Chapter 39. That F***ing Cat Bastard (4)
“Fuck, God, you bastard…. What the hell is that lump of charcoal doing coming out of there?!”
Michael cursed God as he watched the creature crawl out.
The writhing black figure had no clear facial features.
It looked as though it had been born before its body was fully formed.
“Ugh. Damn thing looks disgusting.”
Only its upper body emerged.
The black figure remained connected to the cat.
A mouth slowly formed on its cheek.
Crack.
“Hun. Gry.”
WHOOOOOM!
The moment its eerie voice rang out, an enormous amount of demonic energy burst from the cat’s wound and spread around them.
The pressure made Michael dizzy for a moment.
“Damn it, am I really that short on aura?”
Normally, this amount of demonic energy would not even have been enough to threaten Michael.
But the limitations caused by his overload reminded him just how little aura he currently possessed.
“Huh? Wait. You bastard…?”
Suddenly, Michael realized he had overlooked the most important thing.
“You suppressed my White Flame…?”
The White Flame he had planted inside the cat had stopped spreading.
Then it had disappeared.
Gulp.
Gin and Absinthe, who had stayed near the spring, were overwhelmed by the appearance of the black figure.
“G, Gin, what is that?!”
The creature Absinthe pointed at was horrifying.
Its upper body protruded from the cat.
There were only empty holes where its eyes should have been.
It had no visible nose.
Its mouth was growing from its cheek.
Bubble, bubble.
A sticky liquid boiled across its dark skin, making it even more unpleasant to look at.
“I don’t know…. But there’s one thing I’m sure about. We have to kill that thing if we want to finish the cat.”
The cat Gin was staring at had rapidly become thinner after the black figure emerged.
Now, it hung limply.
It looked almost like an insect shedding its cocoon.
Rummage, rummage!
As though he had suddenly remembered something, Gin began searching through the bag.
“W, what are you doing? Looking for something?”
Confused by Gin’s sudden action, Absinthe looked inside.
The only things visible were spare pipes and bottles filled with alcohol.
“Absinthe, listen carefully. The only way we’re getting out of this artwork is by killing that beast.”
Despite being trapped inside the artwork for so long, they had never made a single bit of progress toward escaping.
Waiting for time to pass was not the answer.
Searching for clues was not the answer either.
The only thing left was the cat’s death.
Seeing this new form of the cat only made Gin’s instinct stronger.
“You want to fight that…? Can’t we just wait for Michael to beat it? We don’t even know the cat’s weakness.”
Waiting for Michael to deal with it was certainly an option.
However, that was not what Gin wanted.
Gin gave a faint smile at the suggestion that perfectly matched Absinthe’s cowardly personality.
“At the very least, if Michael is in danger, we should be willing to throw away our lives. We come back to life anyway, right?”
“…If we get eaten, we might not come back.”
They had died in many ways because of the cat.
But none of them had ever been eaten.
Even so, they instinctively understood that if the cat devoured them, even their souls would be swallowed.
“There’s still a chance we won’t revive! Just because nobody’s been eaten yet doesn’t mean we know what happens! If its life is threatened, it might try to eat us!”
Seeing the black creature sent Absinthe into panic.
She grabbed her head.
They had encountered the cat many times while moving around the surface.
But never before had she felt this terrifying possibility that it might actually eat them.
“Nobody has been eaten by the cat so far.”
Anyone who saw that creature would be afraid.
Gin calmed his trembling hands and patted Absinthe on the shoulder.
“I understand why you’re scared of it. But let’s still try.”
After saying that, Gin started searching Absinthe’s bag again.
He did not need long.
“Besides, there’s still one thing we haven’t tried.”
Finding what he wanted, Gin reached into the bag.
“Ah! T, that!”
Absinthe awkwardly turned her head away.
“I knew you would’ve kept some.”
At that moment, Michael and the black figure clashed.
BOOOOM!
The dried-out cat, now barely looking alive, alternated between smashing down both front paws.
As if it no longer cared about its own body, it continued attacking even when its paws twisted and broke.
“Fuck, why is it even more aggressive than when it was a demonic beast?!”
The cat’s previous intelligence had completely vanished.
Now its attacks were indiscriminate.
Even if Michael found an opening, swinging the pipe and trying to fight directly would likely end with him being smashed into the ground by the next attack.
For now, Michael continued retreating and focused on dodging.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
“Hungry. Intruder. Food.”
The black creature seemed to control the cat’s empty shell from its forehead like a control tower.
Rather than considering them two separate beings, it was more accurate to see them as one demon.
It scattered demonic energy while using the cat’s monstrous body to attack physically.
Even Michael was impressed by its ridiculous physical power.
“Damn. It might not be a Great Demon, but this thing could easily compete with a high-ranking demon….”
Fortunately, the demon had become less intelligent.
The demonic energy it fired and the repeated physical attacks were extremely simple.
It probably hasn’t fully awakened.
The cat already possessed intelligence.
Given enough time, it would naturally have become a demon.
However, Michael had forced it to awaken early.
That explained both its unfinished appearance and its intelligence, which was barely at the level of a child learning to walk.
Crackle. Crackle.
Michael tried concentrating his aura just in case.
But because he had already forced himself too much, the White Flame would not form properly.
He needed time before using it again.
Tap.
As if the situation was not already bad enough, Michael was driven against a wall.
“Intru. Der. Eliminate.”
The demon raised the cat’s paw to finish him.
“Is your language ability broken too? You can’t even speak properly.”
Michael quickly prepared to move to the right.
BOOM!
Before he could, the cat’s paw slammed down on his right side.
“Ah!”
Michael suddenly understood.
A grin appeared on his face.
“You really are a simple bastard, aren’t you?”
He jumped onto the cat’s right paw and ran up its arm.
The demon’s empty eye sockets followed him.
CHOMP!
The cat’s enormous mouth snapped toward him.
Michael had expected it.
He jumped away.
“Fast reactions, but nothing behind them. Idiot.”
