I Died and Received an SSS-Rank Unique Ability-Chapter 89: Corrupted Monster

The flames clung to Vale like a second skin—black as midnight and wreathed in wrath. They curled and hissed as though alive, born from the rawest pit of his grief and fury. The corrupted monster before him didn’t flinch; it merely tilted its head, as if amused or intrigued. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Vale stepped forward. The ground beneath his boots charred black with each step. Every motion flowed with deadly purpose, like a predator poised for the kill.

The creature raised its cleaver, the air shrieking in protest. Essence flared around it, a noxious green that warped the fog and poisoned the earth.

Their clash was thunder given form.

Vale lunged, his sword blazing with the black fire, meeting the beast’s cleaver in an eruption of light and force. The shockwave levelled most of the nearby ruins, hurling shards of stone like shrapnel. The monster roared and shoved forward, but Vale was faster.

He dropped low, slicing across its abdomen. Black ichor spilt like tar. The creature retaliated with a brutal backhand that cracked Vale’s armour. Pain lanced through him, but he didn’t waver.

Instead, he pressed forward with his assault, drawing on the volatile essence coursing through his veins. He struck high, then low, feinted, and spun into a wide arc that tore jagged lines across the beast’s chest. Every move burned with vengeance. The monster staggered, but refused to fall.

With a guttural snarl, the creature stabbed its cleaver into the earth.

The ground screamed.

A ring of corruption exploded outward—grass withering, stone liquefying, the very air shuddering. Tendrils of foul magic burst from the circle, writhing toward Vale like grasping hands.

He Voidstepped—vanishing in a flicker of black flame—and reappeared behind the creature’s blind side. His blade tore into its leg, ripping the flesh open. Black fire devoured the wound.

But before Vale could strike again, the monster twisted with unnatural speed and caught him mid-swing. It slammed him into a crumbling wall with bone-shattering force. Stone shattered upon impact as Vale hit the ground hard, coughing blood.

His vision swam, and the creature charged at him.

But Vale didn’t hesitate.

With a third activation of Voidstep, he reappeared directly in front of the beast. His blade met the descending cleaver in a resounding clash of power. The shock rippled through his arms, but he held firm.

A faint smirk tugged at his lips.

Above the monster, a black figure descended—Vale summoned the Knight right before the block.

The blade of the dark warrior cleaved down, tearing through the creature’s back. Vale darted away, and in the exact moment he raised his hand. A wave of black fire erupted from his palm, engulfing the beast in a storm of darkness.

The monster shrieked, stumbling back as its armour dissolved under the relentless fire. Vale followed without pause, a relentless force of rage and flame. His movements lost precision, becoming wild and primal. Strike after strike, he tore flesh from bone.

The corrupted monster wailed in agony, caught between the student’s fury and the dark knight’s silent wrath.

It swung its cleaver wildly, desperate to land a blow, but Vale was gone before any of the swings could connect. He moved too fast, far beyond what the injured monster could achieve, as he shifted between striking and avoiding with perfect timing.

The creature let out a deafening roar.

In response, the ground trembled, and from the cover of the thick fog, a horde of monsters emerged as if birthed from the darkness itself. Twisted forms, clawed and snarling, charged with unrelenting fury.

But Vale barely glanced at them.

Instead, he summoned his Relic.

From the sky above, the Four-Eyed Raven appeared—its shadow stretching long across the battlefield. Perched in the air, its many eyes flared open, flooding Vale’s mind with clarity. His vision expanded, his awareness stretching beyond the limits of flesh and bone.

He could now see every movement, every heartbeat, and every threat before it even happened.

And with that heightened perception, he called upon the Ice Dragon.

The beast descended with a roar that froze the wind itself. Vale activated Frostpiercer, and combined with the Dragon’s breath, a storm of freezing death swept across the field. The charging horde was caught mid-step, their bodies crystallising in an instant. Shards of frozen flesh and twisted limbs shattered in a chorus of carnage.

The battlefield became a graveyard of ice.

