Chapter 213: Chapter 213 – The Beasts in the Dark
The ruins breathed with a sound that was not wind.
Lin staggered forward, his body trembling with each uneven step, Min-joon bracing him on one side while Hwan darted ahead, scanning corners, ears tuned to the smallest scrape in the dark. Behind them, Keller swore under his breath as the rattle of engines grew louder. The militia hadn’t broken after their losses. If anything, they had doubled down, regrouping with heavier machines, stronger men, and something worse trailing in their wake.
The night shivered with floodlights cutting swathes across the rubble. Voices barked in a guttural mix of Korean slang and scavenger code. They weren’t just searching—they were hunting. And Lin could feel the hunt pressing on his bones like pressure from the deep.
"Keep moving," Min-joon hissed, his voice low but urgent.
Lin’s chains stirred under his skin, scratching at his ribs as though the abyss within him already knew what was coming. Each throb of his pulse was like a drumbeat in a cavernous void, echoing louder than his own thoughts.
They turned into a shattered avenue where skeletal towers leaned on each other like broken teeth. Hwan raised a fist—halt. The sound ahead wasn’t human. It was heavier, deeper. A dragging scrape, claws against asphalt, and a low reverberating growl that rattled dust loose from collapsed facades.
"Shit," Keller muttered. His rifle came up, barrel shaking just slightly despite his iron grip. "They brought them."
Before Min-joon could ask, the shape emerged from the shadows.
It was a beast in the barest sense. Once it might have been canine—or bovine, or maybe something scavenged from an underground zoo no one remembered. But its body was grotesquely re-forged. Flesh clung to plated steel, black veins pulsing with abyssal ichor that shone faintly like molten tar. Chains—real chains—dug into its hide, bolted into bone, tethered to a truck dragging behind it. The militia soldiers strained at the chains, but it was less like they were controlling it and more like they were daring to walk close enough not to be the first devoured.
Its eyes glowed a wet, jaundiced yellow. And the moment they locked onto Lin, the beast let out a sound halfway between a roar and the groan of twisting metal.
Another answered from deeper in the ruins. And another.
"They bred them to hunt abyss-marked," Keller spat, disgust thick in his voice. "Goddamn militias don’t just scavenge—they experiment."
Min-joon’s jaw tightened. "Move. Now."
But it was already too late. The first beast lunged.
The truck’s wheels spun, men screamed, and the chain snapped free with a clang. The monster hurtled forward, body scraping against rubble as it launched straight at Lin.
Lin’s legs buckled. The chains under his skin surged without permission, bursting out in a spray of black light. They speared the air, intercepting the beast with a crack like a whip. One chain punched through its jaw, another coiled around its limb, wrenching it back mid-air. The thing screamed, an awful sound that wasn’t animal or machine but both.
The militia erupted into chaos, floodlights swinging wildly. Gunfire spat against concrete.
Keller dropped to one knee, rifle cracking as he aimed clean shots into exposed joints. "Move, dammit! Don’t just stand there!"
Min-joon hauled Lin backward, shielding his chest with his own body as a second beast came crashing through the side of a building, showering glass and plaster in every direction. This one was bigger, its head encased in a jagged metal muzzle like a cage, its ribs splayed open where black ichor dripped into the street.
Lin’s chains screamed in response.
He wasn’t pulling them—he wasn’t even thinking. But the chains snapped outward, seizing the new beast around the muzzle, yanking its head sideways into a wall. The impact shook the whole street, leaving a crater of brick and dust.
Min-joon’s voice was in his ear. "Lin—listen to me. You have to control it. Don’t let it take you."
But Lin couldn’t answer. His eyes burned. His breath came in shallow, panicked gasps. Every time the beasts moved, something inside him rejoiced. The chains weren’t fighting because he wanted to survive—they were fighting because they loved it.
The third beast leapt over a collapsed overpass, slamming into the asphalt with a quake that knocked Hwan to his knees. This one had wings—torn, leathery membranes stapled to bone. Its roar carried across the ruins, echoing like thunder.
"Three of them—fuck me!" Keller shouted. He emptied his magazine into its torso, watching sparks fly where bullets ricocheted off steel plating.
The beast spread its wings wide. Then it lunged at Keller.
Lin’s world slowed. His chains surged without his call, ripping through the ground, spearing upward in a wall that slammed into the creature mid-charge. The impact flipped it backward, its scream cutting short as it crashed into a row of abandoned vehicles. One chain shot straight through its throat, snapping the spine with a wet, crunching sound.
Keller froze mid-reload, staring at Lin with something close to horror. The man had saved his life. But not because Lin chose to—because something inside him had chosen for him.
The militia shouted orders, scrambling to keep the beasts under control. Some fired flares, painting the night in blood-red light. Others tried to circle around, rifles spitting at Keller and Min-joon.
"Fall back!" Hwan yelled, dragging Keller toward cover.
But Lin wasn’t moving anymore.
His body hung loose in Min-joon’s grip, but the chains were alive, writhing around him like a nest of serpents. They lashed at the beasts, pinning them, tearing flesh from plating. They pierced asphalt and walls alike, feeding on the abyssal energy spilling from the monsters’ wounds.
Lin’s mouth opened. A sound came out—not a word, not human. A resonance, low and deep, like the voice of the abyss itself bleeding through his throat.
Min-joon’s face went pale. "Lin. Stop. Stop before you can’t come back."
The chains twisted again, dragging the first beast off its feet, slamming it into the second, entangling them in a grotesque embrace of steel and flesh. The creatures wailed in unison, bodies cracking under the force.
Keller finally found his voice, spitting with venom. "He’s not controlling it—look at him! He’s gone!"
"No!" Min-joon snapped, fury cutting through fear. "He’s still in there. He has to be."
But even he sounded like he was trying to convince himself.
The last beast thrashed free, tearing its own flesh in the process. Its chains snapped, blood and oil spraying across the ruins. It fixed its jaundiced eyes on Lin and charged with suicidal fury.
For a moment, Lin’s vision cleared. He saw the beast. He saw Min-joon’s terrified face. He saw Keller raising his rifle again. And he realized the chains weren’t waiting for his command.
They wanted it.
"No..." Lin whispered. His voice cracked. "Stop..."
The chains did not stop.
They struck faster than bullets, impaling the beast in mid-leap. They ripped through chest and skull, pulling the body apart into ribbons that slapped wetly across the asphalt. The pieces twitched, still alive for a heartbeat, before collapsing into silence.
Dust settled. Gunfire slowed. The militia soldiers stood frozen at the edges of the street, floodlights catching the grotesque scene.
One man whispered in horror: "Demon."
And then they broke, scattering in panic, leaving their trucks and weapons behind.
Lin collapsed forward into Min-joon’s arms, eyes wide, chains retracting slowly back under his skin with sickening slurps. His chest heaved as though he had run for miles.
Keller stared at him, rifle still half-raised, finger trembling on the trigger. For a long moment, the silence was unbearable.
Then a flare arced into the sky.
Not red this time. White.
It burst above the ruins, bathing the broken towers in pale light. Min-joon’s head jerked up, his face twisting.
"That’s not militia," Hwan said, his voice flat with dread. "That’s surface signal code."
Everyone turned to him.
He swallowed hard. "It means government units are moving in. And if they’ve come this deep... they’re not here to rescue anyone. They’re here for him."
All eyes landed on Lin.
And for the first time, Lin felt the abyss inside him stir not with hunger—but with fear.