[A/N: Double-Length Action Chapter]
This chapter clocks in at over 4,300 words. The clash against the Vargr reached a cosmic scale that simply couldn't be cut in half without ruining the momentum. Grab a drink, settle in, and enjoy the absolute chaos of 'The Hunt 5.'
— Asura_26
The colossal yellow pupil in the fractured sky flared, locking its sickening, pale gaze onto the battlefield.
Bathed in the unholy light, the Vargr's triumphant growl violently warped into a choked, agonizing shriek. The profane surplus pouring down from the spatial tether was far too massive for a mortal creature to contain. The beast's anatomy began to violently, grotesquely tear itself apart to accommodate the alien power.
Squelch—! Crack!
The sleek, pitch-black fur sizzled and melted away like burning plastic, revealing the underlying corruption. The Vargr's spine aggressively elongated with wet, popping cracks. Its original eyes and snout completely melted away, the flesh smoothing over into a blank, featureless canvas of leathery black skin. Only the massive, horizontal slit on its forehead remained, tearing wider to project the false deity's oppressive gaze.
The three massive, viper-like tails thrashing behind it violently shed their fur. Their muscle and bone aggressively twisted together, morphing into three thick, flayed tendrils that whipped and cratered the bedrock in erratic, uncontrollable spasms.
Hyper-inflated, tumorous muscle masses aggressively bulged outward, tearing the skin wide open. From these gaping, fleshy fissures, dozens of unblinking, pale yellow eyes violently erupted across the beast's flanks and shoulders, frantically darting around with chaotic malice.
Glowing, golden ichor wept from its ruptured eyes and torn skin, sizzling violently as it dripped onto the grey bedrock.
Swoosh!
The mutated nightmare vanished, leaving only a violent disturbance in the grey dust. Faster than the blink of an eye, a glowing, golden blur materialized at Karan's flank.
The pitch ink coating Karan's forearms instantly hardened, but as he moved to raise his guard, the air around him snapped into heavy lead. The invisible shackles of the false sky chained his reflexes, sinking his limbs into spatial cement.
Boom!!
A massive claw slammed into his left side. The kinetic force sheared through his slowed guard, flaying the flesh of his shoulder and bicep like wet paper. The jagged talons scraped directly against the bone, exposing the pale, bloody gleam of his shoulder joint. As the intangible chains jingled around him, the sheer impact sent Karan violently tumbling through the monochrome rubble.
Dragging his battered frame from the crushed stone, Karan gasped. A sickening mixture of hot blood and bile flooded his throat as his internal organs wept from the blunt force trauma. The dark ink furiously swam up his lacerated left arm, frantically bubbling as it forced torn muscle fibers back together, plugging the bleeding with hissing, dark purple stitches.
Before Karan could even steady his steps—Shoom!
The space in front of him warped. The Vargr blurred into existence. It struck again, sending Karan violently skidding across the bedrock. His hardened, ink-coated arms barely rose in time to catch the flurry of massive paws.
Crack! His radius fractured. Snap! His ulna bowed, the jagged shards threatening to pierce his own skin. The beast relentlessly tossed him through the monochrome domain like a broken doll, returning every ounce of savagery the reaper had inflicted upon it the night before.
Thump! Thump!
Cracking through the iron-tinged air like falling oak trunks, the Vargr's front limbs slammed down, brutally crushing Karan's forearms.
"Kuarghh...!" A wet, guttural groan escaped his lips as the beast pulled his arms straight out, pinning them flush against the unforgiving ground. The colossal mutt planted its massive hind leg directly over his chest. Crunch. Broken ribs caved inward, puncturing his lungs and forcefully expelling his remaining breath in a wet, bloody wheeze that completely paralyzed him.
Standing over his crucified frame, the mutated Vargr lowered its heavy, faceless head.
Grrr—
Hovering mere inches above Karan's face, the beast's jaws began to unhinge. The thick, leathery lips peeled back millimeter by millimeter, the heavy muscles in its throat grinding audibly as the massive maw stretched to its limits. Giant, razor-sharp canines gleamed through the shadows. Long, viscous threads of thick black drool stretched taut between the parting teeth, fighting the separation before finally snapping. Hot saliva splattered against Karan's cheek, carrying the putrid stench of rotting meat and an unquenchable thirst for the reaper's blood.
