Chapter 236: A Moment To Think
The atmosphere was electric. Along the sidelines, the Brood sat in horrid anticipation, almost all of them grinning with eyes that refused to blink. None of them intended to miss a single moment.
Panic and Snare were the only ones not smiling.
Glancing toward his older brother, Snare could feel the tension bleeding from Panic. Normally, the Broodspawn was a manic ball of constant movement, but today he sat as still as stone.
"You smell worried. Afraid you've been left behind?"
Without taking his eyes off Pain, a small smirk pulled at the corner of Panic's mouth.
"I am not afraid. I just wanna be the one to kill Pain. That's all."
There was no malice in his brother's words. Snare could tell that much. It was simply the way of the Brood. Strength changed, dominance could shift, but death was final. Only through it could the two brothers truly determine who was stronger.
Feeling a small swell of pride for Panic, Snare turned back toward the match. Even though he knew how it would end, he didn't want to miss a single second either.
Pain tried to focus on the coming spar, but he could feel his siblings' eyes fixed on him. He'd dreamed of this moment since the dwarf island, yet standing before Seo-jin now, Pain had never felt so small.
Shaking off his hesitation, Pain released an immense roar as flames erupted around him, their heat rolling across the field. His horns glowed like metal fresh from the forge, while saliva dripped from his fangs and boiled into steam. The T-shaped mouth of teeth covering his torso began to twitch, bursts of fire leaking through the gaps.
He could feel his strength, every ounce of power he'd accumulated until this point. As his aura settled and his roar finally ended, Pain started to take his stance—only for his vision to disappear behind a fist.
The impact sounded like a sledgehammer striking a side of meat.
Instead of flying backward, Pain slammed straight into the ground, his body embedding itself in the dirt.
"Do you think our enemies will wait for you to be ready?"
Pain tried to roll to his feet as his bones shifted back into place, but Seo-jin caught him with a kick to the ribs. The broodspawn tore deeper through the earth, his body carving a trench through the dirt.
Before he could stop, another impact crushed into his chest. Seo-jin stood over him now, one foot planted firmly against his torso.
"What will you do when an enemy overpowers you?"
Stomp after stomp shook the ground beneath them. Blood and fire burst from the crater as Pain was driven deeper into the earth.
"You're slow to act—"
Stomp!
"Slow to think—"
Stomp!
"Yet you felt excitement facing me, not the fear you should have."
Seo-jin hauled Pain's broken body into the air by his throat, then reached down with his free hand and gripped one of the fangs protruding from his chest. Releasing Pain's neck, he grabbed another and ripped both free with a quick, violent yank, snapping them like twigs before kicking Pain's falling body across the field.
"Pathetic."
The field went silent. Nothing moved. Each member of the Brood stared in shock until the silence finally broke with the distant thud of Pain hitting the ground.
Some felt pity for their brother, others anger at his poor showing, but all of them felt the same overwhelming fear toward their creator.
Turning away in disappointment, Seo-jin cracked his neck and pointed toward Panic.
"You're ne—"
Before he could finish, an explosion shook the air. Heat rolled across the field, raising the temperature as if the sun had dropped too close to the earth. Seo-jin turned toward the source, slightly annoyed and slightly impressed by what he saw.
"This is better."
Across the ruined field, a figure of shadow and flame rose from the ground. Heat distorted the air around him, bending light as the stone beneath his feet began to melt. Dozens of hooked chains rose with him, snapping and twisting through the air like living beasts.
Pain was back on his feet, his chest split open to expose the fiery dimension within.
With his face buried in shadow and the only light coming from the fire in his eyes, Pain stepped forward.
The ground melted and pooled beneath each step.
"It looks like you're starting to understand. Let's see if it sticks."
Both combatants walked toward each other, one wreathed in flames, the other drenched in bloodlight. As the distance closed, both Twinback Serpents stretched from Seo-jin's back and roared.
Pain moved first.
Every chain gathered together before surging straight at Seo-jin, filling his entire view with burning metal. As the churning mass closed in, Seo-jin used the opportunity to test himself as well. Activating [Tyrant's Aura], he focused his bloodlight and concentrated it in front of him like a shield. Hit after hit crashed against it, but the bloodlight held as the screech of grinding metal filled his ears.
Just as the attack began to lose strength, the wall of chains suddenly split apart, revealing Pain charging through the opening with his claws ready to strike.
Using the chains as cover, the broodspawn had closed the distance unseen and caught Seo-jin off guard.
"Too obvious!"
