Extra Borne: Transmigrated Into A System Apocalypse Soulsborne Novel

The tide of battle shifted in an instant. Where once Dakarnos loomed over us with overwhelming power, now he was faltering, our combined efforts slowly tearing him apart.

Celia darted forward, her icy blue blade slicing through his decayed horse legs with deadly precision. The frost trailed behind her strikes, freezing over the wounds with a jagged layer of shimmering ice. Dakarnos tried to stabilize himself, his weight shifting as he reared back, but Uvan was already there, his massive sword crashing down on the frozen legs. The impact shattered the brittle frost and fractured bone, black blood spilling out onto the stone floor like tar.

I stayed back, bowstring taut in my hands, my focus entirely on the vortex of blue energy swirling around the arrow I'd materialized. It pulsed with raw power, light flickering off its edges as I waited for the perfect moment. Jess, undeterred by Dakarnos' desperate thrashes, climbed higher along his massive form. Her greatsword, glowing with its fiery reddish-orange aura, carved through his decayed flesh as if it were paper.

Jess reached his head and swung her blade with all her might. The strike landed with a sickening crack, splitting open the decayed flesh and bone. Dakarnos let out a guttural roar, the sound reverberating through the massive hall. His crumbling legs finally gave out beneath him, his immense form collapsing like a tower of rotten stone.

Now.

I loosed the arrow.

It tore through the air, the vortex of energy spiraling around it growing louder as it sped toward Dakarnos' head. He had no time to react, no way to block. The arrow struck true, and the impact was cataclysmic. His head exploded in a violent burst of light and energy, the remnants of his decayed flesh scattering like ash. The massive corpse fell with a deafening crash, shaking the ground beneath us.

For a moment, everything was still. Then, the familiar shimmer of a screen appeared before me.

[Notification]

+

You Have Defeated DAKARNOS [Rank_C]

Killed By +1

Support +3

Vital Imprint Obtained x5

Vital Imprint Shared - 3

| Checkpoint Saved! |

+

I exhaled, my body tense and drenched in sweat. But as the screen faded, a strange sensation churned in my stomach, a twisting, writhing motion like a living thing moving inside me. My chest tightened. The black larvae worm...

The thought came unbidden. It all started to click into place. The monsters we killed, the vital imprints they dropped... it all fed the larvae inside us, pushing them closer to maturity.

I barely had time to process the revelation before another screen appeared.

[EVOLUTION]

+

FIRST EVOLUTION (30%)

+

The percentage had gone up. My first evolution was now at 30%. The larvae were feeding on the vital imprints, growing stronger. It was undeniable.

I turned to the others, my voice calm but deliberate. "The more monsters we kill, the more vital imprints we gain. Those imprints are food for the larvae. That's what pushes us closer to evolution."

Jess wiped the black blood from her blade, her brow furrowed. "So, you're saying that to evolve, we have to kill? And that the imprints are what we feed those worms we swallowed?"

I nodded. "Exactly."

Celia, who had been checking her own screen, chimed in. "Mine shows 25% before the first evolution."

Jess and Uvan quickly checked theirs.

"20% for both of us," Uvan confirmed.

"That means," Celia said, her voice thoughtful, "the Crimson Death Worm gave both of us a boost. You and I got an extra 5% each, Agon."

The weight of her words sank in. The worms weren't just parasites... they were a source of awakening. But at what cost? The more we fed them, the closer we got to evolving, but the closer we came to… something else. I shoved the thought aside for now.

As we were piecing together this grim truth, another screen appeared, its stark message slicing through our brief reprieve.

[SUB-MISSION]

+

Remaining Waves _ 4

Failure _ ???

+

[Wave 2 Has Begun.]

The ground's rumble turned into a deafening quake, and in an instant, the world we knew melted away. The vast hall where we fought Dakarnos dissolved, consumed by an oppressive, bone-chilling mist. The air was thick with an unearthly weight, clinging to my skin like damp, suffocating cloth. It felt as if the mist was alive, curling and coiling around us, whispering secrets too horrifying to understand.

