Chapter 174: Pain Fades, Scars Remain
Rushing to the same spot, Panic, Bile, Widow, and Hex all felt like the wind had been knocked out of them, chests tight and breaths short. Seeing Seo-jin's body and the torn ruin of his wounds made it worse, the metallic tang of his blood thick in the air.
'Calm down! He's still alive. All of you, start eating!'
Taking command of the situation, Bile shouted to the lessers and they immediately dropped to the corpses of the prisoners and bugs, tearing in with wet crunches and frantic movement.
Kneeling next to his father, Panic looked at Seo-jin's waist and began to relax when he saw the flesh squirming and knitting itself back together, skin crawling as it sealed. Though one question still nagged at him, tightening his throat.
'Where's Pain? Can't sense him. Did anyone see what happened?'
None of them answered. They only frowned and kept their eyes on Seo-jin, listening to the low hum of feeding behind them.
Widow bent down, brushing a bit of hair out of Seo-jin's face with careful fingers, though the current slid it right back across his cheek.
'Maybe father got to him in time.'
'We would still be able to feel him.'
Hex's face was drawn, his skin pale and tight. Out of all their siblings, Hex felt a heavy connection to their oldest brother. Pain had tried not to show it, but Hex knew he had watched out for him when he was weaker. He didn't know why the fiery broodling had done it, but Hex had always looked up to him because of it. The thought of losing him pressed cold against his chest.
'He's waking!'
Widow almost screamed, voice catching, but she and Panic quickly stepped back. Both wanted to stay close, but neither knew what kind of mood their father would wake in. Standing within arm's reach wasn't smart.
On the ground, most of his waist healed and his legs beginning to sprout, Seo-jin's freshly formed eyelids twitched against the sting of drying blood.
Then he shot up like he was lying on fire, spine snapping straight.
'Pain—!'
The new skin around his eyes split under the force, thin threads of blood leaking out. His vision was horribly blurred, bloodshot and unfocused.
Panic leaned in, scratching at the base of his horn.
'Broodfather? You okay?'
Clarity snapped back into Seo-jin's eyes. Looking around at the ring of faces and half-eaten corpses, his brows tightened. He had no recollection of what happened after the water collapsed. Yet when his last memory of it hit him, his eyes widened, then slammed shut as he forced himself to focus.
His mind reached out to the Twinback Growths. There, he could feel the humans inside, all still writhing under the pull of Madness, their presence scraping at him, but there was something else. Something still. And cold.
In his mind's eye, Seo-jin could see Pain floating in the dark. Barely. His fire was snuffed, only faint red lines bleeding through his skin, pulsing slow like embers under ash. No movement. Not even the rise of breath.
Reaching further, he stopped when he felt it. Life. It was there, thin and fragile, like a thread stretched too far. And it was getting thinner.
[He needs heat. Health from Feed won't be enough. It will sustain him, but not for long.]
Seo-jin didn't want to admit it, but the system was right. Whatever Pain had done, he had burned through his flames to do it. All that remained was a dwindling heat, faint and fading against the cold pressing around him.
'How long?'
[Not sure. Day at most.]
Pulling his mind away from the growths and his son, Seo-jin's eyes snapped open. He pushed himself upright and got straight to business.
'Where's the elf?'
Widow skittered forward.
'I have him, do you—'
'Bring him now.'
Looking down at his healing legs, flesh still knitting tight across bone, Seo-jin ignored the anger rising in his chest. His new leg armor was gone. No amount of Feed would fix that. The absence sat heavy against his skin, another reminder of his stupidity, of the recklessness that had brought them all here.
Sounds of struggle began to draw close—muffled curses, webbing stretching, claws swiping through the water.
A group of Widow's troops dragged over the bound elf. Wrapped tight in webbing, the lessers crawled over him, patching any tears he made as he thrashed.
The elf was cursing in his language, spit flying with the words Seo-jin understood but had no patience for. The moment the elf floated in front of him, Seo-jin spoke in the same tongue to make the threat land.
'Tell me everything about this prison, or I will tear out your tusks, melt them in acid, and keep you alive as my slave. Hold nothing back, and I will allow you a chance to fight one of my brood for your freedom. You have three seconds to—'
Before he could finish, the elf nearly jumped out of his own skin, throwing himself down face-first.
'I accept! I'll tell you anything!'
Seo-jin began firing questions one after another, voice flat and controlled. By the time he finished, his body was fully restored, skin smooth where it had split, with only a third of the corpses left scattered across the area. The elf trembled in his bindings, but Seo-jin could tell he hadn't held anything back. To the elves, losing your tusks was worse than death. Being forced to live afterward was worse still.
