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It was a rat.

A really, really big rat.

Its eyes glowed a light green color. Looking into them would instill a primal fear into all who lived; a sign that this creature was indeed at the apex of the food chain.

There were four of such eyes.

Fur colored a black so deep, it was as if one was looking at a bottomless hole coated its body in darkness, with an additional layer of thick black smoke surrounding it.

This black smoke was different than the fog in the surroundings. Any creature who lived under the light would feel an instinctual disgust just by looking at it, they would feel that they were looking at something wrong.

If one were to have time to observe the smoke for a bit longer, they would discover that the smoke was seeping into the ground. The ground would absorb it, be polluted by it, and then proceed to spread the corruption further, on and on.

But nobody would be able to discover this normally. Observing the black smoke meant having to look at the abominable creature, after all.

> When you look into the abyss, the abyss looks back at you.

It was a very fitting anecdote, for the creature. Observing the creature meant being in view of it as well. No matter what method one used.

That was the type of creature it was.

If someone were to call it a Deity, they would not necessarily be wrong.

A Deity of Plagues, perhaps.

This was the type of creature in front of Ken and the others right now.

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Ken wasn't some walking encyclopedia, but he liked to think that he knew quite a few things, considering he was just ten years old.

He definitely knew that rats couldn't grow to the size of a small car.

He also knew that their eyes couldn't glow.

He also knew that they couldn't make thick black smoke come out of their body — especially smoke that made him feel sick just from looking at it.

But the thing in front of them was making him doubt his own knowledge.

That didn't matter right now though. What mattered was how to get out of this situation.

Even though he really didn't want to, Ken gave the big black rat another look.

'Maybe it's a really nice rat? Like the one with the red pants and likes to hand out balloons in amusement parks.'

It didn't take long for his hope to be crushed though.

The big rat bared its insanely sharp front teeth, and let out a strange growl. That odd growl filled Ken's mind with dread and all sorts of negative thoughts. His head started aching; he felt like someone was poking his brain with a knife.

However, Ken was barely able to resist just giving up and dropping to the ground. As he observed the large rat he suddenly noticed something he hadn't noticed before.

'Is that a... Sword?'

Ken squinted his eyes a bit, trying to get a better look at it.

Perhaps due to the shock of seeing such a large rat, Ken hadn't noticed that a sword had been lodged deeply into the giant rat's left side until now.

Upon closer inspection, glowing green blood was slowly leaking out of the wound that the sword made. Every drop of the bright green blood that made contact with the ground would let out a sharp hissing sound, and start to melt the dirt as it sunk deeper.

'It's wounded... That's good for us, but we can't beat it even if it was wounded. We should just run...'

However, despite not succumbing to the strange attack on his brain, he still found it extremely difficult to move his limbs.

Kyouka who wasn't as old, nor mentally strong as Ken wasn't able to resist it at all. She had fallen on her butt from the giant rat's initial screech, but now, because of that strange growl, she started clawing at her head, while screaming hysterically.

Bruno seemed to have not been affected by the growl, however, he obviously didn't want to go anywhere near that rat while glaring at it warily.

'Are...are we going to die here?'

As Ken was starting to fall into despair, the large rat suddenly started coughing out blood.

'What...?'

Ken looked at the massive rat, flabbergasted.

It had stopped looking at them and started writhing on the ground in apparent pain and coughing from time to time. Glowing green blood was spat out with every cough and also oozed out of its orifices.

The sudden change in situation was strange, but Ken didn't have time for that since he discovered that his head had stopped hurting, and he could now move his limbs freely.

'It's our chance!'

Ken ran towards his little sister. He obviously couldn't run off without her.

"Ugh..." Kyouka — who had been affected by the big rat's attack on the mind the most — was collapsed on the ground. She suddenly started breathing rapidly.

Ken's eyes widened as he beheld her.

'An asthma attack!? Now, of all times!'

Ken rushed to Kyouka's side and lifted her head while taking out an inhaler from his pocket. "Kyouka! Stay with me!"

He thanked his lucky stars that he had always kept one in his pocket because his sister kept forgetting to bring one. Immediately, he used it on her and her breathing calmed down right afterward.

