Chapter 168: Killing the deviant

Words : 1209 Updated : Oct 10th, 2025

Chapter 168: Killing the deviant [thank you for your patience, really appreciate it] Kairos gritted his teeth as his gaze met with the steep climb ahead—an unforgiving wall of rock and shadows that led to the surface of the pit. He had to get out. There was no choice left. He couldn’t use his swap ability—he hadn’t marked or touched any physical object outside the pit in recent memory, and nothing visible was within reach. So the only viable option that remained... was to climb. The very idea of it made Kairos swallow hard, a lump of saliva sticking painfully in his throat. He had no choice... did he? Still, Kairos remained frozen, conflicted in thought. Perhaps he had already begun climbing in his mind, scrambling up the rock face in desperate bursts. Or maybe he was still calculating the best path forward, weighing the options, paralyzed by the looming risk. But all such thoughts snapped like brittle twigs under the weight of reality when a distant roar echoed through the air—sharp, guttural, and chilling. It vibrated off the cavern walls like thunder in a sealed tomb. The scorpion was returning. Its thunderous limbs—those dreadful, bone-crushing legs—slammed into the ground, each step like a bomb detonating across the cavern floor. No more time to think. Kairos rushed to the base of the pit wall, activating his Integration, letting its energy course through his limbs. He leapt toward a jagged ledge, gripping it tightly. His muscles tensed, veins bulging as he hoisted himself up. His fingers scrambled for the next bump, a narrow crevice barely wide enough to press into, but it was enough. Thankfully, he’d earned some experience with climbing during his earlier ascent up a cliff. That memory lent him the speed he needed—though he was far from an expert. But the Integration flowed through him now. And with it, he could manage. He had to manage. ’Concentrate, idiot. Climb... climb before that thing catches you mid-act.’ Kairos’s inner voice echoed louder than any roar as his eyes locked on the distant top of the pit. It was still maddeningly far away. At moments like this, he couldn’t help but feel as though the pit had grown taller, stretching itself just to trap him—taunting him, luring him into hopelessness. ’Should I have just thrown a rock there and swapped...?’ The fleeting idea whispered through his mind. But just as quickly, he cast it out. A rock landing outside could attract something far worse than the deviant scorpion. That path might lead to an even crueler death—perhaps by a beast he hadn’t yet seen, or an entity whose hunger was not only for flesh, but for agony. And besides, he’d made his bed. He had to lie in it. Or rather, climb out of it. But below... the deviant had finally arrived. The enormous scorpion-like monster stomped into its nest, its carapace glistening beneath the filtered light seeping through cracks in the earth. Its monstrous instincts kicked in immediately. They never betrayed it. Every one of its clustered, soulless eyes twitched upward—spotting the lone figure halfway up the pit, with his back turned, climbing frantically. The moment froze. Then it acted. With impossible speed, the deviant snapped its tail forward, its stinger lunging through the air like a thunderbolt hurled by a divine executioner. Kairos didn’t see it. By the time his senses caught on, it was already too late. The stinger struck. An explosion erupted in its wake—stone, dust, and blood cascaded down like a torrential avalanche, scattering across the beast’s broad carapace. The scorpion, looming just above its clutch of eggs, did not flinch from the debris. It absorbed the rocks willingly, allowing them to hammer against its armored back in what almost resembled a humble, motherly sacrifice. But the stones did nothing. They simply bounced off the creature’s impervious shell, unable to crack the surface. And then—amongst the dust and rock—came a larger crash. A body tumbled downward, bouncing off the scorpion’s back and crashing hard beside its nest. Kairos. His figure was broken, bloody, unmoving. The eyes of the Deviant gleamed in victorious malice as they stared down at him. The beast’s tail rattled, winding up for a final execution. A low, guttural growl echoed from its throat, a horrifying sound of satisfaction and savagery. But then— Crack! Crack! Crack! Something snapped. And again. And again. The scorpion’s eyes flickered wildly, scanning its surroundings with erratic precision. It searched—but what it sought, it could not find. Its body stumbled. Something was very wrong. The snapping noise continued, like the splitting of bones and the tearing of sinew. The beast growled and twitched, clawed limbs stumbling against the cave floor, as if reality itself had shifted beneath its feet. And then— The world around it changed. In an instant, the deviant scorpion vanished from the depths of the pit and reappeared—teleported—to the top of the cliffs near the edge of the tear in the earth. The sudden shift disoriented the monster beyond comprehension. It flailed slightly, confused, as if its mind couldn’t reconcile where it was. Then, slowly... it collapsed. Once. Twice. And on the third fall... it didn’t get up. Its body grew still. Limp. Dead. A massive corpse, shuddering one last time before going quiet. Black fluid began to ooze from its armored shell, spilling out in thick, syrupy waves until it formed a large puddle beneath it—dark as ink and reeking of death. From that pool of blood... a shape began to rise. It slithered upward like a shadow stretching out of a nightmare, growing, twisting... until it took on a human form. Kairos. Covered in the black blood of the Deviant, he emerged, panting heavily, shoulders heaving with exhaustion. His breath came in ragged gasps. "I can’t believe it actually worked." His words were barely audible. Kairos looked down at his hands. His gauntlet was warped, sparks flickering across its jagged edges. But it had done its job. His gaze shifted toward the dead Deviant. The plan had been desperate—crazy, even. When the scorpion struck at him, Kairos had transformed into a shadow at the very last instant. The falling debris masked his movement, giving him a fleeting moment of opportunity. In that instant, he had swapped himself with a large, bloodied piece of flesh he’d found near the nest—fooling the Deviant into thinking he had fallen victim to the attack. With its attention diverted, Kairos crept close. An opening revealed itself in the monster’s thick carapace. He materialized his gauntlet and unleashed a concentrated flurry of shadow-imbued strikes, each one delivered with precise aim—each one a knife cutting from within. The attack was double-edged—his gauntlet inflicted pain on himself as well. But the damage he dealt to the scorpion was far greater. And then, at the peak of chaos, he made his final move. He had thrown a rock to the cliffs’ edge earlier—just in case. Now, he used that marker. Kairos had swapped places—his broken, blood-soaked body with the massive bulk of the Deviant. The monster served as his vessel to the surface. And now... it was done. Kairos stood tall on unsteady legs, shadow fading from his skin. Now he had one last job to fulfill.

Chapter 168: Killing the deviant

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