Is It Strange For A Succubus To Be Wearing Clothes?

Chapter 43

—–CROW—– 

[Pladirco Carpacostia]

In the Dark Mountain non-human language connected to Earth in 2041, this translates to “human-faced jellyfish” or “parasitic jellyfish,” the dominant life form in the current Massachusetts Rift.

While all Rifts contained separate worlds, some, like the Dark Mountain and Massachusetts Rifts, were originally part of the same world.

“These parasitic jellyfish are not individual organisms,”

said the elven researcher from the Dark Mountain, currently serving as the deputy director of the Seoul Metropolitan Rift Research Institute.

“They divide and scatter fragments of themselves like spores into the air. These spores attach to the mucous membranes of humanoid life forms, consuming brain cells as they grow… Eventually, they take control of the nervous system, moving between the host’s head and spine.”

In this process, once they controlled the nervous system, they began secreting a special hormone.  This hormone induced euphoria and mental stability in the host, causing them to defend and protect the parasitic jellyfish, even after becoming aware of its presence, much like Stockholm Syndrome.

*Such intense pleasure is worth dying for.*

*Since life is all about pleasure and enjoyment, it’s okay to willingly offer my body to the jellyfish, reveling in the euphoria.*

The victims willingly surrendered their bodies, and the once-human beings gave up their pituitary gland, spine, spinal cord, and entire nervous system to the jellyfish.

To protect the jellyfish, the host’s body underwent hormonal manipulation, activating immense regenerative abilities and muscle activity.  The host then became hostile to all life forms, including other humans, for the sake of the jellyfish within.

This was the first stage, called the [Head Container].

Over time, the jellyfish consumed the sentient being’s entire nervous system, then began spreading spores from the human head, floating in the air with tentacles made from the spine and nervous system.

These airborne tentacles spread spores to find new victims, or directly inserted their tentacles into the brains of captured victims to initiate reproduction.

This was [Pladirco Carpacostia].

The basic ecosystem of the human-faced jellyfish.

“However, the human-faced jellyfish are not simple parasitic organisms acting on instinct,”

said the elf from the Dark Mountain.

He often praised the human-faced jellyfish, saying they weren’t monsters but rather beings that had achieved transcendence and unity with the planet, even though his own world was destroyed and most sentient life became hosts.

“The stars abhorred the sentient beings that walked upon them.  They despised the sentient beings that polluted the land and nature. But the stars showed mercy to those who recognized their sins and willingly offered their bodies.”

Those who offered their bodies to the stars.

Nothing remained of them but records of elves who worshipped deer antlers. They attempted and succeeded in uniting with the stars as a race.

Thus, the elves who voluntarily sacrificed their bodies to the stars out of remorse and regret became the origin of the human-faced jellyfish.

“While human-faced jellyfish have the life cycle of parasitic organisms, their minds are linked as a massive biological network, systematically destroying the ecosystems of sentient beings.”

Their unified consciousness reached a state of oneness, and this unified consciousness of the race enabled more efficient hunting and the extermination of sentient beings.

The exterminated world fragmented into Rifts and otherworlds, drifting through the void.  These fragmented worlds flowed to Earth, manifesting as Rifts.

“We failed to keep pace with the dance, driving a world to ruin, bringing about our own extinction. The best way for us to end this dance with the world is to become the world itself.”

Thus, even though their world was destroyed, the human-faced jellyfish still had a single purpose.

“To infect and devour the sentient beings who defile the Great Mother Nature, the Earth Mother Goddess, and to seize the bodies of those who pollute the stars! What a noble duty!”

Though they appeared monstrous, they considered themselves noble and proud, agents of a cycle seeking unity with nature, unlike the repulsive sentient beings.

The Massachusetts Rift that appeared in Uiwang was just an outpost for the human-faced jellyfish.  The jellyfish were messengers of the planet and the stars, a warning to those who polluted nature.

“When the body detects a disease, it identifies the disease as a pathogen and protects the host.  The planet and the stars are our hosts, so what do you think the planet considers us?”

The elven researcher from the Dark Mountain, who made this claim, was sent to a mandatory mental rehabilitation facility.

In any case, the threat level of a single human-faced jellyfish was only C-rank at most, but the Rift itself posed a world-ending threat.

If even a single spore escaped and started an infection, it would become unstoppable.

However, exterminating the Rift and the human-faced jellyfish was impossible with the abilities of ordinary Hunters.

Even the most powerful Awakened couldn’t incinerate every single tiny jellyfish spore scattered in the world and the air.

No matter how many infected individuals and jellyfish they killed, some spores would survive.  And as long as a single spore remained, the Rift would persist, threatening Earth.

That’s why the Hunter Association had postponed dealing with the Massachusetts Rift.