"Big brother..." Kyouka could barely speak, but seeing her big brother caused her to smile in relief before her eyes closed and her body went limp.

"Kyouka!" Ken shouted, momentarily losing his calm. He quickly felt around her neck for a pulse — something he learned from one of his Bodyguards, who had apparently been part of the country's special forces in the past — and sighed in relief when he was sure Kyouka had just lost consciousness.

'Her being unconscious might actually be more helpful, since I would have had to carry her even if she was awake. Anyway, we have to get out of here while that thing is squirming around.'

Ken was going to lift Kyouka up when he noticed the giant rat had been glaring at them furiously, at Kyouka in particular

'Why are you looking at us so angrily like that? Do you think whatever's happening to you is our fault?! It's not! You moron!' Ken couldn't help but scream at it inwardly.

The massive rat ignored Ken's inner shouting, and started running towards them angrily, its eyes trained on Kyouka. It seemed to be enduring great amounts of pain, however, it still closed the distance in a matter of seconds.

Ken knew that they wouldn't be able to get away. Once it felt like it had gotten close enough, the large rat pounced toward Kyouka, who was still on the ground.

'I won't let you!'

Ken didn't know any martial arts or anything like that, nor was there anything on the ground for him to use. Since he was just an ordinary boy, he attacked in the only way an ordinary boy like him knew.

He punched out with his right hand, trying his best to put as much of his weight as possible into it.

'I...am probably going to die, huh.' Ken thought. He was frustrated. He was so young, he still had plenty of things to do, and he still had his parents' expectations to live up to. 'Kyouka...'

But what frustrated Ken, even more, was how he wasn't even able to save Kyouka; he would die as a failure of a son and a big brother.

'It's all because of this thing...!'

Stolen novel; please report.

Ken glared furiously at the giant rat. In his eyes, it was mid-pounce towards him, its mouth open, ready to devour him whole.

Suddenly, time stopped.

'Wh-what's happening now...' Ken asked inwardly, confused. He was currently gazing at the big rat, completely frozen in the air right in front of him.

Everything in Ken's peripheral vision seemed to have halted. The large rat aside, even the wisps of black smoke coming off of it were frozen in time.

Though he would've liked to check if everything else was like this, Ken couldn't move his body at all — not even his eyes — so he couldn't look around to confirm.

'This isn't like how it usually is...'

While playing sports or games, everything would sometimes move in slow motion for him. This didn't mean that he could move at normal speed while everybody slowed down, though.

'Even when stuff moved slowly, they never outright stopped before.' Ken mused. Since he couldn't really move anything, he'd been having a stare-down with the giant rat the entire time.

'Ugh. I won't be able to do anything even when time resumes... isn't this just prolonging the inevitable? It's better to just get it over with...'

Ken was starting to have strange thoughts when a sudden change occurred.

The big rat, who was still in mid-air with its mouth wide open, was suddenly covered with bolts of what seemed like lightning — albeit these bolts of so-called lightning were of various colors.

Some were blue, some were white, some red, and some green. If a color was of a lighter kind, one would probably be able to find a bolt of lightning that was of that color somewhere in that smorgasbord of myriad-colored lightning. The serpentine bolts coiled around the massive rat's body, as if to restrain its entire existence.

'W-w-woah!… It's really pretty...' Ken was shocked at first but he couldn't help but find the scene beautiful. 'It'd be great if these pretty lightning bolts killed this big rat. Please, God, Buddha...whichever one is listening...'

It was unknown if the lightning bolts heard Ken's prayers — that is, if they even had any sentience at all — but there was yet another change.

The giant rat — initially as big as a small car — suddenly began to shrink rapidly. It shrunk and shrunk until it was the size of a small dog as the sword that was lodged into its side fell to the dark ground, bloodied with green.

When the large rat stopped shrinking, the myriad-colored lightning gradually disappeared, revealing a much smaller version of the creature.

Although it had shrunk considerably, it was still quite big for a rat. Thick black smoke was still oozing out of it, and the various wounds all over its body were still there; an especially large and nasty one must have been the one caused by the sword. Three of its four eyes had lost their light, the glowing green orbs it had for eyeballs were no longer in their sockets.

