Published at 3rd of September 2026 8:17 am

Chapter 245: A Feast Of Blood

This chapter is updated by JustRead.pl

Chapter 245: A Feast Of Blood

From above the battle, Snare stared down at Min and the three Woon sisters as his face slowly pulled into a smirk. Explosions flashed across his golden ram horns while his black robes snapped in the wind. On his forehead, thin wisps of bloodlight leaked from the corners of his closed third eye.

"What do you want me to do about her?"

A strange voice spoke from behind him, low and high tones overlapping as if two voices were speaking at once.

Watching the confrontation below for another moment, the broodspawn finally turned.

"If she fights seriously, kill her."

"You sure?"

Eyes flaring red, he turned back toward the street below.

"I will take responsibility."

"You better."

The roof suddenly shook beneath Snare's feet as Slims landed behind them.

"There you are. Fuck, John! Did you get even bigger? How many did you eat?"

"All of them."

Turning away from Slims and Snare, John stepped to the edge of the ruined building. Two small sources of green light within a churning mass looked down and watched the battle below.

Gone was the human.

In his place stood a humanoid mass of dark, wet chitin, thick plates overlapping across his shoulders, chest, and limbs like natural armor. But between those dark grey plates, there wasn't flesh. Thousands of insects crawled over one another where John's body should have beenbeetles, roaches, centipedes, and things too small to make out, constantly shifting beneath the shell. Even his head was little more than armored chitin wrapped around the swarm, broken only by two glowing green eyes, and crowned with two large horns, each tipped with a tri-pronged barb. A dark neon-green aura seeped through the gaps between his plates, washing over the insects as they writhed beneath them.

Taking a step, John dropped like a boulder toward the street below...yet no sound followed his landing.

Tilting his head, Slims' smile stretched unnaturally wide. With the snap of a rib, he loaded his arm and stepped up beside Snare.

"How come I didn't get to A-rank? John's Shard was worse than mine. Doesn't seem fair."

Snare gave a short, mocking laugh.

"Your potential is shit. Simple as that, half-breed."

"Dude! That's racist, man."

Feigning offense, Slims shook his head and fired his bolt without even looking. A moment later, a man's scream rose from the street below.

----

"What brings you prissy bitches down from your tower?"

Slamming her fists together, Min cracked her neck and settled in for a fight.

Talk some shit first, then beat their asses. She couldn't think of a finer plan.

All three Woon sisters lowered themselves to the street, each taking stock of the battlefield as their feet touched broken concrete. Vent bugs continued to surge around them in a churning mass, but as if under orders, the swarm gave Min and the sisters a wide berth.

Ji-yoon watched a pair of fresh skeletons bob along the surface before disappearing into the swarm as if swept downstream. Whistling, she shook her head.

"You've always been an idiot. Just never thought you were this dumb."

Lifting one hand, Hye-jin walked toward Min as strands of blood pulled free from the carnage around them. Thin streams snaked through the air from every direction, gathering around her fingers.

"The Church was one thing. We could have overlooked that. Now you gotta be dealt with. And Min, know that I've always hated you, and I'm going to enjoy every fucking second of this."

Laughing, Min dropped into her stance, lowering her weight with one leg set slightly behind her.

"You've always hated me 'cause I turned you down, you disease-ridden fuck sock."

Ji-yoon choked back a laugh, quickly forcing it down when Hye-jin shot her a look.

Stepping between Hye-jin and Min, Yu-na leaned close and whispered to her sister.

"We need information first."

Before Hye-jin could argue, Yu-na moved closer to Min, careful not to step too close.

"Everyone just calm down. I'm sure Min has an explanation. Before we start killing each other, why don't we all just talk? No one else has to die, let's just"

"Fuck off!"

The street cracked like a cannonshot as Min launched forward. Hye-jin yanked Yu-na back with one hand and threw the other forward, sending the blood gathered around her fingers bursting outward. In the blink of an eye, it spread into a massive web that shot across the street and wrapped around Min mid-charge.

