Flesh

Biodata

Feature	Information
Name	Flesh
Alias(es)	Flesh Crown; Crown of Flesh and Blood; Starry Sky Flesh
Species/Race	Taboo existence
Affiliation	Connected to the Flesh beneath Bronze City and the Bronze Pillars
Occupation/Role	Corruptive entity spreading through Bronze City
Status	Active; its widespread manifestation has retreated beneath Bronze City, where residual Flesh remains as a less-dangerous Eerie resource. 504
First Appearance	Chapter 411 (as a self-regenerating, corrosive Flesh manifestation)

Power Progression

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
Corrosive Flesh manifestation	411	Remains alive after being shredded by purple light; its tissue erodes and disintegrates the Attendant's power.
Escaping variant	412	Survives combined purple-light and alchemy-flame attacks despite blistering, burning, and withering.
Abyssal core	433	Revealed as a massive flesh silhouette beneath the Abyss, synchronized with a heartbeat that makes the Flesh and Bronze Pillar inscriptions pulse.
Golden-light vulnerability	435	Flesh in the hollow crumbles into dead ash when exposed to a descending golden light.
Golden-black pursuit	447	Surges through the Pipe Network Layer as a tide of golden-black Flesh; it stops at the surface exit but assimilates Night Watchers left underground.
City-wide proliferation	446 448	Adapts to fire, converts Bronze City's west wall into living meat, erupts as Flesh Pillars, and produces humanoid Horizontal Line Faces.
Sea of Flesh	454 460	Breaches all four city walls and fills the Inner City with dark-red and dark-gold Flesh interwoven with plant roots.
Flesh Crown manifestation	461	Forms an enormous dark-gold crown above the Tower of Erudition, develops aerial tendrils, and actively searches for the Sky-Seeking Fortress.
Crown of Ten Thousand Kings mobilization	467	The Crown gathers Flesh from both the Inner City and underground toward itself in preparation to attack Lu Yuan.
Inscribed Starry Sky main body	468	The city-spanning Flesh is identified as outward branches or a shell, while the rising main body is covered from root to tip in dense, abstruse characters.
Nascent Taboo fusion	479	The Crown of Ten Thousand Kings fuses with the Starry Sky Flesh into an unnamed nascent Taboo; Lu Yuan tears away part of the Crown, leaving the resulting existence incomplete.
Authority gambit	491	The fused being feeds Flesh into its roots and attempts to elevate another power within itself to call upon an external world and complete its incomplete Authority.
Withering and retreat	498 504	The Flesh Walls wither after the Starry Sky Flesh's influence ends; the remaining Flesh retreats underground rather than dying and becomes far less dangerous.

Background / History

Flesh first appears in Bronze City's underground conflict as a highly corrosive material associated with special individuals and polluted ghouls. Even when the Attendant shreds a Flesh manifestation with purple-light filaments, the tissue survives and corrodes those filaments from within. A later mass withstands purple light and alchemy flames, then escapes while critically damaged. 411 412

Far below the city, Flesh is revealed to be connected to the Abyss and Bronze Pillars. Its rhythmic heartbeat causes the Flesh throughout the Abyss to rise and fall, while the Pillars' inscriptions flicker in response. The Flesh mass becomes agitated after Lu Yuan obtains the fourth fragment, sealing exits and filling an underground cavern. 433 434

A golden eye temporarily destroys the Flesh in the cavern, reducing it to ash and opening an escape route. This does not end the threat: golden-black Flesh later pursues Lu Yuan, Blue Knight, and Klaus through the Pipe Network Layer, while other tendrils assimilate Conrad's entire Night Watcher team. 435 447

The entity subsequently overruns Bronze City. It adapts to fire, transforms city walls into Flesh Walls, erupts through streets as pillars, consumes civilians and defenders, and fills the Inner City with a sea of Flesh reinforced by entwined plant roots. 446 448 454 460

Above the Tower of Erudition, the spreading mass manifests as the Flesh Crown, which contests the falling character fragments of the Sea of Knowledge and detects the approaching Sky-Seeking Fortress. 459 461

During the rescue from the Tower of Erudition, the Crown of Ten Thousand Kings draws Flesh from the Inner City and the underground Abyss toward itself. The inscribed Flesh that rises afterward is distinguished from the city's ordinary spreading tissue: it is the true Starry Sky main body, while the earlier Flesh was merely an extended shell and its lesser branches. 467 468

