~~~

  Jin's chains extended toward the female cultist's corpse, writhing with hunger he no longer bothered controlling. But something made him pause mid-motion, hand raised, essence cycling through the connection.

  An idea. Something he'd wanted to test since discovering Harvest's versatility with the abominations.

  "Rudy."

  "Yeah?" Rudy looked up from his meditation position against the wall, purple eyes tracking the chains with wary curiosity.

  "Come here. Need you for an experiment."

  Rudy stood slowly, approached with tired caution that came from knowing Jin's "experiments" had a fifty-fifty chance of causing intense pain. "What kind of experiment? Because if it involves more poison or things exploding, I'm gonna have to decline."

  "Opposite, actually." Jin managed half a smile. "Trust me?"

  "Do I have a choice?"

  "Not really, no."

  "Figured as much."

  Jin's chains moved with gentleness this time, wrapping around Rudy's torso and arms in supportive coils rather than invasive bindings. The silver links settled against his skin, warm with essence circulation, not threatening.

  Rudy tensed instinctively but didn't resist. "Okay, seriously though. Whatcha up to?"

  "Testing if I can share things more than just essence. Remember how I boosted your flames before?" Jin focused on his skill, hoping to project intent through the connection—share, strengthen, empower, stats.

  "Thinking bigger now. What if I could share more than just essence? What if I could actually transfer the permanent gains? The stats, the attributes, all the good stuff? I’m assimilating them, so there shouldn’t be any big problems with sharing my harvest."

  Rudy's eyes widened. "Wait, you're saying you could get me permanent stats?"

  "Basically, yeah. Worth a shot, right?"

  "That's deeply disturbing… Harvest a corpse you know…"

  Okay, let’s do this…

  Jin turned back to the corpse, chains still connected to Rudy, and began the harvest—just a small amount, carefully controlled, attempting to channel not just raw essence but the permanent stats.

  He felt the power flow through him, into the chains, toward Rudy—

  Rudy groaned, face twisting with discomfort as something tried to integrate with his system, his Colossus Mantle instinctively rejecting the foreign power like a body refusing an incompatible blood type.

  "Shit, that feels wrong. Like, really wrong." Rudy's voice strained.

  Jin cut the connection immediately, chains withdrawing, disappointment flickering across his face as the Narrator's voice materialized in his mind:

  ? Harvest Sharing: FAILED ?

  ? Current Mastery: INSUFFICIENT ?

  ? Stat/Attribute sharing requires: Harvest Mastery V or higher ?

  ? User current level: Harvest Manifestation is at Mastery II ?

  ? Recommendation: Increase proficiency before attempting ?

  "Damn." Jin ran a hand through his dark hair, fingers catching on tangles. "Not high enough mastery yet. Gonna need way more practice before I can pull that off."

  "What were you trying to do?"

  "Share the permanent gains. Stats, attributes, skill fragments, the good stuff from harvest." Jin's grin returned despite the failure, wild and slightly feral. "Can't do it now, but it's on the table for the future. Something to work toward. Imagine if we could both get stronger every time I harvest something?"

  Rudy's laugh was half-impressed, half-disturbed. "You're building a whole power-sharing network in your head, aren't you?"

  "Basically, yeah."

  "This is no scam. This is legitimate power distribution." Jin's chains manifested again, settling back around Rudy. "But I can still share essence. Top you off before we move. That much definitely works."

  His chains shifted purpose, redirecting the harvest flow from attempting stat transfer to essence channeling.

  The power flooded from the female cultist's corpse to Jin's Essence Heart—purified by his Synthesis Matrix into clean energy stripped of corruption and death-taint—then channeled through the silver chains directly into Rudy's core.

  Rudy gasped as pure essence filled him, exhaustion burning away like fog under sunlight, strength returning in warm waves. His Essence Heart expanded, pathways flooding with energy that tasted of hellfire and something indefinably Jin.

  "Holy shit, that's good. That's really good." Rudy's purple eyes went wide with surprise.

  "Yeah, harvest is pretty great when it's not traumatizing.” Jin watched Rudy's reserves fill through the connection—50%, 90%, 100%—then redirected overflow into Essence Edge.

