Today, there won't be a chapter, no blood spilled across stone, no monster lurking in a damp hallway ready to pounce mid-sentence on our protagonist!
Today, there's only me.
The author.
And you, reader.
If you're reading these lines, it means you're still here — still here — after all this time, after all these pages.
You've made it through the shattered thoughts of a protagonist on the edge, through the rotting memories of a crumbling world, through disturbing interludes where even the light seems to flee, through the sticky stench of the labyrinth.
You've crossed, without looking away, this world without compass, without D, without divine thread to set time straight. And for that, you deserve more than just a thank you. You deserve to be spoken to.
Because today is my birthday!! ♥️🎉
And for once, in this narrative chaos where everything teeters, I'm giving myself the forbidden luxury of a pause.
The right to sit down, for a few moments, beside my own characters and watch them sleep, scream, or disappear — and maybe even smile.
The right to look back, to contemplate the path taken, the madness built chapter by chapter, line by line, until this deformed world I've created.
A world where balance is fragile, where truth is uncertain, where monsters often wear human faces — and sometimes, it's the ones who seem the most human that devour everything.
But despite all that — despite everything — you're still here.
You continue. You read. You wonder. You get attached.
You refuse to look away, even when it stings, even when it scratches, even when it burns a bit too close to who you are.
You know nothing will ever be simple here because the story constantly shifts from the main narrative thread.
And yet, you stay — and so do I.
So, as a gift, I'm not offering you a new slaughter or a plot twist. I'm offering you silence.
Don't worry. The nightmare will resume soon.
But in the meantime, why not do a little recap of what's happened so far?
Here's the summary of the chapters up to now!
You want to understand what happened at the beginning? Okay, come on. Take a seat, fasten your mental seatbelt tight, because we're about to revisit the first six circles of hell.
It all starts in the dark. Literally. No light, no markers, not even a "Welcome to your new world (not too weird, promise)" sign. Just me. A 17-year-old girl, freshly reincarnated in a body that would freak out Dark Souls devs. At first, I'm like "Hoshino pulled another prank on me," then very quickly… no one answers anymore. Damp cave vibes, claws for hands, alien muscles, and a System that talks to me like an anxious GPS.
But hey, Evaluation LV1 is better than nothing. Even if it starts by telling me I've hit… a wall. Yeah. A wall. You can really feel the epic heroic destiny, huh?
Except I wasn't just dropped in a labyrinth. I was dumped. Like a script error that reactivated too early. And the body I have? It's not mine. It's something else. Half-human, then "Half-Oni". But the System, that genius bureaucrat, thinks I'm a native. It doesn't even know I'm reincarnated. That's when it clicks: I'm an anomaly. A bug. And there's no one left to fix it.
Next? A fight. My first. Against an acid-spitting frog that literally wants to dissolve me. I scream, I burn, I bite, I get my arms gnawed, but I kill it. Old school. And the System? It "rewards" me. Acid resistance skill and claw reinforcement. Yeah, I leveled up, but at the cost of my sanity. Hardcore survival mode, zero tutorial.
And while I'm looking for a damn light source — because yeah, I'm still in complete darkness — I unlock night vision. Woohoo. A useful bonus… which grants me the privilege of discovering that I look like the spawn of a demon, a lizard, and a failed cosplay. Slitted eye, obsidian skin, bonus horn. The mirror of truth is a puddle of stagnant water, and the reflection? A nightmare version of myself. But strangely, I own it.
Then, dragons. Real ones. Not fluffy fantasy plushies. Titanic creatures duking it out with lasers and claws in the abyss just below my feet. And me? Just a spectator… until one of them looks at me. Directly. And spares me. Yeah. Terrifying.
And as if that wasn't enough, I get hit with a mental trap. An illusion. A too-perfect field. A school version of me inviting me to "rest." Too kind to be true. And when the illusion cracks? I fight a psychic worm that had me plugged in brainwash mode. And again, I get out. I gain a mental resistance skill. My first real mental "no" to the world.
And then, evolution. Proto-Oni – Instinctive Deviation. Two horns, a regenerated arm, darker skin, muscles on fire. I've become something else. And I eat my enemy to celebrate, literally. Survival gore meets power fantasy style.
And then, the System drops the truth: I have no name, no origin, no backstory. Just an "initial profile". As far as it's concerned, I was born here. And there's no administrator anymore. The System is running on autopilot. I'm alone. Truly.
But you know what? I don't care.
Because I'm still standing.
Claws out. Hunger in my gut.
And a growing hatred for this damn world that thinks it can crush me.
In the meantime, I ran into the Baladorado. A giant snake, somewhere between an angry eel and a mobile nuclear power plant. It burst out of the darkness like a surprise DLC with zero PEGI warning.
The fight? A slaughter. I ran, I dodged, I got wrecked. I used my claws, my instincts. And it? It cast spells, whipped with its tail, drained my life with every hit. It wasn't a duel, it was a cosmic trial. And when I thought I had won — nope. I got skewered alive.
But I got back up. Because I'm the protagonist. And even half-dead, I spat out my last claws and won. Barely. My guts torn to shreds, my heart molten, but I was alive.
Alive, but literally in pieces. I staggered, collapsed, crawled. And then I watched, hidden like a rag, a fight. Humans this time. In armor, real ones. Intelligent beings. They were fighting an Elroe Guneseven, a sort of steroidal lava catfish. It was beautiful, epic… but I was too broken to join in.
Then a fight broke out between them and me, and I made my first kill — something that mentally paralyzed me, because I'm not a pure monster.
