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

Chapter 82

Adrian sucks in a deep breath, and Sierra follows suit.

The Titan’s pressure got to them, but it barely affected me. My pressure nearly crushed them.

I’ve been unlike any human since the day I was born. I know that. There has never been a point where the race section on my status has displayed anything other than ???. Still, I was growing used to being one of them. Hiding EV3’s face with Evelyn’s became so necessary to survival that I have come to accept the latter mask as the truth of who I am.

This, though, separates me once more, irreversibly. Yes, I can still cloak myself; now that I’ve hit Category 1, it’s easier than ever. A cloak can’t hide the truth, though, which is that I am now on my way to become the seventeenth addition to a race of beings that exist solely to destroy.

And I can’t say I dislike that.

Unfortunately, I’ve found myself rather attached to Sierra. Adrian, too, has proven himself to not be entirely useless. He’s growing on me.

I wonder what they’ll think of this.

“Holy fucking shit,” Adrian says. “Wow.”

“We owe you,” Sierra adds, sighing. “Again.”

“You’re gonna need to cloak better than that though, man,” the Hydrokinetic replies, pausing to cough and pound his chest as if to remind himself it’s still there. “You aren’t about to crush me into pieces anymore, but my senses are all out of whack and you still feel like you’re going to murder me and everyone I know and love.”

“Pretty sure that’s how I always am,” I say. Adrian snorts.

“He is correct,” Sierra adds, flashing me a lopsided smile. “Your presence is significantly more intense than it was before, even when you were fully uncloaked.”

I sigh. “I suppose that’ll make it hard to travel anywhere civilized, hmm?”

“Not if I may assist you in cloaking more effectively,” Sierra replies. “Given our location, we are likely days out from any target destination.”

“Speaking o’ targets,” Adrian says, clutching his chest, “I—“

“Yes,” Sierra interrupts. “Save your words. I am duly surprised that you have managed to survive such severe soul damage, but rest assured; we will find a specialist.”

A specialist? “You have no way to heal it yourself?”

Adrian barks out a laugh, stopping himself when he chokes up blood. “I ain’t you, Evey. Can’t just stitch a soul together like that, y’know?”

“Huh. Okay.” That comes as a surprise, honestly. I didn’t realize humans were so fragile. I mean, yeah, I knew they died easily, but for Adrian to be a Category 2 and unable to recover from a lack of a soul? Seriously?

Maybe my perspective is just warped. Being told you have the potential to be a world-destroying Titan one day can’t have helped with that.

Not that I’m going to stop.

“Let me know where and when we’re going,” I say. “I’m going to try to eat the dead Titan.”

“Proto-Titan,” Sierra corrects with a grin.

“Same difference,” Adrian says, waving his hand. “Sierra, you know any soul specialists in these kingdoms?”

“I might,” she says. “Give me a moment to scry.”

While the two of them start on finding Adrian a solution, I set my mind to figuring out how I’m going to Devour this.

Ascending to Category 1 and gaining a second class sadly did not grant me a better way to use Devour. At Diamond tier, the skill is still strong enough to be used outside of my body, but Sersui really fucked Inome up. The dead Proto-Titan’s skin is literally embedded into the ground, which has been smashed by the world’s largest natural disaster again and again until there’s nothing even resembling a structure.

In short, my target to eat has been spread finely and thinly across a mile radius. I imagine a lot of its body mass has been obliterated already thanks to the Titan of the Shifting Sands, which means I don’t even know how much of its flesh is even available to consume.

It is still definitely worth consuming. This is going to be a pain.

With my secondary class offering me pinpoint details on the fading presence of the late Proto-Titan, I think I can piece together some of the chunks of its flesh, but I need to do it fast.

“Let me know when you two find a direction,” I tell Adrian and Sierra, jumping into ny Bloodpath.

I create a pair of Blood Clones as well, instructing them to identify and verify pieces of the fallen Titan’s body. Sersui appears to have been undamaged when rampaging throught his place; at the very least, I can’t find any pieces of its body. Still, I have my clones look for anything that bears the signature of the Shifting Sands.

My skill comes to me smoother than ever, and I practically fly across the land. I remember experiencing my first major power jump after Devouring the demonic tree back in the Crowned Islands. Then, it was the craziest power-up I’d ever experienced.

Now, I’m even stronger.

