The air was filled with a pungent smell of iron. Blood, seeping from the boy's body, snaked across the floor, each drop expanding as if on purpose. It spun a bright red web, climbing the walls. Even drops that splashed onto the ceilings of buildings hung in the air instead of falling to the ground. The stones beneath Ryu's feet felt soft under the touch of blood, wet and trembling like a living being's skin. The surrounding light was tinged with blood-tinged hues; shadows of red, purple, and black transformed every corner of his surroundings into a nightmare landscape.
"This... what the hell is this?!" Ryu shouted, his throat tearing, his voice echoing off the narrow walls. His palms were sweaty, his breath ragged. He stared at the expanding pool of blood, but his vision blurred. His stomach suddenly twisted and he fell to his knees. Vomit, mixed with the bile green and crimson of blood, spilled onto the floor. It was strange: the green drops faded as soon as they came into contact with the blood, as if an invisible hand were *erasing* them from the very fabric of the universe. Only red remained… An endless, suffocating red.
"Gods damn it…" Ryu groaned, pressing his back against the wall. His fingers were buried in his stomach, his teeth chattering. The boy's body was still bleeding, but no longer from that small body—it seemed to be gushing from *under the ground*. A ringing humming noise rose in his ears:
"Slave."
The sound came from within the blood. Ryu clutched his head in both hands; his nails were digging into his forehead. The sounds grew louder, each overlapping the other:
"Slave. Slave. Slave."
His mind felt as if it were being squeezed in a vice. His vision narrowed, and darkness seeped from behind the red curtain. Just then, the wall's shadows began to twist unnaturally. Black Panther slowly emerged, like a statue woven from the night. His fur was engulfed in the sheen of blood, and his eyes glowed like two poisonous green stars.
"We're out of time, brat," Black Panther said, his voice piercing Ryu's bones like a knife. His lips didn't move—the words were etched directly into his mind. "This scene… is merely a test for you."
Ryu looked up, holding his breath. "Wait—!"
But the Panther had already turned away. He waved a hand in the air, and shadows began to lick his body. His fur was melting, merging with the darkness. His last words became an echo that echoed around him:
"Good luck… New User!"
The Black Panther's presence melted into the shadows; as if it had never existed. Ryu stared unblinkingly into space. The pain in his left shoulder suddenly erupted again like a hammer blow. He gritted his teeth and tried to stand, but his knees were shaking. "This pain… why does it keep coming and going?" he thought in the hazy recesses of his mind. It was as if a snake, hidden within his bones, was occasionally biting and disappearing. As he advanced toward the boy in the pool of blood, each step felt heavy, like emerging from a muddy swamp. The blood wrapped around his ankles was warm and sticky—as if something alive were trying to draw him in.
"Damn it…" Ryu grumbled, pressing his left hand against his shoulder. "Even when my shoulder was dislocated, it didn't hurt this constantly. Why now—" He couldn't finish his sentence. The boy's corpse wasn't just a body anymore, but a *shrine altar*. His back was turned, his head bowed… Ryu reached out with trembling fingers to the boy's face.
"Show me your face…" he muttered, his voice as broken as a prayer.
The moment his hands touched the boy's cold skin, a shiver spread down to his wrists. As he turned the corpse toward him, his fingertips felt the skin hardened like *wax*. His face… It had dried up like a mummy's face, and only the *hole* left by the Black Panther remained. That dark void in the center of his forehead seemed to expand like a black hole, sucking in the surrounding skin. Blood seeped from his eye sockets and ran down cracked cheeks like a dried riverbed. The dark red gushing from his ears formed a ritual circle on the floor. Ryu gasped. Unable to bear the sight, he took a few steps away from the boy and began to vomit. He began to clench his fist over his heart.
Emotions buzzed around Ryu like a swarm of cadaver flies. Sadness gnawed at his bones, anger left burn marks in his throat, disgust turned his stomach inside out. But the heaviest was *fear*—fear of his own reflection. The boy's lifeless body stared back at him like a mirror: Dirty clothes, bruised knees, eyes broken with despair… *Like me. Forgotten by the streets.* His heart swelled against his ribcage, each beat like a knife digging into his ribs. He bit his lip so hard that the salty taste of blood seeped onto the tip of his tongue.
