Chapter 63: Madness Bloom
Stats glared back at him, numbers carved into his vision. For all the blood spilled, he still wasn't sure where he stood, what he lacked most or needed shoring up.
[ATTRIBUTES]
[STR // 31 // C]
[VIT // 27 // D]
[AGI // 35 // C]
[INT // 16 // E]
[FLH // 25 // D]
[WIL // 19 // E]
[AP // 12]
Strength pulled his eye first. No way he'd let a spawn outstrip him there. Pain's surge after mutation had pushed close, too close. If dominance slipped, even for a second, the Brood would feel it.
'Maybe I should've gutted those humans in a different order. If I'd killed that lizard bastard slowly, I'd have a better idea.'
Pointless. What mattered was what he carried now. And he carried plenty. The reward from Pain's mutation achievement, ten Minor Soul Stones, was the first real security he'd had. Fuel to keep him alive beyond tearing flesh. His version of potions.
"System. A while back, you said these could be made artificially. You wouldn't happen to know how?"
[Negative.]
'Course.'
The thought died as Desecrate's cooldown ticked low. Time to decide.
He shoved the points where he felt they belonged.
[ATTRIBUTES]
[STR // 31 → 36 // C]
[VIT // 27 → 31 // D → C]
[AGI // 35 // C]
[INT // 16 → 19 // E]
[FLH // 25 // D]
[WIL // 19 // E]
[AP // 0]
The heat came quick. Muscle split and rewove. Bone thickened. His chest bulged, lungs stretching like bellows. Vision blurred in system light as his frame cracked upward, shoulders tightening with new weight.
[HP // 640/640]
He flexed, the air cracked with bloodlight as he threw a punch.
"Sharper..."
His new skills bled to the surface of thought. Hive Pulse, Brood speed surging in his wake, ten seconds of frenzy. Black Pit, twelve soulmass to drag enemies through mire, thirty percent slower, thirty seconds to cut them apart. Tools he would use. Tools they would bleed with.
Then part of his UI darkened.
[Desecrate // Cooldown Reset]
"It's time."
He stepped from around the corner, claws scratching along the tunnel wall, aura rolling over the waiting group like fog. The Brood froze under it, snarls muted, claws flexing, eyes low. Snare's gaze stuck wide, body taut like a rat caught under a boot.
His plan was simple. Far side of the Den. Ledges for Lynn and Panic to perch on, a little high ground to cut lines through the swarm. He and Pain would stay below, grind bodies into choke points, bleed the den clean while Snare leveled.
Seo-jin's eyes slid to Panic. The imp's posture was sour, knife dragging at his side.
"Disappointed, Panic?"
The broodling froze. So did the others.
"Think I'm wasting your time? Speak. I'd love to hear it."
Panic's jaw quivered...he might be crazy, but he wasn't stupid.
"No waste, Broodfather! Swear it!"
"Good."
Taking a moment to look over them all.
"Remember—no one mourns the dead. Move when I move or you'll be locked out. On three."
One. Two. Three.
They jumped. The fall rattled their bones but none were weak enough to care.
The second Seo-jin's feet struck stone, the panel hit.
[System // Notification]
[Boss Room Discovered // Instance Lock Initiated]
The chamber sealed. No escape. Do or die.
Aggro lit instantly as the burrows boiled with movement, hundreds of eyes lighting in the dark.
"You're on your own. Have fun."
No Butcher's Wrath. No Fiendskin. No Hellfire. This wasn't the moment for crutches. He wanted the grind in his hands, wanted to split bone with raw strength. Back to his roots.
[Level // 17]
[Exp // 7427/8797]
[HP // 640/640]
[SM // 40/40]
Everything full. Everything primed.
He sprinted straight for one of the burrows, its walls still trembling, not yet emptying. His intention...to not let a single rabbit slip by. Pure slaughter radiated from him as he dissapeared into the dark.
Behind him, the Brood moved. Lynn and Panic hugging the wall, scrambling for the ledges. Pain and Snare already in motion, claws scraping as they took their lanes.
The den split open. Howls, shrieks, claws tearing stone. A tide poured out.
Snare's head reeled, the battlefield screaming into his mind.
'Why me? Why the fuck did I have to be the one with a brain?!'
He looked left—Panic howling, knife flashing, hacking ears and gouging eyes, laughing like murder was a game. Right—Pain carving through bodies like wet hide, claws scything meat apart. Their simple madness made something settle in him, almost calm.
