Advent of the Three Calamities

Chapter 288: Insomnia [2]

“….That was close.”

Opening my eyes, I stood on the second floor of a torn-down building, staring through a shattered wall.

In the distance, I watched as the ground slowly began to recover. Gradually, everything returned to normal, almost as if nothing had happened.

It was then that I felt something press against my right shoulder.

“…..”

When I turned to look, I saw that it was Owl-Mighty.

“Do you recognize this area?”

“No.”

Owl-Mighty replied after a brief pause while its eyes lingered over the area where the hands had been.

Turning its head, Owl-Mighty hopped off my shoulder.

“You’ve been poisoned.”

“….Hm? Did you just say poisoned?”

“Check your ankle.”

I looked down at my ankle. The red print from the hand was still there, and it didn’t seem to fade.

Outside of that, it didn’t look particularly different, but I didn’t take Owl-Mighty’s words lightly.

“What sort of poison?”

Moments prior, when I cut off the first hand, I combined the threads with whatever I could find to create a dummy version of myself and used [Veil of Deception] to hide my real figure.

With my consciousness connected with the threads, I was more or less able to feel exactly what was going on.

That was how I was able to escape unscathed.

But that didn’t change the fact that I had indeed been touched by one of the hands.

“It’s a paralyzing poison. You won’t be able to move in a few hours.”

“That’s longer than I expected.”

“You will be in that state for at least a week before it wears off.”

“…Are you serious?”

Baffled, I looked at Owl-Mighty.

“Yes.”

It didn’t sugarcoat its words and started to explain,

“Typically, the moment a Wraith touches its prey, it injects a specific poison. If they fail to capture their prey immediately, the poison will gradually paralyze the prey until it becomes completely immobilized. Afterward, the Wraith will track the scent of the poison and bring the prey back to their nest, where they will consume it.”

“…..”

I rubbed my forehead upon hearing the explanation.

This damn Mirror Dimension… There was not one normal creature.

‘Good thing I have an encyclopedia with me.’

I probably would’ve been able to find the information myself since I had a book with me, but Owl-Mighty’s presence was certainly beneficial to me.

Being a monster from this very dimension, it knew a lot more than me, saving me a lot of time.

“….Since you said all of this, you must know of a way for me to cure myself from the poison.”

“Yes.”

Owl-Mighty nodded its head.

“The method is simple.”

Lowering its head, Owl-Mighty pointed toward the ground.

“You must drink the blood of the Wraith Queen.”

“….Uh?”

Blinking my eyes to make sure I hadn’t heard wrongly, I looked at Owl-Mighty.

“Are you serious?”

“Yes, and you don’t have much time.”

Owl-Mighty lowered its head and stared at my ankle where strange black veins began to creep and pulse.

‘When did this appear…?’

They hadn’t been there before.

As I attempted to move my toes, a weird sensation overtook me, like thousands of needles stabbing into my flesh.

I knew then that Owl-Mighty was right and I checked the map.

“I have a week, I should still have enough time.”

The map was a bleak gray, scattered with numerous red dots. Mountain ranges were depicted in various shades, and the area I occupied was marked in the lower half of the map, enclosed in a semicircle that indicated the ruins I found myself in.

Looking around me, all I saw were the remains of a massive city.

‘Judging from the semicircle, there must be walls that enclose the city.’

….It was just that I was too far away to see them.

That alone gave me an idea of the sheer size of the city.

“Hmm, this might be a little problematic.”

I was trying to get a feel for the scale of the map, and considering that the outer walls of the city were nowhere near in sight made me a little apprehensive about the situation.

Would I really have enough time to go back?

What if…

“You don’t have much time.”

“….Right.”

Throwing those thoughts out the window, I put the map back and shifted my attention back toward the area where I had once been.

Taking a step forward, I lightly hopped off the building. At the same time I did, I activated [Step of Supression] and the speed at which I dropped to the ground increased.

Bang—!

A tremendous explosion reverberated throughout as the ground split apart and I dove through.

Boom!

By the time I reached the ground, dust, and debris were scattered everywhere, hindering my sight. I waved my hand in an attempt to stop it from reaching my eyes, which turned out to be useless.

The dust still got to my eyes.

“Ukh.”

I knew that my actions had caused a great commotion, but I wasn’t too worried. My entire body… it had turned into dust.

I was now perfectly camouflaged with the environment.

Still, I didn’t let my guard down.

Taking small and steady breaths, I waited for the dust to settle down.

I didn’t have to wait for long as it only took a couple of minutes, and when it was all over, I felt my entire body tense.

“…!”

A grotesque, fleshy humanoid creature with long, writhing hands erupting from its back appeared before my sight. Its skin was slick and pale, and its mouth wide open in a silent scream while its eye sockets gaped with a void of black.

This was the first time I saw the creature’s true appearance, and I secretly swallowed my saliva.

It was currently staring at me, its head tilted from right to left as its hands swayed lightly.

In particular, my attention fell on its hands. It had over ten of them, each pair different than the other.

‘So it wasn’t multiple ones, but just one alone?’

A few things started to make sense to me.

The hands that had tried to grasp me didn’t belong to multiple creatures but one alone. It had over a dozen hands, with each pair having different properties.

“….”

The silence was deafening.

I could hear the sound of my own breath as my fingers twitched.

