Somehow, Living Life in Another World is Wrong, as I Expected Ch. 10.6

When it comes to dealing with unexpected occurrences, the main problem is dealing with the fallout. Say you get hit by a limo on the way to your first day of school, what happens then? The first, immediate problem is that you’ve been hit by a damn car. Broken bones? Possible. Ludicrous medical bill? Not as bad as you would think, if you lived in Japan.

Social ostracization? Being left out of any and all friend groups? Both are very likely. Still, I suppose I would have ended up in the exact same position regardless of if I hadn’t been sent to the hospital for a while.

And yet, at the time, I felt as though my entire high school life was over. The fallout of me saving a dog resulted in me…ending up exactly where I would have ended up. A loner by choice.

None of that could have ever possibly pointed to me being isekai’d.

That doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t have to deal with the consequences of that occurrence. And I did deal with it. I am now well enough that I can more or less spend time trying to find a way back home, after all.

“Karsten.” I murmured into a small portal. The woman on the other end didn’t need any more from me, as she thrust her sword at Kurgan’s thigh. Barielle was thrown back by a powerful shove from the corpse, sending her flying into a wall. Almost immediately, it turned towards Karsten, two cleavers prepared to strike down at her.

I put my plan into action. I opened a portal right in front of Kurgan’s face. As in, within millimeters of his nose, right into the open sky. First off, in order to make a few things more certain, we needed to know if Kurgan’s senses were what it was using.

See, this thing is a corpse. Corpse should equal that the brain doesn’t work. The senses require the brain to process the signals coming from their respective appendages to work. Ergo, it shouldn’t have the use of sight, smell, and hearing.

It’s why zombie movies don’t make sense. The zombies shouldn’t be able to detect humans - let alone walk and run - as their brains shouldn’t be able to send any signals anywhere.

But magic is bullshit.

I do not know the full specifics of the Sacrament of the Immortal King, but I can assume that it is capable of brain resurrection for the sake of it. If it resurrected the brain, then it goes without saying that it should have given Kurgan access to the senses as normal. This would explain the combat ability the corpse had displayed so far. Its brain was able to remember the motions of combat and act on external stimuli using said motions.

However, that was all.

See, I highly doubt that a slave that was resurrected to become a slave again would willingly let that be. Especially one with purportedly as much power as Kurgan. No, what was likely happening is that the consciousness that defined one as being alive has been kept dormant.

That all we’re fighting was a machine that only fought if it was able to perceive danger.

I opened two more portals, these ones on both sides of the corpse’s ears. Karsten’s blade approached ever closer, only for her to switch targets and aim for one of Kurgan’s arms. An attempt at feinting, that she shouldn’t have bothered with, I think.

Kurgan had stopped moving.

The moment that Karsten had struck the arm was the only time it reacted. That caused it to move out of the way of my portals, even though I tried my damndest to move it in sync with it. The brief respite that I had managed to buy was broken, Kurgan launching itself at the closest target it saw - Romanée-Conti.

It was only for a second, but I had seen that this shit could actually fucking work. I couldn’t rely on portals though, not if seeing even a fraction of its actual surroundings would cause that to fail.

Thankfully, I already know something that I can use.

I opened a portal right above Romanée-Conti and Kurgan. I watched intently, waiting for the right moment to attack. Both combatants were locked in melee, Romanée-Conti desperately blocking attack after attack with stone wristguards and pillars. Barielle was the one on the sidelines now, eying the two like a hawk as she dusted herself off.

There.

Romanée-Conti slammed his hands down on the ground, and from the first floor of the mansion, a great spike of dirt came barrelling upwards. I saw Barielle shift, ready to re-engage as corpse twisted to avoid it.

Too bad I was faster.

Sometimes, the unexpected is unexpected only because it was so far out of common sense. Similarly, the fallout is just as removed from common sense. In this scenario, I can confidently say that the common sense of fallouts being bad was wrong.

