Thanks for the Invitation, I'm in Terra, and I'm a Parasite

Wait...

How could someone so weak-looking have crawled such a great distance after being cut in half at the waist?

There was almost no hesitation—none was needed.

As a seasoned Inquisitor, Dario's reactions and movements were beyond reproach.

Click.

He raised the hand cannon at his waist. Dario didn't even aim before pulling the trigger!

"Boom!!!"

A massive burst of flame swallowed everything before him, driving away the darkness.

Yet within the flames, he saw a mountain-like figure slowly writhing.

At the same time, the person who had just called for help was dragged toward that mass of flesh as though something were pulling him.

"Damn it, it's unharmed?!"

Chapter Nineteen: The Inquisitor (Early Update Raid)

Boom!

The silver hand cannon spat a crimson tongue of fire.

The violent flash of combustion flooded the area like flickering sunlight.

"The space is too cramped... I can't fire the hand cannon at full power."

Dario ejected a smoking etched shell casing and looked at the writhing mass of flesh with a huge hole blasted through it.

"Should I lure it outside?"

Just as he considered it, the mass of flesh with the gaping hole began to churn.

Blue and red blood intertwined as they gushed from the wound.

At the same time, limbs of all different shapes burst through its skin, densely covering its entire body.

"Pain..."

"It hurts..."

Within the wound, an utterly ordinary face emerged, one that looked like it could belong to anyone.

It howled as its face began to split apart.

Different faces multiplied one after another, filling the enormous hole.

Dario's eyes widened as he watched the wound vanish before more faces emerged

across its scarlet skin.

Some even appeared directly on the wildly flailing arms extending from its body.

There were men, women, elders, and youths among those faces.

There were even one or two twisted faces without a trace of human features.

Were those... Seaborn faces?

"Pain—"

Human and inhuman languages howled together, producing a piercing sound that set his teeth on edge.

"What the hell is this thing—"

Dario realized that the faces covering its body were far from meaningless features...

Were they the lives it had devoured?

Remembering the half-bodied victim who had been dragged into its body by his own flesh and organs while crying for help, Dario couldn't imagine the devastation this thing would cause if it escaped.

If even a full-powered shot from his hand cannon couldn't kill it quickly...

What if it chose to flee straight for the residential district the instant it got outside?

Click.

Fresh ammunition was loaded into the hand cannon.

Dario hung the lantern in his left hand from his waist. Its dancing flame continued to cast a gentle glow over the Inquisitor's coat.

His sword left its sheath. With gun and blade in hand, he chose to face the inhuman, grotesque monster before him.

He absolutely couldn't allow such a monster to reach the surface.

He would stop it here.

Dario took a deep breath.

His instincts told him this wouldn't be an easy fight.

The monster before him radiated a pressure unlike any enemy he had ever faced.

But!

"An Inquisitor exists to resist inhuman threats."

He murmured under his breath, then gripped his longsword tightly and charged straight at it.

The monster noticed his charge. The next moment, it dropped its massive body to the ground and scuttled toward him like a centipede, using the countless human arms growing from both sides!

Dario watched it draw closer. In the narrow tunnel, there was nowhere to dodge.

But the next instant, he suddenly turned sideways and pressed himself against the wall, then pulled the trigger of his hand cannon at the cluster of arms on one side of the flesh mass!

"Boom!"

The arms on one side were blown apart, opening a narrow passage along its flank.

Without hesitation, Dario rushed into that cramped opening. His sword swept out a silver trail, severing every broken arm and limb!

In a single breath, Dario had sliced through every arm on one side of the monster from end to end.

Smooth wounds sprayed mingled red and blue blood, yet not a trace of filth touched Dario's body.

Click.

The hand cannon rotated and ejected a casing. It fell to the ground trailing smoke, its crisp clatter echoing through the narrow space.

Fresh ammunition was loaded. Dario turned, preparing to sever all of its arms from behind as well.

First, strip it of its ability to move!

Then widen the distance and attack from relative safety.

Even the strongest regenerative ability had its limits. Once the hand cannon ran out of ammunition, he still had his blade. If the blade broke, he still had his hands.

He would stand here... and stop it!

Thinking this, he launched into another attack.

He raised the hand cannon and fired once more at the side covered in limbs.

The cramped space restricted not only him, but the monster's massive body as well.

As the roar rang out, Dario raised his sword and prepared to charge in and slash again.

But as he charged forward once more, its skin writhed, and countless faces emerged from the flesh on its back.

!!

Dario stared at the densely packed, savage faces turned toward him. His instincts immediately warned him of danger.

Without hesitation, almost at the same instant, he changed his stance.

He crossed his arms to shield his head while holding his sword blade-down behind his back, using the blade to protect his heart.

"Pfft, pfft, pfft!!!!!!"

Several mouths fired black crystals at tremendous speed!

Clang! Clang!!!

Splat! Splat!

The crystals struck the metal on his body and his sword.

The unprotected areas were pierced straight through. Bloody flowers bloomed across Dario's exposed body.

The narrow passage was immediately filled with embedded crystals.

Dario had nowhere to evade.

"Arghhh—"

When the attack ended, his knee had been pierced through. Losing support, Dario dropped to his knees.

The arms he had used to protect himself were riddled with black crystals.

He wore light arm guards over his arms. Without them, they would likely have been pierced through as well.

Thud.

The lantern at his waist fell to the ground after taking a hit.

He laboriously raised his hand and loaded a special round.

"Damn it..."

"These are... Originium crystals?"

Looking at the Originium crystals embedded densely across his body, he had no time to consider why the creature possessed such substances within it—or how it could fire them as

weapons.

Click.

A round painted a dangerous red was loaded into the hand cannon.

There was no other choice... Originium crystals were scattered everywhere, and his most powerful ammunition would trigger an even greater explosion.

This was the only way. Even if he couldn't kill it, the collapse caused by the blast would trap it here.

Dario struggled to raise the hand cannon in his hand.

The weapon that never left his side, like a second limb, now felt as difficult to lift as though it were filled with lead.

Yet just as he was about to pull the trigger, the faces across the flesh mass suddenly shifted their gazes. Several pairs of eyes fixed in unison upon the raised hand cannon.

The next moment, before his finger could even pull the trigger, new limbs regenerated from the enormous flesh mass.

Its massive body charged straight at Dario. With his legs unable to move, he couldn't even dodge and could only watch as its huge body slammed into him!

Bang!!!

His slender body was smashed against the wall!

Dario's pupils dilated as he coughed up blood.

He slumped against the wall, watching the mass of flesh face him.

Before he had any time to react, it rammed him again with its enormous body. The hard wall behind him forced him to endure an indescribable impact!

Bang!!!

The dull crash reverberated through the entire underground chamber.

The pain of shattering bones overwhelmed Dario so completely that he couldn't open his eyes.

The mask on his face shattered outright.

Yet what followed was a third impact!

Bang!

Then a fourth, a fifth.

Until blood mixed with chunks of internal organs spilled from his mouth, and his limbs were twisted beyond recognition.

Dario's consciousness gradually blurred, and the lantern on the ground slowly dimmed...

"Assimilate... waste... eat... nutrients..."