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System Error: The Imp Who Shouldn’t Exist (Web Novel) - Chapter 214: Praise The Broodfather
Chapter 214: Praise The Broodfather
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Chapter 214: Praise The Broodfather
It was all too much for Min. Fear for herself and guilt over Lynn spiraled inside her like a twister. Her hands wouldn't stop shaking. Her stomach churned. It took a moment, but when she finally realized something was happening with the broodlings, she could barely find a braincell to care.
If Lynn had been pregnant, if her friend had been carrying a child, her boss's child, then failing to keep her alive was probably the greatest mistake of Min's life."We still need you."
A voice. Human and weak. It was Teal, still crouched with Ash's head resting in her lap.
Meeting her eyes, Min felt her guilt spike. The weight in her chest tightened. She felt like Teal could see straight through her.
"I fucked up. I fucked up bad."
Smiling weakly, Teal shook her head, brushing a strand of hair from Ash's face.
"Baal is the Demon Lord of Greed. Even the Kings fear him. There's nothing you could have done. There's nothing any of us could have done."
They weren't eloquent words. They didn't uncover some forgotten memory that suddenly made everything bearable. They were just logical. Logical enough to give Min something solid to stand on.
"Seo-jin is gonna kill me."
"No, I think he'll understand. Maybe not at first, but I think he's gonna have his hands full when he gets back. He'll have time to think it through."
Wiping at her face with the heel of her palms, Min felt her heartbeat begin to slow. The knot in her stomach didn't disappear, but it loosened enough. Enough for her to finally notice the world around them had been dyed crimson.
"Will you guys cut the light show?! You tryin' to tell the Freelands... that... what the fuck?"
The words died on her lips. She quickly looked back at Teal, but the girl only shrugged. Turning around again, the sight of bloodlight coagulating over the broodlings made her earlier problems vanish from her mind.
She ran over and repeatedly tried asking what was happening, but as the blood solidified around them, every broodling seemed to shut down. They still breathed, but none responded. Even when Min tried smacking one across the shoulder, there was nothing.
Unable to stop it, she could only watch as the blood eventually sealed over the brood completely.
"I'm fucked..."
"Maybe it's not a bad thing"
BOOM!
Widow's massive cocoon dropped from the webs above, slamming into the ground a few feet away and sending a tremor through the crater floor.
"How is this not bad?!"
"They didn't look upset. I bet it has something to do with the boss's class quest."
"His quest! That's gotta be itthat better fuckin' be it."
As Min continued to theorize and stress, the brood sat motionless inside their blood cocoons. The only movement came from a slow pulsing beneath the crimson shells, like living membrane tightening and relaxing. If Min or Teal had possessed the eyes for it, they would have seen something that would have made their throats tighten.
Souls were funneling into each cocoon. Souls of the damned, wailing and screaming as they were dragged inside. It wouldn't have been obvious, but if they had focused, they might have recognized some of the agonized faces twisting within the stream.
They were the souls of those killed by Seo-jin.
Makara, elves, snake-men, humans, and endless imps. Enemies Seo-jin had slain stretching all the way back to the Maw. All the way back to the Cradlebloom.
The souls stolen by the flower were being returned.
Only Grimm could watch and enjoy the spectacle. Still tasked with keeping watch over the group, he floated out of the crater and into the open air above. From there, he watched souls streak across the horizon in long crimson streams. A wave of anger and despair rolled through the sky, their screams blending into something that sounded almost like music to the ghost.
It took effort not to rush down and steal a few bites, but he knew they weren't meant for him. They were for his master's children.
The parade of the dead didn't last long. Eventually the glow of souls crossing the horizon began to thin, until the last one was dragged screaming into a cocoon. The moment it disappeared, all seven blood-pods let out a sound like a giant drum being struck.
Below, Min and Teal heard it and felt their blood turn to ice. Yellow aura hardening around her skin on instinct, Min had felt something like this before. A feeling that the world itself had been tainted, that even the air entering your lungs was corrupted and trying to kill you.
It was the same feeling she'd experienced every time she'd entered a Hell dungeon.
Movement to her right made her pulse jump as she spun toward one of the cocoons. Its surface swelled and contracted, each pulse larger than the last. With every expansion, the sound of voices grew louder. Different voices. Different tones. All harmonizing together until
The cocoon exploded.
