Published at 26th of September 2026 9:48 am

Chapter 254: All Good Things...

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Chapter 254: All Good Things...

The death of The Bound was a quiet thing. No explosion or shockwave marked his end, but the moment he died, Blight's smile stretched unnaturally wide. His face was featureless beyond that mouth, yet he still turned toward the sound, tilting his head as Panic's distant laughter reached him.

"Finding good allies is harder than it should be, but don't worry. Youll be joining them soon."

The old woman's voice made Blight stiffen. A small shudder worked through his oily black skin before he turned back toward the human, black smoke weaving through his crown as it rose from his horns.

"Allies? Would you consider a hammer an ally, or a chisel? They are simply tools."

The ground trembled beneath the old woman's feet, yet somehow, neither she nor her dog moved with it. Sniffing the air, Blight felt his appreciation for the moment increasing.

"Before we begin, may I ask you a question?"

The black dog huffed.

"You just did."

Blight's smile vanished for a moment. Then his mouth curled upward again.

"Why are you fighting? This city is lost, its people dead. From what I know, you have no special connection to those who remain. Tell me, what motivates you to face me?"

He was genuinely curious. From Blight's perspective, Granny Boil and her mutt could have wiped out the Woons on their own long before any of this happened. So why step in now? To him, her actions made about as much sense as using a basket to carry water.

Without any change to her expression, Granny Boil sighed and placed a hand in her apron.

"There was a time that the older generations had a duty to the younger. You wouldn't understand. To some of us, life is not all about the now. It is about what comes after, and I intend to make sure these kids live long enough to see it. As for why now? Us old folks have to step aside at some point. I was hoping these runts could handle this without me. Turns out you are not so lucky."

Just then, a pained scream ripped across the city.

Blight tilted his head toward the sound, his tail lashing behind him.

"Thank you for humoring me. Now, it seems if I do not hurry, I won't have any tools left to work with when this is done. Cannot have that"

He snapped his fingers

The air around them shifted. Pressure rolled past Granny Boil before something overhead cracked like glass shattering.

"Much better."

With the troublesome domain gone, Blight descended toward Granny Boil as the old woman drew a large carving knife from her apron. The moment the simple looking blade cleared the fabric, he stopped. His smile disappeared.

"Where did you get that?"

Beside her, the black dog rose and gave himself a hard shake. His fur rippled from head to tailand in half a breath, his body expanded to the size of a bus.

Long black legs planted against the broken ground beneath a deep chest, while thick, coarse fur hung from a frame built more like a wolfhound than any normal dog. Pale-blue light filled his eyes, and the air surrounding his body began to warp, bending his outline beneath waves of aura that rolled from him like heat vapor.

"A Fenrir...I thought your species went extinct."

His lips peeled back from massive fangs as Fen lowered his head, a deep growl vibrating through his chest before he spoke.

"To recognize me at first glance, you are the first in many years. The Fenrir are not gone, just forgotten. Like you will be."

Blight's smile widened as he spread his arms.

"How splendid! My last father always wanted one of your pelts. How satisfying"

Light flashed from Granny Boil's knife. Blight barely managed to cross his arms over his chest before it reached him.

A massive gash ripped through his guard, severing both arms and carving into his chest as boiling black blood sprayed from the wounds. His arms had barely dropped when teeth filled his visionthe hound had already crossed the distance.

Yet, Blight was still smiling.

----

Raising his staff, Snare drove the base into the ground. Shadows burst from the impact and swept across the street in a low wave, meeting the Stagnant King's dark-green miasma head-on. Neither attack gave way. The shadow pushed beneath the fog while the miasma pressed down against it, forcing their collision higher and higher until both attacks buckled upward and broke apart above the street.

Snare sneered as the skeletal demon rose higher into the air, gathering another massive cloud of miasma around itself. Before it could release the attack at Snare, the demon thrust both arms up and his poison erupted to meet Tomb's fist. Miasma and compressed air burst from the collision, blasting across the ruins...but only Tomb was driven back.

"Why do you stand against us?"

The words rattled from the demon's throat as its empty sockets fixed on Snare. It motioned toward the surrounds while the miasma beneath it began gathering again.

"Humanity is weak. Their world is already lost. Why do you side with lesser beings?"

Feeling the enemy's next attack building, Snare kept his guard up. He sent a command to Tomb through the broodlink, then stepped toward the demon to answer.

"Answer me this first. You are called the Stagnant King, are you not?"

The flow of the enemy's attack faltered. Its jaw clicked once before the bone demon smiled.

"You know me?"

"There are only a few records on the Warlords of the Maw, but yours is one of them. A demon of envy. I read that you failed your Demon Lord somehow, something about losing a bet? The details were vague, but I could not even begin to imagine the shame you must have felt."

