Demonic Po*nstar System

Chapter 295: The Gauntlet

It was still hungry.

A slow, dangerous smile tugged at his lips.

“… Feed then. Plunder until you’re full.”

He drove it back into the monster without hesitation.

The gauntlet responded instantly. A deep, wet thrum resonated up his arm as it drank, or rather, outright devoured. The Heart’s flesh caved inward, blood vanishing faster than its body could even replenish the damage sustained. But instead of releasing it, the gauntlet kept going, pulling impossible volumes of crimson essence and somehow storing it.

The surface of the gauntlet began to change. The dull, battle-worn iron split along hairline seams, retracting in slow movements, as if the metal itself was bowing out of the way for something older and far more dangerous. In its place, a deep arterial red flowed outward, molten at first, then cooling into the armor, making it appear as fresh-forged steel.

Veins of black threaded through it, pulsing, each beat synchronized with the pounding of the Heart, and then, with Kaiden’s own. The sensation was immediate and unmistakable. It didn’t just look alive. It was alive.

The talon-like fingers twitched, testing their own movement without his command. Etched sigils flared with crimson light on his fingertips, then sank beneath the surface, like ink vanishing under skin.

And then the merging began.

The inner lining of the gauntlet softened, warping into something fleshy and warm. Thin tendrils of living metal unfurled from it, sliding into his skin. He gritted his teeth as they pierced deep, threading themselves through muscle and bone, knitting around tendons. It was like being stitched together from the inside, every nerve ending flaring under the contact.

His heartbeat faltered for a moment, then steadied. Only now, there was an echo. A second pulse, resonating not from his chest, but from his right arm. The gauntlet’s.

Kaiden remembered the first moment he’d ever worn it, the ominous message that had appeared:

“Only in the blood of the usurper will your truth be proven. Only then shall I kneel.”

Now, with the usurper’s—the Heart’s—blood pouring into it, the gauntlet flexed of its own accord, sealing tighter around his forearm. The seams were gone. The straps were gone. The distinction between man and weapon was gone. Where his flesh ended and the gauntlet began was no longer clear; they had fused into a single, seamless entity.

He wasn’t wearing it anymore. He was it.

The Blood Monarch’s Gauntlet… the most infamous piece of the legendary set… had chosen its master. And it would never let go.

[Blood Monarch’s Gauntlet – Legendary]

Kaiden’s pulse started pounding heavily once again, but not from the battle this time around.

Rarities were as such: junk – common – uncommon, which was their current gearset’s rarity. The sword he lost in the shockwave was also uncommon. After uncommon came rare – epic… And then came legendary. Legendary rarity was almost never sold for Chronos, simply being too valuable to be exchanged for mere money, even if said money equaled the entire treasury of a rich nation.

The Shadow Monarch, Vespera, the Flame Monarch, Scarlet, and others of their league had one or perhaps two such pieces in their arsenal. Those pieces were their secret weapons used in a bind when their own powers proved to be insufficient. The rest of their gear tended to be epic-rarity.

The rush of claiming such a piece—the piece—sent a wild jolt through his veins. His eyes outright sparkled, sharp with adrenaline and the intoxicating thrill of power. The Blood Monarch’s Gauntlet was hidden in the D-tier dungeon, previously held by a vampire count… Who could’ve guessed?

No one.

That thought, though, carried an edge. His grin wavered when he noticed how the red-metal flesh had fully melded with his skin. No seams, no way to take it off. This was his now… whether he wanted it or not. A subtle weight settled in the back of his mind. It was the quiet realization that there might be a price for such power, one not written in any system window. He just hoped this would be the end of the merging process or whatever this was, and that there would be no more hidden prices to pay later down the line…

Still, there was no time to dwell. His mind, without conscious thought, turned toward his girls. Aria. Bastet. Nyx. Luna. Strong, proud women, each one capable of cutting her own bloody path through hell itself… and yet, Kaiden’s chest tightened. He wanted—no, needed—to protect them. No matter the cost.

The Heart? That could wait. Even if he was in a position to deal more damage to it, he couldn’t care. All he wanted to do was to go back to them and fight by their sides.

But the shockwave had flung him far, so far that he could barely even see them in the distance, appearing the size of ants.

However, getting down was easier said than done. Dropping straight down from this height would shatter him into paste.

That’s when it happened.

The gauntlet stirred with awareness.

It had gained access to Kaiden’s innermost thoughts during the assimilation process. The Blood Monarch’s Gauntlet felt the pull of his mind, screaming with the burning desire of reaching his women. The gauntlet understood how deeply his wielder wanted to return to their sides.

The item answered. This time, however, the gauntlet spoke using the etched sigil on his pointer finger. It flared to life, glowing crimson. Liquid lines of blood swirled outward from the tip, curling in the air like ink in water. They wove together, drawing archaic script in the empty space before him.

The words hung in the air, written in its own blood:

‘I am no mere armor. I am the will of the hunt made flesh. My bite drinks deep, my veins remember. As long as blood fills my hollow heart, I can be anything you command. A weapon, a shield… more.’

Kaiden’s brows furrowed. “More?”

The gauntlet said nothing, but the sigils on his fingertips pulsed brighter, as if urging him to try.