Second Shedding: The Ouroboros Cycle
The second shedding. That searing heat sweeps through my insides. It starts like my blood is boiling, then soon a deeper layer flips inside out. Not flesh, but something below—an invisible passage splitting open. A familiar yet alien sensation climbs my spine, shaking my brain. My vertically slit pupils dilate slightly. The moment I peer into that gap, my vision inverts, and I'm not looking outward—I'm sucked into the rift between. Deeper inside the pupils, into a place untouched by light, I fall endlessly.
And I see it. Darkness. No end. Countless lights are embedded in that void of nothingness. Constellations. Ancient stars that no human eye could ever observe, flickering only in the depths of the soul. The scattered lights connect. Lines form, meaningless dots take shape. One of them slowly turns red. At first, it's faint—a distant speck catching my eye by chance. But as I watch, it deepens. It pulses like a heartbeat. Not like my heart, though. It pierces sharper, somewhere beyond flesh and bone.
Devour.
Leave nothing behind.
It's not a sound. Not a voice in my head. It's the instinct sunken at the bottom of my body responding first. This isn't thought—it's the law of survival. It shoves in the fact that I'm no longer human, that there's no reason to cling to reason, as if it's the most obvious truth. Everything before me is prey. Rip, smash, chew, swallow. Thirst scorches my throat. The things I was protecting moments ago, the worries—they scatter like worthless dust.
Senses twist. Vision floods red, forms crumble, distinctions collapse into one direction. Edible or not. Leave or consume. That merciless binary becomes the entire world.
Then it stirs. Something pinned silent in the corner moves faintly. Weak. Like a dying ember in a storm. Yet it's there. The power from my past life, the long-suppressed Dao Force, screams as it surges up. It collides head-on. It tangles with the rampaging Yokai Force, twisting together. They grind like they're about to explode, but strangely, they don't scatter. The Dao Force doesn't push away. Doesn't break. It just quietly envelops, holds firm, gently redirecting the wildly outward flow inward bit by bit.
Devour.
No.
Absorb.
That's not it either.
Recycle.
Clashing wills collide, then suddenly veer. The power ripping outward bends back, circling like it's devouring itself. It bites its own tail. On the verge of snapping, yet it doesn't. They grind each other down without fully collapsing. Yokai Force and Dao Force interlock in that state. Gnawing, enduring, latching again. The mad collision at the center slowly finds purchase. Blurred boundaries revive.
The instinct doesn't vanish. It still writhes inside, blade-sharp, ready to lunge if I slip. But it can't swallow everything. I stand in the gap between.
Breath returns. Heavy air fills my lungs deep, scattered vision converges. And at last, I open my eyes.
The golden light settles. Not spreading, but condensing inward. My vertically elongated slit pupils fully reveal themselves. Deep inside one eye, a pattern swirls. Lines biting each other, an unbreakable eternal ring. A serpent. Biting its own tail, endlessly looping. It rotates slowly, overlaying my vision. What I see changes. Flows—the essence beyond surfaces—register first, severed spatial cross-sections reconnect.
I hold that state, peering inward. Yokai Force and Dao Force teeter interlocked. Gnawing each other, radiating energy. Yet they don't crumble. On the brink of breaking, they reconnect; connected, they bite again. Not fully one, but now inseparable, a single mass.
By my past life's standards, about sixty percent fusion. I exhale shortly. Enough to break through this situation. I lift my gaze upward. Faint light filters down from above the severed vertical passage. Far. A human body couldn't reach it; my previous form couldn't even consider it. But now it's different.
I crouch low. No forcing power. I align with the surrounding space's vibrations. Spread Dao Force thin, overlay it on the space ahead. The distant draws near. Coordinates warp, the gap between appears. The sensation continues. Unreachable distance folds like paper, and I step across it.
Shrinking Earth.
I thrust my body into the rift. Vision cuts briefly, then reconnects. I'm already one section higher. Light nears a bit more. The blocked path connects for the first time. My chest lightens with a leap. This works. Not calculated by mind—my body reads the next coordinates. Again. Faster this time, folding space to the flow. Vision cuts, reconnects. Position rises. Light closes in.
