Dungeon Overlord: Monster Girl Harem!
Chapter 192 - 192: Beyond the Limit of Flesh

The notification faded, and for a heartbeat, the chamber was silent. Leonhardt's breath misted in the cold air, anticipation humming under his skin. Power was never cheap, and this could cost him... maybe everything.

A faint ripple distorted the space beside his desk.

One after another, the monster cores materialised, tumbling out of the void and onto the polished obsidian.

They weren't just stones.

Each one was a crystallised, beating heart, a tiny universe of hunger and violence, radiating power even dormant.

The Fae cores shimmered with pastel lights, each pulse whispering of wild magic, beauty, and cruelty. The Djinn cores throbbed with stormy blue, promising the freedom and madness of elemental chaos. The Arachne cores glowed an eerie violet, dense with venom and the patience of a predator.

Leonhardt's fingers hovered over them. Each was unique, yet all vibrated with possibility. The core's energy prickled along Leon's skin, drawn to the World Eater Core buried deep in his chest.

He stacked the cores in a loose, deliberate pile, the room smelling now of ozone, flowers, and something darker. There was no hesitation; only the thrill, the need to become more. No single core would be enough. Only excess would satisfy the gnawing void that power left behind.

He glanced at the last empty slot in his interface [Black Dragon], but the price blinked mockingly. Too high, even for him.

He turned away from the screen, letting the hunger rise. There was no one here to see him falter. No one to mourn if he failed.

Leonhardt's lips curled in a hungry, predatory smile.

Tonight, he would devour his future.

***

Leonhardt sat in the centre of his chamber, the heap of monster cores gleaming before him. He sealed the doors and entrances tightly. No one would interrupt him. Not now, not with everything at stake.

Nobody could enter this room.

He even sealed Zafira's portal, stopping her from entering.

[Be careful, Leon... it might be dangerous!]

'I know, Ifrit please watch me and bless me.'

Leonhardt just opened his mouth and swallowed the first core whole.

It hit his stomach like molten glass. His back arched, teeth grinding as floral mana exploded outward, threading through his veins like blooming vines of acid.

His skin flushed pink, then cracked as the Fae essence tore through him. His organs twisted, muscles warping. Delicate, unnatural threads of magic webbed across his bones.

He spat blood. His eyes unfocused. His heart skipped a beat, then roared back, burning with mana far too volatile for a human to survive.

And he kept going.

The second was a Djinn core. His hand trembled as he swallowed it.

Pain. Not heat. Pure combustion. The core detonated inside him, ripping into the Fae essence already stitched into his flesh.

Elemental wind howled through his lungs as fire devoured his blood. His liver shrivelled, then reformed under the force of the World Eater Core. Electricity crackled along his spine. His left arm broke and reformed mid-twitch, muscle spasming uncontrollably.

He screamed. His voice tore through the chamber, high and animal.

Then came the Arachne core.

It slid down smoothly, then struck.

A thousand invisible legs scrambled beneath Leon's skin. The thread wrapped around his intestines, nerves, and brainstem. His thoughts slowed. His instincts sharpened. His muscles stiffened like coiled silk. The web didn't ask for permission. It claimed.

He vomited blood and mana, his vision flickering.

Still, he didn't stop.

One by one, core after core vanished down his throat. He didn't chew. He consumed.

His Chimaera body writhed with every fusion. The World Eater Core spun faster, a collapsed star trying to hold him together. Without it, without the mutations pulsing in his marrow, he would have detonated into mist by the fourth.

By the tenth, his fingernails had peeled away.

By the fifteenth, his left eye ruptured, then regrew. Violet and burning.

By the twenty-fifth, his heart stopped, just for a second.

Then it beat again, much louder.

Stronger.

His evolution hadn't even started yet.

With each core, his existence became something different... his EP rapidly dropped each second, until it reached the single digits.

[Leon... stop, this is enough. You will become crazy!]

Ifrit's soft voice of worry echoed; she couldn't even manifest her spirit form to soothe him. Meanwhile, Dravanna became silent... not a peep.

He was shaking and twitching. Every core swallowed had etched itself into his nerves, every trait clawing for space inside his body.

And then, he reached the final two.

Lesser Incubus Cores. Cracked. Damaged. Barely stable.

He held them both in his palm. They pulsed—feebly, yet tempting.

The warped mana inside was unstable, barely held together. But still useful to Leonhardt. Still valuable. The only reason he could afford them was because of how cracked and unstable they were, and others feared what they'd become once broken.