A dry rattle worked through the Stagnant King's frame as his bones began to shake. His aura churned with them, the green gas thickening until droplets of bubbling liquid formed within it.

"I did not lose. I was tricked."

"Tricked?! That's worse, is it not? Your lord must have been so embarrassed. No wonder he banished"

"He was the one who tricked me?! Deceiver! False tongue! I was honored by the Rot! Me!"

Snare smiled to himself as the Stagnant King raged, then felt the signal from Tomb through the broodlink.

He took pride in knowing everything about his siblings. Directing them in battle was his role, and understanding every strength, weakness, and habit was crucial if he wanted to please the Broodfather. It also made it much easier to manipulate them when needed.

With his largest sibling, everything came down to timing. Throwing Tomb into the front lines to duke it out like Pain would waste what made him useful. To properly utilize Tomb, Snare had to manage his cast times and cooldowns.

One of Tomb's Racial Abilitiesthe one he was about to userequired a full minute to cast.

Just as the Stagnant King surged forward, he stopped short when Snare suddenly jumped clear. A shadow swallowed the ground, and Tomb's giant foot came crashing down.

Crossing his arms as he backed away, the skeletal demon braced himself, then hesitated when the expected wave of destruction never came.

From atop the lone wall of a collapsed building, Snare could see the truth. What was coming was not the destruction. That came after.

Gathering miasma between his hands, the Stagnant King laughed.

"Was that all?! How pathe"

The word never finished. Tomb's attack finally showed itself.

In the blink of an eye, every piece of concrete within fifty meters ripped into the air. Buildings, streets, and rubble warped as they roe, hard surfaces swelling and splitting until the entire area had transformed into writhing, screaming flesh.

The Stagnant King whipped his head around and started to rise, only for the ground beneath him to surge up his legs, wrapping around them and dragging him back down.

"Do you think flesh can hold me?! I am pestilence! I am the Stagnant King!"

Green miasma burst from the demon and dissolved the flesh around him almost instantly, filling the air with a wet hiss. The Stagnant King surged upward, but stopped after less than an inch. Something else held him now.

"Who?!"

His gaze snapped down. Shadows stretched beneath the writhing flesh in every direction, connected through the entire fifty-meter radius. He followed them back to their source and froze.

Snare stood atop the ruined wall with one hand resting on his staff. His third eye was open, bloodlight leaking from it as every shadow beneath the Stagnant King tightened at once. Tomb had spent a full minute preparing the battlefield. Snare had spent that same minute making sure their enemy could never leave it.

"You should have stayed in Hell."

The Stagnant King's sockets widened as he strained against the shadows, then twisted toward Blight

Every inch of corrupted flesh within fifty meters lit red, then exploded.

For an instant, the detonation swallowed every sound. Then the blast hit like a meteor, crushing the air outward as the ground buckled and a mushroom cloud punched into the sky.

Tomb stood against the blast, his skin glowing beneath the heat as he roared into the pressure. Before the rumbling could even fade, he charged into the cloud and began hammering his fists into the center of the explosion.

Hit after hit drove tremors through the earth. The wall beneath Snare had already crumbled, but he dropped with it, landing amid the rubble and striking his staff twice against the ground. Shadows raced beneath Tomb and climbed his legs, accelerating his blows while others spread around the edge of the blast, keeping anything inside from escaping.

A dozen or so hits later, crimson system light erupted around Tomb as he leveled. Snare glanced down at his own hands, then clicked his tongue in disappointment.

"Thought I was closer"

With Tomb still attacking, Snare sent the command to stop through the broodlink, then turned his attention toward where Blight and Granny Boil had begun their fight.

"Did you have fun?"

His question seemed directed at no one, but a split second later, Panic shook off the rubble covering him while his restraints brushed the remaining dust from his body. His face was unusually nonchalant.

"I did."

"You were gonna steal our kill, weren't you?"

"I was."

"Hmm."

"How'd you see me? I hid my aura and everything."

Snare had known Panic was there the whole time, and honestly, he didnt care who killed who. But he couldn't let his brother get away with it. Hierarchy still needed to be maintained.

Slowly turning, Snare kept his expression even and his voice calm.

"I see everything, brother. Like how you decided to come here and waste time playing in a hole."

At the word waste, Panic's restraints wrapped around him in a flash, pulling tight as he straightened.

"W-waste?! That's notwell, maybe, but I didn'tyeah, I did..."

Watching his brother squirm, Snare hid his smile as he turned away and started back toward Seo-jin.

"Go keep an eye on Widow. Father will be mad if she gets hurt. And Panic?"

Panic shook his head repeatedly, his face growing paler.

