Chapter 166: Meeting Of Wills
An echo brushed Seo-jin's chest, faint and gone in an instant, but the pulse it left behind coiled tight under his ribs. Fear. With everyone except the two thinkers either inside him or close enough to see, he didn't need to guess which thread had just been pulled. Something had happened to Snare and Synapse. Eyes fixed on the crowd circling his eldest, he felt the seconds thinning.
Coiling his legs beneath him, he started to drop, ready to break the distance in a straight line, when a foreign voice pressed into his skull. He didn't need to search for the source. It carried the weight of that red aura.
'Greetings stranger. Would this belong to you?'
A hand rose from the gathering, and tilted toward the column of roiling heat. Even from this range he tracked the movement through the water's distortion, felt the line of attention lock onto him.
'It is. That a problem?'
Laughter tore through the water. Heads turned. The source stood taller than most, pushing past eight feet with ease, broad shoulders tapering into a human frame marked by thick muscle. Pale skin, hair long and black. From his brow curved a pair of horns.
'I suppose your caution is warranted, but don't worry my friend, no one will lay a hand on you or your group. Not often we get visitors down here.'
[Visitors? Odd choice. They must know they've been placed inside a dungeon.]
'Guess I don't have much of a choice. But just in case.'
Dropping through the water in a controlled descent, he let his feet settle against the ocean floor. Hands folded behind his back in a casual posture, he stepped forward without altering his expression and, with a sharp flex of his grip, tore a piece of his finger off.
[-4HP]
[HP // 3096/3100]
The dropped it.
[-8SM]
[SM // 20/52]
[Rotmark // Active]
[Anchor 1/3 // Set]
A thin red sigil crawled across the flesh the moment it struck the seabed, lines spreading and locking into place as it wedged between coral ridges. Clamping his other hand around the bleeding stump, he compressed the wound to limit the bloodflow, then pulsed a command through the broodlink to the lessers still scattered in the dark.
The response came at once.
[Feed // Activated]
Heat and vitality surged back through him as one of the distant lessers was consumed by its kin, its life siphoned and converted. He felt no guilt as the connection snapped; waste lay in dying without purpose, this one at least had function.
Across the settlement, movement halted. Fish, crustaceans, and larger beasts that had been gliding in routine paths froze mid-swim, then scattered into cracks and shadowed alcoves. Windows of shell and bone were suddenly shuttered with stone. Doors sealed in sequence.
In the narrowing gap of one closing entrance, he caught a glimpse of something small. A child by the proportions, ugly as sin, with tentacles hanging from its chin, but the innocence in its eyes, wide, wet, and unguarded, coupled with the raw fear trembling through it almost made Seo-jin slow his stride.
Hunger pressed at him.
But family came first.
'Impressive, isn't it? It's amazing how persistent life can be. Even at depths such as these.'
The dragon-horned human's voice carried to his mind without distortion, steady, unhurried.
Kicking off the seabed, Seo-jin drove forward with a controlled stroke, cutting through the current and closing the distance. As he passed the trio of dwarves he had noticed earlier, he inclined his head.
'Brund. Az drom-brund Thragdur Dromkhur-urth ar.'
Shock flickered across their faces; one bared a row of square fangs and dipped into a short bow, water swirling around his braids.
'Dur Brund!'
[Ooh, how formal.]
More faces turned as he moved through them, some scaled, some plated, species he had only seen in his stolen memories. The water grew warmer with each stroke, heat radiating outward in uneven pulses. Ahead, the source churned: Pain's body superheating the surrounding ocean. Most of the city kept a careful distance from the boiling perimeter.
All except one.
Breaking through the last ring of onlookers, Seo-jin halted within arm's reach of the horned man. The horns were not thick and curved like a demon's, nor swept back like the Dragon Tribe he had watched fall to the elves. These rose in branching tiers, antlered and luminous, facets catching stray light as if carved from crystal.
The current shifted between them, heated water rolling past cooler flow, as both stood still and measured what the other was.
'I've been here for quite some time, but my knowledge shouldn't be this outdated. Since when did demons gain the ability to use shards?'
The voice was masculine and measured, carried without strain, stripped of any edge that would suggest threat, as if violence had been filed down to nothing in the man.
