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

Chapter 291

Chapter 291

Countless footprints of unknown origin were scattered on the ground.

They didn't seem very large, but instead the ground had sunk and hardened, suggesting they might belong to heavy creatures.

Walking slowly along the path, he took in the tragic scene that had occurred in the village one by one.

Nothing was alive except for the tied-up livestock.

There was no vitality in the air, and fishy smells, rotten odors, and burnt scents were chaotically mixed together.

Since he felt like his stomach might get upset again, he covered his nose and mouth with his sleeve while looking around.

"Can you sense its presence?"

[No, believer. It has already left. This is the dirty table after it enjoyed its feast. At least we don't need to worry about something jumping out.]

The end of the path led toward the outskirts of the village, but just before that, there was a side path that turned in another direction.On both sides of the narrow side path, weeds and wildflowers were broken.

It passed through here.

At the end of the path was a hut. From the fact that it had quite a large barn attached, it seemed like it had housed large livestock.

But when he reached there, what was inside the barn wasn't cattle or large horses.

When he crossed over the broken fence and entered, dark red straw stuck stickily to the soles of his shoes.

So, what was in this livestock pen was.

"...Are they all dead?"

Half-human forms. Half-goat monsters.

It was harder to find the appearance of complete humans or complete animals.

The bizarre beings, as if someone had forcibly tried to combine them and failed, were already coldly stiff,

And flies buzzed chaotically over the pooled, rotting blood and corpses.

He didn't even dare to touch them, so he asked Aphoom-Zhah.

Aphoom-Zhah tilted his head slightly and answered.

[They abandoned their bodies and failed while attempting heteromorphic transformation. Naturally, they would die.]

"Survival possibility?"

[Believer, could you live if your skull was on your foot and your ribs moved to your forearms?]

Just hearing it was horrifying.

Left speechless, he looked around the blood-soaked place.

There was no one here for him to save.

No, he should consider it already far too late.

Just as he was about to turn away,

"-Cough."

A small coughing sound.

This was a place where deathly silence had already fallen. So the small sound was heard very clearly.

Passing by corpses and bodies of all sorts of bizarre forms, one of the women lying near the wall was breathing shallowly.

He jumped over the sticky floor and hurried over to support her. Though she was breathing shallowly, her breathing was unstable.

"Get a grip. Do you know where this is?"

"Goats..."

A voice that seemed ready to crumble leaked out between her parched lips.

Her unfocused eyes rolled around.

He suddenly thought she might die like this.

"Aphoom-Zhah, can't you do recovery with magic or something?"

[If it were originally a healthy state, perhaps. But in the current situation, that wouldn't be possible. How about feeding her your blood?]

"Would that be effective? This person isn't even a mage."

[Non-mages also have magical power.]

Even if it had no effect, it wouldn't hurt to try.

Since one hand was supporting her and couldn't be used, he had no choice but to bite his own pinky finger to draw blood.

The blood that dripped into her mouth was an extremely small amount,

But the woman's throat moved several times, treating even that as liquid.

"Breathe slowly. Do you know where this is?"

"...Here..."

"When you come to your senses, tell me. What happened here?"

The woman's murky gaze crawled over his face.

"Someone... to the village. Woman... goats... those things ate people."

"Goats? Where did that woman go-"

"...Scary, scary... if it comes back, I'll die. Then I'll die!"

The woman suddenly screamed convulsively and flailed her arms.

Because of that, his face that had been holding her got slightly scratched, leaving a stinging mark.

He tried to calm her struggling body somehow and grabbed her arms.

"That thing left here. It won't come back. So please calm down!"

"They're all dead, bitten by goats in front of me- they're all dead! I don't want this, scary, I hate it!"

"I'll solve it!"

He was startled because he didn't know such a loud voice would come out. What if he scared her? Shouting at someone with a weak mind.

But the woman stopped flailing her arms wildly and was looking at him completely.

"Solve..."

"I'll help you, so calm down. You don't need to be scared. If you just tell me where it headed, I'll make sure it can never come here."

She was a woman who wouldn't be much different in age from him when he was in Korea.

An adult who could handle most things by herself.

Seeing such a person scream as if she would be dragged to hell at any moment wasn't pleasant to watch.

He pronounced each word clearly to appear as trustworthy as possible.

Her sticky hand firmly grasped his wrist.

"H-help me. Help me. I don't know what to do. Scary. Scary..."

"It's okay. Where did it go? Can you recall what it looked like then?"

"Th-that thing. That woman. Leading a herd of goats, creating a giant goat-human and riding it. In red clothes, black liquid overflowing."

"And then?"

"That way, old story... that way."

Though she spoke sporadically and without subjects, he could understand most of it.

He gauged the direction she pointed to by eye and asked again.

"Do you remember how long ago it left?"

"...No."

"I understand. It must have been hard, but thank you for telling me."

He supported her and helped her stand.

Though he couldn't take her far right away,

At least it would be better to move her to a relatively intact abandoned house rather than leave her rolling around in this pool of blood.

He entered the house closest to the hut, laid her down, and gathered edible things from the broken kitchen.

After placing food within the woman's reach, he said to Aphoom-Zhah.

"Looking at how dried the blood is, this didn't happen today. It's been about one to two days."

[I don't know its movement speed. But it can certainly be felt somewhere.]

"We can chase after it. You did it well in the old days."

[Are then and now the same, believer? This body has been buried underground all this time without receiving magical power supply!]

"Ah. So that's why you couldn't detect Shub-Niggurath in advance even after using teleportation magic? Because you've deteriorated from not receiving magical power supply?"

[Don't speak of this body as if it's obsolete! I'll chase that mere newborn deity to the ends of the planet!]

Aphoom-Zhah huffed angrily and rushed out of the house.

