Job 383

10-12 minutes 06.08.2023

“You’re making things unnecessarily difficult!”

The fox spirit’s face turned red and its eyes narrowed. The carefree smile it had shown all along had long disappeared.

I glared at it, holding Speranza tightly in my embrace.

“Give up! I can never give my daughter to you.”

“It’s not too late. If you do as I say, she can be happy forever with the parents she parted from. Send the child to me right now!”

The fox spirit shouted, using Speranza’s limp parents like puppets to support its argument. Of course, I shook my head at its absurd suggestion.

“Speranza made her own choice. Don’t try to shake my daughter’s heart with such petty tactics. Aren’t you ashamed of being called a guardian spirit?”

“You, you…”

My provocative words made the enraged fox spirit’s face tremble. Speranza, who had been in my arms, stuck out her face…

“Nyah~!”

She playfully stuck out her tongue, making a teasing expression. The emotional fox spirit let out a sharp yell.

“You brats! I tried to end this peacefully, but now there’s no need for that!”

As the fox spirit’s emotions intensified, red energy surged around it. As its power grew stronger, the world of consciousness became unstable.

“It may be an imperfect resurrection, but I must bind that child’s spirit by force. You’ll regret not following my will. She will suffer forever in this world, slowly losing her existence.”

“Who says so! Try it if you dare!”

I shouted confidently, but deep inside, I felt a growing uneasiness.

“Heh! How long can you stay so confident?”

Red energy around the fox spirit began to take shape, and something familiar started to form.

“What’s that…?”

-Swish! Swish!

Appearing around the fox spirit were…

Dark red chains filled with ominous energy.

“Be chained and forever become my slave!”

Following the fox spirit’s gesture, the red chains swiftly targeted Speranza and me.

It felt like dozens of red spears were piercing towards us.

-Swoosh!

As the sharp sound of cutting through the air was heard, I reflexively reached out a hand towards the red chains.

-Swish! Swish!

-Clank! Clank!

The red chains I summoned blocked the fox spirit’s attack. Numerous chains intertwined like snakes in the air, temporarily calming the situation.

The fox spirit muttered with an expression of disbelief.

“H-how! You, a mere human, wield this power…?!”

I smirked and replied.

“Sorry to look so ordinary. But I’ve been through a lot of tough times in the demon world, you know? If you thought I would just submit meekly, you made a big mistake.”

“You!”

The fox spirit clenched its teeth and launched another attack. I sent Speranza, who I had been holding, behind me and responded more actively to the attack.

-Boom!

-Crash! Bang!

A fierce battle ensued between the fox spirit and me. The chains collided powerfully, and the world of consciousness shook each time.

At first, it was a balanced fight, but as time went on, the fox spirit’s attacks continued, and I was pushed back.

“Ugh…”

Despite being twisted, a god is still a god, right?

Seeing my struggling face, the fox spirit regained its relaxed smile.

“Ha ha! Where did that spirit you had just shown me go? Was it just a bluff to show me such arrogance?”

“Ugh…”

I wanted to snap back at the cunning fox spirit, but I was too overwhelmed by its attacks to even open my mouth.

I continued to fend off the attacks while suppressing the groans that tried to escape from between my lips.

As the situation grew more difficult, my mind filled with thoughts of ‘How can I save Speranza?’.

Unfortunately, no clever solutions came to mind.

-Boom!

My chain, which had been defending, missed.

“Ah…”

A lapse in concentration led to a mistake.

A mistake made in such a precarious situation quickly turned into a significant threat. The fox spirit didn’t miss my error.

“It’s over now!”

The fox spirit targeted my vulnerability and flashed a sharp, menacing look. Chains filled with an ominous force rained down on me.

In that instant…

It felt as if the video’s speed was reduced, and everything moved slowly. The attack that seemed to pierce my chest felt very far away.

It was already too late to block the attack. The only option left was to dodge quickly.

However, doing so would naturally put Speranza, who was behind me, in danger.

As soon as I realized this, the strength drained from my legs.

The instinct to protect myself was overtaken by the thought of protecting Speranza.

I braced my chest for the pain and prepared for the impact.

-Screech!

“Papa!!”

Speranza’s scream echoed from behind me. And then…

-Thunk, Thunk!

The sound of my chest being pierced resonated in my ears. The sound was so vivid that it felt unreal.

“Ugh… Hmm, huh?”

Even though I heard the sound of my chest being pierced, I didn’t feel any pain. Sensing something strange, I slowly opened my eyes.

