A small, trembling hand shook his shoulder.
"M-mister... wake up... please wake up..."
Seth's eyes snapped open, his body aching from the force of the explosion.
Dust filled the air, making him cough.
The first thing he saw was Matthew's terrified face, pale and streaked with tears.
"The big demon... it's still coming!"
The boy whimpered, pointing a shaky finger.
Seth pushed himself up, his head spinning.
He followed Matthew's gaze, and his blood ran cold.
The gigantic screaming demon was still there....
Riko's sacrifice had torn a massive, gory hole in its side, black blood and chunks of flesh littering the ground around it.
But it wasn't dead at all!
It was wounded, enraged, and dragging its mutilated body towards them in a terrifying manner!
Its hundreds of limbs clawed at the ground, pulling its massive form forward inch by gruesome inch.
Seth didn't waste even a second.
He grabbed Matthew and forcefully recovered his own strength...
—but the moment he moved, his gaze drifted to the right.
Arthur was lying there on the ground....
But he wasn't moving.
Half his body was covered in rubble.
A long metal rod had pierced straight through his back, pinning him to the broken floor.
Dust coated his hair and clothes, making him look almost gray.
Seth froze.
Arthur's eyes were half-open, but empty
A dark pool of blood had already spread beneath him.
The calm, strong man who had a wife and daughter waiting for him was gone...
There was no time to grieve.
"Come on..."
Seth said, his voice hoarse.
He grabbed Matthew's hand and pulled him towards the ladder.
He pushed Matthew towards the ladder, and the boy obeyed with shaky limbs.
Seth climbed right behind him.
But when they reached the top—
Matthew pressed his hand upward first.
His hand hit something.
"Huh…?"
Matthew pushed again.
"It—It's blocked again!"
Seth tried as well.
Both palms slapped against an invisible wall.
It felt like solid glass, unbreakable and cold...
Seth gritted his teeth.
"Damn it…"
The underground shook.
The gigantic demon was dragging half its huge body toward them.
Blood and black sludge dripped from its many limbs as it crawled forward, eyes fixed on Seth's direction even though he wasn't directly in its sight.
Madness filled Seth's and Matthew's head as they stared at the demon!
"Don't look at it..."
Seth didn't waste second's breathe as he hastily grabbed Matthew and pulled him back down.
They landed on the floor.
Dust rose around their feet.
'Fuck... what am I supposed to do now!'
Due to the brief contact of him staring at the demon, thoughts of irrationality and irritability were constantly filling Seth's head...
His emotions were constantly bordering between uncontrollable ones!
Seth looked at the advancing monster, then down at the terrified boy clinging to his side.
Once again, he was faced with two choices.
One, leave the boy to behind and hide with his [Null Presence] ability to survive and wait till the demon turns off its ability so Seth could escape.
As for the second option...
His thoughts were cut off as a small, trembling hand reached out and fisted the fabric of his shirt.
The brave front Matthew had tried so hard to maintain finally shattered.
He buried his face against Seth's chest, and his body was wracked with deep, helpless sobs.
To Matthew, he deeply understood they were going to die here.
Seth stared at the kid's shaking shoulders.
And suddenly—he wasn't seeing Matthew anymore.
He was seeing a small girl lying on a hospital bed in his past life.
His little sister.
Her tiny hands clutching the blanket.
Her hair flattened from weeks of lying down.
Her eyes slowly losing their light as the heart monitor beeped weaker and weaker.
Their parents cried until they couldn't speak anymore.
Seth vaguely remembered himself crying too— but all he could do was hold her hand as she faded away.
He snapped back to the present, to the sobbing boy in his arms.
'This kid... I wonder if he's a witch who controls people's empathy...'
Seth quietly mocked himself.
Reminiscing sad memories in a life and death situation, how absurd...
However, he didn't know the right words to offer comfort to the boy.
Instead, he gently lifted Matthew and carried him to a deep, dark corner, hidden behind a large chunk of fallen ceiling.