Allowing his suit to cover him in a flash of system light, heat crawling over his skin as his remaining armor sealed into place, Seo-jin stood and motioned to his brood, the water around him thick with the smell of blood.
'Pick your opponent.'
The second he finished speaking, the Broodfather erupted with bloodlight. Seo-jin's aura rolled outward, pressing against those present and flooding the space in a dull red glare. He wasn't sure how sharp the elf's senses were; at least this way the thing wouldn't be able to gauge which broodling was stronger or weaker beneath the weight of it.
Cursing under his breath, the elf's eyes darted from one figure to the next, chest rising fast. Each option looked worse than the last. He glanced at Bile, the bloodmask shifting and warping, and immediately ruled him out. Widow wasn't an option either. She looked like something whispered about in old elven stories. That left Hex and Panic. Between the two, Hex was bigger, jaw tight and lips peeled back in a low snarl.
Panic, on the other hand, was smiling, his tongue hanging loose as his head tilted at an angle that made his neck creak.
'That one.'
He pointed to the worst choice he could have made. But Seo-jin had expected it.
The expressions of the other broodlings shifted in small ways, horns angling, claws flexing, but all of them looked at the elf like he was the biggest idiot they'd ever seen. They were prideful in their own ways, and each of them knew Panic wasn't even the strongest. Still, every one of them would rather chew their own guts than face him. Even Pain would have been a better option.
Giggling under his breath, shoulders shaking, Panic opened his mouth wide as the elf was cut free. Getting to his feet, webbing drifting from his wrists, the elf felt something was off, the hair along his arms prickling. But when Panic pulled a small dagger from his throat, slick with saliva, the elf relaxed a fraction. When Panic reached back in and drew out a chain and sickle, metal scraping against teeth, the elf gulped.
Panic dragged his tongue along the edge of the blade.
'Ready ready.'
At that moment, the elf felt like he'd been tricked. It got worse when he saw Seo-jin and the broodlings he hadn't chosen begin to swim away, leaving him alone with the strange demon.
Hex drifted up beside Seo-jin, water sliding around his horns as he angled his body, hiding his grin.
'How long you think he'll last?'
Seo-jin answered without hesitation.
'As long as Panic wants him too.'
A scream tore through the water behind them, the vibration carrying through their bodies. Seo-jin didn't even glance back. The others did. A few laughed, then flinched as they turned to look. Widow raised a hand to cover her eyes, shoulders tightening before she faced forward again.
Stopping at a dense cluster of corpses drifting just above the dungeon floor, Seo-jin lifted a finger as another scream pulsed through the depths.
[Corpse Harvest // Activated]
[Sacrifice // C Rank]
[Summon +10 Lesser Broodling // F Rank]
Body after body, corpse after corpse began to leak a foul black smoke that bled into the surroundings, curling between ribs and broken armor. A moment later, the vibration of hundreds of tiny claws and teeth scraping along stone and bone began to ripple from every direction.
It was then that Panic came swimming toward the group, movements loose and unhurried.
'Cut the guts, boil the flesh, that's what Panic loves the best—'
His little song cut off the instant he saw the looks his siblings were giving him.
'What?'
He was wearing the elf's lower jaw strapped under his own like a chin guard, tusks jutting forward in a crooked line. Strips of the elf's skin floated and tightened where he'd tied it in place, small threads waving in the current. The sight explained everything. None of his siblings would ever choose to fight him. Panic was beyond crazy.
'Take that off. All of you, listen up.'
At Seo-jin's command, Panic tore the jaw from his face and straightened. The others did the same, minus the flesh mask, pulling themselves upright.
'Pain is about to die. For now he is safe within the growths, but he doesn't have long.'
Movement stopped. No fidgeting. No feeding. Even the newly spawned froze mid-crawl. They didn't know who Pain was, but they felt the pressure rolling off their betters. The commanders were shaken.
Even Panic.
Seo-jin felt it too. The weight of his firstborn pressed down across the brood like depth pressure. In that moment, he understood something. The way they leaned toward each other in conflict wasn't just rivalry. Even if they'd tear each other apart at his word, the bonds between them ran deeper than he'd realized.
Wringing her hands together, fingers twisting in the current, Widow spoke, her mental voice thin at the edges.
'Is there something we can do?'
Smiling, though there was no warmth in it, the Broodfather dragged his gaze across the mass of newly formed lessers clustered behind him, their eyes reflecting faint red.
'Yes. We are going to speed run to the third level. Right now we're on the lowest. To get to the next floor, we will need to defeat the boss guarding the exit.'
