Published at 23rd of September 2026 8:07 am

Chapter 252: A Demon For A Demon

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Chapter 252: A Demon For A Demon

He knew it was coming, but that didn't help at all. The moment the last piece of Cardinal Chelk disappeared down his throat and Savage Feed ended, pain tore through Seo-jin so violently he thought he was gonna die.

[You're a crazy bastard, you know that, right?]

'Shut up and hurry!'

[Already on it.]

The plan had been simple. Seo-jin knew the Cardinal would be almost impossible to kill once he tried to ascendwhich he knew he wouldand during the fight, his suspicion had been confirmed. In his angel form, Chelk's vitality had skyrocketed. Other than hoping Desecrate would be enough, Savage Feed had been his only option.

Using what it had learned when Seo-jin ate the cherub, the Voice had created a dedicated absorption routine designed to process the Cardinal's energy without killing him. The plan only had two problems: the process would take time, and Seo-jin's health had to be maintained for the entire duration.

[System // Notification]

[Absorption Routine // OMEGA // Initiated]

[Optimizing Internal Energy Pathways........Confirmed]

[Establishing Optimal Absorption Route........Confirmed]

[Executing OMEGA Absorption Routine]

It felt like his insides had liquefied and started to boil. His body fought to hold itself together while the routine initialized, but with every burning pulse through his flesh, he could feel the Light Element consuming his life-force.

Through the seizures, he caught sight of the notification he'd been waiting for, and made a mental note to reward Grimm when this was all over.

[Feed // Activated]

The pain remained, but he felt his body stabilize slightly as Feed began replacing what the Light was burning away. Then the absorption routine finally took over.

[OMEGA Absorption Routine // Initialization Complete]

[Internal Energy Pathways // Stable]

[Absorption Route // Stable]

[Feed Support // Active]

[Life-Force Regulation // Active]

[System Performance // 100%]

[Estimated Processing Time // 30min 00sec]

'Thirty minutes?!'

[Unless you prefer exploding.]

He couldn't even manage a response as another seizure locked his muscles, his back arching against whatever was carrying him as Light burned through his veins. Feed fought to replace the health being stripped away, while the OMEGA Routine forced Chelk's energy through the pathways the Voice had established.

Then, little by little, the pain began to ease.

It didn't disappear. His insides still felt raw, and every pulse of Light sent fire through his bones, but the feeling of being cooked alive slowly faded into something he could endure. His breathing steadied between clenched teeth, and for the first time since swallowing Chelk, he could feel something other than the angel tearing him apart.

His Bloodlight was pushing back.

Crimson energy poured from the cracks in his black skin, spreading across his body as the Light continued trying to burn its way out. At first, the two energies tore at each other wherever they met, flashes of white and red bursting across his flesh. But as the OMEGA Routine continued processing what he'd consumed, the bloodlight stopped giving ground.

[OMEGA Absorption Routine // Stable]

[All Systems // 100%]

[Processing........]

Letting his head fall back, he was too exhausted to do much more than breathe as bloodlight continued spilling from his body. The Light was still there, still burning, but it wasn't consuming him anymore. For the next thirty minutes, all he could do was let the System work and trust Feed to keep him alive.

Which meant he was out of the fight, and after losing Bile, the thought of his children fighting alone bothered him more than he realized.

Through the Broodlink, he could still feel them, but he didn't have the strength to focus on any one presence for long. His eyes slipped shut as another wave of heat rolled through his body, barely weaker than the last.

----

Outside Seo-jin's world of pain and Light, his body lay flat against the broken street, surrounded by the Brood. Snare stood over him with both hands wrapped around his staff, his eyes fixed on his father, while Panic kept guard nearby, eyes constantly moving and nose working overtime.

The others were buried inside a random corpse as more and more monsters from the Freelands dropped from the sky. The second one hit the ground, John's bugs swarmed over it for the kill, leaving the fresh body ready for the next Broodspawn to crawl inside and Feed.

Still staring at Seo-jin, Snare let out a long, tired breath and tightened his grip.

"Change of plan."

