NOVEL'S EXTRA: I Will Die at the Peak-Chapter 46: Is this a parasite?

Cean’s body lay motionless in a pool of blood.

Yet, suddenly, his right arm, sprawled on the ground, twitched slightly.

At first, it looked like a simple post-mortem nerve spasm.

However, the twitching quickly intensified.

The arm jerked violently, and the fingers curled inward, as if attempting to grasp something.

Nepal flinched, her eyes wide open in shock, and hastily took several steps back.

His voice, nearly reduced to a hoarse whisper, burst out:

"Wasn’t he supposed to be dead?! Why is he still moving?!"

Noa narrowed his eyes, fixing his gaze on Cean’s arm.

After a brief moment of surprise, he raised his left hand without hesitation.

The air between his fingers shimmered, and an invisible wave of force materialized.

The force struck Cean’s arm, tearing it from the shoulder joint with a dry, cracking sound.

The severed limb fell to the ground with a heavy splat.

A profound silence enveloped the surroundings.

But what they expected did not happen.

Not a single drop of blood oozed from the severed arm.

The cut surface was bone-dry, gray, and lifeless—more like an abandoned shell than a living limb.

In the tense silence, the severed arm gave a slight twitch.

The fingers stiffened with faint crackling noises, as though pressure was building up inside the joints.

Then, unexpectedly, watery eyes began to form between the knuckles of the fingers.

The eyes were murky, as if covered by a layer of mist, and they darted around aimlessly, trembling.

Along with that, a mouth tore open in the palm, splitting the cracked skin apart.

Its edges were jagged, and inside were fragments of flesh and teeth, forming a grotesque maw.

It made no sound at first.

A sticky, blackish tongue shot out from the mouth.

The tongue slithered across the floor toward the pooled blood.

The moment it touched the blood, a wet, sucking sound echoed as the tongue began to absorb the liquid.

As it drank, the mouth twitched faintly, as though coming to life.

For several seconds, the tongue lapped around, swelling as it gorged itself on the blood.

Then, suddenly, the mouth stretched wide, and a muffled, incoherent shriek erupted:

"Shee... shee... sheeeeeee!"

The shriek reverberated through the room, bouncing off the walls and morphing into a chilling drone.

Suddenly, bony protrusions burst from the sides of the severed arm.

These thin, sharp extensions resembled legs and embedded themselves into the ground.

The arm began to move with its new legs—first in a clumsy, faltering manner, but soon with increasingly swift and coordinated steps.

Nepal, instinctively letting go of Cean’s head, stumbled back a few more steps.

A brief look of disgust flashed across his face; his eyes narrowed, and his mouth twisted slightly.

Yet, he quickly drew a deep breath and composed himself.

"My Lord... please... kill that disgusting thing... I can’t bear to look at it!"

Noa’s eyes remained narrowed, a mix of shock and curiosity playing across his features.

Curling his lips slightly, he replied:

"I want to watch it a little longer... I’m curious to see how this ends."

At that moment, the severed arm crawling on the floor trembled and slowly moved toward Cean’s lifeless body.

Its fingers gripped the edges of the severed neck cavity.

Positioning itself right at the center of the raw, fleshy opening, the arm slowly slithered inward.

As the arm burrowed into the neck hole, the surrounding skin stretched, and wet, gurgling sounds rose from within.

The mouth embedded in the palm immediately began to snap shut viciously as soon as it touched the internal tissues.

It bit off and chewed the organs one by one, tearing through them fiber by fiber.

When it reached the core of the body—the area where the stomach and intestines were—it did not stop.

The mouth savagely shredded the soft tissues inside; as more and more organs were devoured, a sunken hollow formed in the abdominal cavity.

This small mouth opened wider, gnawing away at the rotting organs within.

With each bite, fine, sinew-like fibers burst from the arm, spreading throughout the surrounding tissues.

These fibers rooted themselves into the empty spaces left behind, weaving a new network—a new neural system.

At the very center of the torso, the fibers merged to form a smooth, square-shaped organ.

This organ pulsed faintly like a dying heartbeat, sending unseen commands throughout the body.

For a moment, silence reigned.

Then, Cean’s headless and one-armed body shuddered.

Thick, dark blood dripped from his knees as the body slowly pushed itself upright.