Bound tight, she slammed into the ground hard enough to crack the concrete, momentum dragging her forward as her body carved a trench through the street before she ground to a stop.

Dark-green light flared as Ji-yoon summoned a smooth staff of black wood. She struck its end against the street, her aura surging with the impact as a massive oal tree erupted beneath Min. Its trunk split and twisted around the struggling woman, growing thicker and tighter until the wood locked around her like a vise.

Yellow light surged through the gaps in the trunk as Min strained against it, wood creaking beneath the pressure, but no matter how hard she fought, she couldn't break free.

"Cuntsfight fair!"

Lighting a cigarette against the tip of her staff, Ji-yoon took a drag and laughed.

"Only a dumbass would say that. At least die with some dignity."

Lifting her staff, Ji-yoon began gathering mana around its tip, but Yu-na rushed forward and forced the weapon down.

"Don't kill her!"

"Why not?!"

"Because I'm gonna do it."

Stepping beside the massive tree, Hye-jin pressed her palm against the rough bark, and began to chant.

Recognizing the spell she was casting, both sisters had very different reactions. Ji-yoon's brow rose, and half a breath later, she was already retreating. Yu-na, on the other hand, dropped to her knees.

The spell her sister was casting couldn't be stopped once started, not without the caster suffering severe backlash. Caught between loyalties, Yu-na's mind went blank as the pressure from the gathering mana continued to build.

Reaching the end of her incantation, Hye-jin's aura spiked. Rivulets of blood lifted from the ground and trailed up her body.

"What the hell, Yu-na?!"

Appearing beside her, Ji-yoon grabbed Yu-na and struck her staff against the ground. Massive roots burst through the street beneath them, twisting together as they lifted and carried both women away.

Just in time.

Finishing her spell, Hye-jin pulled her hand from the tree. She took a step back, and a ring of red light rippled beneath her foot, followed by a single clear note that rang through the entire city. After three steps and three notes, she stopped.

Red vapor leaked from his lips.

"Blood Plague."

Instantly, the sky darkened.

Watching from nearly a mile away, Ji-yoon tossed her sister down and spun back to the battle, smiling madly as the sun disappeared.

"Love this spell."

Hye-jin's plan was obvious. For one person, this spell was overkill. Her sister clearly wanted to kill a thousand birds with one stone.

Looking across the Bone Gears' territory, blood was everywhere. It sat pooled across the streets, sprayed over walls, dripping from rubble, already beginning to coagulate. The moment the sky darkened, all of it responded. Ripples flattened, falling drops froze in place, and every quivering clotted clump became perfectly still.

Lowering to one knee, Hye-jin bowed her head and drove a fingernail into her palm until it pierced the skin. She raised her bleeding hand over the street and let a single drop fall.

When it struck the ground, the final note rang out.

Above the ruined streets, high over the massive tree trapping Min, an immense shadow took shape. It spread across half a mile in seconds, swallowing everything beneath it before a colossal hand descended from the darkness. Its skin was a sickly yellow, its fingers were tipped in rotted, cracked nails and were covered in rusted metal rings while bracelets of bone crowded its wrist.

Reaching toward the ground, the massive hand extended a single finger...and pressed its tip against the street.

The hand vanished. The shadow went with it, and every drop of blood across the territory burst into a red mist

A heartbeat later, the vapor snapped back to where it had come from, splattering across streets, Vent bugs, buildings, bodies, and rubble before immediately spreading and eating into whatever it touched.

At first glance, it could have been mistaken for acid. But the blood wasn't simply dissolving what it touched. Organic or non-organic, whatever came into contact with began to corrupt, swelling into cancerous growths before rotting away so quickly the entire process blurred together.

Most of the Vent bugs had already passed through the area in pursuit of the survivors, but those still nearby vanished almost instantly, collapsing into piles of sludge as the Blood Plague consumed them.

