NOVEL'S EXTRA: I Will Die at the Peak-Chapter 53: God’s goat [ END ]

The cocoon stood motionless in the middle of the square for hours.

The cracks on its surface remained unchanged; there was no movement, no sound. The only thing present was the dust occasionally lifted from the ground by the wind.

After a while, animals began to appear from within the forest.

Their steps were slow, but their direction was clear. Black fluid oozed from various parts of their bodies. They didn’t look at each other, nor did they pay attention to their surroundings.

When they reached the square, they headed directly toward the cocoon without a moment’s hesitation.

Upon arriving at its surface, they stepped into the fluid. As their bodies sank into it, not a single sound was heard. They vanished in silence.

Those who followed proceeded in the same manner. They formed no lines, nor was there any confusion. Each one, as if following the one before, reached the cocoon and disappeared quietly.

As the hours passed, the footsteps coming from the forest grew fewer. They became increasingly sparse until they stopped altogether. When the last of the creatures merged into the fluid, silence returned once more.

Several more hours passed.

The air had grown heavy.

The sky hadn’t changed—it remained still, its color unaltered—but the light looked... different.

The silence lingered, stretching on longer than it should have.

Then, for the first time, the cocoon stirred. Barely.

Some parts of its surface tightened with a faint contraction.

Then came a sound—thin, sharp, brief:

Crack.

A moment later, again:

Crack.

As if something inside was slowly expanding, pushing against the shell.

The cracks on the surface began to grow visibly wider.

Soon after, the cocoon trembled lightly.

The ground around it shivered.

Small stones shifted positions.

The dust that had settled on the surface rose again.

The ground in the square seemed to ripple. The tremor wasn’t violent, but even the branches of distant trees began to sway.

And then, in the stillness, a loud sound rang out—

piercing, final, and impossible to ignore:

"CRAAACKK!"

The cocoon split into several pieces.

Shards burst outward, scattering at high speed.

At the same moment, a dense black smoke erupted from within, rising quickly.

It spread in a thick, suffocating layer across the entire square...

and then moved toward the entrance of the forest.

The first few trees vanished into its shadow.

Simultaneously, an unseen pressure expanded outward.

The air compressed, making it hard to breathe.

The ground seemed to feel the weight from below—it buckled, then cracked.

Trees suddenly bent backward. Some groaned under the strain.

Leaves rained down.

Birds didn’t fly away—

because there were no longer any living creatures left.

The smoke began to slowly disperse.

A thick, nauseating stench still lingered in the air—something between burnt flesh and rotting leaves, with an indescribable undertone.

As visibility improved, the entity that had emerged from the cocoon started to take shape.

The first thing noticed were its eyes.

Yellowish, foggy orbs scattered irregularly across its body...

None focused on a single point.

Each one moved independently, observing motion in all directions.

Its torso wasn’t a single, cohesive form; it was layered—bulging, sticky tissues merged together in uneven folds.

The dark flesh seemed to shiver, as if preparing to morph into something else at any moment.

From its back, hundreds of tendrils rose into the air, curling and twisting.

Some bent inward, forming mouths.

Others morphed into bulbous growths covered with eyes.

Every tendril was different:

Some were thin and forked.

Others were thick and ended in suction-like tips.

A few split open, revealing secondary mouths lined with jagged teeth.

From the sides of its body—near what could be called its neck—long, goat-like heads hung downward.

At times, they curled upward; at others, they dangled low, nearly grazing the ground.

Every inch of its surface writhed with life:

Miniature eyes, tiny tongues slipping out of pores, and micro-mouths rimmed with fine, sharp teeth.

As these structures twitched and moved, they released deep, wet, sticky sounds:

"Crrhh... glk... chlrrk..."

When the creature’s four thick, tentacle-like legs touched the ground, the earth cracked beneath them.

Each limb was covered in eyes, mouths, needle-like bristles, and trails of slimy secretion.

As it moved forward, the noise of these appendages filled the air with a dense, vibrating hum.

Then, without warning, every mouth opened at once:

"Meeeehhh... MEHHhhhhh..."

"meheheHEEEhhhh... MEEEEHHH..."

These sounds didn’t strike the eardrums—

They seemed to sink directly into the organs, resonating deep within.

