Chapter 4: Freedom,Slaugter and Feast
A pale, sickly light sliced through the cracked stone wall, a fleeting lifeline in the suffocating darkness of Night's prison.
His Rinkaku kagune, still quivering from tearing apart his cell, froze mid-air.
The echoes of Anime—songs that had become his unhinged requiem—faded, replaced by the pounding of his heart, heavy with cursed energy.
His beast-like eyes, glowing with red iris and black sklera, locked onto the fissure.
For a fleeting moment, the hunger and trauma that had consumed him were overshadowed by a spark of the old Night—the Delta Force soldier, the man who'd cheered for a gold SSR card.
He crept toward the crack, each step a battle between instinct and reason.
Pressing his face to the jagged fissure, he peered out.
A single, terrified eye stared back, framed by a hooded figure in a tattered black robe.
The eye blinked, and a raw, desperate scream shattered the silence.
The figure stumbled back, revealing a gaunt man with hollow cheeks, his robe flapping as he sprinted down a torch-lit corridor, his footsteps echoing like a fading pulse.
Night's lips twisted into a feral grin. "Food," he growled, the word a guttural snarl that drowned out Gamer Mind's feeble attempt to anchor him.
The child's accusing eyes from his Delta Force days flickered in his mind, but the Ghoul's hunger roared louder, a primal drumbeat obliterating reason.
He was no longer Night Frederik, the man who'd laughed over gacha pulls.
He was a predator, and the fleeing man was prey.
BOOM!
His Rinkaku kagune erupted, four crimson tentacles smashing through the wall like a tidal wave.
Stone shattered, dust choking the air as the prison that had caged him for weeks—perhaps months—collapsed into rubble.
Night stepped into the corridor, his bare feet crunching on debris.
Flickering torches cast jagged shadows on walls etched with faint, arcane magic that pulsed with a sickly green glow, as if alive.
The air reeked of rust and decay, but beneath it, he caught the scent of sweat, fear, and humanity.
His mouth watered, saliva dripping as his Ghoul instincts screamed.
His Soundless Step making his movements silent as a ghost, a predator stalking prey.
He stalked forward, His cursed energy pulsing through him like a living beast, sharpening his senses to a razor's edge.
His Spider Sense buzzed faintly, warning of danger in the gloom, but the hunger smothered it.
The distant drip of liquid from his prison gave way to the clatter of boots—many boots, heavy and disciplined.
Night's grin widened, his heart pounding with twisted euphoria.
A FEASTS.
The corridor opened into a wide hall, where a phalanx of armored knights stood, their massive shields locked together like a steel wall.
Behind them, a dozen archers nocked arrows, their bows trained on him.
At the center, a grizzled knight commander, his helmet discarded to reveal a scarred face, barked orders in a guttural language Night couldn't decipher.
The knights' eyes were hard, their stances disciplined, but to Night, they were nothing but a banquet laid out before him.
"Hihihi… so many snacks," he muttered, his voice a chilling giggle as drool pooled at the corner of his mouth.
He focused inward, channeling cursed energy into his body.
The power surged through his veins like molten lead, searing his nerves and igniting his muscles.
His skin prickled, ashen hues spreading across it as if death itself were claiming him.
His Rinkaku kagune writhed, the crimson tentacles thickening, their edges sharpening to a lethal gleam as cursed energy coiled around them like black smoke, crackling with malevolent intent.
Without warning, he lunged, his Rinkaku kagune whipping forward like living blades.
The tentacles, now pulsing with cursed
energy, slashed with unnatural force, aiming to cleave through the shields, but a glowing circle of magic flared to life, halting them mid-strike.
The air shimmered, the magic barrier humming with power, deflecting his attack with a force that sent vibrations up his kagune.
The cursed energy sparked against the barrier, leaving scorch marks on the shields.
Night froze, his hunger momentarily eclipsed by confusion.
Then he laughed, a manic sound that echoed off the stone walls.
"Oh, right—a fantasy world! My food can use magic! Hahaha!"
Gamer Mind fought to surface, urging caution—They're organized. Dangerous.—but the thought was a faint whisper, buried under the euphoria of the hunt.
The commander bellowed, and the archers loosed a synchronized volley.
Night braced for pain, but none came. Protection from Projectile activated, an invisible force like a gust of wind swatting the arrows aside, sending them clattering against the walls.
Night's laughter grew louder, his eyes glinting with delight. "Nice try, snacks! You're wasting arrows, idiots!"