Its mouth was still open, just like before it shrunk down, revealing a particularly sharp pair of front teeth.

'Oh wow, those sure look sharp... But now that it's so small, we may actually have a chance. First, I should probably try not to get nicked by those sharp t-' Ken had started to see some hope in the situation and was starting to think up a plan of action, when suddenly...

Time started back up.

'-eeth...!' Ken's right hand was punching forward with all his weight behind it. It was impossible to stop it at this point. The sudden restarting of time had also caught him unawares.

His fist collided with the big rat, sending it flying backward. It stood back up quickly after landing, but it was obviously hurt badly by Ken's punch.

"Ow!" Ken winced. The pain made him want to curse, however, he didn't know any of those yet. He looked at his right-hand knuckles to find bite marks on the back of his hand.

'Ah! It got me!'

Despite the bite he suffered, their positions had been reversed. The situation was in Ken's favor now.

'Thank you! Whatever or whoever helped me just now!' Ken thanked his unknown savior in his heart. That had really been a close one. If it weren't for... whatever that was, he and Kyouka would've been the rat's dinner!

The giant rat was heavily wounded. It was even completely blinded on one side, since only one of its right eyes remained. Ken's punch had also proven surprisingly effective. Looking at the rat would reveal that a significant part of its left side was dented inwards, and its left front leg was crushed. That was most likely where Ken's punch landed.

The big rat's condition was absolutely terrible, while Ken just had a small nick in his right hand. His health relative to the monster wasn't even his biggest advantage.

The big rat was all alone.

While Ken still had Bruno.

Ken's eyes filled with both malice and determination as he formed a 'hand-gun' with his left hand's thumb and forefinger then pointed it at the rat.

"Bang!"

Bruno had been standing off to the side watching the monster cautiously, but after seeing his master's hand and hearing the word he said, Bruno instantly went into attack mode. His sharp fangs were bared while his eyes flashed with the ferocity of a beast. After he barked loudly once, the loyal dog raced toward its target.

Ken wasn't planning to let Bruno do all the work, he dashed toward the sword on the ground.

Upon closer inspection, it looked rather simple. The sword was a single-edged blade made of some black-colored metal and had no guard or pommel. It resembled a kitchen knife — except it was larger and longer.

The blade may not have appeared impressive, however, Ken had seen this sword pierced into the big rat's side even when it was still in its initially healthy and unshrunk state. It was obviously able to harm the creature even when it was in its best state.

And anyway, anything was better than fighting with his bare hands. Sharp and pointy things were very much appreciated.

As he was running towards the sword, he suddenly felt an incredibly sharp pain coming from his right hand. He had never experienced pain like this before. Ken looked down and saw that his dominant hand had turned black.

Obsidian smoke was oozing off of it — just like with the rat's body.

While cradling his rotting limb, Ken screamed until his throat was about to burst. By the end of it, no sound was coming out of his mouth; he had screamed so much, his throat started hurting too. The pain was so excruciating that Ken would rather not have his right arm anymore.

What's worse was the rot spreading.

In his current state, Ken knew that he wouldn't be able to do anything about the rat. He tried his best to endure the agony and raised his head to look at where the giant rat ought to be.

The big rat was currently running away.

As for Burno? He was chasing after the fleeing rat, just as his master ordered, ready to tear it limb from limb.

"Bruno! Stop! Come back!" Ken called out to the dog.

Bruno obediently stopped, gave its escaping foe one last dirty glare, and then proceeded to run back to Ken's side.

The large rat had not looked back as it fled. It quickly disappeared into the fog-filled sea of trees.

Seeing his most loyal dog return safely, Ken patted Bruno with his non-rotten hand. "Good boy."

'It could have been dangerous if Bruno got bitten by that rat too.' Ken thought, relieved.

He had initially wanted to kill the rat by teaming up with Bruno, but he didn't anticipate that just a single bite would be so terrifying; his entire forearm had turned into rotten flesh by now. He could still move it somehow, but he couldn't put much strength into it and excruciating pain accompanied every attempt.

