Cydal took a slow breath. He needed to see what was behind the walls properly and without hesitation, he reached up and unfastened the black eyepatch covering his left eye.
The moment he took off his eyepatch, he panicked and quickly covered his eye with his hand. He struggled, trying desperately to hold back whatever was trying to escape. It kept screeching "SKREE.. SKREE!" but he didn't stop holding his eye until it finally calmed. Slowly, he lowered his hand and opened his eye."
The world shifted.
Everything turned blood-red, it was no longer the world as humans saw it. Now, he could see the truth. The walls around him were no longer stone and cement. They were transparent thanks to his second eye that allowed him to see through every fabric. And inside the walls dozens of bodies were trapped. They mainly included children and girls in school uniforms. All frozen mid-scream, hands clawing at invisible cages, mouths locked open in eternal agony. Some were missing limbs. Some were hollowed out like dolls.
All of them were trapped, stitched into the walls themselves, their souls screaming silently into the void.
Cydal stared with curiosity,
Who had done this? What could they possibly hope to achieve?
He didn't have time to wonder.
THUD.
A loud crash outside the classroom window snapped him back to reality, it was like a pile of bodies collapsing all at once.
Before he could move, a new sound followed: a wet, tearing noise, like raw meat being chewed straight from the bone.
It was loud. Messy and vile.
And then
A flicker of digital lit in the air, right in front of his face:
[You have been challenged by a nearby player. Would you like to engage in a battle?]
[Yes] — [No] ?
Cydal ignored it, his instincts screaming at him to check the noise outside. Carefully, he moved to the cracked window and peered down.
There, on the courtyard floor, were more students, dozens of them and they were stripped naked, sprawled like broken dolls. Some had no faces. Some had their guts pooling beside them in sick puddles.
And crouched in the center of it all was something that once might have been human.
It was a boy thin and brittle as a corpse, his bones jutting sharply against his scrawny skin. His hair was a matted black tangle of dirt and dried blood, half-hiding the hollow pits where his eyes should have been. Black spots and deep wrinkles covered his gaunt face, giving him the look of something ancient and hungry.
He was dressed in nothing but the blood-soaked pants of their school uniform.
At that moment, the boy was hunched over a girl's body, tearing into her raw arm with sharp, wolf-like teeth. The crack of bone between his jaws echoed through the air, wet and sickening.
Slowly, the creature stopped chewing.
It licked the blood from its forearm with a long, almost loving swipe, then tilted its head up staring directly at Cydal through the window.
And smiled.
It was a hideous, unnatural smile, stretched too wide, filled with blood and splintered teeth.
Then, in a voice that was too cheerful, too slow to be anything but wrong, he said:
"Hello, Player Number One. I've finally met you!"
"I'll speak clearly," Gunserr said, his voice calm and eerily soothing. "I don't have the habit of beating around the bush. Father knows about your betrayal…and your attempt to kill him."
His eyes were glinting. "And as a result, I've been sent by him to eliminate you."
Cydal's face twisted with confusion, but before he could speak, Gunserr chuckled darkly.
"What's wrong, dear brother? Did you really think you were the only one Father created?" His smile widened. "Our creator made more than just you."
"He needs a powerful body and a soul like null, so you two were made and he also anticipated the possibility of betrayal, that's where I come in. I'm here to make sure everything stays in its rightful place."
"Father has grand plans for this world," Gunserr said, his tone laced with arrogance. "Your role in it is very minor. What he truly cares about… is Null, your second soul."
He gave a cruel smile and leaned in slightly.
"Why don't you hand it over, and we go our separate ways? I'm well aware your body isn't strong enough to stand a chance against me."
When Cydal silently took a stance, preparing for battle instead of surrendering, Gunserr burst into laughter.
"Fine," he said, eyes gleaming with mockery. "Shall we make it interesting, brother? Let's have a little duel. Winner takes Null. And if by some miracle you win…"
He smirked. "...I'll share my food with you."
He grinned wider, digging his hand into the eye socket of the dead boy and yanking out his bloodied eyeball.
"We as demons love fresh eyes from a young, tortured body..."
"It makes the meat even more tender, so I've made sure everything is kept perfect."
He held the dripping eye out toward Cydal, it was a grotesque offering, his fingers were twitching with excitement.
And somewhere behind the walls, the heartbeats, all those trapped, broken souls began to thump faster again.
