Published at 14th of July 2026 8:27 am

Chapter 226: A New Slims

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Chapter 226: A New Slims

It was cold. That was the only thought drifting through Slims' mind as he floated within Seo-jin's pocket dimension. He tried at first to look around, but quickly discovered there was no light. Nothing to see, no sound, no sensation beyond the chill pressing against his skin. To keep himself from panicking, he squeezed his eyes shut and focused instead on his breathing, then the steady beat of his heart. Anything to keep his mind from wandering.

It was a good thing he didn't have to endure it for long. Slims was hyper by nature, always talking, always joking. People only ever saw the surfacethe loudmouth who never stopped moving and always found a way to become the center of attention. But that was just an act. Left alone with his thoughts, the things he worked so hard to outrun always found their way back.

'I'm not alone... I'm not alone... I'm not alone...'

As he clung to the words, he never realized they had already stopped being true. The Corruption had begun.

It started with the cold.

First it stung...then it bit. It crept across his skin before sinking into his veins, riding his blood to every organ and spreading through him like a virus. It moved without hesitation, uncaring of the pain it carried with it as his muscles locked tighter with every passing heartbeat.

Icicles formed inside his blood while frost spread across his skin. It was a temperature no thermometer could have measured, not because it was too cold, but because of where it came from. This wasn't natural cold. It wasn't something that obeyed physics or logic. It was older than either. Something buried. Something forgotten.

As the Corruption deepened, Slims' thoughts froze alongside his body. His whispered mantra died away until only the distant thump of his heart remained, muffled beneath the ice, the last proof he was still alive.

Within the darkness of the Twinback Growths, Slims' body slowly curled inward until he lay folded into the fetal position. Frost spread from him in thick layers, sealing him inside a growing mass of jagged ice that creaked softly as it expanded.

At its center, Slims began to bleed.

Blood seeped from every pore and every opening, running silently into the frozen chamber until the core became a deep crimson pool. The color glowed through the surrounding ice, staining the pale crystal red from within.

Then the voices began.

Young and childlike. Mature and bitter. Angry. Afraid. Laughing. Crying. Every age. Every emotion. Every voice was Slims, as memories poured from the frozen cocoon alongside the mist spilling from its surface.

A laugh shared between friends. Split-jaw punching his shoulder.

Screams of terror as the Cherub burned everything in sight.

Sobbing beneath cold rain, pulling a tattered coat tighter while an empty stomach twisted. A child sprinting from a market stall, stuffing moldy bread into his mouth before the vendor could catch him.

Hiding beneath broken concrete while shard users cleared a dungeon overhead. Too terrified to move. Too fascinated to look away. Envy burning hot in his chest.

The family that farmed together.

The couple who laughed as they walked past him.

The gangs and their territories.

The shard users.

Envy soaked every corner of those memories. He wanted all of it for himself. Family. Power. Respect. A place to belong. A home. He wanted everything they had, yet none of it had ever been his. Growing up an orphan on the streets of Shatterbay had carved one lesson into him deeper than any scar.

Without strength, you deserved nothing.

Another memory bled from the ice crystal, one violent enough to make it shudder.

Inside an F-rank Beast dungeon, beneath the body of the User he'd just bashed over the head with a rock, lay the thing he'd envied more than anything else. A Shard of his own. C-rank.

The corpse was dragged aside, leaving the glowing cube waiting for him. The only part of the memory that refused to come clearly was the woman's name. She'd only ever used him to carry her loot, but he would never forget her face.

It was the last thing he saw before pressing the cube into his chest.

The crimson core bubbled once, then again. It kept churning until the entire center became a frothing mass of blood, thick and restless. Hairline cracks slowly spread across the ice, branching from the core until the whole crystal was laced with fractures that groaned under the pressure.

Another memory surfaced.

Solid.

Black.

Thicker and sharper than the rest, darker than the darkness surrounding him. Within that absolute void, two red eyes opened, and from somewhere inside the crystal, Slims' distorted voice echoed.

"Praise the Broodfather."