Ken didn't dare to think that Bruno would be immune to that. It was bad enough that he got bit, he couldn't let it happen to Bruno too. So he chose to let it go. Besides, with those wounds that rat wouldn't live long anyways.

At least, he hoped it wouldn't.

While enduring the pain, Ken walked to the unconscious Kyouka's. He tried his best to carry his little sister, but he couldn't do it with just his one arm and his physique was too small, so he couldn't just put her on his shoulder and carry her like a sack or something either.

There was no other choice, he would have to drag her across the ground slowly. The dress would be ruined, but that couldn't be helped. He would simply pick out a new one, or maybe even two. Kyouka wouldn't be able to complain about that.

As Ken was about to start towing Kyouka along, Bruno suddenly went right next to Kyouka's side as well, then tried to place her body on top of his.

'Ah! There was that way, too!' Ken exclaimed inwardly. He felt as if he was letting the human race down with his oversight as he helped get Kyouka onto Bruno's back. 'I must not be as calm as I think I am if a dog can think of stuff I can't.'

Bruno was big even for an adult German shepherd, and Kyouka was small even for a six-year-old girl. She easily fit on Bruno's back.

The only problem would be keeping her in place there, but Ken could handle that well enough with his left hand as long as they didn't walk too fast. The ground was flat, so they wouldn't have to worry about that. Bruno seemed to be okay with carrying Kyouka's weight, so with that, they set off to reunite with Slay and the young pup waiting by the place they entered the area with black mist.

They slowly proceeded forward, Ken holding Kyouka in place on Bruno's back, all while he endured the constant torment of his rotting arm. The entire thing up to his shoulder had turned rotten now, and the pain was getting harder to endure. He had even started to get dizzy from the pain; he would lose consciousness at this rate.

'I have to at least get us out of the area with black mist.'

Ken gritted his teeth, determined to power through despite the distress that plagued him.

A few more minutes later, they finally saw the end of the black mist area. Slay was still obediently waiting there, with the pup right, next to it.

"Slay. Alert!" Ken commanded.

Slay barked once to indicate its understanding, before he started barking loudly toward the mansion.

They had been gone for quite a while. The servants would be aware of their disappearance and would likely be looking for them; Slay's barking would attract their attention.

Ken and Bruno placed Kyouka leaning against a tree — one that hadn't been infected, of course.

After Ken leaned on one too, he started inspecting his body. In addition to his entire right arm, parts of his neck and chest were rotten now too. The pain and the amount of blackened flesh increased and intensified over time, and it had been about ten minutes since it started.

'Ughhh... I can finally pass out now.'

Ken inwardly heaved a sigh of relief. As for what would happen with the gradually spreading rot, hopefully, the adults could do something about it. Ken was quite mature and responsible for his age, but he was still ten years old. He'd had enough for one day, maybe even a week. He wanted to stop thinking and just let other people take care of the problems.

'Bruno's...' Ken looked at Bruno's rapidly shrinking figure in the distance. 'Yeah, I knew he would know what to do...'

After Kyouka was placed down, Bruno left for the mansion immediately, likely to alert all of his other dogs.

'As expected of the eldest. Now I owe you two cow's worth of meat, no, let's make it three. You better eat it all...'

While thinking of how he would reward his loyal companion, Ken's vision darkened.

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A young man on a bed in a certain luxurious private ward opened his eyes. It was the first time the young man had opened his eyes for months.

'Ugh... What a crappy dream...Well, the part with dogs and a younger Kyouka was okay though...'

His body had various tubes and cables attached, to either pump water and medicine into his body or monitor its condition. The tubes and cables were attached to various medical apparatuses. His body was strapped securely to the bed, even having individual straps for his four limbs and for his head. The young man didn't find this strange though. He somewhat had an idea of why they were there, although he felt like complaining about how they made him look like a patient in an asylum, who couldn't stop harming himself.

'Well, the shitty dream aside...it seems I'm alive' Kagami Ken thought.

He couldn't help but grin as the realization that he was still alive sunk in.

'I'M BACK, BABY...!'

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