Chapter 49: Corruption

Eden had completely lost track of time.

There was no longer a beginning or an end to the battle.

There was only movement.

His feet slammed against the ruined floor as he threw himself between the Essence Knights, his purple Aura Blade flashing through the darkness. Every swing tore through multiple bodies. Every step sent cracks through the stone beneath him.

Five knights lunged simultaneously.

Eden ducked beneath one sword, twisted around another, and drove his shoulder into a third.

The knight’s chest caved inward.

Eden grabbed its arm before it could fall and swung the several-meter-tall creature around like a hammer.

It smashed into four others.

Before the remaining knights could recover, Eden was already there.

His Aura Blade swept horizontally.

Six more Essence Knights fell.

Eden landed among the rubble and immediately kicked another through a wall.

He didn’t even think about it anymore.

His body simply moved.

His senses had narrowed down to the battlefield around him. The hundreds of enemies. The movement of their weapons. The vibrations beneath his feet. The subtle changes in their Essence.

Everything else had disappeared.

For once, there was no plan.

No calculation.

No future.

Only the fight.

And Eden loved it.

He smiled as another Essence Knight swung its massive sword at him.

"Too slow."

He slipped past the attack and drove his fist into its jaw.

The head exploded.

Eden spun.

Three more.

He kicked one.

Then elbowed another.

His Aura Blade cut through the third and continued into two behind it.

Five bodies collapsed almost simultaneously.

Eden barely acknowledged them.

His breathing was heavy, but his movements had become strangely smooth.

He was in a state of complete flow.

Which was disrupted by the familiar runes of the system appearing.

Eden froze for half a second.

"Hm?"

The notification appeared directly in front of his eyes.

[New Skill Acquired.]

[C-Rank Skill: Immersion]

Eden stared.

His smile disappeared.

For a moment, he simply looked at the words.

He opened the skill description.

[Immersion — C-Rank]

[Heightens the user’s senses.]

[Increases Essence output by 10%.]

[Increases all attributes by 10%.]

[Suppresses unnecessary thoughts and external distractions, allowing the user to intentionally enter a state of heightened concentration and flow.]

Eden’s expression slowly changed.

"...No way."

Another Essence Knight charged him.

Eden didn’t even look.

His Aura Blade moved.

The knight split apart.

His eyes remained fixed on the System window.

Immersion.

It was the same skill.

His skill.

The only skill he’d possessed in his first life.

For thirty-five years, Immersion had been the entirety of Eden’s power.

Nothing else.

And yet...

Eden remembered exactly what it had felt like.

That heightened perception.

That slight increase in Essence output.

That strange clarity when everything unnecessary simply disappeared.

Back then, he had thought it was useless.

And he was right, on its own, Immersion was by no means a powerful skill.

It was merely a minor self-buff skill.

Compared to the monsters he’d encountered after his regression, it seemed particularly pathetic.

Eden stared at the skill window for another moment.

Then he sighed quietly.

"Haunting me..."

He clenched his fist.

"In both life’s?"

An Essence Knight attacked.

Eden turned and punched it.

It flew backward.

He looked at his hand.

"The system really is a cruel piece of shit."

A strange feeling settled in his chest.

It wasn’t nostalgia.

Not exactly.

It was something closer to closure.

His first life had been defined by that skill.

His second life had been defined by Devour.

And now both existed within him.

Eden looked down the ruined corridor.

"Interesting."

His eyes narrowed.

"With Phase Shift..."

He glanced at the broken bodies surrounding him.

"And Heir’s Pride..."

A small grin appeared.

"Maybe you’re not so useless after all."

He closed the System window.

There would be time to think about it later.

Right now, there were still enemies.

Eden turned.

Another group of Essence Knights emerged from the darkness.

About a dozen.

And behind them—

Something caught his attention.

Massive doors.

They were enormous.

Easily twice the height of the Essence Knights, constructed from black stone and reinforced with strange metallic lines. Faint orange Essence pulsed through the carvings across their surface.

Eden’s eyes narrowed.

’...!’

"The boss room."

"Fucking finally."

He had reached the end.

"About time."

The dozen knights moved.

Eden raised Aura Blade.

"Move."

He disappeared.

The next several seconds were nothing but destruction.

His blade carved through the first group.

His fist shattered another.

He kicked two knights into the wall, then used the collapsing rubble to crush three more.

One managed to swing its sword toward his back.

Eden twisted.

The blade passed within centimeters of his face.

He grabbed it.

Pulled.

The Essence Knight stumbled forward.

Eden drove his forehead into its face.

Then his Aura Blade flashed.

The final knight collapsed.

Silence returned.

Eden stood before the massive doors.

His breathing was heavy.

He had killed hundreds of Essence Knights.

The entire dungeon behind him had been transformed into a wasteland.

Walls had collapsed.

Pillars had been reduced to rubble.

The floor was covered in craters.

Shattered Essence Stone littered the ground.

And yet Eden couldn’t shake the strange sensation in his chest.

Something was wrong.

He looked down at himself.

His body felt strange.

Ever since he’d acquired Immersion, there had been an uncomfortable sensation growing inside him.

Like a weird pressure.

Like something was moving beneath his skin.

Eden frowned.

"What’s..."

He suddenly stopped.

His expression changed.

"...that?"

A pulse ran through his body.

Thump.

Eden’s eyes widened.

Another.

Thump.

His Essence surged.

"Huh?"

Vicious, red Essence appeared.

Eden hadn’t activated Devour.

He knew that it was still unavailable.

So naturally, he hadn’t even thought about using it.

Yet crimson Essence suddenly erupted from his body.

It wasn’t spreading outward.

It was moving inward.

Eden looked down.

"...What the hell?"

The red Essence crawled across his arms.

Then his chest.

Then his neck.

It wasn’t attacking the Essence Knights.

It wasn’t attacking the dungeon.

It was attacking him.

Eden’s body locked up.

Pain exploded through him.

His knees slammed into the ground.

"AGH—!"

His hands dug into the stone.

His entire body convulsed.

This was a sensation Eden had never felt before.

A pain so difficult to describe he couldn’t even find the right words for it.

This wasn’t like getting punched.

It wasn’t like having bones broken.

It wasn’t like being burned.

It wasn’t like anything Eden had ever experienced.

It felt as though every cell in his body was being torn apart and rebuilt simultaneously.

Eden screamed.

"Ugh!"

The crimson Essence surged deeper.

His vision blurred.

His ears rang.

His muscles spasmed.

Blood poured from his mouth.

He could barely breathe.

Then the System appeared.

[Warning.]

[Devour is corrupting the user’s Skills.]