The crystal burst apart with a deafening crack, shards of ice and crimson mist blasting outward as bloodlight flooded the empty space. At its center, Slims stood in his new form, cold vapor rolling from his body.

He had no idea how long he'd been standing there, or how long the Corruption had taken. It felt like years and only a few seconds at the same time. Before he could make sense of it, a pull tightened inside him, steady and impossible to ignore.

The Broodfather was calling.

----

Watching the chunks of meat rapidly pull themselves together, Seo-jin's black heart began to beat a little faster.

[This is fun.]

'It's like opening a chest.'

Bones solidified while muscles and organs knitted together with veins and tendons. Skin wrapped over them until Slims stood there once more in his normal human form, steam still curling from his body.

[Huh?]

'That's my line.'

Brows furrowing, Seo-jin circled him, examining every inch. He even activated Soul Sight, his gaze sweeping slowly over Slims' body.

"How do you feel?"

Fully formed, Slims stood completely naked but didn't seem to care in the slightest. He was too busy turning his hands over, flexing his fingers, and looking himself up and down.

"Powerful. But why do I look the same?"

"I'm not sure..."

Stopping in front of him, Seo-jin let his glowing eyes linger for another moment before dismissing Soul Sight.

"You haven't changed much physically, but your soul is completely different. Check your System. See what it says."

As Slims pulled up his panel, Seo-jin finally noticed a visible change. The amber in Slims' eyes was gone, replaced by a pitch-black void.

"Holy shitI mean, unholy shit."

Slims' grin spread wider with every line he read, his finger tracing down the panel.

"My rank went up!"

Seo-jin frowned. That alone wasn't impressive.

"Some stat growth is expected. What else?"

"No, Boss. Not my statsmy Shard ranked. It was C, now it's A-rank. How is that even possible? Race changes are rare, but they happen. I've never heard of one affecting a Shard. A class, maybe, but this? Boss... do you"

"What else?"

Slims blinked.

"But Boss? You"

"It's fine. Move on."

Seo-jin already knew what Slims wanted to say. If becoming one of his demons increased a person's Shard by two full ranks, then he possessed the power to shift the balance of the entire world. Humanity would have to rethink who it followed.

The Five Kings wouldn't be able to ignore that.

Letting out a slow breath but still visibly distracted by the implications, Slims continued, though his excitement had dimmed a little.

"Well, my stats did go up. Ten points each, so I'm C-Rank now. I still aven't unlocked a class tree, but the requirements are there."

Something about the look on Slims' face made Seo-jin narrow his eyes. He knew that expression. Slims only wore it when he was messing with someone.

"Slims."

"My bad..."

The warning in Seo-jin's voice told him he'd been caught. Swallowing his smirk, the newly spawned demon finally scrolled to the part he'd really wanted to show.

"The reason I still look human is because I'm in my human form. Just like you Boss, I have a demon form too."

Something shifted in the atmosphere.

Looking around, Slims quickly realized they were surrounded by demons he'd never seen before, yet somehow recognized. Every set of eyes was fixed on him, and every one of them looked like they were only seconds away from tearing him apart.

He realized his mistake immediately.

"Not that we're the same! Totally didn't mean that. You the boss, me nothing."

"Shut up and show me."

Slims snapped to attention and threw up a salute.

"Yes, Boss!"

With one last grin, Slims began to transform.

It started with bloodlight, which caught Seo-jin off guard. It seeped from Slims' eyes first, then spread across the rest of his body in rippling waves until it completely swallowed him. A moment later, something that sounded like the distant roar of a demonic beast rolled through the air, vibrating faintly in their chests, and the bloodlight vanished.

"How do I look?"

"Cute."

Everyone turned to Widow. The demoness stood with her eyes glued to Slims' completely naked body.

Only then did he seem to remember he wasn't wearing anything. His grin faltered as he hurriedly covered himself with both hands.

His skin was a patchwork of healthy flesh and rotting meat, while sections of his body had been peeled open, leaving ribs exposed and forearms stripped completely of skin as well as exposed muscle and bone in various other places. The flesh that remained kept its natural color, but the muscles beneath was black, thick, and corded like steel cables. His legs had lengthened, bending backward at the knees before ending in oversized feet balanced on their toes.

