Demonic Devourer: First, I Eat the Babies [LitRPG]

There are far too many moving parts in this battle, and I suspect that I’m far from seeing the last of it.

Despite its sudden shift, the Titan—proto-Titan, according to Rin—cannot reposition as fast as she apparently can.

“Rin,” I say neutrally, remaining calm for lack of a better emotion to take on. “You followed me.”

“I did not,” she replies, her face twisting. “I followed the fucking Titan signature.”

I look at her carefully. I expect to feel rage, indignity, something.

Indifference is the only emotion I can spare her. She may have saved my life. Maybe she did, or maybe I could have survived the full force of the Titan in what must have been a frozen instant in time.

Either way, I find it hard to care about her existence. I think I have more magic than she does, now.

“Are you going to try to kill me again?” I ask her. It’s a pointless question. Of course she’ll answer no. I can’t tell if that’ll be a lie or not.

Rin pauses. She opens her mouth. Closes it.

The Titan—the one she designated Inome—has spotted me. It turns towards us.

Now that it’s on the ground, I can make it shape out more clearly. From this distance, I can see its entire body, not just a wall of scales. Inome’s body is amorphous, encompassing and crushing everything in its path, as if it’s a slime the length of a battleship.

Hmm. That might not be accurate. I haven’t seen a battleship before. The comparison feels right.

“I don’t know,” Rin finally says. I glance at her, meeting a hostile glare. Her voice belies her gaze—fractured, broken, doubtful. “I don’t know. Go before I figure out.”

The woman who failed to assassinate me sounds as if she’s on the verge of tears and a scream at the same time, and somehow, that comforts me far more than any words of reassurance she could’ve offered.

Simon isn’t here, I notice. I don’t comment on it. I have a fairly good idea of where he is.

“You know where to find me,” I tell her. “Whether I like it or not.”

Either that, or it was Simon who did, but I don’t particularly care. With that parting remark, I’m off, returning onto my Bloodpath.

I’m not alone.

Not everyone behind me follows me. In fact, I see and hear one of them calling for the use of a teleportation ritual to get more personnel in and any surviving noncombatants out.

But enough do. Though Adrian’s Tsunami has petered out, he has enough water summoned to carry himself alongside Sierra, a fifteen-foot-tall Zil, and, surprisingly enough, Ashley Kane. A number of uniforms follow as well, but I pay them no mind. So long as they stay out of my way, they may as well not exist.

I drop out of my skill, falling onto Adrian’s miniature sea and allowing the currents to drag me towards Ashley. Just like Rin, she was part of the group who couldn’t assassinate me. Unlike the UCC woman, Ashley sort of made up with me. That relationship hinged on killing Arthur Halcyon, however, and I’m fairly sure he’s dead already.

“You’re still here,” I comment. Ashley’s still not in good shape. She must’ve gotten some kind of care from the uniforms in the area, but most of the bandages wrapped around her body still seem necessary. “Why?”

“Not everyone has the chance to witness a Titan and survive, let alone fight one,” she replies, her voice still raw. While the rest of the party stands on the white currents of the water, Ashley lies down, sprawled out on her back over a sea that Adrian renders solid. “The way to power… is not through you. Not now.”

“Nothing about your kingdom?” I ask, arching an eyebrow. “Isn’t that why you came for me?”

Ashley coughs out a laugh, hacking up blood. “After everything I’ve witnessed? You’re like me, but worse. You will never return to the Crowned Islands, not because you can’t but because there is nothing left for you there.”

I chew on the thought as I return to my Bloodpath.

Just like her, hmm? That doesn’t sound entirely correct. I have no nation to defend, no cause to uphold.

Then again, I recognize the fire in her eyes—eye, I correct. The hunger. The desire to do anything to gain the power I need to… to do what?

I shake my head. I can ruminate on this later, when I’m not about to fight a proto-Titan. It is definitely weaker than Sersui, I surmise. Inome is only half a mile from us now, and its pressure is still weaker than the Titan of the Shifting Sands’, and the latter is still over twenty miles away. The sand swirls with every beat, mimicking Adrian’s waves. Even though I have no feet to touch the ground with in my Bloodpath form, I feel like the sand is trying to pull me down and drown me, keep me for eternity.

Inome, on the other hand, is still actualizing itself. Rin designated the Proto-Titan of Time, which tells me… not much. Clearly, it did something to stop time, which Rin was able to partially counter.

