“So this is how it is… this is the wall I have to overcome… Bullshit…”

Red’s hated festered.

The blade twisted into a reverse grip as she watched the Still Unloving murder countless of the Still Unborn to the utter despair of the Still Unmoved. The constant wails of malformed children and their grieving mother only caused the brambles to tighten further in her chest.

“Don’t you dare think you can take away this opportunity to live away from me! Monopolize the maggots all you want! This will end with only one of us left standing!”

Leaving behind her Fairytale’s Bane was a difficult decision to make. The loud thud of her weapon crashing to the ground drowned everything out. Her senses became utterly honed.

It was do or die now. She had no Skills other than [Punch] to aid her. Everything seemed lost yet Hatchling Red refused to allow herself keel over and die to an insufferable, self-loathing entity like the Still Unloving.

“Do you think you’re the only one that can’t set aside their instinct?” Her eyes glowed like a steady candleflame. It was small common flame. But that flame was enough proof of her conviction.

 

< [Penetrating Instinct] >

 

“Just who the hell… DO YOU THINK I WAS!?”

Her blades struck the legs that skewered Still Unborns but to no avail. But even so, and as the fiery blood splattered over her body, she continued to fight. Quick, rapid strikes were incomparable to the sheer might of those colossal legs which were thrust downwards like rods.

 

//////// < ALERT > ////////

 

< A Bonded Soul has been killed >

< A Bonded Soul has been killed >

< A Bonded Soul has been killed >

 

< “A thousand wailing cries rocked this soul. A thousand familiar bodies could not break these shackles that defined us.” >

 

“So you’ll just be a slave to that hunger? Are you an idiot? Are all insects like that? They’ll easily eat people close to them just because they’re hungry?”

Red was perhaps the last person to lecture someone on this. After all, the reason why she kept the Rock Bugs close to her was so that she could eat them later. But to watch them be hunted before her very eyes, with the Still Unborn’s crying as if they mourned for the Rock Bugs caused thorns to form on the brambles of her heart.

The blade turned a deep shade of red now. What was once a crimson tip had spread like an infection. The red-hot steel looked like it would burn anything it touched, but in fact, it was cool to the touch.

Blood from an unknown source coated it.

And like the trail of red that followed her blade, her eyes too carried the same ominous power as her swings became extraordinarily heavy.

“… Even I… even I can properly lament when my prey is taken away from me!”

 

//////// < CAUTION > ////////

 

< The Hunt Must Go On is resonating with your Heightened Emotions >

 

< The Rock Bugs are reacting to your Heightened Emotions >

 

The Rocks Bugs moved busily. They were entirely unfit for combat and were mere sheep waiting to be slaughtered.

 

< [Penetrating Instinct] >

< [Penetrating Instinct] >

< [Penetrating Instinct] >

 

But with each Rock Bug that was felled –

 

 

ATT : 350 (+50)

 

– The strength of her blade increased. It was as though it was collecting the wrath of each felled Rock Bug, brimming the blade with power to seek but one thing.

Vengeance.

 

< [Lance of Lament] >

 

Another one of its unavoidable attacks claimed the life of Rock Bug. The world shuddered as she clashed with all ten legs that were impaled into the ground. But rather than flying back in recoil, sparks appeared from its wrathful edge as she clutched her teeth in fury.

“Like I said… Don’t you dare… TOUCH MY ROCK BUUUUUUGS!”

A crack.

Her blade pierced through its pallid shell that was supposed to be impervious to all her attacks. It was little. The damage was insignificant. However, this hatred she possessed inside of her – this collective vengeance that further sharpened the edge of her blade was steadily growing.

 

< Bonded >

< Rock Bug | Lvl 5 | 13x >

 

ATT : 350 (+75)

 

Her emotions snowballed into an unstoppable force.

 

< “Reclamation is impossible. I want to leave behind this hurt.” >

 

< [Tangled Reins] >

 

“WAS IT EVER AN ISSUE OF RECLAIMATION!?” Red roared over the constant wails.

Those same wails seemed to cheer her on, and the sobbing of the Still Unmoved became lauded as if resonating with her rising fury.

She cut through the strands that held it to the ceiling. Her blade perfectly severed through several before it pulled itself back to the centre.

“You – in the first place like I – was always like that! What was there to reclaim! All you had to do was change who you were! Who the hell are you to tell me of all things that our unquestionable drive was an issue of finding something that was lost!”

It wasn’t as if Red didn’t understand its pain.

As a Corrupted in her previous incarnation, she too was driven by nothing but a purpose she never understood. Only that she had to fulfill it. Because that was how she was born.

 

< [Sentimental Retraction] >

 

< “Their screams of torment were dulled by the sound of crushed bones. When we chewed them up and swallowed them down the agony of hunger would fade.” >

 

< [Lance of Lament] >

 

< “But in came the rod of lament that pierced us.” >

 

ATT : 350 (+100)

 

Her attacks were still doing little. No matter how many times she struck, the blood sweat and tears she spent were all for naught. The Still Unmoved healed it whenever ten of the Still Unborn were killed, further driving it to despair as its wailed sharply rose.

But she could feel it.

Something palpable other than despair venting from that thing on Rockie’s back.