What an easy god to handle if you just scratch him a little.

He was about to follow after him,

But the woman who had been lying weakly forced herself to raise her head and asked.

"Name... tell me your name."

"My name? Yu Yesung. It's short and easy to remember."

The woman stared at him for a long time. It wasn't the characteristic persistent look of examining or observing something.

She was just, literally, continuously keeping him in her sight.

"Is there something more you want to say?"

"...When you talked to me, I thought less about 'that thing'... now I can stop thinking about it. ...Thank you."

Having finished speaking, the woman lay down and closed her eyes as if her strength was exhausted.

It was nice to be thanked, but he wasn't exactly sure what she was thankful for.

When he came outside, Aphoom-Zhah was looking around in all directions as if ready to catch and tear apart Shub-Niggurath at any moment.

[That way? Is it that way? Hurry, believer. I'll show that this body is not obsolete.]

"It's the opposite direction. More than that, does Shub-Niggurath also have the ability to bewitch people?"

[Bewitch? Since when did a trashy deity like Shub-Niggurath acquire such a high-level technique?]

"Is bewitching a difficult technique?"

[Look at this body.]

Aphoom-Zhah placed his hand on his chest.

[Though I'm currently wearing a human form extracted from the believer's Dreamland, the main body is a dignified flame, isn't it? As the believer has seen.]

"That's right."

[Human minds are fragile. So fragile that just witnessing someone else die before their eyes can cause mental collapse. It's not even them experiencing death.]

"I know that too."

[Bewitching such fragile beings without breaking their minds - that's the core of bewitchment. But believer. Just because you can transform into an ant, could you win an ant's favor? Think about it. Could you think and act exactly like an ant while drinking aphid nectar and earn the goodwill of fellow ants?]

"Wouldn't that be a bit difficult? I'm not really an ant either. What does thinking like an ant even mean?"

[That's exactly it. If you give too much fear, they collapse, but you can't just be attractive without any fear either. Humans are quite complex. This body explored the vessel of humanity together with Eibon.]

"Hmm."

[That's why I can think and act like you humans. Look. Was there anything in what I'm saying now that greatly deviated from the category of humanity and felt alien?]

"Except for killing all the Mage Tower mages, well. So far it's been passable."

[Bewitchment is the fruit of long practice and effort. But a newborn deity that just opened its eyes not long ago can bewitch? That's ridiculous.]

Aphoom-Zhah snorted.

From his perspective, since he thought he had acquired a 'high-level' technique,

He might not want to accept the fact that Shub-Niggurath could bewitch humans.

Anyway, that's what he said. But the woman said she couldn't stop thinking about that thing.

"Hey, then if someone saw you with your divine aspects revealed and kept thinking about you continuously. What would happen then?"

[What would happen? They would become this body's believer. If they receive this body's favor, they would become kin in a human body.]

"Become a believer? Even without feeding them blood or anything?"

[You seem to be mistaken because of the continuous unusual situations, believer. Usually, there are many cases of becoming believers purely voluntarily without drinking the blood of gods or kin. Wasn't that the case with Theem'dra's descendants?]

Oh. Now that he heard it, that was right.

Unlike their ancestors who directly consumed blood, Theem'dra's descendants seemed to still worship Aphoom-Zhah on their own afterward.

Then if he had left that woman alone, she could have become Shub-Niggurath's first believer.

He felt somewhat unpleasant and rubbed the back of his neck.

No, it was all over now anyway. Since the woman seemed to have come to her senses, that wouldn't happen.

"Let's go. If there's a one to two day speed difference, we can't hesitate any longer."

[Weren't you originally trying to finish urgent business?]

"That thing is also a considerable disaster. We can modify the travel route to our destination and take care of it in passing. Since we still don't know exactly where this is, let's go until a big village appears-"

[Do as you please. My capricious believer.]

This bastard just cut him off.

He urged their steps, feeling slightly annoyed.

Walking aimlessly in the direction the woman had indicated, walking and walking again,

Before the sun set, he finally met a path where small carriages could travel instead of the rough mountain path.

Phew, fortunately.

[If we continue this way, will we reach a place where humans live together?]

"Yes. Let's go in the right direction. Is it okay to keep moving even after the sun sets?"

[There's no problem.]

"If there's a problem and we need to stop, tell me. I know from experience that if you go a little inside on roads like this, there are campsites anyone can use."

[Campsite? You mean something like that?]

Where Aphoom-Zhah gestured with his chin,

There was a small clearing not far from the roadside.

A circular area where grass didn't grow, probably because people frequently stopped and trampled the ground.

"It's similar to the campsite where I stayed. That's right."

[Light fires in the center too?]

"Right, you can see the campfire site there. It suddenly reminds me of the time when I camped with everyone."

[It's no different from the old days. There must be a river or stream nearby too.]

"Right, right. When I first awakened and was camping, there was a small stream over there... huh."

There really was a stream where he had turned.

A slight déjà vu. What was this? Why was it so familiar? What was the reason?

Campsite. Stream. Campsite. Stream. Roadside.

He definitely still had memories of drawing water from the stream and coming back here to boil it.

Looking back and forth between the three places, he suddenly looked in the direction the woman had indicated, where Shub-Niggurath had headed.

After being silent for a while, Aphoom-Zhah called him.

[Believer? What are you doing standing there blankly?]

"Aphoom-Zhah."

[What?]

"We're screwed."

[This body is not screwed. The believer would be the one who's screwed. How are you so spectacularly screwed?]

"I figured out Shub-Niggurath's intended destination."

[Isn't that a good thing? What's screwed about it?]

Aphoom-Zhah asked curiously.

Right, it was fortunate that he learned of Shub-Niggurath's whereabouts.

But.

Even if he realized that the place it was trying to reach was the Leng Plateau, could he still say that?