Chapter 323: Blind
The darkness thickened after the second street.
Kael noticed it first through the torch.
The blue flame did not dim, not exactly, but the circle of safety around it tightened. The light that had stretched far enough to make the ruined street readable now pressed closer to his hand, as if Vanitas had leaned in and placed a palm against the edge of the glow. The broken walls on either side became taller. The shattered windows became darker. Even the cracks in the pavement looked deeper, filled with black that did not reflect flame.
"We’ve arrived at the Second Sector," Yenna said without slowing. "Be ready. The creatures here are on a different level."
Kael adjusted his grip on the torch and checked the mini-map.
Red dots.
Several.
They were not rushing yet, but they were close enough that pretending the street was empty would be stupid. He kept a few steps behind Yenna, not because he needed protection, but because she knew the route and Vanitas punished people who confused confidence with knowledge.
The first creature appeared at the intersection ahead.
For a heartbeat, Kael mistook it for a person.
Then it moved.
Its body was humanoid in shape, thin and elongated, with skin the color of old wax stretched too tightly over brittle bones. Metal bands wrapped around its head, bolted across its eyes in a thick brace that had no slit, no lens, no gap for sight. Its mouth hung slightly open, but no breath came from it. One arm ended in a rusted cleaver fused directly to the wrist. The other ended in a long, narrow blade, curved inward like a butcher’s hook.
More stepped out behind it.
Some had swords for hands. Others dragged cleavers that scraped sparks from the stone. One had a mallet fused where its forearm should have been, so heavy its shoulder sagged under the weight. Their heads twitched left and right beneath their metal eye braces, as if listening for vibrations rather than seeing prey.
Kael frowned.
"They can’t see."
"No," Yenna said. "But don’t let that make you comfortable."
"I’ve noticed blind things here tend to be annoying."
The thought settled strangely after he said it.
The Butcher had limited vision too.
Now these things.
Two humanoid types so far, and both shared that trait. Covered eyes. Limited sight. As if Vanitas preferred its man-shaped horrors unable to see properly, or perhaps as if sight had been taken from them for a reason. Kael did not know enough to form a real theory, but the connection hooked into the back of his mind.
The nearest creature snapped its head toward them.
Its mouth stretched open. No scream came out. It charged anyway and the others followed.
Their movement was ugly and sudden. Not fast like Yenna. Not clean like trained fighters. They came forward with jerking strides, weapon-limbs raised high, swinging before they were even close enough to hit. The cleaver-arm slammed down where Kael had been a moment earlier, cracking stone. A sword-hand swept horizontally with enough force to cut through a normal climber’s waist, but the motion was slow, wide, and painfully telegraphed.
Kael stepped back.
Then left.
Then forward.
The creature overcommitted so badly that its entire torso leaned past him. It was like a drunk man with a weapon too heavy for proper balance. Kael let the sword-arm pass above his shoulder, shifted his weight, and drove one fist into its ribs.
The body broke.
Not dented. Not bruised. Broke.
His gauntlet punched straight through the thing’s side, tearing out a chunk of brittle flesh and splintered bone-like material. The creature staggered, its mouth opening wider, still silent. Kael pulled his hand free and punched again, this time into its chest.
The hole went clean through.
It collapsed in pieces.
"That’s softer than it looks," Kael muttered.
"Brittle," Yenna said, already moving.
Her sword flowed through the street like red light.
A cleaver-handed creature swung at her head. She ducked under it, turned with the motion, and her curved blade cut from its hip to its opposite shoulder. Another came from behind her with twin knife arms. She stepped inside the attack, spun, and took its head from its shoulders before the body realized it should fall.
Kael moved to the side, avoiding a mallet that crashed into the pavement hard enough to send chips of stone against his boots. He let the creature drag the weight back up, then struck its elbow joint. The arm shattered. He followed with a short punch to the sternum, and the body caved inward like old pottery.
They were dangerous only if hit.