His glee was short-lived. His Spider Sense screamed—a sharp, electric jolt that made his skin crawl.
The ground beneath him rumbled, and jagged earthen spikes erupted from the floor, piercing his legs and torso.
Pain lanced through him, He roared, thrashing against the spikes, but they held firm, pinning him like a beast in a trap.
"Who dares?!" he snarled, his voice shaking the air.
At the far end of the hall, behind the wall of shields, an old man in a flowing robe raised a glowing staff.
His eyes were cold, calculating, but not cruel.
The spikes hadn't aimed for Night's head or heart—they were meant to restrain, not kill.
The realization ignited a fury in Night that burned hotter than ever.
They think they can cage me? I'm no one's prisoner!
The Mahoraga wheel materialized behind him, it revolving once with a low, ominous hum.
Cursed energy exploded from his body, a dark tide flooding the hall with despair and malice.
The air grew heavy, as if the walls themselves bled.
The knights froze, their shields trembling.
The archers' hands shook, arrows slipping from their strings.
Even the commander's scarred face paled, sweat beading on his brow.
The mage's staff flickered, his composure cracking under the suffocating aura.
Night's body transformed further.
The earthen spikes shattered with a flick of his wrist, his wounds gone instantly thanks to Mahoraga adaptation.
His gaunt 130 cm frame stretched, bones cracking as he grew to over two meters tall.
His vein now crimson red can be seen through his ashen skin, claws sprouted from his fingers, sharp as obsidian, and his eyes blazed a feral red.
His kagune, infused with cursed energy, glowed with a dark, pulsating aura, their edges crackling like lightning.
He roared, a deafening sound that hit like a flashbang, blood trickling from the knights' ears as several collapsed, clutching their heads.
The commander rallied his men, slamming his shield into the ground. "Hold the line!" he roared in his strange tongue.
A second magic circle flared, pulsing with blue light, reinforcing the shields.
The archers regrouped, firing another volley, but Protection from Projectile deflected the arrows again.
Night grinned, his hunger surging. "You think that'll stop me?"
He spotted a fallen knight's, a hole in the formation, using his rinkaku he quickly finished the knight and snatched it longsword.
Weapon Mastery surged through him, his grip on the blade instinctive, as if he'd wielded it for years.
He channeled cursed energy into the sword, the blade humming with curse power, its edge glowing faintly red.
He swung, the enhanced blade screaming through the air, but the glowing shields held, the magic barrier absorbing the impact with a deafening clang.
Sparks flew, and Night's arm vibrated from the recoil.
"Stubborn food," he growled. He shifted tactics, using Geppo to leap into the air, his body defying gravity as he walked on the air.
Feather Fall keep His body floated upward, light as a leaf, gliding over the shield wall.
His cursed energy-enhanced kagune trailed behind him, their glowing tips slashing at the knights from above.
The archers tracked him, firing wildly, but the arrows couldn't touch him.
He landed on the ceiling, his claws digging into the stone, and his Rinkaku kagune lashing out from multiple angles, testing the barrier.
Each strike ,amplified by cursed energy, sent cracks spiderwebbing through the glowing shield, but the knights held firm, their formation disciplined.
The mage raised his staff again, and the ceiling rumbled.
A wave of stone spikes surged toward Night, faster and sharper than before.
His Spider Sense screamed, and he twisted mid-air, using Feather Fall to glide out of reach.
The spikes hit his arm, but this time it fail to hurt his skin.
"Tch, you're starting to piss me off," Night muttered, landing softly and channeling more cursed energy into his body.
His muscles swelled, his claws lengthened, and his kagune pulsed with even greater intensity, their movements almost alive, as if guided by the malice within him.
Rage Core stirred, a dark pulse in his chest amplifying his strength and speed.
The air crackled, cursed energy mixing with the Doom Slayer's fury.
He roared, using soru then channeling Tekkai to harden his body like iron.
He charged, slamming into the shield wall with the force of a battering ram.
The magic barrier flickered, and two knights staggered, their shields dented.
"Now!" the commander shouted.
The archers switched tactics, their arrows glowing with red glow—enchanted projectiles.
Protection from Projectile still redirecting the arrows , but now before the arrows got successfully redirected it explodes, hurting Night, the wound burning like acid.
He snarled, the pain fueling his rage.
Using Soru, he blurred through the hall, his cursed energy-enhanced longsword dancing in his hands, Weapon Mastery guiding each strike to exploit weaknesses in the shield wall.
