The Weapon Genius: Anything I Hold Can Kill-Chapter 46: The Rot That Crawls

The ash didn't settle.

It crawled.

Slowly. Methodically.

Like it was alive.

Jin tightened his grip on the staff, watching as the scattered remains of the Face of Self-Destruction began to slither across the cracked ground — the blackened debris squirming like maggots.

It piled together, twisting and compressing, sinew and rotted tissue weaving itself into a shifting mass.

Bones splintered and reformed.

Flesh bubbled and curdled, constantly collapsing and rebuilding.

The smell hit them like a sledgehammer.

Thick. Vile. Suffocating.

Joon gagged, stumbling back.

"Oh my god," he choked. "What the hell is that?"

Seul doubled over, coughing, her hand over her mouth.

"It's like… like a rotting corpse," she rasped. "But worse."

Jin wiped his mouth, his stomach churning.

It smelled like decay — but amplified.

Like every dead thing in the world had been compressed into a single, toxic stench.

And it was getting stronger.

The creature lurched upward, dragging itself into a hunched, shambling form.

Its body was never solid.

It was a constantly disintegrating husk — crumbling apart with every movement, only to rebuild itself an instant later.

And wherever it stepped, the ground decayed.

The concrete beneath its feet turned to black sludge, cracking and collapsing into dust.

The decay spread like an infection, tendrils of rot slithering outward in every direction.

Jin's heart slammed against his ribs.

"Back up."

They staggered away, trying to put distance between themselves and the spreading corruption — but the rot moved faster than they could.

Joon's foot brushed against the corrupted ground, and his boot peeled apart like it was made of wet paper.

His eyes widened in horror.

"DON'T TOUCH IT."

Seul yanked him back, her voice sharp.

"It's like acid," she rasped.

The creature's head twitched toward them.

There was no face — just a twisted skull barely visible beneath the shifting sludge of its body.

But they could feel it watching them.

The air around it warped, the stench intensifying as the rot spread.

Their lungs burned just from breathing it in.

And then it spoke.

A voice like splintering bone, echoing from everywhere and nowhere.

"EVERYTHING DIES."

Seul stumbled, wiping blood from her nose.

"It's in the air," she rasped.

Jin's fingers tightened around the staff, his knuckles white.

"We can't let it catch us," he muttered, stepping back. "If it touches us, we're dead."

Joon wiped the sweat from his face, his chest heaving.

"Great." His voice was strained. "And how the hell are we supposed to kill something we can't touch?"

The creature lurched forward, and the rot exploded outward — thorny tendrils of black sludge whipping through the air, trying to snag them like living vines.

Jin dodged, barely avoiding the tendrils, but even the air around them seemed to burn.

Seul barely avoided one of the vines, her arm brushing the edge — and her skin blistered instantly, like it was being peeled away.

She bit back a scream, clutching her arm.

"It doesn't even have to hit us directly," she gasped. "Just getting close is enough."

Jin's heart hammered, his mind racing.

This wasn't a creature they could just hit until it died.

It was rot itself.

A walking plague.

If they couldn't figure something out — they'd be dead within minutes.

He adjusted his grip on the staff, forcing himself to breathe through the burning in his lungs.

"If we can't touch it," he muttered, spinning the staff, "we'll just have to outlast it."

Seul winced, her eyes narrowing.

"What if it doesn't run out of energy?"

Jin's jaw tightened.

"Then we make sure it dies before we do."

The creature lurched forward, and the rot exploded outward — thorny tendrils of black sludge whipping through the air, trying to snag them like living vines.

Jin barely dodged, spinning the staff to knock away a tendril, but the tip of the rod blackened on contact, metal flaking apart like dried bark.

Seul vaulted over a crumbling bench, her feet barely grazing the ground as she twisted midair to avoid a vine that lashed out like a whip.

Joon fired a pulse blast, electricity ripping through the rot — but the creature just absorbed the energy, its body crackling as the burned sections grew back instantly.

Joon's eyes widened.

"It's eating my electricity?" he gasped, stumbling back. "The hell are we supposed to do with that?"

The creature twitched, its head jerking toward Joon like a broken doll.

It spoke again.

"EVERYTHING ROTS."

It sprinted, faster than they expected.

Jin barely intercepted it, swinging the staff in a perfect, sweeping arc — the hit landed, the force so sharp the creature's body fractured apart like cracked glass.

But Jin's entire arm burned.

He felt the flesh peel away in strips, the phantom pain tearing through him like his bones were liquefying.

He bit back a scream, staggering as the creature reformed in seconds, its body slithering back together like molten tar.

Seul skidded to his side, her breath ragged.

"You can't hit it directly," she gasped, glancing at his charred arm. "It's like instant necrosis."

Jin grimaced, adjusting his grip.

"We have to keep it away from us," he muttered, dragging himself up. "Long enough to figure something out."

Joon's chest heaved, electricity flickering wildly around his hands.

"I can try to blast it again," he rasped.

Jin wiped the blood off his mouth, his mind racing.

"No," he muttered. "It'll just absorb it."

The creature shifted, its body stretching like melted wax.

And then it spoke again.

"STOP FIGHTING."

"LET IT END."

It lurched forward, faster than before.

Jin twisted the staff, barely deflecting a sludge-covered claw, but the rot crawled up the weapon, eating the surface like a cancer.

Jin let go instantly, the staff clattering to the ground, and kicked off a chunk of rubble to put distance between them.

Seul tried to pin the creature down with a gravity slam, the force crushing its body — but the sludge just split apart, avoiding the pressure completely.

Her pulse wavered, her body swaying as blood dripped from her nose.