SQUELCH!
With a sickening, wet tear, the bone and muscle of the lower jaw violently fractured dead down the center. The flesh ripped vertically down the chin, tearing apart in two massive, distinct halves. Like a blooming flower of raw, bleeding sinew, the heavy flaps curled outward, exposing a horrifying mutation nested deep behind the fangs: tightly packed, grotesque rows of flat, human-like molars lining the raw internal meat directly into Karan's vision.
Staring up into the fleshy abyss of the monster's blooming throat, Karan's facial muscles twitched.
Slowly, his lips curled into a jagged, blood-stained smile. Underneath the beast's paw, the dark ink viscously writhed over his crushed chest.
Suddenly, the ink aggressively surged across his collarbone and slithered down his pulverized left arm. Like tight, hissing tourniquets, the pitch fluid wrapped tightly around his forearm. Crunch. With a sickening sound, the ink violently forced the shattered bone fragments back into crude alignment, locking his joints just enough to grant his deadened nerves a split second of mobility.
Snap!
The sharp sound echoed from his left fingers.
Triggered by the burning trauma of the shadow spike that had previously impaled its jaw, the Vargr panicked. Anticipating another death sentence erupting from beneath it, the beast instantly abandoned its prey and frantically leaped backward.
It scoured the terrain, its dozens of erratic yellow eyes hunting for the incoming shadows. Nothing came. The grey canvas was dead silent.
Staggering up from the dust and spitting a mouthful of clotted blood, Karan steadied his ragged breathing. He wiped a streak of warm gore from his cheek with his mangled right hand. Beneath his skin, the pitch ink flowed with viscous urgency, frantically stitching his ruptured flesh and broken bones, leaving behind pulsating, infectious purple accents. Taking a step, he felt the heavy spatial lock immediately attempt to tether his ankles, an invisible hangman's noose orchestrated by the eye above.
"Fucking Pokémon..." he wheezed, locking eyes with the beast. The mutt was furiously growling, its split jaw clicking, realizing it had been bluffed.
Watching the twitching, mutated mass of the Vargr as it carefully circled him, Karan understood that close-quarter combat was suicide inside this localized spatial lock. He was too slow and predictable against a beast moving through the accursed domain with such supernatural, volatile speed.
Fighting barehanded was no longer an option. He needed something that could extend his reaction time and give him the distance to effectively predict the lightning attacks. He needed range.
Stretching his palms wide, Karan commanded the shadows sprawling across the grey bedrock. They slithered up his arms, coalescing explosively until they solidified into a massive, pitch-black Odachi. Forged from Nótt's essence, the heavy, six-foot blade smoldered with bruised, dark purple veins that flared into a searing, molten orange edge. Dark fireflies danced around him in a mesmerizing ballet.
Grrr!!
Sensing the sizzling intent, the Vargr launched into a golden blur.
Gripping the hilt with bone-crushing force, Karan tracked the movement. Blood streaked from his eyes under the intense focus and strain. He raised the Odachi and unleashed a massive, horizontal arc that cleaved through the monochrome canvas.
Boom!
The heavy impact threw a shroud of silver dust into the air. The Vargr burst straight through the haze without a flinch, the deep, seared laceration across its mutated, red-muscled chest actively stitching shut with a hiss of purple smoke.
"Yeah, thought so."
Karan swung again, but the rigged domain perfectly synchronized with the mutated beast. The Vargr fluidly ducked under the sluggish, tethered blade strikes, its massive, flayed tails wrapping around a grey rock and whipping it forward.
The massive rock tore through the dense air like artillery.
Karan firmly planted his ink-coated soles and brought the colossal blade down. Swish! He cleanly cleaved the hurtling boulder in half.
But exploiting the blind spot behind the falling debris, the beast launched a second, whip-like strike.
Biting his tongue, Karan violently twitched his wrist, bringing the broad, flat side of the Odachi up like a shield.
Boom!!
The muscular tail slammed into the dark metal. The shockwave rattled through his skull, threatening to knock his bloody teeth loose. The heavy blade groaned under the kinetic force, violently pushing Karan backward as his blackened heels forcibly carved deep trenches into the earth.
