Chapter 163: Peeling Back The Dark
'Everyone behind me!'
Widow's voice cut straight into Lynn's head, but her body refused to answer; her arms drifted uselessly, her legs kicked once and failed, the last of her strength already burned out and gone. While at the same time, the hundred or so lesser broodlings left, quickly scurried to get behind widow.
'I can't!'
With only the newly born spider between her and death, Lynn felt the drop hit her chest, fear collapsing inward and hardening into something brittle and desperate.
'Leave me! It's too strong!'
A flash of light flared in Widow's grip as the javelin snapped back. Lynn clenched her jaw when she realized Widow wasn't retreating; she was fixed in place, eyes locked on the eel and the figure riding it.
Lynn's fear twisted, burned down, and reshaped itself into anger, anger at the dungeon, anger at the thing that hunted her, and most of all anger at herself.
'You can't die here! I'm not worth it!'
Widow's mouth pulled tight as she glanced back at Lynn, her stance settling instead of breaking.
'You speak as if death is hunting us. It isn't. Only him.'
The eel finished shaking off the impact, its massive body stabilizing as its eyes bled red and fixed on its attacker, yet through the violence its rider remained composed, posture unchanged, expression untouched by urgency or pain. Even his voice was unhurried.
'Your arrival was expected. Surrender now, and you will be permitted to live.'
His staff lifted and aligned, its point steady as it found them.
'There is no path left open to you. Drop your weapons. This is your only warning.'
With nowhere left to run and no strength left to offer, Lynn turned her head toward Widow, her voice fracturing as the last of her resolve gave way.
'Please… Seo-jin won't even notice if I die. You can still go.'
But Widow didn't shift an inch...instead she smiled, a small, deliberate curl that the warrior read as insult, and when he answered by raising his voice his aura surged outward, braided with the eel's presence until the combined pressure of a B-rank presence erupted.
'It would've been dull if you surrendered, so thank you.'
The turn happened in a blink; freed from restraint and still burning from the earlier strike, the eel drove forward in a straight line, its body compressing water ahead of it as it accelerated like a fired bolt. Lynn tried to move and failed, Widow could've moved but didn't, her smile widening as the distance collapsed.
The eel's jaws split wide, a tunnel of muscle and teeth opening to take Lynn whole, then the motion locked mid-lunge...its body seized, eyes flaring.
'Who—?!'
Beyond them, in the open dark, six deep-blue eyes ignited, followed by the slow reveal of a mouth layered with rows of teeth, closing the space around the strike.
Min's Abyssal Shark had formed around her blow. Reading a superior predator, the eel stalled completely, muscles firing without result as the bloodline pressure crushed its ability to advance; even the rider froze, green fronds trembling as if the current itself had turned hostile.
Min didn't slow. Laughing as she committed her weight, she drove her fist down in time with the shark's bite, steel meeting scale in a single point.
'Weak!'
Flesh detonated, and without slowing, she followed through, and the second strike finished the transfer, the eel's skull exploding under the compounded force as its body spasmed and threw its rider clear.
'Woohoo! Big Min!'
Lynn punched the water once as a bit of strength bled back into her limbs. She barely stabilized, while Widow glided up beside her, her bulk steady and unshaken.
Still laughing, Big Min seized a fistful of the eel's throat and heaved, the mass tearing free as she flung the body away, sending the carcass tumbling end over end toward Widow.
'Hurry and eat while I finish the fuck!'
She leaned into the next charge, then the water around her twisted, her own momentum turning against her as the currents buckled and spun her in place while the nudibranch warrior drew mana inward. His staff lifted and held, pressure building until a tight glow formed at its tip.
Not knowing how it would behave underwater and deciding it didn't matter, Lynn's hand flashed with system light as she pulled her pistol free. Her grip shook as she lined the shot, only for Widow to cut the angle and block her.
'What are you doing?! She needs help!'
Widow answered with a slow shake of her head, jaws already working as she tore into the drifting eel.
'She is strong. The strong do not need help from the weak.'
The words bit deep, but Lynn had no argument ready, and no need to force one.