Behind the Wraith I could see a long and narrow tunnel. I knew that my destination was right behind it, and I needed to pass the creature before me.

As my mind raced with thoughts on how to avoid the Wraith, I suddenly paused.

“….!”

Raising my head, the Wraith stood a few inches away from me.

‘Shit…!’

I hastily pressed my foot against the ground and pushed myself back.

Bang!

In the nick of time, one of the hands lurched down from above, landing directly in the area I had previously been in.

Booom—!

The tunnel shook and once again dust scattered in the air.

From the moment it attacked I understood that I was dealing with a Junior Ranked Wraith.

“This might be troublesome.”

Swoosh—!

One of the hands reached for my throat, and I narrowly avoided the attack by moving my head to the left side.

But if that wasn’t enough…

Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh—!

Several of its hands darted toward my head and body with disturbing speed. One, two, three, four, five, six… the onslaught was relentless, and their sheer number made them impossible to count.

“Ukh..! kh!”

I struggled to keep up as the hands twisted and curled around both of my wrists, desperately reaching for my vitals.

As the hands reached for me and inched closer to me, I carefully and desperately wrapped a thread around each hand to contain their relentless advance.

It didn’t take long for me to wrap each hand twice with the threads.

“Huuup!”

Clenching my fists tightly, I tensed my chest and yanked my arms downward with all my strength.

The threads grew taunt and the arms that were reaching out for me stopped.

But this wasn’t enough.

“Akhh…!”

My face flushed with heat, veins bulging on my forehead as I yanked downward in desperation.

The hands began to retract as my actions appeared to work.

At the same time, the creature’s empty eye sockets remained fixed on me sending shivers down my spine.

My body started to tremble as I desperately pulled down with all my strength.

“Kaah!”

Weird sounds started to come out of my mouth as I continued to pull down. My chest burned, and so did my arms.

I could hardly breathe and my head started to feel light, but I didn’t stop and continued to pull down.

I pulled and pulled and pulled… I didn’t know for how long I pulled, but when I opened my eyes again, I knew that I had done enough.

Suspended in mid-air, the creature’s many arms splayed wide and tethered to the walls of the tunnel.

It took every bit of me to keep it suspended in the air.

“….”

My lungs burned for air.

And to my horror, I realized that I couldn’t open my mouth nor breathe through my nose as every muscle in my body burned.

“Uukh.”

Weird sounds started to come out of my mouth as my body instinctively reached out for air.

My vision grew blurrier and my body started to tingle as my toes curled.

‘No, not yet…’

It was still not over.

Without wasting a second, several more threads emerged from my right hand as they crawled up and into the empty sockets of the Wraith who tried to struggle, forcing me to expand even more energy.

I was now on my last breath.

I needed to breathe, but I understood that if I took a breath, I’d relax and all my efforts would end up being in vain.

So I persisted.

….My legs twitched, my neck tilted, and every part of my body started to convulse. Saliva started to pour down from my mouth as I started to lose the clarity of my mind.

Despite all of this, I continued to manipulate the threads as they burrowed deeply into the Wraith, ravaging its insides.

Time seemed to slow down in that moment as my entire body felt light.

Withing my blurred sight, I locked my gaze on the silhouette before me. I kept my gaze firmly placed on it as I continued to use the threads to thrash around its insides.

‘More… more, more… not enough… more… M—!’

Thump!

Everything came crashing down quickly as I dropped to the ground and the threads returned into my body.

“Haaa… Haaa… Haa…”

My body started to greedily take in the oxygen in the air as my chest rose and fell repeatedly.

I lay on the floor for what felt like forever and I started to grow sleepy.

My eyelids became heavy and my body started to relax.

‘No.’

But I was quick to shake the feeling as I raised my head and looked in the direction of the Wraith which sat motionless on the ground.

“Haa… Haa..”

Pulling myself up, I leaned against the side of the tunnel and caught my breath.

“Haa… This… haa… it was good.. haa… practice.”

The Wraith was dead.

I was sure of it, and my expression finally relaxed.

I now had a better idea of how to deal with the Wraiths. The sockets were its weakness, and each hand had different properties.

“….!”

As my leg twitched in pain, I looked down to see the black veins had spread further up my leg.

That was all that I needed to remind me of the situation and I pulled myself up.

“Ukh.”

With a groan, I leaned against the side of the wall.

‘….I’ll keep in mind to avoid fighting them head-on in the future.’

At the rate that I was going, by the time I’d reach the queen, I’d be dead from exhaustion.

“I’ll jus—!”

My words were abruptly silenced by a sudden, jarring noise. I turned sharply toward the Wraith, my body tensing involuntarily. Threads exploded from my form, darting violently toward the Wraith with a single intention—to tear it apart.

And just as the threads reached the Wraith, Owl-Mighty’s voice echoed in my ear.

“Stop.”

“….”

The threads stopped an inch away from the Wraith.

Curious, I looked at Owl-Mighty who appeared right above the Wraith.

I was just about to ask it what was going on when Owl-Mighty pierced the Wraith’s chest with its beak.

Spurt—!

Blood sprayed all over Owl-Mighty’s body as its head emerged back up.

“….!”

That was when I saw it.

A long and slender black bone.

“This…”

“You’re lucky, human.”

I looked at Owl-Mighty as it spat the bone on the ground.

“….This is a rather interesting find.”

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