Pain's claws raked down toward Seo-jin's chest, only for his entire body to change direction when Bahumat swatted him aside.
Pain fired several chains into the ground to stop himself, their hooks biting into stone as his claws carved across the surface. Spitting flaming blood, he roared into the ground and released a torrent of fire. The flames struck beneath him and spread outward, flooding the entire area.
Immune to fire, the attack did nothing to Seo-jin, but he knew Pain wasn't trying to hurt him. Lucky for him, Seo-jin had chosen not to use [Soul Sight] or track Pain through the broodlink. Seo-jin wanted to see what his children could actually do, not bully them.
Unable to see through the flames, Seo-jin launched himself into the sky, but the second he broke through the burning cover, a surprise was waiting for him.
Pain.
A huge grin spread across Seo-jin's face as the two collided. Tooth and claw, flame and bloodlight. The two tore into each other as they fell, blood, smoke, and fire filling the air around them.
Those watching couldn't be sure, but they swore they could hear two sets of laughter coming from within the chaos.
----
The cool night air felt good against Seo-jin's skin. It had been a long day, and the chill helped bleed some of the heat from his body.
He sat surrounded by walls of bone and sinew, a recent development from Synapse's class. The Broodspawn could now create larger structures, the walls around him thick enough to close him off from the outside.
Seo-jin sat alone with a plate piled high with fresh meat beside him. Blood still dripped from the strips as he picked them up one at a time and slurped them down. The flavor genuinely surprised him. It was almost as good as Corpse Worm skin.
He ate in silence, doing his best to keep his thoughts to a minimum. He knew it was foolish, but since his meeting with Charon, he'd started feeling the need to censor himself. An act that held no real weight when the thing he was trying to hide things from could literally read his thoughts.
"It's really annoying this doesn't go both ways."
[You're finally speaking to me?]
Seo-jin stopped with his hand halfway to another piece and clicked his tongue.
"I wasn't not speaking to you. You spoke, I answered."
[You know what I'm talking about. Are we gonna talk about it or keep acting like schoolgirls?]
Schoolgirls? The word meant nothing to him until he dug through the memories for a moment. A concept from the past that, when directed at a man, basically meant you were calling him a little bitch.
"What's there to say? It's one of two things. Either you haven't said anything about it until now because you don't know anything, or you haven't said anything because you work for the enemy. Either way, I'm stuck with you unless I find another Shard. So what's the point?"
Picking up another strip, he slurped it down as if nothing was wrong, the wet meat sliding between his lips.
[I'll admit, the situation looks bad, and to tell you the truth, I can't say for certain whether or not I've been tampered with. But I can say that I've never lied to you. Everything I know, I've told you.]
"But that's the problem. Even in the best-case scenario, we still don't know if you'll betray me someday. But don't worry—"
Holding another strip above his mouth, he let a few drops of blood fall onto his tongue.
"Nothing's changed. I've never fully trusted you. So until I find a better Shard, we'll continue business as usual."
Dropping the meat into his mouth and swallowing it whole, Seo-jin flopped onto his back and stared up at the pulsing ceiling.
"Any change with the human?"
The voice didn't answer right away. Maybe it was moping, maybe it was adjusting its plans. At this point, Seo-jin didn't care. He still needed the system to get stronger.
[Not since the cocoon appeared.]
Picking at his teeth, Seo-jin frowned.
"He's taking twice as long as Slims. He better be twice as strong."
[It appears John inherited something from the Vent Matriarch after they split. The energy readings I've gathered during his gestation show marked improvement. I estimate he'll be around C-rank when he's done.]
It wasn't what Seo-jin needed, but it was still a massive improvement. John's Shard was E-rank, so the fact that he was going to surpass that cap made Seo-jin wonder whether it was due to his [Corruption] or the bug queen's influence.
[Can we at least talk about what we saw?]
Sighing through his nose, Seo-jin crossed his hands behind his head and settled against the floor.
"What for? We gonna guess our way to the truth?"
[Will you stop being such a fucking baby? I know you're not even a year old, but fuck man, you're so annoying sometimes!]
"You done?"
[No! We just watched gods murder each other! Gods! The universe almost died right in front of us, and apparently that was just the first universe, and you don't wanna talk about it?! Well, I fuckin' do!]
"Alright! Let's talk about it if that'll shut you up."
[See, this is exactly what I'm talking about. You act like some big, bad mastermind demon, but you don't even know what a Throne is.]
"It's an angel."
[And?]
Lifting an arm, skin split as the tendons beneath twitched and shifted, slowly pushing Butcher's Wrath free.
