Grandma lay on the floor beside the bed. The old patchwork quilt half-torn down with her. The goblins had tied her wrists to the bedframe using her own pantyhose. Seeing her like that—helpless, defenseless before a pack of ravenous hellspawn—triggered the deepest panic I had ever known. But buried beneath the terror and despair, something else stirred: Hope.

  Grandma was breathing. She opened her eyes, blinking weakly up at me.

  My breath caught in my throat. A thousand thoughts collided in my mind. What did this mean? Had the system been messing with me? Or was it pity? Was it giving me a chance to save Yumi? Was this some sick setup, making me believe I’d lose someone I loved, just to make sure I’d...

  …finally start fighting?

  I shook my head. No time to think.

  Grandma trembled. She was crying. A broken, choked sound escaped her lips. Four goblins surrounded her. Two pinned down her thighs. One—a massive, bloated brute (clearly the leader)—straddled her chest, grinning with a gaping maw full of yellowed fangs. Black war paint smeared across his scarred, leathery face. In his hand, he clutched a dagger with a jagged, saw-toothed edge.

  {Grokk the Binder}

  Level 10 – Elite

  Clan: Sootclaw | Rank: Alpha

  Origin: Ash-Veins (Rift Signature XR-9917-B)

  Known Behavior: Performs sadistic rituals involving internal organs of victims.

  Warning: Entity may be attempting to open a new Abyss.

  Recommended Action: Purge host. Soul consumption authorized.

  Note: Target’s essence may empower the Doom Path.

  Too much. Way too much. Soul consumption? How the hell was I supposed to pull that off? I was Level 4. No skills. No buffs. Just panic. One phrase stuck with me: attempting to open a new Abyss. But how could the system even know that? Was Grokk really trying to open a portal? A new dungeon—here, in our apartment? Like Ryn Valen, when he tried to summon that thing in Everland... the one that later became the first world boss. The one my darker self has secretly been craving all along. But this wasn’t some twisted blood sacrifice in a cursed amusement park. It wasn’t Sin-Joo on the altar. It was my grandma. And her body was the anchor.

  Jesus. WTF.

  Then came a short, guttural command. The other three goblins turned.

  I moved faster than I ever thought possible.

  The first goblin died before he could finish his screech—my blade slashed across his face, slicing deep. The second lunged at me. I slammed him into the wardrobe and drove my sword through his chest.

  The third ran. Right past me. Stupid little bastard with the brainpower of a moldy turnip. I grabbed his ankle, yanked him back, hurled him into the air and smashed him to the ground. Then stomped on his throat until I felt vertebrae snap. His rubbery windpipe burst.

  Silence.

  Only the boss remained. The leader of the Sootclaw Clan (a name I would come to know far too well in the Abyss, when they returned stronger, crueler) rose to his feet. Taller than the others. More muscle. Level 10. Elite. And that put him just one level below the Wraithclaw Direbear, the one that prowled near the edge of the world boss zone. I hadn’t stood a chance against that thing. And now I was supposed to have gained enough power in just a few hours to take on something like this?

  Grokk, despite the lower level, still felt stronger, as if he were drawing strength from some dark force. His ritual dagger looked like it was forged from molten glass, obsidian-dark and shimmering with a glow not born of this world. It pulsed with the essence of a distant realm beyond the Abyss. His home. As real as ours, but hidden from us for eons.

  Grokk licked his lips. No words. No wicked grin. Just the crystal-clear intent to kill.

  I wasn’t an enemy to him.

  I was a fly.

  An annoying speck in the way of his ritual ecstasy—his pleasure in torturing my grandmother to death.

  And this fly was going to be crushed.

  Then he struck. Fast. Faster than I could react.

  Dagger raised; but he was already there. Sparks flew, metal clashed against metal. My blade deflected. Too late. He sliced open the right side of my face. My glasses went flying. Shit.

  I dodged, jumped back, slashed, missed.

  He grinned. And landed a blow.

  A deep cut across my side.

  -13 HP

  I staggered, caught myself, countered. My sword bit into his shoulder. He didn’t even flinch. Grokk charged. Half my size, but with enough force to slam me into the tiled wall. Mosaic shards shattered and rained down.

  I dropped my blade.

  He beat me with the hilt of his dagger, again and again. A diamond embedded in the pommel. I blocked with my arms. The diamond tore my skin open. It bit into bone.

