SSS-Rank Extra: I Got a Chaos System-Chapter 38: Temple

[01:30]

The eggs pulsed in his hand like tiny hearts—unnaturally warm and soft-shelled. Kazuki didn’t hesitate. He hurled the first one into the thickest knot of undead ahead.

A pop—then

Boom.

Light burst in a flash of blue-gold. The explosion didn’t just scatter corpses—it ripped through them, ichor and bone flung into the air like broken puppets. The blast radius curved out like a concussive wave, knocking others back.

[01:24]

Kazuki ran into the chaos, momentum surging beneath him. Corpses staggered from the shockwave—but not all were stunned. One with a split jaw lunged low from the right, its claws raking toward his thigh. He twisted mid-sprint and brought his blade down, severing its hand.

Another snapped at his shoulder

Kazuki ducked under the teeth, then slipped past a third, slashing upward into a flickering line on its spine—clean kill. The line held this time. His instincts were syncing, stabilizing.

The dagger pulsed in his hand—resonating.

He beamed.

[01:18]

Another cluster surged from the side alley—half-charred, moaning. Their speed had changed. Hungrier. More erratic. One broke into a sprint, arms swinging like a beast.

Kazuki hurled two eggs in a wide arc, timing the throw off his own stride. One of the undead jumped for him mid-throw.

He sidestepped and shoved it into the path of the blast.

Pop.

BOOM–BOOM.

Fire erupted and Flames curled over the walls. Limbs flew. Cries rose—and were silenced.

Behind him, a groan built louder.

Kazuki glanced back—just in time to see a zombie lunge at Lillian.

But she was ready.

Her hand moved in a sharp, practiced arc, and a blade of crystalline ice formed mid-swing—a jagged longsword, half-formed but deadly.

She stepped into the strike and cleaved the zombie in half, the blade trailing frost in the air like a comet’s tail.

Another corpse closed in from the side—she pivoted, parried, and skewered it through the throat. Her stance was shaky. Her magic was unstable. But her eyes burned with focus.

Kazuki’ snorted.

"Good," he muttered. "You’ve still got fight in you."

[01:11]

No time to watch. More ahead.

Kazuki dashed forward through smoke and ash. Another zombie crawled from the rubble, dragging what was left of its legs. It clawed toward him with one hand. He stomped its head in mid-run.

But up ahead, something moved differently.

He skidded to a halt.

There, rising from behind a pile of smoldering corpses, stood a zombie with four arms, each one twitching with unnatural strength. It lurched forward, bones cracking as it straightened to full height, he could only view its silhouette due to smoke. but even then, his heart tightened.

No way... Fleshbound Wailer? Here?

He didn’t wait. Didn’t waste a breathe.

And threw all three eggs.

Pop—Pop—Pop.

BOOM—BOOM—BOOOOOM.

The street erupted.

Flames consumed the air, churning in unnatural patterns, like golden shimmer of force exploded—an angry god’s thunderclap. The shockwave cracked pavement. Chunks of blackened street went flying. Smoke turned white-hot, fire licking the tops of thatch of hut. For a second, it looked like the sun had crashed.

Kazuki crouched, arm shielding his face from the heat.

When the smoke thinned—

He looked.

And blinked.

Not a scrap remained. No limbs. No twitching fingers. Not even a tooth. Just scorched earth and a faint crater with glowing cracks.

He stared for a second longer, dagger still raised, breath held.

"...Nah." He exhaled. "Clearly third-rate version."

He gave the crater a small nod, then turned.

The path ahead was clear—finally.

He glanced behind him—Lillian had just dropped another zombie, her ice blade shattering into particles after the final thrust. She was breathing hard

Kazuki turned head, Lillian sprinted up beside him, huffing, her breath fogging faintly in the residual chill of her spent magic. She wiped a smear of blood—not hers—from her cheek.

"So," she gasped. "how are we going to go ahead?"

Kazuki looked forward.

Yeah.

The path was clear.

Too clear.

The blast had done its job—wiped the undead out, sure. But it had also turned the entire stretch of the road into a rolling blaze. Fire danced greedily across broken beams and shattered walls, licking hungrily at the ground. Some toppled cart fed the flames, creating a curtain of heat that pulsed in waves.

There was no path to walk on. Just fire. Everywhere.

Kazuki muttered something under his breath that Lillian probably didn’t catch.

"Yeah... minor oversight."

[00:43]

The timer ticked down. His eye twitched.

Lillian grimaced. "You got any magic for this, or do I start praying to frost gods, in which I don’t believe in?"

Kazuki tilted his head, considering. The fire surged higher.

"...Neither," he said finally, flipping the dagger once in his hand. "We improvise."

