Chapter 3: Greed's Rotting Grip (Extended)
The golden light of the vault was sickly, unnatural—an eerie glow that pooled over the piles of treasure, casting monstrous shadows on the cracked stone walls. Haru sat cross-legged atop a mountain of coins, jewels, and trinkets, his fingers trembling as they slid over the glittering hoard.
Each piece was stained with the sins of those who died for it. Blood soaked into gold, and greed had made it all taste bitter, yet Haru couldn't stop. His eyes were sunken pits, surrounded by dark rings, reflecting nothing but obsession.
"Mine," he whispered, voice dry like crumbling parchment. "Everything is mine."
His hands, twisted and clawed from constant grasping, scraped at his skin until they bled. Pain was the only proof that he was alive, the only feeling he hadn't yet sold for wealth.
But the price was higher than he imagined.
His body was betraying him.
Flesh blackened, mottled with patches of decay spreading like wildfire. Bones creaked beneath thinning skin, joints stiffening and snapping like brittle twigs. Yet, even as his body rotted, he clung tighter to his treasure.
"Let it consume me," Haru snarled, clutching a bloodied ruby to his chest. "I'd rather rot in gold than die poor."
A voice hissed from the shadows of his mind—cold and cruel. "Greed devours all."
Haru screamed, claws digging into his face, ripping open rotten flesh to reveal raw muscle beneath. His teeth, yellow and jagged, ground in fury and pain.
But greed was not satisfied.
The gems around him seemed to pulse with dark energy, whispering promises of power, immortality, and endless wealth.
His eyes cracked, leaking golden tears that burned like acid.
"More," he begged the empty vault, voice desperate. "I want it all."
The walls themselves seemed to warp, bending under the weight of his madness.
His fingers turned to gnarled claws, nails splitting and curling inward like twisted daggers.
He reached out, snatching a coin from the pile—and as he touched it, a swarm of writhing maggots spilled from beneath, crawling over his skin, burrowing deep into his flesh.
Pain exploded, fire spreading through his veins. Yet he smiled—a terrible, broken smile.
"Everything is mine," he repeated, voice hollow. "Even death."
Haru collapsed into the treasure, body melting into rot and ruin, but his grasp never loosened.
And in that endless hunger, greed became his tomb.