His muscles tensed with a low vibration; his shoulders sagged, and his grotesquely reanimated body stood unsteadily.

Noa furrowed his brows, narrowing his eyes. His gaze, filled with slight amazement and caution, locked onto the monster.

"I’ve never seen anything like this before..." he muttered in a low voice.

Cean’s headless, one-armed body wobbled slightly.

Then, with his remaining left hand, he grasped the severed head dragging on the ground.

His crooked fingers gently clutched the head, and with trembling motions, placed it onto the gaping neck cavity.

The moment the head settled into place, the fibers from the arm lashed forward.

Thin, wet strands spread across the severed surfaces, stitching together muscles, veins, and spine.

Some of the inner fibers slithered into the skull, weaving themselves around the brain like a spider’s web.

It was as if the brain was being slowly overtaken by a new system.

The body began to appear whole once more, but it was still unstable.

The head trembled slightly; its eyelids twitched.

Suddenly, garbled, broken sounds spilled from its mouth:

"Li-li-live... must... live..."

As Cean’s grotesque body completed its transformation, the atmosphere in the room grew heavier.

The initial curiosity on Noa’s face gradually faded.

It was clear that what he was watching had drained all his interest.

He had expected something fascinating to occur, but what he faced was merely a drawn-out, distasteful display.

He quickly realized this monstrous transformation was one of the details the little guardian had failed to mention.

And it wasn’t difficult to guess who was behind it: Ravien.

The fear that had welled up in the little guardian’s eyes when speaking of him now made much more sense.

Noa tilted his head slightly and glanced at Nepal.

Nepal had instinctively pulled his body backward.

Noa curled his lips faintly and spoke in a sweet, almost tender tone:

"Step back a little, darling."

Noa took a deep breath.

Then, all at once, an intense aura erupted from his body.

The air grew heavier; the ground trembled slightly.

The glass surfaces of the aquariums vibrated with a faint hum at first, then began to crack.

Water leaked from the fractured glass, mixing with the blood on the floor, turning it into a dark, murky color.

The entire environment was now filled with an invisible force; even breathing became difficult.

Noa tilted his head slightly and gazed at the creature, speaking in a calm, almost indifferent tone:

"If it were someone else, this threat might have worked.

But all it did was make me a little angry."

The parasite sensed the surge of energy with a primal fear.

Its instincts were triggered: fight or flight.

But its body was weak and chaotic; it tried to flee, but its movements were distorted and clumsy.

Noa watched the pitiful attempt with detached indifference.

His gaze held nothing but cold disappointment.

In a calm, almost mocking murmur, he said:

"Trying to run away?

How disappointing... I at least expected you to resist, little worm."

As the parasite tried to escape, its body began to deteriorate unexpectedly.

Its steps grew unstable; its muscles abruptly slackened, and a faint cracking sound echoed from its joints.

Some unseen force was shaking its entire structure, unraveling it from within.

First, the fingertips trembled, then the elbows collapsed; its spine started to stretch and lose form.

No matter how hard the creature tried to advance, each movement only hastened its disintegration.

When its torso could no longer support its own weight, it staggered, beginning to collapse as if melting.

For a moment, one could see the fibers beneath its flesh straining and tearing.

Its muscle tissues were being ripped apart as if by invisible hands from within.

Thin lines opened along its skin; blood spurted out in tiny bubbles before any major rupture could happen.

The parasite felt itself losing control of its body.

Before it could even comprehend what was happening, it let out an instinctive growl.

In one final panic, it gathered all its remaining strength and detonated itself.

BATTT!

A sharp, brief explosion rang out, followed by a heavy shockwave that filled the room.

Thick droplets of blood, chunks of flesh, and shattered organs were hurled everywhere.

A large portion of the mess was flung toward Noa and Nepal.

However, as the pieces approached, they encountered a resistance in the air.

As if striking an invisible wall, the blood and flesh fragments lost momentum, deflected, and fell harmlessly to the ground.

The blood spread across the floor, creating thin pools in various places; the smell of leaking fluids thickened in the air.

Nepal stood rigidly, gritting her teeth; a few drops had almost splashed onto him, but nothing managed to reach.

Noa, without moving an inch, leaned back in his chair, observing the chaos.

There was no change in his expression.

He simply watched with a dull attention, then muttered softly:

"So, you chose to self-destruct."