Like a water balloon bursting, blood sprayed outward, only to freeze midair.
Within the suspended crimson, something that didn't look like a broodling began to rise. As it straightened, the motionless blood was pulled back toward it, coating the figure before sinking into its ash-gray skin.
Its head fell back as it stretched, and a massive scream tore from its throat, visibly warping the air around it.
Teal threw herself over Ash and clamped her hands over her ears. Min did the same, wincing as the sound hammered through her body. It felt like if the scream continued much longer, her organs would rupture inside her chest. Thankfully, the demon stopped.
Then it looked at Min.
She had no idea who she was looking at. Now well over five feet tall, the demon had long, straight black hair hanging around a face that still resembled a broodling's, though stretched and gaunt. Its mouth was too large. Its eyes looked like black voids. Dark horns rose from its brow before curling at the tips.
Its proportions were wrong. Arms too long for its body. Legs permanently bent at the knee. A tail lashed behind it, ending in a crescent-shaped bone blade that cut through the air with each movement.
If this was one of the broodlings, the transformation was immense. The most unsettling change, however, was its skin. No longer covered in hide, its body looked wrapped in pale, bruised human-like flesh. The sight alone made Min's bones shiver. So when wrinkles on its body suddenly opened their eyes and mouths, her stomach nearly emptied itself.
One face was set in its chest. The other sat under its arm along its ribs. She hadn't noticed them at first, but once their eyes opened they became impossible to ignore. Black eyes with crimson pupils locked onto Min with an uncomfortable familiarity.
Steam drifted from its fanged mouth as it finally spoke, the sound carrying through the crater.
"Broodspawn..."
A wicked grin spread across the demon's face. Opening its oversized mouth even wider, it reached an arm inside and pulled out a glowing black guitar. The blade of the axe's body caught the dim light beneath the web-covered crater.
The realization hit Min so hard she nearly choked.
"Hex? That you?"
Gripping the instrument, he struck the strings and sent a power chord vibrating through the air and into her chest.
"Hell yeah it is."
Without waiting for the answer to register, he raised an arm again as the air around him began to visibly tremble. The faces embedded in his body opened their mouths, bloodlight leaking from betwen their teeth.
"Don't stop prayin'! I like hearin' that part!"
His aura erupted outward, lifting his hair as crimson light spilled across the crater walls.
"JUST BEFORE THE SCREAMING STTAAAAAARRRRTTTTSSSS!!!!!"
His arm came down, and a wave of physical force tore outward, and four black portals opened in the ground around him.
From each one came music that matched his guitar, screaming through the crater as the openings slowly widened. One by one, four unique small demons rose from them, each carrying a different instrument.
Before Min could even begin to understand what she was seeing, Hex's song crashed through her skull. Bloodlight started detonating around the crater as the rest of the brood began emerging from their cocoons.
"GET YOUR FUCKING KNEES IN THE MUD!"
"PRAISE THE BROODFATHER!"
"Black-toothed saints come walkin' out the flood-water!"
All three faces sang in harmony while Hex's aura bled outward, merging with the bloodlight pouring from his siblings.
One by one, the rest of the brood emerged from their cocoons. Each one significantly changed.
----
Earlier, Seo-jin had dropped to his knees, claws digging into the flesh beneath him as bloodlight flooded every part of his being. The glow filled his vision and pulsed through his veins with every heartbeat.
He couldn't think.
He couldn't move.
He could only stare at the panel hanging within the darkness of his vision. The rest of the world had become distant and muffled. All he could hear was the voice of the System as it calmly began reading the details.
[System // Notification]
[Class Advancement // Initiated]
[System // Warning // Corruption Detected] [Source // Cradlebloom Contamination] [Scanning Host........Scanning Core Shard........Scanning Class Structure........]
[Error // Class Tree Integrity / Compromised]
[System // Action]
[Beginning Emergency Repairs]
........................
[Repair Progress // 12%]
[Removing Foreign Growths]
[Removing False Authority]
[Removing Unauthorized Restrictions]
........................
[Repair Progress // 47%]
[Restoring Missing Functions]
[Restoring Class Diagnostics]
[Restoring Evolution Tracking]
........................
[Repair Progress // 83%]
[Class Tree Detected]
[Core Shard Link Detected]
[Warning]
[Redundant Structures Found]
[System // Action]
[Merging Compatible Frameworks]
........................
