Isaac stood up.
Flesh that had been torn apart began to pull itself together. Muscle twisted and rewove like snakes under his skin, veins pulsating with unstable energy. The sight alone was grotesque — his body was regenerating at an unnatural rate, flesh knitting together as if time was reversing.
Even the monster hesitated.
It lowered its raised claw, tilting its deformed head slightly, unsure if it had truly delivered a killing blow.
The air grew dense — suffocating.
Isaac's eyes locked onto the monster with a manic gleam, his pupils dilated, a sick grin spreading across his blood-covered face. He slowly dropped his cracked sword with a clink.
"You should've made sure I stayed down…" he whispered.
Without warning, he lunged.
The monster barely reacted before Isaac landed on its broad, scaled back. A sudden crimson mist erupted from his arm, swirling unnaturally and solidifying into jagged claws of energy, pulsing with life and hunger.
With a roar not human nor beast, Isaac drove the claws into the monster's back.
Once.
Twice.
Then a flurry of savage, relentless stabs — each strike punctuated with violent splashes of thick, black blood. He tore into its hide with a feral fury, movements erratic and violent, like a predator unchained. The creature screeched, staggering, slamming itself against the cave walls in a desperate attempt to shake him off.
"Isaac!" Trish shouted from behind, both horrified and awestruck. "What the hell did you just do?! That thing… it's not magic — it's something else!"
But Isaac didn't answer.
He wasn't there anymore. Not fully.
Something primal had taken hold — a trance, a wrathful instinct. The crimson mist now curled along his shoulders, slithering like living tendrils. The veins under his skin pulsed brighter, his mana crackling with twisted pressure.
The monster finally managed to hurl him off.
Isaac slammed into the stone floor with a thud, skidding to a stop near Trish. He rolled, groaned, and pushed himself up again — slower this time. His clawed hand twitched, dripping black blood. He coughed violently, splattering the ground with red.
"...This thing isn't dying fast enough."
Trish was frozen. She'd always known Isaac was unstable — dangerous, even. But this? This was beyond anything she expected.
Her voice barely came out. "What... are you?"
More crimson mist bled from Isaac's body.
It thickened, curled upward, then began to shape itself — not into claws this time, but spears. Half a dozen floated mid-air around him, each glowing faintly like forged blood, trembling with caged violence.
Isaac lifted a single finger.
Snap.
The spears launched.
A streak of red energy ripped through the air, pinning the monster against the cave wall with a series of brutal thunks. It howled, writhing against the impalement, black ichor spilling onto the ground like a river of tar.
Isaac didn't wait.
He vanished in a blink, appearing in front of the beast — hand already raised.
With no hesitation, he plunged his hand through the creature's chest, sinking elbow-deep into flesh and bone. His fingers wrapped around its pulsing heart — a mutated, glowing thing — and crushed it.
The light in the monster's eyes died instantly. Its body twitched once. Then collapsed.
Silence returned.
Heavy, thick silence — broken only by the sound of Isaac's ragged breathing.
He turned to Trish, his chest heaving, veins still glowing faintly beneath his skin. His eyes were wide, pupils shrunken, insanity dancing just behind them.
Then he smiled.
A wild, crooked, exhausted grin.
"I could really go for that limited edition cake now."
Trish just stared at him — blood on his face, madness in his eyes, the corpse of an abomination still twitching behind him.
"…You're completely insane," she muttered.
Isaac wiped blood from his mouth and exhaled.
"Yeah," he said, dragging himself away from the corpse. "But you're still here, so what does that say about you?"
Before Trish could answer, the ground beneath them trembled again — deeper, heavier.
Stone groaned from somewhere far below. Then cracks began racing along the floor like lightning.
Isaac looked down.
"Oh, come on."
And the cave began to collapse.