Kenzo made his way toward the open cocoon, moving slowly despite the lingering exhaustion in his body. Every step pulled at his muscles, but his thoughts were already elsewhere. When he reached the gaping opening, he could not help wondering how they had managed to defeat a creature like that. Even now, looking back on it, the entire thing felt almost unreal. The enormous cocoon had been torn open, yet it still seemed to breathe faintly, as though some trace of the Messenger of the Mist remained within.
He stepped inside. The air was different here—heavier, almost oppressive. At the center stood a massive table of dark stone, imposing enough to seem as though it had always belonged there. Twisted, unreadable engravings covered its surface, and the longer Kenzo stared at them, the more his head began to spin. A dull pressure gathered behind his eyes. He quickly looked away, unwilling to push any further.
Then he noticed something off to the side.
His chest tightened.
The urge was there.
He knew it.
He had felt it ever since waking up: that dull impulse, that certainty that he needed to act. Sir James's heart was nearby, and Kenzo's body wanted it. But another question immediately followed—how was he supposed to eat Sir James's heart without making himself look suspicious? Even if the corpse had been left here, there was nothing preventing Ophelia or Naty from coming back to inspect it. He could not afford to act carelessly.
Instead, he moved closer to the engraved stone structure. At its center was a rectangular protrusion built directly into the stone, as though it had always been part of it. Kenzo hesitated briefly, then placed his hand against it.
Something happened the instant he touched it.
The rectangular section began to vibrate. The stone trembled, then cracked, and the vibration surged violently through Kenzo's entire body, resonating all the way into his bones. His heart raced and his breath caught in his throat.
— « What the hell is happening…? »
Then everything stopped.
The stone slowly crumbled away, revealing what had been hidden inside.
A book.
Red.
Veined.
Almost alive.
Kenzo froze for a moment before instinctively moving closer. He knew he had to act quickly. Ophelia or Naty could come inside at any moment. He picked up the book.
The instant his fingers touched it, something entered him. The sensation was sudden, invasive, and deeply painful. It felt as though it lasted for several minutes, as though his body were being forced to absorb something he could not understand. Then, without warning, everything returned to normal.
When Kenzo regained his senses, the book had changed completely. It now looked ordinary, almost insignificant: a simple brown book filled with blank pages.
A voice echoed.
[Congratulations, Lastborn. You have discovered one of the Alchemist's Artifacts: Engraving.]
Kenzo stood frozen.
He had not expected that.
What exactly had he found? And more importantly, that title—the Alchemist. He remembered it clearly. Far too clearly. He remembered what those two alchemists had done to him, how they had treated him.
Like a failure.
— « Who were they…? »
Why was an artifact belonging to the Alchemist hidden here?
Before he could summon his Orb and inspect what he had received, another priority came to mind. He needed to avoid looking suspicious in front of the girls. Kenzo left the cocoon and forced his injured voice to work.
— « The stone crumbled when I touched the table… and this was inside. »
He held up the now ordinary book.
— « What? How is that even possible? » Naty replied, surprised.
They all went back inside to inspect it. After several minutes spent examining the stone, the engravings, and the book, they eventually decided there was no point dwelling on it.
— « Maybe whatever used to be inside this book was what allowed the Void Creature to complete its transition, » Naty suggested.
Ophelia did not seem particularly interested.
Kenzo returned to Lucian's side, ate a little, then decided to sleep. Summoning his Orb for no apparent reason in front of the girls could draw attention, especially from Ophelia. He preferred to wait.
The next morning, Kenzo quietly got up and moved to an isolated section of the Palace of Webs, pretending he needed to relieve himself. Once he was alone, he summoned his Orb and checked his Status.
Status:
Name: Kenzo
Rank: Unconscious
Bodily Awakening: [Serpent+]
Awakened Prana: [2/800]
Heart: Awakened
Corrupted Prana: [119/1000]
Power: None, please ingest a power
Blessings: [Touched by the Unique], [The Lastborn]
Gift: [Chimera+]
Artifacts: [Armor of the Forest Guardians+], [White Fang+], [Sage's Guandao+], [Engraving+]
Then he read its description.
[Engraving:
Created by one who was a genius among humans, yet an anomaly in the eyes of the gods,
Source of the worst calamities and the most precious miracles,
His mark shaped this world of suffering beneath the heavens,
Guided by a single purpose—to break the Leash of Gods.]
Kenzo remained lost in thought for a long moment, trying to understand how the Alchemist could be described as someone capable of miracles when, to him, he had always represented something monstrous. Eventually, Kenzo focused on summoning the artifact.
Something else happened instead.
[Would you like to absorb this Artifact?]
— « Absorb it? »
Nothing like this had ever happened before.
— « Yes. »
The world twisted around him instantly. His eyes began to burn so violently that it felt as though they were about to burst from their sockets, as though something were reshaping them from within. Then the pain moved into his heart. Something formed there—burning, oppressive—before disappearing just as suddenly.
When Kenzo opened his eyes, everything was normal again.
He checked his Status.
[Engraving] was no longer listed under [Artifacts].
Gift: [Chimera+], [Engraving 0/8+]
— « What…? It moved to [Gift]? »
He understood less and less by the second. Instead of trying to make sense of it immediately, he simply read the new description.
[Engraving 0/8:
You who have been chosen to become the Lastborn, receive now the weapon that will free you from the Leash of Gods. Through it, you shall impose your concept upon the world, shaping reality through your different runes.]
— « The Leash of Gods… runes… Is that what I'm supposed to look for? More of the Alchemist's Artifacts? »
A growing unease settled over Kenzo. Was any of this really happening by chance? Were his powers truly his own? Had someone been manipulating him from the beginning? And yet he remembered that he had not been the first candidate chosen to become the Lastborn.
He had been the hundred and twenty-eighth.
In the end, these were not questions he could afford to obsess over right now.
More importantly, nothing was forcing him to follow whatever path had been prepared for him.
— « I'll do things my way. »
He summoned the Armor of the Forest Guardians. It had fully regenerated. Kenzo dismissed his Orb and started back toward the others.
— « No one gets to choose my path. »