At the word boss, bloodlight began leaking from the broodlings in slow streams, curling through the water around their limbs.
Bile spoke at last, crimson eyes glowing behind his bloodmask.
'Will you fight by yourself again?'
At that question, the glow dimmed across the brood. Until now, aside from the first fight in the Elderwarren, every fight with a strong opponent ended in a one-on-one.
'No. This time we fight together. I will lead you against the boss.'
Bloodlight detonated outward in violent waves.
Roars and screeches ripped through the submerged cathedral, sending shockwaves through the water and rattling the stone around them.
Panic nearly shot off into the dark then and there, barely holding himself in place.
'Can we go now? Please, please, please—'
'Not yet.'
Stillness settled again as Seo-jin answered, his gaze shifting to the lessers clustered nearby, their bodies drifting in the current.
'Each of you pick one from your troops and have them step forward. Pick wisely. This choice has purpose.'
They frowned at that, horns angling and tails swaying as they processed it, then turned to their troops and began scanning through them, eyes narrowing as they assessed.
Panic didn't hesitate. He pointed immediately, not even blinking, and a jittery lesser pushed forward through the group. For some reason, Seo-jin felt no doubt in the choice.
One by one, the others made their selections. Soon, each broodling had a lesser hovering beside them, claws flexing against the water.
Stepping forward, Seo-jin let his horns extend, bone pushing through with a faint ache along his scalp. He didn't transform fully. Facing the newly gathered lessers, their eyes fixed on him, he felt a tight pull of anticipation. He needed to see if this idea would work. But first, he had to bring in the test subjects.
Reaching up, he wrapped his hands around his horns. His arms tightened, jaw locking as he began to twist—
Only to freeze when the system's voice cut through his mind like a blade.
[Wait!]
His eye twitched as he loosened his grip.
'What?!'
[If you intend to use your horns to summon a broodling, you might want to wait.]
'Why?'
His hands drifted down, and he went still as he continued the exchange. The brood barely reacted. They were used to this pause, the unseen presence threading through their father's thoughts. The mysterious voice had become part of the rhythm of their lives.
[A demon's horns are more than decoration. They are your being made manifest. If you break them, you will suffer backlash, and you will only be able to regrow them once. If your soul were complete, that would be different. As you are now, using your horns carries too high a cost. Besides, if I were you, I would at least wait until you evolve fully. I'm not certain, but I suspect that once you evolve, you will be able to spawn stronger broodlings.]
Weighing the words, he let them settle. It made sense. He already knew horns mattered to a demon; that truth sat in his bones. The temptation to use them was strong, but other options were already forming. The system's warning rang true, and he had no time or patience to argue.
Letting his horns retract, Seo-jin extended his tail instead, bone sliding free behind him. Gripping the spear tip at its end, he severed it clean with a sharp swipe. Then he worked his jaw once, scrunched his face, and bit down hard. Blood leaked from between his lips, thinning into the water, before he spat out a thick chunk of his tongue.
A faint smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
'Pick a name for one of em.'
[You serious?]
The system sounded irritated.
'If you don't want to, I won't force you. I already have some names picked out. Just wasn't—'
[Fine. I'll pick a name. But don't start complaining if you don't like it.]
Smirking through the sting in his mouth and the dull ache at the base of his tail, he flicked the severed pieces forward—
'HEY!'
A violent pulse of bloodlight ripped from Seo-jin. A lesser froze mid-bite, jaws parted around the piece of tongue. A heartbeat later, Seo-jin realized the creature had actually died, its body going limp. He couldn't care less.
'That was close.'
He kicked the corpse aside, letting it drift, and refocused. His eyes flared as his intent tightened on his own flesh, and he activated his class skill.
[System // Notification]
[Broodling x2 // Spawned]
[Would User like to assign a name?]
[Yes/No]
The tongue spasmed, the bone tip cracked apart.
Both pieces began to bulge and swell, veins threading outward as muscle, bone, and flesh layered over themselves, forming two new bodies. One dark pink. The other ash white.
'You can name the white one.'
The system took a moment before answering. When it did, there was a faint pause behind it.
[How about Tomb?]
'Tomb? Hmm... I like it.'
He selected Yes.
[System // Notification]
[Name // Assigned]
[Broodling // Tomb]
[Broodling // Sin]
Bloodlight burst from the newborns as they screeched, limbs stretching against the water, claws flexing for the first time.
Feeling no particular attachment, Seo-jin looked past the two fresh broodlings and smiled at the watching lessers, their eyes fixed on him.
'Surprised I didn't try this sooner.'
Sin and Tomb didn't know it yet, but they were about to get a crash course in leveling.