Riding unbroken flow upward, the air above shifts subtly. The blocked boundary no longer connects. Crossing an unseen line, space itself changes. No longer below. Above. Suppressed pressure releases, water sensation severs, replaced by dry, rough air grazing my scales. Faint descending light now pours from above. I surge through the gap.
Overleaping the vertical structure, the gripping pressure snaps free. Sensation on my scales changes. Not the heavy sunken underground. Open. Vast. Beyond the fishy blood reek, surface air laced with exhaust clears my breath. I don't stop. Pull myself toward the light's direction. And cross the boundary.
Silence flows. Karin's body, impaled on rebar and frozen, looks done. No more flow from dried blood, even the faint muscle tremors fully rigid. Only the heavy stillness after breath stops settles around. Chill seeping through collapsed debris circles the corpse like cooling it.
That lingers briefly. Time stretches unchanged, then something deep inside scratches faintly. Not surface, but deeper in the flesh—nanoscale machines scream to life. Emergency nanobots activate belatedly. They forcibly revive stalled organs, patch ruptured vessels with makeshift seals. Not reversing death, but grotesquely, desperately clinging to form by stitching the severed.
Thud.
Her chest interior twists, jerks. Heartbeat forcibly resumes. Rhythm utterly off. Each mismatched pulse reopens torn insides, sealed spots quiver faintly. Closer to refusing to release life than truly alive.
Then Karin's body snaps back hard.
"Guhk!"
Upper body convulses against the fixed rebar, mouth gapes. Boiling dark red blood gushes out. Air pushes into lungs but cuts midway. Shredded lungs rasp metal.
As consciousness sinks again, shattered drone chunks fall from above. Clanging metal shreds the silence, followed by footsteps. Light, unhesitating.
"Fuck, this is annoying as hell."
Silver-haired woman enters backlit by pouring light. Dust and afterglow frame her neat silver locks, out of place in the ruins; her gait shows no disarray. Her gaze sweeps the floor. Ripped gouges, mercenaries' corpses, monster remains. Her eyes narrow subtly.
"Even if mercs are cheaper than drones these days, this is overkill, right?"
She tilts her head faintly. Tracks are off. Flow cuts blank midway. Gap defying physical cause. Her eyes sharpen.
Then, from the blood pool's center, Karin chokes out a muffled sound. Woman's gaze turns slowly. Karin, twisted on the rebar. Woman appraises impaled rod, torn flesh, congealing blood, approaching.
"Ah. Tarnishing the Roen name."
Bored gaze to Karin's chest. Unstable pulsing, faint energy churning within. She smirks.
"Fitting for direct lineage, huh? Got something embedded. Half-blood's still half-blood, Karin?"
She steps closer. Heel click pierces Karin's eardrum.
"Holding on like that takes skill, but it's not useful tenacity. Just ugly, don't you think?"
Karin, grasping consciousness thread, barely opens eyes. Blurry vision catches familiar silver.
"...Rin?"
Rin's lip twists. No warmth—a predator's smile.
"Where'd you hide it?"
Rin's voice flat, no inflection. Karin's bloodless lips tremble.
"Hah... I don't... know... It flew off in the explosion..."
"Sure."
Rin nods easily. No more questions, she paces slowly around. Gaze to collapsed building.
"This way?"
"......"
Karin bites lip, forces gaze down. Her fragile mana flow steadies faintly. Rin pivots. Now to massive concrete debris pile. Karin's breath catches. Straining blank face, but mana-insensitive's suppressed mana screams, flaring out.
Obvious answer before a 2nd Rank. Rin's steps halt. She turns, lip quirks short.
"Heard that loud and clear."
"No... guk...!"
Invisible mana crushes Karin's throat. Rin snuffs even the scream, severing consciousness. Ignoring the slumped Karin like trash, Rin strides to the debris she marked.
Invisible force seeps under. Stacked scrap twists screaming, gap slowly widens. Dark, dank crevice lightless. Rin's gaze pierces in.
Blood-soaked small body crushed beneath. The shell holding the long-sought Noshim. But no massive energy burst. Just traces left, interior empty.
Rin's quick calculus snaps there. Leisure evaporates from her cool face.
"......Hah."
Rin grinds low.
"Fuck."