Though that moment with Sara had been… something — something dangerous, something tender, something I didn't want to name — I ruined it in the only way I knew how.
I stood up, looked her dead in the eyes, and muttered:
"No one hears of this. Any of this."
Before she could react, I stepped backward and threw myself off the building.
Pathetic attempt at a dramatic exit? Yes.
Attempt at suicide? Sadly, the rooftop wasn't tall enough for that.
So I just landed on both feet like some emo cat.
I barely touched the cracked asphalt before a nightmare creature screeched and sprinted toward me — a lanky, hyena-like thing with too many joints and teeth like rusted needles. Its claws scraped against the street, sparks flying as it lunged.
Normally, I would've flourished a dagger, posed, maybe said something cool, and enjoyed the theatrics.
But right now?
I was far too embarrassed for all that.
I simply lifted a hand, formed a blood arrow, and shot it straight through the creature's skull.
It collapsed before its momentum even finished carrying it forward.
"Good. Great. Wonderful. Now that that's out of the wa—… wait a moment."
Something shifted.
A vibration under my armor.
A warm pulse crawling across the plates like a heartbeat.
I summoned the runes.
They shone brighter than usual… and then rearranged themselves.
Sure enough, the mantle had evolved.
[Prince of the Underworld]
This armor grows stronger according to the number of opponents its wielder defeats.
The kill counter? Was reset.
The potential? Higher.
The implication? I was going to be killing a lot more things.
But that wasn't even the exciting part.
A brand-new enchantment flickered into existence, carving itself across the runes like crimson wildfire.
[Stalwart]
Enchantment Description:
"This armor provides extremely high protection against physical attacks, high protection against elemental attacks, and a moderate amount of protection against mind and soul attacks."
I blinked.
"Damn… that's OP."
And it really was. That level of protection belonged to Transcendents, not a halfway-evolved armor still early in its growth.
If this was the first new enchantment?
The second one would probably let me punch the Forgotten Shore itself.
A manic grin spread across my face, my embarrassment evaporating instantly — replaced by a hunger that felt disturbingly natural.
"Well… guess I'm grinding levels tonight."
I cracked my knuckles, rolled my neck, and walked into the darkness — not to survive, but to slaughter.
And slaughter, I did.
---
THE KILLING SPREE
The dark city at night was a ruin of coral-encrusted buildings and skeletal streetlights dripping with glowing moss. The fog was thick, shimmering faintly with bioluminescent dust, and every shadow twitched with something hungry inside it.
A wolf-like nightmare burst from behind a toppled statue — its fur made of writhing darkness, eyes like lantern embers.
I sidestepped, grabbed it by the throat, and crushed its spine like wet bark.
Another leapt onto my back — a spider-cat hybrid with mandibles clicking inches from my neck.
I impaled it with my blood-arm, tearing it in half in a spray of black ichor.
A swarm of shadow-midges spiraled overhead, tiny wings humming like razors.
I raised a hand and unleashed a fan of razor-thin blood needles, slicing them apart. Their bodies burst into drifting smoke.
My armor pulsed with every kill — faint, rhythmic flashes like the heartbeat of something waking up.
The night turned into a ballet of brutality.
A hulking brute charged me — a gorilla-sized mass of coral, fungus, and sinew, its jaw splitting into four segments. I grabbed it by the jaw and ripped its head off.
Another creature crawled out of a shattered window, limbs bending backward like an insect.
I kicked it so hard its ribcage folded inward like crumpled metal.
A lanky nightmare tried to flee.
I grabbed it by the leg, dragged it across a wall, and left a black smear like a brushstroke.
Every corpse was a point.
Every point brought me closer to evolving the mantle.
Every evolution was another step toward not dying pathetically when the real monsters came.
And honestly?
It felt good.
Too good.
Hours passed. Maybe more. I didn't count.
I just killed, and killed, and killed again until the field around me became a carpet of steaming bodies — dark fluids pooling between broken coral and cracked concrete.
Finally, when my armor stopped glowing and the night quieted, I heard footsteps behind me.
Slow. Tired. Familiar.
Effie stepped out from behind a collapsed wall, rubbing her eyes. She blinked at the destruction like she needed a moment to mentally process it.
"Damn…" she muttered. "Ugh… you know you didn't have to kill so many nightmare creatures, right?"
She stared around at the sea of corpses.
"I mean — sure, thanks, great job clearing the entire path, but… seriously?"
I wiped a smear of blood off my cheek and shrugged.
"What can I say?
I was… motivated."
Effie squinted at me.
"Uh-huh. And what exactly motivated you to commit an entire genocide tonight?"
"…exercise."
She snorted and shook her head.
"You're insane. You know that, right?"
I grinned.
"Yeah. But it's working for me."
Effie grinned back.
"Well, I'd hate to interrupt your exercise, but Sara wants you back. She's having a strategy meeting, and she sent me to come get you. So, c'mon."
I sighed and checked the counter.
500/2000.
Most of it came from a giant hoard of tiny ant-like nightmares, but progress was progress.
We walked back toward our makeshift camp — a half-collapsed building whose interior was lit by flickering glow-stones embedded in the cracked walls. Moldy coral clung to the ceilings, and the air smelled like salt, dust, and old battles.
I entered first.
Sara was waiting for us, pointing at a map spread across a broken table. Two spots were circled in red chalk.
"Okay," she began, tapping the first circle. "We need to go through the abandoned lighthouse. That'll lead us underground, into a tunnel network. From there, we'll reach our first objective."
Her finger moved to the second circle.
"Then we continue forward into the Coral Labyrinth. That's where we'll find our second stop. So no breaks from this point on — not until we're through."
Sara took a deep breath.
"This is all of your last chances. If you want to leave, I won't blame you."
I looked at the map, then at my armor — still faintly pulsing with new power.
I wasn't worried.
Not after gaining the new enchantment.
Not after tonight.
I mean, it's not like this expedition was [Fated] to end badly.