The space was... wrong. My senses reeled. The walls, the ground, the very air... everything seemed to warp and shift in ways my mind couldn't comprehend.

"This isn't the hall anymore," I muttered, barely hearing my own voice over the thundering pulse in my ears.

"It's another place entirely," Uvan whispered, his breath visible in the biting cold.

We instinctively drew closer, forming a tight circle, back to back. The mist was so dense that even Celia, standing inches away, was barely more than a silhouette. Every sound, every faint movement in the distance set my nerves alight. Whatever was out there, we needed to be ready.

And then, slowly, the mist parted.

A narrow path revealed itself, stretching endlessly forward. The oppressive silence was broken only by the sound of our cautious footsteps as we advanced, weapons drawn. At the end of the path stood something massive... a towering gate, its frame etched with jagged runes that pulsed with a sickly crimson glow.

In front of the gate stood a figure.

It resembled a man, though no human could look so... wrong. Its body was draped in tattered rags, the fabric stained dark and wet, clinging to its skeletal frame. Pale, almost translucent skin clung tightly to bones, and its head bore a jagged, broken crown. The crown seemed fused into its skull, where black ichor and dark crimson liquid oozed from the wounds, trailing down like tears of blood.

Its eyes were shut, and yet its presence was suffocating.

We froze. No one spoke, no one moved.

Then, its eyes opened.

They were pits of endless darkness... two voids that devoured the very light around them. My breath hitched, my stomach churned, and for a moment, it felt like those eyes saw not just me, but every weakness, every fear, every dark thought I had ever known.

"Worthless creatures," it said, its voice deep and hollow, reverberating through the mist as if it came from everywhere and nowhere at once. It didn't just speak.... it tore into my very soul, leaving me trembling.

"Why have you come this far?" it continued. "You've come to die, I suppose."

As the words sank in, the familiar glow of a screen materialized in front of us.

[SYSTEM]

+

DEFEAT THE BOSS OF WAVE 2

THE CRIMSON KNIGHT

+

The figure stirred, the jagged lines of the gate behind it pulsating with the same malevolent glow. And then, it began.

The mist thickened, swirling chaotically around us, and the sky... if it could even be called a sky, ripped open above. What should have been endless blackness was instead dominated by a massive, blood-red moon. It warped and twisted the space around it, as if the fabric of reality couldn't bear its presence.

And then, I heard it.

A chant.

It didn't seem to come from the figure or from the mist. It came from everywhere, from the air itself, from within me.

"Look up, gaze at the endless red sky, and you shall know what it means to be worthless.

For I am the Knight of the Endless Void,

Guardian of the Endless Red Sky,

Beholder of the Abyss,

And Attendant of Darkness.

FOR I AM MADNESS."

DOMAIN WEAVER: CRIMSON MOON

The voice tore through my mind, shredding every thought like brittle paper. My vision blurred. The mist pulsed with each word, and the bloody moon above seemed to swell, its grotesque light pouring over us like molten despair.

Then it hit me.

My body was no longer my own.

I dropped my bow, clutching my arms as pus began to ooze from my skin, bubbling like something alive. Maggots, slick and writhing, began crawling out of the wounds, squirming across my flesh before burrowing back in. My breath hitched, my chest heaving as the horror unfolded.

And yet, there was no pain. Only the crushing weight in my mind... a suffocating, inescapable presence that clawed at the edges of my sanity.

I looked down at my hands. They were no longer mine. The skin was cracked, blackened, and peeling. My fingers trembled, distorted into shapes they shouldn't have been.

Then, as if someone had driven a dagger into my skull, the pain hit.

It was unlike anything I had ever felt... searing, unrelenting, a fire that burned not my body but my very essence. My vision went white, and for a moment, there was nothing but the unbearable agony.

And then...

##$##$

[RE#_V#N$..#]

Darkness.