I remember that Arthur Halcyon, Guardian of Time, did not die by my hand. I remember the overpowering hunger that the Titan has to offer, dwarfing Ashley’s and mine put together thrice over.

Did it Devour him just like I might? Steal his skills?

I wish I could tell. I wish I had the power to fight it outright, pitting my will against the Titan’s. As it is, the best I can hope to do is hurt it enough to Devour a single piece of it before Sersui arrives and upends the entire battlefield.

“Ten minutes!” shouts an unfamiliar male voice. I glance over behind us to see a faintly familiar set of power armor. UCC make. I’ve killed a dozen people wearing that same outfit. “Projected Titan event in fifteen minutes! The circle will no longer function in ten!”

“Understood,” Zil rumbles back. “Thank you.”

He’s offering to take us out of this situation, huh? Magic flares from far behind us. I can’t Appraise it to find out what it is, but based on context, it’s likely the teleportation circle. Blood Sense tells me that five people have disappeared from combat. One person replaces them.

The Coalition contains and suppresses, says someone else’s memory. Titans are not something that can be contained. As for suppression? Well, that’s all about the path of least resistance, ain’t it?

I see how it is. Though I lack a full understanding of their inner workings, it’s pretty clear that there are UCC soldiers here and that there are nowhere near enough of them to take down even this baby Titan.

They’re here to stall it until the second Titan comes here and kills it.

I stop caring about the logic of our temporary allies when I get within range of Inome once again. At only a few hundred feet away, the powerful presence emanating forth from its scales is greater than Sersui’s.

Just because this is the inferior Titan, I remind myself, does not mean that it is something I can defeat.

Inome feels more dangerous than it did before. Relentless energy pulses in my veins, but even I know that the boost it gives me won’t be enough to break through the Titan, not even now that I’ve increased my Category.

On a lark, I decide to try using Appraise on it once more. At Category 1 with a Magic (Power) value far higher than befits my station, it might stand a chance at breaking through.

 

Name: PT-31 - Inome, the Proto-Titan of Time (assigned by Florence Starsea)

Age: 0

Race: N/A

Class: N/A

Level: N/A

Category: 5

Last Used Skill: N/A

Inome is likely the weakest Titan currently walking the planet, which is to say it could only massacre a nation if it truly put its mind towards it. It appears to possess a limited control over time, imbued by one of its creators: Arthur Halcyon, Guardian of Time.

[APPRAISE FAILED]

 

My eyes widen. Category 5? I knew Titans were powerful, but wow.

And, a silent part of my mind points out, this isn’t even a powerful Titan. Category 5 is the low end.

As if responding to the information, the Relentless power in my veins flows freer, begging to be released. The skill and class waiting for me bubble closer to the surface.

I unleash my magic with Wraithfire, Abyssal Echo, and Soulblade, pushing aside level-up advancements as they appear. The first skill wreaths me in flame; the second, in darkness; the third pierces the wreath and extends it, sending another oversized, empowered burning blade towards the scales.

Once again, my attacks break against a scale, but with the greater power I have to supply to them, the fire burns brighter than ever. Dark echoes of it play over the shimmering beast’s skin, and soon, they’re all that’s there.

This time, a scale falls, darkening and crumbling off the Titan’s body.

The others follow my lead. Adrian forms his ocean into a thin, dense spear that drags the sand beneath it into a swirling mess of darkness. I haven’t seen him do that before.

“I can feel it,” the Hydrokinetic gasps. “A breakthrough. I need to get it. I—fuck, that hurts.”

“Back away!” a new man shouts. I recognize her blood signature as the new one that appeared from the teleporter. “Hold defensive positions! Retreat, retreat, retreat!”

There is no retreat for me. The Titan will follow wherever I go.

That said… why are the rest of them here?

“I have to stay here,” Adrian pants, addressing the newcomer. “I’ll die. My soul—I have to break through here. I have to do it now.”

“I will stay by her side,” Sierra adds, pointing at me.

“True power,” Ashley says, “is something to be witnessed. Learned from.”

“My cousin started this,” Zil finishes. “I must finish it.”

A fresh wave of crushing pressure bears down on us all as the Titan shifts. It does not attack—other than the time stop, I don’t know if it even has a single ability. Is its only way to kill us through raw force?

