Sonny blinked in disbelief.
'What the hell…?'
Confused but curious, he squinted through the dust and debris. That's when he noticed it; the monster's massive hoof was stuck, encased in a thick slab of rapidly hardening concrete. One of the steel rails must've pierced the old cement mixer during the chaos, spilling its contents all over the ground. And by some miracle, the hulking beast had stepped right into the mess in its frenzy.
Thus, at the moment, the concrete was solidifying fast, trapping the creature's leg like a shackle!
Noticing its legs were trapped, the Furiataur let out a low, irritated growl and thrashed, struggling to wrench its bound limbs free. Luckily, due to its wounded state, its strength had greatly diminished to the point it couldn't even free itself from the slab of concrete.
However, this won't last for long.
He had to deliver the finishing blow before it could recover or else, he was toast!
Ignoring the pain screaming through every inch of his body, Sonny forced himself upright and swayed like a drunken man. His vision darkened, but he clenched his fists until his nails bit into his palms, anchoring himself to consciousness.
His eyes flicked around wildly.
'Where…?'
There, half-buried under a chunk of concrete, the crowbar appeared in his blurry vision.
Sonny staggered toward it, sending fresh waves of agony through his ribs and battered limbs. The Furiataur howled behind him, its struggles growing more frantic as cracks started to form in the hardening concrete around its trapped leg.
'Not much time. Move, damn it, MOVE!'
With a ragged cry, Sonny dove forward and snatched the crowbar. He nearly collapsed right then and there, but sheer terror forced him back onto his feet. He turned — breathing hard, chest heaving — and faced the monster.
The Furiataur's eye bulged with bloodthirsty rage, its muscles bulging as it tore at its restraints. The concrete slab groaned ominously, bits of it already crumbling under the strain.
One shot. That's all I've got.
Sonny's gaze locked onto the monster's head. More specifically, the rather deep gash within its stabbed right eye, still bleeding profusely.
His pulse hammered. His body was in shambles. But in that moment, none of it mattered.
Only the target did.
Gritting his teeth, Sonny let out a hoarse yell and charged.
"DIE ALREADY, YOU OVERGROWN FREAK—!!"
The Furiataur roared in response, rearing back with all its strength to shatter the concrete… but it was a second too slow.
With a desperate burst of strength, Sonny lunged over the hardening cement and closed the distance in a single, reckless leap. Gripping the crowbar with both hands, he drove its sharp end straight into the creature's bleeding right eye with every ounce of force he could muster.
The Furiataur let out a hideous, gurgling scream and convulsed violently as the steel bit deep into its eye socket. Black-red blood gushed out in thick spurts, splattering across Sonny's face and clothes, hot and reeking of rot.
But he didn't stop.
Gritting his teeth, Sonny twisted the crowbar hard, feeling the sickening crunch of bone and pulped flesh beneath his grip. The monster thrashed wildly and its trapped leg strainex against the solid concrete with bone-snapping force. Cracks spiderwebbed through the hardened slab, it wouldn't hold much longer.
In a moment of despair, the Furiataur used its only good arm, barely usable, gripped his body and attempted to squeeze it like a lemon.
Sonny's eyes widened in horror as his body trembled violently and there was even a distinct 'crack.' He coughed out blood and his grip on the crowbar loosened dangerously.
However,
'This bastard... You think I'll let you!'
With a hoarse yell, he yanked the crowbar free and stabbed again, this time driving deeper, angling upward toward the brain. The Furiataur's scream choked off into a wet gargle and its whole body shuddered violently before going stiff.
Then, with one last shudder, it collapsed forward like a falling tower, sending a tremor through the ground.
In the process, Sonny was thrown off its body, fell backwards and landed hardened cement, gasping for air. His arms trembled so badly he almost dropped the bloodied crowbar.
His heart was beating at a terribly fast pace. His breathing was unbelievably shallow and he could not suck in the proper amount of oxygen.
But the monster… finally lay still.
Dead.
For real this time.
Sonny stood there, breathing heavy, waiting and dreading to see if it would rise again. Seconds stretched into eternity. But nothing moved.
Just the wind, and the distant echoes of sirens.
Slowly, his knees gave out, and he sank to the ground, with crowbar slipping from his numb fingers.
"...It's dead... it's finally dead..."
But even as relief washed over him, Sonny's vision blurred, and darkness swiftly closed in. Within moments, he lost consciousness.
However, in his collapse, a strange phenomenon began to stir, not in his body, but in his very existence (神). A golden light flickered to life deep within his soul, igniting a foreign energy that course through every fiber of his being.
Had Sonny been awake, he would have recognized this phenomenon from countless videos online as Awakening, it signified the moment when a Dreamless transcended their limits and stepped into the ranks of the Awakened.
[Preparing for appraisal...]
[You have slain a Level 3 Furiataur.]
[You have slain an Awakened monster as a Dreamless.]
[You have achieved the impossible!]
[Final appraisal: Glorious. You have accomplished a never-before-seen feat!]
