I Want to Eat You!

A dozen or so minutes later.

"Glass Lamp!! Are you all right?!!"

Dozens of fully armed Exorcists came racing down the distant street at an unimaginable speed, each equipped with multiple holy artifacts.

Then they shuddered at the sight of the little girl slumped in the middle of the street.

Her expression was vacant, and her small hands trembled as they clutched her skirt.

If they hadn't heard the [Spirit Bell]...

The sight would probably have made them think their teammate had suffered unimaginable abuse and humiliation here.

"Glass Lamp! Are you okay? It's me, your captain, Jones! We just received the report. What happened here?!"

The young man leading them gritted his teeth and immediately moved to help her up.

But the moment he saw her face, his heart gave a violent jolt.

"Your eyes..."

They knew perfectly well that Glass Lamp was a chosen one born with the [Eye of Truth-Piercing]. Her eyes could see through to the true nature of any monstrosity.

But... how could this...

"No... I'm okay."

Her little face pale, Glass Lamp reached out with trembling hands and hugged her chest tightly.

"A monster of an extremely high order... de... descended. My eyes couldn't see through him. Every monster in the Spirit Realm was fleeing. They were afraid... That monster wasn't just of an extremely high order, he also knew the ancient language of the gods. I suspect... I suspect he might be... an ultra-ancient great demon that has existed since the age of the gods..."

Everyone present paled at her words.

Despite having braced themselves for this...

Hearing her say it still sent waves of shock and terror through them.

And absurd as it sounded...

With those nine tolls of the Spirit Bell, they had no choice but to believe her.

When that great demon had descended twenty years ago, the Spirit Bell had only tolled seven times.

"He... he didn't kill you? What else do you know?!"

The young man immediately pressed her for answers.

Glass Lamp's voice grew softer and softer as she said shakily:

"He said he was going to make this place his new lair, and that he wouldn't leave easily. I suspect... this might only be the first step in his invasion of our world... Once he truly establishes himself here, he might soon unleash a massive catastrophe upon us... and then eat the whole world!"

The young man's pupils contracted.

"Where is he now?!"

Her little hand pointed weakly into the distance.

"Gear Street... He's going to... eat everyone there..."

With that, her head lolled to one side, and she passed out.

"Glass Lamp!!"

"Notify headquarters immediately! And request aid from the [Knowledge Association] and the [Sun God Church] as quickly as possible! Tell them an ultra-ancient great demon has descended into our world!"

"Go to the sanctuary! Bring out the holy artifacts we used against that great demon's descent all those years ago! Contact every high-ranking Exorcist! Now!!"

As the orders poured out...

The hundred-plus Exorcists who had gathered on the street gritted their teeth and rushed toward Gear Street as fast as they could.

Their palms were ice-cold.

They had no idea what the being that had descended wanted, but if everything Glass Lamp had said was true, the war that erupted this time might surpass any catastrophe of the past century.

And once the fighting began...

Exorcists like them...

Would probably have no chance of surviving!

"What the hell is going on? Great demons, evil gods, all that crap-of all the places they could descend, why do they keep piling up here?! Spread some around to the other cities!!"

Seething with frustration, they had already staked everything they had.

"[Gear Street]! Full speed ahead! Even if it costs us our lives, we have to stop him!!"

Meanwhile.

[Mistveil Street]

On the long street, Lin En strutted down the silent, deserted road in his "shorts," looking up in puzzlement as he checked the house numbers.

"This should be the place, right?"

He raised a finger and spun it against his temple with a whirring noise, drilling it inside to vigorously prod this body's brain.

Yes.

He had indeed descended.

But the body the system had stuffed him into clearly wasn't a good fit. Although he could catch intermittent glimpses of his host's memories, it was like an old television, working one moment and failing the next. It barely gave him any useful information.

The only thing he knew was that his host lived at [154 Gear Street].

That should be his home.

He lifted off the top of his skull, took out his brain, and wrung the water out of it.

Then he stuffed it back in.

"So what's this Vessel Family thing? I've never been to this world before. Why does it have hosts specifically meant for me to descend into?"

Lin En muttered in confusion.

That was what the system notification had told him when he first descended.

He had also tried asking the system about it.

But unless triggered, it wouldn't give him any response at all. Clearly, it wasn't the sort of proper AI that could take human form and be banged.

Still, he was an optimist. If he couldn't figure something out, he simply stopped thinking about it. The most important thing now was to find his home and properly experience human life.

Honestly, after spending ten years in another world getting hacked up by that goddess every day, he had almost forgotten how humans lived.

Soon.

He counted off the buildings.

At last.

He stopped in front of the 154th house.

A smile immediately spread across his face, his white teeth flashing with a ding as he looked at the door before him.

"This has to be it!"

This was his vessel's home.

Which, more or less, made it his home!

Having a home again felt so wonderful! He wondered whether there was also a gravely ill old mother inside who needed looking after!

He reached out for the doorknob.

Creeeak-

With the creak of an old, moldy wooden door, the door before him opened on its own.

Lin En froze, then said:

"Whoa, automatic door service, too?! Is this world's technology that advanced?"

He walked up to the doorway and instinctively sniffed. For some reason, waves of a refreshingly rotten, bloody smell wafted out from inside.

It whetted his appetite.

"Nobody's in there, right?"

Riiip-

Almost the instant he finished speaking, a bloody hand shot out of the darkness and yanked him inside with a whoosh.

Creeeak-

The door closed again, leaving utter silence.

One minute later.

A horrifying conversation drifted out of the house.

"Hey, are you people actually my family? You dragged me in without even saying hello? Also, could you stop spraying blood at me and stuff that rotten flesh back into your bellies? Your eyeball's fallen out."

"What? You're not my family? And you want to eat me?"

"Uh..."

"Honestly, if you're not my family, then I kind of..."

"Want to eat you, too."

"..."