'I just have to be like them. Trust my own nature.'
A kit lunged. He let it come, tail lancing through its gut mid-air. He whipped it off, body smacking another that had been on Lynn's flank.
'For Broodfather.'
"Faster! Don't let them close us in!"
He slashed, bit, tail stabbing, moving as ordered. Even Pain flicked him a nod, approval sparking through the Link. Light burst across Snare, levels climbing.
Behind, Lynn was fighting to keep pace, muzzle flashing, rounds punching through skulls. She knew her place was lowest here, knew she had to prove something. She fired and reloaded with clenched teeth, eyes darting always toward the burrow Seo-jin had vanished into.
"Watch out!"
She blew apart a rabbit latched to Snare's shoulder, grabbed him before he stumbled, shoved him forward, then dropped another kit with a clean shot as she shouted.
"Almost there!"
The rock formation stood ahead, but the three burrows beneath it bled heavy, rabbits spilling, three adults among them. Perfect ground to disrupt the kit's movement, if they could get through it.
"Pain! Adults!"
Snare barked the warning. His brother roared back, bloodlight burning hotter. Smoke leaked his jaws. Then he dropped low, body surging, skill triggered.
[Charge // Activated]
He plowed through kits, bodies minced underfoot, leaving a trail of gore.
"Pretty!"
Panic shrieked, bounding beside him.
Bang!
The second Pain's charge ended, Lynn's shot ricocheted off an adult rabbits skull just before it dropped on him, no damage, but enough to stagger it just in time. Pain ripped its chest wide with burning claws.
Panic dove in, dagger punching into its throat.
"My kill, my kill!"
"Liar! It was mine!"
They barreled in together, biting, clawing, tearing. Snare's chest tightened. Their guardians were pulling away, losing themselves to their own bloodlust.
"Idiots! Don't separate! Stick to the plan!"
Ignored.
"I'll tell Broodf—"
"You'll die, first!"
"Snare's gonna die! Die, bitch, die—!"
His gut turned. He cursed himself for not planning for their madness. He clenched his claws, snapped his orders to Lynn.
"New plan! We cover them! Stay close!"
If they wouldn't follow order, he'd adapt to their chaos.
"This is crazy!"
Lynn's pistol snapped and spat, barrel steaming but never slowing, she had the ammo, but it didn't stop the fear clawing at her ribs.
"Your left!"
Snare's voice cut sharp. She spun. A kit's claws raked her cheek before his tail coiled and slammed it against stone, brains splitting.
"What the hell are they doing?! We're gonna die if we follow them!"
She fired blind into the tide, cutting down kits before they ever reached her.
Snare ripped one in half, guts smearing across his face. His scream was wild, almost joyful.
"You might! Not me!"
System light burst off him as his claws shredded another.
"Him too…?"
She caught one by the ears, jammed her barrel under its jaw, and blew its skull out. Her lungs burned, her arms shook, but as she ran and shot and bled beside the brood, something steadily crept under her skin.
Her heel crushed a skull. Her tongue dragged across her lips, tasting rabbit's blood. Moist heat coiled low inside her.
"Wait for me!"
She slammed a new mag in, dropped three more kits in a row, and grinned wide. The grin didn't feel like hers. Something inside her shifted. Broke.
If she'd stopped to think, she might've blamed Seo-jin. But this wasn't that simple. This was his racial ability. A sickness bound to his flesh.
Corruption.
It rooted in her marrow without permission, warping thought into hunger, twisting panic into fevered joy. Madness bled in with every breath she took near him.
The stench of blood pulled at her, heavy and sweet. Her pulse thundered in rhythm with the tearing, the chewing. Her bloodlust blooming within a field of slaughter. While below her, not far underground, death had descended into the heart of the Elderwarren Den.
Seo-jin stood alone in the darkness, dripping in gore. His chest heaved, his mouth full of steaming entrails as he lifted an Elderwarren adult and crushed it open like rotten fruit. Guts poured into his throat as panel crawled across his vision.
[System // Notification]
[Corruption Threshold Reached]
[Madness Effect Manifested // Target // Human (Lynn)]
A slow grin carved across his blood-caked face.
"Let's see how she does."
Throwing the corpse aside, bone cracking as it hit stone, he followed Soul Sense, turning toward the deeper tunnels...toward the glow of red waiting in the dark.