He looked up—scanning quickly. The buildings on either side weren’t tall. Mostly crumbling huts and splintered rooftops.

"If we can’t go through..." he muttered.

Lillian’s eyes followed his gaze, then widened. "You’re not seriously—"

"Yup."

Kazuki took a step back, adjusted his grip on Hydra’s Fang, then turned to the wall beside them. Cracked stone, wooden beams, just barely holding up.

[Skill: Brute Strength (E) – Activated]

He kicked off the ground, momentum launching him upward. His foot caught the beam—then the ledge—and in two more motions, he was up on the roof.

It creaked ominously under his weight.

"C’mon!" he called, extending a hand down.

She groaned, staring up, then sighed, muttering something about how this wasn’t part of her certification. She jumped, caught his wrist, and with a grunt from both of them, he hauled her up.

The fire below snapped and roared as they balanced on the slanted rooftop, smoke curling past their faces.

"Straight line over the roofs," Kazuki said. "Sprint and don’t look down."

She gave him a flat look. "Says the guy who threw three bombs at a maybe-boss."

Kazuki shrugged. "You’re welcome, by the way."

Then he took off—hopping from rooftop to rooftop, boots scraping old tiles and charred wood.

Below them, the street burned like a funeral pyre.

They sprinted faster. No time to think. Just rooftops, smoke, and desperation. Thatch fiber swamping beneath their feet, wooden splinters catching soles. Lillian stumbled once and hissed a curse—but kept going.

Kazuki’s eyes flicked to the system clock.

[00:20]

He hissed under his breath. "F**k."

Lillian shouted from behind, "Slow down!"

He didn’t.

"Can’t!" he barked, not daring to look back. "Just run!"

For a split second, he considered grabbing her—slinging her over his shoulder and charging the rest of the way. But one wrong step on these roofs, one shift in weight, and they’d both drop straight into the inferno below.

Not an option.

His boots scraped across a collapsing ridge fiber as he vaulted the gap between roofs.

"Lillian—come at your own pace!" he shouted back, eyes locked forward. "I’m rushing ahead!"

"What?! Kazu—WAIT FOR ME!"

But he was already gone.

[Skill: Feathered Footwork (D) – Activated]

Wind surged beneath each step—momentum, unnatural lightness.

Each step now felt spring-loaded, faster, cleaner. He moved like a blur across the rooftops, shadows streaking behind him as smoke trailed around his sprinting frame.

The rooftops thinned—until suddenly, he crested a slope, and there it was.

Kazuki skidded to a stop on the edge of the rooftop, catching his breath, heart hammering.

The Temple of Ruttwa.

It rose like a jagged monolith above the fire-wracked village—stone-black, half-consumed by ivy, its spires broken. The front doors stood sealed shut behind a sloped courtyard, elevated on a platform of twisted stone. Above it, a symbol glowed faintly—

Kazuki’s breath hitched. His gaze locked onto it.

A black sun with jagged, uneven rays loomed behind a single cracked marble pillar—fractured but standing tall. The image throbbed with quiet power.

Suddenly—

Crack.

The thatch beneath his foot shuddered. Then crumbled.

Kazuki didn’t even have time to curse.

The rooftop gave way and he dropped like a stone, dust and splinters flaring up around him. He tucked instinctively, landed hard—rolled across cracked floorboards—then slammed into a support beam with a grunt.

Pain flared in his ribs. Probably bruised. Definitely not broken.

[00:14]

"Shit—"

Flames surged around the broken walls, biting at his skin, roaring louder than thought.

And then something hit him.

Hard.

A blur of motion. Rotten mass. Foul breath.

It struck from the side like a freight train, slamming into him and hurling his body clean through a half-burnt doorway. He crashed onto the street beyond—dust and sparks exploding outward as he landed in a twisted sprawl.

He rolled once, twice—came to a halt against the charred wheel of a shattered cart. The impact knocked the wind clean out of his lungs. His vision blurred.

Then—pain.

Like a lightning bolt through his ribs. He gasped, choking back bile.

A growl.

Kazuki pushed up on one elbow. Blood smeared across the ground beneath him ...then his eyes fell on it—a pool of black ichor, a floating mass of zombie body parts, twitching, convulsing, merging.

Finger bones spiraled inward, snapping into wrists. Spines coiled like serpents around torn ligaments. Jaws found skulls, skulls found shoulders. Each piece drifted like it was submerged in water—then latched into place with a meaty, magnetic pull. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

The mass shuddered.

A pulse ran through it—thump.

[00:05]

Kazuki’s stomach turned.

The mass pulsed again—thump. A wet, awful sound, like something being born wrong.

He stared. Mouth dry. Limbs half-limp.

"...Oh, we are so done."