Ginny's blood was soaking into the pillow.
Dante crouched beside her, holding her tightly against him.
One hand pressed firmly to her wound, the other trembling with silent fury.
His usually impassive face was twisted by anger.
His jaw clenched, eyes locked on the mutant before him—a beast with a predator's grin.
Ginny looked up at him, her skin pale from blood loss, her lips curled into a teasing smile despite the pain.
— "You don't have to be such a sap, Jin…" She whispered, her voice barely audible but still playfully defiant.
She coughed up blood, tinged with a strange purple hue.
— "It can only be a mythical venom…" she added with a faint laugh, "Mythical stuff… But I'll hold out, ha ha…"
Dante didn't answer.
He wasn't moving.
His fingers still pressed to Ginny's wound, now beginning to twitch.
She had just enough strength left to mutter a few more words.
— "He looks like one of the Tang Clan member... Stealthy, venomous… sadistic. I guess it's the venom of a Cauchemar from Oriental folklore."
Dante loosened his grip.
Gently, he laid her down onto the blood-stained pillow.
A black aura began to flare up around him—
He took a deep breath.
And then he absorbed it—every trace of the ambient dark energy in the air.
All the corruption he had spent his life trying to suppress…ignited within him.
His appearance shifted slightly—more menacing.
Red pupils glowed as they locked onto the mutant.
Three meters of pure hatred, eight legs lined with jagged spikes, glands on its back vented a mist—Tang Toxin, the sacred poison of his lineage.
---
Not far from the platform's edge, Youpi was floating in midair.
His body was covered in light but numerous injuries; his shirt was shredded.
Below him, the mutant crouched low, his back arched, eight legs sprouting from his spine.
His skin was grey, eyes red, mandibles clicked mockingly.
He was smiling.
They had been fighting for over an hour.
And Youpi was done.
— "The gap between us… is insane… I can't keep up…" he panted.
A bluish holographic interface hovered before his eyes.
His power, which he had named Gamer, let him see the world like a full-scale RPG.
He could see HP bars, status effects, buffs and debuffs.
But now, his own HP bar—tainted purple from the poison—was down to a miserable thread.
His opponent's, though wounded, was still at half.
[Status: Poisoned. Stamina: Critical. Mana: 3%. HP: 0.1%]
[Enemy: Tang Sochon — Elite Monster: ★★★ — Status: Toxin Active, Regeneration Ongoing]
— "DELETE!"
He tried to launch a blue sphere but his arm trembled and he aim was off.
Sochon dodged easily, mandibles clicking in a sinister laugh.
— "You're funny, little player…" the mutant growled for the first time.
Youpi staggered, blood trickling from his nose, then his vision blurred.
His HP bar blinked red… then vanished.
He collapsed, falling unchallenged straight to the ground.
But before his head hit the ground—two powerful arms caught him.
— "…What the…?!" He thought, stunned.
His interface immediately displayed Dante's profile :
Hundreds of techniques.
All maxed. All sealed.
Superior Regeneration.
Poison Immunity.
Toxin Resistance.
Venom Resistance.
Superhuman Strength – Speed – Stamina – Durability.
And one chilling line :
[Divine Seal Active — Access Denied by a higher entity ↑]
— "… Who are you…" He murmured, then slipped into unconsciousness.
---
Dante stepped forward, Reaperin hand.
— "You the one who stabbed her in the back ?"
Tang SoChon straightened, grin widening.
— "That was me, yeah. You want the antidote ? Come get it."
Dante walked closer.
— "You trying to waste my time? Or you gonna start talking?"
— "No one taught you? Nothing comes without pain."
SoChon drew a long, black blade—thin as silk, long as a greatsword.
⟨ Reaper : The Soul-Eater. ⟩
His innate skill ? : to strike directly at the soul, bypassing the flesh.
— "If it has a soul—it can bleed." Dante gripped the hilt tightly.
Tang Sochon suddenly leapt—the ground cracked beneath him.
In a flash, he was above Dante, two bladed limbs crashing down like sabers.
Dante parried with Reaper, pivoted, and sliced off a limb in one smooth motion.
A leg dropped—a geyser of green fluid erupted.
Sochon howled—but the limb regenerated instantly, bigger, stronger.
— "You really think it's that easy?!"
— "No," Dante replied."But it's a start."
He dashed forward, sliding under a wide strike, rolling and emerging behind the mutant.
He unleashed a flurry of blows to joints and tendons, eyes scanning for a weak point.
Each cut left a glowing red flare—and through each wound, Reaper drank the creature's life essence.
— "Huh... He's sucking my life energy..?!" Sochon thought with wide eyes full of stupefaction.
But Sochon retaliated.
He launched a secret Tang technique :
"Celestial Venom Walta."
His back split open—a reservoir of stingers fired dozens of toxic projectiles at breakneck speed.
Dante closed his eyes, sheathed his blade.
He visualized a circle around him—his senses acting like sonar.
Then, he unsheathed Reaper again.
— "Laido."
He slashed at the air, deflecting every incoming dart using energy flow precision.
Each stinger exploded on contact—acloud of green gas enveloped him.
— "You can't breathe that for long, human…" whispered Sochon, vanishing into the cloud.
But then—a low hiss and a voice.
— "You must be one of those people who advocates the superiority of monsters."
Dante emerged, coat torn, but body untouched. He charged again.
Reaper : Technique — "Death's Mark."
A horizontal slash that temporarily sealed regeneration.
Sochon screamed. His limbs stopped growing back, he was bleeding—truly.