After all, who knew the single shittiest spell, the one that the most inept yin mages were capable of, would be of any use?

“El Shamak.”

…

Shamak. A spell that blocks out the senses. It is likely the very first spell that yin mages will learn, as it is the building block from which ‘debuffing’ stems from.

See, it doesn’t actually block the senses. Instead, it weakens the target’s sensitivity for said senses. The capacity to see, hear, touch and smell are reduced. In some cases, even taste is muted, though it’s hard to test that one out since trying to eat inside a Shamak could cause you to choke, as even the feelings of pain and swallowing are dulled.

That is Shamak at its core. The first level, that is.

When it comes to magic here, incantations do have a noticeable effect, particularly with the prefixes. Normally, shouting the name of a spell would just feel downright embarrassing, if it came from the perspective of anyone not living in this world. A chuuni bit of magic that would only work in shonen anime or manga.

Except, here, you’re not casting spells from a void.

Magic is done by having mana flow through your Gate. And where does that mana flow from?

Some say it’s the environment. Some say the spirits. Some say nowhere at all. All of them agree that the Od Laguna has a hand in it.

The Od Laguna - with or without the ‘the’ in the name - is a wellspring of mana. It is what is responsible for all of Astrea’s Divine Blessings, giving them out whenever the Sword Saint needs one. In essence, it is the very ‘world’ that exists in a physical form, even if its actual location is a mystery.

I am confident that, should Astrea wish to find it, he’d get a damned Divine Blessing of Something or the Other to point him in its direction. I digress.

Spells, therefore, are words of power that declare your intent to the Od Laguna. By speaking incantations, you are saying that ‘I need this kind of mana, this kind of spell, pointed towards this direction’. Mana is then provided through your Gate. Of course, if you’re used to it, you could use spells without saying the name, though it is harder than it looks, at least at first.

However, nothing about the regular spell name determines the amount of mana to be provided.

The prefixes change that. By invoking El, Ul or Al, you’re saying that you need more mana, and subsequently more power. And crucially, this mass of mana fundamentally changes how some spells work.

The scaling of each prefix, from spell to spell, goes from mildly more powerful, to fucking ludicrous. Al Shamak, for instance, goes beyond a simple spell, and entirely leans into the overpowered category. Instead of reducing just the senses, it damn well tears open a dimensional hole to shove whatever poor bastard was in range.

Essentially, it’s a ‘your capacity to exist within this plane of the universe has been reduced to almost nothing’ spell.

It’s so powerful that references I could find in the Forbidden Library all pointed to Beatrice herself being the only recorded user of the spell, as she was the only one with the mana throughput to do so.

What a damned overpowered loli.

Thankfully, El Shamak isn’t so strong that I can’t use it, though I felt my knees buckle as I did so. A massive wave of mana flowing through my Gate was terrifying to behold, as one small mistake could kill me.

I didn’t make a mistake. Not now.

A mass of darkness tore through the open portal, right on top of Kurgan. Romanée-Conti managed to get away. Damn, I wanted to get him with that. Ah well, there’s always next time.

Immediately after the mass impacted the corpse, I could see that it had slowed down significantly. The second level of Shamak, reducing the body’s capacity to move. Powerful for such a simple concept, since it directly attacks the mana of the target, poisoning them so that only the most experienced and powerful individual could fight against it.

This husk that was once known as Kurgan was powerful, but without his mind, the experience he might’ve had against this was lost.

“What the hell are you standing around for?! Attack already!” I snapped as I called out to the three others who were blankly watching like a bunch of fucking morons. Can’t you see that I won’t be able to make this last forever?!

That seemed to kickstart their brains, as Karsten immediately charged and launched a flurry of attacks on the corpse’s legs. Cuts that should have caused arterial bleeding came and went. Romanée-Conti went for the cleavers, tearing them out of the hands holding them - one even with the hand in tow. Barielle went for the full course, stabbing at the chest, chunking out large swathes of blue flesh.