"They have wings, bunch of eyes—"
[And they're the strongest force within the Realm of Light. A single one is equal to one of the Five Kings, so they're not just angels. They're something you have to avoid at all costs. Charon warned you about them specifically. He wouldn't have done that if he didn't think you might encounter one.]
Seo-jin had to admit, he'd missed that part.
Charon didn't seem like one to waste words, so if he'd specifically warned him about Throne angels, then the possibility of Seo-jin running into one was more real than he'd realized.
Twisting the cleaver in his hand, Seo-jin felt the tendons tighten around the handle, every turn pulling through the length of his arm.
"Maybe I have been taking it lightly. What else should I know about these Thrones?"
[Humanity has only recorded three of them, though it's assumed there are more. In order of appearance, they're Tha'eil, the Light of Judgement; Dromidar, the Light of Purification; and Ghenliet, the Light of Sacrifice. Their combat ability has only been recorded once. I've already downloaded the footage if you'd like to see it.]
"See it? Like those movie things?"
[Access your panel.]
Without waiting, lettting the cleaver hang and ignoring the pull against his tendons, he flicked a finger and his system panel filled his vision. Blank at first, then a white square appeared in the center. The surface flickered, quickly shifting into an image Seo-jin recognized instantly.
A battlefield.
There was no sound, and the person recording struggled to keep still, the image shaking so hard that Seo-jin could barely follow what was happening. From what he could make out, whoever held the device stood atop a massive wall, surrounded by the dead and dying while the sky flashed with color as attacks flew from both sides.
A large explosion struck nearby, sending the view tumbling toward the ground. Whoever was recording survived and struggled back to their feet, grabbing the wall and hauling themselves upright. When the image finally steadied, Seo-jin could see what was attacking.
An endless army of undead stretched all the way to the horizon.
It happened just as the person recording raised their hands, gathering a spell as what looked like certain death approached. A bright light erupted at the edge of the image, and when they turned toward it, Seo-jin was surprised to see a small girl fill the screen.
She looked about ten, with long, straight blonde hair that reached her feet. Her body seemed to float as she stepped up to the edge of the wall and looked out over the endless horde.
As she did, light poured from her eyes and swept across the battlefield, disintegrating every undead the instant it touched them.
Within seconds, the entire undead army was gone. Only drifting ash remained where they had stood.
The image cut.
[That was just a vessel.]
Seo-jin had experienced it firsthand, so he knew what he'd just seen was only a warm-up. When an angel broke its vessel, it manifested fully, though its time on Earth became extremely limited. Seo-jin couldn't imagine the damage a Throne could cause if given even a second in its true form.
Swiping the panel away, he suddenly felt like everything he'd gained so far was nothing worth bragging about. His earlier bravado with Charon felt childish now.
"Which one was that?"
[Ghenliet.]
"When was it recorded?"
[Thirty-two years ago.]
That meant the odds of Ghenliet still occupying the same vessel were low, but from now on, Seo-jin would keep an eye out for blonde little girls.
"Any current information on their vessels?"
[The only thing I was able to find were rumors of a possible vessel being seen in the Tech King's territory. Other than that, the video is the last confirmed sighting.]
Resting his hand against the blade of Butcher's Wrath where it lay beside him, Seo-jin let the cold steel ground his thoughts. Since Charon had appeared, it felt like his world had expanded beyond his control. Knowing there were beings on par with the Kings that could come hunting for him only drove his sense of urgency higher.
He'd taken some of that out on Pain, and maybe a bit of his leftover rage toward the gods had leaked through as well. Feeling the cold metal beneath his palm, Seo-jin knew—or at least believed—that Charon had given him what he'd need.
In Butcher's Wrath, he'd find the truth.
"I've been thinking... the Maw—you think it's possible that—"
Before he could finish, a twitch ran through the broodlink from Snare, sharp enough to put Seo-jin on alert. Connecting his thoughts to the link, the urgency grew stronger as Snare's voice came through.
'Apologies, Broodfather, but we are being spied on.'
'By who?'
'Users. A party of six.'
Seo-jin's fingers tightened around the handle of his blade as he shot to his feet.
'Do nothing. I'll handle it personally.'
'Yes, Broodfather.'
Just what he needed.
A bit of violence to cleanse the palate. The door slid open with a wet scrape, bone and sinew pulling apart as Seo-jin stepped into the cool night air.
As his other blade slid free, his skin began to darken while system light spread across his body.
The light dimmed, and only the demon remained.
It was time to hunt.
With only a day left, he couldn't have asked for better timing.