The barrier flickered, cracks widening.
The mage slammed his staff into the ground, and a massive stone golem erupted from the floor, its fists swinging like hammers.
Night ducked, his Spider Sense guiding him, and countered with Shigan, his finger—now glowing with cursed energy—piercing the golem's chest like a bullet.
The stone cracked, but the golem kept coming, forcing Night to leap back. "Tough bastard," he grinned, his hunger and rage blending into a twisted thrill.
He unleashed his full Rinkaku, eight tentacles now—two new ones sprouting from his mid-back—slashing in a frenzy.
The cursed energy made them faster, sharper.
The golem crumbled, and Night turned on the mage, hurling the longsword with Weapon Mastery's precision.
The blade, infused with cursed energy, spun like a fiery comet, forcing the mage to dive aside, disrupting his next spell.
The commander charged, wielding a massive warhammer his body glowing with aura .
"Die, monster!" he roared, swinging with enough force to crack stone.
Night parried with his Koukaku, now a massive greatsword pulsing with cursed energy, the impact sending shockwaves through the hall.
Weapon Mastery made him adapt instantly, countering with a flurry of precise blows that forced the commander back.
"Enough games!" Night snarled. Rage Core stirred, a dark pulse in his chest Amplifying his strength and speed.
The Mahoraga wheel slowly revolving again, his cursed energy surging to its peak.
His body glowed with a dark aura, and he moved like a demon, his kagune writhing like living shadows.
Using geppo and Feather Fall, he leaped high, gliding over the shield wall again, and landed behind the knights.
With a single swing of his Koukaku, enhanced by Weapon Mastery and cursed energy, he cleaved through the remaining shields.
Thirty knights fell, their bodies bisected in a spray of blood.
The commander lunged, but Night caught the warhammer mid-swing, his claws crushing the haft.
He drove his kagune through the man's chest, ending him.
Silence fell, broken only by Night's ragged breathing.
He knelt, snatching a severed arm and tearing into it with ravenous hunger.
The taste of flesh sent a shiver of euphoria through him, the cursed energy in his veins amplifying the sensation.
He moved from one body to the next, devouring flesh and blood, his Ghoul nature consuming him entirely.
The hall became a slaughterhouse, the air thick with the stench of iron and death.
Night was too focused on his food, unaware that each time he consumed human flesh, the curse energy in his body grew stronger.
Unseen, the mage—Lord Veirhand—had already slipped into the shadows, his face a mask of horror.
He backed away, his steps silent, and fled toward a stone door at the corridor's end.
When he reached it, he was greeted by robed figures, their faces pale with alarm.
"Lord Veirhand!" a young mage cried. "What happened? Where's Lord Blackwood and his knights?"
"Dead," Veirhand rasped, his voice trembling with grim resolve. "All of them—slaughtered by that thing. We must seal this place now. It must not escape."
An older mage in ornate robes protested. "But, Lord, the Emperor tasked us with creating a super soldier! The artifacts, the cursed relics—they're all in the laboratory! How will we face His Majesty if we seal it?"
Veirhand's eyes blazed. " It only temporary,I'll be the one who bring this news to the Emperor myself. The experiment succeeded—too well. The test subject is unstoppable, a beast that massacred Blackwood and his men in seconds.
We must seal this place and bring reinforcements to recapture it."
He raised his staff, and the ground rumbled as earth magic wove a stone barrier over the stone door, sealing it closed.
"Activate the mass teleportation circle!" he barked.
The mages chanted, a glowing ring forming beneath them.
Veirhand glanced at the sealed door, muttering, "I pray this holds until we return with the reinforcements."
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Back in the corridor, As he tore into the last knight's remains, all the hunger, the madness, gone.
A wave of exhaustion crashed over him.
Night's vision blurred, his limbs growing heavy.
He hadn't slept since being awake in this new body, his body and mind pushed to the brink by the void, the prison, the PTSD and now this massacre.
The cursed energy that had sustained him flickered, his kagune retracting as his strength ebbed.
He stumbled, his clawed hand clutching a blood-soaked shield for support. "E… what happ.." he mumbled, his voice slurring.
The spark of the old Night—the one who'd joked about gacha, hummed anime song, the normal night—flared briefly, only to be swallowed by darkness.
His eyes rolled back, and he collapsed amidst the carnage, unconscious, blood dripping from his chin.