CHAPTER 179: CHAPTER 179: VERMIN

Chapter 179 – Vermin

The spider didn’t really appreciate being threatened by a lowly Intermediate-ranked human, its black eyes turning colder and more vicious as a wave of threads sliced through the air and rushed at Kaden with terrifying speed.

Kaden was already on the move the moment he finished speaking, and with a sudden dash that left the very ground beneath him quivering with intensity, he arrived just before the spider and slashed at its torso with precise, ruthless accuracy.

A sound of steel against steel echoed violently, making it evident that the spider’s carapace was not something so easily breached.

Kaden could probably break it if he took his time, but he had just finished a fight against a Grandmaster and wasn’t truly in the mood to entertain this damn spider.

’Flame of Blood’ he thought.

This skill was the solution because last time, the beast didn’t dare approach his flame due to some instinctive fear.

And Kaden knew exactly why.

His flame burned both blood and mana alike, and the threads of the spider were made of condensed mana meaning it was the perfect counter, though last time, his control and understanding over the Flame of Blood had been limited, shallow even.

But now...

After endless battles and suffering in the Ruined Death dungeon, his mastery over the flame had evolved to a whole new level.

He took a step back and avoided the strike of one of the spider’s dreadful eight black legs, a strike that literally left a hole in the ground, then ducked down to evade the sharp threads that tore the space above his head.

Blood appeared around him in a flowing, liquid manner, and he manipulated it with ease, thickening it, making it heavier...stickier.

If he couldn’t cut the threads fast enough, then he would slow them down enough to evade them entirely.

And with this new tactic, Kaden was able to navigate through the spider’s attacks more easily, dancing between its strikes with a newfound precision, but he didn’t stop there, he struck the ground with his right leg and flooded the earth beneath the spider with that same sticky blood, rooting its movements, slowing it down significantly.

The spider shrieked with rage and madness, its black body twisting, and it launched itself at him again.

But Kaden deflected its attacks with all the blood circling and flooding the ground beneath him, slipping through the gaps like a phantom.

It continued like this for a while—Kaden dodging and parrying with ease, letting the blood act as both his sword and shield, and as time passed, the spider grew more and more impatient, its mind twisted into pure irritation as its strikes became faster, heavier, deadlier.

The sound of wind tearing apart became louder and sharper. The sound of the ground trembling and cracking under its weight was now earthshaking.

And still, Kaden weaved through it all like a wraith, never in one place for more than a heartbeat, his movement slippery, unpredictable, relentless.

Just like a certain Prince of Shadow.

’Now is the time,’ he thought, cold and focused, and in a sudden burst of speed, Kaden appeared at the spider’s rear, behind its abdomen—and there he saw six tiny tubes that were rapidly spitting threads.

The spinnerets.

The spider was startled, its instincts screaming like a war alarm, but before it could even twist around, Kaden had already summoned six condensed needles of blood-flame and fired them directly into the tubes.

A violent shriek twisted the very air, the dark forest quaking under the maddened cry as the beast collapsed onto the ground, twitching like a fish out of water.

It was a pitiful sight—this monstrous spider writhing in pain—but Kaden felt nothing.

No pity. No compassion. No hesitation.

It was because of this beast that he ended up in the Ruined Death dungeon in the first place.

Without mercy, he cut off five of its legs to cripple its mobility further, each slash causing more spasms and shrieking rage as the beast trashed like a storm.

Then, he walked toward its head and crouched down to look at it directly face to face, his own reflection visible inside those intelligent, deep black eyes.

He reached out and gently placed his hand upon its hard, surprisingly smooth head.

"Do you remember how relentless you were last time we met?"

"Truly...that day I tasted disgrace. You made me flee like a little girl, you trapped Reditha inside a cornucopia of threads, nearly gave her PTSD, and then you made me cut my right hand off before forcing me into a dungeon where death was a luxury I couldn’t afford."

His blood-red eyes locked with the spider’s, making the trembling creature even more vulnerable.

"But through all of that, I gained many things. I learned a very important lesson about death, and I obtained a power that is quite...unique."

He smirked coldly.

"The power to revive what I kill and make them mine."

His voice now carried arrogance—divine, inevitable arrogance.

"Rejoice, you vermin. For you will be among the first to serve me...me, the Child of Blood and the Death Envoy."

And the moment he finished his sentence, Kaden’s hand slid down across the spider’s carapace until it reached its eye and with a sudden burst of violence, he plunged his hand deep into the socket and activated Flame of Blood at maximum power.

The scream that followed was the kind of scream that could make even the cruelest person pause.

The flames burned its blood vessels and mana instantly, then surged through its brain with brutal efficiency, erasing it completely.

Kaden stood still, his expression utterly unflinching.

This was the only outcome possible for his enemies.

The same fate as Selene. Now the spider.

Whoever dared to make an enemy out of him had to be ready to face his wrath.

Because Kaden Warborn didn’t forget. He didn’t forgive.

He had no mercy for his enemies...only pure, unfettered cruelty.

Getting up slowly, he stored the spider’s corpse in his space ring, then vanished in a blur of red light, leaving behind devastation and a fountain of blood on the shattered ground.

...

"Finally..."

Kaden muttered as he leaned his head softly against the rough bark of the tall black tree he was on.

He was tired, utterly tired. His mind, his body...both screaming for rest and sleep but he couldn’t.

Something had been bugging him ever since his farewell with Asael and it was the fact that the man had said he was from Fokay.

’How is that even possible?’

It didn’t make sense.

He was in Darklore. The dungeon was in Darklore. So how could someone from Fokay claim to be here?

Kaden’s thoughts ran wild, spiraling in all directions.

Now that he thought about it... Asael never once mentioned Darklore, every word he ever said was only about Fokay.

He claimed he was the best master in Fokay...not Darklore.

At the time, Kaden didn’t think much of it... but now?

Now it was strange. It was suspicious.

Even his talk about evolution he mentioned Fokay, not Darklore.

All of that could’ve been clues. Clues that Asael wasn’t from Darklore at all.

But Kaden’s mind never once entertained that thought, because he was taught since birth that no one from Fokay could enter Darklore.

But wait...

’Did he even enter Darklore?’

That was the real question.

Did Asael cross over and enter the dungeon from Darklore?

Or did he appear directly inside it?

Because if it’s the first option...then things were fucked. Royally fucked.

Because if powerhouses from Fokay—who were leagues above those in Darklore—could enter this world at will...

Then Darklore was doomed.

But if it’s the second option...

If the dungeon itself existed in both Fokay and Darklore at the same time...

Then that meant there was a way, for them to eventually found their way here.

They just didn’t know it yet.

’Or...do they already know?’

Sigh.

Kaden raised his head slowly to the boundless black sky, his expression heavy with dread and realization, his brows tight with nervous tension.

"...Reditha...we are fucked, aren’t we?"

—End of Chapter 179—