Chapter 21: | Death
---
[You have slain.]
• A Stage 1 Tier 6 Level 18 [★★★★ Titanstone Grouper.]
[You have gained 1,120,000 EXP.]
[You have gained a level.] x5
[You've Successfully Devoured]
• A Stage 1 Tier 6 Level 18 [★★★★ Titanstone Grouper.]
[You have gained a skill.]
• Stonehide Aegis
• Mana-Forged Stoneheart
• Unyielding Bulk
• Boulder Rush
---
Days passed like grains of sand slipping through an hourglass.
I searched endlessly, diving through passage after passage, chasing the promise of providence.
But every tunnel curved back into the same chamber, again and again, for what felt like eternity.
Liora groaned about starving.
So did I.
But without a mouth to complain, I swam in silence, dragging my hunger behind me like a second body.
Still, the question clawed at my mind.
Was eating a vine really the best option?
Poison or not, I was built different.
It wouldn't kill me.
Probably.
Liora was worse.
Her limbs trembled.
Her body looked like a starved ghoul.
"Hey… when are we gonna find some plump meat?"
She joked.
Her voice was dry.
Hollow.
I sighed.
Yeah… when?
My vision spun.
My energy ran low.
Every movement felt heavier than the last.
Liora couldn't even move now.
Her skin had turned pale.
Her warmth was draining fast.
Maybe she'd spent too much energy keeping herself warm, controlling every muscle like a furnace.
Now, with no fuel left, her system was shutting down.
Her voice had become a whisper.
"I'm so hungry… maybe if I eat one of those vines… I'll get some energy… before it's too late…"
Her shaking hand reached out.
She grabbed a vine, then tore into it like a starving animal.
Color bloomed back in her cheeks.
Her eyes sparked with flickering life.
"It's so sweet! Why don't you try it?"
She said, her voice trembling with excitement.
I hesitated.
Then bit down.
Nectar spilled into my mouth, warm, thick, and impossibly sweet.
It was… incredible.
My strength returned in waves, my limbs grew lighter, my vision steadied.
It felt like life.
Devouring the vines… was the right decision.
Then.
My vision warped.
Blurred.
And.
Darkness.
This…
This can't be…
---
A humanoid form made of intertwining vines sat upon a slab of stone.
Around the cavern, the vines trembled—then began to stir.
Its mouth parted.
"Finally… those two foolish bastards have been caught."
The creature had no eyes.
No brain.
No organs.
Only a single, pulsing monster core embedded deep within its chest.
It hadn't been born.
It had been made.
Created by one who once called themselves Tathid.
A so-called Scholar of Truth.
It had chosen its own name, Vinley.
A failure, yes.
But a sentient one.
A discarded experiment.
But Vinley no longer cared.
Its voice echoed through the chamber, resonating from the vines themselves.
"I may have been forged in failure… but I have a dream."
It clenched a vine-woven fist.
"It's not noble. Not heroic. I just want to survive. To carve a place for myself in this world, Not as a mistake… But as Vinley."
If one could call it a gaze, it shifted.
Before him stood a grotesque figure.
A humanoid crab stitched from rotting flesh and twisted vines of unknown origin.
A puppet, hollow and waiting.
Vinley's body unraveled.
Threads of consciousness slithered forward.
Then.
The fusion began.
He merged into the vessel.
Possession complete.
From within the creature's massive form, Vinley's voice rumbled.
"Don't blame me for your death… It was you who entered this place."
---
Pain jolted me awake.
Vines had drilled into my flesh, sucking blood like leeches.
DAMN IT!
Accel Dash.
My body blurred, reappearing midwater.
My gaze snapped across the chamber.
Liora.
Where was she?
Then I saw her.
Limp.
Wrapped in vines.
Suspended upside down like a grotesque ornament.
And then.
Agony.
Pain tore through my gut.
My instincts had screamed, but I was too slow.
From below, a creature rose from the shadows.
An abomination.
Humanoid.
Pieced together from monster parts.
Crab claws.
A chitinous exoskeleton.
Vines threading through its flesh.
Its twisted maw opened.
"Intruder... it is your time to die."
I chuckled bitterly.
Then I roared.
Blooming Wrath.
Activated.
So it was you.
The one who trapped us here with your cursed spores.
Accel Dash.
Phantom Shift.
Boulder Rush.
My body blurred again, positioned behind it.
But vines exploded from its back, drilling into my face.
Damn it!
My maw snapped open, I ripped them out.
But its claw followed through.
Slashed into my head.
My stone armor, exoskeleton, scales, and flesh was cleaved.
Then, more vines.
Latched around my face.
"Your struggle is pointless. Give up."
My body froze.