“……..”

“Who are you??”

Completely taken aback by the unexpected situation unfolding before my eyes, I widened them in surprise.

I wasn’t the only one surprised by this situation.

“Why him?!”

The fox spirit also looked at us with disbelief in its eyes.

“Hoo… huff…”

The Erul tribe man, enduring the pain of being pierced in the chest…

Speranza’s father, who the fox spirit had summoned, blocked the chains with his body instead of mine.

“Why…?”

“Hoo…”

He slowly raised his head, meeting my gaze, and instead of answering, he gave a faint smile.

“It doesn’t matter, I’ll take care of all of you…!”

-Whoosh!

“Ugh?!”

A gust of wind sounded from the flustered fox spirit’s mouth.

The Erul tribe woman, who had been hiding, suddenly appeared and tightly hugged the fox spirit with both hands. It was Speranza’s mother, who had been summoned along with the father.

“You too… Let go of this!”

The fox spirit swung its hand roughly toward the Erul tribe woman. Unable to defend herself, she was left exposed to the attack.

-Thunk! Thunk!

The woman’s face was quickly battered by the merciless violence. One of her eyes swelled beyond recognition, and blood flowed from her nose, but she tenaciously clung to the fox spirit.

“Mom!”

Speranza’s cry seemed to reach her, as the woman’s body momentarily shuddered and trembled. Unable to watch any longer, I was about to move when I heard someone’s voice in my ear.

-Don’t worry about us.

-It’s just a brief illusion taking advantage of the disorientation in the world of consciousness.

‘Whose voice is this?’

It was the voice of a man and a woman I hadn’t heard before.

However, I quickly recognized the owners of those voices.

-We don’t have much time, so I’ll keep this short. She will weaken the fox spirit’s power for a moment. That’s your last chance!

The man with the pierced chest looked toward the fox spirit and the woman. She was still holding onto the fox spirit.

“You dare to go against the guardian deity’s will after using the blood of the divine priestess?”

-I already knew about your sinister plan. That’s why I left the village without telling my mother.

“How dare you!!”

-Thunk! Thwack!

“Ugh!”

Despite the continuous merciless violence, the woman didn’t back down. Instead, she glared at the fox spirit with even clearer eyes.

-I hid some of my power in my daughter’s body in preparation for this moment. It may be insignificant and weak, but I hoped for a miracle… Now the time has come.

A pure white energy burst forth from her body in all directions. That energy quickly wrapped around the fox spirit and seeped into it.

“Ugh! How… how could this…”

As the fox spirit writhed in pain, the red chains connecting it to him suddenly disappeared with a snap.

The Erul tribe man, who had been enduring the pain of his pierced chest, collapsed to his knees.

“Are you alright?”

“Dad!”

-Whoosh!

The Erul tribe man raised his palm towards Speranza and me, as if to say not to come any closer. Then, with great difficulty, he lifted his head and looked in Speranza’s direction for a moment.

“… …”

Without saying a word, he gave a warm smile. A comfortable smile, not twisted by pain.

-Shaaaaa…

A short while later, the Erul tribe man’s body turned to smoke and dispersed.

Speranza rushed forward, reaching out her hand, but there was no way to grasp him as he had already lost his form.

At the same time, the Erul tribe woman holding the fox spirit also turned to smoke and disappeared. The voices of the two people came to me again, who had been standing dumbfounded.

-We’ve weakened the fox spirit’s power for a moment.

-This is all we can do.

As if there wasn’t much time left, the two voices gradually faded away.

-Please take care of our daughter.

-We’re truly sorry. And thank you.

With the brief words of entrusting their daughter, the voices of the two people were no longer heard.

There was so much I wanted to talk about. The voices of the two people were cruelly cut off quickly.

However, the feeling of regret was overshadowed by a greater sense of sadness.

I knew they had saved even the slightest bit of strength to have one last conversation with their daughter, and instead poured it all into stopping the fox spirit.

“Sniff… sob…”

Before I knew it, tears were streaming down Speranza’s face.

Leaving the grief-stricken Speranza behind, I stepped forward with a grim expression. There was a more important task at hand now than comforting Speranza.

“Ugh… damn it…”

The fox spirit seemed to be regaining its composure, as if getting used to the pain.

Seeing that, the images of the man with the pierced chest and the woman who endured the pain to the point of disfiguring her face came to mind.

Feeling a faint rage boiling deep within my heart, I summoned the red chains with all my might.

“It’s over now. You’re nothing but a fraud, not a deity at all.”