The slightly fresher air brushed against their skin as their final step left the processing corridor. Not truly fresh, but different enough from the stench of blood and rotting flesh inside. The dim light from the outer hallway made their eyes narrow. Their bodies tensed, like animals emerging from darkness into a more open space that still wasn't entirely safe.
Two guards were already waiting there. Their bodies were straight, faces unmoving like stone statues created to watch without caring about anything. Their eyes moved quickly, scanning each member of the group from head to toe. No empathy, no surprise, only analysis.
One guard paused at the sight of Glenn, who hung limply between two of his members. He spoke without emotion.
"One severely injured."
The other guard noted something down on a small metal device at his waist. "None dead."
They exchanged a short glance, then the first guard added, "Dual-core mutated monster confirmed eliminated."
"Combined-group efficiency calculation: ninety-four percent," said the second guard.
No praise.No sympathy.No recognition.
Only numbers.
Only statistics that recorded who survived and who fell.
The two guards then turned and walked away just like that, their steps steady and orderly, leaving the bloodied and battered group without a single word that could be considered humane.
Dilos exhaled a long breath. His shoulders dropped slightly, the tension he had held finally breaking now that the threat was no longer in front of them.
"We split up here," he said flatly. He looked at Clive, then Glenn. "I'll take Glenn and the others back to our room."
Clive gave a small nod. Ted, Zorilla, and Dorde also nodded, though their bodies looked close to collapsing.
Their groups separated. Footsteps echoed down the corridor, growing more distant. The sound finally faded, leaving behind a heavy silence that seemed to press down on the stone walls themselves.
*******
Their room felt far too quiet when Clive entered. The metal door closed behind them, creating a false barrier between them and everything they had just been through.
Ted lowered his sword, sat on the floor, and began cleaning it. His movements were slow, like someone trying to calm their mind through routine.
Zorilla sat with his back against the wall, massaging his bruised and darkened shoulder. He groaned softly when his fingers pressed a spot too deeply.
Dorde was already lying down, one arm covering his eyes. His breath was short and unstable, his body showing that he was enduring pain even if he made no sound.
Clive sat on the edge of his bed. He took the core from his pocket, letting its faint blue glow illuminate his palm. Its energy pulsed, soft yet alive, like a sleeping creature dreaming faintly.
Clive stared at it for a long time. Motionless. Unblinking.
In his mind, there was no voice from the little monster.No whisper of threat.No subtle temptation.
Yet that absence made the silence heavier. As if something was sitting right behind him, watching from a place he couldn't see.
*******
In Glenn's room, a different atmosphere was unfolding.
Glenn lay half-sitting, his body trembling slightly with each breath. His skin was pale, his forehead cold with sweat. His eyes were open, staring at the stone ceiling with a gaze filled with frustration and disgust toward himself.
Dilos sat beside him, holding the core Clive had given. Its blue glow reflected in Dilos's sharp, calculating eyes.
"You can't absorb it now," Dilos said. His voice was low but firm, his decision unshakable. "Your mental state is a mess. Your body is badly injured. Absorbing a core like this increases the risk of failure. You could die."
Glenn looked at him. There was fire in his eyes, a fire born from shame and the desire to destroy his own weakness.
"I have to do it now," he whispered. His voice was hoarse. "I can't stay like this. I can't lie here like trash. I can't depend on others. Everyone saw it. You saw it. I fell. I was weak. And I can't let that happen again."
"You can wait," Dilos replied sharply. "You can recover a little and absorb it safely."
"No." Glenn shook his head slowly but firmly. "If I wait, my resolve will fade. Whatever inside me kept me fighting earlier, whatever kept me alive… it will die out. I have to take the risk now."
Dilos stared at Glenn's face for a long moment. A battered face, but eyes that hadn't collapsed. Eyes filled with a determination that no blow could crush.
"Fine," Dilos finally said. His breath was heavy, not because of doubt, but because he knew he couldn't fight Glenn's resolve. "But I'll monitor the process. If anything goes wrong, I'll do whatever I can."
Glenn shifted his gaze to the core in Dilos's hand. The light pulsed, reflecting in Glenn's eyes with a gleam that looked almost like obsession.
"Give it to me," he said.
Dilos handed the core over without another word. Glenn took it slowly, as if holding something both precious and lethally dangerous at the same time.