Vale turned his focus back to the corrupted monster. In the blink of an eye, he activated Voidstep once more—vanishing and reappearing behind the monster in an instant.

His blade cleaved through the air with ruthless precision.

With a low whistle, the creature’s leg was severed at the knee, falling to the ground with a heavy thud.

It stumbled forward, bellowing in agony, but Vale offered it no time to adjust or recover.

With another step, another flash of darkness tore through the air.

The second leg fell, and the monster collapsed to the ground like a toppled statue, clawing at the dirt in a vain attempt to rise.

Vale circled the beast slowly, his steps deliberate, each one crunching against the frost-laced ground. The black flames trailing his body cast dancing shadows across the battlefield, flickering like whispers of wrath.

He stopped in front of the fallen creature, staring down at it. His eyes met its own—two glowing voids burning with smouldering rage. The monster’s gaze trembled, flickering between seething hatred... and something dangerously close to fear.

Behind them, the last remnants of the summoned horde fell to pieces, their twisted bodies frozen mid-lunge as Frostpiercer’s unrelenting cold carved through them like divine judgment. Ice crept across the battlefield in jagged veins, claiming everything it touched.

The Knight no longer fought. He stood at a distance, his towering frame still and silent, his great blade resting at his side. Like a sentinel carved from darkness and steel, he watched Vale—as if bearing witness to a final judgment.

For a moment, the world held its breath.

Vale lingered, his eyes still locked with the monster’s.

Then, he raised his sword.

Black fire erupted around the blade, crackling with power.

With a single, fluid arc—silent and sure—the creature’s head was severed, landing with a dull thump upon the frozen earth.

Its body collapsed to the ground with a final, sickening thud.

A heavy silence settled over the battlefield.

Vale exhaled slowly, lifting his gaze to the sky above. The weight of battle pressed against his shoulders—but for a moment, there was calm.

Until a sudden sound of a voice shattered it.

"What are you doing?!"

The cry rang out—desperate and horrified.

Vale’s head snapped downward. A group of four soldiers stood at the edge of the field, their expressions a tangled mess of fear, confusion, and disbelief. Their arms trembled, their eyes burned with fear, grief and fury.

He blinked. Just as his eyes locked on theirs, something shifted.

The world in front of him twisted.

The ice beneath his boots no longer blanketed ruins or an empty field where his mission was. It covered something else entirely. Tents, lifeless bodies and scattered weapons that just started to vanish one by one as the last of the essence escaped the laid bodies.

It was the outpost.

The same outpost he had left earlier that day—or so he thought.

Now, beneath the frozen carnage, he saw soldiers. Dozens of them. Frozen mid-motion, their faces locked in expressions of panic. Lifeless and shattered.

A horrible chill crawled down Vale’s spine. His gaze darted across the surroundings, his mind racing to comprehend the impossible truth.

This wasn’t the battlefield of his mission. It was never the ruins. He had never left the outpost.

And then, his eyes fell upon the corpse at his feet.

It wasn’t the corrupted monster he thought he had slain.

It was the General.

The person who gave him the mission, the leader of the outpost.

His limbs were severed. His chest was torn open. His head was severed, and his lifeless body sprawled on the frozen ground like a discarded piece of trash.

Vale staggered, taking a step back.

The soldiers stared at him, frozen in shock. Then, one by one, they turned and ran.

Fleeing from the person behind the carnage.

Vale’s body tensed. His instincts screamed, he was just about to activate Voidstep but he stopped at the last moment.

"Was I about to kill them too?" The question struck him like a blow.

His eyes scanned the devastation again, slower this time. The broken tents. The dead. The blood laced through the ice like threads of red ink. He saw what he had done.

His expression darkened.

But what he felt wasn’t grief or sadness.

He had barely known these people.

What burned in his chest was not apathy.

Instead, it was rage.

To be played once was unfortunate. But to be played twice?

His fists clenched, veins pulsing with fury.

Rage engulfed his being as the desire to kill the monster behind this surged from within.

One thing remained certain in his mind—he was going to kill that creature.