CHAPTER 44: LEVEL 8

Morty’s eyes widened in pure horror as Jack’s heart was ripped clean out of his chest.The pain in his ribs disappeared and replaced instantly by raw, bone-deep fear.

What the hell...?

No way. Did bro just...

Did he actually regenerate?

What the fuck is going on?!

He stared, frozen. Just moments ago, Stephan had been on his knees, bleeding, crippled, one hand missing. Now he was back on his feet... and Jack was dying in front of him.

That speed... Morty thought, swallowing hard. Is that really D-Rank speed? Did he just rip out Jack’s heart with his bare hand?

"Whoa..." Fizzwigg breathed from behind. "Thought we were dead for a second. That human... he’s unreal."

"No one can best Lord Stephan," Grief said softly, almost like she was stating a fact.

Fizzwigg glanced up at her and let out an uneasy chuckle. "R-Right. Good to hear..."

Stephan pulled his arm free. The heart still sat in his palm, twitching weakly. He looked at it for a moment... watched it stop beating... then tossed it aside like trash.

"Such a fragile thing."

Then he lifted his head, and locked his eyes on Morty. A cold, razor-sharp smirk spread across his face.

Morty dropped his gaze immediately. His body went slack, every nerve screaming in panic. Stephan wasn’t just an opponent anymore, he was a predator. And Morty was prey.

Stephan stalked forward, slow and deliberate, his eyes glowing with bloodlust, his presence suffocating.

Morty’s mind spun, terror clawing at his chest.

I’ve got to get the fuck out of here. I don’t stand a chance. With Jack I did... but now he’s gone. I’ve got to run.

He turned to flee, but his body betrayed him, his cracked ribs flared with pain, every breath stabbing like knives. He stumbled, limping, clawing for distance, Only to find Stephan standing right in front of him.

So close... Morty could feel the man’s breath. The breath of a predator.

"D-Don’t kill me, please," Morty stammered, his voice cracking. "Let’s... let’s make a pact. An alliance. Anything....."

Stephan’s smirk cut through his words like a blade. "I told Jack before. And I told you too."

His voice was calm. Cold. Final.

"You lost the moment you decided to challenge me. I won’t kill you because the tournament demands it..."

His gaze burned into Morty’s soul.

"...I’ll kill you because you insulted me by daring to stand against me."

Morty’s knees buckled, but before he could collapse, Stephan’s hand shot out and clamped around his face.

"W-wait....!" Morty’s words muffled against Stephan’s iron grip.

Stephan didn’t wait. He slammed Morty into the ground, the impact cracking stone beneath them. Blood burst from Morty’s nose, his skull ringing like a bell. Stephan dragged him up by the jaw like a ragdoll. Morty’s legs kicked uselessly, his eyes wide with raw, animal fear.

"You wanted an alliance?" Stephan growled, his voice low, vibrating with contempt. "Here’s your pact."

His hand blazed with soul energy. With a vicious yank, he ripped Morty’s lower jaw clean off. A wet crack echoed as flesh and bone tore apart, blood spraying in a crimson arc. Morty gurgled, thrashing, his tongue flopping against his mangled throat.

Stephan didn’t even flinch. He tossed the jaw aside like garbage.

Morty’s muffled scream turned into a strangled wheeze as he staggered back, clutching his ruined face, blood pouring through his fingers.

Stephan stepped forward once, twice,then drove his fist through Morty’s chest. His ribs shattered under the sheer force, snapping like brittle twigs, blood and chunks of lung spraying outward.

His hand burst out the other side, slick and dripping, clutching Morty’s twitching spine.

Morty’s eyes rolled white. His body convulsed once, twice... then went limp, still twitching as Stephan ripped free, spine dangling like a gruesome trophy.

Stephan stood over the body, blood soaking his arm, dripping from his fingers onto the dirt. He looked down at Morty’s corpse, then spat.

"Die like scam."

Stephan dropped the spine with a wet splat, blood dripping down his forearm. His breathing was steady, calm, like a predator after a clean hunt.

Then the air shimmered, the familiar metallic chime of the system ringing in his ears.

[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]

[Congratulations, Player!]

[First Kill Achieved]

[Reward: +20 Points]

[Soul Energy Cap increased- 200]

A cold smirk curled across Stephan’s blood-streaked face. The system acknowledged what Morty and Jack hadn’t understood until too late, he was built for this tournament.

[Congratulations – System Level 8 Unlocked]

[Rank: D – Adept]

[New Capacity: +5 Slots (Maximum Held Souls: 8)]

[New Weapon Unlocked – Lucidas’s Ossuary Blade]

The system’s voice thundered inside his head, heavy like tombstones grinding together.

From the ether, a colossal blade materialized, its surface stitched with pale bones fused together, a grotesque testament to countless deaths. Hollow eye sockets glared from its hilt, whispering faintly as if the souls trapped within were begging for release.

The moment Stephan’s hand gripped the handle, the whispers turned into screams, not of terror but of triumph. The Ossuary Blade pulsed in his grasp like it was alive, a weapon that fed on carnage, hungry for blood and souls.

[Passive Skill: Bone Shatter – Strikes deal skeletal damage, bypassing armor.]

[Active Skill: Ossuary Storm – The blade fractures into spectral bone shards that orbit the wielder, tearing through enemies before reforming.]