*******
Back in Clive's room, the voice finally returned.
Not loudly.Not overpowering Clive's mind.
The opposite.
Soft.
Almost sweet.
"He will absorb that core," whispered the little monster. "And you gave it to him. When you could have taken it for yourself."
Clive closed his eyes for a moment. He drew a long breath, trying to suppress the pulse throbbing at his temple.
"You're weak," the voice continued. "You're afraid to take more power. But it's fine. I'm patient. You'll come to me eventually. When you have no choice left."
Clive tightened his grip on the core. Its hum flowed across his skin, warm yet unsettling.
Minutes passed.The voice faded.Silence reclaimed the room.
Clive opened his eyes slowly.
Who was most deserving of this core?Who would give the group the highest chance of survival?
Ted with his steady strength.Zorilla with his heavy strikes.Dorde with his precise focus.
Or Clive himself.
He stared at the core for a long time, as if the small blue orb were staring back into him. Its vibrations were soft, yet felt like slender fingers tapping against his palm, asking for attention, calling, offering a power he had never touched before.
But he held himself back.He had already decided.The core was not for him.
Elsewhere, inside Glenn's room, the atmosphere was far more tense.
Glenn sat leaning against the stone wall, his body still weak, his chest rising and falling unevenly. In his hands, the blue core Clive had given him pulsed softly, like a second heart trying to synchronize with his own. The glow reflected across Glenn's pale face, making the light in his eyes resemble a small, dark flame that burned with quiet intensity.
He was going to absorb it now.
And nothing could stop him.
Dilos stood right beside him, arms folded across his chest, his jaw clenched. Two members of their group were already asleep on their beds, exhausted beyond their limits after the long battle in the processing corridors. None of them had the strength to keep watch. Only Dilos and Glenn remained awake.
"The last time I absorbed a core, I nearly died," Dilos muttered, staring at the blue light in Glenn's hands. "Your condition is worse. Your body is unstable, your mind drained. And you know the risks."
Glenn gave a small, bitter smile. "That's exactly why I need to do it. I won't keep living like this. Weak. Worthless."
Dilos let out a very soft breath, as if trying to restrain something. "If you die, everything you've done becomes meaningless."
"That's fine." Glenn lifted the core closer to his chest. "As long as I don't die a loser."
Dilos closed his eyes briefly, then nodded. "I'll monitor the process. No matter what happens, I won't stop you unless you're on the brink of breaking. Understood?"
Glenn nodded.
The Coreforge scroll lay unrolled beside him, but he did not look at it anymore. He had memorized every word, every diagram, every warning. He knew the risks better than Dilos did. He knew his body was broken. He knew his mind was filled with darkness, shame, anger, and a desperate need to prove himself.
But that was exactly what would fuel him.
Dilos stepped back three paces, standing still like a statue guarding a grave. His face remained stern, but his eyes never left Glenn. Ready for an intervention that might not matter.
Glenn closed his eyes.
Not to calm himself. There was no calm left inside him. He closed them to dive fully into the chaos, to embrace his pain, to turn it into a sharp, burning kind of focus.
He inhaled deeply, and pain stabbed through his lungs. Good. Let the pain stay alive. Let it remind him why he had to do this.
Then he focused his awareness inward, into his broken body.
He traced the torn muscles, the strained tendons, the cracked rib pressing into his flesh. The blood rushing through his veins carried frantic signals of pain to every corner of his body. His heartbeat stumbled, too fast one moment and too slow the next, as if it might stop entirely.
And amid all that ruin, he found it.
The empty center.
But it wasn't completely empty.
Something was already there. A darkness like a hollow void.
Glenn touched that point with his awareness.
And the space did not simply flicker.
It screamed.
A silent, internal scream filled with rejection and agony, as if his body itself understood this was a terrible idea, that it would destroy him.
Glenn opened his physical eyes.
The core in his lap had changed.
The blue light was now spinning rapidly inside the orb, forming a mesmerizing vortex. Its surface pulsed erratically, like breathing skin. The temperature around him plummeted. Every exhale from Glenn's lips created thin puffs of white mist.
Dilos unconsciously took a step forward, then stopped.
Glenn raised the core with both hands, bringing it level with his solar plexus, directly above the empty center waiting in fear.