Cydal said nothing. His eyes flickered, scanning the boy's anatomy layer by layer. Despite the scrawny, malnourished look, his muscle fibers were tightly compressed with strength like coiled steel. His bone density was off the charts, unnaturally high for someone who looked like a gust of wind could knock him down. Cydal estimated his level: somewhere between 25 and 30. Which might sound small but he was dangerous, specially when his own level was barely 23.
Although Cydal didn't seem convinced by his words or claims, he had a habit of studying his opponents thoroughly before making a move. So, he stayed silent and let Gunserr play his games.
"Were you the one stuffing those bodies into the walls?" Cydal asked with a calm voice.
The boy tilted his head, no, he twisted it almost a full quarter-turn past what should've been possible, vertebrae cracking like dry branches. He looked at Cydal with a grin that barely fit his face.
"Yeah," he said cheerfully. "Using my powers makes me really hungry and I hate battling with an empty stomach. So I hunted ahead of time and stocked up on some snacks for after our little match."
He licked his lips again, eyes gleaming behind his curtain of hair.
"I saved the tastier ones for dessert."
"The younger ones," he muttered, almost wistfully, "especially the girls… their flesh is so tender. It's really soft and juicy. I love the feeling when it slides down my throat, always so warm and twitching until it settles in my stomach."
He stood now, his bony frame unfolding like a shadow peeled from the floor. His bare feet made wet sounds as they stepped through the blood-soaked ground.
"So," he said, now facing Cydal with a twitch in his jaw, "are you accepting my challenge or not?"
"You're ruining my feast, y'know? Meat loses its flavor once the blood dries."
He smiled, wide and cracked and hungry. The room pulsed with the weight of his killing intent.
Cydal's screen finished scanning, and line by line, the player's information loaded.
[STATUS WINDOW]
Name: Gunserr
Level: 27
Class: Mutated Entity (Player)
Rank: B+
Species: Human (transcender)
Age: 17 years, 279 days
Affiliation: Unknown
Threat Rating: A-Grade
HP: 4,700 / 4,700
MP: 6,100 / 6,100
Strength: 410
Agility: 320
Speed: 370
Endurance: 500
Perception: 390
Intelligence: 610
Control (Power Mastery): 740
Corruption Index: 91%
Regeneration: Moderate
[Unique Ability: Flesh architect]
Effect Radius: Up to 150 meters
Drawback: Extreme hunger. Excessive power use demands organic mass to maintain form and sanity.
Cydal stopped reading the information and straightened himself.
"You keep mentioning the creator," Cydal said, voice steady but laced with challenge. "What do you know about him?"
"If you've got useful information, I'll take your duel. But if I win, I want everything. His location, his plans… even the hole he's hiding in."
A smirk tugged at the corner of his lips, though his face remained mostly expressionless.
"Just so you know, I'm good at hunting. I used to sniff out rabbits from deep underground and they were hidden better than your collection of bodies." Cydal looked at the corpses behind the walls as he finished his sentence.
"Oh, I know everything about him," Gunserr said with a cold grin. "Unlike you, I exist solely to serve our creator."
"Did you know that a normal human body would rot and die just trying to contain a soul like Null? The sheer weight of his presence would tear them apart."
He stepped closer, his voice turning sharper.
"But hybrids like us, part human, part demon can carry him without a scratch. That's why you're so easily replaced when more of us exist."
Cydal stared for a long moment, his breath steady.
"I don't know, I think the creator would be a little smarter than sending me a low ranked player like you and think it is enough to make me hand over null."
He stepped towards gunserr who was clearly very angry at the insults Cydal threw at him, as he walked dark power was radiating off him like a wave of heat.
"But I accept your challenge. You'd better fight seriously because when I'm done, I'll make sure you'll tell me everything."
Gunserr grinned back like a rabid hyena and in that moment, the entire hallway twisted. The distance warped unnaturally, stretching and shifting as if the school itself was breathing in reverse. Gunserr's body melted into the wall like paint washing off glass, while behind Cydal, the floor cracked open like rusted pipes bursting, except what leaked wasn't water. It was blood. Thick and dark and it reeked.
The corners of the hallway grew dense with shadows and bone. Skeletons were piled high, some human, others disturbingly larger, with twisted spines and elongated jaws. Some looked reptilian. The air stank of rot and wet iron.
"Huahuahua…" Gunserr's voice echoed from the walls, distorted and playful.
