What is this feeling?

Leo didn't get it. It was like something alive, crushing him from the inside, clawing for freedom.

A force tangled with agony pressed at his ribs, twisting, twisting, until his insides screamed.

"ARHHH!!"

The cry ripped out of him. Something was opening inside his chest, splitting him apart.

"What is this? Why does it hurt ssssoooo-Arrrrhhh!!"

No wounds showed, yet pain exploded behind his skin, stabbing a thousand times over, wave after wave, like knives carving flesh he couldn't even see.

Every inch of his body trembled. Especially his bones. They shuddered, rattling, as if something monstrous was fighting to escape.

"It hurts, it hurts—"

He clenched his weapon, stabbing it into the earth. His legs wobbled, useless, shaking under him like broken noodles.

"H-HELP—ARHHHHH!!" Leo's voice cracked as he tried to reach his walkie-talkie.

But his muscles tensed, then spasmed, trembling so violently it felt as if his flesh would tear apart, and the walkie-talkie fell down from his hand.

He tried to reach when his eyes widened in horror... His nails tore free, one by one, blood welling from the beds, running in hot, stinging lines down his shaking fingers.

"ARRHHHHHH!!"

The nails fell away on their own, but he swore something invisible was yanking them loose, ripping them from living flesh.

"Stop! Please, stop!"

His hair fell next, strands slipping away softly, but it didn't feel natural... he felt unseen hands gripping his scalp, plucking out each hair with patience, making him gasp and sob in agony.

"Ah—ahh, it won't stop—"

"ARRHHHH!!!!!" Leo screamed until his voice broke. "W-What's going on—ARRRHHH!!!"

Words became impossible.

His throat locked, strangling the screams.... The pain slammed into his groin like a sledgehammer, relentless, as if someone was stomping him, crushing him again and again.

He bit down, grinding his teeth—then felt them loosen, slide free, dropping to the earth like heavy raindrops.

"No, no, not my teeth—aghh!"

"AGHHHHHHH!!!"

He moaned, horror twisting his face. Blood poured from his gums, dripped off his chin. His eyes pulsed.

Hot blood trickled from his nostrils. Something was happening, but it made no sense. "Why is this happening to me?"

Behind him, a shadow moved, stretching silently.

Leo, barely conscious, collapsed, letting go of his weapon. He hit the ground, rolling helplessly, trying to outrun the pain, but it stabbed through every inch of his body, merciless and everywhere at once.

"ARRRH—COUGH!!"

He doubled over. Thick, black-red blood surged up his throat, choking him, pouring in sticky waves from his mouth. It wasn't blood anymore... it was turning thicker, stickier, congealing as it hit the air.

Blop… BLOP!!

With horror, Leo tried to breathe, clawing for air with blood-soaked, nailless fingers. The blood in his mouth hardened, a mass he could barely move. Desperate, he shoved his fingers in, gagging, screaming as he yanked it out—

CHUCCKKK!!

His whole tongue came out, stuck inside the hardened blood, trailing red threads behind it.

"Ahhhh!!" Leo's eyes trembled. He slammed them shut, tears of blood streaming down his cheeks.

Blood ran from his sockets, thick and hot, stinging his face.

What's going on?

What the fuck is happening to me?

Why is everything burning—?

Suddenly, something slapped against his skin—a pricking heat, then a raw, searing blaze.

He rubbed his arms, desperate, feeling the flesh turn beet red. The heat swelled, waves of pain rolling off his body. Wisps of smoke curled from his skin pores, rising through the air.

His clothes sizzled, fusing to his skin, melting and sticking as if his whole body was being thrown onto a fire.

"HHHHHHHLLLLLLLL!!!"

Leo screamed as his body burned without even fire!

What was wrong with his body?

So much pain!

His skin burned alive! He could feel everything—every inch of flesh, every nerve screaming raw.

He wanted to black out, to fall unconscious, to escape. Hell, he wanted to die for fuck's sake—anything to stop this torment!

He couldn't suffer this—couldn't hold this pain.

His once manly and proud body, the same body that a single glance could make girls swoon or weep, now looked like a grotesque, pitiful thing. Even a monster would pity him—no, even a monster would turn away in disgust!

Suddenly, his nose wrinkled.

Smoke? He smelled—ash?

Yes, something was burning.

