I Became A Side Character Fated To Suffer-Chapter 34:The Devil Seed

"Did you see that?"Reed asked, puffing his strength.

"That’s the Mystic Absolute Strength created by the very great me."

I clapped in response and spoke,"Yes you are very great to point that you gave everyone ability except me."

"ARGGG!Didn’t I tell you that it wasn’t me who designed you and also you are a character designated to suffer."

"Fuck you!"

"Aren’t you ashamed to say that with a straight face?"

"I am just telling the truth."

"Say that again and see what would be the consequences!"

Reed trembled and kept his mouth shut hearing the warning.

He could particularly hear the sounds of death ringing around.

....

Rico Jasper pressed two fingers against his temple, and his eyes narrowed as another pulse of pain stabbed through his skull.

Throb.

Throb.

Throb. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

"...That idiot..." he muttered under his breath, and his voice was low and venomous.

The reports were still scattered across his desk. Some were crumpled, and some were stained with ink and dirt. Burned camps, injured cadets, instructors filing complaints, and half the academy thrown into chaos. And at the center of it all, like a rabid dog let loose, stood one name.

Austin.

Rico exhaled slowly, but the vein on his forehead twitched.

"For someone so insignificant... he creates quite the noise."

A faint smile crept onto his lips, though it carried no warmth. It only showed irritation and something darker that lingered behind his eyes.

"It was supposed to be my class to teach but that son of bitch."

He stood up slowly, and his chair slid back with a low scraping sound.

The room seemed to dim as he moved, and the shadows stretched unnaturally along the walls. The air itself felt heavier, as if reacting to his presence. Without another glance at the mess above, Rico turned toward the far end of his chamber.

A hidden panel slid open with a low mechanical hum.

Cold air seeped out, and it brushed against his face like something alive.

Rico stepped inside without hesitation.

The staircase spiraled downward far longer than it should have, and each step echoed in a hollow, unsettling rhythm. The walls were damp, and faint black stains ran along the stone like something had seeped into it over time.

The air grew thick and suffocating, and it carried a faint metallic scent, like blood long dried but never forgotten.

Then he reached the bottom.

The underground chamber spread out before him like a grotesque cathedral, and the space felt wrong in a way that could not be explained.

At its center stood it.

The Devil’s Seed.

A pulsating mass of blackened flesh and crystal hung in mid-air, and heavy chains etched with glowing runes held it in place. Veins of crimson light crawled across its surface, and they beat slowly like a heart.

Alive.

Watching.

Waiting.

From it, dozens of thick tendrils stretched outward, and they pierced into the bodies of people lined along the chamber walls.

Men.

Women.

Some were barely conscious, and their bodies trembled weakly. Others were completely still, as if they had already given up. Their eyes were hollow and lifeless, and their mouths hung slightly open, as if they were silently screaming.

Their skin looked pale and stretched, and dark veins spread across their bodies from where the tendrils had entered. Some of them had dried blood around the wounds, while others still bled slowly. Their fingers twitched at times, and faint, broken sounds escaped their throats, like whispers that could not form words.

Each of them was connected, and it was hard to tell if they were feeding it or being fed.

It was a sick symbiosis.

Rico’s headache eased the moment he stepped closer, and his breathing steadied.

"...There you are," he whispered, and his tone carried a strange affection.

The seed pulsed, responding to him.

The crimson glow deepened, and it cast jagged shadows across his face. Those shadows twisted his expression into something inhuman and something monstrous.

His lips curled into a slow and deliberate smile, and it was filled with cold, calculated malice.

"As expected... you’re stabilizing," Rico murmured, and his eyes gleamed with dark satisfaction. "All those failures... all those sacrifices... not in vain after all."

He walked past the connected bodies without hesitation, and his boots echoed against the stone floor. One of the subjects let out a low groan, and their body jerked weakly as the tendril inside them pulsed.

Rico did not even look at them.

To him, they were not people.

They were components.

"You all who spent your entire life destroying people you should be honoured to be part of this..Kekekekekk!"

His voice echoed through the chamber, and it mixed with the faint sounds of suffering around him.

Then he stopped.

His gaze shifted slightly to the right.

"...Marveohs."

Unlike the others, Marveohs stood upright, though his body was still connected to the Devil’s Seed. Thick, vein-like tendrils were embedded into his back and arms, but he was not limp like the rest.

His head hung low, and his breathing was steady.

Alive.

Too alive.

Rico’s smile widened slightly, and his eyes sharpened.

"Interesting... very interesting."

He stepped closer, and his movements slowed as if he was approaching prey.

"You endured it."

There was no response, but Marveohs’ fingers twitched just slightly.

Rico noticed it instantly.

"Not only endured..." he continued softly, and his voice dropped into a whisper that seemed to spread across the walls, "you’re adapting."

The Devil’s Seed pulsed again, and this time it was stronger, as if it acknowledged his words.

Rico lifted a hand and placed it lightly against one of the tendrils.

It reacted instantly and coiled slightly, almost as if it recognized him.

"...Do you feel it, Marveohs?" Rico asked, and he tilted his head slightly. His tone sounded almost gentle, but the cruelty beneath it was clear. "The power. The evolution. The rebirth beyond human limitations."

A faint cracking sound echoed in the chamber.

Marveohs’ head shifted just a fraction, and that small movement was enough.

Enough to show he was not gone.

Rico’s eyes gleamed.

"Yes... yes, that’s it..."

His smile stretched wider, and it looked unnatural.

"In the end... all of you are merely stepping stones."