Monster Evolution System: I became a Rat-Chapter 103: House of Emptiness

The workshop trembled.

Sending reminders to them both that this place wasn’t built for battle.

Krodeshas stayed on one knee for only a second. Blood ran down her thigh, soaking into the grease-stained floor. She tore a strip from her sleeve and wrapped it tight without looking away from Rosacer.

"You are hesitating," she said, breathing steady. "If you believed I betrayed you, I would already be dead."

Rosacer did not answer.

The Gewehr remained steady in his hands, but he was not firing.

Outside, boots pounded past the alley mouth.

Loud voices and absolute orders were passing around. The Roses Republic was sweeping the district.

But inside, it was just the two of them.

"Then explain," Rosacer said finally.

Extended usage of Oblivion was now taking a toll on him; lactic acid filled his muscles, leaving them sore.

Krodeshas slowly rose.

"The Roses Republic does not need me to find you. They have informants at every gate. Your face was likely sold the moment you stepped inside the city."

Rosacer’s jaw tightened.

The shard in his pocket pulsed again.

She noticed the movement.

"You are carrying something," she said quietly. "Something reacting to the air here."

That made him pause.

The furnace behind her glowed brighter, but she did not reach for another lever. She stood still, hands visible.

"If I wanted you captured," she continued, "I would have locked the doors and let them take you. Instead, I shut down the furnaces to reduce your heat signature."

Silence.

The logic was sound.

Rosacer lowered the gun slightly.

"Then why were they so quick." he asked.

"Because you are not the only one being hunted," she cried out.

Suddenly, a knock thundered against the outer door.

"Open in the name of the Roses Republic!" A voice shouted.

Krodeshas glanced toward the entrance.

"They will breach in less than a minute."

Rosacer finally lowered the Gewehr fully.

"Then we fight together."

A faint smile touched her lips.

"Now you sound reasonable."

She limped toward the main control board and flipped three switches in quick succession. The furnace core dimmed. The trembling now stopped.

"Listen carefully," she said. "This building has reinforced walls, but the front door will not hold long. They will send two through the roof and three through the main entry."

"How do you know?"

"Because that is how I would do it."

Another slam shook the door. Metal groaned.

Rosacer moved toward the stairwell that led to the upper level.

"I will take the roof," he said.

Krodeshas grabbed a long-barreled rifle from beneath the central table and checked the chamber with calm efficiency.

"I will greet the front."

Not a long moment passed when the door hinges screamed.

Cracks split across the metal surface.

Rosacer vanished in pale green flame—

—and reappeared on the roof as boots landed behind him.

Two Roses Republic hunters had already climbed up, blades drawn.

They saw him. No words were exchanged.

The first charged.

Rosacer stepped aside and fired once. The shot struck the man’s shoulder, spinning him off balance. The second lunged low, blade aimed for Rosacer’s thigh.

Rosacer jumped back, but not fast enough. The blade sliced fabric and skin.

But the suit stitched it back within seconds, covering his wound once again, but inside he was still bleeding.

Pain flared that very second.

He kicked the attacker in the chest, sending him skidding across the soot-covered tiles.

Below, the front door exploded inward.

Gunfire echoed from inside the workshop.

Krodeshas did not waste ammunition. Each shot meets its target.

On the roof, the first hunter recovered and rushed again.

Rosacer dropped the Gewehr and met him head-on.

Steel clashed against steel as he drew the broken pipe he had picked up nearby. Sparks scattered into the smoke-filled sky.

The broken pipe shuddered in Rosacer’s grip as the hunter’s blade struck it. The impact numbed his fingers. He twisted, letting the edge slide off the rusted curve, then drove the pipe forward into the man’s ribs.

The man grunted, his eyes revealing the pain of the blow.

The second hunter came from the side. Rosacer ducked, too slow. Steel kissed his shoulder. Warmth spread beneath the suit before it stitched itself closed again.

He swung wide.

The pipe connected with a skull.

A dull, sickening sound. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

The next second, the man dropped.

Rosacer’s breath was now harder and heavier, his muscles paining from the movement.