His feet dragged him back to the corpse. He buried his palm into his chest—his heart was pounding. He knelt in front of the boy's head. Blood-soaked hair clung to his sticky forehead. Ryu reached out a trembling hand… but couldn't touch it.
"I'm sorry…" The word caught in his throat. He swallowed. He bit his lip harder, the remorse evident on his face through the blood, before he said, "I'm sorry," and turned around, walking slowly.
"I knew the others would die, but maybe if I'd been a little faster, I might have had a chance to save that kid…" Ryu said. Even though he didn't want to, he'd witnessed many deaths as a child, having lived on the streets. Whether it was assassinations, blood feuds, or innocent people dying for money, seeing children like these, even if they were rare, was torn apart inside him.
Ryu's footsteps echoed on the stone floor. The air was heavy; the dim streetlights reflected on the walls with a flickering glow, and a cat's purr could be heard in the distance. As he continued walking, an indescribable chill suddenly coursed through him. Cold, a fear that seeped into his very bones…
His eyes scanned his surroundings rapidly. Were the shadows moving? Or was his mind playing tricks on him? Frowning, he took a deep breath, stuffing his trembling hands into his pockets and continuing walking. But that feeling returned. This time, more forceful, more sharp.
Ryu's gaze slowly drifted downward. The pool of blood beneath his feet... He was retreating, trembling slightly, as if dragged by an invisible hand. But not in the intended direction—quite the opposite, behind him.
A knot formed in his throat. He felt the air growing colder. In the silence of the gloomy street, he could only hear his own breathing. He turned his head slowly back.
Between the stone walls, shrouded in shadows, a dark red liquid intertwined with the darkness… The blood, as if possessed by a living being, spread insidiously among the cobblestones, like vines entwining the walls, towards the boy's lifeless body.
Whispers… Muffled, incomprehensible sounds coming from within the blood…
Ryu narrowed his eyes and took a step back. But his instincts screamed that something was wrong.
This something… it wasn't just spreading around a dead body. It was calling. And he had already noticed it.
A sea of blood, black and red intermingled, rose up around the dead boy. It was like a silently growing circle, slowly spreading over the corpse. The blood had coated the stone floor, creating a static, gruesome picture above him.
And at that moment, like the reawakening of an ancient prophecy, strange writings began to appear on this circle of blood. These writings, filtered by glowing red lights, resembled the symbols of an ancient, forgotten language, appearing as if defying the coldness of the dead body.
As Ryu watched the circle of black and red blood gathering around the dead child, the chilling image suddenly shifted into motion.
The boy's eyes snapped open. In the darkness, in a deathly silence, his gaze, cold and pained, scanned the surroundings, but his gaze was so rapid that his pupils resembled a speeding sphere spinning in a circle. At that moment, a dense wave of air rose in the air as if an invisible sail had been raised. It overwhelmed the entire space, the circle of blood spreading over the dead body, and the echoing silence.
Ryu, torn between shock and fear, lost his footing. Suddenly, struck by an invisible force, he felt as if he were being thrown. He was propelled forward; the weight of his body was thrown into the air as he slammed into the wall.
After slamming hard into the wall, he fell hard to the ground, blood pouring from his mouth from the impact. His wounds began to hurt even more, and he could no longer feel his dislocated shoulder. "It hurts, it hurts, it hurts! It hurts so much!" he cried out in a frenzy, tears streaming from the angle. He tried to stand up, barely managing to keep to his knees, and watched as the boy's corpse stood before him, covered in blood.
The blood was insidiously seeping into the boy's corpse, practically taking over his lifeless body. In that moment, everything went eerie quiet—until the body slowly began to disintegrate.
First his feet… then his arms… then his torso. Every limb, flesh, bone, internal organs; The entire body seemed to be dissolving in blood, moving towards a slow and inevitable end.
"What is this?! The blood… is tearing his body apart?!"
This thought echoing in Ryu's mind deepened his fear even further, as his eyes reflexively shifted to the other corpses.
The same thing was happening to all three bodies. The torn, tattered corpses were buried in the black-red blood. However, there was a difference… they were moving in place. Unlike the child whose body had been dismembered, these moving corpses were moving slowly but surely in the direction of the boy's body.
Ryu's breathing quickened, the fear within him beginning to take control of his body. This thing happening before his eyes… it couldn't be normal.
