Sean's hands slipped on the wet ground as he scrambled backwards. His palms met blood. Whether his own or someone else's, he didn't know. He didn't care.
Kael was still standing.
No... he was rising.
Slowly. Unevenly. Trembling. But rising all the same.
That shouldn't have been possible.
Sean froze. He was sure he had broken him. The ribs were probably crushed. His spirit seemed gone. His will to fight had disappeared. Sean had felt the cracks when he hit him last and heard bones crunch under his knuckles.
And yet...
Kael dragged one boot forward.
Sean's whole body froze, his spine stiff as a board.
Another step followed. Then another.
Sean turned to run, but his feet slipped from under him. He fell hard, scraping his elbows on the rough asphalt as he crawled, desperate to get away, afraid. His chest tightened. He wanted to scream, to say something—anything—but no words came out.
All he could do was run.
He couldn't see what Kael saw. No health bars. No system interface. No cheat menu. But in his gut, in some primal, terrified part of him, Sean felt it.
Something had changed.
There was no anger in Kael's eyes. No smug satisfaction. Only a cold, quiet determination, like he no longer cared if he lived or died. The pain didn't register. His body moved, but something inside him had snapped and left a shell behind.
Sean's heel slammed into a loose brick. He tumbled again, groaning, then looked back over his shoulder.
Kael was still coming.
He dragged himself forward: slow, hurt, but unstoppable. Like a storm that wouldn't quit.
"Stay back!" Sean shrieked, his voice cracking. "Stay the hell away from me!"
He slammed his palm to the ground.
The air distorted instantly. The alley shook like something heavy was pressing down on it. Cracks split the concrete. Even the nearby dumpster crumpled into itself like it was being crushed.
A powerful force hit the area. It should've crushed Kael where he stood, flattened him like a corpse beneath a falling building.
But Kael didn't stop.
He kept moving, pushing forward against the force, step by step, straight through it.
Every step looked like it should've shattered his bones. His knees trembled. Blood streamed from his nose, his ears, down his arms. Veins bulged in his neck. His face twisted with effort. But somehow, impossibly, Kael's foot lifted again.
And dropped forward, unstoppable.
Sean scrambled backward, his legs flailing like a fish on dry pavement. His heart thundered in his chest.
"No, no, no—!"
Kael stood over him now. His shadow fell across Sean's face like a curtain of death.
Sean raised an arm. Whether to defend himself or beg for mercy, even he didn't know.
Kael didn't hesitate.
WHAM!
His boot came down like a wrecking ball, slamming into Sean's gut with every ounce of remaining strength.
A brutal, wet crack echoed in the alley.
Air exploded from Sean's lungs. Blood shot from his mouth, misting the ground in red. He folded in half, clutching his stomach as though he was trying to keep himself from falling apart. His ribs throbbed with pain. Something inside felt broken. A strong, metallic taste filled his mouth.
Kael stood above him.
He didn't speak. Didn't even gasp for air. He simply bled. His body swayed slightly, his expression unreadable. He looked more like a ghost than a man, unsure whether he was still alive or already dead.
Then, without warning—
Something moved behind Kael.
Sean's eyes went wide.
From the far alley wall, something began to tear its way into the world.
Sean had no words for what he saw. No name. No frame of reference. Nothing to compare it to.
The creature shimmered like a nightmare seen through broken glass. Its limbs bent the wrong way. Its grin was too wide, filled with sharp, mirrored teeth that glinted in the dim light.
Kael didn't turn fast enough.
SCHK—
The creature's claw punched clean through his abdomen like butter.
Sean heard the wetness of it. The way the breath caught in Kael's throat. He saw Kael's eyes go wide in shock.
Then, blood burst from his mouth in a sudden, violent spray.
The limb twisted cruelly inside him.
Kael's body jerked once—then went limp.
A sound escaped his lips. It wasn't a scream.
Just a short, broken exhale.
The creature hissed with sick joy and tossed him aside like a ragdoll.
Kael's body slammed into the wall with a hard, final thud, then dropped behind the dumpster in a twisted heap. His limbs were bent wrong. Blood spread beneath him.
Sean stood frozen at the sight of it, shaking, his eyes fixed on Kael's broken body.