Looking up at the demons floating in front of the portal, Snare felt his blood begin to simmer beneath his skin.

"Broodlings! Come here."

From the nearby shadows, two cowering newbies shuffled toward him. One more upright, with greenish skin and a pointed jawline. The other was more hunched, with grey skin covered from head to toe in what looked like scars.

The first two born from the Genesis Pool.

"Both of you are not allowed to fight"

Their reaction was exactly what Snare expected. Both broodlings growled and shifted forward to protest, but a pulse of pressure from his bloodlight quieted them quickly.

"You are the first to be born from the pools. I will not allow you to die on your first day. Slims, keep them alive."

Running a finger along an exposed rib, Slims stretched his oversized mouth into a wide grin.

"You got it, boss."

"Bug, Law, Fang, you three stay with them. All of you continue to Feed, Sin will be in charge and act as back-up. Broodfather's life will be in your hands. Understand that failure is not an option."

They all responded properly, without a single argument or complaint.

Another batch of monsters dropped from above, hitting the broken streets as swarms of John's Vent bugs rushed over them and quickly silenced their struggles.

"Synapse, build a structure around Broodfather. Put absolutely everything into defense."

Pulling his eyes away from the brains floating in the vat on his back, Synapse immediately got to work, calling for bodies to be dragged over as he prepared the structure.

Snare turned his attention to the rest. Panic, Hex, Widow, and Tomb.

"You four with me."

A question from Widow stopped him just as he turned to leave.

"What about Pain?"

"He will join us when he's done."

Looking west, Snare's eyes glowed for a brief moment before a sneer pulled at his face and he turned back toward the demons in the sky.

"He won't be long."

A red glow was already beginning to build in the distance. Ivan Cho was still alive, and Snare wished he could be there to watch his death, but his attention was needed elsewhere.

He had distant kin to deal with first.

----

Everything was moving far too fast for Min to keep up. She felt like the tide was dragging her out to sea, and there wasn't a damn thing she could do to stop it. If Granny Boil and her dog weren't standing beside her, she was pretty sure she would've already fled.

"Your kind does not belong here. Go back while you are still able."

The words caught her off guard, not because of their meaning, but because they'd come from the dog.

Above, three twisted, vile versions of laughter burst from the weaker demons. The largest and most grotesque of them pushed forward, folds upon folds of pockmarked flesh shifting across her swollen body as she spoke.

"I am the Flesh Queen, Mitress Grogh! And I will go where I please!"

Rearing back, the demon made a wet, gurgling sound deep in her throat before jerking forward to hack a viscous mass of green and brown toward Granny Boil's dog.

Expecting the animal to do something, Min only panicked a little. But just before the chunk of snot could hit, the old woman moved instead.

Granny Boil's aura finally revealed itself as what looked like purple steam began swirling around her body. With a simple twist of her wrist, a massive construct shaped like a wok formed in front of them just in time to catch the attack.

The second the loogie hit, it began bubbling violently, and the smell of death flooded the air.

Granny Boil sighed, her voice carrying the tired irritation of someone dealing with a problem she'd already expected.

"Demons are too stubborn, Fen. We will just have to kill them."

With another flick of her hand, the purple wok spun and hurled the now sweet-smelling amber snot straight back at Mistress Grogh.

It returned much faster than it had come, and unable to dodge in time, the Flesh Queen took her own attack directly to the face. The impact snapped her head back and knocked her from the sky, her screams carrying across the city as she clawed at the sticky mass covering her face. Min could see it melting through the demon's flesh even from a distance, right up until Grogh disappeared behind the ruins and hit the ground.

In the air, the aura of the demon covered in metal and red lightning suddenly exploded. Electrified chains burst from his body as he charged toward Granny Boilonly for a single step from the black demon to stop him.

Again, the demon's voice sent a chill crawling down Min's spine.

"Leave the old woman and her pup to me. Take care of the others. Leave the one called Seo-jin untouched."

Both the metal and bone demons hesitated for a moment, but after sharing a quick look, they each took off toward where Seo-jin had fallen.

Seeing Granny Boil make no move to stop them, Min immediately started after.

