Chapter 62: [62] : The Temple of Flesh, Disgusting Decor

Declan materialized right on the border between Sector 5 and Sector 4. The hot, ashy air of the volcanic wastes instantly vanished, replaced by the dark, toxic green fog of the Ashen Bog.

He checked the coordinates the cultist had given him. The old transit tunnels.

He kept his Absolute Zero Aura turned off. He did not need it here. The +20 Purification Talisman sitting in his inventory automatically pushed the green miasma away in a perfect ten meter bubble around him.

He jogged through the ruined, muddy streets of Sector 4. The Purge Wave was completely gone. The millions of Flesh Stalkers that had flooded the zone earlier had despawned or wandered off into the deeper parts of the city.

It took him about twenty minutes to find the entrance to the transit tunnels. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

It was a massive subway stairwell leading down into the dark. But it did not look like a normal subway entrance anymore.

The concrete stairs were completely covered in a thick, pulsing layer of dark red meat. Veins the size of garden hoses ran along the walls, pumping a glowing green fluid. The smell was absolutely revolting. It smelled like a slaughterhouse mixed with an open sewer.

"What the hell is this place?" Declan muttered, pinching his nose. His face twitched in contempt. "This is gross."

He did not try to sneak down the stairs. Stealth was for players who could not take a hit.

He had a massive, swirling red Blood Shield with over twenty thousand points of health wrapped around him. He could probably survive a nuke right now.

He stomped heavily down the fleshy stairs. His +10 Spiked Striders sank into the meat with a disgusting squishing sound.

"I am going to have to burn these boots ," Declan groaned.

A system prompt popped up in his vision.

[Area Discovered: The Temple of Flesh]

[Warning: Abyssal Corruption Detected. Extreme Hazard Zone.]

The tunnel opened up into a massive underground subway station. But there were no trains. The tracks were filled with a bubbling lake of stomach acid. The support pillars holding up the ceiling were made of giant, fused human thigh bones.

The walls literally breathed. They expanded and contracted with a slow, wet rhythm.

Standing on the central platform were dozens of monsters. They were heavily mutated cultists. Their wire robes were fused directly into their skin. Their arms ended in jagged, rusty blades, and their eyes glowed with a sick, corrupted purple light.

[Target Information]

↳ Name: Abyssal Thrall

↳ Level: 35

↳ HP: 15000 / 15000

Declan did not care about their stats. He just wanted to get through this disgusting room as fast as possible.

The Thralls turned their heads toward him. They shrieked and charged.

Declan did not pull out the heavy halberd. The ceiling down here was too low for massive overhead swings, and he did not want to accidentally collapse the subway station on his own head.

He willed the +20 Carnage Cleaver into his right hand. The jagged, blood red machete pulsed with a dark light.

"Void Blink."

The world went pitch black. He teleported fifteen meters forward, bypassing the first group of charging monsters entirely. He materialized right in the middle of the pack.

He did not pause. He just started spinning.

He became a blur of black leather and red steel. He slashed wildly at anything that moved. He did not aim for vital organs. He did not try to chop their heads off. He just dragged the serrated edge of the cleaver across their arms, chests, and legs.

Schwing! Schwing! Schwing!

[Trait Activated: Hemorrhage]

Every single monster he touched instantly erupted in a geyser of dark blood. The unblockable bleed effect started draining their massive health pools by fifty points a second.

The Thralls swung their rusty blade arms at him.

Clang! Thud!

The attacks hit his swirling Blood Shield and bounced off harmlessly. They could not even scratch his actual health bar.

Declan stepped back and raised his left hand. He snapped his fingers.

SNAP.

[Trait Activated: Blood Burst]

Six Abyssal Thralls violently exploded from the inside out at the exact same time. The massive shockwaves of internal kinetic force shattered their corrupted bodies into tiny chunks of flying meat and bone.

[Multiple Enemies Defeated! Origin Points +1200]

Declan did not stop to admire his work. He just kept moving.

"Void Blink."

He teleported across the gap over the bubbling stomach acid. He landed perfectly on the other side of the platform.

A massive, hulking monster dropped from the fleshy ceiling. It looked like a giant ball of muscle covered in dozens of screaming faces.

[Target Information]

↳ Name: Flesh Golem

↳ Level: 38

Declan did not even slow down. Dealing with this monster was just a waste of time!

He activated the Frictionless Movement trait on his boots. He dropped to his knees and slid across the slippery, blood soaked floor like an ice skater. He slid right under the giant monster’s legs, totally ignoring it.

He popped back up to his feet without losing a single ounce of momentum.

He ran straight down the dark tunnel. The system kept throwing up warning boxes about high level hazards and corrupted terrain.

Declan just swiped them away with a thought.

He ran for ten minutes, completely speedrunning the dungeon. Any time a group of monsters blocked the hallway, he just used Void Blink to teleport right past them. If the hallway was too tight, he threw a quick slash with the cleaver and popped them with a Blood Burst.

He was a teleporting grim reaper casually strolling through a nightmare!

Finally, he reached the end of the tunnel.

It opened up into a massive, cavernous chamber. This room was not an old subway station. It looked like the inside of a giant, rotting heart.

The walls were entirely made of dark, pulsing red muscle. Thick, glowing veins covered the floor. In the center of the room was a massive platform made of solid, polished bone.

And standing on that bone platform was Ezekiel.

The cult leader was wearing a heavy robe made of actual human skin and server cables. He was holding a glowing black crystal in his hands, chanting in a weird, glitching language that sounded like a corrupted audio file.

Declan stepped onto the bone platform. His boots clicked loudly against the hard surface.

"Hey," Declan called out. "You the guy stealing my iron?"