"Why did you deceive us, Maesha!!"
The anguished roar, filled with fury and grief, echoed through every corner of Kenneseth. A monstrous figure stood amidst the shattered homes—a leopard-headed being with a long, distorted body.
That body, however, was grotesque—an abomination of flesh, as though molded from the cheapest clay by careless hands. Foul blood dripped down its hide, while human bones and entrails were crudely woven into its armor.
Inside a nearby restaurant, Duke caught sight of the creature through the window. His eyes widened, betraying his surprise.
"Why is a Darkin here?!"
"Wasn't Maesha Zoe's predecessor—the previous Aspect of Twilight?"
"Then this Darkin… could he be one of the warriors betrayed by Maesha back then?"
"And not just any one of them… but one of the main ones?"
Duke's mind raced. Meanwhile, through the trembling pulse of the earth, Taliyah sensed a dreadful omen.
"Mr. Duke," she said nervously, "we should leave now! I… I feel something terrible is about to happen!"
She shot to her feet so suddenly that the table shook, jostling the roasted meat and spiced tea. For her to react this way—she must have truly felt the suffocating menace radiating from the Darkin.
"Alright," Duke nodded. "Let's move first."
Rising with her, he tossed a handful of coins onto the table and, before leaving, swept all the remaining skewers into a bundle.
He wasn't afraid of the Darkin.
What intrigued him was which Darkin this was—and whether his own magic could affect one.
If it could… then this Darkin would make the perfect research material.
Perhaps, by studying the Darkin's unique structure, he could create a new type of biomechanical armor.
And if his "Original Sin" construct—his body of living steel—was immune to the Darkin's corruption… could it then wield a Darkin weapon?
His thoughts cascaded rapidly—each new idea sparking a dozen more.
As Duke and Taliyah stepped out of the restaurant, they were met by chaos. Panic rippled through the streets—people running, screaming, clutching loved ones and possessions alike.
"Run!"
"Get out of here, there's a monster!"
"My daughter! Has anyone seen my daughter?!"
"Stop stealing my goods!"
"Another one's been killed—run!"
"That thing's a Fallen One! A corrupted god!"
…
Terror spread like wildfire through the hearts of the townsfolk. Taliyah and Duke looked toward the source of the panic—where the leopard-headed Darkin swung his blood-soaked polearm, slaughtering everyone in sight.
With each swing, a crimson arc of light followed, and his enraged voice bellowed through the smoke:
"Maesha! Come out!"
"Maesha!!"
"Why did you deceive us?! Why?!"
"Because of you, I slew my brothers! Because of you, our divine glory was lost—we were imprisoned for a thousand years, forced to rot in darkness!"
"Maesha!!!"
The Darkin's roar was a torrent of grief and hatred. Each kill fed the grotesque mass of his body—he needed flesh, blood, life itself—to sustain his twisted form.
For a thousand years, he had been trapped within his own weapon, confined in eternal darkness.
Now, there was only one desire left in his heart—
Revenge.
Revenge against the deceiver who caused it all.
"Maesha!!"
The monstrous cry tore through the city again. The Darkin's polearm gleamed with a sinister radiance, drawing more flesh and blood from the corpses around him, constantly reforging his decaying body.
Taliyah covered her mouth, horrified.
"T-that's… a Darkin!"
"Babayaga told me about them—the corrupted god-warriors from Shurima's ancient legends!"
"Oh? You actually know the Darkin?"
Standing at the restaurant's doorway, Duke watched the chaos while chewing on a skewer.
"I have to admit, this shop's food is excellent."
"Mr. Duke, how can you be so calm?!"
Taliyah's face was pale. Anyone else would have fled by now—yet this man looked almost eager.
Duke chuckled. "Why should I be afraid?"
"Fear is the stumbling block of progress. A true scientist never lets fear chain the mind."
"But that thing is dangerous!"
"Dangerous?" Duke smirked and handed her the remaining skewer. "Listen, little sparrow—nothing is more dangerous than me."
"As for that creature…" Duke glanced toward the Darkin warrior, whose body was now fully reconstructed, towering above the surrounding buildings.
"…he's nothing but a paper tiger."
"Y-you can defeat him?"
Taliyah blinked in disbelief. She wasn't sure if Duke was confident—or just insane. But when she saw the gleam in his eyes, she realized something.
The man who hired her… never spoke in vain.
"Of course I can," Duke said simply. He bit off another piece of meat, swallowed, and murmured through a grin, "Let's begin."