"Tch!" A frustrated click escaped his mouth. He raised his left hand. Fush! Fush! Fush! Solidified shadow spikes erupted from the ground, hunting the beast.
Seamlessly weaving through the sluggish barrage, the monstrous Vargr closed the distance and lunged.
Roar!!
It snapped its massive jaws directly onto the smoldering blade of the Odachi, violently shaking its faceless head to rip the weapon from Karan's grip. Tightly holding on, Karan anchored his heels into the crushed stone. The torn muscle fibers in his arms screamed in protest. "Aargh!" The muscles on his face twisted into a stitched wince as he leveraged the hilt.
The false sky flared. The beast's horizontal slit, along with the dozens of eyes scattered across its body, dilated wildly. Its jaws clamped down with the force of a hydraulic press. Dark metal shrieked against massive canines. With a violent jerk of its muscular neck, it yanked the blade upward, effortlessly flinging Karan high into the heavy air.
Slamming its front limbs into the ground with the mass of a falling sea vessel, the Vargr ripped the earth open. Uncoiling its three tails, the beast tore three boulders from the debris and fired them upward like earth cannons.
Suspended, Karan tried to contort his body, but the invisible cement of the domain locked his spine in place. Forced to brace, he pulled the Odachi flat against his chest.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The brutal kinetic impacts shattered against the metal. The shockwaves bruised his internal organs directly and shattered his ribs anew, accelerating his descent. Staring at the rapidly approaching ground, Karan clenched his fist. His shadow leaped from the earth, solidifying into a towering obsidian pillar beneath his feet.
He landed heavy. Panting, blood dripping freely from his orifices and pattering against the dark glass of the platform, Karan looked down. The mutated Vargr circled the base of his pillar, its canines bared, golden ichor dripping from its overloaded muscles.
Above them, the colossal yellow pupil locked onto the suspended reaper.
'Is this all?'
The dense voice vibrated, a shuddering boredom ringing through Karan's marrow like a death knell.
Shoom!!
The space around Karan turned into a hydraulic press. "Geuk..!" The sheer pressure violently drove him down, digging his ink-soaked heels deep into the obsidian platform.
Planting the dark Odachi into the black glass, Karan used the massive blade as a crutch, refusing to kneel before the false deity. He clenched his bloody teeth and forced his neck up, his depthless violet eyes glaring directly into the cracked sky.
Punishing the disobedience, the pale eye glinted.
Shoom!!
"Kuargh!"
The spatial lock amplified exponentially, physically folding him. Pop. Pop. Crack. Sickening, wet pops echoed as micro-fractures splintered through Karan's tibia, femur, and spine. Like a desperate spiderweb, the dark ink aggressively tracked across his broken body, forcefully binding the splintering bone fragments together to keep his spine from snapping entirely, leaving behind pulsating purple infections.
'CRITICAL ALERT: MULTIPLE ORGAN CATASTROPHE.' The clinical, synthetic voice blared in his skull, its sterile tone sharply contrasting the butchery it was reporting.
'Skeletal integrity at 12%. Extensive fracturing in lumbar spine, femur, and radius. Left lung punctured by ribs four through seven. Class IV internal hemorrhaging detected in the abdominal cavity.'
'WARNING: Cardiovascular collapse imminent. Neurological pain receptors are critically overloaded. Paradoxical motor function detected.'
'Urgently requesting Primary Limiter override to prevent total cellular necrosis.'
Despite his insides being pulverized into a bloody, failing slurry, Karan's expression remained terrifyingly blank. The only outward sign of the catastrophic internal damage was a slight twitch of his brow and the violent trembling of his ink-stained muscles. He didn't scream. He didn't drop. He simply dug his blade deeper into the black glass to forcefully leverage his ruined legs.
"Shut... up," he spat, casually blowing a thick clot of bubbling blood past his teeth as if it were a minor inconvenience. "Override... denied!"
'Why? You should give up.'
A sharp, agonizing throb pierced directly behind Karan's eyes, making his vision swim. Clutching his skull, Karan noticed the fierce lashing of the blackish-purple shroud surrounding his grip starving to devour the oppressive aura.
