The labyrinth was a place of nightmares—its walls towering and hewn from ancient, jagged stone, slick with moss and age. A choking scent of blood and rot clung to the stale air, heavy and oppressive. The faint tallic tang of flesh hung so thick, it coated the tongue like ash.
Patches of blood painted the walls in grotesque splatters, so still fresh enough to drip down slowly, crawling like tears down a corpse's cheek.
Everything was still. Still and silent.
Too silent.
Like a predator's den, waiting for movent. Waiting to strike.
In that suffocating quiet, dozens of dog-sized rats crept through the maze-like structure. Their fur was matted, their eyes sunken and red. They were no ordinary vermin—mutated, starved, vicious creatures, their hunger evident in the way they sniffed the air.
A cluster of five huddled near a broken corner where the light didn't reach, ears twitching, claws scraping faintly against stone.
Then—
BAM!
The wall beside them exploded into a rain of shattered brick and pulverized debris.
A burst of dust and fragnts clouded the corner, and from within it erged a figure, a blur of motion and violence—Cassius.
His violet hair swayed slightly from the impact, and his matching eyes glead like sharpened glass. There was no rcy in his gaze. No rage either.
Just cold, calculated execution.
Before the rats could react, his figure shimred.
"[Flash Speed]."
In an instant, Cassius disappeared from view, only to reappear directly in front of them, his leg already raised. It ca down with the weight of a guillotine.
CRACK!
The skull of the nearest rat burst like a lon under a sledgehamr. Crimson sprayed outward in a fan of gore—but Cassius was already gone, another blur of motion.
He reappeared behind the next rat, grabbed its tail mid-spin, and with a grunt, snapped it like a whip into the stone wall. The impact was aty, final.
The third one lunged at him, teeth bared, but Cassius caught it by the throat mid-air and slamd it into the ground.
Once.
Twice.
The third ti, the stone cracked and the rat's form stopped twitching.
The remaining two tried to flee, but it was already too late.
Cassius's voice rang out—quiet but seething with electricity.
"[Lightning]."
Arcs of violet lightning burst from his skin, crackling like chained beasts finally unshackled. The strands of energy slithered through the air, rabid and chaotic, before lunging at the fleeing rats.
They struck in perfect unison.
The rats convulsed violently, then collapsed into steaming piles of charred flesh—nothing but burnt husks.
And then, like a congratulatory whisper, the system responded.
« Floor Clear »
« Proceeding to Floor 5 »
Cassius's body vanished in a flash of light.
When his vision returned, he stood within another segnt of the labyrinth. The layout was the sa—endless walls, endless turns—but the scent here was different. Less tallic. More... chemical.
A faint sloshing sound echoed from all directions.
The system displayed the new threat.
« Enemies: Slis »
« Rank: ★ »
« Drops: Sli Gel »
Before him, dozens of gelatinous creatures began to erge from the crevices and cracks of the maze. Each was about the size of a bucket, translucent and pulsing with faint internal light. They wobbled slightly, strange cores floating within them like drifting hearts.
They quivered at his presence, but made no sound—only sloshed and undulated forward with eerie synchronization.
Cassius didn't speak.
He didn't flinch.
His face remained blank, utterly devoid of emotion. It was the expression of a machine built for efficiency and destruction.
He stepped forward.
"[Violent Fist]."
Lightning surged again, but this ti it wrapped tightly around his right arm. The air around his clenched fist trembled with static, loud cracks splitting the silence like gunfire. The energy twisted and sparked violently, hissing like a beast preparing to pounce.
He drove his electrified fist into the nearest sli.
The result was imdiate and brutal.
The sli exploded into pieces, its gel-like body ruptured by the force and cooked from within. The shockwave rolled into the next few, knocking them back like bowling pins.
Another stepped forward.
Cassius pivoted, launched a spinning kick that dispersed another sli into gelatinous mist. He ducked, turned, struck again. Each hit was clean, devastating, precise.
The slis weren't fast. They weren't smart.
But they were endless.
They kept coming, dozens more slithering forward from the darkness beyond the maze, trying to overwhelm him with sheer numbers.
Cassius narrowed his eyes, his body already in motion.