  -14 HP

  -16 HP

  -12HP

  Then his clawed hand, wide as a shovel, drove into my gut.

  CRIT!

  I gasped. Spat blood immediately. Dark stomach blood, frothing between my teeth.

  -21 HP

  I slid down the wall, collapsed to the floor, choking.

  God, the pain...

  And what did that fucking goblin do next?

  Finish me off already, you sick bastard, I thought. Just fucking do it.

  Grokk’s forked, serpentine tongue lashed out of his gaping maw, licking my blood off his gleaming blade. The goblin grinned... a forest of jagged, yellow teeth. In the reflection of the knife, I could see my grandmother lying beside the bed, gasping, trembling. By now, I was sure Grokk was keeping me alive on purpose.... so I could watch. So I could see how fragile she was. So I’d know exactly what he was going to do to her.

  He threw the blade.

  It buried itself in the wooden bedframe, inches from her head. The hilt still quivering from the force.

  My eyes widened. My heart slammed against my ribs.

  Grokk waddled toward her, letting out sharp, chittering noises. No rush. No fear. No one was coming to stop him.

  Get up, I screamed at myself inside my head. Get the fuck up, you useless piece of shit!

  But I couldn’t. Too wounded. Too little HP.

  Grokk stood in front of my grandma now. What was this monster planning?

  No, scratch that. I knew exactly what he was going to do.

  He pulled the dagger from the bedframe, then dragged his disgusting, oversized tongue across my grandmother’s face,from chin to forehead. The stench coming off him alone could’ve killed someone as frail as Yumi. Then, with one claw, he reached between her legs.

  "Leave her alone, you bastard!" I tried to stand, but Grokk’s movement was lightning-fast. In a flash, a throwing knife sailed toward me, and for a moment, I thought he’d missed.

  Until I looked down.

  The blade had sliced through my thigh.

  [Status Effect Applied: BLEEDING]

  Minus 3 HP every 10 seconds.

  Estimated Time to Death: < 1 minute

  I collapsed, grabbing my leg with both hands, pressing down hard (a makeshift tourniquet) but the blood kept oozing through my fingers. Fast. Too fast. This monster was going to rape my grandmother. And I couldn’t stop it. I was done. I’d failed to protect her.

  I’d failed her.

  No.

  No, that can’t happen.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  I had to come up with something. Anything. Now.

  Then it hit me.

  Achievements.

  Of course...! I summoned my soul interface with a thought:

  Shit, I was low. But I had a ton of unspent stat points. This was my shot. If I dumped them all into VIT and STR, maybe I’d stand a chance against an elite enemy six levels above me. It wasn’t a strategy, it was a pure gamble. Should I throw a few points into AGI, just to dodge those brutal strikes? Fuck, I had no clue how much dodge chance a single point would even give.

  Didn’t matter.

  I tried to allocate the first 10 points to Strength.

  Nothing.

  Didn’t work.

  The system was locked.

  Because...

  Because I was in combat.

  Fucking bullshit.

  12 HP.

  Now 9.

  Thirty seconds left.

  It was over. And Grandma was next.

  I saw my HP bar like a HUD, floating at the top of my vision. I saw Grokk, tearing her clothes off. He wanted me to watch. Wanted that to be the last thing I ever saw. Otherwise, he would’ve already killed me.

  6 HP. Twenty seconds. Yumi was begging for mercy. I’m so sorry, Grandma. I’ve always been a fucking failure.

  3 HP. The next tick from Bleeding would finish me. Nine seconds. Eight. Think. Seven. Six.

  No... I can’t think like that.

  Three. Two. One.

  The world faded. Thick veins pulsed across my vision. Darkness swallowed everything.

  Then... my grandmother screamed in agony as Grokk began chanting in an alien tongue, slowly driving the tip of his ritual dagger into her abdomen. Blue lightning danced around her like St. Elmo’s fire.

  [SYSTEM INTERVENTION DETECTED]

  HP: 1/94 — Death denied

  Initiating Memory Recovery

  "AAARGH!”

  What the hell was happening to me?

  No...wrong question.

  What the hell was happening to everything around me?

  The world began to warp. The room fell apart...its walls crumbling into dust, and I... couldn’t breathe.

  A high-pitched noise rising until it pierced my skull, then suddenly, silence. A feeling of warmth and peace spread through me. Where was it coming from?