Extended use of Oblivion weighed on his limbs. His vision pulsed faintly at the edges.

Below—

Gunfire stopped.

Rosacer’s heart clenched.

He knocked the last rooftop hunter back and didn’t finish him. Instead, he vanished in pale green flame—

—and crashed back into the workshop.

Bodies lay near the entrance.

Two in crimson coats.

And among them, one did not.

Krodeshas was on the floor beside the furnace control panel. One of the Roses Republic hunters stood over her, blade buried deep beneath her ribs.

Rosacer fired.

The shot tore through the man’s neck. He collapsed without a sound.

Rosacer staggered to her side and knelt.

Her silver eyes were still open.

Annoyed no longer.

"You... hesitate too much," she whispered, blood slipping from the corner of her mouth.

He pressed his hand against the wound, though he knew. The suit could only stitch around him. Not her.

"I was not with them," she breathed. "I would not sell... my own roof."

"I know," he said, but it came too late.

Her fingers gripped his sleeve weakly.

"Do not trust... easily," she murmured. "But do not doubt... everyone."

She barely completed her sentence as her hand fell.

The furnace behind them flickered once.

Then dimmed in the same moment.

Rosacer was stunned. He kept staring at her.

Then he closed his eyes; they stung from not blinking for a long time.

He stayed there silently, longer than he should have.

Back in the grease filled oil city.

Gringha stumbled into a side street, finally slowing his pace.

His boots splashed through thin streams of oil and rainwater. The noise of pursuit had faded behind him, swallowed by the hushing music of black rain.

He steps beneath a broken awning and lean against the wall.

He reached inside his coat and pulled out the broken compass. The lid clicked open softly. The needle spun once... twice... then settled, pointing east.

Gringha stared at it for a long moment.

"Still alive," he murmured under his breath.

He shut the compass.

Across the street, two patrolmen walked past, their conversation casual.

Gringha pushed off the wall and blended into the slow-moving crowd of workers changing shifts. His posture shifted, shoulders lowering, gait loosening. Just another tired man under oil-stained sky.

Behind him, smoke continued to rise.

He did not look back.

But his jaw tightened slightly as he walked.

Back in the Krodeshas House.

After finally accepting Krodeshas’ death, Rosacer stood straight and went directly toward her lower chamber. Perhaps there was something that could help him survive in Elias-Ashmole.

With steam pumping throughout the corridors, he made his way to the room that branched off from the main hall. He walked past the corpse of the Rose Republic hunter Krodeshas had shot and gave him a glance.

He didn’t know why, but they gave him the same sensation as the guards at the entrance of the Rose Temple in Mist City.

He frowned at the thought, but continued moving toward Krodeshas’ private chambers, the ones that held their own chimneys.

Quickly, he searched through them one by one. From chemicals to mechanical devices meant to enhance human mobility, it was all there. The problem was that Rosacer couldn’t understand any of it. The mechanisms were too complex for him to use.

So at last, he decided to take only the chemicals.

Among them was a poison named Infernal Eternity. It was written in a memo book that it could rejuvenate anyone’s vitality and strengthen a person for an hour.

It was almost perfect. Oblivion’s side effects could now be countered.

But there was one catch.

The consumer of the poison would hallucinate while the effects lasted. For one hour, he would be unable to hold himself steady. At the same time, his vitality would be heightened.

Rosacer leaned against the metal shelf, Infernal Eternity still in his hand.

His mind ran wild. He thought about moving to the lower district to avoid the pursuit of the Roses Republic. If he continued to stay in the upper district, he might be safe from the dangers of the real Elias-Ashmole, but the Roses Republic would continue to hunt him down.

For now, he could stay there for some time, he thought.

Though his intuition screamed at him not to even go near the lower district.

"For a couple of days. I can hide," he repeated to himself. Then he lowered his head and exited Krodeshas’ house.

For now, he wasn’t keen on meeting Gringha. It seemed that Gringha had already stolen the compass back from Krodeshas’ safe.

And this act made, Rosacer doubt whether Gringha was trustworthy or not.