Nameless Death stood still for a long moment, then, he exhaled slowly.
There were only four hours left.
He didn’t have time to hunt monsters.
He had to fight the ants as he was if he wanted to have a chance at completing the Quest.
“I’m going into a nest with thousands of gods when I’m weaker than the weakest one,” he muttered, massassging his face. “Wow.”
It was absurd when said aloud, but what needed to be done didn’t change.
Besides, he had an unfair advantage.
His immortality.
He couldn’t die. Pain, injury, death, everything was temporary for him.
If his opponent was stronger, then he just had fight until he was the stronger one between them.
“Here goes nothing.”
Without waiting any longer, Nameless Death used Pseudo Gap.
He vanished and reappeared instantly behind a nearby ant. Before his feet touched the ground, he activated Abyssal Bone Overdrive, and his strength and speed shot up fivefold.
His aim was simple: kill one ant before they can react.
But the ants reacted faster than he expected.
The antenna of the ant near his original location twitched sharply.
Its head turned with uncanny precision.
Without hesitation, it spat a blob of dark blood exactly where he had teleported.
The ant he had targeted was already shifting away.
The blood blob hit the ground and exploded. Red mist filled the air. A few drops of it splashed onto Nameless Death’s arm.
The moment they touched him, the blood moved.
It slithered like a parasite, and burned like acid. It crawled over his skin and began eating into his arm.
He sliced his own arm off at the shoulder without wasting an instant, then he regenerated it just as quickly.
But as soon as he reformed the limb, a strange weakness passed through him.
His balance shifted, and he nearly stumbled.
“Huh?”
He couldn’t figure out what was wrong until the Abyss Mirror spoke.
[Devouring Blood (Stage 4, Apprentice) copy percentage: +0.00001%]
The number was small, but the name gave him an idea of what the technique did.
“Devouring Blood…”
It sounded like a blood spell formed from the combination of Blood and Darkness elements.
He didn’t have the Blood element, which made made the copy progess slow, but that wasn’t the issue.
‘It devours the target the moment contact is made,’ he realized. ‘And it won’t stop until either the part is cut off or the victim is completely devoured.’
“What kind of shitty spell is that?”
He didn’t get the chance to curse any longer.
Three ants attacked him together. Dozens of blood blobs came flying his way in an arc.
Nameless Death reacted instantly.
He used Time Dilation, and his world slowed.
Then he activated Berserking Will Rage and Frenzied Instinct Fear.
Due to his ungodly willpower, his emotions weren’t affected easily, which allowed him to ramp up Berserking Will and Frienzeied Instinct to the maximum.
With his instincts, strength, judgement ability, and abiltity to percieve time skrocketing, Nameless Death entered a ‘zone’ of sorts.
Everything became clear.
The blood blobs were still in motion, but to him, they might as well have been frozen.
His Death Sword moved.
He applied Pseudo Gap to his strikes, letting the sword look like it was teleporting from one angle to another.
The movements were precise, targeted, and fluid.
Every blood blob was cut in the blink of an eye.
Each one exploded, creating a wave of red mist.
Nameless Death didn’t stop.
He stomped down with force, shattering the ground beneath him.
The rubble jumped into the air. With a flick of thought, he used Telekinesis technique stored in Abyss Mirror to raise the debris and form a makeshift shield.
The explosion remnants hit the rocks and lost most of their strength.
He was safe. For now.
But then—
The ants activated The World.
A hum echoed in the air as the battlefield transformed.
He was suddenly inside an endless tunnel.
He stood at the center, with only darkness in either direction. There was no light, and he could not sense a way out if there was one.
Then he heard it.
A faint splash.
From both sides of the tunnel, blood was rushing toward him. Gallons of it.
‘Is that fucking Devouring Blood?’
‘How the hell is their World’s Concept the same as their Spell?’
‘No, how the fuck did they create a Concept with two element combined in it?’
The questions rose in his mind, but there was no time for answers.
These ants didn’t have variety of techniques, spells or traits.
Yet their Blood Devouring Spell and World (Concept) were same.
Nameless Death suspected their species played a role in that synergy. But right now, he had to survive.
