Chapter 320: God of Carnage
Kael stared at the small red-furred creature that had just crawled out of Yenna’s hair like it owned the place.
For a second, the ruined street, the blue lantern, the dark city of Vanitas, and the distant red dots on his map all became slightly less important than the fact that Yenna had apparently been carrying a tiny talking animal in her hair.
"This guy..." Kael said, squinting. "I’ve seen you last time. The talking raccoon."
The creature’s whole body puffed up.
"It’s honey badger! Not raccoon!" it squealed.
Kael tilted his head slightly. "Yeah, both look kinda similar."
The honey badger looked as if it had been stabbed through the soul.
Yenna’s eyes closed for a moment, not in patience, but in the practiced fatigue of someone who had heard this argument too many times.
"But what is this?" Kael asked, looking at her.
"My contractor," Yenna said.
Kael frowned. "Like, a god?"
"Former," the honey badger said, its voice losing a bit of its squeak and gaining something older beneath it. "Not much power left, as you can see."
Kael looked it up and down.
Small body. Red fur. Beady eyes. Tiny claws. Dramatic outrage.
"Everyone got their own issues, I guess."
The honey badger’s nose twitched. "You are very rude for someone who has no idea what he is looking at."
"I have a lot going on."
"So do we."
Yenna remained seated near the lantern, but her posture had changed. The tension was still there, yet it was no longer aimed entirely at Kael. It had shifted toward urgency, toward the hidden thing she had carried for who knew how long, toward the disk he had not yet seen but which clearly weighed more than its size had any right to.
The honey badger stepped onto her shoulder, then climbed down along her arm with the confidence of a creature too proud to admit it was short.
"Tell me," it said, staring at Kael’s gauntlets. "The Tongue of Gods. Can you use that language?"
Kael glanced down at his hands.
The runes embedded into his gear sat quietly. Their carved shapes were not decorations to him anymore. They were tools, weapons, levers against a world that had decided he should die several floors ago.
"I’ve seen your gauntlets," the honey badger continued. "The first time, I thought you were simply wasting away your power. Another fool using runes because the Tower threw scraps at him and he mistook them for treasure. But now that I take another look..." Its eyes narrowed. "You’re able to actually make use of them without breaking yourself down."
Kael asked. "Yeah. Why are you asking though?"
"We need something fixed," the honey badger said. "And it can only be fixed by using the Tongue of Gods."
Kael leaned back slightly.
That did not sound like a small request.
"I can’t say I’m a professional," he said. "I’m just able to use the runes. Not create them or modify them."
"Using them is already more than most can manage." The honey badger turned toward Yenna. "For now, using them is enough. Yenna, can you..."
Yenna reached into her inventory.
When her hand returned, she held a small disk about the size of a fist. She placed it in Kael’s palm without ceremony.
It was heavier than he expected.
Bronze, or something that looked like bronze, though the metal felt too warm against his skin despite the cold of Vanitas. Hundreds of tiny runic writings crawled across its surface in rings, spirals, intersecting lines, and layered patterns so dense that they made his eyes strain after less than a second. Some symbols looked familiar in the way distant relatives might. Others were completely alien, shaped with logic his mind tried to follow and immediately regretted.
Kael’s instinct was to Inspect it.
The moment he tried, the Tower answered.
[Warning! Your understanding of Runic Language is too low. Trying to peer into the Runic Knowledge of the Gods will cause irreversible brain damage.]
Kael immediately handed the disk back.
"Nope."
The honey badger took two tiny steps forward. "What do you mean, nope?"
"I mean nope."
"That is not an explanation."
"It is a complete explanation."
Yenna stared at him. "Kael."
Kael turned toward it. "You said you’re her contractor."
"Yes."
"That means you’re basically a god."
"Former, but yes."
"So," Kael said, "what would happen to a human mind if it tried to use the language of the gods, or understand it? And I’m not talking about one or two runes. I’m talking about trying to figure out hundreds of thousands of them at once."
The honey badger lifted one paw as if about to argue.
Then one claw slowly curled down.
"Ah," it said. "Their brain would melt."
Kael spread his hands. "Exactly."
Yenna looked down at the disk, then back at him. Her expression had not softened, but it had become less accusatory. The annoyance remained, only now it had nowhere clean to land.
"So until that’s not the case," Kael said, "I’m pretty sure I can’t help right now."