Slowly, the shroud extended to match his eye level and morphed into a viscous mouth.
'Death is already here,' malicious teeth glinted through the wide grin. 'Why are you still resisting? Just say a word and I'll make your every wish come true. This pointless tussle, your search, revenge, everything...! I'll make it all true and grant you eternal rest.'
"You—Eeuk..!" Clenching his fist until his nails dug into his palms, the threads on Karan's limbs glowed intensely. "Are... still irritating."
'Stop resisting, Karan. Give in to your true nature... Give in to me and you shall conquer even death—after all, you are me, and I am you.'
Looking at the sweet temptation before him, Karan forced his gaze up, his depthless violet wells staring into the sickening pale of the fake sun. The wet cracks and pops echoed in his ears as he barely managed to keep his body from collapsing into a mound of meat.
Unable to come up with any other option, Karan slowly closed his eyes and finally stopped resisting.
Shoom!!!
The air vibrated with a newfound terror. The violet infection on his blade, calves, and forearms spread aggressively, entirely swallowing the scorching orange. The blackish-purple shroud hungrily stretched out, devouring him completely. Wherever the Asura's corrupting aura flared, the invisible spatial tethers of the domain visibly sizzled, melted, and burned away to nothing.
With newfound intensity, the nauseating stench of burning epidermis mingled in the air. The dark purple shroud around him vibrated rigorously, the darkened embers dancing together with an unnatural, ominous synchronicity.
Holding his ragged breath, Karan loaded his trembling knees like springs.
The levitating mouth before him stretched into a wide, creepy grin, mirroring the one stretching ear to ear on his face.
'Cut it.'
"Cut it."
His already demonic voice synced perfectly with the Asura's, creating a disturbing distortion in the air.
Freed from the chains, Karan unleashed the loaded springs.
Boom!!
The sheer kinetic recoil of his launch shattered the obsidian pillar into a cloud of dark mist. As he rocketed toward the celestial eye, the violently expanding purple shroud trailing behind him tore through the jarring atmosphere, briefly mimicking the silhouette of a single, jagged wing of dark fire.
Swish! He swung the pulsing Odachi, the purple shroud raging around its edge like wild flames.
Bam!
Before the blade could touch the pupil, it slammed into an invisible, atmospheric barrier. Through that barrier, the pale eye locked onto Karan's burning figure with newfound interest. Clutching the hilt with a bone-crushing grip, his fingers digging deep into his palms, Karan drove his entire body weight forward. The friction seared his flesh, the burning stench invading his bleeding nostrils.
Under the suffocating weight of the domain, the depthless violet wells in his eyes violently constricted, eclipsing within a sea of raging crimson. Hot blood spilled over his lower lashes, carving jagged trails down his cheeks like macabre tears. As if feeding on his agony, the pulsating violet threads aggressively webbed up his neck, crawling around, framing his bleeding gaze in a searing, demonic crown.
The smokey shroud surrounding his blade's edge liquefied, condensing into a razor-thin, viscous violet line.
"Haaaa!" Karan let out the silent shout of his ripping muscle fibers, his biceps physically tearing under the strain.
Crack! Crack!
Massive fissures started webbing across the invisible wall before—Shatter!
The barrier broke like glass. The falling shards reflected the glow of the eerie gaze in a kaleidoscopic pattern, bathing the monochrome world in a shower of shimmering glitters.
With no walls left, Karan drove the blade forward.
Stab!
The six-foot Odachi sank deep into the squishy, colossal pupil. Thick violet smoke and cosmic fluid violently erupted around the scorching metal.
Fwish! The aura surrounding Karan flared intensely. His hair danced menacingly as the darkness devoured the smoke and morphed into the massive, pitch-black silhouette of the grinning Asura.
"Haaaaaaa!!!!" His shout tore through his bloody throat as he dragged the blade downward.
SCREEECH!
A deafening shriek echoed as the burning Odachi tore the fabric of the dimension wide open, exposing the true, starry night of Earth bleeding through.
Somewhere far beyond the physical shores of Earth—in a realm where geometry wept and time flowed like stagnant water.