Leonhardt swallowed both.

At once.

And everything shattered.

Heat. Cold. Lust. Pain. Desire. Agony.

"What!?"

A raw scream ripped from his chest as the Incubus cores detonated. His pelvis cracked. His spine twisted and arched backwards unnaturally, ribs pushing through skin, before snapping back into place like metal under magnetic pull. His fingers bent in the wrong direction. His jaw dislocated as his mouth opened wider than humanly possible.

Then came the fusion.

The World Eater Core stopped spinning.

It roared.

All the mana, all the essences, the instincts and powers he had consumed. Fae elegance, Djinn chaos, Arachne cunning—collided and compressed.

The Chimaera part of him woke up fully.

Not just adapting. Rebuilding.

His skin smoothed, regenerating rapidly into a sleek, polished tone.

The faint roughness from past battles melted away. Gloss settled on his lips, unnaturally full and almost reflective. His hair fell loose around his shoulders, pure black and shimmering, each strand sharp as silk.

The new cores tried to reshape him, twisting, snapping and breaking his form between a huge spider... a demon... a Majinn with dominant force, even a fairy...

Over and over, his skin cracked and reformed... but always returning to "Leonhardt" as if his pride resisted the complete change and wanted to remain himself.

'I wont... submit!'

Because of this... his form improved, refined, tempered to the limit.

His eyes cleared. The whites brightened. His pupils sharpened into refined ovals, glassy and haunting. Not demonic. Not human.

His arms trembled once more, bones humming like strings drawn too tight. Then everything fell still.

He rose to his knees, breath ragged, body humming with something feral. Everything felt clearer and sharper. He was stronger, faster, and more beautiful.

But also… heavier.

Too much.

His chest lurched.

He coughed once.

Then vomited a thick stream of dark blood, splattered with tar-like filth. The black sludge hissed as it hit the floor, eating into the stone before going still.

Whatever he hadn't needed, hadn't belonged—had been purged.

Leonhardt collapsed onto his side, shivering.

Evolution... complete.

***

[Leon?]

(Leo?)

Ifrit and Dravanna spoke in the silence, soft at first, then sharper.

The room looked like a disaster zone. Cracked stone walls, scorch marks, blood smeared across the floor in long, sick streaks. Leonhardt knelt in a cracked crater, with a heavy air sizzling from the mana discharge and the foul, tar-like substance he'd vomited.

Leonhardt in the centre of it all, chest heaving, limbs twitching as if his body still didn't know what shape it was supposed to be.

(Answer me, damn it!)

[I'm sensing stable vitals, but he's—Leon, wake up!]

His eyelids fluttered.

The voices helped. Warmth flickered in the cold of Leonhardt's new body. He bit down on his tongue and forced himself upright. One hand digging into the stone for balance. Everything inside him felt... heavier. Thicker. The bones in his arms had hardened. His senses had expanded far past normal. He could hear the heartbeat of Embervale.

The world looked different. Not brighter. Just clearer.

A soft chime sounded.

Ding—

[Unique Evolution Achieved]

Chimaera Variant – Unlocked

Trait Fusion in Progress…Bloodline Strength Increased

• Fae: High• Djinn -> Majinn: High

• Arachne: Moderate

• Lesser Incubus -> Incubus: High (Unstable)

• Black Dragon: Minor• World Eater Core: Sated

Warning: Evolution is not synchronised. Instability Possible.

The two factors of his bloodlines were their strength, signified by the words Minor, moderate or high and their density or grade. An example was him upgrading from a Lesser Incubus to an Incubus, or a Djinn to a Majinn.

Leonhardt exhaled through his teeth.

Still incomplete.

Still dangerous.

"Of course," he muttered hoarsely, lips curling into something like a smile. His throat was raw, his voice lower, almost too smooth. "I feel like I got chewed up by the gods and spat out sideways…"

His reflection in the fragmented core mirror showed someone who looked like him. Though his visuals barely changed in shape, his eyes became clear like gems; the rest was something beyond human beauty.

'Will this not drive those girls crazy?'

Ifrit appeared above his shoulder, her flame form dimmed in concern.

[You idiot. You swallowed them all.]

(You mad, beautiful bastard...)

Dravanna's voice was thick with pride and something close to reverence.

He didn't answer.

His body was a battlefield.

And he'd won.

Just Barely...

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