Becoming a Swarm of Insects

Morien looked up at the shattered stone wall before him.

Though there was fog, his enhanced vision could barely make out that the cliff did not seem particularly high.

At least, not to him.

Fog surrounded him, and he had no idea how long it would take to find a way out.

He had been here for several days without managing to leave. He was a little too impatient to wait and see how much longer it would take.

So, he decided to climb straight up the cliff. He would worry about what came next afterward.

Maybe the view would open up once he got to the top.

Morien reached out, gripping a protruding rock on the cliff face, and was about to climb when he suddenly froze.

"Hiss... huh?"

He murmured in confusion, feeling as though something about his body was strange.

Having unleashed Black Flash for the second time, he felt as though something had become clearer. It was like he had vaguely touched upon something.

Letting go of the cliff face, Morien stepped back two paces.

He placed a hand over his chest, above his heart, and listened carefully.

Thump, thump.

He heard his own heartbeat.

Black Flash could allow a Jujutsu Sorcerer to unleash 120% of their potential, improving their understanding of their own technique and Cursed Energy.

It could be said that Jujutsu Sorcerers who had never landed a Black Flash and those who had successfully landed one were two entirely different kinds of people.

Thump, thump.

He listened to his heartbeat, listening as it seemed to begin resonating with something.

In a daze, he felt as if he could hear more and more heartbeats.

Thump, thump...

Morien parted his lips slightly, but no sound came from his mouth.

He used the Resonance Curse Technique.

This time, the target of the technique was himself.

His limbs, his organs, his flesh and blood, his bones...

"Split..."

"..."

Words that could be understood without question reached every part of his body.

Morien slowly closed his eyes.

Suddenly, the fluorescent cracks across Morien's body, formed by Monsterification, split open even wider.

He raised his hand to press against his mask and bent forward slightly.

Splurt!

Morien's body shattered inch by inch. His skin peeled away, his flesh separated, and his bones broke apart.

One after another, those pieces of body tissue detached from him and transformed into insects.

Buzzz...

Amid dense insect cries, more and more insects appeared.

There were butterflies, beetles, moths, mosquitoes and flies, bees, worms, spiders, centipedes...

He had split himself apart, becoming all manner of insects.

The insects gathered together, forming a dense swarm.

At that moment, Morien felt a pleasure unlike anything he had ever experienced.

This swarm was him, and he was this swarm.

The flying insects dragged along the ones that could not fly. Morien's entire body rose like a cloud of black smoke, drifting upward toward the top of the cliff.

Some of the insects broke off to grab Morien's clothes and trousers.

Carrying a set of clothing with it, the swarm climbed vertically along the cliff face and soon reached the summit.

The swarm twisted in midair. The scattered insects rapidly gathered inward, passing awkwardly through the clothing before reforming into Morien.

His clothes were a mess, feeling as though they had all been twisted together, and his trousers were somewhat stuck too.

"Hiss... ah! That hurts!"

Morien began half-pulling, half-adjusting his clothes and trousers.

"Hmm... perhaps I should create some insect spawn that can turn into clothes."

After straightening out his awkwardly tangled clothes, Morien fell into thought.

Just as he had expected, once he left the forest by the lake and reached the top of the cliff, the white fog was gone.

Morien steadied himself and surveyed the scenery before him.

It was daytime, and it was not raining. Blue skies, white clouds—the scenery was quite pleasant.

This seemed to be a medieval western fantasy world.

He swept his gaze over the area ahead.

To his right lay a graveyard.

Tombstones had been piled there in a chaotic mess, placed without any order whatsoever. Some were even stacked directly atop one another.

It was obviously extremely disrespectful to the dead.

Directly ahead of him stood a somewhat dilapidated church with a pointed roof.

It looked quite old and was in ruins. Even the church's roof had collapsed. The church, once built from brown stone, had now turned green, covered in moss and climbing vines.

Far off to the left stood a towering, massive castle, looming majestically atop a mountain peak. It was huge, imposing, and looked incredibly expensive.

Anyone who could live there was definitely of no low status.

After a brief consideration, Morien started walking directly toward the dilapidated little church ahead.

The enormous castle on the left was a little too far away, and it clearly was no ordinary place. Getting inside probably would not be easy.

As for the graveyard on the right...

Based on Morien's previous experiences, this world probably contained all kinds of monsters.

For all he knew, the owners of those graves might crawl out of the dirt to greet him.

Morien felt that the graveyard's residents probably would not appreciate him disturbing them.

He had just finished a fight and had enjoyed himself enough. For the moment, he had no desire to clash with anyone else.

Nor did he want to play Plants vs. Zombies.

He crossed the grass and arrived before the small church.

A cramped church, moss-covered stone bricks, and a small arched doorway that only allowed one person through at a time.

Morien saw writing carved into the wall beside the church's main entrance.

He leaned closer to inspect it carefully.

He could not understand it.

Without a doubt, he was still illiterate in this world.

"Mm-hm." He gave a soft hum, passed through the small archway, and entered the church.

The first thing he saw was a huge stone statue, apparently the deity worshipped by this church.

The statue depicted a woman with her head bowed, looking somewhat weak and listless. She had long hair and wore a long dress, her arms spread to either side as though she had been nailed to a cross.

Morien looked up at the statue and rubbed his chin.

"Hmm, this statue looks familiar..."

"Oh!"

He blinked, then suddenly exclaimed, "Oh!"

He turned his head and looked behind him.

Beyond the cliff behind him, at the edge of his vision, he could see an enormous golden tree standing there.

He had not noticed it when climbing the cliff earlier because his back had been facing it.

That golden tree was unimaginably huge, so huge that it could be seen from nearly anywhere in this country.

If Morien's initial arrival point had not been surrounded by towering cliffs and shrouded in fog, he would have guessed where he was on his very first day in this world.

The gigantic Erdtree, the medieval style, the disgusting monsters.

And the statue of Marika in the church behind him.

This was the world of Elden Ring. This was the Lands Between.

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