The massive, pulsating organ loomed beneath him, every beat sending a shudder through its slick, shadow-wrapped form. Its surface throbbed against his armor, as if it were breathing him in.
It was fighting Diaz, Sasha, and Jack. But most of the work was done by Vaelira and her giant army of summons. The Heart was getting damaged repeatedly from a thousand angles at once, but it kept counterattacking and healing its injuries.
Kaiden’s fingers dug into the slick, pulsing flesh. The only thing between him and a bone-shattering death that would likely come from falling to the depths below was his own grip, and right now, that grip was failing.
The shockwave had wrecked him.
His ribs ached with every breath, each inhale rasping as if knives were scraping his lungs. One shoulder burned with a stabbing pain that told him something had torn, and his left arm trembled uselessly. His back felt like someone had driven a battering ram into it. Every heartbeat sent a warm trickle of blood down his side. Internal bleeding, maybe worse.
But he couldn’t let go.
Not now.
Not when everything was balancing on a knife’s edge.
He knew the cold and cruel truth. The Countess wasn’t just dangerous because of her power. She was dangerous because of time. She was still just a spoiled, grasping child with a monster’s body and borrowed might, but every second she survived, her instincts sharpened, her borrowed power became more fluid. And her stats... her stats were far above theirs by a wide, terrifying margin. If she began utilizing them properly...
No. He shook his head. That can’t be allowed.
Letting her live was letting her adapt. And letting her adapt meant death.
He clenched his teeth, forcing his mind to steady despite the pain. And that’s when it hit him, a deep, throbbing *Badump!* in his ears, so heavy it almost rattled his teeth.
The Heart.
It was beating harder now, reacting to Vaelira’s relentless assault and her swarm of summoned beasts. No matter how much it was stabbed and injured, the Heart refused to die, knitting itself back together faster than they could tear it apart.
That sound, that pulse, reminded Kaiden of something crucial.
The Countess’s power came from this. Every throb of the Heart was a lifeline to the monster, pumping that obscene strength through her body.
His head swam from blood loss, but a fragment of memory slithered through the haze.
▸ Trial Two – Feed the Glutton:
Consume a total of 1,000 liters of enemy blood, harvested from creatures or awakened enemies of level 25 or above.
(Only blood consumed through combat-triggered Gluttony abilities will count.)
The Heart pulsed again.
Kaiden’s lips slowly curled upwards.
A giant organ... with the sole purpose of producing blood.
And it was right here.
750 liters. That was where his tally stood currently. The last quarter felt impossible before this battle inevitably ended. There wasn’t time, there wasn’t opportunity, and trying to hit the full thousand now would be impossible. But healing... healing was something he could do.
Kaiden hissed under his breath. [Ravenous Bites].
He waited for the familiar, feral change, for his fangs to slide down from his gums so he could sink them into living prey. But instead, something else stirred.
From the iron gauntlet on his right hand, the one he’d written off as dead weight for now, a vibration began.
Slowly, with a groan like ancient hinges straining after centuries of disuse, it awoke. Dust that wasn’t even visible before seemed to flake from its joints. The old plates flexed, one by one, and from the center of the palm, metal peeled apart in overlapping petals.
A fang.
Not bone, but a single enormous spike of dark, burnished steel extended outward.
Kaiden stared at it for half a breath, but only half. This wasn’t the time to be distracted. He didn’t allow his mind to go wild with theories.
With a grunt, the Paragon of Sin drove the gauntlet’s fang into the Heart.
The organ monster shuddered. Its surface convulsed beneath him as if trying to writhe away, but his other hand clamped down, holding onto it steady. Then, hot, pressurized lifeblood rushed up through the gauntlet and into him.
It hit his body with incredible strength, so much so that it was outright excruciating pain that he felt instead of the usual healing rejuvenation. It felt as if he were straight up swallowing fire.
The taste was nothing; he didn’t drink it with his mouth, but the sensation flooded him from the inside out, a violent rush of vitality that slammed into his veins and set his heart racing with booming throbs.
Ravenous Bite usually gave him a modest trickle of 1% of his HP and MP, siphoned at a time. This... this was different. The feed was much richer. 3% HP. 5% MP. 7% HP...
But with it came the other surge; pain. Too much, too fast. His head swam, his vision swelled at the edges, and a deep, pulsing headache began to hammer behind his eyes.
’There’s no chance I can use this in a real fight...’ he realized immediately. ’With a headache like this, I’d die before I even see the blade coming for me.’
But this wasn’t a battle. This was survival.
He held on and kept taking.
The torn muscles in his shoulder knitted themselves together. The ache in his ribs dulled, then vanished entirely. The stabbing pain in his side from internal bleeding was gone, replaced with the steady, comfortable thrum of a healthy heartbeat. His body felt new, perhaps even better than new... save for the blinding migraine gnawing at the back of his skull.
When he finally ripped the fang free, the Heart let out a long, sickening thump and sagged in place. His tally... became 790 liters.
Not enough. Not at all.
That was when Kaiden’s gaze dropped to the iron gauntlet resting on his hand. A mere look at it was enough to tell him all he needed to know.
It was still hungry.
A slow, dangerous smile tugged at his lips.
"... Feed then. Plunder until you’re full."
He drove it back into the monster without hesitation.