"Hey, they can't!"

"Silence."

It felt like the entire sky had dropped on top of her as Min crumpled into the ground, the pressure crushing the air from her lungs. Her thoughts scattered as her bones and organs strained against the invisible weight

"Your fight's with me."

Granny Boil's voice cut through the pressure, and the weight crushing Min suddenly vanished. Dragging in a desperate breath, she looked up to find the old woman's dog standing beside her. When their eyes met, the animal somehow managed to look apologetic.

"Cover your ears, human."

Not completely understanding, but not needing to, she clamped both hands as she'd been told. It did little to soften the dog's bark when it exploded directly in her face, and absolutely nothing to stop her from being launched away from the battle.

The shock wore off quickly, and panic took its place as she tumbled through the air. With the wind tearing at her clothes, and the sound of it deafening, she was barely able to tell her speed and trajectory was carrying her toward the edge of the city.

"HOW DO I LAND, YOU ASSHOOOOLLLE?!"

The ruined city rushed below. She started gathering her aura, forcing it to solidify around her as best she could, when she suddenly struck something soft and her momentum vanished.

Yet somehow, she was still in the air.

"I got you."

The voice sounded immense, but familiar.

Opening her eyes, she cocked a brow when she found dozens of struggling monsters suspended around her, their bodies twisting against whatever held them. Her view shifted as she began rising higher, until she finally spotted Teal's worried face standing on nothing.

Min couldn't help but laugh.

"Grimm! You amazing son of a bitch!"

"You okay?"

Rushing forward, Teal extended a hand as Grimm lowered Min toward his mouth.

"I'm fine. Speak up though, can barely hear shit."

To the south, an explosion rocked the city. Red and blue flames shot into the sky like twin dragons, only to be swallowed from within by a deeper, darker fire.

"That's gotta be Pain. Looks like the others haven't started yet. Where the fuck is that pervert? Seen the puppet freak anywhere?"

From this high up, she could scan most of the battlefield at once, but no matter where she looked through the smoke and ruins, she couldn't find the professor. They could really use his troops right now.

Handing Min a canteen, Teal pointed toward the eastern end of the city.

"Over there. I can't see that far, but that's the last place I saw that tank."

"Where?!"

Zeroing in on where she was pointing, Min leaned forward until her eyes finally caught movement in the distance and widened.

"There he is. Grimm! Take me over!"

Not knowing if the ghost could see where she was pointing, she moved to the side facing the professor and began tapping the inside of his mouth.

"That way! I need to!"

"Sorry, Min, I gotta job to do. I can let you off here, but I can't stop what I'm doin'. Master told me I"

Rolling her head in frustration, Min gritted her teeth.

"Fine! Let me"

Her heart skipped a beat.

Behind, Teal nearly fainted, and Grimm suddenly released every monster he was still holding, their bodies dropping from the air at once.

Looking back toward the battle, Min's throat went dry, and what she saw emptied every thought from her head.

The battle was starting. It wasn't in full swing yet, but who was fighting who had apparently been decided.

Auras bled into the sky like pillars stretching toward heaven, their light cutting through the smoke hanging over the city. From inside Grimm, she had a clear view. The closest auras to her were already bleeding together overhead, staining the clouds just above Grimm in shades of pink, crimson, and neon green.

Mistress Grogh stood facing Widow and John.

Farther west, dark green and blood-red light carved out their own space.

Tomb and Snare stared down the skeleton demon. The larger brother stood behind the golden horned Snare, slowly engulfing more of her view as Tomb's body began to grow. Once he reached his full height, he threw back his head and roared, sending a visible shockwave ripping through the air.

The last was the most subtle, but the other auras seemed to leave an empty space around it in the clouds, as if afraid to get too close. Through the darkness, Min could make out little more than swirling chains and barbed tendrils. One bled bloodlight while the other arced bolts of red lightning into the sky.

It was Panic. Standing alone against the chained demon.

Min remained frozen, as if moving would somehow be enough to start it all. She barely breathed as the city hung beneath them, waiting.

Finally, Panic laughed

And the city erupted.

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