"Welcome to my domain, Player No. 1. Normally, a player needs to be at least level 80 to develop their own dungeon. But The Creator said I was special, i can create my own dungeons already at my current level."
His tone shifted to a taunt, thick with amusement.
"If you want to find me, you'll have to play a little game. I'm hiding somewhere and I want my waiting to be entertaining. So I'm sending you a few friends to play with first."
The voice cut out.
But something else began to growl, deep, wet, and guttural from the far end of the hallway. Then came the splash of heavy feet tearing through blood, fast and from multiple directions.
Cydal narrowed his eyes.
He wasn't alone anymore, there were at least 2 more enemies approaching from the ground and they were fast.
The screen flickered urgently.
[Warning: You are now surrounded by a pair of Grivarns.]
From the far end of the blood-slick corridor, two tall, hulking figures emerged, one slightly larger than the other, their footsteps heavy enough to shake the cracked tiles. As they drew closer, the full horror of their forms became clear.
Their bodies were coated in a patchwork of green and gray scales, thick as steel plating. Their faces twisted into elongated crocodilian maws, eyes burning a furious, molten red. Each movement was accompanied by a wet, scraping sound, as if their very existence tore at the world around them.
The male Grivarn was broader, his muscles bulging grotesquely beneath his armored skin. His claws were monstrous and longer than daggers and sharpened to a lethal sheen. His teeth looked designed for shearing through bone and flesh alike, but his tail dragged behind him like that of a normal crocodile, thick and heavy but not sharpened for slicing.
The female, however, was different and far more dangerous in Cydal's eyes.
Her frame was slightly leaner, her movements a bit slower but it was the tail that caught Cydal's full attention: the tail was jagged, bladed, serrated like a saw. Every time it dragged across the ground or scraped the walls, it carved deep, effortless gashes as if cleaving through paper.
He knew instantly that tail was the real threat.
The female broke into a sprint first, her movements feral but calculated. Mid-run, she vaulted, leaping high and landing behind Cydal with a heavy thud that sent cracks spiderwebbing through the blood-slick tiles.
As she closed the distance, the female Grivarn launched her bladed tail in a swift, lethal arc toward Cydal. He twisted his body, barely avoiding the strike—but before he could reposition, the male Grivarn lunged from the opposite side. With a feral roar, his claws slashed toward Cydal's chest.
The two moved in perfect sync, her tail sweeping from behind, his claws slashing from the front, forcing Cydal into a tight space with nowhere to run. Every step he tried to take was met with an attack. The pair danced around him like predators, driving him into a trap, cutting off his every angle with coordinated strikes that came from both ends; they were precise, relentless, and unforgiving.
Cydal narrowed his eyes, reading their body language with cold precision.
They're not stupid beasts, he thought grimly. They're trained. Or worse born for this.
Behind him, he could hear the female's jagged tail lightly scratching the floor in slow, almost taunting arcs, every movement a deadly promise that she would cut him to ribbons if he dared to retreat without caution.
Gunserr's laughter echoed from the shattered walls, his glitching voice making the very air tremble.
"Where are your weapons, Player No.1? What are you going to do now? Grivarn scales are tougher than any metal this world has ever forged! Bullets or arrows... nothing can pierce them!"
But Cydal barely heard him. He didn't need weapons. He rarely carried any anyway. His fighting style wasn't about brute force, it was about survival, instincts, and exploiting weaknesses.
The male Grivarn struck again, his massive claws slashing the ground where Cydal had stood a heartbeat earlier, sending shards of stone and sprays of blood-soaked dirt into the air. Cydal dodged, but just barely. For something so huge, the male moved disturbingly fast.
The female stayed on him like a shadow, always lurking behind, never attacking first, but waiting, watching, ready to punish the smallest mistake. He could feel the jagged whisper of her bladed tail slicing the air behind him every time he moved too close to her.
Cydal dropped into his animal-like stance low to the ground, his limbs coiled like springs, every muscle ready to defend or strike.
When the male lunged again and attacked, Cydal dodged the male's claws with a last-second backflip, the attack missing him by inches. But before his feet even touched the ground, the female Grivarn was already on him, her bladed tail slicing down in a deadly arc, aiming to cleave him in two.
He landed hard, barely finding his balance, then launched into a reverse backflip, flipping backward toward the male instead of away. The Grivarn smirked, claws gleaming as he slashed the ground in a devastating motion, fast and heavy enough to shatter stone. Dust, rubble, and blood sprayed into the air from the violent impact.