Not just anything—something big and bloody, burning from the inside out. The stench of ash, scorched blood, and melting flesh hit his nostrils, thick and suffocating.

His ears... Leo, still howling, felt everything snap to silence.

Even his own screams faded, lost in a buzzing void. He couldn't hear himself, couldn't hear anything—except…

"AHhhhh~RRrrrrr"

A cry?

Someone else?

No! Too many. Countless voices crying out, each of them howling in pain just like him.

Suffering!

Endlessly suffering!!

Countless, echoing, nameless voices writhing in agony!

Leo trembled, bones shivering under raw skin. He felt their pain too, like it leaked into him, crawling through his blood.

"STTTTTT" he begged, voice trapped in his skull, no longer sure if he was screaming or thinking or simply losing his mind.

Please stop this!!

He screamed inside his mind, believing it was the only thing keeping him tethered to life, as even his thoughts began to burn and spark, darkness bleeding through the edges of his mind.

Twitch!

Twitch!

Leo's body jerked, twisted, convulsed. He found himself on all fours, his back arching and spine jutting out, a grotesque ridge beneath melting skin. The sound of snapping bones echoed from within... cracks, pops, bones twisting and breaking.

His limbs buckled, elbows bent at impossible angles, muscles spasming. He jerked his head up, and as his eyes opened, they showed nothing but pure, empty white—no iris, no pupil, no veins.

Just blinding, soulless white!!

"GKKKK!!"

His mouth fell open, a strangled, alien sound bursting out. The corners of his mouth began to split, flesh tearing as if invisible hands were unzipping him, his jaw stretching wider, wider, the skin and muscle pulling apart until his maw yawned to his ears.

He felt everything—flesh tearing, sinew unravelling, bone shifting, pain so sharp it erased thought.

It was monstrous, inhuman. His face became a living nightmare, jaw unhinged—

"GGGGGGGGGGGKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK—"

Chucckkk!

In the middle of his howling, a massive black spiked weapon came crashing down from above, smashing him into the earth. The force cracked the ground, a crater blooming beneath his body, and spiderweb fractures raced outward, tearing the dirt and stone apart.

Fallen Nergal growled furiously, his breath ragged and hot. His single eye stared blankly downward. Without warning, he yanked his chains, muscles bulging, and slammed his weapon down again and again with monstrous force.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOOM!!

The earth buckled. Each blow drove cracks deeper into the ground, the crater stretching and growing, splitting stone.

Nearby buildings twisted and shuddered.

It went on for what felt like an eternity until finally, at last, Fallen Nergal stopped.

He stood, panting, his chest heaving, his shoulders trembling with exhausted fury. Blood leaked down one side of his neck. With a slow, almost reverent motion, he drew back his weapon.

Slucckk!

A hunk of flesh, raw and wet, clung to the spiked head. It peeled away and fell, joining the rest of the ruined, shattered body below. It was just a mess now—a paste of torn meat, broken bone, blood pooling like dark oil.

Nothing left to recognise!

"Puny human." Fallen Nergal spat on the ruined body, sneering with utter contempt. He turned, and for a moment, just stood there—breathing in the silence. He seemed finally calmed, after utterly destroying Leo.

He gripped his chain with one hand, the other pressed to his bleeding neck, trying to slow the flow. With every step, his body seemed to shrink a little, monstrous rage fading. Under his breath, he muttered, "W-Where is everyone?" He glanced around, uncertain, as he dragged his massive weapon across the splintered ground.

Meanwhile, behind him, the twisted buildings... stope moving!

One by one, the city's lights flickered, blinking and died... Each window, each streetlamp, died out in a trembling sequence. Something in the crater shifted, darkness rising up like a phantom. Smoke or shadow—impossible to tell—drifted from the broken earth, dancing where the last few lights flickered and died.

Fallen Nergal paused, frowning, as he watched the world go dark. He turned back and saw the entire street drowned in shadow. Even the distant blue beam—once piercing the sky like a pillar—seemed to wither.

He scowled, every monstrous instinct warning him. "What's going on?" he muttered, his voice low and uncertain. Even the buildings, once alive with twisting, twitching motion, had fallen utterly still.

Everything was halted!

Fallen Nergal shrugged, trying to shake off the dread crawling up his spine. He turned to walk away, the heavy weapon dragging a trail behind him—

Flick~

A pure white, single eye snapped open behind him, far across the darkness. Fallen Nergal flinched, icy fear biting into his monstrous heart. He spun around and saw... Nothing!

