Chapter 203: Bare Bones
The first thing that hit Seo-jin was the smell.
Sour rot mixed with metallic bile, thick enough to sit in the back of his throat. It smelled old. Familiar. Something close enough to home that his stomach tightened before his eyes even opened.
The second thing was the ground.
Before his vision returned, he felt the floor shifting beneath his feet...subtle, wet movement, like standing on something alive that was trying not to be noticed.
When his vision cleared, at first, all he saw was blood. Crimson churned around him in a swirling vortex, filling his vision as he stepped through. None of it touched his skin, yet resistance pressed against him from the inside, a force that had nothing to do with flesh. It felt like part of him was being caught, held back, as though something buried deep in his chest wasn't being allowed to pass.
He pushed forward.
The pressure increased rapidly until it felt like anchors had sunk into his ribs. His body strained. Then, with one more hard step, something inside gave way—
A sharp pop. The resistance vanished as his boot hit solid ground. His vision cleared instantly.
Hand snapping to his chest, he sucked in a cold breath as the stink and shifting floor finally made sense. He was standing inside a tunnel made of flesh. Back to a wall of pulsing meat, it stretched into an endless darkness that even he couldn't look very far into.
The walls were alive. Wet red tissue stretched in uneven layers around them, twitching in places, while veins like violet roots crawled through the ceiling. The air was humid, warm, and reeked of blood, decay, and stomach acid.
"Can I eat it?"
"Quit—"
Panic's sharp snarl cut through the tunnel before Snare cracked his staff against his knuckle.
They had all made it.
Seo-jin kept his hand pressed to his chest, but a fading cold lingered there, deep and worrying. It wasn't pain. It felt emptier than that. Like something had been torn out.
'What was that? Was starting to think I wasn't gonna get through.'
He brushed at his vest, grounding himself, then scanned the tunnel while ignoring the silent stares from his sons.
Then his brow tightened.
'Why so quiet? Is it that bad?'
When the system still didn't respond, his jaw started to clench.
'Hello? Always got something to say, annoying asshole system, hel—'
His thoughts stopped cold.
The emptiness in his chest turned hot so fast it felt like molten metal had been poured through his veins.
Frantic, he called out again.
No response.
Again...nothing.
Panel...nothing. Skill...nothing.
Flick after irritated flick, then sharper, desperate attempts, nothing answered. No screen, no voice, no mocking response. Nothing.
"Broodfather?"
Snare's voice reached him, tight with concern, but it couldn't stop the brutal realization flooding through Seo-jin all at once.
He hadn't brought it with him. The system. He'd left it behind.
For the second time since gaining it, real panic gripped his spine. The first time was when the system had shut down for its update, but this, this wasn't controlled, this was within enemy territory.
"Did any of you feel anything strange when you passed through?"
Thinking for a moment, both Pain and Panic shook their heads, but Snare slowly extended his staff, the wood creaking in his grip.
"I felt something from my staff. I already tested it, and I can't use its skill. In fact...it just feels like normal wood now."
Frowning, Seo-jin leaned in and examined it, fingers brushing the worn surface. He tried to activate [Inspect].
Nothing.
"How about your class skills?"
"Apologies, Broodfather. Panic and I can't be sure until we engage in combat."
Right.
Their classes needed kills to trigger properly. Looking toward Pain, the broodling already understood. He stepped aside across the slick flesh floor, planted his feet, inhaled deep enough to swell his chest, then unleashed a roaring torrent of flames into the tunnel's dark curve.
The shadows screamed with heat for a moment, grease crackled, and the stink of cooked meat flooded the air.
Pain exhaled a curl of smoke through his nostrils and stepped back.
"Mine are good."
Seo-jin's jaw tightened as he began testing his own.
[Rend], [Hellfire], [Rotmark], [Hive Pulse]. System. Curse. Racial. Class. Not one answered. It was like reaching for limbs that had been amputated.
His grip shifted to the Thunderwake Doublet. Raising it, he aimed at a massive set of meat-covered ribs jutting from the wall and tried to trigger [Overcharged Buck].