I spread my bodies over the span of a mile, bloodily shadowing the valley Sersui created, and I rain myself down across the devastation, pushing myself to Devour the fractured pieces of divinity embedded within the glass.

After a solid minute, I realize an issue with my plan.

When I ate people on my level, it was easy. Simple. When I consumed those who were dozens of levels higher, it grew more difficult. Against people who were a Category higher, Devour took ages to succeed.

Equalize has faded now, and the secondary class I’ve gained, while disgustingly powerful, is still only level 10.

Inome was Category 5. That means a bare minimum of level 500, if I understand things correctly.

Consuming its pieces is not feasible in any reasonable amount of time.

“Evelyn. Can you hear us?” Sierra asks, drawing my attention to her.

She’s surrounded by an intricate glowing web that flows forth from her hands. It’s too complicated for me to parse, so I don’t bother. Some things are best left to others, no matter how powerful I might be.

I reform my main body into something resembling human, continuing the slow process of beginning to Devour the corpse and the land alike. Phantom Shape gives me wings wide enough to slow my descent, and it costs less to maintain than Bloodpath does. My magic reserves are significantly deeper now than pre-Category increase, but they’re not unlimited.

They’re not as effective as I’d hoped. I should study more on how to construct these things; as it is, I drop like a brick.

“I can hear you,” I tell Sierra, hitting the ground hard on one knee.

The diagram flickers with the force of my impact. Adrian stumbles back, though Sierra doesn’t budge, looking amused.

“My scrying skill was successful,” she says. “There is a soul specialist within Whitestar. They reside within Zelin, the kingdom’s capital.”

“Convenient,” I say. “How far is that?”

“Three hundred seventeen miles,” Sierra says. “I doubt that train transportation will be available for a long chunk of this journey thanks to moderately extenuating circumstances.”

“We can make it in a few weeks on foot,” Adrian says. “I can use some of my skills to hurry it up. Make it a matter of days.”

“Don’t overdo it,” Sierra warns. “You’re not—“

“I’m not her, yeah, I know,” he says. “I’d like to get going as soon as we can. Soulless helps, but gods, this fucking sucks. My grip on myself is—it’s bad. It’s really godsdamn bad.”

“Evelyn, how much time do you need?” Sierra asks me.

If I pay attention to Adrian, I can sense the magic flowing around him. Looking closer tells me more, and sure enough, he is breaking apart inside. His resistance to soul damage isn’t as strong as mine, and neither is his resistance to pain, the divine, and any number of other things.

He is still in danger of dying.

“A few minutes,” I lie. “Let me figure something out. Are you able to store the corpse away here?”

“No,” Sierra replies, immediately understanding my request. “Titan-based materials are far too volatile for me to store. There is every chance that my space would simply combust.”

Fuck.

I am not going to be able to consume the entirety of Inome’s body before we need to depart.

There’s an undeniable temptation for me to just stay here while Adrian and Sierra leave. I could part ways here, continue on my path while they go with theirs. I could even wait and try to catch up later, though I know their mobility is better than mine.

But gods damn it all, I’m attached to them. It’s inconvenient, but I can’t deny the truth. I’ve known this since I choose to hit them with the final blast of my Titan form, leaving every other connection I formed here to die. Azaril, Ashley, Rin, Kirin. I don’t think any of them made it out alive.

On the other hand, I refuse to abandon such a bountiful store of XP and power.

That just means I need to advance, and I need to do it fast. The same solution I’ve had to everything.

I don’t think I can take Devour to Tourmaline right now. After a lot of usage, it’s at level 21 of Diamond tier, which isn’t anywhere close to the one hundred levels I need to get it on the threshold to the next tier. I also lack any stored corpses to level up from, which means I need to do something I haven’t even attempted since the first week of my life.

To find a way to consume Inome or at least store it away, I’m going to have to turn to my secondary class.

My amalgam isn’t particularly clear in the realm of secondary classes awarded at Category 1, but I get the impression that I should be able to unlock an entire new dimension of skills. Up until now, though, I haven’t gotten any new skills from my Proto-Titan class.

I articulate as much to Sierra, who has the best grasp on the system out of all of us.

“You were using new skills, no?” she asks, raising an eyebrow. “You manipulated the nullspace.”

“Not with a skill,” I say. “Instinct, more than anything else.”

“The system expands your instincts at magical rates, but the initial generation of the skill is simply a quantification of your understanding,” Sierra says. “In essence, all you need to do now is unlock it.”

