Monster Evolution System: I became a Rat-Chapter 106: The Thing

Rosacer’s sharp voice rang out into the hallway as the creature, or whatever it was, began banging against the door.

It was trying to break it down, and the wood already seemed fragile, as though it would soon give way.

Rosacer summoned Gewehr and was already pointing it toward the door.

Thud. Thud.

Something stood behind it, seething in rage and wrath.

It was not going to stop until it tasted blood again.

With another deafening bang, the door burst open.

The thing finally emerged, shimmering under the moonlight that fell upon it from the nearby window.

Rosacer did not know how moonlight could pierce a sky filled with smog, but he had no time to dwell on it. For at last, the thing he had feared happened.

The creature shot out from the darkness, its body mangled and fused with the corpses it had previously devoured. And behind it came another, just like it.

Eyes corkscrewed into its skull, the head bulging like heated metal beneath a merciless sun. Fear cowered before its eyes, and death almost seemed a merciful choice.

But for Rosacer, something else occurred.

When fear should have strangled his wits and devoured his courage at its very core, something different ignited in its place.

A title. One he had borrowed from a fellow friend, a kind and benevolent knight.

"Demon Hunter." 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

The system came alive on its own to announce the event to Rosacer.

[Title "Demon Hunter" activated. Demonic Aura is enveloping the user.]

Rosacer let out a heavy sigh. His eyes closed for a single second, then opened with a vigor and power he had never imagined himself capable of wielding.

His suit morphed into hardened, blackened armor. His ribs tightened, becoming stronger than titanium.

"All shall kneel before thy blade."

A blade, formed from the very air itself, conjured into Rosacer’s hand. A vibration began to form in the air, almost musical to the ears.

The creatures before him seemed to sense it as well. For a brief moment, they took a step back. But soon they halted their retreat and charged toward Rosacer once more.

It was too late.

The suit had fully transformed into armor, covering Rosacer from head to toe. Blood-colored black energy vibrated around him, and the conjured sword spun in a circular motion, like a drilling spear of judgment.

The system spoke again.

[Codex RE-Gon-Lasimerial: The Knight of Penetration, Caller of Final Breath. Rosacer Lasimerial of the Demon Hunting Clan of Fer Gurrman from DakGa is calling the user back from the place of death.]

Another window appeared, cutting through the previous one.

{Co@%#*%$^.....}

[User is protected.]

Rosacer did not have time to make sense of the system’s words. The creatures were already upon him, their bloodied fangs forced open. Circular and layered, they resembled grotesque, bloodsucking leeches.

One met the drilling blade head on.

The sword tore through its mouth and burst out from the back of its skull in a single, merciless motion. The creature collapsed instantly, its body splitting apart as the vibrating edge shredded flesh and bone alike.

But the second one was more cunning.

While Rosacer was occupied with the first, it lunged from behind in a swift ambush and clamped its jaws down on the back of his neck.

A metallic screech rang through the hallway.

Its fangs failed to tear through the armor protecting him. They scraped and ground against the hardened black plating, sparks flickering in the dim light.

Still, the creature managed to pierce a few centimeters between the segmented joints. Rosacer felt a sharp pinch at the back of his neck, a thin line of pain cutting through his heightened focus.

He reached back immediately, attempting to seize the creature and hurl it off.

But it did not release him.

Its fangs were not meant for cutting, they were much designed to latch.

The circular mouth tightened, rows of hooked teeth embedding themselves into the gaps of his armor. The creature’s body writhed, clinging to him like a parasite determined to burrow deeper.

Rosacer’s hand found its slick, malformed flesh. It pulsed beneath his grip, warm and revolting, as if alive in ways that defilement a man.

The thing tightened its hold.

For a second, Rosacer felt his armor would give in, but it did not. It still held against the grinding force of the bloodsucking fangs.

Soon, however, another problem arose.

The system ignited again, this time glowing red.

[Warning: The user’s body has been infected by a parasite. Please eliminate it before it takes control of the host body.]

Rosacer’s eyes widened as he read the crimson warning window.

As if sensing its impending victory, the creature loosened its grip and quickly slithered away like a grotesque, oversized rat.

Rosacer did not attempt to chase it or pierce it with his drilling blade. There was something far more urgent demanding his attention.

His vision was fading.

Darkness crept in from the edges of his sight, and within that dimming world, he began to see his own reflection standing before him. His mind was beginning to hallucinate.

The system prompted another window.

[User is being replaced... New User: Eadem Species...]

[Transformation is beginning...]

Suddenly, Rosacer’s armor shattered into fragments. The mask and plated shell fell to the ground in broken pieces.

He stood exposed as his body began to morph.

His hair grew longer. His frame thinned and became more slender. His waist narrowed, while his chest swelled and reshaped.

Yet there was no emotion on his face. He appeared suspended in a trance, detached from the agony or the change.

Inside his mind, Rosacer saw himself again.

Only this time, it was a female version of him.

She walked toward him in silence. There was no hostility in her gaze, no mercy either.

When she reached him, she did not stop.

She passed through him.

And in that very second, his mind ruptured.

His mind turned to haze as he caught glimpses of memories he had never made. Before his eyes stood a door, tall and strong. Though it looked brittle, he never tried to break through it.

Until someone made a sound inside. A kind of invitation that was not meant for him, yet he took it anyway, breaking the door as he barged in and sank his fangs into the person within. It did not matter who it was or who it was meant to be. He never showed them mercy.

It continued until morning came, and he returned to a dingy, dark underground sewer, where he and other large rats like him slept through the day.

This routine continued for days and days, until one fateful night when something changed in the dream.

In this memory, there was someone else.

Her hair was brown and her eyes were brown. She looked like a normal farm girl. She was young and crying inside a misty city where yellow fungus hung suspended in the air.

Confused and saddened by the sight of her, Rosacer approached.

His footsteps made no sound, muffled beneath the thick mist.

"Who are you?" he asked as he drew closer. He tried to force a smile, as polite as he could manage.

The girl finally looked up. Her face began to age rapidly, growing older and older, but it stopped when it reached her thirties.

"Dawn took everything from me. I will take it back," she said, before returning to her sobbing.

Rosacer did not understand what she meant. Yet, for some unknown reason, her face calmed him.

He whispered, "I was looking for you, Elizabeth."

The moment he spoke those words, his eyes widened. Something long forgotten began to return to him.

Tears welled up in his eyes.

Purple flames ignited before him, and from within them another figure emerged. The man radiated anger and a murderous aura. His magician-like hands moved tactically through the air, weaving unseen patterns.

At last, the man barked, "Come back! We have to settle our battle."

As he spoke, he conjured the purple flames once more and was swallowed by the haze of the mist.

The brown-haired girl also faded away into the thickening fog.

The mist was growing now.

From the mist, four figures emerged. Only two of their faces were somewhat visible; the others were veiled by the shifting fog.

The largest among them, a giant of a man with a wide smile on his face, called out, "Thank you!" Then he laughed and disappeared back into the mist.

A woman stepped forward next. Her eyes were narrowed, and her face was burned so badly that Rosacer could not see her true features. Without hesitation, she tore her own heart from her chest and held it out before him.

"Take it, my love."

Then she too faded into the fog.

The remaining two, their faces blurred and indistinct, did nothing. They simply stood for a moment before dissolving into the haze.

Suddenly, a snake-like man slithered out of the mist.

"Where is my damn share?!" he cried, lunging toward Rosacer in fury.

But he passed straight through him and unraveled into smoke, becoming one with the fog once more.