Not even a flicker.
"It looks like this place sealed my shard. I can't activate my skills."
A cold irritation crawled beneath his skin. He immediately tried storing the weapon, but once again was met with nothing. His inventory was sealed too.
"Take this."
He handed the shotgun to Panic, then rolled his sleeves. A second later, flesh split wetly along his forearms, and two bloody cleavers forced their way free.
"Store it for now."
Panic obeyed without hesitation, jaws widening as he swallowed the shotgun whole.
Holding Butcher's Wrath, some of the pressure in Seo-jin's chest eased. He hefted the cleavers once, feeling their balance. Still being able to summon them made sense. The weapon wasn't borrowed, they were a part of him. The realization steadied him more than he expected.
Tiamat and Bahamut seemed unaffected as well. With a single thought, Tiamat reared back and unleashed a beam of bloodlight that tore into the pulsing wall.
'What's the difference? Maybe because I'm commanding them rather than activating the skill directly?'
Flesh burst from the serpent's attack. A seared wound split open, and thick blood gushed out in a heavy stream, splashing hot around their feet.
Panic immediately dropped to all fours and started lapping at it.
While Pain kept kicking at Panic's side to get him out of the warm blood pooling around them, Snare stood planted in place, staff pressed into the slick flesh floor as his glowing eyes narrowed.
"Speak your thoughts."
Seo-jin's voice cut through the bickering cleanly. Both brothers stopped immediately, though Panic gave one last annoyed snarl before settling. Snare lifted his gaze to his father, bloodlight faint in his eyes.
"I'm not sensing any barrier or debuff."
His clawed fingers tightened slightly on the staff.
"My guess is your class quest has some special condition tied to entering this place. Something that didn't activate until we crossed through. Not a full seal...a restriction. Something that specifically limits system use."
"Limits?"
Before answering, Snare leaned more of his weight against his staff.
"If I may ask, Broodfather...how exactly do you use your skills?"
Seo-jin frowned, the cold gap in his chest still lingering, then slowly understood where Snare was leading. The idea had already started forming in his own mind.
"Through my system. Through command."
Snare nodded.
"That's what I thought."
The humid, sour air shifted slightly as he adjusted his stance.
"We broodlings don't possess shards like you do. Our connection to your system is fundamentally different. You interact with power through command structure—activation, access, execution."
He tapped his own chest lightly.
"We don't."
Pain blinked. Panic stopped licking blood long enough to listen.
"The way we use skills is biological. Instinctive. We don't call abilities through an interface because, for us, there is no interface. Even our resource pools and class functions operate differently. We don't command them. We express them."
His staff scraped softly against the fleshy ground.
"We simply know, then do."
The explanation fit. Butcher's Wrath had still answered him, but not like [Rend]. It hadn't felt like issuing a system command. It felt closer to flexing a muscle, clenching a fist, or opening his mouth. Natural.
Snare's wording mattered too. Limit, not seal. That meant Snare believed Seo-jin's shard might not actually be cutoff, only obstructed. If his usual method of access had been disrupted, then maybe his power still existed somewhere beneath the missing interface.
It was theory. Thin. Unproven. But standing in a living tunnel with his system silent and a cold hollow still sitting behind his ribs, theory was better than nothing.
"So learn to think and fight like a broodling?"
The question got Seo-jin far more reaction than he'd bargained for.
Snare went pale instantly, all bloodlight draining from his face as he threw himself down so fast his staff slipped, his forehead slamming into the meat floor.
"I wouldn't dare imply such a lowly thing!"
Panic made a strangled sound somewhere between horror and self-loathing before spinning toward the wall, claws digging into pulsing flesh as if he might tear his own eyes out for having heard it. His shoulders shook violently.
Pain was worse.
Heat flooded the tunnel. His fire surged with every sharp inhale, embers spilling from his maw as he turned molten hatred on Snare, like the implication alone had been enough to justify murder.
One sentence.
That was all it took.