Snap!
A sharp snap echoed beside Taliyah's ear.
A colossal shadow fell over her as a monstrous dragon-beast descended from above, its form wreathed in crimson light and steel.
"Pride," Duke commanded, pointing toward the leopard-headed Darkin, "eliminate him—and bring me that weapon."
The beast—Pride—had changed once again through Duke's recent modifications.
Its armor, once smooth, now shimmered with overlapping gold-and-scarlet scales. Its body had grown sleeker, more refined—yet far more lethal.
"Yes, Father!"
As his eyes turned from cold blue to burning red, Pride vanished from sight.
"He disappeared!" Taliyah gasped.
"He'll be back soon enough."
Duke casually wiped his greasy fingers on Taliyah's robe, ignoring her look of despair.
Moments later, Pride reappeared before the Darkin—abrupt, overwhelming, unstoppable.
"Crawl back to the pit, worm!"
Pride's roar drowned out the Darkin's scream. One claw seized the Darkin's throat and slammed him through the nearest wall.
BOOM!
The building collapsed in a shower of dust and debris. Duke frowned.
"Too much collateral damage. Pride—take him outside the city!"
The command echoed directly into Pride's mind. He nodded, but before he could move, the Darkin's polearm shot forward like a striking serpent, stabbing into Pride's chest.
Sparks flew as metal met metal.
Even fallen, the Darkin retained a warrior's instincts and deadly precision.
Pride ignored the attack. Gripping the weapon's shaft, he lifted the Darkin bodily off the ground.
"Come with me, kitten."
With a mighty beat of his wings, Pride carried the struggling monster high into the sky and beyond the city walls.
People looked up in awe—seeing a dragon dragging a demon into the heavens.
"A god!"
"A celestial warrior!"
"An Ascended!!"
The cries spread like wildfire.
Duke patted Taliyah's shoulder. "Let's go. We'll follow them."
"O-okay!"
To the Shurimans, Pride truly looked like one of the legendary Ascended—a being of divine power and splendor.
As they hurried into the desert, the earth trembled.
ROOOOAR!!
The Darkin, now outside the city, unleashed a storm of blood-red wind, swirling like a giant meat grinder, tearing at Pride's body.
But Pride only laughed. His fist crashed down onto the Darkin's head, crushing it inward.
"Look at me, worm!!"
A surge of nuclear energy erupted from his jaws, a blinding beam that pierced straight through the Darkin's skull.
Yet the Darkin's true form was the weapon itself.
So long as that remained intact, he would not die.
Duke's previous experiments had yielded plenty of exotic technology, and he had wasted none of it. Pride's systems now included not just ion breath, but nuclear, plasma, and electromagnetic variants—each deadlier than the last.
When the nuclear beam obliterated the Darkin's head, the creature's flesh convulsed violently. His body reformed around the weapon's core—undaunted, unbroken.
Swish!
The polearm swept across Pride's chest, but the attack bounced harmlessly off. The dragon's armor, composed of countless Pym-compressed scales—each once the size of a door—was indestructible.
A cascade of sparks burst outward as Pride seized the Darkin by both shoulders.
"Kneel."
RIP!
The Darkin's body split in two, his corrupted flesh spraying across the sands like molten tar.
The weapon's heart pulsed wildly, the blade trembling with fury.
The polearm lunged again, stabbing into Pride's chest—only to meet a layer of crystalline armor that formed instantly across his body.
"I said… kneel."
KRRAA-KOOM!!
A surge of magnetic energy detonated outward, shredding the Darkin's form into countless pieces.
Then came the final blow—Pride shifted his breath to wave energy, releasing a flood that scoured the battlefield clean.
In an instant, the Darkin's body was gone—reduced to ash.
Only the weapon remained, falling to the ground with a dull clang.
Pride exhaled a plume of steam.
"Pathetic. Ugly. Weak."
The weapon's embedded heart throbbed harder, as if enraged by the insult.
Ignoring it, Pride picked up the polearm and walked toward Duke. The weapon tried to corrupt him—but found no purchase. Pride had no flesh to corrupt.
The Darkin were powerless against non-living beings.
"Father," Pride said, kneeling before Duke and presenting the weapon in both hands.
"The item you requested—"
"I have retrieved it."
End of chapter....
IRONBOUND PATRON
🔸 Arc Reactor Elite – 35 chapters + HIDDEN SURPRISES
👉 patreon.com/MrBehringer