It was a sprawling expanse of suffocating, majestic darkness. At the center of the abyss rested a colossal throne, seemingly carved from the calcified remains of a dead star. A figure sat draped in a veil of absolute, unyielding mystery.
A sudden shift in the cosmic frequency shattered the absolute silence.
Space rippled. A silhouette lacking true physical form condensed from the darkness, kneeling before the throne.
"We have received intelligence," the silhouette resonated, its voice plain, lacking emotion. "A spatial anomaly was witnessed by mortals near the 'Forgotten Forest,' My Liege. There is also a report stating that the 'Wandering Sage' has entered the dimension of 'Maya Lok.' There is a high possibility that the 'key' has finally surfaced."
Slowly, the figure upon the throne opened its eyes.
The irises burned like twin, dying suns, bleeding a sickly, pale light that violently cut through the dark veil.
"...Who has a disciple in the 'Bhu Lok'?" The voice did not travel through soundwaves; it was a dense, crushing mass that made the very fabric of the dimension tremble in fear.
"The ****, Your Grace," the subordinate responded flatly.
The figure shifted its pale, burning gaze toward the void. In the distance, an abstract, predatory entity with too many eyes and limbs was ruthlessly shredding a lesser mass of light, dripping a strange, luminous fluid into the nothingness.
"Interesting..." The vertical, predatory slits in the center of the dying suns sharpened. The figure brought its apathetic, oppressive gaze back to the kneeling shadow. "Keep a close eye on the forest. Wait until the Wandering Sage leaves."
"As you command."
Receiving the decree, the silhouette dissolved back into the spatial current. Silence reclaimed the abyss.
Eclipsing the glowing suns, the figure leaned back against the dead star. The scene from a microsecond prior—a massive, pitch-black Odachi crashing into their spatial proxy like heavenly judgment—replayed in their mind.
In the final millisecond before the burning metal had cleaved through the giant eye, the cosmic pupil had constricted. The entity hadn't just seen the tiny human holding the blade; it had looked through the boy, only to see the massive, pitch-black silhouette of the Asura smiling back from the abyss.
'Do not interfere like this again.'
The silent, telepathic warning had echoed straight up the spatial tether, an absolute threat from one apex predator to another, right before the connection was violently severed.
A twisted, unsettling grin tugged at the face of the figure resting on the throne.
"It is beginning..."
Back on Earth—
Fwish—!!
Instead of an outward explosion, the kinetic shockwave sucked violently inward. A localized vacuum implosion triggered instantly as Earth's physics and atmosphere violently rushed back in to correct the spatial anomaly.
Unable to hold the conflicting physics, the rest of the monochrome sky froze. The giant eye cracked and abruptly shattered outward into millions of falling, glass-like shards. Color violently snapped back into the world.
Woom!
The sheer force of the imploding atmospheric pressure hit the weakened Vargr like a falling mountain, instantly slamming the beast down into the crater and pinning it under the crushing weight of returning gravity.
Without the malignant surplus violently forcing its muscles taut, the beast's swollen frame immediately sagged against the crushed stone. The horizontal slit on its forehead frantically darted around before coming to a halt, focusing on the sky above. A chilling shudder ran down its spine.
The dozens of erratic yellow eyes scattered across the beast's fleshy flanks suddenly froze. They stopped darting. In a sickening, synchronized motion, every single eye rolled wildly upward to track the falling reaper.
The pupils dilated so wide the sclera tore, reflecting Karan's pitch-black silhouette in fifty different lenses. The beast's jaw trembled, letting out a high-pitched, guttural whine as it made pitiful attempts to get up from the ground and run away, scraping its massive claws frantically against the stone.
From above, like a falling star discarded from the vast heavens, Karan plummeted. The massive Odachi in his grip writhed violently, the pitch ink condensing and morphing into a mighty morning star.
Its horizontal third eye frantically shuddered, leaking dark fluid as it stared up at the spiked mace aimed directly at it.
"Haaaaa—!!!" Letting out a bloody battle cry that tore through the night, Karan brought the heavy mace down.
Boom!!
He slammed the spiked metal dead center into the horizontal slit with earth-splitting strength.
Squélch!
Yiiii!!!