He made a decision.
True Darkness.
He devoured himself with it, leaving only his Consciousness behind.
The blood reached the center of the tunnel and surged through, filling every corner.
But there was nothing left to consume. No one could devour Consiousness other than him
The ants paused. They clicked their mandibles, confused.
Nameless Death’s body was gone, and they couldn’t sense him. But their instincts didn’t let them drop the World.
Nameless Death drifted as a Consciousness.
In this form, he couldn’t attack, couldn’t use Techniques, Elements, or Concepts. He couldn’t even move.
His thoughts were sluggish, and barely coherent.
‘Why… aren’t they… removing the blood… World…?’
It didn’t make sense to him who was not aware of their instincts.
The blood should’ve receded by now.
‘If it stays… I’ll lose… stats… abilities…’
A thought stuck.
‘They’re… keeping it active… to steal… stats?’
His thoughts were slow and broken, but the meaning was clear.
‘They… want my stats…’
‘Stat…?’
His irritation flared.
Then it sharpened into something else.
‘Fine. Then I’ll give them what they want.’
He consumed a massive amount of World Energy, and instantly regenerated.
The Devouring Blood reacted immediately.
It tore into him, devouring not just his body, but his memories, his stats, techniques, and everything it could touch.
He let it devour.
Then—
Darkness Firmament.
True Darkness.
He unleashed both at once, letting them flood the tunnel, and devour the Devouring Blood.
The battle changed immediately. His Concept was Legendary and Darkness Firmament was not weaker at all, and in most cases, that alone would’ve given him the advantage.
But these ants weren’t normal.
They were combining three Worlds at once to empower their shared Concept.
And that gave them the edge.
Nameless Death was losing even with True Darkness and Devouring Blood.
Bit by bit, he felt his memories unraveling. His physical stats were slipping away. It was like drowning in numbers he used to own.
But he didn’t panic.
It didn’t matter.
The World.
He activated his own World.
Time twisted around him. The tunnel warped.
Their Worlds clashed, and he amplified himself with his World.
Despite having lost his stats, he moved frighteningly fast.
His body shot forward.
There, two ants stood at the far edge of the tunnel.
They reacted immediately, matching his speed as they began to fall back.
Nameless Death he was slower now.
Half his stats were already gone, and it showed.
His movements weren’t sharp. Each step dragged slightly behind his will.
But he was far from done.
He used Shadow Core Concept to create two more monster Cores, and then, he used those Cores to…
The World
The World
Power exploded outward. His three Worlds collided with three Worlds of the ants.
The field was finally leveled. He could feel the effects of Devouring Blood weakening.
The two Shadow Cores hovered behind his back, glowing blue, spinning slowly. Each one was unstable.
Forming three Cores at once was beyond normal limits, and it showed. His existence groaned under the weight.
But, if it was just for a short time, he could maintain the three Cores.
There was reason he was going so far. Each Core held all techniques of the monster, including Abyssal Bone Overdrive.
With the one inside him, that made three.
He activated the technique from all three Cores.
Strength and speed multiplied instantly. His body surged forward, now moving at fifteen times his capacity.
The tunnel warped around him as he closed in on the two ants.
The Devouring Blood still clung to him, eating into his limbs. His flesh sizzled. His left side was mostly bone now.
But….
He reached the ants.
Before they could react, he struck their minds with full-power Berserking Rage and Frenzied Instinct, while slowing them down with his World(s).
The ants shuddered. Their movements turned erratic.
One of them snapped. Its mind couldn’t take the mental attacks and it spiraled into chaos.
It lunged forward, mandibles wide, aiming for his head.
Nameless Death raised his arm.
In it, he created a Seed of Existence with the sapling of True Darkness Firmament using Shadow Core Concept.
The ant bit down, and tore the arm off cleanly.
At the same time, Nameless Death swung his other arm while weilding Death Sword.
It connected with the second ant, empowered by the Pseudo Gap.
But it didn’t cut through.
The blade clanged against armor that resisted his True Darkness and Darkness Firmament.
‘Its armor has a Concept that increases its defense.’