He set the boy down.
"Hide here quietly..."
Seth instructed, his voice surprisingly calm.
A confused, fearful look crossed Matthew's tear-stained face.
"I'm going to make a distraction. When the time is right, you climb that ladder and you run. Be smart, okay?"
Before Matthew could argue or plead, Seth reached out and gently flicked the boy's forehead.
It was a soft, almost playful tap.
"Ow!"
Matthew mumbled, his eyes closing instinctively for just a second against the minor sting.
When he opened them, the corner was empty and Seth had vanished.
...
Seth moved slowly and quietly toward the gigantic demon.
He activated [Null Presence], disappearing from normal sight.
But it didn't matter.
Even while he hid behind the remains of collapsed walls, even when he changed directions, even when he tried to circle around—
The demon kept crawling toward him...
'It's sensing me through supernatural means...'
Seth quietly closed his eyes because simply looking at the fleshy demon brought about madness in his mind.
'There's only one option left after all...'
Seth thought.
As the demon drew closer, its foul stench washing over him, Seth let out a quiet, weary sigh.
He thought of the system's description for his ability, [Meaningful Resurrection].
He didn't know if sacrificing himself for a child he barely knew would be considered "meaningful" enough to trigger it...
It was a terrifying gamble...
Perhaps it was also due to the madness and insanity that the demon brought that made Seth give up on his self preservation...
However, a man cornered into death is bound to do outrageous things.
He recalled the system message in regards to Riko's ability that had appeared just before the explosion.
[God's Mercy: Any being who calls upon the name of the Progenitor of Self-Harm, the Father of Mercy Liberdolor, shall be heard and granted release from the prisons of life. Once released, their body will embrace death, resulting in a harmful explosion.]
'Any being...'
It didn't say only witches could use it...
If Seth's guessed correctly, anyone who knew the progenitor of self harm's name should be able to trigger this ability...
'Was Riko not a witch, but a person who knew about this through the spread of knowledge? It seems that even Arthur knew about it hence why he attempted to stop him earlier...'
There was no point in hiding now.
He stepped out from behind the rubble, standing fully in the open, a single small figure before the mountain of writhing flesh.
Immediately, a dozen limbs filled with thick tentacles, bony claws, and fleshy, fingerless arms—shot out from its body, stretching across the underground to grab him.
Seth threw himself to the side, rolling behind a shattered stone pillar as a massive limb smashed right where he had been standing.
He darted forward again, passing between the grasping limbs.
One snagged his jacket, and he ripped it free, leaving a piece of cloth in its grip.
He pushed through the insanity and fear that the demon brought...
Finally, he was close enough!
The stench was overwhelming, and the maddening aura of the demon pressed against his mind.
Seth took a deep, final breath.
"Liberdolor."
Agony erupted through his body.
His veins instantly turned jet-black as his blood grew colder.
He could feel his own life force condensing into a single, volatile point.
The demon screeched and reached for him with dozens of limbs.
This time, Seth walked forward anyway as he let the limbs entangle his body.
A sad smile slowly formed on his lips— not out of fear, but regret.
Regrets he didn't want to admit...
A part of him regretted not running away when he had the chance.
A part of him regretted caring about a child who reminded him too much of the sister he failed to protect.
But most of all, standing there in the darkness, waiting for the end, Seth felt a deep, soul-weary regret for the man he had always been—
A man who only knew how to look out for himself, who was only now, at the very end, learning how to be someone else.
And he regretted, more than anything, that he wouldn't get the chance to be that person for just a little longer...
...
From afar, Matthew obediently hid in the spot where Seth had told him to stay put.
In his hand, the piece of candy that Seth had given him earlier was still being clutched by his palm.
His sobs stopped as he took a deep breathe, attempting to calm himself and think about what he could do to help Seth.
But suddenly, another deafening sound rung out in the entire underground.
BOOM!