But this time… Co-Spirit. A bugged-out skill gifted by the System itself, that became my inner voice. It spoke. It taught me. It answered my questions. And what I learned? The world is a ruined battlefield. Sariella has turned into a fanatic theocracy. The demons are led by a boss on par with an ancient god. The elves declared war on the entire planet to make it their giant lab. And me? I'm hiding underground with a pathetic flame and no past.
But I didn't stay silent. I listened. I analyzed. And I made a choice. I wanted to be ready. I didn't want to die. So I launched a mental training — a simulation in my head thanks to Co-Spirit. A white room. A tutorial. A re-enactment of the fight against Baladorado. Again. But this time, I won clean. I burned its tail. I dodged. I struck. And I got it: I was improving.
Then back to reality. New perception. New awareness. I analyzed better. I sensed better. I manipulated mana with more precision. And as a gift? A horde of taratects waiting for me outside. No time to breathe. The world hates me, and the spiders want my skin.
In the meantime, I found a baby. Yeah. A baby. Alone, in the middle of a nest of killer spiders. And you know what? I saved it. ME. The psychopathic oni. I torched everything and leapt into the void with a baby in my arms. And then, a horde. Not monsters. A goddamn horde of humans armed to the teeth. Chase scene, fight, racist insults ("damn monster"), and the baby ripped away from me… The usual.
Now I'm prisoner of this group of nutcases. Gried, the jaded leader. Selina, the ninja who hates me. Orman, the sarcastic old mage. Arla, the badass archer. And Vayne, the quiet sniper. And Mike, a sort of tank. They treat me like a walking bomb with questionable fashion taste. I tried being nice, polite, even cute — I accidentally twerked in front of them — but it's no use. They hate me as much as I find them stupid. And the worst? They want to recycle the baby. Seriously. The elves want to RECYCLE BABIES. I don't know what Potimas did to this world, but it ain't pretty.
Then an arrow grazes my cheek. The elves attack. Two at first. Cold. Mechanical. Relentless. They want to recover "test unit 230864." Translation: the baby. And eliminate all witnesses. Gried and his crew fight like hell, and me? I'm asleep.
And then horror: more elves appear. Dozens. The real battle begins. Blood flows, screams echo, and me… well, I'm half-dead, sprawled in a corner, wondering if I shouldn't have left that damn baby where I found it.
I could've run away.
I could've left the baby, the humans, the trouble, and gone back to some damp corner of the labyrinth.
But no.
Because I have priorities. And clearly, in this world, priority = smashing monsters, eating corpses, and protecting test subject babies from a cybernetic elf army.
Yes, you read that right.
It starts off chill, with Gried's team still in shock from their battle against the elite elves. We try to flee, to understand, to plan ahead. Me? Half my neurons are fried, the other panicking because of the larva-mode baby strapped to my back. But there are no breaks in the labyrinth: a mama spider shows up. Feel the sweat between the lines? You should — I find out it's a Queen Taratect and a legendary creature… okay?
Meanwhile, we head toward the city, where Arla — too badass for this world — gets crushed like nothing. She wanted to save a trapped girl? Mistake. The spider turned her into steak tartare. And me, helpless witness, feel a knot form in my stomach. Not sadness. Just… that cold thing saying: "it's not over."
Surprise: Arla was Gried's sister. Yeah, the one who joked, who threw jabs. The one who shot arrows straight into hearts without blinking. We find out how Gried became the Hero, how his sister followed him, how the group was formed. It's sweet, it's harsh, it's nasty. Because you already know how it ends.
Now Gried is a walking corpse, soul wrecked, gaze empty. He walks, he breathes, but inside? Ashes. And me, still there. Next to the baby. Half-broken, half-awake. Until I finally take back control and… leave them the child. Yeah, I bail. I abandon them. Too many deaths, too much blood, too much absurdity. I need air. Except in this world, oxygen is poison.
But I don't know if it was a good idea, because I undergo a cosmic revelation when I find that damn giant arm in the rock. The one that reeks of a reality bug. I drink its blood — yeah, we're way past symbolism — and then…
BOOM. Vision. Sariel. Creation of the System. A frozen memory in the void, where Administrators talk like bored gods in front of a dying world. I learn the truth. The why, the how. The glitch in the matrix. And I get it:
> We're all stuck in a game whose rules were written by madmen.
And guess what? The madmen are dead.
At that moment, we discovered that the word "terror" doesn't conjugate in the past tense, but in full caps.
And me? I had only my rage, my claws, and half a mind left.
Then came the moment of weird visions and evolution choices. Three paths. Three futures. I took the worst, obviously: "Chimeric Oni – Unknown Branch." Result? I molted like a glitched Pokémon. Wings, raw nerves, a body hungrier than a teenager in front of a pizza.
And then, BAM. I resurface into the open air. Finally… "free." By crashing into a giant mud puddle and realizing the surface is worse than the Labyrinth.
I try to fly? I hit the ceiling. Try to walk? I slip like living soap. Try to eat? I pray I don't turn into toxic slime.
But I move forward. Toward the forest. A real one. With leaves, fruits, and… spiders. Lots of spiders. The "Small Lesser Taratect". And I get it fast: I've landed — or flown — into Queen territory.
And it's not over. Because, from the air, I witness absolute horror: an entire city covered in webs, infested with spiders, ruled by a massive form… a Queen Taratect. An arachnid capital. And judging by the ruins and the charred emblems, it was Ohts. Rest in peace. And to its inhabitants, digested in cocoons.
Here is a short summary of the events of the first 35 chapters (I didn't describe everything to avoid talking about filler), and I haven't covered the interludes yet!
I hope you enjoyed it ♥️ and that you'll read it all the way to the end 👑