He held his breath.
The room shrank until nothing existed except him, the core, and pain.
Then he lowered the core.
The world did not move.
The world exploded.
Glenn's body jerked so violently his head slammed against the stone floor. He did not fully collapse. Something held him upright, something inside. His abdominal muscles clenched like steel, resisting the force. But from his mouth came a sound that was no longer human. Half scream, half groan, filled with boiling agony.
The core responded violently.
Its energy touched the empty center within Glenn.
And it did not feel like claws.
Glenn felt it like a tearing from within, as if a large hand was forcibly claiming space in his abdomen. His muscles convulsed wildly. He curled inward, yet could not move. The energy pinned him in a half-seated position.
The core in his hands vibrated so hard he could barely hold it. The tremor shot up through his arms and shoulders until his teeth rattled. A low frequency hum filled the room.
Dilos was now kneeling beside him, his hand outstretched but not touching. "Glenn!" he shouted over the hum. "Let go if you can't handle it!"
But Glenn could no longer hear him. The outside world had vanished.
He was no longer in the stone room.
He stood in an arena.
A vast, ancient stone arena with towering walls filled with shifting shadows. The sky above was pitch black, without stars or moon. Yet the arena was illuminated by a single bright blue light at the far end.
And from that light something emerged.
The mutated monster.
Not in its physical, grotesque form. In a more essential manifestation. A shape of blue light and shadow, with two glowing nodes pulsing in its chest and stomach. Its eyes were hollow pits of darkness that devoured light.
Glenn saw himself in this arena. His body looked whole, uninjured. But this wasn't his physical form. It was his consciousness. And that consciousness felt fragile, cracked, like shattered glass held together by glue that wasn't enough.
The monster spoke. Its voice echoed through the arena, deep and heavy, like shifting stone.
"You are weak. You deserve to die."
Glenn did not answer. He lifted his hand, the hand of his consciousness, and looked at it. It trembled. He felt a deep fear, but also anger. Anger toward himself, toward his weakness, toward the fact that he needed this foreign power to stand again.
The monster attacked.
But not with claws or teeth.
It attacked with memories.
A surge of images. Glenn lying helpless on the corridor floor, the panicked and disappointed eyes of his team. The feeling was real, sharp, tearing into his consciousness.
Echoes of mocking laughter that never truly existed, whispers telling him he was unfit to lead, that he was nothing but a burden.
Glenn screamed.
Not a physical scream. A scream of the soul.
His consciousness cracked. White fissures appeared along his form, like porcelain splitting apart.
But within those cracks, something ignited.
Fire.
Not anger toward the monster.
Anger toward himself.
A fire that burned his shame, his weakness, his failure.
And that fire became a shield.
The images sent by the monster burned away before reaching his core. The echoes of mockery vanished in the roar of his inner flames.
Glenn stood straight, his consciousness now wrapped in pale fire that did not warm, but burned cold.
"This is my body," he said, his voice steady and firm. "And the defeat is mine. The shame is mine. You have no right to touch it."
He stepped forward.
Not dodging.
Advancing straight at the monster.
The monster unleashed claws of blue energy. Glenn did not evade. He took the blow straight to his chest. The claws pierced, but the fire around him devoured the energy, turning it into smoke.
"Every pain you give me," Glenn hissed, "will be a reminder of the price I paid not to fall again."
The monster hesitated. Its hollow eyes stared at Glenn, searching for weakness.
But it found only fire. A fire that consumed everything, including Glenn himself.
"You will burn yourself," the monster warned.
"Maybe," Glenn replied. "But you will burn first."
He leaped.
Not a physical motion.
A movement of pure will.
He slammed into the monster, not with fists, but with his entire being, with his shame, his anger, his desire for strength, and his fear of remaining weak.
The two collided.
The arena shook.
Walls cracked.
The black sky shattered like glass.
And in the midst of that collision, Glenn grasped the glowing node in the monster's abdomen.
"This power," he shouted, "I will pay for it with the memory of my weakness. Every time this strength rises, I will remember this day. I will remember my fall. And I will never allow it to happen again."
He crushed it.
The light exploded.
The monster screamed.
Its final cry was filled with disbelief.
Then it disintegrated into shimmering blue dust that the flames around Glenn eagerly consumed.
The arena collapsed.