They were shrill, throat-born screams that echoed with a nauseating pitch.

Each scream carried a different tone, yet all of them felt like they were coming from a single source.

At the center of the entity, a massive goat head rose—

distinct from the rest, towering like a grotesque crown atop its formless body.

It vaguely resembled an ordinary goat’s skull, but in that shapeless mass, it stood out in monstrous majesty.

Eight eyes were scattered asymmetrically from its brow to its cheeks.

From either side of its head, two massive horns spiraled upward, stretching so far they seemed capable of tearing the sky itself.

Its mouth wasn’t aligned along a single axis

It opened in three separate directions.

Each jaw moved independently, filled with rows of jagged teeth, creating a nightmarish, shifting visage.

Among the chaotic howls of the other heads, this one’s voice reigned dominant.

Deeper. Heavier. More resonant.

It was as if it silenced everything around it:

"Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehh..."

---

The Goat of God had descended upon the earth.

Kheret let out its guttural bleats again, each one deeper than the last—

each wave spreading further across the land.

The heavy clouds above shuddered.

The cracks in the earth grew wider.

"Meeeehhh..."

"Meeehhh..."

With the final cry, the surrounding thin branches snapped and fell.

The colossal being, now standing alone in the square, finally began to open its mouth.

The three-part jaw slowly unhinged, and from deep within, a thick, resonant voice emerged:

"At last... I can stand beside my God. I have evolved... into my most perfect form for Him."

As it spoke, the tendrils across its body tensed, and the surface rippled with unnatural vibrations.

Kheret lifted one of its massive legs and stepped forward.

The moment it touched the ground, the earth gave way beneath it, collapsing into a wide, deep pit.

Kheret slowly turned its head eastward.

The eyes scattered across its body followed.

First gazing up at the sky—

Then down toward the darkened forest.

With a deep, visceral murmur, it called out:

"My God... I can feel you.

You... are over there.

Wait for me... I am coming for you...

my divine God."

As those words spread into the air, the trees nearby began to tremble slightly.

Kheret moved forward with heavy, deliberate steps.

Hundreds of tendrils on its back writhed and whipped outward—thrusting forward, to the sides, and skyward.

Any tree that stood in its path was seized by thick appendages, ripped from the ground, and hurled backward with immense force.

"THUUD!"

The uprooted trees crashed to the earth with deafening noise, their snapping branches echoing into the depths of the forest.

As the stench of rotting leaves and wet soil thickened in the air, Kheret left behind a trail of devastation—

a dark path carved from fallen trees and crushed earth.

Kheret moved eastward without pause—

drawn by the name that echoed in its chest...

By its God.

As Kheret marched steadily eastward...

Elsewhere—

Ravien Castle.

Ravien lay motionless in bed.

His body was nearly lifeless—no blinking, no visible breath.

By his side, Asogi stood silently, having not left him even for a moment since it began.

Ravien’s skin was pale, almost translucent, like carved marble.

But his mind... was somewhere else entirely.

---

(POV – Ravien)

The first thing I noticed when I opened my eyes was the darkness.

Everything was black.

But it wasn’t just ordinary darkness—

It had depth, like a void that breathed.

There was no up. No down.

My feet didn’t touch the ground, but I wasn’t falling either.

It felt like I was floating slowly, weightless, suspended in a still sea...

Drifting.

Is this a dream?

No... this place isn’t a dream.

It doesn’t feel like one.

I’m fully conscious here.

I can think—clearly. Too clearly, in fact.

What was I doing last...?

Yes—

I was creating a being.

The process took far longer than I had anticipated.

After completing the foundational structure, I began the capacity transfer.

At first, everything was stable. Controlled.

Balanced.

But just when I thought I was near the end, something went wrong.

The entity stopped accepting the allocated amount—

and instead reached for everything.

It began consuming me.

I cut the failsafes, but it was useless.

There was no stopping it.

Everything—

everything was pulled in.

For a moment, it felt like nothing of me would remain.

And then...

Void.

For a while, I tried to think of nothing.

But the mind doesn’t tolerate emptiness.

Memories, plans, questions...

All rose, one after the other.

Ravien drifted among his thoughts.

And he drifted still...