Ren walked steadily through the abandoned city beneath the earth.
Towering ruins stretched endlessly in every direction.
Cracked streets.
Collapsed buildings.
Rusting remnants of a city long forgotten by the surface world.
All of it lay buried deep within the 24th Ward.
Ahead of him—
The colossal remains of the Underground King's Dragon dominated the landscape.
A skeletal mountain of bone and hardened kagune.
"…Strange."
Ren murmured quietly.
"I haven't encountered any natives."
When the Dragon catastrophe destroyed Old Tokyo centuries ago, not everyone escaped to the rebuilt surface city.
Some humans were dragged down into the depths alongside the dragon itself.
Those survivors became the natives of the Underground World.
For generations they lived within the ruins, cut off from the surface.
They worshipped the dragon as a god.
Calling it:
"Nagaragie."
The dragon's remains did not decay normally.
Even after centuries—
They still released a strange toxic gas.
This gas altered the human body.
Gradually transforming people into beings similar to ghouls.
But the natives themselves never understood this transformation.
They still believed they were human.
Even when starvation forced them into cannibalism to survive.
From the dragon's remains—
Another terrifying phenomenon occasionally appeared.
Creatures known as Dragon's Offspring.
These beings fed on both humans and ghouls.
Over time they evolved to resemble humans more closely.
Some scholars even speculated that the origin of ghouls might be connected to them.
Yet strangely—
Ren had encountered nothing.
No natives.
No Dragon's Offspring.
The journey had been almost peaceful.
[…You mean those ghouls…?]
Carnage suddenly spoke.
[…Quite a few…are watching you…]
Ren stopped.
Slowly turning around.
Among the broken buildings—
Shadows shifted.
Pale faces peered through cracks in the ruins.
Thin bodies crouched against shattered walls.
Their glowing eyes fixed hungrily upon him.
They had been watching from the darkness the entire time.
[…Should I deal with them…?]
Carnage's voice became low and predatory.
[…Just a bunch of trash…]
"Leave them."
Ren replied calmly.
"As long as they stay out of our way."
He had no interest in them.
Turning away—
He continued walking toward the enormous skeletal remains that had slumbered beneath Tokyo for centuries.
Carnage's excitement surged.
[…Then let's begin…]
[…I've waited long enough…]
Ren arrived before the colossal corpse.
The dragon skeleton stretched across the ruins like a fallen mountain.
Its bones were wrapped in hardened kagune fragments.
Even after centuries—
It radiated a faint oppressive aura.
He reached out.
Placing his hand against the remains.
Cold.
Rough.
Yet beneath the surface—
There was still a faint pulse.
As if the monster was not entirely dead.
The next moment—
Crimson slime erupted from his arm.
The symbiote emerged.
Tentatively touching the dragon's remains.
Then—
It began devouring.
The crimson mass spread wildly.
Crawling across the enormous skeleton like a living tide.
It swallowed everything in its path.
Kagune fragments dissolved.
Bone structures cracked apart.
Dark crimson slime filled every cavity.
The dragon's spine.
Its ribs.
Its skull.
Everything was consumed.
From the shadows—
The underground natives watched silently.
Their eyes wide with fear.
The gigantic corpse gradually shrank.
Piece by piece—
The dragon disappeared.
Minutes passed.
Or perhaps hours.
Finally—
The last fragment vanished.
The crimson mass stopped spreading.
Then slowly flowed back toward Ren.
Returning beneath his skin.
A muffled groan escaped his throat.
Power exploded inside his body.
Endless strength surged through his veins.
As if his entire body were being torn apart—
Then rebuilt.
Crimson symbiotic matter burst out again.
But now—
It was different.
Dark red muscular armor covered his body.
Bone spikes erupted from his shoulders and elbows.
White spiral patterns appeared across Carnage's forehead.
His chest muscles turned pale white.
Dark veins pulsed beneath the armor.
Then—
Two enormous bat-like wings unfolded behind him.
Each beat of the wings stirred violent winds through the cavern.
Yet even this transformation was incomplete.
Ren could feel it.
The power of the Dragon was too vast.
Carnage still needed time to fully digest it.
Even so—
Carnage's laughter exploded inside his mind.
[…Magnificent…!]
[…Power…so much power…!]
[…I can feel it…!]
[…I could tear the entire world apart…!]
Carnage's voice grew manic.
[…Even that black-clad emperor atop the tower…]
[…I might defeat him now…!]
"Stop dreaming."
Ren interrupted calmly.
"That's someone who could crush a planet."
[…Tch…]
Carnage muttered.
[…Can't you let me celebrate for a moment…?]
But it didn't argue further.
Compared to the symbiote dragon Grendel Carnage once bonded with in another world—
This dragon corpse was weaker.
Yet within the ghoul world, its power stood near the absolute pinnacle.
After absorbing it—
Carnage had reached an entirely new level.
The so-called strongest investigators.
The legendary One-Eyed King.
None of them seemed nearly as threatening anymore.
Ren even suspected—
Carnage could now endure the lightning of Narukami without difficulty.
When the violent power inside him finally stabilized—
He turned back toward the shadows.
The underground natives were still there.
Their faces filled with terror.
Some knelt on the ground.
Praying.
Muttering desperate words in their ancient dialect.
Others simply stood frozen.
Too afraid to move.
Ren glanced at them once.
Said nothing.
Then turned away.
His crimson wings expanded once more.
With a single powerful beat—
His body soared upward.
Vanishing into the darkness of the underground sky.
Leaving behind only the empty ruins—
And the stunned survivors who had just witnessed the devouring of a god.