The overall shape of his body was lean and gaunt, but every movement carried the weight of a predator. His face had changed the most. His eyes were gone, replaced by two horns jutting up from empty sockets wrapped in drifting bloodlight. His jaw had widened, exposing rows of long fangs that clicked together when he spoke.

"Watch this."

Turning his head, the horns settled on one of the brood.

"That you, Pain?"

The burning Broodspawn answered with a nod.

"Toss something up for me, would ya?"

Pain's lip curled, exposing his fangs as a growl rumbled from deep in his chest, but one look from the Broodfather was enough to make him comply. Glancing around, he spotted what remained of a rusted car engine. His claws bit into the corroded metal as if it were clay, and he lifted it effortlessly with one hand.

"Now?"

"Go ahead."

Pain growled again and hurled the engine like a speeding rocket, putting a little extra force behind the throw as payback for Slims' attitude.

With his expression unchanged, Slims turned and raised both arms. The bones in his forearms cracked and spread into the familiar shape of his repeater crossbows. Bloodlight gathered along the frames, and two heavy cracks split the morning air

BOOM!

Almost the instant the bone bolts left the bows, the engine block detonated in the distance. Flaming fragments spun through the air, and the speed of the shots left everyone staring.

Pain gave a slow nod, looking at Slims with a little more respect.

Following the burning debris with his eyes, Seo-jin smiled.

"Not bad. How do you reload?"

Slims' grin stretched even wider beneath his new mouth as he tapped one of his arms.

"Each arm holds twelve bolts, so when I'm out..."

He swung both crossbows toward a stand of trees and emptied them. Shot after shot hammered out in rapid succession, faster than Seo-jin expected. Bark exploded, trunks snapped, and within seconds the patch of forest had become a smoking clearing.

"Then I reload like this."

Crossing his arms over his chest, Slims reached into his exposed ribcage. With a wet crack, in one quick movement he tore free all twenty-four ribs and lifted them into view.

Almost impossibly, each rib folded and slid into the openings in his forearms. Wet clicking echoed with every piece that disappeared into place.

"Fucking badass, huh? I can also poison the shots by stabbing the bolts into my organs. Each one does something different too. My liver causes Bleed, my stomach causes burning"

"That's enough. Besides the poisons, is there anything else?"

"Other than my lifespan being quadrupled? Nope, that's it."

With Slims finished, it was time to focus on his own rewards. Seo-jin waved him off after having Widow spin him a set of clothes. Through the Broodlink, he could already feel Hex practically vibrating with excitement. Slims and Hex had grown close through their shared love of music, and seeing his friend become a demon like him had all three of Hex's faces talking over one another.

[Two ranks is unexpected. You'll have to run some tests and see whether the original rank of the Shard affects the increase. If you're still capable of raising A-rank Shards, the implications are obvious. Every A-rank User would flock to your banner if they believed they could become S-rank... or even S+.]

'True... but how is this even possible? Ranking a Shard is even rarer than changing someone's race. I thought only the Network could do that.'

[Let's be honest. Your Shard has already proven it's anything but normal. You've ranked yourself up simply by evolving. I've never heard of that either. Or a demon being a User. Being surprised at this point doesn't make much sense.]

'Still doesn't answer the question.'

[Maybe it's time you went back. I doubt you're going to find answers on Earth.]

Looking over his brood, Seo-jin found himself lingering on the thought.

Going back to the Maw.

It was where everything had started, so it made sense. He just didn't know if he was ready.

Turning the idea over, he pulled up his panel and opened his latest notifications. He planned to read each one carefully afterward, but as his eyes swept down the list, they locked onto the final entry. His pulse kicked, and his fingers tightened around the edge of the panel.

[Due to becoming the Progenitor of two demonic races, User has unlocked the Hidden Quest Requirement // Become a Demon Lord]

"Become a Demon Lord?"

The words vibrated across his tongue.

Slowly, almost carefully, he reached out and pressed the notification as though it might disappear.

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