“Princess! Whe-” Shouting from the side almost made me lose concentration, though I managed to save it just in time. Aldebaran came running from behind me, before stopping and staring at the scene in front of us, “...Holy shit. Guess you guys didn’t need any help?”

“Shut up, it’s not over yet.” I could feel a bead of sweat drip down my forehead as the strain of my Gate continued to pulse. Whoever resurrected Kurgan saw the corpse as an investment, and if it were me, I would have made contingencies to make sure that my investment wouldn’t be taken down as easily as this.

With how I could spot that the wounds dealt to it were healing, and how the other three were now doubling their efforts to deal more and more damage, it was just about time for that contingency to show itself.

A black mass that was distinctly not my doing grew out from behind Kurgan. It quickly formed into the shape of a massive scorpion’s tail, complete with stinger, one that quickly swiped in an arc before I could attempt to stop it with El Shamak. It forced the three fighting Kurgan back, then it aimed for me. 

Stretching impossibly, much to my shock, it reached across the corridor, seemingly knowing where I was despite Shamak still being active. I dropped to the floor, just as Aldebaran drew his own sword and attempted to block the stinger. The wood flooring cracked as he was pushed downwards.

The stinger retrac-No! It did a ninety degree turn and stabbed downwards, right for my head! Shit!

I let out a gasp as Aldebaran kicked me in the chest. Fucking bastard! Still, it made the stinger miss me, only for the stinger to suddenly transform into a fucking dragon head. Said head dove towards me, maw open for a bite. Karsten saved my ass right there and then, slashing at the tail and knocking the dragon head off course.

In response?

The scorpion tail’s carapaced sections transformed into massive wolgram heads, the wolf mabeats lunging at the others. Wolgram after wolgram came spewing out immediately after, to the point where I was less concerned about getting eaten by whatever the fuck this was, and more from the idea that I’d suffocated from the sheer mass number of mabeasts.

Barielle didn’t hesitate, spinning her greatsword and flattening a group of wolgram with disgusting ease. Romanée-Conti did the same with his magic, splattering a bunch of them against the corridor walls. Karsten and Aldebaran were kept busy by the tail, which had now become almost bone-like, with spikes that turned and twisted into motion.

Me? I was busy fending off this damned dragon head still. I couldn’t open a portal, not when there was a good chance the thing was fast enough to go through it and follow me through. It was already stretching more and more, bone sections extending and being created as it continually tried to take a bite out of me.

Soon enough, Kurgan would start to move again, El Shamak’s effects purged from its system. Once that happens, then we’re royally fucked.

“...pffff.” 

There was a small, stifled laugh that I couldn’t pinpoint the origin of. The one who planned this? Maybe the one that resurrected Kurgan? I didn’t have time to think more than that, having to strengthen my clothes in order to take the charge the the dragon head took at my shoulder.

“...hahahahahahahaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA-”

As one, all of the creatures - bar Kurgan - burst out in feminine laughter. Even the dragon head was laughing as it breathed down on me.

“My Gospel was right! You’re all so much fun to play around with!”

The head staring at me started to melt, rats forming out of the horns, which then proceeded to eat the scales. Eyeballs popped, the fluids it produced sizzling, then pouring outwards, changing colour and forming a latex-like texture. The rats pressed together, more and more until the sheer force they exerted crushed them from inside out. Green and violet fluid was their blood, which flowed upwards onto the crest of the head that was forming. Hair, eyes, a nose and mouth.

I watched in horror as it happened.

Where the dragon head was, now the head of a teenage girl looking at me with wide eyes and a grin.

…why?

Why does she look so much like Felt?

…

A/N: For the laughing part, I wanted it to increase in font size as it went on. Unfortunately, Patreon doesn't do increase of fonts in a post, so have the PDF file, even though only the font size changes.