That word...
Pointless?
It echoed.
Pointless...
My veins surged.
Bulged like bursting pipelines.
I remembered them all.
Everyone who had said that.
They're dead now.
And you will be too.
DAMN YOU, YOU ARROGANT BASTARD!
Blooming Wrath.
My maw blurred.
Then tore through his torso.
Its flesh, vines and bones dissapeared.
Vinley shuddered.
"Me? Vinley? Pushed this far? Impossible!"
His body convulsed.
Shifted.
Mutated.
"You can't kill me!"
His vines twisted into massive claws.
He slashed the ground.
The walls.
Everything frantically.
But I was already behind him.
My maw opened.
Then closed.
A chunk vanished.
"This... can't be..."
Vinley howled.
His claws tore at the earth.
His vines flailed.
He tried to strike me.
Tried to heal.
I backed away.
Dozens of meters.
Unfurled my fins.
Closed my eyes.
Muscles compressed.
Past their limit.
Blood poured from my gills.
I pushed.
Then.
VANISHED.
Accel Dash.
Boulder Rush.
SHHHHK.
Pink lines etched across Vinley's form.
He screamed.
Again.
And again.
A heartbeat passed.
Thousands of lines now spiderwebbed his body.
I sheathed my blade.
In my mind.
Fae Sword Art — Sixth Form: Scattered Flower.
The pink lines turned red.
Then.
Blood.
Exploding from every cut.
Crimson arcs painted the currents.
Vinley's body began to crumble.
Disintegrating.
Monster cores scattered across the floor, rattling softly.
I exhaled.
It's over...
Then.
PAIN.
A knife of agony stabbed through my chest.
My heart raced out of control.
My vlood reversed in my veins.
My gills bleeding.
My vision blurred.
I tried to breathe.
But it was useless.
My muscles spasmed.
Then.
CRACK.
A deafening sound, inside me.
I looked down.
Holes.
Everywhere.
Then.
BREAK.
One of my core.
Shattered.
How...?
I stared at the fading remnants of Vinley.
How is it still alive...?
Impossible.
Vinley's form had become something grotesque.
A writhing mass of vines compressed and sculpted into a humanoid shape.
How...?
How could he still be alive?
This... was impossible.
Unless...
The crab wasn't his true form.
It had merely been a host, a puppet.
Vinley's true body... was the parasitic vine itself?
Absurd!
No, it couldn't be.
Could it?
Damn it...
If that was true, then this bastard was unbeatable.
Vinley's twisted maw opened.
"Impressive... that you've pushed me this far. And for your efforts, I, Vinley, shall convert your body into my avatar."
Mockery.
This whole fight... was a game to him.
He'd been playing with me from the start.
Holding back.
Letting me believe I had a chance.
You think you're high and mighty?
But you're wrong, Vinley.
I wanted this.
I needed you to gather every last vine.
Every tendril stretched out in all directions.
I needed you to pull them in.
And now that you've gathered everything into this body.
Now, it's time for you to die.
From behind me, Liora's voice screamed in desperation.
"You bastard! Don't abuse your skills too much! You'll die from the backlash!"
But I didn't care.
This was my battle.
And I would finish what I started.
Blooming Wrath.
URGH!
Agony tore through my chest.
My body convulsed as raw force surged through me.
Accel Dash.
I pushed it to the limit.
My muscles exploded from within.
I cut through the water like a living missile.
My fins slashing again and again as blood poured from my head.
Pink lines began to spiderweb across Vinley's new body.
I closed my eyes.
Sheathed my imaginary sword.
Fae Sword Art — Sixth Form: Scattered Flower.
But Vinley only smiled.
"Your attacks are... pointless."
And then.
His body crumbled.
Collapsed into the ground.
Only a single, massive, gleaming core remained.
Floating in the air.
A heartbeat passed.
The vines I had slashed now slithered back, regathering toward the core.
Weaving into a new humanoid body in an instant.
Vinley stood reborn.
He flicked his hand.
Dozens of vine-shaped pikes formed in the air.
All aimed directly at me.
"Impressive. Truly impressive, to destroy a form as tough as adamantine so effortlessly. I commend you."
He began to clap.
"But it is futile, and you know it."
He was right.
I knew it.
At my current state, resistance was impossible.
My gills burned.
As if on fire.
Blood seeped from them, thick and slow.
My nerves?
Cooked.
My muscles?
Torn.
This body.
The one I once called indestructible...
Was now broken.
Hah...
How ironic.
So this is how my journey ends.
Vinley smiled, gentle and cruel.
"You've made the right decision."
His arm shifted.
Transforming into a scythe.
And with a single, swift motion.
Blood splashed.
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