Ch 6 : The Awakening Pulse
Renji exhaled slowly, the last echoes of the battle fading into the cavern's stillness. His heartbeat was steady—too steady for someone who had just fought a Dragon-ranked monster.
Something inside him had shifted.
He could feel it.
The power from the beast pulsed through his veins, its presence coiling deep inside his core, like an ember waiting to ignite.
Hikaru was still watching him, eyes sharp, assessing.
"You didn't just kill that thing," he finally said. "You… took something from it, didn't you?"
Renji met his gaze but said nothing.
Because he was right.
And he wasn't sure how to explain it.
His fingers twitched. The sensation was foreign, yet familiar—like an instinct he had always possessed but never known how to access.
And then, it happened.
A flicker.
His vision blurred for a split second, the world around him shifting into something… else.
For that brief moment, he wasn't in the cavern.
He was somewhere else entirely.
A place of shadows.
Of writhing, ancient shapes.
A voice, distant but piercing, whispered through his mind.
"You are beginning to understand."
And then—
The vision shattered.
Renji staggered, a sharp inhale cutting through his throat.
Hikaru's hand was already on his weapon. "What was that?"
He clenched his jaw. He couldn't tell him.
Not yet.
---
They didn't stay long in the cavern. The battle had drawn too much attention. Even if nothing else came for them, the weight of the place was pressing in.
They needed to move.
As they made their way through the twisting tunnels, Renji focused on his body, on the changes happening within him.
It wasn't just strength.
It was something deeper.
Something unnatural.
He could still feel the beast's instincts, lingering beneath the surface of his own thoughts.
Waiting.
Hikaru was keeping his distance now. He didn't trust him—not fully.
And maybe he was right not to.
They reached a narrow passage leading into another chamber, but the moment Renji stepped inside, he froze.
Because he felt it.
A pulse.
Not a sound.
Not a vibration.
Something… else.
It rolled through his body like an unseen wave, sinking into his bones.
And then—
The walls of the dungeon shifted.
The stone around them warped, twisting like something alive.
Hikaru reacted instantly, stepping back. "The hell is going on?"
Renji didn't answer.
Because he knew.
The dungeon had just recognized him.
And it was responding.
---
The pulse came again, stronger this time.
A deep, thrumming resonance that sent a sharp ache through Renji's skull.
And suddenly—
A pathway appeared before him.
A passage that hadn't been there a second ago.
Hikaru swore under his breath. "That wasn't there before."
Renji stared at the path.
It was leading him somewhere.
And deep in his core—
He wanted to follow it.
Renji took a step forward.
Hikaru didn't stop him.
He just exhaled. "You're really going in, huh?"
He glanced at him. "You don't have to come."
He snorted. "Yeah, no. If you die, I'm taking your gear."
Renji smirked but said nothing.
Together, they stepped into the passage.
The air grew heavier the deeper they went, the pressure around them thickening like an unseen force was watching.
And then—
They entered the chamber.
At first, it looked… empty.
Just a massive underground cavern, with nothing but cracked stone and jagged formations.
But Renji knew better.
His eyes burned, the hunger in his veins responding to something hidden.
And then—
He saw it.
A structure, buried beneath layers of time and decay.
Not a natural formation.
A relic.
And the moment he set foot inside—
His mind fractured.
---
Darkness swallowed his vision.
And then—
A flash of something ancient.
Towering figures, their forms shifting like shadowed titans.
A city of obsidian and bone, pulsing with an unnatural energy.
A gate, sealed with chains of light.
And beyond it—
A presence.
Something vast.
Something hungry.
And then—
A voice.
"You walk the path of the forsaken."
Renji gasped, the visions shattering as he fell to his knees.
His breath came ragged, his pulse hammering.
But the knowledge remained.
And he understood.
The dungeon… wasn't just a prison.
It was a warning.
A seal, keeping something buried.
And he was breaking it.
Renji pushed himself up, his body still shaking.
Hikaru grabbed his arm. "What the hell just happened?"
He didn't answer.
Because behind him—
The air cracked.