  Once Essence Edge reached capacity, Jin pushed the remaining essence into Reduvia.

  The infant spirit woke up and squirmed with joy in his mind, pleasure-drunk on the nourishment, purring like a satisfied cat being fed premium tuna after weeks of dry kibble.

  Good food! More food! Love food! Love master who gives food!

  "Your armor just got happy again, didn't it?" Rudy observed with disturbed fascination. "That's still weird, man. Wearing a spirit."

  "Yeah, well. We're way past weird." Jin removed his chains from Rudy, turning full attention to the female cultist's corpse. "Now comes the hard part."

  Need to handle this differently. The memories from the first harvest were... too much.

  Jin bit his lower lip, thinking through the problem. The memories from the first cultist—Kael, his mind supplied automatically, because he knew the dead man's name now, knew things about him he had no right to know—had been overwhelming. Too much, too fast, too real.

  He couldn't keep drowning in dead people's lives while trying to survive his own.

  I need to somehow filter the memories, keep what's useful, and discard what's traumatizing.

  "Narrator," Jin spoke directly to his Omni-Reader's Viewpoint. "Can you set the memories aside this time? Prevent automatic assimilation?"

  The voice manifested in his mind, familiar and cold:

  ? Affirmative ?

  ? Memory quarantine protocols available ?

  ? Memories can be isolated and processed separately from other harvest gains.?

  "Can you break them down? Just give me the important stuff? Highlights instead of full-length trauma?"

  ? Possible if an Echo unit is assigned to memory processing. Current Echo unassigned: 2/2 ?

  ? Recommendation: Designate an Echo for temporary memory curation ?

  Jin nodded with grim satisfaction. That's way better. Let the skill do the heavy lifting, keep me sane in the process.

  "Do it. Assign an echo to memory processing. Filter for useful information only. I don't need to know what she had for breakfast or who she was sleeping with. Just give me the stuff that keeps us alive."

  ? Acknowledged ?

  ? Echo designated: Memory Analyst ?

  ? Memory processing: ACTIVE ?

  ? User will receive curated briefings post-harvest ?

  This skill… has really deep depth on what it can do… feels like a personalized system just for me.

  "Harvest."

  Eight chains exploded toward the corpse with even more hunger than before.

  They buried themselves deep—chest, head, limbs, core—burrowing through dead flesh and bone and essence pathways that death hadn't fully closed yet, seeking the power contained within.

  Jin pushed harder, gritting his teeth against feedback pain, forcing his way through defenses like breaking down a reinforced door with bare hands.

  The remains of her will be shattered.

  Then the floodgates opened and the tsunami hit.

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  ? Harvested Resources ?

  └─ [4.122] stats of VIT.

  └─ [5.441] stats of STR.

  └─ [7.121] stats of DEX.

  └─ [4.001] stats of FOC.

  └─ [7.121] stats of INT.

  └─ [382.12] units of Vitality restored. (OVERFLOW, Redirecting excess Vitality to [Reduvia])

  └─ [0.0432] wisps of “The Darkened One’s” Aura

  └─ [0.1251] wisps of “The Blood Mother’s” Aura

  └─ [0.0455] wisps of Blessing of “The Darkened One”

  └─ [0.0666] wisps of Blessing of “The Blood Mother”

  └─ [2.101] units of Latent Aura

  └─ [47.521%] fragments of “Poison touch” skill

  └─ [101.521%] fragments of “Path of Poison I” skill

  └─ [31.22%] fragments of “Twin Dagger mastery” skill

  └─ [5.666] units of Darkness affinity

  └─ [6.666] units of Poison affinity

  └─ [47%] of experience “Combat techniques: Dagger fighting methodology”

  └─ [61%] of experience “Weakness analysis”

  └─ [86%] of experience “Dark sorcery theory”

  ? Skill Fragments Acquired - Integrating... ?

  ? Experience Integration: 12% - Processing...?

  ? HARVEST COMPLETE! ?

  The power slammed into Jin hard enough that his legs gave out. He fell into the lotus position automatically, Eternal Sovereign breathing pattern kicking in on instinct, forcing integration before the gains could tear him apart from the inside.

