The Immortal Sin
The sound of my heart pounded like thunder. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. In the suffocating silence of absolute darkness, the only thing I could hear was my own heart threatening to burst from my chest.
I lay sprawled out on the cold dirt floor, mouth wide open as I greedily sucked in the stale air thick with the metallic stench of unknown blood. My shattered body was in such a miserable state that even twitching a single finger felt impossible. With a trembling hand, I slowly felt across my chest. The brutal blow from that bastard had completely caved in my ribs and torn deep chunks of flesh from my shoulder, yet the ferocious mana raging inside me was greedily devouring the damage, stitching everything back together in real time.
Every time my bones were forcibly realigned and my charred cells were violently regenerated, an excruciating pain twisted through my spine and wracked my entire body. It was the kind of agony that turned my vision white, but by now, even this had become just another part of my daily life. Feeling every grotesque sensation of flesh burning and bones snapping back into place with perfect clarity, I turned my head to the side.
In my blood-soaked grip was the massive heart of the demon I had just ripped out with my life on the line. Even though it had been completely severed from its owner, the thing still pulsed with grotesque life, dark red blood dripping steadily between my fingers. An overwhelmingly majestic and dense essence of pure energy continuously flowed across its surface, soaking my palm in a sticky film.
"...Now how the hell am I supposed to cook this thing?"
I roughly wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth and forced my upper body upright. Every joint in my body screamed in protest, but I endured it through sheer willpower. The moment my eyes landed on the demon's colossal corpse lying in the darkness before me, I froze mid-breath, completely paralyzed.
Sssssssshhh—
A sickening scraping sound loud enough to deafen the ears began violently shaking the entire rocky area. It was the corpse of the demon whose throat I had clearly carved apart with my dagger, whose chest I had brutally shredded, and whose heart I had ripped out whole. Yet from the massive hole in its chest, an unidentified deep purple current began exploding outward like a geyser.
The dark red blood splattered across the surrounding rock walls and the crushed flesh scattered on the floor suddenly floated upward into the air as if time were reversing, then surged back toward the corpse at terrifying speed. In less than a few seconds, the completely crushed nose bone shot back into place, and the bat-like wings that had been gruesomely torn apart by my dagger unfurled once more, completely unscathed. Despite the gaping hole in its chest where its heart had been entirely removed, the demon slowly rose to its feet as if it hadn't suffered a single injury, arrogantly looking down at me.
The bizarre purple pattern glowing ominously on its forehead now radiated an even darker and more sinister aura than before.
"How pathetic, you insignificant insect. Did you truly believe you had achieved victory just by tearing off one miserable piece of my flesh?"
The majestic voice slammed directly into my mind, echoing from all directions. Even though its heart had been ripped out, the demon's presence hadn't diminished in the slightest. If anything, the oppressive pressure weighing down the surrounding space had grown far heavier than before. Perhaps humiliated by the fact that its own arrogance and carelessness had allowed a mere insect to brutally mutilate its body, a razor-sharp killing intent blazed furiously within its red eyes.
The demon slowly raised its hand and lightly brushed across the massive scar left on its chest.
"The Seven Origins that have ruled this world since the beginning of time. A feeble and trivial rule such as 'death' has never existed for me. My name is Pride. I am an immovable law of this world—an immortal Conceptual Transcendent that no blade or power can ever erase."
Conceptual Transcendent. Pride. The bizarre words that spilled from the bastard's mouth stabbed harshly into my ears. A throbbing headache began to pound through my skull, as if the difference in rank between us was physically real. It was the first time I'd heard such grandiose exposition since falling into this world, but the scale of what the demon was saying far exceeded anything my common sense could handle. It wasn't a living being—it was the very concept itself, engraved into this darkness.
That was why it could endlessly regenerate no matter how many times its heart was torn out or its throat was severed beyond recognition. Any ordinary being would have fallen to their knees before such overwhelming truth and despairing power, their will to fight shattered. There was nothing more futile and terrifying than raising a weapon against an existence that the very concept of death could not touch.
But I was different.
I was the monster who had suddenly been dropped into this space of nothing but endless darkness, who had chewed through the raw flesh of grotesque insects to survive, who had crawled across the ground thousands of times until I became something inhuman. Words like despair, surrender, or fear had long since been ground to dust in the flames of my mana and vanished from my vocabulary.
As I listened to the demon's grandiose explanation, only one thing raced through my mind: cold, brutal, and ruthlessly practical calculations for survival. The instant I encountered an undying existence, my instincts had already grasped the most beneficial course of action I could take.
"You don't die?" I lifted the massive heart still clutched in my right hand, baring my teeth in a savage grin. "That just means you don't die. It doesn't mean you can't feel pain. And if you don't die..."
My lips twisted upward into a smile far more grotesque and vicious than anything the demon could manage. The hot mana circulating through my chest began to surge violently as it fused with the raw, savage venom that lived inside me.
The fact that the monster before me was immortal wasn't despair—it was an opportunity beyond my wildest dreams.
"I can keep stealing your power forever, can't I? Like an endless spring, you bastard."
"...What did you just say?"
For the first time, the demon's arrogant face twisted in genuine shock. In all the eons since the beginning of time, not a single insect it had encountered had ever reacted this way. Instead of trembling in fear at the declaration of its immortality, I was treating it like a mana battery I could squeeze dry for the rest of eternity.
A flicker of bewilderment—the first it had ever felt—passed through its red eyes.
"If you don't die, I'll just beat you to within an inch of your life and rip you apart over and over. I'll devour every last bit of that so-called great power you possess, tear this world to shreds, and escape. So you'd better prepare yourself."
Crunch. Squish.
Without hesitation, I sank my teeth into the demon's heart still gripped in my hand. Thick, grotesque mucus filled my mouth as the burning, dense essence of its mana exploded down my throat. The volcanic heat tore through my organs as if my blood vessels were about to burst, but I clenched my jaw and swallowed the entire heart in one savage bite.
Kuuuooooong—!
The moment I completely devoured the heart, the mana within me began to expand on a scale that completely surpassed anything it had been before. It was a bizarre sensation—as if a portion of the 'concept' the demon had spoken of was being forcibly engraved into every cell of my body. A transparent shockwave of distorted energy erupted outward for several meters, instantly reducing the large rock fragments scattered around us into fine powder.
The currents enveloping my entire body screamed as they twisted the very space around me.
"You pathetic little insect... How dare you covet my essence and think your limbs will remain intact!!"
The demon, which had proudly called itself a Conceptual Transcendent, completely lost its reason and roared in pure rage. It spread its bat-like wings wide, kicked off the ground, and charged toward me at terrifying speed. A deep purple mana glowed ominously at the tips of its claws, tearing space itself to shreds as it flew straight for my throat. The ground it passed over swelled up like black blisters.
"Shut your mouth, you horned bastard."
Taht—!
I didn't retreat a single step. Instead, I kicked off the ground and leaped forward to meet it head-on. The majestic essence I had just absorbed blazed violently around my right fist, ready to explode. A shockwave that mercilessly twisted space itself wrapped around my fist, unleashing heavy, sticky explosive sounds in every direction.
If it wouldn't die, then I would simply shatter its soul so thoroughly that it could never open that arrogant mouth again. All I had to do was tear apart its bones and flesh faster than it could regenerate.
Kwaaaaaaaaang—!
In the lightless rocky wasteland filled only with darkness, the fist of an insect who sought nothing but escape from this world collided once more with the Conceptual Transcendent that boasted of its immortality, exploding violently in every direction.