Chapter 10: When the God Answered Back
Alex Rim did not feel death arrive.
It came quietly, without ceremony.
His body lay twisted among shattered stone and mangled corpses, blood soaking deep into the ruin's ancient floor as if the earth itself had begun to drink him in. His chest no longer rose. His heartbeat stuttered once… then faded into a thin, failing echo.
The world slipped away.
Pain dissolved first.
Then regret.
Then even thought.
Alex crossed the brink without realizing it.
Above him, the ruin trembled.
The B-rank Rift Monster froze mid-motion, its jaws still wet with Liora's blood. The body it had discarded lay crumpled beside Alex, her torn throat spilling life into the cracks of the stone, divine protection shattered beyond repair.
Something was wrong.
The air grew heavy—unnaturally so—pressing down on the monster's body like invisible chains. Its knees buckled as a presence descended, vast and suffocating, far older than the ruin itself.
"No…" it whispered.
The monster had felt gods before. It had served them. It had slaughtered entire zones in the name of higher beings.
But this—
This was different.
This was not a god that demanded worship.
This was a truth that erased it.
Black veins spread across the ground, radiating outward from Alex's corpse like living fractures. The stone cracked, then groaned, then bent, responding to a will that ignored the rules of the world entirely.
"That authority…" the monster rasped, claws scraping against the floor as it crawled backward. "That presence… it can't be."
Alex's body twitched.
Once.
Then again.
Blood that had already spilled began to reverse, lifting from the ground in trembling strands and seeping back into torn flesh. His shattered ribs shifted violently beneath skin, knitting together with wet, grinding sounds. Bones reformed not gently, but forcefully, as if corrected by an impatient hand.
[HOST STATUS: TERMINAL]
[DEATH THRESHOLD—BREACHED]
The monster screamed.
"That voice—!"
[OVERRIDING FATALITY]
[ANCIENT DEMON SYSTEM—CORE AUTHORITY ENGAGED]
Alex's heart slammed violently.
Once.
Twice.
Then surged.
But his eyes remained closed.
His mind sank deeper into darkness, unaware of the invasion taking place within his dying shell. He did not feel the fire burning through his veins, nor the alien presence unfolding inside his soul like an ancient throne being reclaimed.
The monster collapsed fully, forehead smashing against the stone.
"No… no no no—!" it wailed. "You are not meant to choose vessels! You are meant to be worshipped!"
Alex's body rose.
Not smoothly.
Not naturally.
His spine straightened with mechanical precision, limbs jerking sharply as if pulled by unseen strings. His head lifted slightly—too controlled, too deliberate.
His eyes opened.
They were not Alex's.
They were empty.
Black.
Not emotional.
Not wrathful.
Endless.
The monster sobbed.
It knew those eyes.
It had knelt before murals etched with that gaze. It had offered blood, despair, and annihilation in prayer to that same abyssal authority.
"You…" it whispered, voice breaking. "You are Him."
Alex's mouth opened.
The voice that emerged did not belong to a human.
"This vessel has crossed despair you could not comprehend."
The ruin shook violently.
Stone cracked. Dust rained from above.
The monster pressed its forehead harder against the ground. "Why?" it cried. "Why him?! We worshipped you! We fed you worlds! We waited centuries for your return!"
Alex's body took a single step forward.
The stone beneath his foot disintegrated.
"You mistook hunger for devotion."
The monster trembled uncontrollably.
"We were your servants!" it screamed. "Your heralds! Your executioners!"
Alex's head tilted slightly.
A gesture devoid of cruelty—worse, devoid of care.
"You were livestock."
The words crushed the monster more thoroughly than any blade.
"No…" it whimpered. "Then why him? Why a broken human? A defect with no blessing?"
Alex's body stopped directly before it.
Shadows thickened beneath his feet, rising like liquid darkness, wrapping around his limbs and torso in layered coils. The ruin itself recoiled.
"Because he was untouched."
The voice deepened.
"Unclaimed by gods."
The monster looked up, terror hollowing its eyes.
"You are merging with him," it realized. "You are inhabiting him."
Alex's lips curved—not into a smile, but into a shape that suggested inevitability.
"Temporary."
The monster's core shuddered violently.
"No—please—!" it begged. "I am your faithful! I still serve!"
Alex raised one hand.
No flourish.
No hatred.
Just finality.
"You are fuel."
The shadows struck.
Not outward—but inward.
The monster's body collapsed as if crushed by an invisible singularity. Flesh folded in on itself. Bones imploded into fragments that vanished before they hit the ground. Its scream cut off abruptly as its essence was ripped free and consumed completely.
There was no corpse.
No blood.
No remains.
Only silence.
Alex's body swayed.
The shadows retreated, sinking back into the cracks of the ruin. The blackness in his eyes flickered—red flashing briefly beneath—before fading entirely.
He collapsed.
Unconscious once more.
The Ancient Demon System withdrew its control.
[TEMPORARY POSSESSION—TERMINATED]
[HOST CONDITION: STABLE—CRITICAL]
[SYNC RATE: 17%]
The ruin lay still.
Bodies surrounded Alex—friends, comrades, strangers who had once fought beside him.
Deep within his soul, the ancient presence observed its chosen vessel quietly.
Satisfied.
"Live."
Alex did not hear it.
But his heart continued to beat.