Then, Jae-hee suddenly appeared.

The Succubus Empress, who embraced all the beauty of the world as her aesthetic, her taste, her purpose, suddenly descended upon the Rift of the nature-protecting human-faced jellyfish.

Normally, Hunters would be discouraged or forbidden from entering, but Sarah, the AI at Hunter Association headquarters, held Lee Jae-hee’s abilities in high regard.

She believed that if anyone could clear this complex and troublesome Rift, it was Lee Jae-hee.

And that was exactly what was happening.

—We

—Let’s go

—The Rift, is open

—Let’s go

—The betrayers of the stars

—Let’s devour them all

The moment Jae-hee entered the Massachusetts Rift, all the jellyfish sensed the anomaly.

United as a single consciousness, they pinpointed the location of the Rift Jae-hee entered and sought to move beyond their desolate world to a place with new defilers of nature.

—New world

—This star also suffers

—Let’s free the star from its suffering

—We are the vanguard of nature

—We are the agents of the stars

—Let’s spread everywhere

—Kill the humans, reclaim

—Return it to its original form…

—Eliminate the pathogens

—Eliminate them with us

—Return Mother’s land to its primordial state!

But then, something suddenly intruded into their mental network.

—Hello~

—Who?

—Who?

—What?

—What is it?

—What?

—Who is it?

The human-faced jellyfish.

No, the descendants of the antlered elves who had long ago willingly offered their bodies and minds to the Earth Mother Goddess, opened their eyes wide at the foreign entity that had invaded their mental world.

They didn’t have eyes, but if they had bodies, they would have been wide-eyed and dumbfounded.

*Who is it?*

*Who is it?*

*Who let it in?*

*Who let it into our world?!*

Separate from the confused collective consciousness, Jae-hee cheered as if she had found an interesting toy.

—Oh my, what an interesting place~

“Ah, hee, hehehe…!”

Jae-hee laughed.

She found something interesting.

Where was this?

Not land, sea, or sky. Not wind or clouds.

A starry space filled with a collective consciousness.

Normally, if a human mind entered this mental world, it would melt and become one with it.

Unable to maintain self and reason, it would be like falling into a dream, the human mind and reason melting away, becoming nothing more than a part of the countless spores and cells that made up the human-faced jellyfish.

But the Succubus Empress was different.

The Succubus Empress.

The master of dreams, the master of all pleasures, beauty, and aesthetics.

She coveted and indulged in everything she deemed beautiful.

And this higher-dimensional, unified mental world was no exception.

The moment the Succubus Empress’s touch reached the jellyfish’s mental world, the world allowed the intrusion of a terrifying foreign entity.

—Who are you?

Unaffected by the mental waves, the Succubus Empress began to devour their memories like dreams.

She gleaned the fragmented origins of the human-faced jellyfish, that they were once antlered elves who cherished beauty and revered nature, children of the forest.

She read their intentions to unite with the planet and exterminate all sentient beings.

Then, the human-faced jellyfish,

the descendants of the antlered elves, felt a great threat, a chilling dread.

—Leave

—Leave

—Leave

—Leave

—Leave

—Leave

—Leave

—Leave!!!

To the children of oneness, the Succubus Empress, who controlled and claimed dreams, the unconscious, and beauty, was a horrifying and repulsive being by her very existence.

Jae-hee was even more terrifying in the mental world.

*Who let it in?!*

*Get it out of here!*

*No!*

*Get it out.*

*Leave.*

*Leave.*

*Please leave.*

*You shouldn’t be here!*

“Heehee, hee. Hehehehe!”

As Jae-hee laughed in reality, the Empress within her mental world laughed as well.

But Jae-hee’s hand tightly gripped the jellyfish’s tentacles, fingers intertwined.

*No.*

*I can’t escape…*

*Absolutely not.*

*Come here.*

The human-faced jellyfish, which controlled the minds and nervous systems of others, parasitizing them, was now stuck fast to Jae-hee, unable to budge.

The jellyfish clinging to Jae-hee struggled desperately to detach itself, to pull its tentacles away.

*This thing has invaded our mental world.*

*It’s not merging even though it’s inside.*

*We have to get it out!*

*Even if I die, I have to get it out!*

The jellyfish hurriedly pulled its tentacles from Jae-hee’s head.

It pulled out the tentacles it had inserted into her ears, trying to escape by floating away.

“No.”

But despite its resolve, the jellyfish, trapped in Jae-hee’s hand, screamed.

—Please let me go!

No.

I won’t let you go.

Never.

Jae-hee smiled and held onto the jellyfish’s tentacles.

And then… she unveiled herself.

“Come here.”

—Ah, aaaaah…!

An intense scent of allure.

An irresistible beauty.