The honey badger clicked its tongue.
Kael nodded toward the disk. "Still, what is this though?"
"Realm Gateway," the honey badger said.
The words settled strangely in the lantern light.
Kael’s eyes moved to the disk again. Suddenly, its weight made more sense. Not as metal. As possibility.
"It can take me back to my place," the honey badger continued. "Well, after setting up the coordinates. But I can’t use it. I lost the knowledge of the Tongue of Gods when I fell."
Kael looked at the creature more carefully. "And how did that happen?"
The honey badger’s little face turned sour. "Difference in opinion with other peers. Basically, I was stripped from my position."
"That sounds like a polite way to say you pissed off other gods."
"I had principles."
"Were those principles annoying?"
"Very."
"Then yeah."
Yenna gave Kael a look, but the honey badger only huffed.
Kael glanced toward the disk again. "Wouldn’t they just take you down if you go back?"
"Not this time," the honey badger said. "I made a mistake by leaving my domain. If I return to it, I can recover my divinity."
There was something in the way it said that. Not hope exactly. Hope sounded too soft for the creature. It was more like hunger held under old pride. A fallen thing staring at the way back up and refusing to admit how much the climb mattered.
Kael understood that more than he wanted to.
Still, understanding did not make his brain any more resistant to divine runic overload.
"Well," Kael said, standing. "Unfortunately, I cannot help. At least for now."
Yenna’s eyes sharpened. "Are you going?"
"Can’t stay here on this floor," Kael said. "It’s pretty eerie."
Beyond the lantern’s blue circle, Vanitas seemed to hear him. The darkness pressed close, thick and oily, swallowing the angles of ruined buildings and broken streets. Somewhere far off, metal dragged against stone. Somewhere closer, something breathed with too much wetness in its throat.
"Yes," Yenna said after a moment. She stood as well, the disk disappearing back into her inventory. "It’s a hard floor. Let me help you then."
"Sure," Kael said. "I won’t say no."
He flexed his gauntleted fingers, feeling the runes settle as if waking with him. His body, rested too long by Earth’s comfort, answered eagerly to the promise of danger. That was useful. Dangerous, but useful.
Then his eyes moved left again.
The mini-map sat in the edge of his vision.
Green dots.
Not red.
Several of them.
Moving toward their location in a loose but confident pattern.
Kael’s expression did not change, but his shoulders settled differently.
"But," he said.
Yenna noticed immediately. "But?"
Kael looked at her.
"You said you were hunted down, right?"
Her eyes narrowed. "I never said that."
"Ah," Kael said. "Well, I could guess as much from the first time we met. And this time. You’re pretty careful."
He brought both gauntlets together.
Steel struck steel with a deep, heavy clang that rolled through the lantern zone and vanished into the black beyond. Fire stirred faintly beneath one socket. Frost answered under another. Darkness remained quiet, like a blade still in its sheath.
Yenna’s hand went to her weapon. "Why? What’s going on?"
Kael could not tell her about the mini-map too clearly. Not here. Not when every advantage mattered, and not when he was still learning how much trust could carry between them.
So he looked toward the broken street ahead, where the darkness shifted between the ruins.
"We have company," he said. "And they look pretty confident with how they’re all moving toward us."
Yenna’s expression turned cold.
The honey badger slipped back toward her hair, only its eyes remaining visible through red strands.
"Climbers?" Yenna asked.
"Yeah," he said. "Most likely."
Yenna’s grip tightened around her weapon. "Then don’t assume the lantern makes us safe."
"I wasn’t planning to."
"Good."
The blue flame crackled between them.
Outside its glow, footsteps began to sound.
Slow.
Measured.
Coming from more than one direction.
Kael rolled his neck once and felt the weight of his rings pull on his body like old friends. Comfort was gone. The penthouse, the clean sheets, the city lights, his mother’s tears, all of it stood behind him now, far beyond reach. In front of him, Vanitas offered darkness, hunters, and a woman with unfinished business tied to the same golden-haired bastard who had thrown him into this nightmare.
Kael smiled faintly.
Not because it was funny.
Because at least this part made sense.
"Back to work," he muttered.
Yenna glanced at him. "You say that too comfortably."
"I’ve had bad jobs."
The first silhouette stepped into the edge of the blue light.
Then another.
Then another.
The lantern hissed as the dark bent around them, and the safe zone stopped feeling safe.