LOUIE'S POV:
The sterile air of the hospital room was suddenly thick with the promise of violence. My heart hammered against my broken ribs, a frantic, painful drumbeat of pure terror. I was a cornered animal, my body a ruin, my only weapon a power I barely understood. I had to disappear.
Shapeshifting. The thought was a lifeline.
Omega, can I transform into a nurse? I pleaded into the silence of my own mind.
[NOTICE: User can transform into the nurse image stored in the user's memory. Proceed with Shapeshifting?]
"YES!"
The world dissolved into a symphony of agony. This wasn't a gentle morphing; it was a violent, brutal reconstruction. It felt as if my skeleton was being ground into powder and recast in a new mold, my skin flayed and stitched back together by a million burning needles. A strangled cry tore from my throat, the pain so absolute it momentarily eclipsed all fear.
CLICK.
The sound of the doorknob turning was a gunshot in the quiet room. The door swung open. No, not yet, I'm not done!
A man in a cheap, ill-fitting suit stepped inside, his eyes as cold and empty as a winter sky. "Excuse me, Nurse. Where is the patient from this room?"
He called me nurse. It worked. A wave of nauseating relief warred with the residual agony pulsing through my remade body. I forced my new vocal cords to function, pitching my voice into a higher, softer register. "The patient was just discharged. Are you a relative?"
The man's eyes narrowed, a flicker of suspicion in their depths. He seemed to accept it, turning to leave. I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding. But then, he stopped. He turned back slowly, his gaze fixed on my arm.
"Then why is an IV catheter still connected to your veins?"
Ice flooded my circulation. A stupid, fatal mistake. My mind scrambled, grabbing for a lie. "I… I passed out earlier. Exhaustion. They put me in here to rest." Please believe me. Please just go.
"I see," he said, his voice flat and unreadable. He turned again. "Then I'm leaving."
The relief was so profound my knees felt weak. I had survived.
[WARNING: AN ENEMY IS COMING.]
The system's alert was a split-second too late. A choked, gurgling scream echoed from the hallway, followed by a sound like a wet firecracker. The man in the suit was violently hurled back into the room as if hit by a cannonball. A crystalline, ruby-red spike of hardened blood protruded from his chest. He slammed into the opposite wall with a sickening, wet crunch, painting a crimson streak down the sterile white paint before slumping to the floor, a discarded marionette with its strings cut. The metallic tang of his blood filled the air, thick and cloying.
My body moved on pure instinct. I ripped the IV from my arm, a sharp, searing pain shooting from my wrist as blood welled from the wound. Idiot. Still tethered to this place.
The delicate, rhythmic click-clack of high heels on linoleum approached, each step a death knell. A woman appeared in the doorway, a vision of lethal elegance. Her hair was the color of fresh blood, her eyes a startling crimson, and a languid, cruel smile played on her lips as she surveyed her handiwork.
"Honestly," she sighed, her voice a silken purr of disappointment, "why do they keep sending such fragile assassins?" She glided into the room, her gaze sweeping over the dead man with contempt before landing on me.
Panic made my choice for me. "Partial Beastsonification!" I hissed. White fur erupted over my hands and feet, my nails elongating into razor-sharp claws. My bones popped and reshaped themselves with a familiar, sickening grind. I had to preserve the full transformation, my only real trump card.
The woman's perfectly sculpted eyebrow arched in amusement. "Oh? They said the target was a boy. I didn't expect to find a nurse with such pretty little paws." Her eyes glinted with a predatory light. "Are you another killer, sent to steal my prize?"
This was bad. Horribly bad. "No, I'm not—"
Before the denial could fully leave my lips, she flicked her wrist. Droplets of blood flew from her fingertips, hardening mid-air into a dozen glistening, ruby-colored spears that shrieked towards me. I threw myself to the side, my newly agile legs saving me. The spears shattered against the wall behind me, but they didn't fall. The shards melted into viscous, liquid chains that whipped through the air, ensnaring my ankle in a cold, constricting grip.
"You're fast," she purred, walking towards me with the unhurried grace of a cat approaching a trapped mouse. "But you lack experience, little kitten. Tell me where the boy is, and I might let you live."
She thought I was hiding myself. A desperate plan began to form, but it was cut short.
"Not much of a talker, are you?" Her smile widened, showing a hint of fang. "Then I suppose I'll just have to kill you and search the room myself."
The blood chain tightened, burning like ice. I needed more power. I needed the full transformation.
[WARNING: User cannot perform full Beastsonification unless the user returns to their original form.]
A new wave of horror washed over me. If I canceled the shapeshift, she'd see who I was.
[WARNING: An Alpha is nearby. The system will shut down temporarily to hide its presence from the strong Alpha.]
[WARNING: Partial Beastsonification and Shapeshifting will be forcibly canceled.]
[NOTICE: System shutting down.]
No! Not now!
The power vanished. It wasn't a fade; it was a violent severing, like a cord being ripped from my soul. The white fur receded, my claws retracted, and my bones snapped back to their frail human state with an audible crack. The borrowed nurse's uniform dissolved into nothing, leaving me in the thin, humiliating hospital gown. I was exposed, weak, and utterly helpless. The pain from my shattered ribs and battered body returned with a vengeance.
The woman's eyes widened in surprise, then lit up with triumphant understanding. "Oh. So you are the boy." Her gaze fixed on my chest. "Just as we were told. You have the mark."
