The Greater Ash-Womb did not roar.
It sobbed.
A low, wet, endless sound—like a thousand widows mourning inside the same throat. Every tear that fell from its countless faces hardened into razor-edged flakes of ash before they hit the void-floor, then skittered toward Kael like hungry insects.
He was still an infant.
Still naked.
Still impossibly small against a boss whose shadow could swallow cathedrals.
But the black thread of hunger inside him no longer felt like a weapon.
It felt like an extension of his spine.
[Greater Ash-Womb (Floor Boss — ☠️×7)]
Classification: Devourer-class Entity
Core Weakness: Overfed Soul Core (Currently Starving)
Estimated Devour Count Absorbed: 4,817,209 souls
Authority Contained: 0.47% (Fragment of the Throne of Ashes)
Kael's system helpfully annotated the monster the way a butcher labels meat.
Lirien floated above and slightly behind him now—spectator, not savior. One obsidian wing dipped lazily, stirring currents of ash that smelled like burnt incense and regret.
"Most candidates scream when they see their first Floor Boss," she mused. "You're just… staring. How delightfully broken."
Kael didn't answer. Couldn't.
His throat was too busy remembering how to swallow something the size of a city block.
The Ash-Womb moved.
Not fast.
Inevitably.
One colossal arm—made of fused ribcages, femurs, and spinal columns—swept downward. The motion was slow enough that Kael could track every individual scream trapped inside the bones.
He didn't dodge.
Dodge would imply fear of death.
Instead he opened his mouth again.
The black thread didn't lash this time.
It bloomed.
A cone of void-black hunger erupted from his tiny lips—wider than his whole body—swallowing the incoming arm at the elbow.
The limb didn't disintegrate instantly.
It froze.
Then unraveled backward, like footage of a building collapsing played in reverse. Bone by bone. Soul-shard by soul-shard. All of it spiraling into Kael's throat.
[Devoured: 0.8% of Greater Ash-Womb mass]
+Hunger Reduction: -31.9%
+Authority Gained: +0.0037%
+Fragment Memory Acquired: "Weeping Bone Symphony" (can be used to shatter calcified defenses within 30m)
Soul Mass Increased: +0.021%
Devour Count Absorbed: +381,492 souls
The hunger meter dropped to 9.3%.
Dangerously low.
Dangerously good.
The Ash-Womb shrieked—a sound that made the rib-crib beneath Kael vibrate so hard hairline fractures spiderwebbed across the bones.
It retaliated.
Thousands of smaller mouths across its torso opened at once and vomited torrents of ash-laced soul-shrapnel. Needle-thin shards of crystallized grief, each one carrying the final thought of whoever it used to be.
Kael's infant skin split in dozens of places.
Blood—his own, strangely dark and glittering—beaded along the cuts.
But every drop that fell didn't hit the ground.
It rose.
Swirling into tiny orbiting droplets that pulsed in time with his heartbeat.
[Passive: Blood of the Would-Be Sovereign (Awakening)]
Any blood spilled within the Infinite Staircase returns to strengthen the vessel.
Current Bonus: +0.01% Authority per 1mL lost
He was bleeding himself stronger.
Lirien's wings snapped wide. For the first time her expression shifted from amused boredom to something dangerously close to interest.
"Oh," she breathed. "You're actually going to eat it."
The Ash-Womb lunged with its full body now—trying to smother, to crush, to absorb the tiny anomaly before it could grow teeth big enough to bite back.
Kael met it halfway.
He couldn't crawl yet, but he didn't need to.
The hunger cone widened until it became a hemisphere of absolute nothing.
And then—
He inhaled.
Not with lungs.
With existence.
The entire boss staggered.
Its core—a pulsing obsidian heart the size of a small stadium—became visible through translucent layers of fused flesh.
One beat.
Two.
On the third beat, Kael's black thread hooked straight into it like a harpoon made of midnight.
He pulled.
The Ash-Womb screamed louder than physics allowed.
Its body began collapsing inward—imploding layer by layer—every devoured soul shrieking as it was torn free and rerouted straight down Kael's throat.
Memories flooded him faster than he could process:
• A pantheon of star-forged gods begging for mercy
• The final sunset of the Ninth Firmament
• The exact taste of a mother's lullaby turning to ash in her child's mouth
He swallowed them all.
[Critical Devour Milestone]
Greater Ash-Womb — 87% mass consumed
Authority Gained: +0.41%
Total Authority: 0.4147%
Floor Boss Elimination Imminent
Hidden Condition Detected: Devour the Core Whole → Bonus Reward Unlocked
The last 13% of the boss tried one final gambit.
It offered surrender.
A psychic pulse washed over Kael—images of power, of safety, of a throne waiting if he would only stop.
He laughed.
It came out as a baby's gurgle.
But the meaning was unmistakable.
No.
The black thread tightened.
And yanked.
The core tore free.
A perfect sphere of compressed night, weeping silver tears.
Kael opened his mouth one last time.
He swallowed the heart of the thing that ate worlds.
Silence.
Absolute.
Even Lirien stopped breathing for half a second.
Then the system chimed—louder, clearer, almost reverent.
[Floor Boss Defeated: Greater Ash-Womb]
First Floor Cleared — Ashen Cradle
Clear Grade: S+ (First Clear Bonus + Hidden Condition Bonus)
Authority Rank Increased: 0.4147% → 1.9999%
Title Earned: Womb-Eater
Passive Skill Gained: Ashen Rebirth (Upon fatal injury, consume own blood to regenerate at accelerated rate)
Passive Skill Gained: Weeping Dominion (Can force absorbed souls to manifest temporary avatars)
Hidden Trait Evolution: Soul Devouring Gluttony → Stage 2: Voracious Maw
New Devour Capacity: 0.07 souls / second
New Passive: Devour Aura (3m radius — automatic soul siphon from dying entities)
Kael's infant body glowed faintly.
The grey in his skin deepened—not sickly, but regal.
Like storm clouds hiding lightning.
His eyes—once just angry—now carried flecks of silver from the boss's tears.
He finally managed one rasping word.
The first word he'd spoken since waking in this hell.
"…More."
Lirien drifted closer.
Her six wings folded respectfully.
She reached down and—very gently—brushed ash from his forehead.
"Congratulations, little king," she whispered.
"You just ate the tutorial."
Behind her, the void cracked open again.
A staircase of pure black bone spiraled upward into infinite darkness.
[Floor 1 — Cleared]
Ascending to Floor 2: The Bone Orchard
Difficulty: ☠️×12
Estimated Survival Time for Average Candidate: 47 seconds
The trees are hungry too.]
Do you wish to proceed?
[YES] / [NO — instant demotion to fertilizer]
Kael's tiny hand clenched into a fist.
He pressed YES.
The staircase rushed to meet him.
And somewhere deep inside the Throne of Ashes itself…
something ancient stirred.
It smelled fresh meat.
And it was pleased.