Eldritch Assassin: Reincarnated With An SSS-Rank Devouring System
Chapter 89: Nullborn (IV)

Chapter 89: Nullborn (IV)

The chamber’s runes shattered, Null Qi surging like a broken dao, the ground collapsing under them.

[Critical Hit! Enemy HP: 65%.

Core Stability: 0%]

Eldritch Reversal Expired.

Kael’s body sagged, strength fading, Abyssal Endurance fraying. The Nullborn twitched, eye flickering, tendrils lashing weakly. Kael staggered, blood pooling, Predator’s Instincts tracking its final surge. The creature roared, claws rising, a last berserk charge.

[System Warning: Devourer Corruption – Mutation Risk 35%.

Temporary Synchronization: +15% All Stats]

Kael’s vision darkened, Null Qi burning his veins, his Devourer Bloodline screaming. He gripped Abyssal Fang, knuckles white, and charged, stumbling, blade slashing the eye. Ichor sprayed, the Nullborn’s screech fading, its form collapsing into smoke and ash.

[Critical Hit! Enemy HP: 60%.

Core Destroyed.]

The chamber stilled, runes dimming, Null Qi dissipating. Kael dropped to his knees, Abyssal Fang clattering, blood dripping from his mouth. His chest heaved, Adaptive Regeneration sealing wounds slowly, Devourer Corruption pulsing in his veins.

[Status: HP 12%.

Bleeding Debuff: Critical.

Stamina: 0%.

Devourer Corruption: 0.70%]

Kael coughed, blood speckling the stone, his grin faint, defiant. The trial’s dao of annihilation lingered, its weight crushing, but he’d survived—barely. His Devourer Bloodline hummed, Null Qi residue burning, a mutation’s edge creeping closer, like a cultivator teetering on a deviant path.

[System Warning: Devourer Corruption – Mutation Risk 40%. Stabilization Required]

Kael remained kneeling, breaths ragged, the air thick with acrid smoke and Null Qi residue. His ears still rang with the fading echo of the Nullborn’s screech, and every heartbeat felt like a hammer against cracked bone.

A tremor rolled through his body. Not from the collapsing chamber—but from within.

[Status: HP 12%.

Bleeding Debuff: Critical.

Stamina: 0%.

Devourer Corruption: 0.70%]

His fingers trembled as he reached for Abyssal Fang. The blade pulsed—no longer just steel and devoured Qi. It had fed too much. Just like him.

A shadow twitched.

Kael’s instincts snapped into place, his body moving before thought. Abyssal Fang lashed outward.

The smoke parted.

Nothing.

Only the memory of the Nullborn’s death lingered in the dark, flickering chamber.

His heart thudded—slow, heavy. Each beat stretched longer than the last. He leaned against his sword, the ground beneath him soaked in his own blood. The jagged stone pulsed faintly, threads of Null Qi crawling like tendrils across its surface, reaching... always reaching.

His eyes narrowed.

It wasn’t over. The chamber pulsed once more.

Kael’s head snapped up.

A jagged shard of the Nullborn’s shattered core hovered mid-air, suspended by a thread of corrupted qi. Its eye, half-split and dim, still blinked, twitching in maddened defiance. Tendrils of broken essence curled from it like desperate limbs reaching for vengeance.

Kael gritted his teeth, blood running down his cheek.

"You’re still clinging to life?" he muttered, voice raw.

The shard jerked. Then screamed.

A pulse of raw Null Qi exploded outward.

Kael was thrown back, slamming into the fractured wall with a sickening crunch. Stone cracked. His body bounced, limp, before he hit the ground again.

[Status: HP 8%.

Fracture Debuff: Moderate.

Stamina: 0%.

Devourer Corruption: 0.73%]

He couldn’t feel his left arm. Could barely breathe.

But that shard—the core—it was trying to reform.

No. Not reform... Detonate.

Kael’s blurred vision fixed on the swirling black-red sphere forming where the Nullborn’s heart once was. A vortex of Qi sucked the air, stone, and blood into it. A final act of obliteration. The Trial’s last echo.

If it completed that cycle, he would be gone.

Everything would.

Kael forced himself to stand, body shaking violently. One step. Then two. His foot slid on his own blood. He didn’t stop.

Abyssal Fang trembled in his grip. The blade resonated with the unstable core, drawn to it, feeding from it, begging him to strike... and risk losing everything.

Kael didn’t hesitate.

He lunged.

The vortex surged, its scream deafening now. Debris lashed at him like spears, slicing flesh from bone. A chunk of stone slammed into his shoulder. He didn’t feel it. His mind was beyond pain.

He raised Abyssal Fang.

And drove it into the eye of the vortex.

Boom.

A silence followed the impact. Deep. Final.

Then—detonation.

The core erupted, not outward, but inward.

A collapse. Not an explosion.

Reality warped, sucked into a single point of null. The blade anchored Kael to the ground, Abyssal Fang drinking the collapsing energy like a dying man devours his last meal.

Screams echoed again—distorted, inhuman—before fading to a whisper. The black-red vortex shuddered... then blinked out of existence.

Silence.

The runes on the chamber walls flickered once... twice... then died.

[System Alert: Nullborn Core Destroyed.

Trial Concluded – Floor 12 Complete.]

Kael collapsed to his knees once more, his hand still gripping the hilt of his blade.

He couldn’t move, couldn’t think. He just... existed.

A vessel of pain. Of will. Of barely-contained corruption.

[Status: HP 6%.

Stamina: 0%.

Devourer Corruption: 0.75%

Body Condition: Near Collapse.]

"Still... alive..." he rasped.

Barely. His Bloodline stirred. Hungry. Satisfied.

And yet—Unstable.

His hand twitched. Abyssal Fang pulsed again, now heavier... denser. The weapon had evolved. Consumed. And in doing so, it had taken in more than just power.

Kael’s reflection stared back at him in the blackened edge of the blade.

Eyes hollow. Lips cracked.

But his grip? Unbroken.

The chamber around him began to shift. Stone folded away, revealing a spiral of light in the distance, the silver ascension gate—an exit.

The path to the thirteenth floor.

He didn’t move. He couldn’t.

Not yet.

His mind returned to the warnings. The creeping corruption. The cost of victory.

[System Warning: Devourer Corruption – Mutation Risk 45%. Immediate Stabilization Advised.]

Kael coughed, blood trickling down his lip. His vision blurred. But there was no fear in his gaze.

Only purpose. Resolve.

He had stepped into this trial to survive and conquer it. He was crawling out of it... reborn.

Behind him, the ashes of the Nullborn Fragment drifted, carried away by the windless void.

Before him, the light pulsed. Waiting.

Kael forced his body to rise.

One foot. Then the other.

He limped, each step dragging, Abyssal Fang dragging a thin trail behind him.

But he didn’t stop.

Because the trial wasn’t done. And he was still breathing.

Barely.

But breathing. And that was enough.