Chapter 243: I Am The Broodfather
Seo-jin couldn't see. The Light element had seeped into his eyes, burning away his sight as the skin around them blistered and split.
[Broodspawn // Bile]
[Status // Deceased]
"Bile..."
It was a name given without thought. It held no special meaning. When the Broodling first spawned, Seo-jin had thought him a disappointment. Bile couldn't even make eye contact without falling apart.
"My son..."
He knew this was different. He knew this time it was final. Unlike Snare, there would be no surprise waiting for him once the fight was over.
One of his children had just been killed right in front of him.
Within the beam of Light falling from the sky, Cardinal Chelk's form broke free from Sin's cross. His body floated above the ground, every wound and speck of dirt erased as if they had never existed.
"Forcing me like this, you should be proud of yourself."
The pillar of Light collapsed, fully revealing Chelk's new form. Two immense wings of Light unfolded from his back, their power radiating outward with enough force to push Seo-jin away. Above his head, two halos shone like crowns, his status as an angel on full display.
Smiling toward the heavens, the angel slowly lowered his gaze. Then his smile faltered...
"Don't play games, not when we've come this far... Stop this instant! Do not defile this battle with your lies, demon!"
The Brood slowly rose to their feet, bloodied and burned, their wounds already beginning to heal. Panic was the first to stand. His Restraints flailed wildly behind him as his teeth gnashed and veins bulged beneath his skin. He growled through clenched teeth, bloodlight leaking from his body as his aura continued to build until the energy itself began to condense.
Actual blood lifted from the ground around the Broodspawn and hung trembling in the air.
"It huuurrrtts..."
Steam spilled from his mouth with the words.
More auras gathered around him. Pain stood shaking, his expression twisting between rage and fear. Across the Brood, emotions they had never experienced tore across their faces without control.
It was the first time they had ever felt sadness from their father.
Touching his face, Seo-jin pulled his fingers away and stared at the tear resting on them.
"Your lies won't save you!"
Spreading his wings wide, Chelk flapped once.
Before Seo-jin could react, the Cardinal had him by the throat, the impact tearing a line of destruction through the city. Laughing, Chelk drove forward, grinding his enemy's face through broken earth and concrete.
"You should have stayed in Hell!"
Changing direction, he shot into the sky, leaving a blazing trail of Light behind him. When his ascent finally stopped, the two hung above the clouds, Shatterbay far below. Still held by the throat, Seo-jin's arms hung limp at his sides while the Serpents hung dazed.
"I waited for this? This is what Gregor suffered for? How pathetic my hopes were."
Chelk released him and watched Seo-jin's body drop. Around the angel, numerous spears of Light began condensing from the air, their points turning toward the city below.
"Let the Light of Orashal cleanse your wicked soul."
With a swipe of his hand, the spears shot down.
Seo-jin struck the ground just before they hit. Explosion after explosion of Light ripped through the street, each blast swallowing the next until an entire city block disappeared beneath dust, fire, and shattered stone.
And still, the Brood didn't move.
[Do something! Now, goddammit! Seo-jin! You can make another, stop—]
'No. I can't. Bile is gone.'
[You're a demon, you fuck! Demons don't cry! What the fuck is wrong with you?! Get up! Fight!]
The voice screamed inside his skull, yet he didn't move. His health was low, and it felt as though every bone in his body had shattered. He didn't bother looking, but he could tell an arm and a leg were missing.
None of it mattered.
Lifting what remained of his ruined arm, he watched Butcher's Wrath dangle from scorched tendons. The weight slowly tore through them until the last strands snapped and the weapon dropped into the rubble with a dull thud.
Unbidden, memories flashed through his mind.
Meeting the Dead Hands for the first time in the Elderwarren dungeon.
Fighting Min.
Killing the Cherub.
The dwarves, Lillid, the Makara. Faces and moments flashed through his mind, different places and different voices, but all of them the same.
All of them calling him a demon. All of them deciding what he was and what he wasn't.
High above, a flash of Light caught his ruined eyes. A split second later, Chelk crashed down on him, one foot slamming into his chest hard enough to drive his body deeper into the crater.
"I am disappointed. Not that it would have changed things, but you could have struggled a bit more. This is very anticlimactic."
Chelk pressed his foot deeper. The few ribs Seo-jin still had left unbroken snapped beneath his heel, each crack sending a fresh pulse of pain through his chest.
"Tell me your True Name. That is the only path to your salvation. Tell me, and I will let you live. A demon that possesses a Shard... My lord will reward me greatly if I bring you to heel. Speak it, demon. Drop this game of yours and accept your fate. Demons are more afraid of death than other races, so speak and—"
"You talk too much."
Light shone in Chelk's eyes as his smile widened.
"Still defiant? That's better. A bit late—!"
Taking his foot away, he kicked Seo-jin and sent his broken body flying into the side of the crater. Blood sprayed across the rubble as he struck hard enough to embed himself.
Rising into the sky with a flap of his wings, Chelk raised one hand. Light drifted from one of his halos and gathered above his palm, taking the shape of an ornate javelin of pure gold.
"Last chance, Spawn of Hahn'mak. Speak your True Name!"
Pulling himself from the rubble, Seo-jin dropped to his knees, his only remaining hand barely keeping him from falling face-first into the dirt. He coughed up chunks of something wet and dark, his entire body refusing to work.
"My True Name... demon... Seo-jin... imp."
Forcing himself higher, he raised his bloodshot eyes toward the angel above.
"Everywhere I go, they all say the same thing. With that same look in their eyes. They call me a demon. Place their fears on me as if I have something to do with their making. It's laughable."