‘Since the defense is so strong, then the duration must be short.’
Unfortunately, time was the only thing Nameless Death lacked right now. He needed to deal with the ants now, whether the shield or not.
He shifted his focus, analyzing the World around him.
‘Three ants. One creates the sea of blood. The second gives the blood its devouring ability. The third enhances defense.’
Thanks to Frienzied Instinct, increasing his judgment ability, and Time Dilation giving him more time to think, he was able to analyze everything in detail.
Each ant played a role, and their Worlds were layered to trap their opponents.
There had been a reason why the ants were stationed in groups of three.
The first ant—the one that bit his arm—started twitching. Its movements became jerky, and uncontrolled.
A low screech echoed from its throat.
Inside its body, strands of darkness had started to lash out.
The Darkness Firmament wasn’t just a sapling. It had Consciousness. It could think.
And it was attacking from within.
The second ant, realizing the first was in trouble, lunged forward and engaged Nameless Death in a brutal clash.
They traded blow for blow.
Nameless Death barely kept up. His triple Overdrive gave him the edge until one of the Cores lost the technique to Devouring Blood.
Abyssal Bone Overdrives’ output dropped.
His speed and strength fell off immediately.
The ant struck.
Its mandibles clamped around his neck and head. It yanked, tearing his skull and spine clean from the rest of his body.
His physical body died.
Then regenerated in an instant.
His strength and speed were falling for sharply. Now, he could no longer exchange attacks at equal footing.
However, he wasn’t worried.
[Devouring Blood (Stage 4, Apprentice) total copy percentage: 100%]
He had it now.
He activated the spell immediately.
With True Darkness, the Darkness Firmament, and now the Devouring Blood spell itself, he fought back against the sea that had been slowly eating him alive.
The blood resisted, but it was no longer just a threat.
He could overpower it.
The first ant collapsed as the internal attack reached its peak.
Nameless Death absorbed its core, abilities, and power.
It rushed into him like a flood.
His existence flared, overwhelming the tunnel for a brief second.
The second ant froze as it sensed the change.
It tried to retreat.
But it was too late.
He stepped forward and swung the Death Sword again. This time the ant was cut in half.
As its body fell, the effects of its World began weakened.
‘So it the first ant that I killed was the one who boosted defense, and with its death, the second ant’s armor couldn’t block Death Sword.’
With the second ant dead, the the blood was no longer devouring anything.
The World was no longer a threat to him—
“Oh, shit.”
The blood trembled.
And then it exploded.
The tunnel lit up with a massive detonation. There was nowhere to run, or any space to dodge.
The blast hit him from every side.
Everything went black.
When he opened his eyes again, he was lying on his back.
The tunnel had disappeared, and he back in the forest.
The only sound was the slow drip of blood from the corpses of the ants.
“Cough! Cough! That fucking third bitch went kamikaze just to take me down.”
He groaned and sat up. Pain flared in his joints.
His bones were cracked, muscles were torn, and his body was trembling.
Looking around, he saw the remains of the three ants.
“So there was a reason why two ants were in one direction, and only one was in the other direction.”
Since the Devouring Blood would weaken the person caught in the World, they would want to destroy the World as soon as possible, which meant they needed to take down at least two of the three ants who created the World.
Everyone would go where the two ants were.
If the two ants won, then it was a job well done.
If they lost, then the last ant, the one who created the river of blood, would detonate everything.
“At least I won…” he muttered.
Nameless Death slowly stood on his unsteady legs. His whole body was screaming at him to stop, and rest.
He looked over at the first ant’s corpse. His Seed of Existence had been placed inside that one. But it was destroyed in the explosion, and without Seed of Existence the Darkness Firmament inside it was gone.
“I guess I’ll just devour what remains—”
Nameless stopped when he sensed the tremors.
He turned, and saw hundreds of ants were emerging from the nest. Row after row. Their movements were synchronized.
Their eyes glowed.
They moved like soldiers.
“Ah, yes.”
He watched them pour out, faster and faster, the sound of their claws on stone building like thunder.
“Fuck my life. Because why not.”