There was nothing around him but the suffocating gray fog—and behind him, the radiation leaking from the Godspawn's embryo, hot enough to boil marrow inside bone.
Every path led to death.
In a shallow depression filled with stagnant black sludge, the rotten legs that had been crudely stitched together finally failed. Psychic tendrils snapped. Bone fragments scattered.
Splash.
The body slammed into the fetid water.
"Hah… hah…"
"It's over… it's really over…"
This is your fault.
Your fault, you lunatic!!
The scream ripped through Kael's skull.
"Before the fog—"
"There was a pause."
"You felt it too."
"So why pretend you didn't?"
Kael didn't answer.
If it were me—
If it were me, I would've taken her and left!
Lina is still waiting—she's still—
His voice broke.
—I want to go back!!
"…Hey."
Kael's voice finally surfaced, hoarse, scraped raw.
The screaming stopped for half a breath.
"That day. At Blackwood Post."
The voice lowered, no longer hysterical—only sharp.
"After we left."
Kael didn't respond.
"You stopped thinking," the soul continued quietly."Or rather… you started cutting your thoughts."
"Every time something crossed your mind—someone, some memory—you crushed it."
A brittle laugh.
"You were afraid of me."
Kael exhaled slowly.
"…You noticed."
The soul's voice trembled.
"So you really did know.""You knew I was still here."
He laughed again, this time hollow.
"From that day on, you never let yourself hesitate."
"Not once."
Kael's jaw tightened.
"You watched me," the soul hissed."You monitored me. Like a bomb."
Kael didn't answer.
The soul laughed, low and mean.
"And you were proud of it."
The mud trembled.
"You lied just now!" the soul suddenly screamed."In the sludge—you said it was coming! You said it was right behind us!"
Kael's mouth twitched.
"…Yeah."
The soul froze.
"It wasn't chasing us," Kael said flatly."It's incubating."
A beat.
Then laughter burst out—raw, almost joyful.
"So that's how it is.""You scare me out on purpose."
"If I hadn't panicked—if I hadn't taken control—"
"You'd still be curled up in there," Kael cut in.
Short. Clean.
The soul shook.
"…So you dragged me out," he whispered,"just to rot together?"
"…No."
Kael's vision blurred as radiation chewed through his nerves.
"I dragged you out," he said hoarsely,"because I needed you here."
The soul exhaled.
"For what?""To hear you finally say it out loud?"
Kael's gaze drifted.
"The Monolith," he said."The courtyard."
The soul stiffened.
"Oh," he said softly."That boy."
"The one whose neck snapped so cleanly it steamed in the rain?"
Kael's fingers dug into the mud.
"You didn't dare look," the soul said softly, almost kindly."Not even once."
"You told yourself it was efficient."
"A necessary loss."
He let the words hang.
"You remember what you thought?"
Conscience is a burden.
Kael's jaw tightened.
"It was guilt."
"So heavy it made your stomach turn."
"So heavy you had to walk away."
"But you still walked away."
A thin laugh.
"And you still call that restraint."
Silence pressed down.
Something inside Kael shifted.
"Enough."
The word came out warped.
"Look at us," he growled."The body's failing. Radiation's eating us. The Black Rain's already inside."
"No path leads out."
The soul stared into the dark.
"…So this is your answer," he murmured."You're done pretending."
Kael's consciousness shuddered.
"No."
He clenched his jaw.
"I'm betting."
He turned inward—toward the trembling presence.
"You want Lina."
The soul recoiled.
"And I," Kael continued,"I didn't leave that boy behind."
"I kept the anger.""I kept the guilt."
His voice dropped to a snarl.
"Let's see which scream is louder."
[ WARNING: Host mental state abnormal ]
[ WARNING: Desire threshold exceeded ]
The system screamed.
No—!
What are you doing?! the soul shrieked.
Cold poured in.
[ Mental Suppression: Disengaged ]
The dam collapsed.
First came the Coward's scream. The original soul shrieked:
I want to live! I don't want to die!!
The Black Rain heard "Protection."
Flesh swelled grotesquely. Legs dissolved. Mass folded inward into a spherical shield. A meatball designed to hide, never to run.
Then came Kael's Rage.
Kill!!
The Black Rain heard "Violence."
Bone tore outward from the meatball. Blind claws flailed, lacking joints or direction, tearing into his own flesh.
Then came the Guilt. The memory of the boy, Tom.
Weight. Drag.
The Black Rain heard "Burden."
Tumorous flesh grew from his back like chains, anchoring him to the mud.
The body became a rolling horror—a shield that couldn't move, a weapon that hurt itself, a burden strangling its host.
[ ERROR: Conflicting Biology ]
[ ERROR: Subject Immobile ]
The soul screamed inside the grotesque prison.
We're breaking—! No— no—
Kael laughed. It was a wet, grinding sound from inside the meat.
"Run?"
He reached into the chaos. He didn't grab the soul to save it. He grabbed it like food.
"No one runs."
No—Kael—!
He slammed the soul back into the boiling black core of his stomach.
"Eat."
[ Skill: Gluttony Ritual (Inverted) ]
He chewed.
The scream was cut short by the wet, metaphysical sound of tearing. He crushed the fear, the memories, the hesitation—ground them into paste and swallowed them into the furnace.
IGNITION.
A ghostly blue fire erupted from inside his marrow. The combustion of a soul.
Then—
The pain changed.
It wasn't heat anymore. It was the cold, sharp agony of being stitched together by iron wire.
Deep in the blood, The Skin of the Abomination woke up.
It sensed the energy. It sensed the chaos.
Chaos was unacceptable.
Correction began.
Geometric lines—glowing faintly crimson—erupted from his stomach. They weren't veins. They were the Blueprint.
First, it answered the Coward.
The original soul had wanted to run, creating a legless ball of meat.
Inefficient.
The Skin seized the dissolved biomass of the legs.
CRACK.
Bones snapped and lengthened. Twisted 180 degrees.
Flesh stripped away. Replaced by dense, hydraulic black muscle.
Digitigrade. Reverse-jointed.
It wasn't for hiding anymore. It was landing gear for a monster.
Then, it answered Kael's Rage.
The anger had created blind spikes that tore his own skin.
Crude.
The Skin flowed to the right hand.
Blind bone spurs dissolved.
Snap. Snap.
Fingers elongated. Nails turned to obsidian scalpels.
Precision over brutality.
Next, it answered the Guilt.
The heaviness of sin had created dragging tumors.
Use the weight.
The tumors on the chest were compressed. Drained. Hardened.
A heavy, segmented carapace formed—a coffin molded to his shape.
The weeping sores became exhaust vents, hissing with heat.
The burden became Armor.
Finally, the Observation.
Kael stared into the puddle.
The Skin reached his face. It ignored the weeping right eye—that was human.
It consumed the left eye—the one that had seen the Godspawn.
Squelch.
Iris dissolved. Sclera blackened.
A Void Eye formed—a bottomless sphere with a rotating crimson ring.
And the Arm.
The geometric threads found the Bloodbound Bow.
Merge.
Vessels drilled into wood. Wood bit into bone.
Bowstring became tendon. Weapon became organ.
[ Threat : Neutralized. ] [ Target Identified as: Kin. ]
[ Status: Alive ]
[ Form: Reconstructed ]
The skeletal figure staggered to its feet. The reverse-jointed legs dug deep into the mud.
Inside the skin-wrapped ribcage, the heart beat extremely slowly.
Kael stood up.
He slowly raised his head.
The human right eye blinked, tears mixing with rain.
The black Void Eye on the left stared unblinking, rotating mechanically.
Hunger.
He looked at his reflection.
…Kin