The docks burned. The tide of corpses Kairis had carved through lay in mangled heaps around him, black blood soaking the cracked concrete. His chest rose and fell, breath fogging in the cool night. The stench of decay was so thick he could almost taste it.
But the moaning didn't stop.
The air shifted. The dead stopped moving—not retreating, not attacking, just standing. Dozens of hollow eyes turned upward, as if waiting.
Kairis felt it before he saw it. A suffocating presence rolled over him, heavy, cold, primal. It pressed against his ribs, made the air taste metallic.
And then, the sea split.
From the black waters of the harbor, a shape dragged itself ashore. Towering, skeletal, yet grotesquely bloated, its body was made of corpses melted into one another—faces screaming from its stomach, arms twitching along its sides. Its head was little more than a skull with rows of teeth, dripping seawater and gore.
The system flashed red across his vision.
[Boss Detected: Wraith of Endless Hunger]
[Rank: ???]
[Warning: Extreme Threat Level]
Kairis' grip tightened on the Graviton Edge. His lips curved into a smirk despite the chill crawling up his spine.
"So you're the big bastard running the show." He lifted the blade, its warped edge humming. "Ugly doesn't even begin to cover it."
The Wraith let out a scream. It wasn't sound—it was hunger given form. The docks shook as the horde reanimated, throwing themselves at him again with renewed fury.
Kairis moved.
The fight blurred into chaos. The blade bent reality, ripping through waves of zombies, but the Wraith was relentless. Every corpse that fell rose again, pulled into its mass, feeding it, growing it larger. Its reach was immense; a tendril of flesh lashed out, smashing a shipping container into dust where Kairis had stood seconds before.
He ducked, rolled, launched himself upward with Gyro-Telekinesis, twisting mid-air as the blade cut through a tendril. The Wraith shrieked, the severed limb writhing before pulling new flesh from nearby corpses to regenerate.
"Of course you heal. Why wouldn't you?" Kairis spat, landing hard on the roof of a crane. He wiped blood from his cheek with the back of his hand.
The system pulsed again.
[Boss Ability Detected: Corpse Assimilation]
[Effect: Consumes nearby undead to regenerate and grow stronger]
He clicked his tongue. "Figures. Kill the boss or drown in meat."
The Wraith surged forward. The crane shuddered under the impact. Kairis barely leapt clear before the structure collapsed, crashing into the water. He landed rough, pain lancing through his side. He gritted his teeth.
"Come on then. Let's see what you've got."
The battle dragged into minutes that felt like hours. His cloak was torn, his skin cut open by shrapnel and claws. His muscles screamed, lungs burning, but his eyes never lost their arrogance. Every time the Wraith slammed down, he dodged by inches. Every swing of the Graviton Edge ripped chunks of its mass away—only for it to feed and reform.
Kairis staggered back, blood dripping from his lips. His vision blurred. The system flickered with a warning.
[HP: Critical]
[Stamina: Low]
The Wraith loomed, larger than before, blocking out the moonlight. Its scream split the night, a wave of raw hunger crashing over him.
For the first time since the invasion began, Kairis felt himself falter. Not in fear—never fear. But his body was at its limit.
His hand trembled on the hilt of the blade. "…Shit."
The system pulsed.
[Ability Available: Mirco Black Hole]
[Warning: Extreme HP Drain]
[Failure to kill target will result in self-termination.]
Kairis' grin returned, sharp and bitter. "So it's death either way, huh?"
He spread his arms, summoning the pull of gravity around him. Space rippled. The very air twisted inward as if reality itself bent toward his will. His veins burned, blood dripping from his nose and ears, but he didn't stop.
A sphere of absolute darkness formed in his palm, small yet impossibly heavy. The ground cracked beneath him as the Mirco Black Hole expanded, pulling corpses, debris, and even parts of the Wraith into its orbit.
The monster shrieked, claws digging into the dock, trying to resist the pull. Faces within its body stretched in silent screams as chunks of it tore free, swallowed by the black sphere.
Kairis roared, voice raw, forcing the black hole forward. "Eat, you piece of shit! Let's see who's hungrier!"
The Wraith thrashed, half its body collapsing inward. With one final scream, its core was ripped from its chest, dragged into the singularity. The sphere shuddered, then imploded with a deafening blast, sending a shockwave across the harbor.
Silence followed.
Kairis dropped to one knee, coughing blood, his vision swimming. The system flickered before his eyes.
[Boss Defeated: Wraith of Endless Hunger]
[Quest Complete.]
[Processing Rewards…]
He let the blade fall to his side, chest heaving, body trembling from the strain. His smirk was faint, but it was there.
"…Still standing," he rasped, blood running down his chin. "Guess that makes me better than you."
He spat into the blackened water, the taste of iron on his tongue.
Far away, on his throne in the void, Lucien Dreamveil leaned forward, eyes glowing faintly.
"Good," he whispered. "The Ash boy bleeds, but he doesn't break."
And for the first time in eons, the God of the Void laughed softly to himself.