Joon blasted the ground beneath the creature, trying to sever the tendrils of rot, but it didn't matter.

The rot just grew back.

They were running out of options.

Jin wiped the sweat from his brow, his body screaming from exhaustion.

"We need a way to stop it from regenerating," he muttered.

Joon wiped his face, panting.

"Cool," he rasped. "I'll just pull a miracle out of my ass."

The rot twitched, spreading faster now, slowly boxing them in.

Jin's heart hammered.

They were going to get trapped.

Drowned in rot.

And the creature laughed.

A sound like teeth scraping bone.

Like it was genuinely amused.

"YOU WILL FADE."

"YOU WILL BE FORGOTTEN."

It lunged for Seul.

Jin moved on instinct, launching himself forward — but he already knew he wouldn't make it in time.

But Joon did.

He appeared in front of Seul, slamming his hands into the creature's torso, and the electricity he poured into it was enough to light up the entire plaza.

The creature exploded apart, rot scattering in every direction — but it wasn't dead.

The fragments twitched, pulsing, already beginning to crawl back together.

Joon collapsed, gasping, his gloves smoking.

"I can't kill it," he muttered.

Jin staggered to his side, his chest heaving.

"We don't need to kill it," he rasped. "We just need to figure out what's keeping it alive."

Seul wiped the blood from her mouth, forcing herself up.

"Jin," she whispered, pointing.

Jin's gaze snapped up — and he finally noticed it.

In the center of the creature's shifting mass —

Was a heart.

A rotting, blackened heart, pulsing weakly, like a dying ember.

Jin's eyes hardened.

"That's it," he muttered.

Joon's fingers twitched, his chest heaving.

"You want me to hit that?" he rasped.

Jin's grip on the staff tightened, his body screaming with pain.

"We don't have a choice."

The creature reformed, its voice echoing like a graveyard chorus.

"YOU CAN'T KILL ME."

"EVERYTHING DECAYS."

Jin lifted the staff, steadying himself.

"Maybe," he muttered.

He met Joon's gaze, giving a faint nod.

"But let's see if you can survive a lightning strike to the heart."

They charged in — together.

The Qī Shā didn't hesitate.

It lunged for them, rot splintering outward, thorn-like tendrils ripping through the air like whips.

Jin charged forward, weaving through the attacks with surgical precision, the staff a blur as he deflected what he could — but even a glancing hit from the sludge made his skin bubble and peel.

His vision blurred, pain flooding his body, but he didn't stop.

Because he could see it.

The heart.

Pulsing.

Throbbing.

Beating like a festering wound.

Joon followed close behind, electricity crackling around his body, his blasters glowing as he charged up another attack.

"Get me close enough," Joon shouted.

"I'll fry it!"

Seul gritted her teeth, her gloves shimmering, and she slammed her fists into the ground, creating a gravity well that ripped apart the creature's legs — but they just grew back.

"Go!" she screamed, her nose bleeding as she strained to hold the creature in place.

Jin pushed harder, his muscles screaming as he closed the distance — his staff swinging in tight, precise arcs, knocking back the rot that kept swarming him.

The heart was right there.

He could reach it.

"Almost there!" Joon shouted, charging up even more.

Jin took the final step —

And the rot surged.

It exploded outward, wrapping around the heart like a living cocoon, the tendrils twisting into a protective, thorned shell.

Jin skidded to a stop, his chest heaving, sweat and blood dripping down his face.

He lifted his staff, ready to strike —

But his fingers blistered just by being near it.

The rot was spreading through the air, eating the oxygen itself.

Joon stopped, panting, his hands trembling from the overload of power.

"I can't hit it directly," he gasped.

"I'll die before I get a shot off!"

Jin gritted his teeth, his mind racing through every option.

They couldn't touch it.

Couldn't get close enough without rotting alive.

They needed to break it.

All at once.

Jin's gaze snapped to the crumbling buildings surrounding the plaza.

The decaying structures hanging by a thread, their support beams eaten away by the creature's presence.

His fingers tightened around the staff.

"Seul," he rasped, voice raw.

Seul staggered, wiping the blood from her mouth.

"What?" she croaked.

Jin nodded toward a chunk of broken concrete, barely holding itself together.

"Can you throw that?" he muttered.

Seul wiped her face, her body trembling, but she nodded.

"I can try," she whispered.

The creature twitched, sensing the shift — and it lunged.

Joon met it head-on, blasting constant arcs of electricity to force the rot to pull away from the heart, even as his skin seared and his body screamed.

Jin twisted the staff, knocking back another wave of tendrils.

Seul lifted the chunk of rubble, her gloves flickering — and the concrete shot up like a bullet, slicing through the air at insane speed.

"Seul!" Jin shouted.

"Now!"

Seul's eyes blazed, and she dropped the gravity all at once.

The rubble plummeted, picking up impossible speed as it fell back down — and smashed through the first floor's roof, sending tons of concrete cascading onto the heart.

The creature froze.

The rot seized up, like it couldn't comprehend what had just happened.

The heart throbbed, trying to keep beating —

And then it burst, disintegrating into a cloud of ash beneath the crushing weight of the rubble.

The rot screeched, its body unraveling, limbs melting into sludge that quickly evaporated into the air.

Jin collapsed to one knee, his chest heaving, his vision swimming.

Joon dropped, the electricity around him finally fizzling out.

Seul slumped against the ground, gasping for air.

The rot retracted, dissolving into the cracks of the plaza —

And then the creature was gone.

The plaza was silent.

The system pinged.

[Phase 6 Complete: Face of Decay Defeated]

[Final Phase Initiated: Face of Fate]