A Horror Novel’s Supporting Character Wants to Live as a Human

Chapter 251

Eibon, who had been banging her head against the statue, looked down dazedly.

She could taste the trickling blood from her lips.

She couldn't distinguish where she had been just moments before.

The sound of a waterfall was still echoing in her ears.

Yet at the same time, what she was gripping was a cold statue covered in blood.

Thin strings extending from the statue's mouth area were tightly binding her arms.

[You finally seem to have come to your senses.]

When Eibon, her face covered in blood, turned her head,

She saw the white god who had been watching everything without moving a single step.

He spoke in an annoyingly calm tone as if he had expected this.[I thought you would be dragged away like that. You barely escaped the 'bewitchment.']

"Th-this, wh-what exactly, what is."

Eibon asked in a nasal voice,

But the white god only smiled crookedly.

[The second one is coming. Won't you prepare?]

The second one? What second one?

Before she could ask back, Eibon felt something strange.

She couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was. But something bad would happen soon.

As soon as she thought this, her chest throbbed.

"St-stop."

She couldn't let go of the statue.

The black strings connected to it were linked to her arms.

The moment she realized this fact, along with excruciating pain that directly struck her ribcage, Eibon's body collapsed forward.

It felt like being hit directly in the chest by a large boulder that had fallen from a cliff.

Eibon could only make choking sounds without being able to breathe, not even knowing how to properly cope with this pain.

The world turned white, then flickered back to its original colors. A thin ringing sound echoed as her head felt heavy.

Sweat flowed down her blood-covered face. She had never imagined that heart-crushing pain could be this terrible.

She thought she might die like this.

For a so-called test, having fallen for such deception, she thought she might die in this dark cave where no one would know.

Eibon, writhing on the floor and curling up from unbearable pain, looked like a crawling insect.

The white god watched her and slowly opened his mouth.

[Your ancestor had contact with Idra and was forcibly opened to cosmic truths. No matter how much she was under my protection, the secrets that Idra forcibly showed were more than she could handle.]

"Kgh... kheuk."

[You inherited the characteristics of your lineage exactly. You must have been able to feel the language of the universe and hear the stories of stars from birth. Moreover, even the recklessness to want to glimpse truths you dare not interpret. You are a mutation that rarely occurs among ordinary individuals, a variant.]

The white god who had been leaning against the wall pushed off and slowly walked around the narrow cave.

[For my believer to discover such a creature. I don't know if it's because the believer is clever, or if your luck is good. You are special, human. I won't deny that fact. But you are weak, and easily crumble under such pain. As all humans do.]

Eibon, covered in blood and sweat, could see feet moving back and forth at a steady pace.

Even in the pain tormenting her, she forced herself to writhe and crawl.

The white god continued speaking without even glancing at Eibon.

[But my believer shouldn't spend too much time on weak humans like you.]

-Swish, screeeech.

[It seems like interesting times are coming, so I can't waste energy on pointless places. It was fortunate that there haven't been similar human beings until now.]

-Screeeech. Screeeeeeech.

[Even after contacting an unhatched Shaguna Fan, you immediately collapse, so if a better opponent than such a human meets my believer, then abandoning humanity and-]

-Thud.

The white god suddenly looked down.

A statue was placed on his foot, looking at him.

Connected to the statue was a white hand with red marks clearly remaining, an arm tightly wrapped in black strings,

And the owner of that arm said while gasping for breath.

"If I give it... to the god... that's enough..."

When had she come from there to here?

The white god looked at Eibon's clothes covered in dirt.

He thought that the lowly thing had truly come here through base methods.

The white god also understood the pain of the 'heart attack' spell that Shaguna Fan cast.

There weren't many intelligent beings who could endure the sensation of having their heart completely carved out while alive.

The white god thought for a moment and spoke as if to himself.

[I should reserve the word 'weak.']

He picked up the statue placed on his foot.

Then Eibon was pulled up along with it, entangled in the tentacles.

To her, who was on the verge of losing consciousness, the white god asked.

[There will be many more painful things ahead. Will you endure such pain just to know the truths of the universe? Even while giving up the things you could enjoy as a human?]

"...want to..."

Eibon's lips moved slightly.

"I want to know... the songs... of the stars."

Ha! The white god unconsciously burst into short laughter.

Just for such a trivial reason.

What exactly were those sounds heard from that universe?

To him, they were nothing but trivial noise played all day long.

Anyway, humans were truly stupid and romantic in any timeline.

Or perhaps those with such temperament originally had fanatical aspects.

His believer was like that, and so was this small human.

If there was something they wanted, they were the type to achieve it even at the cost of a lifetime.

No matter how trivial and insignificant it might seem to others,

They were those who would tenaciously grasp it and never let go, ultimately revealing their own truth.

In human terms, they were nothing short of 'madmen.'

It wasn't that such things were bad or good. The white god had extremely little in terms of preferences.

What did it matter to him whether ants liked fruit peels or dead snake skin?

Well, still...

The white god looked at Eibon, who had finally fainted, and pursed his lips because of the statue in his hand.

A promise made once was a promise, so it couldn't be helped.

*

Shake shake shake shake shake.

He kept shaking one leg, and thinking it looked impolite, he tried to stop,

But whenever he let his guard down slightly, he was shaking his leg again.

That was understandable, since there had been no news after Aphoom-Zhah and Eibon said they were going to meet Shaguna Fan.

Aphoom-Zhah had specifically told him to wait here.

The two people who had left at dawn hadn't returned even when the sun passed over his head and began to tilt.