  And then... I heard her voice again.

  [???] whispers: You’re not ready to die. Not until you’ve become what you’re meant to be.

  It was her. The same voice I’d heard the moment death first claimed me; when the Abyss reached up and dragged me into its depths. Cold, ancient, and impossibly distant. And now, somehow, she was back.

  Gone since then.

  Now back.

  I blinked, and that peaceful, beautiful state of existence shattered, as awakening flung me straight into hell. I was no longer home. No longer with Yumi. I was standing on a battlefield of ash and bone. Blood rained from an apocalyptic sky. In the center of this burning world, a demonic knight loomed over a girl clad in white light. But her face... her face was missing. Like someone had erased it from existence.

  He pulled his sword from her gut. And in that moment, I knew. He was the one who destroyed the city. Mountains of corpses surrounded him. This felt like a goddamn fever dream. The girl smiled as she died. I didn’t see it....but I felt her relief.

  "Sleep is not for you...not here. Rise, and remember," the girl said, with her delicate, otherworldly, angelic voice.

  The scene disintegrated.

  I wanted to see her. I needed to see her—put a face to that voice. What had that thing done to her? I needed to reach her. Touch her.

  But everything around me crumbled into dust.

  A sharp cut.

  A massive black altar. Figures in blood-red robes, faces hidden behind masks.

  A child lay on the stone slab, whimpering; it had.... my aura.

  Was that... me? A younger version?

  The High Priest spoke: "He bleeds for the future of the Doom Path."

  He raised the dagger himself. And did not hesitate.

  The child I believed to be me... died.

  The temple shook violently. And the child, though clearly lifeless, whispered, looking directly at me: "Don’t forget who you really are.”

  Then—snap. I was back. Back in Grandma’s bedroom. The corpses of the goblins around me began to glow. Their souls... if those wretched things even had souls...drifted toward me. What the hell was happening? I was about to die. Or... wasn’t I?

  [Passive Skill Acquired: "Deathwake"]

  At <5% HP, drains life from nearby corpses. Each body grants +5% HP and +3 temporary STR for 30 seconds.

  What?My first skill?

  But it hadn’t come from leveling up. It had come from... a memory. Or was it a vision? A hallucination?

  I had no clue.

  I only knew that life was flowing back into me.

  [???] whispers: Death no longer holds you. The dead are listening now. You’re closer to me than ever. Come find me.

  "What? Who are you? Hello? How can I find you?"

  No answer from beyond. But I had Grokk’s attention. Apparently, not even a second had passed in the real world since I’d relived that strange, resurrected memory. If it even was a memory. Hell, maybe it was the future.

  Grokk bared his teeth. He was on the verge of completing his ritual. Lightning still crackled around Yumi, as if a new Abyss were about to open above her—or from within her—at any moment, while Grokk continued to chant his dark curses.

  My HP bar surged with every soul I consumed. My strength swelled until my muscles ached, like balloons filled not with air but iron. I picked up the throwing knife. Flipped it into the air. Caught it in my left hand. And walked.

  Step by step, solid and unshaken, I marched toward Grokk.

  The wound in my thigh sealed shut in seconds. My eyes glowed ice-blue like cold fire. I saw it in the reflection of the blade’s polished steel. I startled myself. And Grokk, too. In his feral eyes, fear flashed for the first time.

  He turned from Grandma. Backed away. The ritual stopped instantly. He had broken it off. Finally saw me as a worthy opponent. But he was wrong. I was far stronger. Then he hissed and lunged, slashing with his claws.

  I sidestepped. Drove the throwing knife into his side, straight into his kidney. Blood spattered across the wall.

  He howled, thrashing blindly.

  I ducked low, catching a glancing blow across my shoulder, but it didn’t matter. My HP surged back as the last of the apartment’s dead poured their strength into me like liquid fire. I drove my foot into his knee, and it shattered with a wet crunch; Grokk collapsed with a snarl of pain. I grabbed him by the arm, the throat, whatever I could get, and hauled him up just to slam my fist into his face. Again. And again. I didn’t stop. I couldn’t. His flesh gave way under my knuckles, bone cracking beneath the weight of my rage, until I’d struck him a dozen times, maybe more. Then, with a final roar, I kicked him across the room, sending his limp body crashing into the far wall.

