[Warning: Detecting symptoms of acute dissociative tendencies. Regarding host, no appreciable response to revival attempts.]
[Notice: Three rewards pending review, suspended until further notice.]
[Notice: Attempting to override manual control in the hope of mitigating possible harm to the host...]
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I've never been so alive!
Oh, the unique rapture of this wonderful experience!
Drowning oneself in the lifeblood of the living, truly the bliss that not even gods could fully appreciate.
Yes... nothing but a monster could revel in this macabre. Only a monster's raison d'etre could solely revolve around the consumption of another. And what more would one need? Never stop to think, never stop to rationalize or dare hesitate for petty justification. This is not hunger, no, not at all, for why would one consume simply for survival, when there is so much more?
The growing ecstasy, the bubbling laughter and unbridled mirth. None of it tires. With every drop of theirs comes an ocean's weight in both, colliding against waning reason.
More... give me more! Before I rend everything to pieces, and the last second I have is lost to the death that comes for me!
Hm? What's this? There's nothing left? Already? Time to move on then.
A wall? Window? There's more on the other side, isn't there? What is a wall? What is a window? Obstructions that are in my way. I don't like that very much. Let's fix that.
It's strong. Much stronger than I am. No matter what, it won't yield. But I have that! Yes. What once dared to consume me will now become my tool. It burned, it's useful, but there's so little of it...
Ah, much better. Those insufferable walls are gone now. It's so simple. They melt away with little more than a light touch. I love simplicity, I absolutely adore it.
But 'they're' hiding. One still remains. It fell down, just like the walls and a gentle rain. So fragile, so obedient. I love that too. But it still moves. What a tormenting thought, that my prey would be allowed to move. Let's fix that.
Hm? What's this? How lovely, 'they' have come back. More to satisfy this never-ending catharsis of mine.
There's walls again? Many more every which way. Obstructions, I despise them, these endless walls! Let's fix that.
Yet these walls don't listen to the corrosion in my grasp. They will not give way to my pleasure, they will not melt away!
What is this, what is this, what is this?
[N....ot..ice:...]
No. Come back to me...
[...In...atin...g override.]
Don't leave... I haven't tasted what heaven's like yet!
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Among the few things I remember, I knew that I had a life before this one. It's so spotty in places, broken to pieces. Another thing that I remember are the things we learn as children, those bare necessities that many take for commonsense. Someone once said "You shouldn't kill", and at some point these ideas became morals, then became laws. I don't remember if I took them seriously or not, and maybe good didn't describe me as a human being, not that I knew if I was evil while I was human. Or whatever I am now.
That's what I thought, as I looked down on the scene before me. But if I recall correctly, people didn't call this evil. No. They'd say this was the work of a monster, didn't they?
I don't remember how it happened, but the room no longer resembled the one I knew, but a hellscape. That monster... it's gone. So were the wall and window, and I found that I was on the opposite side, where they once stood. In their place flowed an oozing mire of grayish foam, thin wisps of steam rose from the muck.
Likewise, the stone flooring below resembled a patchwork of scarred blocks, scored so deeply with liquified stone that the piping infrastructure underneath laid completely bare, a scarlet fluid similar to the kind from my tank bubbled to the surface. The lights on the ceiling flickered, deeply gouged, and some completely shattered to pieces. Glass particles still trickled down in silvery motes. The dust in the air from the collapsed wall hadn't settled yet as it whirled about the ruined room. There must be a ruptured ventilation duct somewhere to cause that.
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I soon noticed a dark puddle, round with a tapering trail. I followed it down with my gaze, every length I traversed only worsened the welling unease in the core of my being.
"He doesn't look so good, does he?"
The blood trail led to one of the robed people from before. Several others hovered around. He didn't seem conscious of their attempts to rouse him as he laid with his back against the wall. Who am I kidding, who would if both of their legs were missing? He's practically chalk white, despite that darkly tanned skin. If I had to guess, he didn't have much longer to worry about it.
I could tell they were shouting, silently against my non-existent hearing. The whole bunch looked completely wrecked. Scratches, bruises, some with blood trickling down their faces. That one from before, the one that took notes, he had taken off his robe to frantically wrap it around the wounded one's gushing stumps. Some of his hair on the side of his head was missing, the scalp underneath red and swollen. Burned off maybe?
But more importantly, the woman standing between us.
Remarkably short, or at least compared to the others behind her. She didn't pay any heed to those behind her. No less than forty, perhaps pushing her fifties judging by the graying roots of her long, auburn hair. But the robes she wore... they're the same as theirs.