Chelk's smile faded as he raised his weapon.
"No matter. Your death will not change things. I'll pull the answers from your—"
"You want to know my name?"
Bloodlight began to rise from Seo-jin, thick and heavy, rolling from his broken body as he pointed his bloody hand toward Chelk.
His skin split and blackened. His teeth sharpened into fangs. Two burning horns broke through his brow as Seo-jin returned to his true form.
"I am the one who crawled free from the Maw. I am the Butcher of Shatterbay. I am the slayer of demons... of elves and giants and all the races of the Five Realms."
Sighing, Chelk drew back his javelin as Light gathered at its tip—then his eyes suddenly widened. He spun around—
But it was already too late.
"I AM THE BROODFATHER, AND YOU KILLED MY SON!"
As if gripped by an invisible hand, Chelk's wings crumpled against his sides and his entire body went rigid. His teeth clenched hard enough to grind as golden blood suddenly sprayed from his mouth.
"I-Impossible!"
To Chelk, there was nothing there. But with a flash of his eyes, his vision shifted, and he finally saw what had grabbed him.
Seemingly filling the entire sky above, Grimm stared down at the angel, blue bonfires burning within his empty sockets. Chelk had seen plenty of ghosts in his lifetime, but nothing like this.
It was the size of a mountain. A massive skull hung above him, with thousands of thick intestines and bones radiating from it. Almost like a squid, the ghost's body stretched so far across the sky that much of it drifted above the clouds.
"Sin!"
Twisting his head, Chelk watched crimson light burst from Seo-jin's chest. In the blink of an eye, the demon's ruined body rebuilt itself, leaving him standing completely healed.
Tiamat and Bahamut roared, their voices rolling through Shatterbay hard enough to shake the ground as Seo-jin raised one hand.
From the center of the crater, a beast's roar answered. Butcher's Wrath ripped free and flew into his waiting grip. The flesh of Seo-jin's arm split open, tendons snapping outward before fusing with the blade, while its twin crawled free from the flesh of his other.
The moment both weapons settled into his grip, an oppressive aura erupted from Seo-jin. Bloodlight poured from his body, twisting around him like a bloody tornado as pressure rolled across the crater.
"Hear me, spawn of Orashal! With your death, I will start it all! Watch and do nothing as I claim what is mine!"
[Genesis Pit // Activated]
"MY KINGDOM!"
Everything stopped...
The wind died between the ruined buildings. Dust hung motionless in the air, and even the distant crackle of fire seemed to disappear. Suspended within Grimm's grip, Chelk felt something that made his blood run cold.
The Light had gone still.
Then came the sound.
A single scream rose from somewhere beneath them. Then another...then hundreds...then thousands.
Wailing voices flooded Shatterbay from every direction, overlapping until Chelk couldn't separate one from another. Men, women, children, creatures he couldn't recognize. Some screamed in pain, others begged, cried, or simply howled until their voices broke. The noise didn't come from the streets or the buildings.
It came from everywhere.
Chelk felt the air grow heavy, felt it pressing against his skin, thick enough to make every breath drag through his lungs. Below him, Seo-jin remained motionless as something black began seeping from beneath his feet.
At first, it looked like a shadow.
Then it spread. Across broken concrete. Through rubble. Up shattered walls and beneath abandoned rusted vehicles. It swallowed blood, ash, debris, everything it touched as it continued outward. Ten feet became fifty. Fifty became hundreds.
Until an entire city block was black.
The screaming continued.
A bubble formed near Seo-jin's feet.
It swelled.
Popped.
Another appeared farther away, then dozens more. The perfectly black surface began to boil, slow at first, before the entire block started churning like something underneath was trying to scream.
Chelk stared down.
"What...?"
The black erupted.
Miasmic vapor exploded upward in a violent rush, swallowing the entire block. The darkness vaporized beneath it, peeling away in great clouds as something wet and red was exposed underneath.
The ground was gone.
Flesh had replaced it.
It pulsed across the entire block, wet muscle contracting beneath translucent membranes as veins thicker than a man's body pushed blood through the mass. Organs grew from the surface without purpose or order, swelling between folds of meat before collapsing back into them.
It looked as if the Maw itself had come to Earth.
Then Chelk saw something moving beneath the flesh. A soul. Pale and almost transparent, it clawed its way through the meat before something beneath the surface pulled it back down.
Another appeared. Then five. Twenty. Hundreds. Chelk's eyes widened as the entire Pit filled with them. Thousands of souls rose from beneath Shatterbay, dragged from streets, buildings, buried foundations, and places where nothing remained to mark their deaths. They twisted through the air like smoke, screaming as they were pulled toward the pulsing flesh.
The Pit devoured them.
One after another, the dead disappeared into its surface. Every soul it consumed made the flesh swell and pulse harder, organs growing faster as blood hammered through veins and fresh tumors burst across the meat.
And still they came.
Not merely those who had died today.
The dead history of the land itself was rising to feed it. Thousands upon thousands of lingering souls poured into the Genesis Pit as the ground beneath Shatterbay throbbed with new life.
The dead were feeding the birth of a new king.
[System // Notification]
[Genesis Pit Established // Full Kingdom System Access Granted]
[Congratulations]
[Choose a Name for Your New Kingdom]
Standing at the center of his new Genesis Pit, Seo-jin could feel it beneath his feet. His new domain. As he looked across the pulsing flesh and familiar horrors surrounding him, something settled comfortably in his chest.
Finally...home sweet home.