The Vargr shrieked, a pain so unbearable it nearly ripped its consciousness apart. The moment the central slit was crushed, the dozens of terrified eyes across its flanks violently burst like rotten fruit, weeping foul, bloody yellow sludge as the mutation catastrophically burned out.
But Karan didn't stop. Raising the heavy mace high, he arched his back before swinging down again. Squélch! Squélch! Squélch! Each brutal impact elicited a grotesque, convulsing twist from the Vargr's body as it whimpered in agony. Each swing painted Karan's figure in a horrifying spray of thick cosmic sludge and crimson blood.
Fwish! Thick purple smoke erupted from the wounds as the biological anomaly frantically tried to stitch itself back together. But Karan kept swinging, relentlessly pounding the alien flesh until the third eye was reduced to a viscous paste of crushed muscle, bone, dark fluid, and ruined tissue. A deep, jagged crater ran from the Vargr's faceless skull down to its split jaws, bleeding like a crimson river.
Having completely obliterated the anomaly from the beast's head, Karan dropped behind it. Woom! The mace dissolved into mist as he grabbed all three of the Vargr's heavy, flayed tails in a vice grip. Lifting the colossal mass high into the air, he slammed it into the bedrock, cratering the earth with the sheer force of his wrath.
Baam—! Baam—! Baam—!
Again and again, he struck the earth with the beast, until finally, spinning on his heel, he cast the battered wolf toward the cathedral.
The behemoth crashed through the hollow stone walls, skidding violently through the rubble of the sanctuary until its broken body slid to a halt directly beneath the holy cross, which still stood tall amidst the devastating chaos.
Baam—
Whimpering, the beast tried to stand, only to stagger weakly and collapse helplessly onto the church floor. A bloody, broken mess, it gasped heavily for air. Purple smoke erupted from various ruptured injuries like hot geysers, its supernatural regeneration now moving at a pitiful, crawling pace as the malignant surplus completely left its body.
Step— Step—
Steady footsteps echoed over the ringing in its ears. The battered figure of Karan emerged from the dust. The blood at the corner of his mouth had darkened. Swathed entirely in viscous black ink pulsating with an infectious violet glow, he appeared as a blood-soaked shadow—a humanoid nightmare.
The wolf growled low in its bloody throat, its malevolent jaundiced gaze intently locked onto Karan, who stood before it like an inescapable reaper finally come to claim its corrupted soul.
Staring back into the Vargr's fanatic third eye, Karan poised his hand over its chest, right above the frantic thumping of its heart. With a blinding, brutal thrust, his hand pierced straight through the beast's ribcage. Digging deep, he grabbed the massive heart in his fist, violently arresting its wild rhythm.
The Vargr let out a wet whimper, choking on its own agony as crimson blood gushed from its mouth and open chest like a broken dam, painting the sanctuary floor in sticky, warm red.
Despite the excruciating pain clawing at its soul as its lifeblood flowed out, the Vargr's resentment-filled horizontal eye remained locked onto Karan's gaze. And the deeper it looked into those depthless, purple wells, the more the abyss looked back.
"Now, show me what you are hiding," Karan whispered, a hushed demonic rumble that silenced its dying cries. "Little pup."
As the beast dove deeper into the abyss, it found nothing but absolute darkness at the end. Panicking, it frantically searched for a sliver of light to escape the void that was slowly swallowing its entire existence.
It jerked around desperately in the pitch. After what felt like countless hours, a bright, singular white dot suddenly pierced through the suffocating veil of darkness, revealing a world alive with the bustle of humanity.
The beast threw itself toward the light, finding itself standing on a street flooded with people pacing back and forth. It frantically tried to reach out, but its massive, blood-soaked claws simply phased through the faceless phantoms like mist. No one looked at it. No one heard its panicked, guttural whines as they walked right through its ethereal frame. It was entirely alone—a monster locked out of its own world.
Then, ringing out with a clear, untainted purity that instantly shattered the surrounding hell, a very familiar, childish voice caught the Vargr's fading consciousness.
"Daddy~!"
Following the innocent cry, the Vargr violently rushed through the countless faceless phantoms, leading it toward a man emerging from the subway—a man who bore a striking resemblance to the very creature that now lay bleeding out as a monstrous fiend from the corners of hell.