The Crown subsequently fuses with the Starry Sky Flesh, creating an unnamed nascent Taboo. Lu Yuan forcibly removes part of the Crown during this fusion, leaving the new existence incomplete. In response to its later disadvantage, it attempts to sacrifice its own Flesh to the embedded roots in exchange for the power to call upon another world. 479 491

Following the end of the Starry Sky Flesh's influence, the Flesh Walls wither and the remaining rotting Flesh withdraws underground. It does not perish completely, but the residual mass at the bottom of the Abyss possesses greatly reduced threat and can be treated as a recyclable Eerie resource of Bronze City. 498 504

Appearance

Flesh has no fixed humanoid body. Its primary form is a dark-red to golden-black, pulsating organic mass that can reshape itself into walls, roots, tendrils, creatures, and a crown. 433 447 461

• Dark-red tissue with a wet, feverish texture and a nauseating fishy stench. 434 447
• Interwoven with meridians and plant roots, sometimes making the two indistinguishable. 459 460
• Can form humanoid Horizontal Line Faces and special individuals covered in raw, exposed flesh. 446 449
• Its crown form is dark gold, spiked, suspended by hanging strands of Flesh, and embedded with seven jewel-like eyes. 461
• The Crown has six polluted blackened eyes and one central eye that remains clear. 461
• Its true Starry Sky main body bears densely packed characters and inscription-like patterns along every strand of Flesh, from its roots to its tips. 468
• After fusing with the Crown, it assumes the form of an immense Flesh mass crowned by a gigantic Crown of Flesh. 479

Abilities & Skills

Regeneration and Adaptation

Flesh rapidly restores damaged tissue and changes its response to threats.

• Regenerates burned, cut, or blasted sections almost immediately. 412 430 434
• Reconnects severed body parts through newly grown sinews, muscle, and membrane in under ten seconds. 430
• Adapts after exposure to fire, eventually spreading and regenerating despite the Great Ascendant's flames. 446
• Can replenish sections destroyed by the Worms of Knowledge from an underground source. 457
• Golden light can reduce exposed Flesh to inert ash. 435
• Flesh struck by the Sea of Knowledge's word-spears can be blasted into gray residue, but fresh tissue rapidly floods in to replace the destroyed sections. 467
• The green flames carried by the chains used against the Crown can scorch even the Starry Sky Flesh. 490

Corruption and Assimilation

Contact with Flesh corrupts living targets and absorbs them into its mass.

• Corrodes extraordinary constructs, including the Attendant's purple-light filaments. 411
• Rotting corruption spreads through flesh-based defenses, forcing the Hooded Night Watcher to discard his own meat-armor. 424
• Envelops victims, burrows through their blood vessels and between bones and muscles, then assimilates their blood and organs. 447
• Produces corrupted humanoid entities, including Horizontal Line Faces. 446 449
• Swallows Ghouls and converts them into nourishment after the Taboo's primary influence recedes. 504

Environmental Control

The entity reshapes underground passages and the city itself into extensions of its body.

• Seals tunnels and cavern exits by growing tissue from surrounding walls. 434
• Surges through the Pipe Network Layer as a pursuing tide. 447
• Transforms Bronze City's walls into expanding Flesh Walls. 446 453
• Raises dark-red Flesh Pillars that collapse buildings and destabilize the city. 448
• Uses tendrils with wet, slit-like tips to probe the air around the Sky-Seeking Fortress. 461
• Draws Flesh from the Inner City and beneath the Abyss to consolidate it around the Crown of Ten Thousand Kings. 467
• Uses its intertwined roots as a conduit to feed itself into another internal power and attempt to summon an external world. 491
• Can withdraw its residual mass beneath the city rather than remain exposed after its greater influence fades. 504

Intelligence and Perception

Flesh displays awareness, strategic behavior, and the ability to prioritize threats.

