Chapter 25: Contaminated
Chapter 25: Contaminated
The system's last words before everything fell apart did nothing to help. But they gave him something to focus on.
Alone in the boneyards, surrounded by ash and stillness, he convulsed. His body twitched and buckled, skin split raw. His tail curled wrong, spasmed uselessly. A scream sat frozen in his throat. All he had left was the thought: stay awake. Don't die.
Inside him, the flower had taken root. Weak in thought and form, but not in will. It hated him. Every ounce of what it had left poured into killing the imp who dared consume it.
He felt it. Not just the roots growing, stabbing through his gut, threading up his spine... but the fury. The disgust. It wasn't trying to survive, it wanted revenge.
And he was losing.
The fight inside wasn't fair. He wasn't anything special. Just an imp who bit off more than he understood. The flower had potential meant for birthing entire species, and he'd swallowed it like a scrap of meat.
Even now, as it carved through his insides, he saw it. The mistake. The arrogance, and worse, the price. Blood poured from his mouth and eyes. His back arched as more roots pushed through his organs. Faster now, and they were gaining ground.
'I can't stop it!'
His claws sank deep into the ground, bone shards crunching in his grip.
'No!'
That wasn't him. He wasn't just an imp, not anymore.
"I will eat...whatever I WANT!"
He forced the scream, made it real. His jawbone fractured. The pain shot fresh, but pain wasn't the enemy. Pain meant he was still here.
Inside, the roots hesitated. Slowed by his spike in will. Spread too wide, too fast. They twisted at their tips, uncertain. For the first time, they recoiled.
System notifications blinked in his mind, but he didn't look, couldn't focus enough to read. But he remembered.
Remembered the first time something tried to consume him from the inside.
'If it's a battle of will... then I'm cheating!'
His forearms began to flex.
"Butcher's Wrath!"
The cleavers didn't wait. The moment the weapon's will flared inside him, they tore free.
SCKRCH!
Both forearms split wide, bone forced open from within. Somehow ignoring the summoning tumr, the blades erupted from the meat instantly. Not summoned, but unleashed in blood.
He welcome the pain as they ripped. Hilts jagged, edges screaming, they carved through his tendons and tore through his nerves. His arms flailed as the cleavers thrashed their own way loose.
The moment he gripped them, he felt it. The flower recoiled, not in defense, but fear. Its roots froze. Every tendril, every thread inside him constricted. The aura it gave off twisted into panic.
"You feel that?!"
He snarled through bloodied teeth.
"That's mine! And so are you!"
The blades hissed, heat pouring off their edges. Not fire, but rage.
Inside, the Cradlebloom pulsed once, desperate and cornered. And then it started to retreat. The imp felt the shift. Before, his own will had dug in, but it wasn't enough to turn the tide. Now, Butcher's Wrath flooded his body with its own.
And he didn't have to guess. The blades were offended. Their metal throbbed with contempt, each hilt pulling tight where it fused with tendon and muscle. His fingers twitched as the cleavers began to hum.
Butcher's Wrath wanted blood.
The roots flinched. For a second, they tried to rally, tried twisting deeper and lashing out in a final surge. But they were too slow. Whatever their mysterious origin, they hadn't had time to grow the will needed to match what they were facing.
Not against this.
The malice inside the cleavers wasn't wild. It was too heavy. Too ancient. And it demanded submission.
'It's working.'
His thoughts came clearer now. His broken jaw unclenched as slowly, his body stopped seizing and control, inch by inch, returned. Eyes cracking open, he looked to the side as the system alerts finally stopped blurring and he could read again.
[Cradlebloom // Bonding Process Initiated]
[Foreign Will Detected // Host Rejected]
[Attempting QUARANTINE...FAILED]
[!! WARNING !! // Soul Integrity Degradation Imminent]
[Counter-Will Engaged: Butcher's Wrath // Status: Overriding]
[Symbiotic Weapon Will // Dominance: 100%]
[Cradlebloom Will: Subjugated]
[User Soul Integrity: Stabilized]
[Essence Conflict Resolved]
[Damage: Ongoing // Regeneration Recommended]
[Cradlebloom Bond Progress // 41%]
[Risk of Failure // 5%]
As he read, the roots drew back into his gut. The sensation was worse than the invasion, like something tearing out pieces on the way back. Hollowed. Internal collapse left him feeling drained and loose, like his organs had been scooped out and tossed.