Her eyes showed no malice or fear, yet she didn't appear calm. More of... shock, maybe?
She held her hand out. She wasn't beckoning me. She almost acted like she was... holding me back? At about the same time I realized my contact with the floor no longer existed. A thin film whisked past my field of view, the kind of effect you might see from rippling water. It's almost like...
Hah... this isn't magic, is it?
There's no mistaking it. She's using magic.
[Notice:...]
Still haven't gotten used to this thing speaking out of nowhere. You'd think that out of everything I've experienced so far, this wouldn't startle me. Go figure.
[Manual control of host's faculties will now resume. Three pending award cycles now in progress. Would you like to hear their summaries?]
Awards? Did I do something to deserve them?
Yes.
[Notice: Confirmation accepted.]
[Notice: With the host's capacity for mana now manifested, summaries will be updated accordingly.]
[Notice: With the host's capacity for combat now manifested, summaries will be updated accordingly.]
[Notice: With the host's capacity for active skills now manifested, summaries will be updated accordingly.]
[Proficiency requirements met. Innate skill Predation awarded.]
[Predation: When consuming a live target, absorb a portion of the target's body mass. On doing so, the host's own body mass will expand in proportion to that absorbed. A small portion of the consumed mass is converted to the host's bonus mana. These effects are temporary, and will subside with time. Effect stacks with the amount of organic material absorbed, only limited by the host's SDC. +1 Strength, +1 vitality.
Mana cost: 0.
Damage: Conditional execute.
Cooldown: none.
Bonus Passive: All bonus mass absorbed increases the total vitality of the host in a 1:1 proportion of mass absorbed. 10% of absorbed mass will be converted to bonus mana.
Limiting Passives: 1. Avoid exceeding the SDC (Current status: 2.3/10). 2. Bonuses decay exponentially over 24 hours. 3. Diffusion constant does not scale with rank or host level.]
[Notice: Award Cycle complete.]
Compared to my first time hearing it, the voice's descriptions have gotten a lot more wordy, although the jolt I experienced before felt like only a tingle. What was that again? A conditional execute? Am I expected to fight? I hate to say it, but I might need to hear this again in the future before digesting what that implied.
[Notice: Second award cycle will now begin.]
[Proficiency requirements met. Innate skill "Fission" awarded.]
[Mass Division: Isolate a portion of the host's mass, subsequently ejecting the mass for later use. +1 Vitality.
Mana cost: 0.
Damage: none
Cooldown: none.
Bonus Passive: Reabsorbing the isolated mass returns its total to the host.
Limiting Passives: 1. Exceeding the SDC through re-absorption is ill-advised. 2. Isolating matter greater than 90% of the host's mass at a certain base threshold is ill-advised.]
[Notice: Award Cycle complete.]
None of it makes sense. Not surprising. Nothing up to this point does.
[Notice: Third award cycle will now begin...]
Well? Are you going to say it? How long are you going to leave me hanging?
While it stalled, I turned my attention back to the woman. She's a lot farther away now, or maybe I am. Oh, I am farther away. I'm not in the same room as them... or what was a room. She must have moved me, since I was back in the cell again, and the bubble around me dissipated to drop me to the floor. The moment it did, a low rumble from the ruined wall announced the summoning of a rough barrier of rubble to cover the gaping hole.
Magic sure is something.
All I can remember after trying to eat my way out of that creature was that instinctual grasp of hunger. Looking at all of this, I came to only one conclusion: that I caused it. I... hurt that man. I don't feel remorseful about it. Though the idea that I could've done it clashed heavily against my morals. I know I still have some, maybe. Besides, how could have done all this anyway? It wasn't long ago that I barely had the ability to move!
Ahh... that's just an excuse isn't it? In reality, I'm taking all this too easily, aren't I? Imagining the man laying there, with his life pumping out of him with every breath. It didn't evoke anything from me. I couldn't feel for him. Perhaps it was because he was one of them? One of the bastards that took everything away from me? A deep-seated antipathy for the ones that took things I couldn't even remember I had?
No. It's simpler than that, isn't it? I just couldn't. As though I didn't have that basic, organic sympathy for another living being.
Still, I couldn't help but think that perhaps, if magic existed in this world, he could live. Miracles can happen surely, like what I just witnessed with that woman's powers, so it's not impossible.
[Proficiency requirements met...]
If not, and he dies, that would mean I'm just a...
[Title:]
Monster, right?
[Human Slayer, awarded.]