He thought there wouldn't be any dangerous incidents since Aphoom-Zhah was directly accompanying her,

But if they were this late, the story was different.

Even though Shaguna Fan was in an unhatched state, he didn't know well what kind of dangers it might possess,

And Eibon wasn't even a subject for Aphoom-Zhah's descent.

While he was endlessly shaking his leg, hoping nothing bad had happened,

He could see something whitish slowly moving in the distance.

Could that be...

"Finally!"

He was so glad to see them that he ran over without thinking long.

But the closer he got, the more his ominous premonition grew.

And only when he reached a distance where he could identify Aphoom-Zhah's face could he understand the seriousness of the situation.

"Wh-what is this? Why is Eibon like this?"

[You came just in time. Feed this human blood.]

"My blood? Why? Is she receiving your blessing? Is she going to serve you?"

[Believer, what are you talking about? She made contact while sealing Shaguna Fan. In Shaguna Fan's 'bewitchment,' she encountered the real thing, and in reality, she was bound to the half-awakened creature.]

"Ahhhhh! Why exactly! You said you were just going to meet it!"

He lowered Eibon, who had been carried like luggage on Aphoom-Zhah's shoulder while unconscious, and examined her closely.

Her face was covered with sticky blood,

And thin red marks were entangled in a twisted pattern on her forearms.

"Why is her forehead like this? What exactly did you do there?"

[She banged it against Shaguna Fan's statue herself. It must be the result of Shaguna Fan's mental interference.]

"Was there a reason you had to let that happen?"

He bit his pinky finger lightly with his canine tooth.

Along with familiar pain, he dropped the blood that welled up onto her lips.

Watching the series of actions, Aphoom-Zhah answered indifferently.

[She's scheduled to receive teachings from this being, so shouldn't she at least follow in the believer's footsteps?]

"Wait, that means. Eibon caught your fancy?"

[Don't misunderstand, believer. What's wrong with finding a mutation interesting?]

Even though Aphoom-Zhah spoke indifferently, at least no displeasure was visible.

He opened Eibon's lips to let his blood enter her mouth, then removed his hand.

"Not bad. That's how curiosity becomes love."

[My blasphemous believer, are you mad? How dare you attach the word love to a god?]

"That's how all drama clichés go."

[Even though this being has taken the believer's memories, there are limits to what can be understood.]

Tch, how deflective.

They moved Eibon to lie down under the shade by the roadside.

While he was fanning her with his hand and watching for when she would wake up, her eyelids trembled and she opened hazy eyes.

When Eibon sat up abruptly in confusion while her mind was still muddled, he pressed her back down,

And her unfocused blue gaze wandered around.

"Wh-where am I?"

"Calm down. You're near where the Theem'drans are. Aphoom-Zhah brought you out here."

"Ah..."

"How do you feel? Are you okay?"

[Since she drank the believer's blood, her magical power should be overflowing.]

When Aphoom-Zhah spoke dryly, Eibon blinked.

Suddenly pressing her chest firmly, then clenching and opening her hands to check her physical condition, the child answered as if relieved.

"I feel much better than before I fainted."

"We should rest here a bit longer before going. The wound on your forehead is quite large too. I want to see if it's torn."

The hair covering Eibon's forehead was matted with blood. He wondered where he should wash her.

Aphoom-Zhah made sarcastic remarks that 'the believer doesn't care when his own limbs are torn off but only worries about others,'

But since he was the one who had asked Eibon to come along, he couldn't just leave her alone.

Eventually, while Eibon rested, he went to the Theem'drans' residential area once and washed off the dried blood with water he secretly brought back.

Eibon, finally clean, looked somewhat tired but at least the terrible appearance was gone.

"Let's rest a bit more before going down. You need to say goodbye to your family, and also."

"I don't need to."

"What?"

"I don't need to. We can go right now. These clothes, I'm fine wearing just these."

"Shouldn't you gather everything you need to take? There must be precious belongings you left behind."

"It's fine. It doesn't matter now. I want to leave quickly. I want to learn many things quickly. I want to understand what the stars are talking about as soon as possible! It won't be too late to visit my family later, since we live long lives."

"But."

Light flashed in Eibon's eyes.

Strange passion and obsession were melted into heat within her gaze.

The moment he saw her eyes, blue flames came to mind.

He wondered what stellar conversation she was so eager to eavesdrop on.

"Your family lives long, but they don't live forever. It's natural for everyone born to die. So if you don't see their faces now and say proper farewells, you might regret it later. Even so?"

"Yes, even so."

"...If that's really what you want."

He thought that living people, especially if they were young, would find it difficult to realize the finiteness of time.

He took Eibon's hand to help her stand while looking at Aphoom-Zhah,

But he only spoke briefly with an expression that made his thoughts difficult to read.

[It's time to leave, believer.]

"Yeah."

Leaving behind the Theem'drans, the legacy of Shan and Tika, they departed from that place.

They wandered around for about 150 years without staying anywhere.

Sometimes observing children of Yog-Sothla,

Listening to special lectures on magic transmitted by Aphoom-Zhah,

And when night came, striving to hear the conversations of stars from distant places.

When they visited Yoth, which had been preserved frozen, they discovered snake-people's science and magic even in the ruins,

And belatedly received friendly messages left by snake-people Tsathoggua worshippers who still existed.

The cliff where they had shot down Idra's avatar,

The seaside where the first Theem'dra was born.

Traveling to all those places, they explored every location on the planet they stood on and gradually told stories of what had happened in the distant past.

However, there was one fact he had overlooked in all this.

That Yurik also existed somewhere on this planet, And that they would eventually encounter him.