  The sensations started uncomfortably: pathways stretching to accommodate new essence density, Essence Heart expanding past previous limits, skills etching themselves into his Mantle's structure with sharp precision.

  Then they became painful.

  Really, genuinely, agonizingly painful in ways that made him want to scream but couldn't because his jaw was locked shut with concentration, because losing focus now meant death or worse.

  Too much. This is way too much at once. Can't stop now, though. Gotta push through or it'll kill me.

  Ten minutes of agony before everything finally settled, integrated, and became his instead of stolen fragments.

  ? Integration Complete ?

  ? 6 New Skills Acquired (Novice Rank) ?

  ? Multiple Skill Fragments Updated ?

  ? Memory Processing: In Progress ?

  Jin opened his eyes, wiped fresh blood from his nose, and found Rudy watching with concerned intensity.

  Wow, new skill?

  ???? [Novice] Spear Mastery (09)

  ???? [Novice] Dagger Master (11)

  ???? [Novice] Cult Rituals (22)

  ? KNOWLEDGE ABOUT RITUALS ALREADY FOUND, REWORKING ???? [Adept] Path of Rituals (69) ?

  ???? [Novice] Dark sorceries (49)

  ? PATH OF SORCERY SKILL FOUND, REWORKING ???? [Adept] Path of Sorceries (83) ?

  ???? [Adept] Path of poison (63)

  "You good? Looked like you were having a seizure there."

  "Peachy. Just absorbed two overmortal ranks' worth of skills and knowledge. No big deal." Jin stood on shaking legs. "Help me store these bodies. Spatial storage is running critically low on room."

  “Oh hell no! I ain’t doing any choping…”

  Jin promptly ignored Rudy.

  "Yeah, well, beggars and choosers." Jin checked his status mentally, noting the gains with grim satisfaction. "Could be worse."

  "How?"

  "Could be us in there instead of them."

  "Fair point."

  Jin paced the destroyed apartment, mind racing through harvested knowledge that Echo was still processing. Fragments of information—safe house locations, patrol patterns, ritual sites—floated just beyond conscious reach.

  "Alright, here's what we know." Jin's voice took on that particular tone Rudy recognized as planning mode. "The cult's got three major safe houses in Vienna that these two know of. District 7, District 12, and one smack in the Old City Center. Each one's got supplies, weapons, reinforcements waiting."

  "We hitting them?" Rudy asked, standing and hefting his greatsword.

  "Hell no. At least not now. Last thing we need is walking into more overmortal cultists when we're barely standing." Jin paused mid-pace, biting his lower lip. "But I also know where their ritual sites are. Five major locations they're using to corrupt Vienna's essence flow and summon more abominations."

  "And?"

  "And one of them is between us and the base you told me. Can't go around—it's in a bottleneck between two collapsed zones. Gotta go through it."

  "Well, some cult culling wouldn’t be bad." Rudy rolled his shoulders, greatsword settling across his back. "So what's the play? We actually attacking them or running past?"

  "For now, we fight only if cornered or if something blocks our path. Otherwise?" Jin met Rudy's eyes. "We sprint like our asses are on fire and don't stop until we hit safety."

  "That's a terrible plan."

  "You got a better one?"

  Rudy opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again, then sighed with resignation. "...No. No, I do not."

  "Then let's go with my terrible plan."

  But before they could move toward the door, Rudy's hand shot out, gripping Jin's shoulder.

  "Yeah? What’s up?"

  "How are you holding up? Like, really holding up? Not the bullshit 'I'm fine' answer you give everyone else."

  Jin considered lying, but dismissed it instantly. This was Rudy. They'd bled together, killed together, nearly died together too many times for comfortable lies.

  "Honestly?" Jin's laugh came out bitter, hollow. "I feel like I'm drowning and the only way to breathe is to keep on moving..." He trailed off, unsure how to finish.

  Rudy gripped Jin's shoulder, forcing eye contact. "You're still you, man. Powers don't change that. Actions do. And so far? You've used everything you've got to keep us alive and help people who'd be dead otherwise. That counts for something."

