hieda shouts and drops to his small haunches.

...What is it?What are you going to do?

The next moment, Hie's whole body cracks.

I felt a small sense of dj vu at the sight.

Thinking about what it was, I immediately thought of it.

It was a long time ago, but it was the spider guy I killed one day.

Before he died, he was trying to do something by running cracks all over his body, but the situation was similar to that time.

I was just tilting my head and wondering what it was all about, but - at that time it looked bad, so I put an end to it immediately.

The outer skin like Hie's armour popped off in front of my eyes, and what came out from inside was - what is that?

The basic shape of the body remains the same, but the body has grown nearly twice as huge, with vicious looking spikes all over the body, three horns on the forehead, and the shape has changed to something reminiscent of a saw.

The face is now more insect-like and angular.

"Wow, the insect shape is really powerful."

"Yes, it is. Liberation is risky, but it has the disadvantage that it is difficult to control because it gets stronger rapidly..."

Aspizal was impressed, and Yonomori was heard muttering with mixed emotions.

...What? What do you mean by liberation?From the reactions, this seems to be a common understanding among the reincarnated.

In other words, all of them are in a state of so-called 'leaving transformation'.

What does that mean? I don't have that cool feature, do I?

Well, I can do something similar.

I just have to recombine.

Shedding - or is it more like metamorphosis? Hieda exhales loudly after finishing his moult.

"Let's go."

At the same time, he spread his huge wings wide.

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