Kenjiro stood amidst the raining blue gore. The air smelled of ozone and wet copper. He reached into the mess of shattered scales and focused. His shadow didn't just move; it boiled, the ink-black fluid rising from the marble floor to coat the remains of the serpent.
"Extract."
The command was flat. The shadow tendrils wrapped around the viscera, pulling a translucent, thrashing blue light from the wreckage. The light shrieked—a sound felt in the teeth rather than heard. It condensed into a small, jagged orb before sinking into Kenjiro's palm.
[ Extraction Successful ]
[ Soul: Fulgur-Serpent (Rank: High-General) has been added to the Abyss Pool ]
The Warden materialized near the center of the hall. He didn't look at the gore. His mask was fixed on the golden skeleton. For the first time, the Warden's posture broke; he leaned forward, his gloved hand hovering inches from the ribcage.
"How?" the Warden asked. The word was barely a breath. "The Great General Hidetada. The man who broke ten thousand spears with twenty men. History says he vanished into the Western Sea."
Kenjiro held up the white arrow. The system interface overlay his vision, red lines of text scanning the artifact.
[ Artifact Identified: Heaven-Piercer (Spirit Grade) ]
[ Ownership Status: Unclaimed ]
[ Soul Requirement: 50 High-Rank Souls or Mortal King's Blood ]
[ Warning: Artifact contains the remnant ego of Hidetada ]
Kenjiro bit his thumb. A single drop of dark, oxygen-rich blood fell onto the shaft. The arrow drank it. The white light turned a predatory gold, and the weight of the object vanished, becoming an extension of his own arm.
[ Ownership Confirmed ]
[ Heaven-Piercer added to Weaponry Store ]
"He didn't vanish," Kenjiro said, staring at the empty sockets of the skull. "He was guarding something. Or he was kept here to keep something in."
He turned to the Warden. "Why is a hero of the old world rotting in a beast's coil?"
The Warden paced three steps, the sound of his boots on the marble sharp as a gunshot. He stopped, his back to Kenjiro. "I doubt I just saw a corpse. I saw a seal. That arrow... myth says he killed twenty kings with one shot. If he's here, the Glacial Sepulcher isn't a tomb. It's a prison."
The Warden reached down. With a sickening crack, he snapped the index finger from the general's golden hand. Before Kenjiro could ask why, the Warden vanished.
The hall groaned. A ball of golden light ignited atop the general's skull. It wasn't warm. It was a cold, hungry radiance that began to dissolve the bones, turning the gold into fine, shimmering ash. The orb expanded, then detonated, four streaks of light shooting into the remaining tunnels.
Kenjiro didn't wait. He turned toward the second path.
The air in the second tunnel was a physical weight. It was thick with the scent of old frost and rotted marrow. Every breath Kenjiro took felt like swallowing needles. He walked deep into the throat of the mountain, his red hood pulled low.
He emerged into a cavern of jagged, obsidian spires. In the center, a raised pavement of black rock was piled high with the bleached bones of monsters—some larger than the Kong he'd killed years ago.
"The serpent was just the doorman," Kenjiro muttered.
A flash of white light zipped across his peripheral vision. His eyes didn't track it; he kept his gaze forward, his hand resting on the hilt of the red sword.
Zip.
The flash came again, closer this time. The temperature dropped another ten degrees. A low growl, vibrating at a frequency that made the obsidian spires hum, echoed from the shadows.
Something launched from the darkness.
"Time Dilation."
The world turned to grey sludge. The falling droplets of melt-water froze in mid-air, hanging like diamonds. Kenjiro stepped three paces to the left, his movement fluid, unburdened by the lag of the world.
He turned.
The beast was suspended in the air, its jaws inches from where Kenjiro's throat had been. It was a Fubuki-Ryū, a mountain-born terror with the body of a massive white tiger and the narrow, predatory face of a tundra wolf. Its skin wasn't fur; it was a lattice of designed ice, sharp enough to shave bone.
"A Frost-Fang Monarch," Kenjiro whispered.
The beast's eyes—voids of pure violet—shifted. To Kenjiro's horror, the creature's paw moved. It wasn't affected by the dilation. It slammed its limb into the air, creating a shockwave of frost that shattered Kenjiro's technique like glass.
The world snapped back to full speed.
The shockwave hit Kenjiro in the chest. He was sent sprawling backward, his boots skidding across the ice. Before he could reset his stance, the beast was on him.
Thud. A heavy paw caught him in the shoulder, throwing him against a spire.
Slash.
The ice-claws raked his ribs, his mana-shield flickering violet.
Thump.
A tail like a frozen flail caught him in the gut, pinning him to the stone.
The beast lunged for the kill, its maw glowing with a frost-breath that could flash-freeze a lake.
Kenjiro's eyes flared emerald. He didn't pull the sword. He drove his open palm into the beast's chest as it landed.
"Weight of the Void."
The Fubuki-Ryū's chest-plate of ice cracked. Kenjiro followed up with a blur of strikes—fluid, heavy punches that bypassed the armor and hit the organs directly. Each hit sounded like a hammer striking a wet anvil. He moved like smoke, circling the beast, his hands glowing with the dark green flames of the Necromancer.
He caught the beast's jaw, twisting its head downward into the stone. The ground split.
The Fubuki-Ryū tried to rise, its violet eyes dimmed, its breath coming in ragged, bloody gasps. It looked at the child before it, and for the first time, it saw the shadow of the man standing behind the boy.
Kenjiro stood over it. He didn't look tired. He looked bored.
"You're fast," Kenjiro said, his voice overlapping with a deep, ghostly baritone. "But I've already lived through five hundred years of your kind."
The beast tried to snap at his legs. Kenjiro didn't move. He raised his hand, the mark on his wrist glowing so bright it turned the cave walls green.
"Arise."
The word acted like a vacuum. The Fubuki-Ryū's body went rigid. Its soul didn't wait to be extracted; it was ripped out through its eyes, a screaming violet specter that merged with Kenjiro's shadow. The ice-skin of the beast shattered, leaving only a pile of grey dust.
[ Soul Extracted: Fubuki-Ryū (Rank: Monarch-Tier) ]
[ Level Up! ]
[ Current Level: 15 ]
[ Warning: The seal on the Glacial Sepulcher is failing. ]
[ Remaining Sentinels: 3 ]
[ The Master of the Tomb is looking for his crown. ]
Kenjiro looked at the third tunnel. The air coming out of it was no longer cold. It smelled of sulfur and burning hair.
"Three more," Kenjiro said, tying his hair tighter. "Then I go home."
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