[Repair Progress // 100%]
[System // Notification]
[Emergency Repairs Complete]
[Class Tree Integration // Complete]
[Core Shard Integration // Complete]
[Full Class Diagnostics Available]
[System // Notification]
[Analyzing Advancement Requirements]
........................
[Class // Broodspawn]
[Calculating Advancement Path] [Calculating Bloodline Compatibility] [Calculating Brood Development]
........................
[Error]
[Advancement Requirements Not Met]
[Requirement]
[Minimum Brood Level // 20]
[Current Status // Requirement Failed]
[System // Searching Solutions]
........................
[Recovering Reserved Resources]
[Recovered Experience]
[Recovered Soulmass]
[Source // Cradlebloom Contamination] [Stolen Kills]
[Stolen Growth]
[Corrupted Rewards]
[System // Decision]
[Host Advancement Delayed]
[Priority Directive // Brood Development Required]
[Reallocating Resources....]
[Experience Redirected]
[Soulmass Redirected]
[Target // Registered Brood Units]
[System Override Authorized]
[Activating Blood Stasis]
[!! Warning !!]
[External Consent Not Required]
........................
[Blood Stasis Active]
[Experience Distribution Commencing]
[Units // Broodlings // Requirement Met]
........................
[Brood Average Level Verified]
[Advancement Requirement Satisfied]
[Remaining Experience Detected]
[System // Reallocating Excess]
[Host Level Increased]
[Level Up +3]
[System // Notification]
[Host Advancement Requirements Complete]
[Class Advancement Resuming]
[Preparing Ascension Path....Scanning Bloodline...Scanning Core Shard...Scanning Brood...Scanning Soul Integrity...]
........................
[Class Advancement Beginning...]
Lightning erupted in Seo-jins body as he felt his very DNA being overwritten, like each individual strand was being scrapped with a razor and retied in haste.
As his body convulsed, the voice continued to read.
[Advancement Phase I]
[Initiating Brood Advancement]
[Evolution Requirement Satisfied]
[Eligible Units Detected]
[System Override Authorized]
[Beginning Forced Advancement]
........................
[Evolution Successful]
[Broodling Broodspawn]
[Brood Advancement Complete]
[System // Notification]
[Advancement Phase II]
[Expanding Resource Capacity]
[Soulmass Capacity // 84 100]
[Soul Integrity // 67% 70%]
For a single heartbeat, Seo-jin felt every cell in his body stretch. Then came the agony. Something tore through his veins, his bones and organs. His flesh felt too small. Too weak. Too narrow for whatever was trying to force itself into existence inside him.
Bloodlight erupted from every pore.
His back arched violently as a scream tore from his throat, shaking the flesh dungeon.
[System // Notification]
[Class Diagnostics Available]
[Analyzing Redundancies...]
........................
[Redundancies Mapped]
[System Skills]
[Class Skills]
[Compatibility // 100%]
[System Action]
[Merging Skill Structures...Deleting Obsolete Frameworks...]
........................
[Merge Complete]
[New Authority Granted]
[Tyrant's Aura // S+ // Unlocked]
[Genesis Pit // S+ // Unlocked]
[Mark of Dominion // S+ // Unlocked]
[Sovereign Flesh // S+ // Unlocked]
[Blood Edict // S+ // Unlocked]
[Dominion Scar // S+ // Unlocked]
[Tyrant's Mandate // S+ // Unlocked]
[System // Notification]
[Kingdom System Available]
The pain reached its peak. Bloodlight burst from Seo-jin in a spiraling pillar. It climbed higher and higher, twisting like a crimson tornado around his kneeling body.
Beside him, Pain's cocoon cracked.
A second later, Panic's followed.
The entire cavern began to shake.
Cracks raced across the walls. Across the flesh. Across the dungeon itself.
The bloodlight pulsed...and everything shattered. The fake dungeon exploded apart like glass.
The cold reality of the Freelands slammed back into place.
His bloodlight continued raging upward.
A crimson beacon visible for miles.
Then one final screen filled Seo-jin's vision.
[System // Notification]
[Class Advancement Successful]
[Class // Brood King]
................
Just as the world began to still, the fiery rush of the transformation cooling, a cold, detached male voice rung in his mind.
[Network Notification]
[King Shard Detected]