'Knowledge doesn't come free. But since you were kind enough to welcome me, and to gather one of mine without harm, I'll answer. Demons have always been able to use shards. We simply chose not to advertise until recently.'
The horned man's eyes widened, pupils tightening before another burst of laughter rolled from his chest.
'Ever to their credit! Your kind never fails to surprise!'
Closing the distance by a single deliberate stroke, he extended a smooth, unscarred hand toward Seo-jin.
'My name is Liao Tzu. What should we address you as, my lord?'
[Liao Tzu? Liao…Tzu. Hold up. Now I know what he is. He's a shard entity!]
Ignoring the system for the moment, Seo-jin clasped the offered hand. The grip was firm without challenge, pressure controlled, testing rather than asserting.
'Seo-jin. Wohan Seo-jin.'
Liao Tzu repeated the name under his breath, turning it over as if weighing it for flaws.
'Wohan Seo-jin. A strong name. Welcome to the Vent Cathedral, Wohan Seo-jin. I suspect you will find your stay…memorable.'
The instant Liao Tzu's final word left his mouth, Seo-jin finally felt it. Bloodlust.
[-5SM]
[SM // 15/52]
[Rotmark // Activated]
He triggered it on instinct, but he was already too late.
[-578HP]
[HP // 2522/3100]
As [Rotmark] flared and his skin began to break down, Liao Tzu's free hand ignited with light and drove forward in a straight line. The strike landed deep in Seo-jin's abdomen, knuckles compressing armor and muscle before the force transferred through his core, somehow canceling his skill. His body folded around the blow, legs lifting off the seabed. Only the hand still clasped in Liao Tzu's grip kept him from being launched backward.
There was no pause.
From within the gathered crowd, thin darts cut through the water and embedded along Seo-jin's neck. He felt each puncture as a small impact, then a spreading cold that followed the bloodstream.
[!! Warning !!]
[Debuff // Sleep // Applied]
The notification barely registered. The toxin moved fast, limbs turning heavy, vision dimming at the edges. Through the narrowing tunnel of sight, he saw Liao Tzu still holding his hand, posture steady, expression almost gentle.
'Apologies, but you're our only chance to escape. Sleep well.'
Darkness closed from the corners inward. Just before his thoughts dissolved, he pushed one command through the broodlink toward the approaching swarm of lessers.
Wait.
His grip slackened. The moment consciousness dropped away, Liao Tzu released him. Grabbing Seo-jin's tail, he tossed his body toward the crowd.
'Make sure he's bound tight. If he can move even an inch, I will flay whoever tied him. Understood?!'
The final word struck like a blow. At his back, an immense ethereal flood dragon coiled into view, its bulk eclipsing the structures behind him. No one answered. No one dared to.
With his captive dragged away by several figures working together, Liao Tzu turned toward Pain and folded his hands behind his back, posture composed.
'Leave this one here. If there are more, they will come for him. Post scouts outside the city. I want eyes on anything that moves within range.'
The elf from earlier approached, then lowered to one knee, keeping his head down even as his gaze flicked toward the boiling demon.
'What if guards see? They will not approve.'
Tension spiked through the elf's body before he finished speaking. Liao Tzu's bloodlust rose in response, not loud, but dense, like pressure building beneath stone.
'This is our only chance. If they come, we kill them. Not one User leaves. Until we know their number, we use every piece of bait we have.'
The elf bent lower, shoulders compressing under the weight of that intent.
'Our only chance. Understand.'
As the others dispersed to their posts, leaving only distant silhouettes, Liao Tzu moved closer to Pain. The water around the demon churned with constant micro-bursts, each pocket of vapor collapsing under the surrounding pressure. Even standing several body-lengths away, Liao Tzu's gills strained as heated currents distorted the flow of oxygen.
He raised one hand and held it near the roiling boundary.
'I do apologize. If there were another path, I would take it. But I will bear the karma. Killing you and yours is a small cost for our freedom. So keep burning. Keep calling them in. When the pressure breaks this place apart, I will walk out.'
Scales pushed through the skin along his cheeks, his eyes blackening fully as a thin red pupil stretched down the center. Returning his hands behind his back, he turned and drifted away.
Behind him, Pain continued to boil the sea, hatred radiating in silent waves.