"Yeah?"

"I won't tell Father what you did, but see to it you remember your place. A blade doesn't act on its own, does it?"

Panic's face shifted from joy to confusion, then right back to joy. He practically jumped before skipping off toward Widow's group.

"Snare is so smart! A blade doesn't think! Not at all..."

Heading in opposite directions, both brothers stopped at the same time and turned toward the same part of the city.

Far across the ruins, a bright-purple light flashed through the sky before a giant hand of darkness closed around it. The light blasted the hand apart, only for a massive black beast to leap onto what remained, latch on, and tear it to shreds.

Even from where Snare and Panic stood, the shockwaves rolled through the ground beneath their feet.

Without wasting another moment, both started moving again.

Both a little faster.

----

Giddy, breathless madness tore across the ruins.

It came from Mistress Grogh.

The massive demon held a broken piece of John's chitin in one hand, turning it over before dragging her tongue across its curved surface. Her pig-like snout curled into a grin as she lowered it between her legs and did something with it that made both Widow and John recoil.

The newly transformed bug demon stared at her. The lower half of John's body was still rebuilding itself, black Vent Bugs pouring from his severed waist in a crawling mass before chitin snapped into place around them.

"You disgusting fucking"

Widow moved before he could finish. Her bare feet cracked against the broken street as she charged, black dress whipping behind her. Six spider legs unfolded through the slit running down her back while she lowered her freshly dented buckler and leveled her javelin. Her chest heaved from exhaustion, but she didn't slow.

"Oh, come on!"

His four wings snapped open, lifting him after her as hundreds of bugs shifted beneath his armor. Poison gathered between them, spreading across the long chitin blades growing from his forearms.

Mistress Grogh squealed when Widow reached her.

"There she is! Ugly little thing thinks she's strong!"

Club met shield hard enough to buckle the street beneath them. Widow gave ground, then came right back, javelin flashing between the demon's rolls of flesh.

"Look at you! Six eyes and still can't see how fucking hideous you are!"

Widow said nothing. Her buckler caught another blow with a metallic crunch.

Grogh laughed.

"Too skinny! You got tits but no hips! Look at me, bitch! This is what men want!"

John dropped out of the sky behind her. His blades struck twice before Grogh could turn. One skidded across her back while the other caught beneath one of the chains holding her breasts behind her and sliced through flesh.

Her severed tit flopped around her side, blood and thick pus spraying across Widow's face.

Grogh screamed as she glared at John.

"You want it rough?!"

Her kick slammed into Widow. The broodspawn barely got her buckler between them before the impact launched her.

As John banked sharply overhead, Grogh reached beneath one arm, pinched one of the thick hairs growing there, and ripped it free.

John's wings stuttered.

"What the fuck?"

The hair snapped through the air like a whip.

He twisted around the first strike. The second clipped one of his wings and exploded in a burst of sickly pink light, scattering bugs and shards of chitin through the air. Grogh cackled and kept swinging, every impact bursting against the ruins while John dove between them.

From several buildings away, Panic watched.

His restraints hung loose around him as he crouched atop the remains of a wall, eyes following every blur of movement below. Snare had told him to watch Widow. So he watched. He would only interfere if things got out of hand.

Probably.

He still wasn't sure what he thought about his sister. Or how he was supposed to think about her. Hed spent a lot of energy not thinking about it at all. That had been easier. Watching her fight wasn't.

Widow crashed back into Grogh, six spider legs hammering against the larger demon while her javelin searched for anything soft. John swept past, acid spraying from between his chitin plates, and Grogh barreled through both attacks laughing.

Something tightened inside Panic. His restraints twitched.

When, Grogh suddenly launched herself into the air. John barely turned before her enormous body wrapped around him.

"Got you!"

She squeezedand John burst apart in a wet shower of crushed Vent Bugs and green fluid.

Panic got to his feet. Before he could move, Grogh screamed and tore off her own arm just before landing hard enough to crater the street.

Flinging it away, the severed limb burst as Vent Bugs poured from it. They hit the ground in a crawling black mass, piling over one another as John's body rapidly rebuilt itself around them.

Grogh was already coming. His head had barely formed when her club rose over him

A javelin punched through her side.

Grogh jerked sideways, and Widow hit her a heartbeat later. Her buckler slammed against the exposed end of the javelin, driving it deeper into Grogh's body and throwing the massive demon.

It happened fast. Too fast. Even Panic lost pieces of it in the mess of bugs, limbs, and shattered stone.

Grogh staggered upright.

Something dangled from her hand.

Panic stared at it...a shoulder. An arm still attached.

His head snapped toward Widow. She was still standing. But one arm was gone. And with it, a massive portion of her chest.

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