[A new record is being engraved!]
In the silence that followed, Sonny hand undergone a grand transformation. His outward appearance remained unchanged, but deep within, his soul was being etched with unfathomable power. It was like an unseen hand inscribing a divine mark upon him.
His broken body lay still.
But within, something beyond human had begun to awaken.
[It is difficult to find a brilliant star within the world of darkness.]
[The Tower of Shadows, applaud by your impossible achievement, has given you the qualification to challenge the labyrinth of a Fallen God.]
[The Shackles restricting your soul are partially lifted.]
[Awakening dormant powers…]
Sonny's body suddenly trembled as violent spasms wracked his unconscious self. His chest swelled unnaturally, then forces from deep within erupted, bursting out in the form of black ink.
The abnormal change triggered by his Awakening spilled a torrent of inky black mass from every pore, as if the darkness within was finally being unleashed.
From that churning blackness, the object that began to tak form was a massive hand.
But this was no human hand. It was like the invisible grasp of some ancient, slumbering creature dwelling within the abyss of Sonny's psyche.
Slowly, the invisible hand moved. And it reached for the fallen Furiataur, seizing the broken monster in its monstrous grip and began to drag it into the writhing sea of darkness.
The Furiataur's corpse twitched violently, as if some primal instinct sensed what awaited it beyond death. But there was no escape. The inky tendrils coiled tighter, pulling the carcass deeper until it vanished beneath the surface of the swirling darkness.
[Devouring the essence of the fallen.]
[Assimilating foreign power.]
[Your Origin is being defined…]
The black mass surged back toward Sonny's body like a tide reversing course. It poured into him; through his mouth, his eyes, his very skin, sinking into the core of his entire being.
His spine arched off the ground as a silent scream tore through him, his veins bulging black against his pale skin. The unseen hand withdrew at last, leaving behind only the trembling wreckage of a boy caught between death and rebirth.
[Assimilation complete.]
[You have awakened your Origin!]
Then, all at once, the trembling ceased. The black ink vanished as if it had never existed.
And Sonny's body fell limp again. Though now, something within him pulsed with quiet, monstrous life.
† †
Sonny opened his eyes.
And in doing so, a white ceiling greeted him, and the sharp sting of disinfectant filled his nose. Beneath him, the hard mattress pressed uncomfortably against his back.
He knew this place immediately.
'I'm in a... hospital?'
It felt strange. In all his twenty-one years, Sonny could count on one hand the number of times he'd set foot in a hospital. Even back in the orphanage, he'd been known as the healthy one that was rarely ill, almost unnaturally so. He had always been different in that way.
Pushing himself up, Sonny winced as a sharp headache pulsed through his temple. The pain was intense, and his mind was a blur, unable to recall the events that had led to his hospitalization.
'What happened? Dammit, why does my head hurt so much?' He groaned inwardly, sifting through the fog of his thoughts, desperately trying to piece together the missing fragments.
A few seconds later, the memories returned to him in vivid detail.
'Oh, that's right. The monster attack! It was called a Furiataur, wasn't it? Yes, that's it. More importantly... I survived?'
The last thing Sonny remembered before losing consciousness was the hulking beast swaying, then collapsing as the light faded from its eyes. He also recalled the moment when the monster seized him and began to crush his body. In such a situation, he should have suffered multiple fractures... at the very least, if not damage to his internal organs.
But here, he was completely fine with no injuries whatsoever, neither internal nor external.
The realization left him stunned.
Not only had he survived, but he had also slain the monster. The notion of a Dreamless who hadn't even entered the Tower defeating such a creature was utterly ridiculous. If he told anyone, they'd just laugh in his face.
For a fleeting moment, he even wondered if he had dreamt the whole thing.
But the fact that he was now lying in a hospital bed was proof enough. He had been caught in a deadly skirmish with a Furiataur and somehow, he had barely made it out alive.
Even stranger was the sensation in his body. He felt light, almost weightless like the familiar comfort of waking up in his own bed. But this was a hospital bed, which was stiff and uncomfortable.
Additionally, a new thought struck him.
'How did I get to the hospital? Did someone carry me here? Or was it an ambulance?'
'Maybe one of the survivors managed to contact the DCA, the hunters, or emergency services.'
'I'm really grateful for that. Otherwise, I would've been a goner. But... my body feels strange. And...I thought I heard something right before I blacked out.'
What exactly was it?
Sonny frowned, struggling to piece it together. His thoughts felt scattered into shards that wouldn't fit. The memories of the recent event were jumbled, with noticeable gaps in between.
Maybe it was because of the throbbing headache that had been pulsing at his temples ever since he woke up.
'Did I hit my head or something? What's with this damn headache? I don't remember anyone smashing me with a baseball bat, damn it!'
Grimacing, Sonny rubbed his throbbing temple irritatedly.
Just then, his ears caught the soft creak of the hospital door opening. Someone had entered the room.
"Oh? So, you're finally awake."