 

< Friends! Has gained a Level >

 

< Friends! Has become Friends! I >

 

< (S) Friends! I [0/10] >

< Become friends with the most likely and unlikely of things! Denizens of Corrupted and similar entities may be befriended! Evolution may now be available for strongly bonded and growing friends when the time comes! >

< COST: Nil >

 

Still Unmoved

< Observation Level 3 >

< Beneath the surface of that uncompromisable kindness is a wrath incomparable to your own. Something beyond the shackles of instinct and repression that plagues the Still Unmoved is being offloaded onto a certain Red-Haired Corrupted >

 

< Fellowship >

< Rockie Grey | Lvl: 10 >

 

< Bonded >

Insect

< Rock Bugs | Lvl: 5 | 9x >

 

Aberration of the Still Unloving

< Still Unmoved | Lvl: 10 >

 

It was wrath. That thing that could only cry and heal held a hatred so deeply rooted that Red almost couldn’t believe it herself. She could feel it. Every single aspect of it.

From both the Rock Bugs and the Still Unmoved. In fact, she was in a state where it felt like she was absorbing the collective wrath of everything in the room, further causing the vines to strangle her heart.

 

ATT : 350 (+200)

 

< “O Hunger. O Instinct. It all ends the same way. The Holy Mothers that presented themselves to us cried over countless nights. Our only comfort was to feed them the same thing they gave birth into this world.” >

 

< [Penetrating Instinct] >

< [Penetrating Instinct] >

< [Penetrating Instinct] >

< [Penetrating Instinct] >

< [Penetrating Instinct] >

 

“So that’s the origin of your hatred… And I thought the Still Unmoved were just cowards. How could you not have felt this? This resentment!? Why am I… trying to talk to a damned bug that can’t even hear me!?”

Her attacks were frighteningly destructive. Each strike shattered its armor like a hammer striking rock. But the number of Rock Bugs had dwindled down to the point where she had no feasible way of protecting the Still Unborn.

No matter how strong she became there was nothing she could do to take it down fast enough.

 

//////// < ALERT > ////////

 

< A Bonded Soul has been killed >

< A Bonded Soul has been killed >

< A Bonded Soul has been killed >

< A Bonded Soul has been killed >

 

ATT : 350 (+400)

 

< “I lament that I cannot change. I lament that I am forever dictated by these strings.” >

 

< [Tangled Reins] >

 

The sawblade rapidly approached her. But rather than running away, Hatchling Red ran straight towards it. She grounded herself firmly in the last second and swung straight for the legs.

“BREAK. FREE. FROM. THEM. THEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN!”

She clashed with its insane weight, her blade severing through several legs before she was thrown away by an immense force. Her back collided with the corpse of a Rock Bug, injuring her greatly as she coughed out blood.

“Dammit… And it’s still… Moving… I need more… I need something!”

The cavern quaked again. It was clearly not coming from her gun as it did not discharge. It seemed to originate from above the ceiling.

“Could it be coming from that light…? It’s beating. Like a heart. It was never an explosion to begin with, was it…?”

Red struggled to get onto her feet as she fought through the agony of a shattered rib.

When she rose to her feet, she witnessed the near last of her Rock Bugs perish. All that was left was Rockie Grey and three Rock Bugs. Rockie was only alive because of the Still Unmoved on its back. That, and because it was mostly focused on survival rather than following her commands.

“Is this how it ends…?” Red lamented her weakness in the face of an insurmountable wall.

But even so, she bent down to pick up her weapon in defiance of fate, blood trickling down the side of her head as her emotions continued to soar. Her chest hurt. Everything was aching. Merely holding up the weapon was too difficult now.

“Don’t you dare think you can take away this opportunity to live away from me! Unlike you I’m not a slave to my instincts! I can starve! I can choose what I want to eat!” Red charged forward in one last attempt to fight. But I understand that sorrow… Even I wanted to eat the Rock Bugs.”

Everything moved in slow motion.

 

< [Lance of Lament] >

 

All ten limbs became one. That sharpened tip was pointed straight for her. The beast threw itself forward, splitting the air apart as she stared unlikely at death itself.

“… So what… is this feeling inside of me…?”

A veil of grey blocked her vision.

Huh…?

In the last moment the remaining Rock Bugs jumped to her aid.

This included Rockie Grey.

The blood of her most trusted Rock Bug splattered over her face.

Their combined shells were enough to prevent it from piercing Red, but she was thrown backwards with enough force to nearly shatter every bone in her body. She rolled and skidded along the obsidian floor; her body lacerated from head to toe by razor-sharp debris.

Red’s vision wavered. Everything was a blur. Black spots invaded her sight as she desperately fought the threat of passing out with every ounce of power she had. She laid flat on her stomach. One of her arms was disfigured beyond recognition.

 

HP : 90

 

Luckily for her, her right hand was fine.

I can’t give up… I can’t lose this opportunity… I want to become human… I don’t want to go back to the dark… I… I…

Something plopped in front of her. The mewl of her closest insect friend caused her heart to break as she watched its life essence spill from a massive crack in its outer shell.

“Rockie… You’re…”

It moved close to Red as if to protect her even in its ravaged state. This thing, this same thing she had constantly told she wanted to eat stubbornly protected her till its dying moments. She even thought that it was an invitation for her to be the one to end it and eat it to fulfil her promise.

Red’s eyes widened. Unlike the other Rock Bugs she never truly felt the weight of their loss. They were just pawns to her. A means to an end.

“You dumb… stupid rock… insect…”

 

Rockie Grey | HP: 40

 

They were both bleeding. It wouldn’t be long before they both perished together.

So why does seeing Rockie like this… Make me so… so…

Something snapped inside of her.

 

//////// < CAUTION > ////////

 

< Your emotions are rapidly Heightening >

 

The ground trembled. The crimson exterior of her Fairytale’s Bane began to glow ominously as did her eyes.

But it wasn’t a subtle glow.

Her eyes had become like beacons now.

 

//////// < WARNING > ////////

 

< Your Emotional State Has Risen to the First State >

---