And something began to emerge.
A shadow, shifting and coiling like living darkness.
And Renji knew—
The seal had weakened.
And something was about to wake up.
---
The air in the chamber grew heavy, pressing against Renji's skin like an unseen force.
Something was changing.
The relic—the ancient structure buried beneath the stone—wasn't just reacting to him.
It was responding.
And the thing inside… was waking up.
A low, grinding sound echoed through the cavern as the structure trembled.
Then—
A fissure cracked open in the air itself, like reality was splitting apart.
From within, shadows leaked out, curling like tendrils of living night.
Renji's instincts screamed at him to move.
But his body was frozen.
Not from fear—
From recognition.
Somewhere deep in his mutating consciousness, something in him knew this presence.
"You have touched the seal."
The voice wasn't spoken.
It resonated inside his mind.
A whisper of something vast, something that had been waiting.
Hikaru had his gun raised, his stance tight with tension. "Renji… what the hell is that?"
He had no answer.
Because the thing before them—
The shifting void leaking from the fissure—was not a monster.
It was something older.
Something without a name.
The shadows twisted, forming a shape—a vaguely humanoid silhouette, towering and thin, its limbs too long, its head lacking features.
But the moment its gaze settled on Renji—
A sharp pressure slammed into his mind.
A vision.
Dark towers reaching into an endless void.
Chains of light, fracturing—
And then—
A scream.
---
Renji gasped, snapping back into reality. His breath was ragged, his vision swimming.
But deep inside his evolving core—
Something answered the presence before him.
Hunger.
Not his own.
The thing inside him—the ancient entity bound to his evolution—was stirring.
It knew this thing.
And it wanted to consume it.
The shadow figure moved.
One moment, it was standing still.
The next—
It was lunging.
Hikaru fired.
A sharp crack echoed as the bullet slammed into the figure's chest—
And passed straight through.
He cursed. "It's not solid—!"
The entity's limb extended, stretching unnaturally, a tendril of darkness whipping toward her.
Renji moved on instinct.
His arm snapped up—
And claws extended from his fingers.
With a single slash, he tore through the tendril, the severed darkness hissing as it dissipated.
The entity paused.
As if… it was surprised.
---
Renji's breath came heavy, his newly acquired instincts flaring to life.
The monster he had killed earlier—the Dragon-rank beast—its power was still fresh inside him.
And right now—
He needed it.
The entity attacked again, faster this time.
Renji dodged, moving with a speed that wasn't entirely human.
Hikaru was still moving, still firing—but nothing landed.
Renji clenched his fists.
This thing was intangible.
Normal attacks wouldn't work.
But he wasn't normal.
The hunger inside him pulsed.
And then—
He understood.
He could feel it—the energy flowing through the entity's form.
It wasn't physical.
It was dungeon energy.
The same power that made up the core of these prisons.
And he—
He could interact with it.
Renji exhaled.
Then—
He moved.
His body blurred, closing the distance between him and the shadow entity in an instant.
The creature lashed out—
But this time—
Renji didn't dodge.
Instead—
He reached into the darkness.
And gripped it.
---
The entity froze.
Its form twisted, as if in pain.
Because Renji wasn't just grabbing it.
He was crushing its existence.
His fingers dug into the shadow, its very essence resisting—then shattering.
The creature let out a distorted wail.
And then—
It collapsed.
Falling into nothingness.
Silence.
The cavern was still again.
Hikaru was staring at him.
"…What did you just do?"
Renji opened his mouth—
Then stopped.
Because he didn't fully know.
But deep inside him, the answer was already forming.
He hadn't just touched the entity.
He had absorbed something from it.
Not like with monsters.
Something deeper.
And in the back of his mind—
A voice laughed.
Not the entity's voice.
Not his own.
But the thing inside him.
"Now, you begin to see."
Renji exhaled.
The fissure in the air was gone.
The structure had stopped shaking.
But something had changed.
The seal on this place—
It was weaker now.
And somewhere far beyond this dungeon—
Something else had noticed.
Something much, much worse.