That made them deadly to climbers who panicked, but against someone who could read their shoulders, their hips, the angle of their weight, they were almost mercifully simple. They had force, but no refinement. Weapons, but no technique. Malice, maybe, but no discipline.
Still, there were many of them.
The street filled with scraping metal.
Yenna cut down three in the span of a breath, then pivoted away from a sword-limb that carved through a wall beside her. Kael ducked beneath a cleaver, felt the wind of it pass above his head, and answered with a punch to the creature’s knee. The leg cracked sideways. He grabbed the falling thing by its weapon-arm and hurled it into another, knocking both into Yenna’s path.
She sliced them apart without looking at him.
"Convenient," she said.
"You’re welcome." he smiled.
The honey badger poked its head out of her hair, eyes narrowed. "Stop flirting and kill faster."
Both Kael and Yenna said, "We’re not flirting."
The honey badger vanished back into her hair. "Denial is often loud."
Kael did not have time to respond because another creature lunged at him with both arms raised, one a rusted sword, the other a hooked spike. He stepped into the space between them and slammed his shoulder into its chest. It cracked. He followed with a short uppercut that lifted its jaw clean off.
The last few tried to surround them, but the street was too narrow and their bodies too clumsy. Yenna used that better than Kael did. She moved through the gaps, red hair flashing behind her, sword drawing arcs so precise the creatures seemed to fall apart a moment after the blade had already passed them.
The final creature stood at the far end of the street, head twitching beneath its metal blindfold.
For a moment, it did not move. Then it raised both sword-hands and charged.
Kael and Yenna moved at the same time, while Kael punched through its stomach, Yenna’s blade removed its head. Kael pulled his first free and shook the brittle dust from his gauntlet.
The street went still again.
[Blind Armature defeated.]
[You have obtained Lesser Corrupted Crystal.]
[Blind Armature defeated.]
[You have obtained Lesser Corrupted Crystal.]
[Blind Armature defeated.]
[You have obtained Lesser Corrupted Crystal.]
Several more notifications followed, stacking in the corner of his vision until he dismissed them.
Yenna gathered what had not been automatically assigned to her. Kael did the same, picking up the lesser crystals that had dropped from the creatures. They were small, jagged things, cloudy gray inside with faint black lines running through them. Not soul cores. Not Vanity Shards. Materials, probably. Maybe useful for crafting. Maybe useful for Andre if he could ever get them back to him.
He put them into his inventory.
"You fought these before?" Kael asked.
"A few times," Yenna said. "They’re common in Sector Two and above. Dumb, strong, brittle. Dangerous in groups if they push you out of light."
Kael looked at the metal brace covering one severed head’s eyes. "Why cover their eyes?"
"No idea."
"The Butcher was similar."
Yenna looked at him. "You fought a Butcher already?"
"Yeah."
"And lived?"
"No, I’m a hallucination."
She gave him a flat look.
Kael shrugged. "Barely. It had dogs too."
"You really are unlucky."
"I’m starting to feel insulted by how often people say that."
"doesn’t stop it from being true."
Before Kael could answer, the building to their right exploded outward.
Stone, dust, and rusted metal burst across the street.
Kael tightened his grip on his torch as he jumped back. Yenna moved at the same time, her own torch held low and protected as a wall collapsed into the road between them and the ruined storefront it had been attached to.
Something massive stepped through the dust.
It was a golem.
Ancient, rusted, and ugly in a way that made it look less built than dug out of a battlefield and forced to stand. Its feet were thick blocks of layered metal, each step heavy enough to crack stone. Its torso was broad, uneven, and covered in fused plates that did not match. Rust crawled across it in orange-black patches. Old blades jutted from its body, several swords stuck deep into its chest, shoulders, and back, as if people had tried to kill it and the weapons had simply become part of the metal.
Its arms ended not in hands, but chains.
At the end of each chain hung a morning star, spiked iron balls larger than Kael’s head.
The golem turned toward them.
Its chest gave a deep grinding sound.
Yenna’s expression changed immediately. "Let’s dip."