Gugi, the Desecrated Mausoleum: Settings
《Gugi, the Desecrated Mausoleum》
Its true form is a Disaster-designated Monster born as a result of abnormal growth and evolution of a monster called a Dead Eater. As its name suggests, it commands countless Undead, and combined with its giant body, there are Undead equivalent to a large city both inside and outside its body.
The range of damage includes all the flora and fauna within a 20-kilometer radius of Rio’s hometown. All life that is ensnared and devoured by Gugi’s extending tongue is converted into Undead.
Its essence is the successful culmination of a poison-worm ritual, a tragic end. Unable to reach 100% completion, it was banished from the ritual site, and it is an abnormal life form, neither living nor dead, that is more consumed by the instinct to kill its target than by its life activities.
Although it is undoubtedly a failure and an existence that is fundamentally flawed as a life form, it also possesses the common trait of clinging to life. Therefore, it has extraordinary regenerative abilities, such as completely healing physical damage in the blink of an eye.
・First Form (Inactive State)
It is not constantly conscious and moving. Basically, it automatically senses the presence of life, devours it, or has its subordinate Undead attack.
Therefore, in this state at the start of combat, the main body does not move, and the battle is mainly fought by Wraiths, which are spiritual entities among the Undead it commands. Ferno was instantly killing them, but these commanded Wraiths are monsters capable of directly interfering with physical entities. Therefore, even people with high combat abilities would be easily killed.
However, this form is inactive. If a direct attack is launched on Gugi, it will shift to the second form, and a full-scale battle will begin.
・Second Form (Dozing State)
Gugi in a state where direct combat has begun. In this state, it has not yet begun to awaken and is dozing off, and the resistance it offers is like a movement during sleep.
The basic attacks in this state are two: a sweeping attack with its tongue and a sweeping attack with its feet. Also, if the swollen abdomen is attacked and damaged, it will spew out special Undead from its mouth to intercept. The Undead spewed out at this time are different from normal Undead and will be reconstructed unless burned to ashes, so it is in a state where it can virtually spew out an inexhaustible supply of immortal soldiers.
There is a time limit to this form, and it will progress to the next form when the abdomen is torn open by its two front legs. The form will also progress when the main body becomes aware that it is beginning to face a life-threatening crisis, but in that case, it will skip the next form and move to the fourth form.
・Third Form (Semi-Awakened State)
A state just before recognizing an opposing presence and awakening its consciousness from the dozing state. In this state, it prioritizes awakening its consciousness and does not offer any particular resistance. Hindrance is limited to Wraiths and special Undead.
This form is probably the last chance to kill it safely with minimal damage. If it is not killed here with all efforts combined, it will awaken its consciousness and begin to rampage in earnest.
The time in this form is only a few minutes. In some cases, its consciousness will awaken and a counterattack will be launched faster than a full-force blow can be delivered.
・Fourth Form (Awakened State)
A state where it has literally awakened its consciousness, and it can be said to be the final form unless certain conditions are met.
In this state, it uses direct attacks that it did not use in the previous three forms. It uses a wide variety of attacks to eliminate external enemies, such as predation with its tongue at supersonic speed, slamming and capturing with its front legs, roundhouse kicks with its hind legs, presses from jumps, pincer attacks in cooperation with Undead, and mental attacks using special Undead.
In the main story, Ferno and the others were dealing with it calmly, but in most cases, they would have been miserably killed the moment they recognized the signs of an attack. Specifically, if it rampaged in this form, all flora and fauna within a radius of several hundred kilometers would be annihilated in less than half a day. It had that much destructive power.
Also, in the main story, Ferno, who had snapped, dealt with it in an instant and treated it like a ball for juggling, but it had mobility that did not match its giant body and was able to move at a maximum speed of Mach 10 or more to deliver attacks.
The Undead it commands are also special.
・《Fatal Wraith》
Wraiths commanded on Gugi’s back, which have the characteristic of being able to directly interfere with physical entities, unlike conventional Wraiths.
Their true nature is the souls of the lives that Gugi has devoured. Whereas the original Wraiths are the remnants of the souls of the dead that have become spiritual entities, these Wraiths are born when the souls of living beings themselves are transformed into Wraiths.