The slis didn't stop.
They kept crawling out from holes in the ground, oozing from cracks in the walls, and bubbling up from small pools of green liquid scattered around the floor.
Their translucent bodies shimred with hues of green and blue, so laced with tiny bones, others pulsing with unstable cores.
Cassius exhaled, his breath sharp and shallow.
His muscles ached. His right arm—still coated in lightning—trembled from overuse. But he didn't let it drop.
He couldn't.
« 5:07:43 »
The tir floated above him in red font, each second ticking like the beat of a war drum.
Mia's life was on the line.
And he was still too damn far from understanding mana.
Another sli lunged at him, stretching its gooey body like a whip. Cassius ducked under it and responded with a rising uppercut, shattering it into fragnts.
He spun around and kicked another midair, sending it slamming into the stone wall where it jiggled violently before collapsing into mush.
It wasn't the strength of the enemies that was the problem—it was the number.
A war of attrition.
A war he wasn't winning.
His movents were starting to slow, breaths becoming heavier.
Then, suddenly—
The slis stopped.
They pulled back.
Not in fear, but as if retreating on command.
Cassius narrowed his eyes.
The ground beneath his feet began to tremble.
RUMBLE—
The walls cracked, and a thick, black ooze began seeping from the corners. It moved with unnatural intent, pooling together in the center of the room.
It rose.
Twisted.
And took shape.
« Mini-Boss Encounter »
« Corrupted Sli King »
« Rank: ★★★ »
It stood nearly ten feet tall, its body bloated and trembling, a fusion of hundreds of smaller slis. Within its core, a red crystal pulsed slowly like a heart. Bones floated inside, half-digested. The air around it reeked of acid and decay.
Cassius's body tensed.
His legs were shaky.
But his mind... still sharp.
"I need to end this quick," he muttered.
The sli king gurgled, then launched a stream of acid toward him. Cassius jumped, flipping mid-air, but a small splash grazed his side.
Sssshhhk!
His skin burned instantly. The pain exploded, making him wince—but he bit down, forced his body to move through it. He rolled across the ground, dodging another blast, then stood with both fists clenched.
He had one shot.
"[Violent Fist]!"
Again, lightning surged—but this ti, instead of coating just his arm, it flowed wildly over his body. Sparks danced violently across his chest, legs, and neck.
His veins lit up in jagged lines.
His heart thundered.
But his mind flashed—not with battle instinct... but with mory.
Mia.
Her tearful eyes.
Her voice trembling as she said, "I'm scared..."
mories of the ti when she was the most broken.
His vision doubled for a mont, then snapped back.
He growled and rushed forward, his body becoming a trail of crackling light.
The Sli King opened its maw to devour him whole—but Cassius jumped inside, diving straight toward the glowing red core.
And scread—
"[FLASH FANG]!!!"
A new skill.
Instinctive. Untrained.
But born in the heat of desperation.
His entire body beca a spear of lightning, condensed and volatile. Fangs materialized on his fists—violent.
The red core t his fist—and shattered like glass under divine judgnt.
BOOOOOM!!!
A thunderous explosion tore through the labyrinth floor. Sli splattered in every direction, lting stone and walls. For a second, there was only blinding light.
Then silence.
« Floor 5 Clear »
« Proceeding to Floor 6 »
« Warning: ntal Strain Detected »
« Caution: Psyche Unstable »
Cassius coughed out blackened blood, his vision swimming.
But the mont he blinked—
The world changed.
Gone was the stone labyrinth. Gone were the monsters.
He was standing in a room made of mirrors.
Dozens of reflections surrounded him from every direction. But none were moving in sync with him.
They stared at him—grinning.
Mocking.
Each one wore his face... but twisted. In so, his hair was white as bone. In others, his eyes glowed crimson. His mirror selves whispered in unison, voices warped.
"Do you really think you can save her?"
"You let her cry."
"You killed for her. Used her to justify every cri. How noble."
"You're just like us."
He stepped back.
One of the mirrors cracked. Another shattered completely.
"You're nothing without violence. You desire blood. You are sadistic. You're just pretending—"
He slamd his fist into one of them—
CRASH!
But the others just laughed louder.
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