The Ghost King's KeeperCh68 - Tentacles

Ruzen winced when a sharp splitting force of air directly grazed against his neck, almost cutting off his main blood stream. It wasn’t as if he was trying to tolerate the violent attacks on him, but even with shield protecting his body, the piercing razor sharp air attacks were pressuring enough to crack his defences. Even the most useful Ghost Hand technique was proving to be difficult to manoeuvre in midst of such onslaught of killing forces.

Feeling less fortunate by the minute, Ruzen started to guide the one sided fight towards the alleyway where he had seen the King. Don’t blame him, he was just being practical here, it wasn’t sure if he could win against so many enemies. 9CziGq

If his mental defences weren’t in place, he would have vomited at the sight of these strange ‘humanoid’ things which were closer to nightmares. They didn’t only smell like sewer, they also gave off a very pungent stench when attacked.

In fiction, smells and such things did not have much impact on the protagonist, but in real life fights, the smell played a major role in pushing Ruzen to a disadvantage. Only he knew how bad it was, making his nose hurt and his subconscious to fade in and out, the stomach revolting and his throat dry heaving. “So gross.”

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

Reluctant to pull in a quick defeat, Ruzen continued to dodge and respond to every onslaught of force, but his enemies weren’t stationary, they guided themselves and the attacks to pin Ruzen’s vital points, sometimes even attacking below navel. It was getting really dangerous.

Like a pungent smoke that clings to one’s skin even after scrubbing off the dirt, the attacking monsters kept closing in on Ruzen despite his struggles to maintain a safe distance. His shield was on the verge of crumbling and Ruzen knew that his own attack would do nothing against this mob of regenerative humanoids. However, as strange as it was to fight against them, they seemed to block his way to the alleyway where the King had been. DReinb

Now that reminded Ruzen of the King and he wasn’t sure whether it was his own imagination or the king was really not aware of what was happening to him. Because as per his understanding, the King was a very powerful being, but right now he was too occupied…?

Just this morning the weather had an abrupt change, and from collective facts, the King needed his help with energy management, including syphoning energy. So… there maybe something wrong with him.

This matter was not only shocking but was also making Ruzen feel anxious. The dread of Ah’Hen’s supposed ‘betrayal’ – since Ruzen still did not know the entire story – came back afresh and all the wounds of his previous adventure stung anew. Ruzen really hoped that all his anxiety was only a fictional daydream, he did not want anything he thought of to come true.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

A whistling noise startled him, which he realised was a call from someone not that far away, but before he could react to it, the mob of humanoids stopped chasing after him and left him
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Moreover, Ruzen was puzzled by why he was suddenly attacked, was someone planning something and he disrupted their plan, or was he the actual target. Recalling the incidence that happened back at the border, where he was almost assassinated, he believed he could be their target.

Still, he was careful, because not only he couldn’t fight against whatever these humanoids were, but he also couldn’t lead them back to the King, whom he knew was still in the alleyway, the signature enersym that always surrounded the King was actually flaring by the second and Ruzen’s instincts were screaming at him to escape this place. vS6h5e

However, who could ignore important leads, so Ruzen kept a few meters between his enemies and himself, making sure to keep an open path in case he wanted to escape. His master had guided him with how to keep his own enersym in check, so he tried to reduce the leakage to avoid suspecting enemies.

What greeted him once he entered a sudden opening was a very horrifying scene. In the middle stood a man, taller than the King, hair long and silky black, eyes pupil-less and his robes parted showing bare torso. In fact it was not hideous, the man was a ghost in all senses but wasn’t hideous, what really made it unacceptable was the pitch black dense mass writhing beneath him, adding in more to its volume as the remaining humanoids merged into the tentacles, forming more tentacles, and these solid tentacle like appendages were trying to slither inside the ghost’s tummy, which was parted in an oval shape, sharp teeth visible, as if feeding on the tentacles.

It was really… something right out of the scary movie Ruzen had once seen in passing, not to mention the movie had been voted a miserable 1.8 stars out of 5, because the plot was missing, the actors were bad, and the graphics was too poor, yet the gore had left a lasting impression on the young Ruzen, who later avoided such genres of movies out of pure instinct.

At the moment, the scene in front of him was really happening, and Ruzen’s head was buzzing with the wrongness of it. He was pretty sure such things wouldn’t lead to anything good. HdZb7L

So being sensible, Ruzen rushed back the same way he came from, trying to find the alleyway where he had seen the King. Forgive him, but he could feel his beating heart and the fear that was starting to grip him. It wasn’t as if he couldn’t make a move to stop whatever was happening, but if someone could feed on those humanoid things, he was sure he couldn’t match the predator on any scale.

Stumbling over a falling brick, jumping over the stalls, Ruzen finally found the entrance of the alleyway between the residences, it was darker than before and something was happening inside which could be even more horrifying if his instinctual alarm bells were right.

Gulping, Ruzen edged closer to the entrance of the alleyway, trying to look through the fog that now surrounded the area.

It was eerily silent. l7aort

“Y-Your majesty?” his voice came out quivery.

When no response came, Ruzen did not wait around, he stepped inside the fog and was engulfed within a heavy pressure coming from all sides, not welcoming him in the least.

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Gritting his teeth, Ruzen still continued. Each step was painstakingly heavy, yet to reach out to the King, Ruzen had to interrupt whatever was going inside. “Your majesty?”

It was terrifying to know that his call came out miserable, as if something was eating on soundwaves and however much he tried, his sound still did not come out loud enough to be heard. GRwofb

Like a black hole is said to absorb light, his call was absorbed by the darkness of the fog.

This wasn’t how he had expected his day to go, maybe he shouldn’t have left his confines and stayed there like a good boy, but right now ever the scout that had been given to him was nowhere to be seen and Ruzen was all alone, facing a strange black void growing every second. The scary thing was that the energy circulating inside was that of the King’s. Ruzen was quite familiar with it.

“My King.” Ruzen called again, but the pressure had suddenly increased and Ruzen felt unease dragging along the back of his spine, reminding him how unsafe it was to be here, where even the King was unable to answer his call.

What was happening? aDUNPt

Still, he kept trying to reach out to the King, he had to, there was no other way.

Suddenly, the fog/void started to clear and Ruzen was able to see what was going on, taking one step at a time, inching closer to the source of trouble.

In front of him stood the King, his back facing Ruzen, and opposite him was a hideous figure of black mass that writhed from under the blue barrier that kept it pressed on the ground.

Now it was good and all, the black mass seemed to look dangerous and had several sharp tentacles to boot. But what Ruzen’s eyes really looked at was the King’s back, because even from above the slip of robes, Ruzen could see something moving inside it, bumping against the robes trying to set itself free. dB fP0

Yo yo yo, did he suddenly come to the wrong genre, what was wrong with today, so many tentacles and black masses, it was not his cup of tea. What Ruzen didn’t know was whether the mass inside the King’s robes was his own or… was it a pathogen of some kind…? What was he supposed to do?

Brave as he was, Ruzen called again, this time even without limitations his voice came out soft, not even audible to himself. But well, the King seemed to have heard it, and Ruzen found the things moving inside the King’s robes coming to an abrupt halt.

Ruzen gulped, wishing that whatever was inside the King’s robes was the enemy, and not the King himself. Because if Ghosts had other forms, then Ruzen’s quest for love had to pause a bit so that he could digest the true from of these ghosts before proceeding to kiss one. He wasn’t so deeply in love to actually kiss… a bunch of horrifying black mass of tentacles. No thanks. He had been a normal person, human, not that long ago, he still needed time if he was to love such an alien race.