Even at that depth, the detonation carried; both Lynn and Widow snapped their hands up as the concussive blast tore through the water where Min stood, the shockwave rolling outward and forcing everything around it to move.
A small motion, just a clap, but the force behind it folded the water as Min drove herself forward, momentum snapping tight as she closed the gap on the startled warrior. The glow at the end of his staff guttered as he braced to meet her, shoulders setting and weight shifting, but the timing was wrong and the preparation meant nothing.
The Abyssal Shark bled back into existence around her as her yellow aura surged, its presence compressing the space she moved through while her eyes burned. She came down on the nudibranch and her fists started working, each strike carried by mass and speed rather than finesse.
He twisted with the currents, letting the flow bleed off the first impacts, and for a few seconds he held position, but every collision drove force through his arms and into his grip until the resistance failed. The staff tore free from his hands and vanished into the dark below, tumbling end over end.
Before the creature could break off and chase it, Min caught one of its fronds in both hands.
'Let me help with that!'
Her teeth flashed as muscle packed onto her frame, and she hauled in opposite directions, tearing the flesh apart with a wet snap.
Purple blood clouded the water, the scream that followed bursting out in bubbles and vibration, but she didn't slow.
She seized whatever she could reach and worked it apart, squeezing joints until they failed, twisting soft sections until they tore, ripping free anything that resisted her grip. The body gave way easily, and the light in her eyes only sharpened as the nudibranch warrior came apart piece by piece.
Only when there was nothing left she could properly hold did she stop, lungs dragging in a hard breath as she threw her head back and laughed.
'Fuck that feels good! Hate those damn sea slugs!'
Widow, already finished with the eel, kicked hard and slid in beside her, legs pumping as she scanned the surrounding dark.
'Need to go now. Find cover. Need to prepare.'
The last of the heat burned off, irritation cutting through Min as she forced herself to settle and turned toward Widow.
'Prepare for what?'
Widow smiled.
'Children. I must give birth.'
'Already? You're like two days old… brutal.'
With a short shake of her head, Min pushed forward and closed the distance to Lynn, fingers clamping around her arm as she shut her eyes and focused. Heat started to build beneath the contact, pressure rising through muscle and bone, and Lynn voiced it the moment she felt the change.
'What're you doing?'
'Helping. Hold still.'
Understanding came quickly as the warmth spread, rolling through Lynn's body in a steady surge that loosened knotted muscle and drove fatigue back under control. It moved with purpose, not comfort, restoring function where her body had stalled, and after a minute Min stepped away, leaving Lynn able to move again without her limbs shaking.
She managed an awkward smile.
'Thanks.'
Min waved it off and started scanning the dark around them.
'Just be glad Widow found you. Sorry it took a minute, she's a fast swimmer. Bitch left me behind the second she caught your scent.'
A glance toward the broodling showed Widow wasn't listening at all, her focus locked on her own body as her hands traced her thorax, its swollen size already obvious.
Min raised her voice.
'Which way to Seo-jin?'
Widow pointed without looking up, attention still fixed on her gut.
Min gave Lynn a light pat between the shoulders and grinned.
'Let's go. When we find the boss, you might wanna ask him to step out for this one. He can stash you in that back thing till we're out. Or at least till we hit dry ground. 'Cause right now, you're pretty fucking useless, Lynn.'
Laughing, Min kicked off and headed in the direction Widow indicated.
Heat crept up Lynn's face as she clenched her fists, forcing herself to breathe and settle before following. Min wasn't wrong, and that truth cut deeper than the insult ever could.
Keeping their pace controlled and their spacing tight, the three of them moved out together.
Behind them, a ragged stream of lesser broodlings thrashed through the water, struggling to keep up as they followed.
----
Another corner of the Vent Cathedral.
Reality was being violated.
Alone in the churning dark, a dense knot of reactions held itself in place, firelight snapping through clouds of superheated steam as bubbles detonated faster than they could rise. Pressure bursts ruptured the space around it in uneven pulses, each collapse feeding the next.
Something that had no right to function underwater was forcing itself to exist, grinding against the environment with raw output.
Pinned under constant compression, Pain had been locked in this state since the moment he arrived.
