He had once lived in the deepest parts of Mizgarz’s ocean. In fact, he wasn’t even entirely certain whether he could be classified as a biological creature. At the very least, he was strange enough to shake the foundations of common sense on Earth.
In the deepest, darkest depths of the sea, he had carried out his own evolution through the use of mana. His form became so repulsive and fearsome that it eroded the sanity of those who even looked at it. His cry broke the hearts and minds of those who heard it as well. He was a monster that had not been born from the Goddess’s will. Though he was more powerful than the Dragon King and surpassed the Lion King, he still managed to live in secret from the Goddess, free from ambition.
Eventually, he clashed with the King of the Ocean, Pisces, who shared the same space as him, and was exiled into space by his compatriot, the Demon Lord Aigokeros—or that was how it should have been, at least. However, he had survived thanks to his near-bottomless vitality, which effectively granted him immortality, and he eventually crossed the barrier between universes and landed on the safe space of Earth.
To him, the Earth was a paradise. Both the waters and the air were polluted, and most importantly, there was no one to threaten him. In opposition to his fearsome appearance, he was a being that lacked ambition and drive, so instead of rampaging around Earth, he simply spent his time peacefully in the ocean.
That was exactly why the wicked god Thulhu, who had crossed over from Mizgarz and made Earth his home, was angry.
“■■■■■■—!!!”
In a sense, it was fortunate that the entire world had been turned to gold. If things were operating as normal, the cry of the wicked god would have turned all of humanity insane with fear and panic.
The angered and frenzied wicked god trod over entire towns, crushed tanks, and swatted away fighters as he looked up at the ouroboros. Unforgivable! I will never forgive that dragon, coming here to disturb my peace and threatening this nice home of mine!
The wicked god, who had, in the past, managed to fight evenly with three members of the Conquering Thirteen Heavenly Stars—namely Libra, Aigokeros, and Pisces—struck forth with his many tentacles in an attempt to finish off the ouroboros. Though he was not as strong as the ouroboros, Thulhu was still undoubtedly level 1000.
Sanieve was unable to ignore such a threat, and he made a troubled face inside the ouroboros.
“What...is that disgusting thing...?”
He had no clue at all what it could even be. However, it was definitely an enemy. A fearsomely strong enemy, at that.
In order to deal with this new, unexpected variable, Sanieve activated his skill, Muliphen. The skill that imposed a limiting wall on the enemy, weakening them. No matter how strong the target was, they could not resist the laws of the world, and this thing could not resist this skill. Being hit by the skill was like being suddenly affected by a new law of physics created by the Goddess. Cooling water would freeze it, and heating water would boil it. Muliphen was a skill that would apply new laws as steadfast as those. It was an utterly unfair ability only available to agents of the Goddess.
And the wicked god, who had been bound by this unassailable shackle howled, breaking divine providence.
“■■■■■■—!”
The skill of agents of the Goddess was broken as if it were glass being shattered, and the wicked god continued to attack as if nothing had happened. Who cares about divine rules or laws?!
The wicked god Thulhu was a bug that had sprouted up in a place the Goddess was not paying attention to. No matter how many rules or laws were pushed on him, there was no way he, as a bug, would follow them. He was a bug because he wasn’t subject to such things. He had always existed in contradiction to the Goddess’s rules, so they would not work. He would not follow them.
Without even understanding what had just happened to him, the wicked god continued to unleash his anger on the ouroboros.
“You damned beast... Die!”
The ouroboros moved. One of the two heads, the metal one, opened its mouth to launch a metal bullet at its enemy. The bullet, which was tipped like a spear, gouged into Thulhu as it passed through the wicked god’s body, tearing his body apart and destroying him. His head was gone, chest broken, trunk in pieces, limbs severed, and tentacles sent flying.
That fixes that, Sanieve thought, feeling secure. That’s clearly a lethal blow. There’s no saving that thing.
However, an unbelievable sight unfolded before his eyes the very next moment. The monster’s head, which should have been destroyed, grew into two new heads. The chest instantly returned to normal, and a new lower half sprouted from under the previously destroyed abdomen. The new lower half, which had split off from the original, also grew a multitude of independently moving tentacles from his upper part. The severed limbs all grew back with extra copies as well, and the cut-off pieces all turned into hideous monsters with minds of their own. All the lost tentacles replaced themselves and more as well, while the severed tentacles themselves also turned into monsters.
“■■■■■...”
Having regenerated all the damage he had taken in a flash, Thulhu once again let out an unpleasant cry. When he did so, something strange happened. The world warped around him, twisting around as it started to be painted over into bizarre, impossible-to-understand vistas.
This was Thulhu’s special skill. Though he probably didn’t even know the name of his unique skill, Thulhu instinctively understood how to use it. The wicked god had once tried to use it in his fight with Aigokeros, but it had been interrupted. His ability— Could it be called an ability? What he was doing was simply increasing the number of bugs.
By twisting the world around him and rewriting it, he could turn everything into a mess. He could reverse fiction and reality and flip common sense and senselessness around. Normality would no longer be normal, and strangeness would only get stranger. This spreading vista was one that would unconditionally displease and cause anxiety in people, one so strange it was unclear whether it was creative or just blasphemous. The definitions of near and far blurred, while solid and liquid states became indistinguishable. What looked red became blue, and what looked blue became green. It was as if a dreamworld where any and all laws no longer applied had been brought into reality as the world was dyed into something else, where nothing could be trusted and everything was incoherent.
“Urgh, ah... Wha...t...is that...?” asked Sei.
“Sei, my B O Y, close your eyes and cover your ears. This isn’t a world you should be looking at for too long.”
Karkinos was able to remain sane because of his high mental resistances, but things were tough for Sei. After all, even Karkinos could tell that he would start to go crazy if he were to stay too long. Sanieve also started to leak a cold sweat, seeing this unreasonable scene.
“Stop that, you ugly thing...”
This time, the water half spewed a breath so cold it hit absolute zero. Thulhu’s body instantly froze before shattering into dust.
However, the wicked god was not dead. Each broken piece regenerated at a shocking rate to form countless Thulhus, which all combined to form an even larger Thulhu. By the time anyone had noticed, Thulhu had reached a height of one kilometer, when he hadn’t even been two hundred meters tall before.
“Hmph. You’re just a stubborn beast... Don’t underestimate me!”
Both heads of the ouroboros howled as it moved to end its unforeseen attacker with all its might.
＊ ＊
“This is our chance!”
Karkinos looked at Thulhu’s entrance as a bout of good luck. He honestly had no idea what Thulhu was, but that didn’t change the fact that Thulhu’s entrance was a happy coincidence.