"What mark?" I gasped, confused.
She laughed, a sound like shattering glass. "You don't know?" With another flick of her wrist, a sliver of blood shot forward, not to kill, but to shred the front of my gown. There, on my chest, exactly where the goblin's dagger had pierced me, was a glowing, intricate tattoo of a symbol I didn't recognize: Omega Symbol.
"We'll give you two choices, Louie Rosan," she said, her voice dropping the playful tone for one of cold finality. "Become a pawn for our Lord. Or die right here."
I understood. The Omega tattoo. They knew. But before I could respond, a new presence fell over the room like a shroud. The air grew heavy, charged with an oppressive energy that made the hairs on my arm stand on end. The woman froze, her smug expression melting into one of wary tension.
Behind her, materializing from the shadows as if he were born from them, stood Kang Min-jae.
"I was wondering about the commotion," he said, his voice a low, chilling baritone that held no warmth, only absolute authority. "I didn't expect to find vermin touching what's mine."
My breath caught in my throat. Mine? The possessiveness in his tone was so absolute, so primal, it sent a humiliating shiver down my spine. A flush of heat crept up my neck. Stop it, Louie. He means the system. He just wants your power. But my treacherous heart stuttered.
"Kang Min-jae," the woman breathed, her eyes a strange mix of fear and manic excitement. "The Alpha Ascendant."
"You were sent by one of those bastard gods," Kang Min-jae stated, not asked.
The woman's fear was quickly replaced by zealotry. "Our Lord simply wants to build a nation strong enough to survive the chaos! You of all people should know the dungeons are growing stronger. Soon, not even you will be able to stop them!"
"And dividing humanity is your solution?" Kang Min-jae's voice dripped with contempt. I realized with a jolt that he hated this new world order as much as I did.
"We don't need the weak!" she spat, her eyes flashing with fanaticism. "We can't waste resources protecting nations that can't protect themselves. We have need only for the strong!"
Those words—so familiar, so cruel—ignited an inferno of rage in my gut. This woman, this system, this entire broken world—they had deemed my life, and countless others, worthless. Even helpless and broken, a primal urge to tear her throat out surged through me.
"Will you stop talking," Kang Min-jae's voice cut through my rage, dropping several degrees colder, "or do you want me to end you now?"
An immense pressure descended upon the room. The air felt like solid steel, crushing me, making it impossible to breathe. The woman buckled, her face paling as she fought to stay upright. This was his aura—an absolute declaration of dominance. I was only feeling the edges of it; she was caught in its epicenter. Yet, she started to laugh, a wild, unhinged sound.
"As expected… you are as powerful as our Lord… but I am not weak." She straightened, a mask of defiance on her face. "I was an Ascendant long before I became his pawn."
"It doesn't matter," Kang Min-jae said, dismissing her utterly.
"You're arrogant! You don't even know my skill!" she snarled, producing a small, ornate brass bell. As she rang it, a dissonant, chilling chime echoed through the hospital. "I am a Weapon User of a Ritual Bell. In a place so full of death and regret, I can summon the lingering spirits and use my Lord's power to turn them into ghouls that will possess every living soul in this building!" She grinned, sweat beading on her brow from his pressure. "So, if I were you, you will let me take the boy."
He would choose the hospital. Of course, he would. I was just a stranger, a half-blood, a tool to be acquired.
Kang Min-jae released his oppressive aura. The woman gasped in relief. The blood chain reformed, tightening around me.
"Did I say you could leave?"
She whirled back around. "Are you serious? Hundreds will die! Are you willing to sacrifice your own people for a boy who isn't even a pure citizen?"
A faint, dangerous smile touched Kang Min-jae's lips. "I told you. The boy is mine."
Don't listen, Louie. He's a predator claiming his prize. But my face burned with a blush I couldn't control. You are not his. Get a grip!
"You would sacrifice hundreds for one?" she asked in disbelief.
"Who said anything about sacrifice?" Kang Min-jae tilted his head. "You're misunderstanding something. You're trying to fight a shaman… with spirits."
"Shaman? What—"
He didn't let her finish. With a lazy flick of his finger, a silent, golden shockwave erupted from him. It wasn't a sound; it was a pure, cleansing pulse of light that washed through the room and, I could feel, the entire hospital. The countless cold, whispering presences I had subconsciously felt—the ghosts of this place—vanished, not with a scream, but with a peaceful sigh of release. The bell in the woman's hand cracked, then shattered into dust.
"Wha-what is happening?" she stammered, staring at her empty hand in horror.
The blood chain around me dissolved. I began to fall.
Before I could hit the ground, I was swept up into a pair of impossibly strong arms. The world tilted, and I found myself looking up at Kang Min-jae's flawlessly sculpted, indifferent face. He held me securely against his chest, bridal style. The sheer, overwhelming embarrassment was so intense it almost made me forget the pain.
"It seems you didn't know," Kang Min-jae said, his cold gaze fixed on the now-powerless woman. "The power granted to you by your Lord was tied to your weapon, not your soul. Without it…"
He let the sentence hang in the air.
"No… that's not possible!" she shrieked in denial.
Kang Min-jae ignored her completely, turning and walking out of the ruined room as if she no longer existed, with me held in his arms like a trophy he had just won.