Chapter 8: Collapse
He waited, but this ti? Nothing. No varied images to warm his sleep. No light to guide. Just unrelenting cold and darkness.
"System?"
His voice sounded empty, still wet and rasped, but it carried nowhere. Not even an echo. He tried to move, but his limbs felt heavy, like he was swimming through bile. He could breathe, but it felt wrong. Like he wasn’t supposed to.
The world suddenly shifted.
His body jolted, pulled to the side, like a floodgate had opened beside him. Then abrupt stillness.
Panic clawed at his chest. He tried to swim. Move. Do sothing.
The world buckled again and he was yanked down. Fast. He had no control, no grip, just descent. Faster and deeper, his body stretched from the force. A scream tore from his throat, distorted and raw. Not his voice. Sothing worse.
Then... Impact.
Nothing there. But he hit it, and it felt like every bone in his body turned to dust. He’d finally stopped moving, but he wished he’d hadn’t.
His mind scread. His body burned. Still breathing, but broken. And sohow his eyes were still open. Still open to the horror staring back at him.
Sothing was there. In the dark.
He couldn’t see it. But at the sa ti, he could. A shape without na. A void without concept. A presence blacker than black.
It stared through him.
And he knew it saw everything.
"Miiinnnee..."
The voice ca from everywhere, and his mind shattered.
----
The familiar grip of agony tore through his body the mont he woke.
He coughed, blood, phlegm, fragnts of bone. His ribs ached. His throat burned.
Everything hurt.
He didn’t move. Just lay there, twitching in the aftershock. A few seconds passed before the panel hovering above him ca into focus.
[System // Notification]
[Quest // SURVIVAL // COMPLETED]
[Condition // Flee Scorch Gnats before they turn you to charcoal]
[Reward // Skill Unlock / Rend]
[System Module // Skill Unlock]
[Unlocking...]
[Skill // Registered / Active / Offensive / Mutation-Based]
[Unlock // COMPLETE]
[Skill // Rend]
[Mutate claws for enhanced damage and armor bypass.]
The pain didn’t fade. But as soon as he finished reading, sothing new started burning into him. His mind writhed, like razor-worms chewing through the folds of his brain. He tried to scream. Couldn’t. His body was locked tight, limbs frozen.
Then the panel blinked, showing a new notification. Followed by the voice, flat, chanical, and uncaring.
[System Initialization // Mana Pool // ENABLED]
[Beginning Allocation of Magical Reservoir...]
[Assigning...]
[!! ERROR !! // INVALID Soul Structure Detected]
[Class Type // ANOMALOUS]
[Mana Pool Function // Unavailable]
[Standard Arcane Flow Incompatible with Host Physiology...]
His body jerked violently. Muscles seized, blood surged from his mouth as his spine arched against the stone. Sothing inside cracked. Reset. Shifted.
[Recalculating...]
[Substitute Module Selected]
[Soulmass System // ACTIVATED]
[System Module // Soulmass]
[Fuel Source // Soul Residue / Consud Life-force / Internal Corruption]
[Usage // Required for Mutation-Based Skills / Evolution Triggers / Curse Manipulation]
[Stability // Volatile / Subject to collapse under sustained use]
[Note]
[No known limit // Risk factor elevated // Capacity will grow with consumption]
The seizures stopped, but the pain didn’t. He laid there, still twitching. Still shaking. Still bleeding.
He opened his eyes slowly, blinking the blood away. Still couldn’t move, but the panel was thankfully gone—
[System // Notification]
He suddenly felt hate for his new life.
[!! Soulmass // CRITICAL !!]
[!! IMDIATE Attention Required !!]
[!! Ti Left Until COLLAPSE !! // 2 hrs]
[Soulmass // 1/10]
He stared at it and started to wonder if the system hated him. Because he was really starting to hate it.
His body had stopped seizing. Whatever had happened was processed. He could move again, slowly. Shakily, he sat up. Legs still broken from the fall and not healing.
"What’s collapse?"
[Recomndation: any and all questions related to system function can be answered by User. Use your claw...]
Yeah. He hated it.
Rubbing his horns to make sure they were still there...they were. And for so reason, that mattered now. Then pressed his claw to the word: collapse.
[SYSTEM // Definition]
[COLLAPSE // The failure state of the User’s soul]
[Trigger Conditions // Soulmass Reaches 0
/ Soul Integrity < 40%]
[Upon Collapse]
[Total spiritual and physical breakdown
/ System forced to disengage from host]
[Status // True Death]
[Note]
[COLLAPSE is irreversible without external Divine Intervention / Current host is already in UNSTABLE Classification / Risk Level Elevated / System will issue FINAL WARNING at T-Minus 10 Minutes.]
"Soulmass? What does...nevermind."
He grunted, exiting the COLLAPSE screen with a swipe. His claw hovered for a second, then pressed against the glowing text: Soulmass.
The screen shifted.
[System // Definition]
[Soulmass // A consumable Spiritual Energy that replaces traditional Mana]
[Function]
[Powers all System-Bound Skills / Mutations / Evolutionary Triggers]
[Type]
[Finite / stack-based resource tied to the strength and purity of consud Souls]
[Initial Unlock // Level 2]
[Capacity // 10]
[Regeneration // None]
[Acquisition thods // Flesh Consumption / Curse chanics / Soulshard Absorption]
[!! WARNING !! // Starvation leads to MADNESS state]
He squinted at the screen. No mana. No regeneration. No safety net. Just soul and hunger. But beyond all the information, beyond the risks, the questions, the looming collapse... he felt it.
He was getting stronger.
And one part of the update pulled his attention more than anything else. His first skill. Rend. He pressed his claw against the na, and almost smiled.
[Skill Display // Rend]
[Type // Active]
[Category // Offensive]
[Rank // F]
[Sub-Category // Mutation-Based]
[Description // Forces your claws to liquify and elongate, mutating them into serrated tendrils of hardened flesh. During this ti, claws ignore light armor and adapt mid-strike, changing edge angles to maximize tissue disruption]
[Effect // Slashing attacks gain 10% slicing damage]
[Cooldown // 5 minutes]
[Cost // 1 Soulmass]
[Ti Active // 3 Seconds]
The screen flickered. And for the first ti since he’d woken, he felt it. The urge to find trouble.
Grrggllglll...
His stomach ended that thought. He swiped the panel away, and started to look around... then his heart stopped.
A face. Demonic and imnse. At least ten tis his size staring right at him.
Or so he thought.
[Elevated heart rate detected. No threats present within proximity. Calm down.]
He didn’t crawl and fling himself from the edge, barely. His mind fought to override instinct. The system’s voice helped, cold, but steady. The face wasn’t alive. Just stone. Massive and terrifying, but not a threat.
He cald slowly. Grabbed his tail, holding the point like a blade.
"Can I press my claw on it?"
The system glitched. Just for a second, then it answered.
[If User is asking whether it will display information if you press on the stone... Negative.]
He frowned. Didn’t know why the answer made him feel stupid. Gripping his tail tighter, he forced himself to look around more. Really look. And for a mont, he was grateful his species ca with Dark Vision.
Only a mont.
Because once his eyes adjusted... what he saw was the most terrifying thing he had ever laid eyes on. And in Hell, that ant sothing.
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