"W-What was that?" he muttered.

He was certain—he had felt something.... Something primal... Something that made even a god tremble.

He swallowed hard, not wanting to admit the truth.

Was that… fear?

Real fear, the kind he hadn't felt since he'd first become a monster?

A god afraid of what? Of who?

He forced himself to shrug it off, took another step forward, refusing to show weakness—

Flick~

Flick~

Two enormous white eyes, slick and glistening, flickered open in the dark with a sticky, wet sound.

Drip…

Now, Fallen Nergal felt it... a cold, ancient fear, sliding deep down his spine.

Something was watching him from the black.

Not a god. Worse... Much worse!

He could feel it, not in his mind, but in the desperate warning of every cell, every muscle screaming a single command:

RUN!!!

But he didn't move. He stood frozen, swallowing with a throat gone dry and ragged, tasting his own blood from the open cut at his neck. He gripped his weapon tighter, and slowly turned to face the dark behind him—and saw… nothing?

This time, Fallen Nergal did not look away. His single eye stared straight into the darkness, refusing to blink, even as he felt utterly, dangerously alone. Alone, and yet not. Something else was in this void with him.

Definitely!! Something was there.

"W-Who are you?" he managed, barely above a whisper. He braced himself, weapon trembling in his grip.

Flick~

He flinched. A massive eye, larger than a car, opened in the deep black void, its pure white surface unblinking and unnatural.

Fallen Nergal's jaw clenched. He'd never seen anything like this, not in all the centuries of blood and war.

What the fuck was that thing?

"Come out—otherwise I'll… I'll k-kill you!" he shouted, though his voice wavered, fear pounding in his chest.

Flick~

!!

Another eye appeared—huge, white, oozing open with a sick, sticky sound, this one far off to the side. Both eyes, empty and pupil-less, bored into him.

He knew—knew without question—they were staring at him, seeing through him!

Fallen Nergal tried to meet their gaze, to hold onto his will, but his strength faded with every second. It was like those eyes drank the power straight out of his body. Worse, as he watched, the two eyes began to move, gliding in perfect, silent circles.... once horizontal, now rotating to vertical, never blinking.

"What the actual fuck!!" he gasped. His hands shook on his weapon. "What in the heavens' name am I seeing?"

What kind of creature was this—?

"S.L.A.V.E!"

An inaudible voice, impossible, rough, monotone emerged from the darkness.

Inaudible? Maybe. Because only Fallen Nergal heard it.

Only his ears could sense those words, each syllable clawing at his sanity.

His ears screamed in agony, blood leaking down his ear!

Fallen Nergal grimaced... He understood. Slave. That's what this thing had called him.

A slave.

"FUCK YOU! I AM NOT A SLAVE! DO YOU THINK I FEAR YOU? THE MIGHTY GOD?!"

Fallen Nergal roared. He clenched his chains and hurled his final spiked sphere straight at the two enormous white eyes in the void. The weapon shot like a meteor into the darkness and—

CRUNCH!

He flinched.

No weight on the chain.

Nothing hitting! Dread twisted his gut. He yanked the chain and stared in disbelief—

His massive, divine spiked sphere—Three-fourths of it was gone. Munched, bitten off, as if a giant jaw had simply devoured it.

His godly weapon??

The weapon forged in volcanic depths, quenched in the endless ocean, blessed by the highest gods—Bite off? Devoured like a crumb?

Even high gods, even legends themselves, never had the power to destroy this weapon. It was impossible.

Horror contorted his face as he looked up,

"Y-You did this?" he whispered, voice ragged with terror. The white eyes were moved closer now... as the eyes rotated clockwise.

His gaze flicked back to his ruined weapon—his beloved one, his saviour, the weapon that had pulled him from death countless times—Now chewed apart like a plaything.

He looked up again, and his breath stuttered in his chest.. The eyes were now right in front of him, hovering, staring into his soul.

His heart nearly stopped. His body trembled. Cold sweat ran down his neck, mixing with the blood. Tears gathered in his eyes, spilling down his cheeks in hot, shameful streams.

He whimpered,

"P-Please… I-I don't want to die—"

CRUNCH!!

That was all he heard before everything vanished into a suffocating, endless darkness.

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.