Seo-jin felt his mouth twitch despite himself, a smile threatening hard enough that he had to force it down.
'Need to be careful with what I say.'
Their fear was useful. Their devotion was better. But this? This was a problem. He couldn't afford a strategist too terrified to speak his mind in the future.
"All of you calm down."
The response was immediate.
The heat dropped. Panic's claws stopped scraping. Snare rose at once, though he kept his glowing eyes fixed on the floor, posture rigid enough to snap.
Looking deeper into the tunnel's fleshy dark, Seo-jin felt the urgency in his chest sharpen again beneath the systemless hollow. Shatterbay. Gregor. The angel. He needed this done.
And he needed them functioning at their best.
"The three of you insult me."
Every broodling froze so hard it was almost audible. Even the fleshy walls' faint shifting seemed louder in the silence.
Bloodlight began leaking from Seo-jin in slow, rising waves as the Twinback Serpents unfurled behind him, scales twitching, jaws dripping as they lowered toward the brothers.
"Each of you was spawned from my own flesh."
His voice stayed low, but it hit harder than a roar.
"You are not just broodlings. You are my sons."
The tunnel itself seemed hotter.
"The three who will lead your siblings. The three who will command my legions. Did I not shape you for this? To be my eyes, claws, and fire?"
The serpents pushed forward, one forcing Pain's gaze up, the other hovering near Panic's throat, while Seo-jin stepped directly in front of Snare and leaned close enough for crimson vapor to bleed from his eyes into the broodling's face.
"Should I eat you all and start over?"
Something broke inside the broodlings. Or rewired. Pride hit first. Then shame. Then fear—mostly fear. All three brothers dropped to one knee so hard flesh squelched beneath them, heads bowed low.
"Apologies, Broodfather! We will never doubt ourselves again. Our actions are yours, our thoughts, your will."
Snare spoke for all of them, but the vow carried equally through each trembling body.
Seo-jin let the silence sit for one more breath before turning, cleavers wet in his grip as he started forward.
"Rise and follow. Pain takes lead, Snare behind me, and Panic takes the rear."
The response came instantly, loud enough to echo through living walls.
"Yes, Broodfather!"
"Yes, Broodfather!"
"Yes, Broodfather!"
All three rose immediately and took their positions. Whatever waited ahead, they couldn't afford mistakes. With his system dormant and that cold hollow still sitting behind his ribs, Seo-jin knew he'd be leaning harder on the brothers than he ever had before. Watching how sharply they'd snapped back into place, he also knew the correction had been necessary.
Each of them looked ready.
Pain's flames rolled low through his teeth. Snare's grip stayed steady on his now-muted staff. Even Panic, for once, looked locked in instead of rabid.
'That's better.'
Standing still and building theories wouldn't change a damn thing. The tunnel stank, the walls pulsed, and whatever this place was, it clearly wasn't going to explain itself.
That left one reliable option.
Kill shit. His favorite.
"There's movement."
Snare's sharp warning cut through the wet ambient sounds of the tunnel so fast the entire group halted.
"What is it?"
Leaning forward slightly, embers brightened in Snare's eyes as he studied the twitching red walls ahead.
"The tunnel itself..."
His voice hardened.
"Get ready! They're spawning from the walls!"
"Pain!"
Seo-jin only had to say his name once.
His firstborn exploded forward instantly, claws gouging into the fleshy ground as he charged. Mid-run, Pain's arm plunged toward his own throat—
"Use your claws! No weapons!"
Snare's shout cracked through the tunnel, and Pain adjusted without hesitation. His hand ripped free as fire rolled over his claws instead, igniting them bright enough to paint the tunnel in violent orange.
Then he hit the first thing crawling free, and flesh burst.
Lit by Pain's charging body and the fire spilling from him, Seo-jin finally got a clear look at what was coming out of the walls. Something deep in his brain immediately started to itch. He had never seen the creature before, but the shape...the wrongness...the way it moved as though birthed from meat and hatred. It felt familiar.
And not just because it was a demon.