“Gotta… gotta focus on what the skill means,” Adrian adds. “That’s half of how I made Category 2 way too early.”

“What was the other half?”

“You.”

I don’t know how to respond to that, so I don’t. Instead, I close my eyes, focusing as the two of them have instructed me to.

Other than the nullspace, I can’t draw up feelings of other powers I’ve wielded. Despite my perfect memory, my recollection of the time I spent as a being far greater than myself is hazy at best. I suspect that’s because the amount of power Equalize granted me was far more than I’m able to handle.

“That is consistent with my understanding,” Sierra says when I speak to her about it. “It would also provide an explanation for why you have not activated your skills. You did not know what they were when you were using them, so once your temporary power-up faded, so too did your system’s knowledge of the skills.”

“Then I should be able to bring what I remember back, right?”

“I believe so. Your situation is… somewhat unprecedented.”

That’s an understatement if I ever heard one.

I return to my meditative state, drawing on the sensation of the nullspace. I remember tearing a fellow experiment apart on the molecular level. I remember commanding the space to annihilate everything that entered it; I remember telling it to ignore Sierra and Adrian in its wrath.

That bears no fruit, and I think I know why. Every memory I draw on is one that took place within the nullspace itself, not in the “real world” where we are right now.

I fish through the hazier memories, searching for a specific idea, and I catch it.

13:15:23

Sersui’s appearance is sudden and yet entirely expected. I have been preparing for its arrival for an eternity; I am completely unprepared.

It overwhelms everything in an instant. If I am infinite, Sersui is a greater infinity. It outclasses Inome and I combined by the same factor that we outclass a coughing baby.

The air dries in an instant. My skills dry at the same time, dissipating like sand in the wind against the sheer presence of the true Titan.

I cannot let it end here. This is the event I was waiting for, yet I realize now I prepared no escape route (there is a place to run).

There is one way out. It is (my only choice) absolutely insane, but I have no time to think of anything else.

I activate my own attack, but I don’t try to target Sersui.

At the same time, Inome attempts to latch onto Sersui, a half-dead proto-Titan exerting every last dreg of its power.

I watch the earth swallow its dessicated corpse, and I know that that is not the path I want to follow.

Under my command, the beam I used to kill hundreds turns on myself.

This, I realize, is facilitating a skill.

This is a—

Now

“—Descent unto the Void,” I vocalize.

You have gained the Titan magic affinity at level 1.

New skill unlocked: Descent unto the Void (Rarity: Irrelevant)

Tier: Irrelevant

Level: 1

Sacrifice magic to shunt up to 999 pounds of material within 999 feet into your nullspace.

The first activation takes over a quarter of my entire magic reserves, which not a single other skill I’ve ever used has done.

But it works.

For just an instant, the nullspace—my Carnelian Domain made into my Titan’s power—manifests. It doesn’t appear for long enough to do any damage; in fact, I doubt anyone but me can actually perceive it.

When it disappears, though, so too does 999 pounds of Inome’s flesh, worked into the shattered glass desert.

I use it three more times, finding the densest concentrations of Titan-flesh to absorb into the space, and then my magic is almost entirely burnt out. My Merciless trait is all that keeps me from being as pathetic as a Category 0 soldier, limiting the expenditure of my last usage of the skill.

Adrian has fallen over when I rejoin my two partners.

“Unconscious,” Sierra says, answering my unspoken question. “Alive. The power of your new skill knocked him out cold. I will wake him. I presume you are ready?”

“As ready as I can be, yeah,” I say.

I have as much of Inome’s body as I can manage in my nullspace, ready for me to slowly Devour. The body is so thoroughly destroyed that I don’t think staying here will yield any further results.

“Then let’s go,” Sierra says, tapping Adrian on the shoulder. “To Zelin."

PT-32

[Clearance class 3 required to view. Your clearance class is: 4.]

Alternate Designations: Evelyn Carnelian; Blood Reaper

Category: 1* [Category is esoteric. See footnote[1] for more information.

Alignment: Experiment

Containment Status: Uncontained

[Article collapsed.]

Addenda

[Incidents PT-32-1 and PT-32-2 collapsed.]

Upcoming Containment Attempts

PT-32 has been sighted exiting the Wastelands alongside PP-447-7 and -8. Projected destination: Zelin.