  "Does it?" Jin's voice was barely above a whisper. "That’s not to mention what I just did, Rudy… would brand me as a heretic.”

  "Better be heretic than those fucking priests that condemned millions of souls to die.” Rudy's voice carried absolute certainty.

  "And don’t worry. It's not in you to abandon people." Rudy's grin was tired but genuine. "Besides, if you go full villain, who's gonna watch my back?"

  Jin managed a weak laugh. "Thanks."

  "Don't mention it. Now let's get moving before something else tries to kill us.”

  "You realize we've probably got like, five more near-death experiences minimum before we reach the base, right?" Jin chuckled.

  "Shut up and let me have hope."

  …

  They stepped out of the building into Vienna's nightmare landscape.

  Darkness covered the city. Ash fell like toxic snow. Distant screams of monsters carried on smoke-thick air.

  "Straight shot to the hidden base," Jin confirmed, checking the mental map. "Maybe two miles if we don't get sidetracked."

  "When have we ever not gotten sidetracked?"

  "Fair point. Ready?"

  "As I'll ever be."

  They ran.

  ...

  Three blocks in, they encountered their first group—twisted Flesh Amalgams shambling through an intersection, bodies composed of grafted limbs and melted faces, moving with disturbing coordination.

  Jin and Rudy didn't slow down, just angled their sprint. Jin's Iron howl blasted one’s limb, sending it crashing face-first into pavement.

  Rudy's sword bit deep, the force sending the abominations flying.

  The third one reached for them with too many arms—

  They were already past it, around the corner, gone before its attack could land.

  Five blocks later, movement on a rooftop—a mech-flesh hybrid scanner sweeping the street with glowing red eyes that turned everything they touched into target data.

  Reduvia's concealment activated automatically, shadows wrapping them like cloaks as they ducked into an alley, holding breath until the scanner passed.

  Seven blocks from the hidden base, a pack of five corrupted—twisted things that had maybe been human once but weren't anymore—hunting in coordinated formation, blocking the street they needed, too spread out to avoid without a significant detour.

  "Can't avoid these!" Rudy whispered over his shoulder.

  "Don't need to! Keep running! I'll handle it!"

  Jin cast while sprinting, one-verse sorcery manifesting with hasty precision as he shaped essence and spoke the words:

  ? "Shadows rise and grasp and hold!" ?

  Dark tendrils erupted from the ground like grasping hands, wrapping around the corrupted pack's legs and torsos, tangling them just long enough for Jin and Rudy to gain fifty feet of distance before the bindings broke.

  The corrupted howled with rage and gave chase—

  But Jin and Rudy were already gone, turned a corner, disappeared into the burning maze of Vienna's streets.

  They ran for what felt like hours but was probably only twenty minutes, fighting when forced, fleeing when possible, burning through essence and stamina reserves at unsustainable rates but not slowing down because slowing down meant death.

  Okay, almost to the cultist’s ritual site and then it's ours…

  Then the Narrator's voice screamed in Jin's mind with urgency that made every danger sense he possessed explode simultaneously:

  ? WARNING! WARNING! CRITICAL THREAT DETECTED! ?

  ? Found an abomination, possibly [Peak Order IV], dense divine blessings. ?

  ? Threat Level: EXTREME - AVOID AT ALL COSTS ?

  ? Divine Corruption Density: CATASTROPHIC ?

  ? Recommendation: IMMEDIATE CONCEALMENT using Reduvia’s help and a two-verse sorcery. ?

  "Reduvia! Hide us! Now!" Jin spoke desperately, pulling Rudy into the shadow behind the burned-out car.

  The spirit responded instantly, darkness essence exploding outward to wrap them in darkness so complete that Jin couldn't see his own hands.

  His fingers moved automatically, weaving hasty two-verse sorcery with frantic speed:

  ? "O night that swallows sight and sound, O void that drinks all trace of life, Let us become as nothing, let our presence fade to dream, Let even gods pass blind where we remain..." ?

  The spell settled over them like a second skin just as IT came into view.

  The creature was massive—twelve feet of twisted flesh.

  Its essence signature felt like standing next to a collapsing star—dense, heavy, wrong in ways that made Jin's mind scream warnings.