• Special individuals recognize the Hooded Night Watcher as a greater threat than an exhausted Leike. 424
• The Flesh Crown senses disturbances caused by the airship despite its Stealth Inscription. 461
• The Crown redirects Flesh from its struggle with the Sea of Knowledge to search for and intercept the airship. 461
• Its rapid recovery of intelligence alarms Green, who judges it to be far too intelligent. 461
• The Flesh reacts with apparent fear when the Worms of Knowledge first begin consuming it, though it continues resisting their advance. 457
• The fused nascent Taboo deliberately attempts to abandon the dominance of the Crown and Starry Sky Flesh in order to seek a new source of Authority. 491

Taboo Nature and Fusion

The Abyssal Flesh is a reviving severed limb from an existence above the Starry Sky. Polluted over time, it has developed an independent consciousness and was predicted to one day be crowned within the Abyss. 433

• The Flesh beneath Bronze City has a direct connection to the Bronze Pillars, whose inscriptions pulse in time with its heartbeat. 433
• It searches for and attempts to suppress the Golden Order fragments responsible for its ancient confinement. 454
• The inscribed Starry Sky Flesh is the main body of the Taboo, distinct from the mass of lesser spreading Flesh that covers the city. 468
• Its fusion with the Crown of Ten Thousand Kings creates an unnamed nascent Taboo that cannot be fully identified or named by Lu Yuan's analysis. 479
• The missing portion of the Crown leaves the fused Taboo incomplete and creates a flaw in its otherwise overwhelming existence. 479

Related Entities

• Flesh Amalgam — A separate deep-level aberration created when 23 drained corpses and severed limbs fuse into a single mass under a Grey-robed Person's ritual. 71
• Flesh Tree — A separate city-wide corruptive growth associated with the Deep Sea Church and the Plump; it turns living humans into trees of flesh and blood and uses corpses to create fanatical servants. 110 112
• Special Individuals — Flesh-covered, highly corruptive ghouls with extraordinary regeneration; some are produced during the spread through Bronze City. 424 446
• Horizontal Line Faces — Humanoid creatures generated from the living Flesh Wall. 446
• Flesh Crown — Crown-shaped manifestation suspended above the Tower of Erudition and connected to the sea of Flesh below. It is later called the Crown of Ten Thousand Kings and converges the surrounding Flesh toward itself. 461 467
• Starry Sky Flesh — The densely inscribed true main body of the underground Taboo, distinguished from the city-spanning Flesh shell and its lesser branches. 468
• Nascent Taboo — The incomplete, unnamed existence produced when the Crown of Ten Thousand Kings fuses with the Starry Sky Flesh. 479
• Bronze Pillars — Structures connected to the Abyssal Flesh mass; their inscriptions pulse with its heartbeat. 433
• Worms of Knowledge — Creatures of the Sea of Knowledge capable of consuming Flesh and slowing its advance, although the mass can replenish itself from below. 457 467

Story Role / Major Arcs

Bronze City Abyss

The Flesh serves as the central underground threat beneath Bronze City. Its core lies beneath the Abyss, connected to Bronze Pillars and able to trap intruders by sealing tunnels and flooding chambers with regenerative tissue. 433 434

Pipe Network Layer Collapse

After its underground awakening, golden-black Flesh chases Lu Yuan's group toward the surface and assimilates the Night Watchers who remain in the Pipe Network Layer. 447

Fall of Bronze City

Flesh spreads from the underground system into the city, converting defensive walls into living meat, creating Flesh Pillars and special individuals, and overwhelming both the Inner and Outer City. 446 448 453 454

Siege of the Tower of Erudition

The Inner City becomes a sea of Flesh, with the Tower of Erudition as the last major area not yet swallowed. The Flesh Crown battles the Sea of Knowledge's falling character fragments while trying to locate and attack the Sky-Seeking Fortress. 459 461

The Sea of Knowledge helps create an evacuation route from the Tower of Erudition, but the Crown of Ten Thousand Kings responds by gathering the Flesh of the Inner City and underground Abyss toward itself for a direct attack. 467

Starry Sky Fusion and Retreat

The Flesh's inscribed Starry Sky main body rises and establishes true contact with the Crown. Their fusion produces an incomplete nascent Taboo, which later attempts to invoke another world through its roots and incomplete Authority. 468 479 491

After the Starry Sky Flesh's influence ends, the Flesh Walls wither and the remaining mass retreats beneath Bronze City. The residual Abyssal Flesh remains active but is no longer the city-destroying Taboo threat it was during the fall of Bronze City. 498 504