Any attempt to move amplified the reaction. He'd tried once to pull everything inward, forcing the output through his own body, driving his heat high enough that the surrounding water flashed into vapor, but the feedback nearly killed him.
A massive void opened, then collapsed faster than it formed, the surrounding pressure slammed into him from every side. Only by continuing to dump power into heat did he survive, his flames burning the water away just fast enough to keep the crush from liquefying him.
Blind inside the storm of his own reactions, unable to adjust without losing control, every correction sending his body spinning off axis, he reached the last option available to him.
Shifting his focus to the broodlink, he did something that scraped against his pride.
He asked for help.
Unaware that distant lights were already tightening around his position in the dark.
----
A pulse rolled through his soul, and Panic's head pushed free from the torn body of a giant eel. He was chewing as he surfaced, a length of intestine dangling from his mouth before he laughed and spat it aside, then surged clear of the carcass while his troops poured out after him, clawing their way from the opened flesh.
With his back turned, Bile worked through a thick orange frond, chewing slow. His mask was off while he ate, and since gaining his class he'd kept his face hidden from everyone, not just the Broodfather, the habit settling in deeper with each passing fight.
Between the two brothers, Bile's troops had already formed up, bodies locking into a rough wall blocking their commander as their masks churned and bled red light into the water.
'Silly brother needs help, pathetic Pain, help, help, help!'
Panic sing-songed the words while licking blood from the curve of his sickle.
'I say we leave him. Then I'll be the oldest!'
The laughter cut off mid-burst as pressure slammed down on him. Two eyes fixed on him, dense with bloodlight, and Panic dropped to all fours without thinking, limbs scrambling for balance as his body listed in the water.
'Forgive me. I said something stupid.'
'Wishing for his death is the same as wishing for my strength to fail. You would dare?'
With nowhere to strike but himself, Panic shoved his dagger between his teeth and drove the point of his sickle into his own palm again and again.
'Never, never, never! Broodfather is strong! So is Pain! Big brother is oldest, brother is—!'
'Enough.'
Seo-jin's voice locked Panic in place, freezing him mid-stab.
Suspended a few feet from the broodling, Seo-jin held a red nudibranch warrior by the throat, its limbs already gone but its body still fighting to live. Sparing his son a brief sneer, he then turned fully toward his captive, eyes locking as his grip tightened.
'Which direction is the gate?'
Purple blood burst from the warrior's mouth as it convulsed, life draining through Seo-jin's fingers.
'It's pointless. You won't defeat—agh!'
Seo-jin drove the barrel of his shotgun into what passed for an oversized earhole and leaned in, his teeth reshaping into fangs as the weapon pressed deeper.
'I think your hearing's off. Let me fix that.'
He drew the barrel back a fraction and fired, the blast tearing through the water beside the creature's head.
Blood ruptured from its eyes, nose, ears, and mouth in a violent bloom.
'Last time. Which way?!'
'Drown in blood, shard-sla—'
The words died as Seo-jin crushed its throat.
[+97 Exp]
[Level 23]
[EXP // 22924/24161]
He drifted the corpse toward Panic and snapped a fresh round into the chamber.
'Feed. Heal yourself.'
Panic tore into the body without hesitation, voice breaking as he worked.
'Yes, Broodfather. Thank you, Broodfather.'
The pull in his chest sharpened as Seo-jin looked away, irritation bleeding into focus.
'Hurry it up. Your brother's waiting. All of you, move!'
At the command, the water churned, clouds of purple and red spreading as bodies were opened. All around them, lesser broodlings were already feeding on three more nudibranch warriors and their mounts.
Anger cracking into something sharper, a thought cut through Seo-jin and pulled a thin grin across his face.
'A prison huh? Should be interesting. Hope the warden's ready for new inmates.'
He hadn't learned much, but what he'd taken was enough to set his blood moving.
The Vent Cathedral was only the first layer of the dungeon, the holding ground where the abyssal race kept its captives. To ascend higher, Seo-jin would have to defeat the floor boss who guarded the exit.
A prisoner himself. A giant.
And Seo-jin couldn't wait to meet him.