  My sheer power was unstoppable.

  The impact shattered an old secretary desk.

  He was dead.

  [Level Up!]

  Congratulations! You’ve reached Level 5.

  I felt nothing but the overwhelming force coursing through my body. The level-up had fully healed me. I could feel the calm and clarity that came with being out of combat. Now, I could’ve assigned my stat points, but there were more important things to do. I saw Yumi, still trembling on the floor. But before I could reach her, something happened. Grokk’s essence shimmered faintly across his broken body, like the torn edge of an aurora, pulsing with something ancient and powerful. I stared at it... then remembered what the system message had said.

  Target’s essence may empower the Doom Path. Purge host. Soul consumption authorized.

  I didn’t hesitate.

  I reached out. Felt the cold burn of it against my palm.

  And pulled.

  The essence resisted for a split second like something alive that didn’t want to let go, but then it gave in, unraveling into threads of light that coiled around my hand and sank into my body.

  His essence.

  His... soul?

  It entered me like a demon would, sliding into the cracks of my being. What moments before had felt peaceful twisted instantly. My legs gave out. I collapsed, spasming on the floor. My fingernails scraped across the floorboards, and pain exploded behind my eyes as if they were about to burst from their sockets.

  "What the fuck!" I growled through clenched teeth. I could feel Grokk’s strength crawling inside me, worming its way into my bones. He was becoming a part of me. Like a virus embedding itself permanently into its host’s DNA.

  [Notification: Dark Soul Consumed]

  +5 Strength (permanent)

  I gasped; deep, shaky breaths. Then, just as suddenly, it was over. But I didn’t feel better. No... I felt worse. Angrier. As if I had just traded a small part of myself for something raw. Something feral.

  The Doom Path?

  Hadn’t the high priest in my vision mentioned it too?

  I shook my head.

  Whatever I was—whatever I was becoming—I wasn’t a paladin.

  I marched through the wreckage of the bedroom. Past shattered wardrobe doors. Past blood that wasn’t mine. Past mangled green corpses. Walked over to Grandma and sank to my knees beside her. My legs finally gave out beneath me. With trembling hands, I gently brushed a strand of hair from her face, then finally freed her,cutting through the pantyhose that had bound her wrists to the bed, using the throwing knife..

  "I'm here," I whispered. "I did it. You’re safe now."

  She didn’t respond.

  Her skin was pale. Cold to the touch. Her nightgown was soaked with blood where Grokk’s dagger had pierced her abdomen. It was a small wound....but the sheer shock alone could be enough to kill an eighty-five-year-old woman. Yumi needed a hospital. Fast.

  She was anything but safe.

  Then I heard it, the sound of footsteps in the hallway.

  From the apartment door came a voice: "Police! Don’t move!"

  A beat of silence followed.

  The firmness in the officer’s voice melted into jelly.

  "Oh my God..." he whimpered.

  But he was wrong.

  God had left this place a long time ago.

  And as I lifted my eyes, I saw it: A faint shimmer hanging in the air above Grokk’s corpse. Not his soul. An item. I leaned down and placed a kiss on Yumi’s forehead, whispering that I’d stay by her side. But just for a moment... I turned away.

  The pull was too strong. I stepped over to the goblin leader’s body and crouched beside it, following the source of the glimmer. His worn leather pouch still clung to his belt. Inside, something was folded. Thin. Fragile.

  A quest item?

  It looked like a star chart at first, its lines arcing across impossible constellations. But then I saw it, marked faintly in the center, glowing like an infection in the ink: Grokk’s Rift Signature. XR-9917-B. It wasn’t a star map. It was a chart of Abysses... of their locations, their origins. And more than that, it was a blueprint. A ritual schematic. One that mapped out exactly how Grokk had torn a hole between his world and mine. The moment I realized what I was holding, a system message lit up before my eyes:

  [Notification: Dimensional Key Location Unlocked]

  Target Signature: XR-9917-B

  I squinted and tried to think, while the officer behind me called for an ambulance over the radio. I had no idea what Grokk’s homeworld had to do with one of the dimensional keys (or why one would be hidden there) but suddenly, my true mission came back into focus.

  I didn’t know how.

  But I knew what I had to do.

  DKD is finally back! Though with a slightly changed release schedule: new chapters will now drop every Thursday at 6 p.m. Eastern Time (GMT-4).