----
Waves crashed against broken stone, the sound constant and uneven as water slammed into the shattered coastline. Salt hung thick in the air, mixed with the sour rot of seaweed and something older pulled up from the deep. Each surge dragged debris with it. Splintered dock planks knocked together in the surf. Bent sheets of rusted metal scraped across rock before settling again among the jagged remains.
Where the Dead Hands base once stood, there was nothing left to recognize. The ground had been torn open and flattened, buildings reduced to low heaps of brick and twisted rebar. It looked less like demolition and more like detonation. Three blocks in every direction had been cleared to ruin, walls sheared off, foundations cracked, streets buried under ash and salt-soaked rubble. No lights. No movement. Only wind pushing grit across broken pavement.
At the center of it all, seated on a slab of collapsed concrete, a single white glow held steady against the dark.
The Cardinal knelt with his legs folded beneath him, spine straight, hands resting lightly on his thighs. A pale aura bled from his skin in a constant stream, pooling around him and washing the debris in sterile light. It didn't flicker with the wind. It didn't waver with the crashing surf. His breathing was slow and controlled, measured inhales through the nose, longer exhales through the mouth, each one steady enough to be counted.
Not far from him, still tied to a fallen steel beam half-buried in concrete, Gregor hung where he had been left.
Rope bit deep into torn flesh at his shoulders and hips. Every limb was gone, cleanly taken, the stumps wrapped in dark, half crusted skin. His head lolled forward, sweat mixing with salt spray as it rolled down his face. The only sound he made was the rough pull of air into ruined lungs, each breath dragged out of him like it cost more than the last.
The Cardinal didn't look at him.
He only waited.
His guest was coming regardless.
Since he had arrived and claimed the ruins, not a single soul had approached. He had expected Seo-jin and the rest of his mutts to crawl back here eventually, but for now this substitute would suffice.
"A visit from Granny Boil. How exciting."
At last his eyes opened, and two narrow beams of white tore free, cutting through dust before fixing on the two advancing figures.
A shaggy-haired black dog and a white-haired old woman.
The same restaurant owner who had once served Seo-jin and Min.
Wearing a simple tan dress, with a dirty-white apron tied at the back, Granny Boil advanced with measured steps, her cane biting into cracked concrete with each plant. When she reached the center of the collapsed warehouse, only a few feet from Cardinal Chelk, she stopped. The black canine sat itself beside her without being told, spine straight, head level.
Her free hand settled on the dog's skull as she lifted her gaze to meet Chelk's.
Gravity revolted.
Air thickened and collapsed as if the sky itself had been lowered. Everything not already flat drove further into the earth. Concrete powdered under invisible weight. Exposed beams screamed as they bent, bolts snapping and scattering. The ground trembled beneath them while dust spiraled upward in tight, violent currents.
Gregor alone remained untouched, a thin black barrier glowed gently around his mutilated body, the pressure breaking against it and sliding off.
When Granny Boil finally spoke, her voice did not rise, and the pressure finally stopped.
"How far will you take this?"
Chelk tilted his head, shoulders lifting once in a mild shrug.
"No further than where I sit. Do not concern yourself, old woman. I have no intention of touching what belongs to you."
The dog's lips curled when it answered.
"And if you already are, what then?"
Chelk's gaze shifted to the beast. One eye twitched once before stilling. He inclined his head slightly, posture controlled.
"I assure you, Lord, the interest in this matter reaches far above me. My hands are constrained. But if the two of you insist, then we are prepared."
Granny's laugh was small and dry, but the composure in Chelk's face thinned at the edges the moment it reached him. She coughed once, steadying herself, then turned away.
"See that you do not overstep. It will not matter how many eyes they send. I will blind every last one."
Chelk kept his voice even and his posture respectful, bowing his head toward their retreating backs.
"Of course. I will inform my master that you send your regards. I am certain he will be very interested."
The threat beneath the courtesy lingered in the air.
The dog turned its head back, and its eyes drowned in pitch.
BARK!
The sound struck like a physical blow. Golden blood burst from Chelk's eyes, nose, and ears.
He didn't move. Even as the pair walked away. Even as blood continued to spill. He remained seated, spine straight, hands resting on his thighs.
He didn't shift a single inch.
He didn't dare.