Kael didn't move.
He wasn't breathing.
No more footsteps.
No more monster.
Just silence.
And the creature…
Turning its jagged gaze
directly
toward him.
****
The creature turned on Sean first.
Before the boy could scream, it lunged. A blur of muscle, shadow, and teeth, it slammed him against the alley wall with crushing force. The sound that followed was sickening, like wood snapping under a sledgehammer.
Sean hit the ground, twitching and bleeding.
His gang, upon seeing this, scattered quickly in separate direction.
Not one of them made it.
One boy was halfway through his sprint when the creature caught him. Its claw slipped between his ribs and spine then yanked upward, tearing him in half. His scream never even formed. Just a wet, choking gasp, then silence.
The last boy dropped to his knees, trembling.
"Please—don't—please, I didn't—"
A flash of claws cut his begging short. His body crumpled without ceremony, lifeless before it even hit the ground.
The alley now reeked of blood and fear. The copper tang was thick enough to taste.
For a moment, only the wet rasp of the creature's breath could be heard.
Then it turned.
Its gaze found the smallest figure left in the alley.
The child.
He sat curled tightly against the wall, clutching the baby chimp against his chest like it was all he had left in the world. His cap had fallen off, showing his big, shaking eyes, wet with tears. They shone in the dark like glass ready to shatter.
But he didn't scream.
He didn't even flinch.
He just closed his eyes…
and waited.
The monster raised its claw, ready to end him.
And then it stopped.
Not by choice.
But because something caught it in mid-swing.
A hand.
Pale fingers gripped the monster's wrist like a vice, glowing softly with strange light. Symbols, old and unknown, slid across the skin like writing from a lost language.
It was Kael's hand.
But this wasn't Kael anymore.
****
The creature snarled, thrashing as it tried to free itself, but its claw remained trapped within Kael's grip. The light from Kael's fingers pulsed brighter now, the markings along his skin flaring like inscriptions carved by gods.
Slowly, deliberately, Kael lifted his head.
But the eyes that stared out at the world no longer belonged to the boy who had fallen.
They were burning violet, brilliant and otherworldly, suspended in a void of ink-black sclera. To look into them was to forget warmth—
and remember fear.
And from somewhere deep within him, a voice emerged.
Clear.
Calm.
Female.
"Let me take it from here."
For a single breath, time itself seemed to hold still.
And Kael—
He didn't fight it.
He let go.
****
The change was instantaneous.
The wound across his chest still bled, but it didn't matter. His body twisted, reshaping like it remembered being hers. Bones shifted. Muscles reformed. His stance settled into something sharper, steadier, anchored by a presence that wasn't entirely his.
Not healed.
Remade.
She now stood where Kael had fallen, wearing his form like a memory. But everything else had changed.
She lifted her hand.
And the darkness obeyed.
It didn't just gather, it pledged allegiance.
From the black, a weapon formed in her palm.
A massive, curved scythe with a jagged blade, forged from obsidian and starlight. Chains wrapped around its hilt, and it pulsed with a cold, living power.
The creature growled.
But it hesitated.
It sensed it too.
This was no boy.
This was something else entirely.
The girl, now wearing Kael's body, smiled with lips not her own.
"Now," she said softly, her voice smooth but deadly,
"let's see who the real monster is."
****
She moved.
In one moment , one breath, everything was still—
In the next, chaos.
The scythe screamed as it carved through the air, slicing into the creature and severing one of its arms clean from the socket. A geyser of black blood burst across the alley, painting the walls and ground in violent splashes.
The creature let out a deep, angry scream that echoed through the narrow space.
It fought back in a frenzy, slashing with its remaining claw, roaring in pure rage and thrashing wildly in every direction.
But she moved with an almost supernatural grace, weaving through the assault like a phantom of war. Her steps were precise, her body spinning with fluid purpose. Even her strikes were timed perfectly.
The scythe split mid-swing into two chained halves. The blades twisted through the air like serpents, wrapping tight around the creature's limbs.
With a vicious pull, the creature was yanked to its knees. It thrashed, but the chains held tight, unbreakable.
"You made us bleed," she said calmly, her voice flat and cold. "Now it's your turn."
