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The air was thick with the so-called fox god's shrieks.
None of the girls had ever imagined that the mountain god worshiped at the shrine would reveal such a grotesque true form.
Even the rakshasas from Buddhist lore would look like heartthrobs compared to this thing.
They froze for a moment, but quickly regained their composure.
Time to split roles and take the monster down.
Rosen, meanwhile, hung back like a field commander, supervising the fight.
Then he figured—well, standing around bored wasn't much fun. And why should he be the only one mentally scarred by this nightmare fuel? So he zoomed in on the fox god's face, snapped a shot, and dropped it straight into the group chat.
[Shepherd: image.jpg]
—
Delicious in Dungeon world.
"Falin, listen! This café's custard pudding is amazing. You've got to try it."
"Really?"
Taking a rare day off from dungeon delving, Marcille had dragged Falin to a sunny little cake shop in town for a sweet treat.
Falin gazed at the pudding set in front of her, eyes bright with anticipation.
Sunlight spilled through the window, glinting across the dessert. The pudding gleamed like polished amber, trembling with the slightest quiver, glossy and delicate as if it might burst at the lightest touch.
Marcille could even make out the tender texture beneath the surface, hiding a molten heart of honeyed syrup.
No question—it had to taste divine.
But right as she picked up her spoon, a chat notification popped up.
Curious, she opened it—
—and immediately wished she could stab her own eyes out after seeing Rosen's picture.
[I Don't Wanna Eat Monsters: What the hell IS that thing?!]
The sudden grotesque close-up made her long ears shoot straight up.
[Shut-In Angel: Holy crap! Where'd you even find this freak? Rosen, you trying to prank us with horror pics or what?]
[Shut-In Angel: FYI, this chat is all girls, you jerk!]
[Blizzard of Hell: Mr. Rosen, sending scary images to frighten girls isn't exactly the way to win their affection, you know.]
[Saeko: Compared to this… even zombies and bioweapons are easy on the eyes.]
[Bad Woman: Actually, it's kind of artistic. A mash-up of human and beast with a heavy dose of grotesque styling—visually striking, if nothing else.]
[I Don't Wanna Eat Monsters: Miss Makima, you're seriously not scared at all?]
[Bad Woman: I've seen enough bizarre demons that my shock tolerance is pretty high by now.]
[Old Mage: Hmmmmm. My world's got chimeras in a similar vein, but none this ugly.]
[Shut-In Angel: Normally people say, "Wow, what a cute little oddball!" But this one's more like, "What a real freak of a thing!"]
[Shepherd: What if I told you this isn't a horror pic but something that actually exists?]
[I Don't Wanna Eat Monsters: ??????]
Six question marks in a row. Not because Marcille was confused, but because Rosen was clearly insane.
[Shut-In Angel: I'm jumpy enough already, don't mess with me.]
[Shepherd: Fine, I'll just stream it.]
A new alert flashed:
[Group Notice: "Shepherd" has started a livestream. Come watch~~~]
[System: Shut-In Angel has entered the room.]
[System: Old Mage has entered the room.]…
The feed opened straight onto a nightmare—a monster with a woman's face fused to a fox's body lunging at the girls, who fought back with blinding speed and weapons that no ordinary person could even wield.
Then again, anyone able to fight this thing wasn't exactly ordinary.
The human-faced fox swung its arm, aiming to seize one of them. The arm looked slim and delicate, almost feminine—but no one watching doubted its raw strength.
[Shut-In Angel: Whoa—it's real?! Not CGI?! Damn, it's way scarier live than in the photo!]
[Blizzard of Hell: The human face is what makes it so unnerving.]
[Bad Woman: That's the uncanny valley effect. If its head were just fully monstrous, it wouldn't hit the same level of dread for normal people.]
[Old Mage: Doesn't look like any ordinary monster…]
[Saeko: Its legs are wrapped with ofuda charms… and behind it—that's a shrine.]
Being Japanese, Saeko instantly recognized the setting.
[Saeko: So this thing's some kind of supernatural entity?]
[Shepherd: Bingo.]
[Shut-In Angel: Wait, so it's really a ghost?! No wonder it looks so messed up!]
[Old Mage: Then Rosen's profession must be… exorcist?]
[Shut-In Angel: More like exorcist than ghost hunter, yeah.]
Gabriel suddenly recalled Rosen using those powers that resembled holy light. If he was an exorcist, everything clicked into place—clearing up doubts she'd quietly carried for a while.
As if heaven's "lord" had anything to do with him. Yeah, right.
[Shepherd: By the way, Marcille, you wanna eat this one?]
[I Don't Wanna Eat Monsters: Like hell I do!!]
Compared to this abomination, even goblins were starting to look cute in Marcille's eyes.
[Blizzard of Hell: Those girls… they must be your teammates, Rosen? Looks like they're struggling. Need a hand?]
[Shepherd: Nah, it's fine. Just giving them some training. And honestly, even if you came, Blizzard, you might not be able to do much—normal psychic powers don't always work on spirits.]
[Blizzard of Hell: Fair point. If ghosts are involved, my abilities would be a bad match. Maybe I really should pick up some magic…]
Better safe than sorry. The thought of facing a ghost someday without any means to fight back sent a chill through her.
"..."
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