  Jin and Rudy pressed against the wall, not breathing, not moving, existence reduced to absolute stillness as the creature passed within ten feet.

  Please don't notice. Please don't notice. Please don't—

  The creature paused twenty feet from their position.

  Its head turned toward them with an eerie precision that made Jin's skin crawl. Eyes like burning coals swept across the exact spot where they hid, and Jin felt the weight of that gaze like a physical pressure against his chest.

  Fuck!

  ? YOU ARE DETECTED! RETREAT IMMEDIATELY ?

  The Narrator's text burned across Jin's vision in urgency. Don't switch voice to text on fly!

  "Rudy, run!"

  The word came out as a desperate gasp as Jin exploded from cover. The cobblestone street blurred beneath his feet, each stride eating up impossible distance while Rudy kept pace beside him, madra crackling around his legs in bursts of crimson power.

  Behind them, the thing roared.

  The sound wasn't animal. Wasn't human. It was something deeply disturbing. And then came the thunder of its pursuit.

  Shit Shit!

  "Left!" Jin gasped, yanking Rudy around a corner by pure instinct.

  They sprinted down an alley filled with shattered windows that crunched under their boots and doors hanging off hinges like broken teeth. Vienna's streets had become a maze of death, every shadow potentially hiding cultists or worse. The Veil overhead still pulsed with darkness, but now there was something new—a sickly red light bleeding through that turned everything below into a nightmare painted in blood and shadow.

  The monster crashed through the building they'd just passed.

  The entire building.

  Debris exploded outward in a shower of brick and wood and glass that peppered Jin's back even as he ran. Something sharp scored across his cheek, drawing blood.

  ? RETREAT IMMEDIATELY ?

  What do you think I'm doing?!

  ? CURRENT APPROACH INEFFECTIVE. ?

  Tell me something useful!

  The Narrator processed the creature in fragments as Jin risked glances back—ORDER IV minimum—a lord ascension ranker for sure, maybe higher, corrupted essence signature woven through its form like cancer. Each glimpse told Jin the same thing with clarity: they couldn't fight this. Not yet. Not ever, maybe.

  "Any brilliant ideas?" Rudy wheezed, vaulting over a corpse without breaking stride.

  "Working on it!"

  "Work faster!"

  The roar came again, closer. Much closer. Too close.

  Jin risked a glance back and immediately regretted it.

  The monster's gaping maw filled his vision. Barely a meter away. Close enough that Jin could smell the rot and blood on its breath.

  Holy fuck—

  Panic surged, and overdrive kicked in.

  The world slowed.

  Rudy's greatsword erupting in slow crimson flames of madra as he pivoted mid-stride, an impossible movement for most as he brought the burning blade around in a desperate counter-slash toward the monster's face.

  The creature's maw opening wider, impossibly wider, jaw unhinging like a snake's to reveal the glowing furnace of its throat.

  The alley walls closing in, trapping them like rats in a killing box with no escape.

  And then—

  Reality warped.

  Jin's vision stuttered like a skipped frame in a film, the world glitching around him with nauseating disorientation. Someone grabbed both him and Rudy by their collars.

  Space folded.

  The alley compressed and twisted, bending in ways that made Jin's eyes scream.

  They were pulled—no, yanked—backward through a door that Jin would swear on his life hadn't been there three seconds ago.

  The darkness swallowed them completely.

  The door closed behind them with a sound like reality sealing shut, cutting off the monster's roar mid-shriek.

  They hit solid ground in complete darkness.

  What the fuck just happened? And where are we!

  Instinct screamed as chains of harvest manifested around his arms—

  "Relax, guys."

  The voice sliced through panic like a blade through silk. Low. Amused. Familiar from somewhere.

  Crimson eyes gleamed in the dimness as their savior emerged from the shadows.

  "Miss me, Young Winters?"

  ~~~

  A/N: An old character makes entry... can you who!

  PS: Psst~ Psst~ Daily chapter drops, extra content and sneak peaks into more things at Patreon! It would be awesome if you guys, you know...

  Bonus chapters drop when I hit the goal!

  ? ? ?

  ?^>?<^ ?