The giant oak tree appeared to have some resistance. Although its bark had completely reddened from trunk to leaves, it held its form while the plague spread across its surface and burrowed deeper.

As the corruption began spreading deep within, Hye-jin's head snapped up, her eyes widening

"She's resisting? How?!"

As she got to her feet, she froze mid-stride when a layered voice answered.

"Not her. Me."

The voice seemed to come from somewhere inside the tree and everywhere around her all at once. Then she noticed the movement.

At the edges of the plague's range and throughout the tree itself, bugs of every kind wriggled through the dark.

They were eating the plague.

Centipedes, beetles, spidersanything that crawled. Thousands of tiny mouths tore into the corruption, gorging on her spell as if it were nothing.

Reacting quickly, she traced a glowing sign in the air, her finger moving so fast it blurred. The intricate symbol hung before her as she finished the pattern, gathering her mana

She jumped back as something punched into the ground where she'd just stood.

An arrow made of bone.

Three more struck in rapid succession, forcing her back with each jump. Before she could begin another spell, the insects surged toward the tree from every direction, stripping the entire field clean of her precious plague.

Completely stunned, she faltered as the last traces of Blood Plague disappeared beneath the crawling mass. The swarm poured together, bodies climbing over bodies until they packed themselves into a single shape, and a demon rose from within them.

As the last centipede disappeared beneath his chest plate, John's body pulsed with the red of the plague he'd consumed. The color throbbed between the gaps in his chitin for several moments before fading, his dark neon-green aura swallowing it completely.

"Need me to get you out?"

As if answering his question, the already wilted tree exploded behind him in an eruption of yellow light.

With burning wood raining around them, Min stepped up beside him, her face completely blank.

"Deal with the other two. This bitch is mine."

Before he could respond, the wind suddenly picked up as both their faces were washed in red light.

Hye-jin had fully unleashed her aura, its pressure climbing into the sky. Being B-rank herself, she could tell immediately that the newcomer was definitely A. If her sisters joined her, they might stand a chance against a lower A-rank, but Min wanted her one-on-one, leaving the other two to face the bug demon. She couldn't allow that.

Burning through the last of her mana, Hye-jin moved to unleash her trump cardbut the demon was already gone.

"Stop!"

She spun to follow, when a sudden pressure at her back stopped her cold.

"Never look away!"

Before she could turn, Min's fist buried itself in her ribs. The bones broke with a sharp series of cracks, and the impact ripped her off her feet. She launched across the street like a loosed arrow.

Following right behind her, Min chased Hye-jin through the collapsing line of buildings, laughing wildly as concrete and glass crashed down around them.

Watching their sister disappear into the rubble, Ji-yoon and Yu-na immediately gathered mana to rush to her aid, but a sudden crash behind them shook the street and sent both women cursing as they leapt back.

"Focus on attack!"

Before she even landed, Ji-yoon raised her staff. Light burst from its tip as vines and thick roots tore through the street beneath the demon, snapping around his arms, legs, and torso before wrenching tight.

Following her lead, Yu-na's ring radiated black light as the color drained from her pupils. She chanted several words in a strange language, and multiple bone spears ripped from the ground, hammering into John and shattering instantly.

The demon didn't even flinch, he just took a single casual step, and the vines and roots wrapping him snapped apart.

"We need all of us!"

Gripping her staff with both hands, Ji-yoon's aura spiked as she drove it toward the ground. The instant the staff struckher aura vanished.

"JI-YOON!"

Yu-na's scream cut through the chaos as she watched helplessly. John's arm was buried through her sister's chest. With a wet pull, he ripped it free, leaving Ji-yoon's body to crumple as blood poured from the hole.

Holding a still-beating heart in his palm, John brought it toward his face. Insects spilled from the gaps in his chitin, hundreds of tiny legs closing around the bloody organ before dragging it inside.

Share