— "YOU BASTAAARD!"He roared.
His skin split, body mutating, merging further with corruption.
His spine burst out, forming a flexible tail of hooked barbs.
He moved at impossible speed, four clawed limbs striking from every angle.
— "Also his strength seemed to have increased."
"Third Mutation Form : Sovereign Stinger Form"
Dante blocked three blows, the fourth tore into his left shoulder.
Arachne's venom seeped in—but he could hold, for now.
— "He wants it to be a fight of endurance... But I'm not going to give him that gift."
Naturally, mutants have physical abilities twice as much as those of humans, even those of Awakened.
But thanks to their intelligence and cunning, humans have always been able to keep the advantage.
If the mutation makes you strong and powerful, it feeds you with an uncontrollable thirst for blood, especially for low-ranking mutants.
A thirst for blood so dense that it prevents one from thinking correctly, which gives the intellectual advantage to human.
Dante knew this very well, so he remained calm.
Reaper : First Form — "Memento Mori."
A blood-red aura flared around the blade.
— "From now on… Every blow I inflict on you has a 50% chance of backfiring on me, but here's the upside : if I'm lucky you will die immediately."
— "You're are insane..." Sochon exclaimed, surprised by such courage or Dante was just crazy.
Dante lunged—faster than ever.
The blade tore through chitin, carved into flesh then beheaded SoChon.
He let out one last roar—not from pain—but from spiritual agony.
Both halves of his body fell to the ground, his blood dripping onto Dante's feet.
— "You… you'll die too… My mother venom is inside you…" he gasped, torn and broken.
— "I might die, but not by a worthless insect."
---
Flashback
"Some are born to serve. Others, to betray. But me ? I was born to transcend. Even if it means follow the monster's path."
— Tang SoChon
Before his name made elite hunters shiver, Tang SoChon was just an apprentice with no bloodline.
A nobody from a lesser branch of the Tang Clan — a dynasty of poisoners feared across the Eastern world far from The Imperium.
In the Palace of Venomous Blossoms, slaves were trained from childhood to test toxins.
Many lost fingers, eyes... or their tongues.
But Sochon watched, memorized, then improved.
He had no access to the sacred scrolls reserved for the masters, yet he could identify every venom by sight, smell, and burn.
The slaves were given diluted recipes to handle. Sochon rewrote them in secret — refining, strengthening, perfecting.
He could kill more effectively than any of them.
Without ever spilling a single drop.
They called him, half in jest, The White Poison.
Until one day, he did the unthinkable.
One autumn evening, SoChon broke into the family library — strictly forbidden territory.
He stole several manuscripts. Most notably, the private journal of Tang Wei — the Eastern Apothecary, his infamous ancestor.
Then he vanished, as if he'd never existed.
For months, SoChon wandered hostile lands, hunted by assassins from his own clan.
His path led him far beyond the empire's reach — into the No Man's Lands of the Middle East.
There, in a treacherous mountain range known only as The Weaver's Peaks, he heard whispers of a local deity.
A creature known as Arachne, Mother of Threads, guardian of the heights.
A colossal spider, with the voice of a woman — her venom dissolved anything that threatened her dominion.
But she was no goddess.
She was a Cauchemar — something torn from the rifts. Worshiped by local tribes as a living god.
They offered her sacrifices. She spoke to the chosen and no one ever returned from her caverns.
SoChon went there willingly.
He wanted to study her eggs. Understand their biology and create something new.
He found the nest but before he could touch a single thread, she descended from the ceiling.
Eight meters long.
A humanoid torso emerged from her carapace — pale, exposed breasts, and a mouth split into a jagged cross, from which a voice layered and discordant.
— "Little thief... Why do you defile my children?"
Ming drew a dagger coated in Heaven'sRefusal— a poison so potent it could burn through gods.
She disarmed him with a snap of her leg.
Pinned him to the wall with silk then drove her venom into his throat.
But she didn't kill him.
Out of curiosity. Or cruelty. Or perhaps… pity.
She whispered :
— "I offer you a molt. Become my child... or die."
When he awoke, he was no longer human.
Even his skin drank poison like water.
---
Years passed.
He lived as a recluse in a sanctum, breaking the minds of heretics and bending them to Arachne's cult.
And one day, an outsider came to visit.
A man of impossible beauty — eyes like emerald.
Cain Caledron.
He offered him offers he could not refuse.
SoChon, charmed, narrowed his eyes.
— "And what's the price?"
— "No price," Cain smiled. "Though... I suppose you'll owe me. And when the time comes, you'll follow my every word."
Ming considered. He was loyal to no one.
Not even to himself — not when it came to the pursuit of knowledge.
— "Deal."
---
And so it was, in the city of Almeria, that Tang SoChon crossed paths with a man of unshakable will.
Despite his mutations.
Despite his forbidden techniques.
Despite the riftborn venom flowing through his veins...
SoChon was defeated.
Not because he was weak—but because his opponent was too strong for him.
---
He feel the same fear as it first meeting with Arachne when Dante drove Reaper into his heart.
---
Dante pulled the blade free. SoChon collapsed, motionless.
Dante tore two of its legs off, sealed them in a vial.
— "Might come in handy later."
But just then—an Inquisitor helicopter descended.
A man rappelled down—silver helmet, heavy armor, gloved hand bearing a black eye sigil.
— "You are under arrest for unauthorized use of an artifact."
Dante shrugged, raised his hands.
He glanced at the battlefield—at the mutant corpse.
— "I did what had to be done."
And he surrendered—without protest.