But when the smoke cleared, Cydal was gone.
In that brief blur of motion, he had slipped beneath the male's legs and climbed up his back like a shadow. Cydal's own clawed fingers dug deep into the scaled flesh, but to his grim expectation, his nails barely sank in, the monster's hide was like armor.
A moment later, the male roared and whipped his thick tail upward. The impact struck Cydal with brutal force, flinging him off like a ragdoll. Pain flared as his body hit the ground hard, bones rattling, but he forced himself to move as the male charged in again, swiping to grab him.
Cydal was hurled back toward the center of the bloodstained corridor, and the female didn't waste a heartbeat.
Her bladed tail whistled through the air in a deadly arc, aiming to cut him in half.
Even the male Grivarn dodged instinctively, clearly unwilling to get anywhere near that vicious weapon.
Cydal rolled to the side in the nick of time, the bladed tail slicing into the floor where he'd just been. Despite her lighter frame, the female wasn't fast in wide swings like that and Cydal noticed it.
She's fast at stalking, he realized. But when she strikes... She's slower. She needs to stay close to stay dangerous.
And now he had something he could use.
He stopped trying to outthink them.
Cydal lunged straight at the male, reckless and direct, daring the female to make her move.
He fired off a kick, then a punch, then another strike, each was more desperate than the last but they did nothing to the male Grivarn, attacks passed through his body and he didn't even flinch.
Cydal's footing slipped on the blood-slicked ground, but he kept moving, forcing the male Grivarn to react.
The male grew cocky, slashing wildly to scare him back. Again and again, he hammered his claws into the floor, sending shards flying, but Cydal dodged and weaved through the chaos, even taking a shallow scratch across his ribs.
The female crept closer behind him, her jagged tail gleaming, ready to deliver the killing blow.
Then it happened, both Grivarns attacked at once.
The male struck down, claws slamming into the floor with a roar, trying to force Cydal backward, while the female lashed out with her deadly tail to finish him off.
"Perfect!" Cydal said.
At the exact moment the male's claws embedded into the stone, Cydal kicked with all his strength, driving the creature's trapped claws even deeper into the ground.
The male snarled and struggled, but he was stuck.
Cydal didn't hesitate. As the female's bladed tail came whipping toward him, he leapt aside, and with no way to dodge, her tail sliced clean through the male's chest, killing him instantly.
The female froze, stunned by what she had just done.
Cydal didn't waste the moment.
He surged forward, claws flashing, and slit her throat in a clean, severing her head before she could even react.
Both bodies collapsed, but instead of hitting the floor, they began to dissolve, breaking down like rotten meat inside a stomach, releasing a sickly, toxic stench as they vanished.
From the walls, he heard a deep, grotesque growl.
It sounded like something huge... something hungry... and it wanted more.
"The Grivarns you sent me weren't real," Cydal said flatly, no excitement in his voice.
"Wha—?" Gunserr stuttered.
"You only knew the basic trick to kill Grivarns. Get them to kill each other with their own tails. It's a well-known method," Cydal continued, stepping over the dissolving blood.
"But I've hunted real ones before many times. It's true weapons bounce off their skin... but real Grivarns have a second weakness."
He paused briefly, watching Gunserr twitch.
"They have a weak spot on their back. If you hit it, and their defense collapses, it makes killing them easy."
"Ehh? Hehehe, that's true, huh?" Gunserr chuckled awkwardly.
"I guess my dungeon's a little different. I unlocked it early, so... the enemies act weird. It's a little different setting, you know?"
Cydal wasn't convinced. His cold stare said it all. The dungeon he was trapped in didn't feel like a real dungeon like other bosses used at all. It gave him an eerie sense of familiarity—almost like he was still in the school hallway, not some new and strange, living, breathing world. The feeling unsettled him. Nothing made sense yet, and answers were still out of reach. All he knew was that he had to find Gunserr and follow whatever instructions he had given.
He moved forward as the Wispods began to hum around him. Their shiny, jellyfish-like bodies glowed softly, reflecting the blood-stained ground beneath Cydal's feet.
Gunserr's voice echoed again, teasing.
"Aren't you gonna use them to heal? You took a pretty big beating."
But Cydal didn't even try attacking them, even they somehow felt wrong to him.
To be continued