But what was even more frightening was that he had a feeling that it was only the beginning.
Ryu grabbed the ground with trembling hands and tried to pull himself up—but he didn't even have the strength to get up from his knees. The sharp pain in his shoulder made it clear it had been dislocated. He'd felt his internal organs shake as he'd been thrown against the wall, perhaps he was bleeding internally.
How much worse could it be?
"Fuck... I can't even do anything! I'm not even strong enough to run!"
His anger echoed in his mind, combined with his helplessness and fear. But when his golden eyes involuntarily rolled back to him, his heart raced—and an indescribable fear welled up within him.
For the boy's disintegrating corpse was still dissolving in the blood…
And three other corpses—those dead bodies, their flesh stained with blood—were being dragged along, slowly but surely, trying to force their way into his body. Ryu's breath caught in his throat. What was this like? Corpses… inside another corpse?! There was no logical explanation, but he didn't even have time to question it. Because the terror within him had taken control of his body.
And suddenly, all the blood suddenly surrounded the four intertwined corpses, forming a sphere, while the air pressure surrounding them melted everything around them. "What's happening?!" Ryu screamed, covering his face with his arms to protect himself from the pressure.
And in an instant, the bloody sphere exploded, sending out a massive shockwave. The shockwave sent clouds of smoke billowing out in the air. In a dark moment, all the blood surrounded the four intertwined corpses, rising like an invisible sphere. This sphere exerted such intense pressure that even the air itself condensed, reshaping everything in its place. Ryu, in fear and terror, covered his face with his arms, trying to protect himself from the deadly pressure.
"What's happening?!" he screamed, his voice piercing the dark silence of the street.
And then—in a moment of confusion—the bloody sphere shattered in an unexpected explosion. The explosion was so powerful that it sent out a massive shockwave, which penetrated every corner of the street, disrupting existence. Driven by the shockwave, clouds of smoke hung in the air like fog, spreading outward; time seemed to freeze, and everything was enveloped in a deathly silence.
Ryu struggled to regain his vision through the smoke. The burning stench in his throat and the metallic scent of blood seemed to be seared into his lungs. Coughing, he squinted, trying to look around.
"What just happened…?"
His voice was shaky and hoarse. As the smoke slowly cleared, he turned his gaze to where the corpses had been. From the shadows, he could see the bloody ground. When his vision cleared in a few seconds, his eyes widened in horror.
The corpses… were gone.
"W-what?! The corpses disappeared?!"
The voice that emerged from his throat sounded unfamiliar even to him. But suddenly, he heard a faint humming sound behind him. A deep, shrill, echoing sound—like the whisper of dead souls. Ryu spun around.
But there was nothing there. For several seconds, he listened to the silence that rang in his ears. Then, when he looked forward again—he realized a huge fist was bearing down on him!
Ryu reflexively dove to the side, the impact shaking the ground. A cloud of dust flew up, scattering shards of stone. Gasping for air, he looked in the direction of the blow…
He saw them.
Two glowing red eyes stared back at him from the smoke.
These eyes were too cold and emotionless to be human.
Ryu's throat went dry, and words wouldn't leave his lips. His heart pounded as if it were about to burst from his ribcage. A scream rose from the smoke—a bloodcurdling scream that obliterated the fine line between man and beast.
And in that instant, the being hidden in the mist was fully revealed.
It was like a giant.
But it wasn't powerful, flawless, or perfectly organized like a giant. Its body was twisted, disorganized, and unrecognizable.
—His right arm was like a gigantic hammer, a mass of stone and flesh combined…
—His left arm, in contrast, was as thin as a toothpick, a piece of bone not belonging to human beings…
—His torso was large and muscular, but his waist was frighteningly thin, as if it could snap at any moment…
—And his legs? His legs weren't like a normal human's.
It was as if two separate legs had been fused together, twisted and entangled. But that wasn't what truly made Ryu feel sick.
Three different faces were carved into his chest.
The faces of three dead men… still recognizable. Their eyes were completely empty, but their lips seemed to tremble in pain. Their cries seemed trapped in the creature's skin.
And most terrifying of all…
there was a mangled face on his head, its mouth gaping open. It was the face of the dead boy.
His mouth was torn open, his eyes empty and filled with darkness. But he still seemed alive.