Unconsciously, the jellyfish plunged its tentacles back into Jae-hee’s head, and guided by the tentacles, Jae-hee, once again becoming an impurity, invaded the pure collective consciousness.

—Ahahaha.

—No.

—Please leave.

—Your presence is contaminating this place.

—Beautiful.

—Beautiful.

—Beauty.

—Disgusting.

—Go away.

—We don’t want beauty.

—Beautiful.

—Beautiful.

“Beautiful things are good things, you know~ Aha, haha, hahaha! Hehehe!  Head, head, it feels good inside my head!!!!”

Jae-hee laughed.

And countless jellyfish screamed.

*Beautiful.*

*Beauty.*

Those who loved nature were tainted by the worldly concept of “beauty.”

The massive, pure collective consciousness was addicted to the Succubus Empress’s beauty and aesthetics.  Only one thing remained.

“Now… it’s time to become beautiful~!!!”

—Yes.

—Yes.

—Yes.

—Yes.

—Yes.

—Yes.

—Yes.

—It’s time to become beautiful.

Becoming slaves to beauty.

Mentally fragile beings, they were ready to become beautiful at a single word from Jae-hee.

So, what was beauty in this context?

Repulsive, monstrous human-faced jellyfish filled the sky.

Ah, disgusting.

Not beautiful.

But even the most un-beautiful things, if unified…

—Let’s become one.

—Let’s become one.

—Let’s become one.

—Let’s become one.

—Let’s become one.

—Let’s become one.

The words the human-faced jellyfish often uttered to their victims.

“Let’s become one.”

But this time, these words weren’t directed at victims.

Human-faced jellyfish to human-faced jellyfish.

Let’s merge all our bodies into one, according to the tainted beauty and aesthetics.

Let’s transform this monstrosity into something beautiful, based on aesthetic principles!

And so, all the jellyfish scattered throughout Massachusetts began to gather in one place.

Single organisms, spores, incomplete nervous systems.

All the individuals gathered and gathered and gathered.

Spores at the very bottom.

Undigested humans on top of the spore layer.

And above them, human-faced jellyfish began to form a swirling, geometric shape.

“Like your original form, antlers shall sprout.”

—Crack!

Deer antlers sprouted haphazardly from the bodies of the human-faced jellyfish and their hosts.

There was no need to enter the mental world anymore, was there?

Use your remaining energy to return to your original form.

Become enshrined as elves who loved antlers and revered nature.

Grotesque antlers grew from the points where the hosts and jellyfish were joined.

Tentacles, antlers, and cross-sections of humans intertwined everywhere.

Thus, the [Tower of Humans] was created.

The fate of those who worshipped what shouldn’t be worshipped.

“Aha, hahaha. How beautiful…”

And so, Jae-hee threw the last jellyfish clinging to her body onto the unified Tower of Humans.

The mentally broken jellyfish, the moment it touched the tower, was impaled by the antlers and became one with it.

Jae-hee had unified an otherworld where Rift clearing was normally impossible, a world of monstrous creatures existing at the spore level.

★

★

★

Jae-hee, caressing the Tower of Humans, turned around with a smile.

It wasn’t as beautiful as she had expected.

She thought that even if it was grotesque,

hideous,

monstrous, there would be an aesthetic blooming within it like a flower…

“Ah, it’s a failure~”

She was disappointed.

But it was okay.

The real beauty was somewhere else.

Let’s see…

In…

3.

2.

1.

Ta-da~

—Crash!

“Gasp! Gasp! Gasp! Jae, Jae-hee-nim, Jae-hee-nim, Jae-hee-nim!!!!”

Dan Unnie, breathless, had arrived~

Ahaha, her expression was delicious.

Seeing me.

Her face frozen.

Staring at me.

Ah, that was the most delicious.

The expression of worry on her face.

Worried about me…  Terrified by the sight of beautiful me entangled in tentacles, looking dangerous…  Like I was being ruined…  That’s what made Dan Unnie, who rushed here, the most delicious.

“Are, are… you… okay…?”

Dan Unnie, catching her breath, managed to ask me.

I felt a little bad.

I had shown her a scene that would look incredibly dangerous, even life-threatening, to others.

But me, entangled in dangerous tentacles, human-faced jellyfish… me, being ruined…

Wasn’t it beautiful?

Right?

Of course, I knew I went too far.

Hmm, would she scold me?

Even though I felt bad for Dan Unnie, I couldn’t help it. It was my instinct.

“Haa, haa, haa…”

But Dan Unnie just stared at me, catching her breath.

Checking if I was okay.

If I was hurt.

Then, still breathless, Dan Unnie softly said,

“Let’s, let’s go home…”

“…”

It would have been better if she had yelled at me.

…I’m sorry.

It seemed like I would have to… diligently sort the trash for a while.

—–CROW—– 

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