“Fucking—alright then, you lot of maniacs!” the new man shouts. He’s been getting steadily closer this whole time, and I finally catch sight of him now.

A shock of red hair accompanies a young, faintly feminine face painted with harried concern. He wears a jumpsuit emblazoned with UCC markings over his heart.

 

Name: Kirin Uten

Age: 152

Class: [CLASSES CLOAKED]

Level: [LEVEL CLOAKED]

Category: 3

Last Used Skill: Hammerspace (Diamond) - lvl 12

Category 3s are rare in the Seven Kingdoms, but Kirin happened to be here on vacation. As one of the youngest Category 3s the UCC has, he is always prepared for a fight.

[APPRAISE FAILED]

 

I’m still processing the stat sheet when he procures a massive metal capsule the size of his body seemingly out of nowhere, lifting it like it weighs nothing.

“Fresh ascensions,” he mutters under his breath, likely thinking nobody can hear him. “Always the hard way with these.”

Louder, he says, “Then stop fucking advancing. Do you know what this is?”

The Titan does not heed his words, but it’s slow. It’ll take it a minute to close the distance between us. I resummon my Soulblade as I Appraise the capsule in his hands.

 

Saturation Bomb

Category: 3

Tier: Diamond

Tier increased with the charge of this weapon. Contains the detonations of ~1,000 nuclear strikes frozen at the instant of explosion. Effective range: 400 miles. Range of center blast: 20 miles.

 

Ah. That… that does change things.

“Don’t know if this’ll do the trick,” he grimaces. “It won’t work on a proper Titan, but it sure as hells will on you.”

“I’ll defend,” Sierra says. “You know I will.”

“Do I know you?”

“Once upon a time.”

“You should leave. Now.”

All of us remain there, paralyzed by the argument for a handful of seconds, and then the slime-like Titan roars.

“Fuck you all, then,” Kirin says, apparently making up his mind. “Protect yourselves if you can. I’ll be fine. Will you? You’ve got ten seconds.”

He takes the capsule and runs, blurring towards the Titan with blinding speed.

As soon as he’s gone, Sierra throws up a forcefield. Then another. Another.

“Domain,” she whispers. “Contradiction.”

Our world is cast into black and white, with only the forcefields remaining in color. I haven’t the faintest clue what her domain does, but I can tell that her defenses grow in power.

“Domain, secondary,” Zil adds. “Perfect Self.”

“Special skill,” Ashley croaks. “Starlight Shield.”

Empowering energy flows through us as a hundred pinpricks of light join the forcefields Sierra’s thrown up. Pure white lines connect them.

Briefly, I wonder what the other people in this area are meant to do.

The bomb explodes before I can finish the thought.

From within our layers of protection, in this monochrome world, I can only make out the flash of light.

Then a forcefield breaks. The second one follows. The third disappears with a breath.

But Ashley Kane’s Starlight Shield holds, Sierra’s Contradiction doing something to empower it further with each broken shield of hers.

And then it’s over, all too soon.

When the skills drop away, the land around us has been flattened. Where there were ruins, there is now nothing but glass. There is nothing as far as the eye can see in any direction—the entire desert has crystallized.

Off in the distance, I see a small, bright forcefield surrounding a group of UCC operators. I confirm that the newcomer Kirin is among them before observing the Titan.

The weapon worked. None of the scales shimmer anymore, and even as I watch, the entire body begins to crack, sliding apart.

Until it doesn’t.

Until it proves that it does have more than one power, its scales reigniting with fresh shimmer. Until it pulls itself together, healing from all the damage in fast motion.

The effects of the bomb took thirty seconds to play out in full. It takes the Titan fifteen to put itself back together.

And it starts towards me once again. This time, it’s faster, and I can feel time and space warping around it to enable its progress. Every second it’s alive is more time for it to grow.

The brutal unfairness of it threatens to paralyze me with rage. Never once have I been allowed to fight on equal grounds—I’ve been stuck in uphill battle after uphill battle with the occasional weakling to stomp. In my two months of life, I have had no time to rest or relax. Instead, monster after world-shaking monster comes after me. My entire life has been a test of survival against odds stacked horribly against me.

I swore to be the Last One Standing, but that wasn’t enough. Nothing I do seems to be enough.

At long last, the building magic within me bubbles over, frothing with my rage.

Special skill unlocked: Equalize

Read 15+ chapters ahead on Patreon!

Preorder volume 1: