I screamed in fear as a volcanic eruption exploded beneath Aurelia’s feet, her form vanishing from sight as a towering cloud of ash ascended into the dark sky, blotting out even the colors of the convergences above. The last remnants of my meal were dissolving into my flesh as I quickly attempted to polymorph my body—however, I felt a force pressing down upon me, stopping my transformation. Glancing up from my puddle, I froze when I noticed a large puff of pink hair.
“Granny, w-what—”
“Shush and listen,” Death cut me off. “You’re not ready to take on an ascended god, or whatever they call themselves. It’s not for a lack of power; it’s simply that you lack any and all experience.”
“Well, that’s not my fault; you removed my level from my stat sheet,” I muttered.
“Not level experience—fighting and magical experience,” Death tsked. “Seriously, what was Duskara thinking rebirthing you?”
“It’s not like I haven’t been trying,” I grumbled softly. “I don’t have time for this. Aurelia needs me—” My words halted as I noticed a large dragon emerging from the ash. Clutched in its oversized talons was that dragon bitch, her wounds healing rapidly before my gaze. “What the fuck?” I added in a hushed whisper.
“And that’s the ascended god I mentioned, Zarathos or something like that. I honestly haven’t been keeping track of all these toddlers running around for the last eon or two.”
“Toddlers?” I wanted to raise an eyebrow at her, considering she didn’t look older than nine, but—you know—I didn’t have a face at the moment. “Whatever, I’ve got to go help,” I insisted. Yet, despite my resolve, I found myself unable to leave.
“You’re no match for that dragon as you are now,” she warned.
“Then why don’t you go kill him?” I shot back. “It’d be like fighting a toddler, right?”
“Honestly, I really don’t care if he destroys this entire moon and everyone on it, or if he drops dead from constipation. If you weren’t Duskara’s, I wouldn’t even bother being here; I’d simply go back to sleep within a peaceful dream. However, things are changing,” Death said, her eyes lifting to the sky at the double convergence as she finished her words. She then lowered her voice and added, “Old foes are reemerging, the wheels of reincarnation have finally turned, and the great war is about to resume. To survive, you must pick a side and grow stronger, darker, and deadlier. But above all, you must understand what you are fighting for or risk devouring everything.”
What the fuck is she going on about?
The hell if I know.
“I have no clue what you’re going on about,” I blurted out.
Death sighed and shook her head, “Child.”
“Look, I really don’t care about all that; all I want right now is to kick that dragon’s ass,” I insisted, struggling to polymorph into my human form. But damn, it felt like this little girl had some kind of presence preventing me from doing anything. Yeah, I knew it was all a façade Death liked to wear—she wasn’t truly some little girl. Turning back to the matter at hand, I pressed, “What exactly do I need to do to win this fight?”
“Devour everything,” she replied, her expression innocent.
“…Wait, didn’t you just say something about knowing what I was fighting for, or risking devouring everything?”
“Huh, and here I thought you weren’t listening to me.”
“W-Who are you?” I heard Sophia stammer out, but I didn’t pay her any mind.
Death also ignored her, continuing in a hushed tone, “Devour. Devour it all—the mana, your spells, your abilities, your skills! Don’t stop until it’s all been devoured.”
I blinked in confusion. She must be talking about my system skills, right? Could I really devour my own skills? Unsure of how to do what Death suggested, I pulled up the skill’s description.
[Devourer]
The potential absorption of a random skill from a formidable foe you’ve eaten.
Type
Racial Skill
Activation
Passive
I squinted at the description, my gaze flicking between it, the little girl hovering over me, and back to the system screen repeatedly. I understood that skill descriptions were generally more of a guideline, but this didn’t even hint at what this pink froyo suggested. After a long moment, I finally uttered, “You’re bullshitting me, right?”
Death let out her umpteenth sigh—like seriously, does everyone have to sigh when I’m talking with them? It’s not like I do that… to them. Okay, disregard that last comment. Yeah, I know I sigh a lot, whatever.
“You’ve already done it once with that other pudding,” Death replied.
“What?”
I think she’s talking about Phantasia.
Yeah, but we didn’t get a system skill from it.
No, but as long as we have the pudding, we can summon as many tiny Phantasias as we desire since she has become a part of us.
So? What does that have to do with the price of tea in China?
“I don’t know what this China is, but stop putting so much thought and effort into controlling what should be a primal instinct,” Death interrupted my internal dialogue, horrifying me with the revelation that she could hear the conversation between my two halves. “You’ve been given the body of a Black Pudding or Eldritch Pudding. Stop thinking, and just do.”
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
“But I didn’t just do that to Phantasia. It was the system that gave me the option,” I whined.
“And… how did it feel when you did it?” Death leaned in close. “Stop thinking, and just do. Devour your skills, devour the mana around you. When you’re ready, devour yourself while you’re at it—I don’t care. But if you want to survive and prevent my favorite of my last three children from being sad, learn to devour all in your path. Just do not devour souls, or you and I will have a problem,” she said, punctuating her warning with a wink.
Can we actually devour souls?
Apparently not. But I’m more curious about what she meant by ‘devour yourself?’
...I think you should stay on your side of our subconscious.
What’s wrong, Dream? You don’t want a hug?
Hell no, stay away from me!
Ignoring the random thoughts bouncing around in my head, I began, “Any pointers...” but my question died as I noticed Death had vanished without a trace. “Figures,” I muttered.
Closing my eyes while holding back a few choice curse words for that wannabe loli, I turned my attention inward. I wasn’t concentrating on anything specific, just trying to clear my mind—which was really challenging with two subconscious minds (souls) constantly bickering. No kidding, is this what having ADHD feels like? I’m being serious because I have no clue how to self-diagnose myself here. Thank goodness there’s no WebMD in this world, or I’d be convinced I was dying from cancer—I mean, really, I remember using that site in my last life, and no matter what symptoms I looked up, from a common cold to a stubbed toe, the answer was always cancer. Where was I going with this again? Oh, right, clearing my mind!
From the eruption to my conversation with Granny Death, only a few short moments had passed. The dragon had been unleashing a few roars that rumbled the ground and mountains around me, but I paid it no mind as my thoughts went blank. Now, I was fairly confident I could use Devourer without the system, but I didn’t bother trying since I didn’t have another Racial Skill to replace it, and it was a passive skill. However, that didn’t mean I wasn’t attempting to do just that right now, as I simultaneously tried to use the system variant of it as an active skill. My first target: Weak Fire Ward.
Now, I know what you’re thinking—because I was about to think the same thing before I remembered not to think, just do—devouring a system skill sounds idiotic and makes no sense. However, I prefer to think of it not so much as devouring, but as downloading a system skill directly into my soul(s)—shoot, I’m thinking again! My bad, there’s no time to think this through, I just need to do it.
“Devour. Devour it all—the mana, my spells, my abilities, my skills! Don’t stop until it’s all been devoured.” I muttered over and over, like some dark mantra.
NOTICE
Error
System Spell Skill [Weak Fire Ward] Has Been Corrupted.
I didn’t even bother to stop and read the notification as I kept moving down the list of system skills, one after another, feeling a flood of information and knowledge washing through me. Spells and abilities alike felt as though I’d spent decades learning each one of them.
NOTICE
Error
System Spell Skill [Phantasmal Surge] Has Been Corrupted.
NOTICE
Error
System Spell Skill [Acid Breath] Has Been Corrupted.
NOTICE
Error
System Spell Skill [Phantasmal Mist] Has Been Corrupted.
I even tried to access my two unique skills, Birthright and Sovereign Heiress, still unsure of what they actually do. But much to my bitterness, nothing happened. Tempted to go through my list of Immunities, I hesitated, not wanting to risk losing one. I could thank Nightmare for her—or perhaps my own—methodical caution. That being said, I found a part of my subconscious eyeing my Vulnerabilities. With a wicked smile, she—no, I—dove into Fire and Holy, not bothering to even read the notifications. Was it impulsive? Yes. Was it stupid? Absolutely! Why did I do it this way, you ask? Because half of my soul, Dream, is a freaking psychopath who refuses to listen to reason. It’s like having an insane three-year-old running around in your mind. Self-preservation, logic, and reason—what are those?
Dream—crap, no, it was me—laughing as my body slowly formed. Simultaneously, Nightmare—again, also me—folded my arms at my own absurdity. However, before I could start berating myself, I froze as two new system notifications popped up.
NOTICE
[Phantasmal] has been unlocked in your selectable skill options.
Do not rush to devour this one.
NOTICE
Devouring [Holy] vulnerability has failed.
A bit greedy, aren’t you?
NOTICE
[Unholy] has been unlocked in your selectable skill options.
Don’t rush to devour this one right away, either.
I blinked at the three notifications that caught my eye, a smile slowly creeping across my face. Of course, I was a bit bummed about not being able to remove Holy from my vulnerability list, but hey, with all the knowledge flooding my mind right now, I didn’t really care. I laughed and laughed, oblivious to the gazes that landed on me—I’m pretty sure one of them was from that dragon.
Before going to kick some ascended wannabe god’s ass, I gave my system sheet a quick glance.
Name: Blake
Race: Demigod Pudding
Class: Phantasm
Titles
Descendant of the End
Scion of Dreams and Nightmares
Racial Skills
[Devourer]
Spells
NONE
Abilities
NONE
Vulnerabilities
[Holy]
Immunities
[Acid]
[Darkness]
[Disease]
[Poison]
[Sleep]
Unique
[Birthright]
[Sovereign Heiress]
Selectable
[Phantasmal]
[Unholy]
My laughter paused as I stared at the sheet. If I didn’t know that I had just learned all those skills without needing the system’s aid from now on, I’d be freaking out right now. But I had, so that was a good thing. However, two things caught my attention: first, my race had changed again. I was no longer an Eldritch Pudding; now, I was a Demigod Pudding. Holy shit! A freaking Demigod, or well, Demigoddess. Then there was the second thing…
What the hell, Dream! Where’s the Charm in Immunities?
What? We were on a roll with devouring and truly learning our skills, so I thought that would be a good immunity skill to test it out on.
If I could choke half my subconscious out, I’d totally do it right now. Grudgingly, I shifted my eyes to the Vulnerabilities section, smiling as I noticed Fire was gone. Though, I had the feeling it would still hurt, considering I wasn’t immune to it, but hopefully, I wouldn’t be as flammable.
Shaking my head, I glared up at the dragon, which seemed more interested in the woman it was protectively holding in its talons. Pulling my eyes from my opponent, I glanced around for Aurelia, but unfortunately, I couldn’t find her in all the smoke, ash, and soot filling the air. A tinge of panic found its way into my dark heart, but if I knew one thing about the woman I loved, it was that she was fine, most likely waiting for her moment to strike.
I pulled my eyes to the specters that stood protectively before me and the woman in front of me. My eyes drifted to the back of Sophia’s head, a slight grin spreading across my face.
“Devour everything,” I whispered with dark glee.