He glanced at his UI.
[Level // 8]
[Exp // 835/949]
[HP // 25/70]
[SM // 15/15]
Low, but stable. His health wasn't dropping anymore. The pain remained, sharp and constant, but familiar. He could stay awake through this. Easy.
"System?"
Teeth gritted, he forced himself upright. His limbs stuck to the ash, caked in thick bloodmuck.
"How much longer until the bonding's done?"
[Estimated Completion: Several minutes. With the remnant will extinguished, process is now passive. However, due to improper consumption and internal conflict, degradation of resource quality is substantial.]
That hurt. He exhaled hard through his nose.
"Doesn't matter. It's still mine."
He could feel it now, like embers threading through his veins, slow but spreading. The flower wasn't resisting anymore, its remnant will extinguished. It wasn't like the cleavers. No fire, no tearing. Just warmth. Dense and settling in.
His eyes drifted to the cleavers still steaming in his hands. Remembering the pain during their bonding made his jaw clench, but even that came with something close to gratitude.
"I'll feed you soon, don't worry."
No response, naturally. But he could feel it in the weight of the blades...tight, twitching. They were restless, and hungry.
He kept his eyes on his UI.
[Bonding Progress // 62%...]
His ears stayed open. Every creak of ash, every distant shift in the bone felt louder now. Nothing moved close, but that meant nothing. He didn't trust silence. Dragging himself across the melted trench floor, he used what was left of his shredded body to claw toward cover. A jutting ribcage, half-buried in slag, just wide enough to break line of sight. Close enough to reach. Pain wasn't important anymore, damage didn't matter.
[75%...]
The stalk of the Cradlebloom still churned in his gut. Like something alive, adjusting to its new home.
He didn't let himself linger. Pulled himself forward again, grit and ash tearing at his flesh. He kept low, making no sound.
[91%...]
Each breath shook. His back scraped bone. His vision swam, but he refused to blink too long. No rest. No comfort. His cleavers dragged beside him, steaming and twitching and at the ready.
[97%...]
His shoulder slammed into the ribcage. It held. He slumped under it, panting through his teeth, ears still working, tail limp behind him.
No enemies came.
[100% // Bonding Complete]
As the final notification blinked across his vision, his breath caught.
[100% // Bonding Complete]
Then it burst.
A surge of energy that was violent and immediate. His body convulsed once, then steadied. Skin stitched. Flesh pulled tight. The craters across his limbs sealed with raw, steaming tissue. Bones groaned as they set, hardened, reinforced beneath layers of tightening muscle.
He grunted, low and sharp. His tail twitched. His claws flexed. Strength flooded back like liquid fire. Instant, refreshing, and needed.
[HP // 70/70]
[SM // 15/15]
He didn't noticed the change in his aura. But the land did. Ash no longer clung to him. Even the stench of the trench pulled back. Whatever stared at him before might think twice now.
He rose. Taller. Denser. Like something beneath the surface had pressed outward. Not a transformation, but something closer to a reminder. He wasn't just surviving. He was becoming.
Then came the notifications:
[Cradlebloom Essence // Integration Complete]
[Notice: Improper consumption method... Resource gains limited.]
[Result: Evolutionary Pathway // Unchanged]
[ERROR // Pathway Contaminated // Residual Mutation Detected...System Intervention Initiated]
[Reforming Cradlebloom Remnants...Reprocessing Mutation Threads...Stabilizing…]
[New Class Tree Option Created: ##########]
"Class...?"
He blinked.
The word hit deeper than it should've. His mind reeled, trying to process what it meant, what it could mean. That empty slot next to his profile… the one marked [None], the one that had stared back at him every time he checked.
Now, finally, he had hope of changing that.
Even if he couldn't read it yet.
[##########]