The Broodmother's roar shook the nest so violently that chunks of ceiling broke loose, smashing into the piles of bones below.
It towered above them now — swollen with the bodies of its broodlings, armor plates locking into place over glistening muscle. The air was suffocatingly thick with heat, rot, and the metallic tang of blood.
Kai's grip on his sword faltered for half a second. His arm throbbed from the acid burns, his ribs ached with each breath, and his HP bar hovered in the red.
[HP: 12%][Stamina: 19%]
They couldn't keep this up much longer.
"Aarav!" he shouted, his voice raw. "Keep Lina and Tara back — if it charges them, they're dead!"
Aarav gave a wordless nod, firing shell after shell into the monster's legs. Bone splintered, black blood spraying in arcs, but the Broodmother didn't slow.
Renji leapt in, blades flashing, carving shallow cuts along its sides. The creature twisted toward him — Kai saw the movement and moved without thinking.
His sword came up in a two-handed swing, cleaving into one of the rear limbs. The blade stuck halfway through, lodged in the dense bone.
The Broodmother screamed.
Not the animalistic shriek from before.
This one was… different.
Lower. Rougher.
Almost… human.
Kai's instincts screamed at him to pull back, but he gritted his teeth and pushed forward, using every ounce of strength to drive the sword deeper. The limb cracked and split, snapping free. The creature staggered, ichor pouring from the stump.
[Critical Hit!][Boss HP: 41%]
Lina's voice rang out, urgent. "Kai! Look!"
He did.
The Broodmother's torso-mouth… was closing. Slowly. The teeth retracted, folding inward like the petals of a grotesque flower.
And beneath them… was a face.
A half-rotten, half-human face.
Its lips trembled.
"You… the one…"
Kai froze mid-step. The voice was raspy, layered with wet gurgles, but there were words — actual words.
"The… prophecy… true…" the creature wheezed. "One will come… strong enough… to break… the chain…"
Renji hesitated, blades still dripping black blood. "The hell is it talking about?"
The Broodmother coughed, a spray of dark fluid hitting the floor. "We… were… not born this way… We… were made… trapped… in hunger… in pain… over and over…"
Its gaze fixed on Kai, a flicker of something almost human burning through the milky, dead eyes.
"You… can end it… Obliterate me… free… me from… this… world…"
Kai's heartbeat thundered in his ears. "You're telling me… you want me to kill you?"
"Yes…" the thing whispered. "…Let me… sleep… no more… waking… no more killing… no more… hunger…"
Aarav stepped forward, his gun still raised. "Kai, it's a trick. You've seen what these things do—"
"No," Kai said quietly. "I believe it."
For a moment, no one moved.
The Broodmother's limbs trembled, its massive frame collapsing in on itself. "Hurry… before… the hunger takes me again…"
Kai's grip tightened on his sword. His body screamed with exhaustion. Every rational part of him wanted to keep his distance — but there was something in the creature's tone, something raw and broken, that made him take that final step forward.
He met its gaze. "Rest."
Then he moved.
The blade pierced through the central skull beneath the armor, sliding in with a sickening crunch. The Broodmother spasmed once, twice… then went still.
[Boss Defeated: Subterranean Broodmother Lv. 8][EXP +450][Level Up!][Level 5 → Level 6]
The system's chime was almost jarring in the silence that followed.
The body slumped sideways, shaking the ground. The acidic stench thickened for a moment, then faded as the black blood slowed to a trickle.
Kai pulled his sword free, the weight of it heavier than before.
Renji broke the silence. "What… the hell just happened?"
Kai didn't answer right away. He looked down at the Broodmother's ruined face. Even in death, the strange calm remained, as if it had finally… escaped.
He turned to the others. "It said there's a chain. A cycle. Something making them suffer over and over. And that there's a prophecy about someone who can break it."
Aarav scoffed. "You actually believe that?"
Kai glanced at Tara, still unconscious but breathing steadily.
Lina's eyes narrowed. "If that's true… then this isn't just survival anymore."
Kai nodded slowly.
The last echo of the Broodmother's words lingered in his head.
Break the chain.