She raised both blades high above her head.
Then brought them down like a guillotine.
BOOM.
The alley exploded in a burst of black light. A shockwave ripped through the darkness, throwing dust and debris everywhere.
The monster let out one final, agonized scream.
But it was brief.
Its body twitched once… then again… before collapsing into a twisted pile of broken limbs and shadow.
:: [SYSTEM ALERT] +35 MPS — Spinal Rupture Execution
The words flared across her vision in dark violet.
She stood over the remains, her chest rising and falling in slow, measured breaths. She didn't move. She didn't speak. She simply stood there, quiet and still, like the calm after a storm.
She glanced down at the worn out clothing draped over their frame, his choice not hers, and scoffed.
"Pathetic," she muttered, her voice as sharp as the blade she held. "This cohabitant is absolutely useless for my survival."
Her fingers curled into fists, trembling with rage she couldn't release—not without hurting herself. Not without hurting him.
"I should've never agreed to this. Never. What were we thinking? Sharing a body like it was some kind of bargain, like either of us could afford to lose more time. You're stealing my hours, Kael. My days. And for what?"
Her voice cracked into a snarl as she wiped blood from her cheek with the back of her hand.
"You live like a ghost. Wandering. Wallowing. Wondering if you even deserve to exist. Meanwhile, I fight tooth and nail just to stay afloat."
She took a step back, shaking her head as if the very thought of him repulsed her.
"Why are you even here, Kael? Do you know what you want? Do you even remember?"
A cold silence followed, but she didn't let it last.
"You already failed once at living. You're a coward, Kael. A fool."
Then, her tone dropped to a whisper, bitter and final.
"Next time… don't come back."
She turned her back on him—on them—as if she could leave the shared vessel behind. But she couldn't. And that was the cruelest part of all.
****
Behind her, the child stirred and slowly opened his eyes.
He gazed at her, not with fear, not with confusion, but with awe.
Then the ground trembled.
Low growls echoed from the shadows. Dozens of creatures slithered, crawled, and stomped into view with fangs bared and their eyes glowing, ready to tear her apart.
She didn't flinch.
Instead, she smiled. A slow, devilish grin spreading across her face.
Her weapon rested lazily over her shoulders, its edge stained and eager.
"Good," she whispered, her eyes gleamed. "More bodies to drop, and just in time. I needed the distraction."
She cracked her neck and stepped into the dark like she owned it.
"Line up nicely, everyone," she said coldly, tightening her grip on her very weapon, "Heaven knows I'll send every last one of your asses screaming back into the abyss."
Then she moved.
Steel tore through flesh. Bones cracked like dry twigs. Blood sprayed in arcs, painting her skin and clothes in deep, dripping red. She moved with savage grace, hacking, slashing and cleaving through limbs and skulls like they were nothing. Screams echoed. Limbs flew. The ground turned slick and black with gore.
She didn't stop.
Didn't hesitate.
Didn't breathe.
One creature lunged and she met it barehanded. Without hesitation, she jammed both thumbs deep into its eyes. The sockets burst with a wet pop as she dug, ripping out the eyeballs and tossing them aside like garbage. The thing screamed, flailing, until her boot caved in its chest.
::[SYSTEM ALERT] +25 MPS — Ocular Rupture
[SYSTEM ALERT] +40 MPS — Critical Chest Collapse
Another came. She drove her blade upward through its throat, twisting until the head dangled by strands of flesh.
::[SYSTEM ALERT] +35 MPS — Decapitation Bonus
One by one, she butchered them, drenched in gore and bathed in their shrieks. The ground became a graveyard of shredded limbs and twitching corpses. Her laughter started low, bubbling up like madness.
When the last body dropped, she stood still—panting, drenched in blood, bits of flesh clinging to her boots.
Tttiring...!
The system chimed in her ear again.
[SYSTEM UPDATE] Total MPS: 430
She tilted her head back and laughed, wild and sharp, echoing through the ravaged night. Blood dripped from her jaw. Her eyes gleamed with frenzy beneath the moon's cold, silver glow.
Death had danced with her tonight.
And she had led.
And she had loved every second of it.
< Chapter 14 > Fin.