The pulse was no longer just a sound. It was a physical weight, a rhythmic hammer blow that made the fluid in Renji's ears vibrate until his vision blurred. He stood in the center of the glittering vault, the magic crystals reflecting a light that felt cold and mocking.
Towering over him, thirty feet of ancient, yellowed calcium blotted out the ceiling. The Gashadokuro. It was a mountain of bone held together by spite. Its 'heartbeat' wasn't a thump; it was the grinding clatter of a thousand collective deaths, a psychic scream that translated into raw, physical agony for anything with a pulse.
[Warning: Immediate threat. Hostile Entity, Gashadokuro (B-Rank). User is advised to withdraw immediately.]
Renji spat a glob of copper-tasting phlegm onto the stone. "Withdraw?"
The word felt heavy, like a joke he didn't quite get. He was the only one left. The others were ice-sculptures in the hallway. He had come here for the hunger, the same hunger that had driven him through the pits of his childhood.
"I'm the Monarch," he whispered, his voice catching in the dry air. "I don't leave until I've taken what's mine."
"So… you are the one who dares to stand?"
The Gashadokuro didn't have vocal cords. The sound came from the vibration of its massive ribs, a hollow resonance that bypassed the ears and spoke directly to Renji's marrow. It was the voice of the forgotten, of those buried in shallow graves.
"You feel the hunger," the skeleton vibrated.
"Do you think your scrap of meat can satisfy the emptiness?"
Renji reached into the void of his inventory. His fingers closed around the hilt of the Obsidian Greatsword. The weight was grounding.
"I'm not here to satisfy anything," Renji gasped, his chest tightening under the pressure of the aura. "I'm just here to take."
The skeleton didn't wait for a flourish. It swung a fist the size of a small car. Renji didn't think; he reacted. He threw himself into a jagged roll, the wind of the strike whipping his hair. The fist slammed into the bedrock, a sound like a mountain collapsing.
The floor buckled, sending a tremor through Renji's boots that nearly snapped his ankles.
He used the momentum. He didn't stand; he launched. He channeled every point of his Strength into the blade, the obsidian edge glowing with a faint, predatory green. He aimed for the shinbone—the foundation.
[Skill Activated: Bone Grasp (Tier 5)]
The sword hit. It didn't bite. It shrieked—a high, metallic scream of protesting molecules. The blade bounced off the hardened, ancient calcium. The recoil was a physical shock, a violent jolt that traveled up Renji's arms and threatened to pop his shoulders from their sockets. He was flung backward, skidding through the dirt.
[User sustained Blunt Trauma. Vitality: 85%. Caution: Physical damage insufficient.]
The Gashadokuro's ribs rattled. A laugh.
"Soft meat. You cannot touch the end of all things."
Renji ignored the numbing ache in his wrists. He needed his mind.
[Skill Activated: Shadow Pulse (Tier 3)]
A violet flare erupted from his core, pushing back the crushing weight of the Gashadokuro's presence. For a second, the air felt breathable again. But the defense was an insult to the dead.
The colossal skeleton roared, a soundless explosion of psychic hunger. It didn't hit his body; it hit his head. It clawed at the image of his mother—her hands, the way she smelled like woodsmoke. Renji's knees buckled. The pain was sharp, a needle behind the eyes. He stumbled.
The Gashadokuro didn't hesitate. It brought the flat of its hand down in a sweeping, horizontal slap.
Renji didn't have time to block. He hit the cavern wall with a wet thud. The stone webbed with cracks behind him, a halo of fractured rock. Blood bloomed across his white hoodie, dark and hot.
[User sustained Massive Blunt Damage. Ribs fractured. Internal bleeding. Vitality: 45%.]
He slumped to the floor, coughing. A shard of rib poked at his lung with every shallow breath.
Not here, he thought, his vision swimming. If I go down, the secret stays buried. Hikari... she's just waiting for a brother who isn't coming back.
He forced his palms against the grit. He pushed. His muscles screamed, a jagged symphony of protest, but he stood.
The Gashadokuro raised both fists, a dual hammer to end the nuisance.
"Spirit is just a final meal for the void!" the beast vibrated. "Feed the anger!"
Renji leaned on the hilt of the greatsword, the world tilting. It's not the bone, he realized. It's the soul holding the bone together. Cut the string, and the puppet falls.
He needed the gap. One second where the world stopped.
"Whisper," he wheezed. "Time Dilation."
The chill of his servant's shadow flared out. The world turned grey. The falling dust motes froze mid-air. The Gashadokuro's massive fists stopped ten feet above his head, suspended like statues.
Renji moved.
Every step was a knife in his side. He pushed off the cracked wall, his B-Rank speed turning him into a ghost. He didn't run on the floor; he ran up the Gashadokuro's arm. Three seconds of vertical sprinting, his boots echoing on the ancient bone. He reached the shoulder.
He didn't look at the skull. He looked at the center of the chest, where a swirling, putrid core of green light pulsed like a dying star.
He swung. The Obsidian Greatsword didn't shriek this time. It hungered.
"Arise!"
The blade buried itself to the hilt in the core.
The Gashadokuro let out a sound that wasn't a vibration—it was a scream of pure, unadulterated despair. The cavern ceiling groaned, shedding slabs of rock the size of houses. The giant began to turn to ash, the yellowed bone dissolving into a black, ancient soot.
The green energy from the core didn't dissipate. It was pulled into the sword, then up Renji's arms. It was hot. It was violent.
[Soul Extraction Successful!]
[Skill Unlocked: Soul Harvest (Passive)]
[Target Soul Acquired: Gashadokuro (B-Rank)]
Renji staggered back as the soot settled. From the wreckage of the ribs, a new shape emerged. It was the skeleton, but draped in shifting, midnight armor. It stood thirty feet tall, its eyes burning with the cold fire of the Monarch's will.
"Kneel," Renji commanded. His voice was a rasp, but it held the weight of a crown.
The Shadow Gashadokuro sank. The cavern floor shook as its massive knee hit the stone.
[New Servant Acquired: Shadow Gashadokuro]
[Rank: B]
[Vitality restored to 60%.]
Renji looked at his hands. The blood was still there, but the ragged edge of the pain was receding, replaced by a hum of power that felt like a furnace.
[LEVEL UP!]
[LEVEL UP!]
[LEVEL UP!]
[...]
[LEVEL 29 \rightarrow LEVEL 42]
A violent surge of mana flooded his system. It felt like his veins were being replaced with high-voltage wire. The B-Rank light that usually flickered around his presence didn't just brighten; it shattered like glass.
[New Rank Achieved: A-Rank Hunter]
His stats shifted, the numbers rolling over in the periphery of his vision.
[STR: 54]
[AGI: 59]
[VIT: 100]
Renji stood tall. The white hoodie was tattered, soaked in red, but as the shadow mana swirled around him, it began to shimmer with a dark, oily luster. To his left, the Shadow Gashadokuro loomed like a fortress. To his right, the Venerated Knight stood in silent vigil.
The System's final message didn't chime. It hammered.
[Condition Met: Defeated an A-Rank Human & Extracted B-Rank Soul in a Single Gate.]
[New Title Acquired: The Blood-Forged Monarch]
Renji looked at the pile of magic crystals. He looked at his hands. He was no longer the boy who carried the bags. He was the one who decided who lived and who stayed in the dirt.
"Let's go home," he said to the shadows.
"We have a sister to protect."