Their guiding principle is to take the living with them. To that end, they cling to all living beings they see, restrain them so that they become targets of Gugi’s predation, and carry them to its mouth.
Also, because they are born in a different way from conventional Undead, they cannot be exorcised with blessed silver weapons, but in the main story, they were up against the wrong opponent.
・《Imitate Undead》
Undead reconstructed from lumps of flesh and blood that come out of Gugi’s body.
While conventional Undead have the nature of wandering in search of the living, these only act as Gugi’s slaves to eliminate external enemies.
Their true nature is the remains of the lives that Gugi has devoured without being digested. They are Undead that have become mere meat puppets that move according to orders after their souls have been taken away and their will and emotions have been stolen. Therefore, they rampage in a form that lacks any semblance of life while emitting distorted sounds.
In the fourth form, the awakened state, they take on a human form and, together with Gugi’s mental interference, appear to the living beings they confront as the figures of the dead closest to them. Therefore, Rio and Fon were confused by the appearance of their pack’s Beast-folk, and Stella was confused by the appearance of her old friends, and they were unable to move immediately.
Incidentally, this phenomenon is a complete landmine for Ferno. If it were carried out against Ferno, he would unleash a level of murderous intent that would make the surrounding life forms tremble with instinctive fear, and he would rage until the perpetrator was crushed to pieces.
The above is the basic setting of Gugi’s forms and its subordinates.
A common element of the above four forms is the characteristic of mitigating and nullifying the damage of impacts by both the skin and muscles. As can be seen from the fact that it nullified Ferno’s kick and withstood the juggling, there seems to be no limit to its tolerance.
The method of breaking through is either an attack with a weapon that can perform slashing or piercing attacks, such as a sword or spear, or an attack with magic. Therefore, the breakthrough method in the main story is irregular, or rather, a bug-like breakthrough method that exploited a gap in the specifications.
Also, in common, it would not die even if its heart was destroyed, and it had the vitality to regenerate as long as even a fragment of its brain cells remained. Therefore, Ferno’s act of blowing its head off in the main story was the only correct answer.
That is the conventional Gugi, the Desecrated Mausoleum.
When specific conditions are met: when it receives a great deal of damage and develops a murderous intent that surpasses its instinct to obliterate the external enemy in front of it.
It achieves rebirth and evolves into its final form.
・Final Form (Slaughterer Gugi)
A state in which the entire body is compressed to human size, all abilities, resistances, and thinking power are enhanced, and the expression of emotions is limited and adjusted so that thinking does not become dull.
The Gugi in this form aims to slaughter all life it sees, and it can be said to be a monster that repeats slaughter without stopping until its life is crushed.
Emotions such as fear and despair are prevented from arising, and emotions of joy and pleasure are made to arise. In addition, pain perception was blocked to prevent it from being unable to move due to pain, and it was able to regenerate and counterattack immediately.
In exchange for not being able to command Undead or engage in predation, it has evolved to move at speeds dozens of times faster than when it was a giant, gain physical attack power equivalent to Ferno’s, and acquire complete resistance to impact and slashing attacks. It has also become able to speak, and with that, its thinking power has been enhanced, and it has gained the ability to predict the future from air vibrations and changes in heat.
To kill it, it is necessary to crush both its heart and brain simultaneously faster than Gugi itself can recognize, and if the timing is off even for a moment and it recognizes the injury, it will immediately regenerate and restart.
In the main story, Ferno instantly killed it, but if it had been able to fully utilize all of its enhanced abilities, it could have engaged Ferno in a close, life-or-death battle.
Incidentally, its adaptability is also abnormal, so if it wasn’t killed in the initial attack, the battle with its final form alone would have been a ridiculously long battle that would have consumed two episodes worth of content.
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・As a side note, one of the concepts behind the Disaster Classifications is the Seven Deadly Sins. This Gugi was supposed to be based on greed, I think, probably, maybe.
・Also, I originally planned to make the descriptions a bit longer, with the protagonist dealing with the Undead while Fana and the others worked hard to defeat the main body. But when I tried writing it, it wasn’t interesting, and they were struggling unnecessarily, so I scrapped it.
・The next arc will be the Elf arc.