Stephan smirked. "A fitting gift, Lucidas..."

*******

Across the battlefield, Yennefer seemed to be having the upper hand too.

Yennefer’s chains constricted tighter around Rin, squeezing the life out of her. Blood trickled from Rin’s lips, running down her chin in a thin line. The girl’s body trembled, her shadow form barely holding together.

"I will kill you now," Yennefer spat, raising her hand as the runes on her arm glowed crimson. "Azrael’s Path of Death- Form A: Destructive Cannon." A emerald green sphere of annihilation swirled to life, humming with the sound of destruction.

But then... Grief’s grin cut through the battlefield.

"If I’m going to die here," Rin rasped, coughing up blood, "then I’ll drag you straight to hell with me."

Yennefer’s eyes narrowed. What’s she talking about?

"I will use... my last resort ace card."

A suicidal move? Yennefer thought, her lips curling. "Do it. See if I care."

The shadows beneath Rin writhed violently. Her eyes burned with madness as she whispered:

"Shadow Coffin."

The ground beneath them split, Yennefer’s own shadow swelling unnaturally wide. A dark pull seized them both as if the world itself was trying to swallow them. The chains slackened in Yennefer’s grip as she and Rin were dragged downward, their bodies sinking into the black mire like drowning in tar.

"What the hell is this!?" Yennefer roared, thrashing, but the pull was relentless.

Rin’s bloody smile widened.

"This... is my curse. The Shadow Coffin seals us both in your shadow. But here’s the difference... I’ll be trapped for twelve hours. I’ll live. You..." Her voice cracked, yet her tone was vicious. "You’ll be sealed forever. Slowly starving, thirsty, rotting in the dark... until you’re nothing but bones."

Yennefer’s eyes widened, rage twisting into a flicker of panic as the, shadows closed, swallowing them whole. She thrashed, her chains rattling uselessly as the shadow swallowed her inch by inch.

"No...let me go!!" she screamed, her voice raw.

She clawed at the black mire, but it dragged her deeper. "Shit....my magic’s not working. I can’t die here! Let me go, bitch!"

Rin only grinned through blood-stained teeth.

"It’s useless. Once you start sinking, there’s no escape. You’re cursed to drown in your own shadow and die. The only way out..." her eyes gleamed, "...is to kill the caster. But you can’t kill me, not when your magic’s already sealed."

A new voice cut through the field, calm and chilling,"Hmm. Cute spell."

Both Rin and Yennefer snapped their heads toward it.

Stephan stood only a few feet away, towering, his presence swallowing the battlefield. His eyes glowed faintly, and that cold smirk twisted across his face.

"Stephan..." Yennefer gasped, half in shock, half in relief.

Rin’s heart dropped. Shit. The D-rank. Panic clawed her chest. When did he get here? I didn’t sense him at all...

Then it hit her like a blade. She couldn’t feel Jack’s soul energy. Or Morty’s.

Her gaze darted across the field, what she saw froze her blood. What remained of Jack and Morty lay scattered, broken, unrecognizable.

"No way..." she whispered, trembling. "He... he killed them? Two E-ranks... just like that..."

Fear gripped her throat, making her voice shake. Stephan’s aura pressed down on her, heavier than death itself.

"You said," Stephan’s voice was cold, deliberate, "the only way Yennefer gets free... is by killing you, right?"

Rin’s mouth opened but no words came. She couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe.

"Good," Stephan said, his smile widening in a way that promised nothing but death. "I don’t like killing women... but I’ll kill any woman who dares threaten mine. Yennefer can’t die here. Not yet."

He lifted his weapon, Lucidas’s colossal bone blade, the Ossuary Sword. Its jagged edge hummed with death energy, the aura of a thousand souls whispering.

"So, Rin..." his eyes burned into her. "You’ll join your friends."

He raised the sword high, the weight of execution in his grip. "And besides..." his voice dripped with hunger. "...I’ve been dying to test my new toy."

Stephan’s grip tightened on the Ossuary Sword. The weapon seemed alive, groaning, whispering, the marrow of countless souls vibrating within its jagged spine. He pulled it back in a wide arc, the bone edges glinting pale under the battlefield’s dull light.

Rin’s breath caught. Every instinct in her screamed to run, but her legs wouldn’t move.

Then, Stephan swung.

The colossal blade carved through the air, but it never touched her. Instead, the force unleashed was cataclysmic, an invisible shockwave tore across the ground like a storm made flesh.

The earth split open in its wake. Dust and shards of rock exploded skyward.

Rin’s eyes widened, too late. Her head snapped back as if the very air itself had turned into a guillotine. A razor-sharp current, birthed from Stephan’s swing, sliced clean through her neck.

For a heartbeat, her body stood upright, eyes wide with disbelief. Blood fountained in a beautiful, horrifying arc, misting in the air like crimson rain. Then her head toppled, bouncing once across the ground before rolling to a stop.

Yennefer, half-sunken in the shadow prison, froze, her captor’s spell instantly breaking apart as Rin’s body collapsed headless into the dirt.

Stephan lowered the Ossuary Sword, its whispering souls quieting to a low hum. His eyes burned, fixed on Rin’s lifeless corpse.

"Nice," he muttered, flicking the blade so that the air shimmered again with death’s promise.

The silence that followed was deafening, broken only by the soft drip... drip... drip of Rin’s blood feeding the earth.