Stepping through the great gate to a new world, the first thing the demon tried to do was assemble itself before almost instantly dying.
That gave it a slight pause. It had gone through to two unclaimed worlds before, one that already had an owner and one that didn’t but neither time in the past had it met its end so quickly. Perhaps that should have been a cause for concern when it hadn’t even seen what had killed it but it paid that fact no real mind, instead trying again, only to get the exact same result.
Now that was a genuine problem. Twice it had died and twice it didn’t know why, not even giving it enough time to glimpse the world its god would soon own. It pressed out more from there, trying to come out of the gate from different angles to see if it would have any success but with each instant failure it had realized it had to accept a certain fact, everything going through that particular gate was doomed.
Supposedly such things happened on occasion. Its kind weren’t ones who would casually chat and what little language they’d held before they’d had a new tongue bond to them didn’t make that any easier but certain facts did spread, with that one forcing it to realize that it had to treat that planet with slightly more caution that the others it had personally watched fall and it forced its way back through the network, ignoring the tens of thousands of others of its kind that were racing to their doom as it instead began looking at each of the remaining gates with a more critical eye, going through each one.
It died at three more no matter what it did, marking that world as considerably more dangerous than what it was used to, with the rest having various levels of risk among the ones it could access. Though on different paths, he knew the aquatic members of its kind were claiming portions of that planet too which left it a bit of curiosity if those gates were more or less safe but ignored the question in the end.
Of the nearly one hundred and sixty paths left to it, there were fifty where it died often enough in its first five minutes out that it decided to ignore those options too for what dangers they held, narrowing the demon’s choices down to whatever seemed the safest until its decision was made and grabbing itself new limbs, went out to take the world for whatever food and strength it held.
It raced out with the rest of its kind, following its instincts as it went while keeping its main eyes ahead. It died going straight so instead it turned right, feeling its teeth rip through one of the world’s current owners as it did when they stood in its way.
It wasn’t long after an attack killed some of its limbs and while it considered taking a different path to avoid it, the further out from the gate it went the harder it was becoming to escape unscathed, with certain paths being revealed as safer the entire time it went despite what it viewed as the more sensible options.
It could see that the farther out it went with all of the limbs it had gathered, the better its odds were of coming under fire, with the risk growing ever greater as it tried to gauge the optimal path for itself to travel.
Giving them all up was a non-option. Even if it would have been safer in the short term, it would have been left practically blind as a result, but it appeared some trimming was necessary as it let bits of its collective flesh feel the bite of their waiting food’s steel or spells. It could always gather more if need be but itself, its core, was too valuable to allow to come to harm on something like that and it continued to push through, killing the entire way.
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By the end, it was down to twelve limbs at its disposal but that was more than enough. It had broken through, leaving the far simpler task of taking down any of the surrounding meals that had a bit too much fight in them. For those it stopped caring about safety, more than happy to overwhelm them and feel them squirm in its jaws as it went farther out into that new world.
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As with the last two worlds it had enjoyed, that one was a feast. The entire planet was full and ready to be consumed, waiting for it to delight in while the new voice in its head occasionally spoke out at the growth of it or its limbs as the weeks went on, telling them they’d become something more.
It was a feature he’d grown to relish in ever since it had appeared, feeling the strength that came with it each time it made itself known and made the demon desire nothing more than to hear it again, driving its desire for growth, even as its path took it to easier meals and away from that new civilization as a whole.
After all, just because it was ignoring the dominant species of the planet for the time didn’t mean there wasn’t still plenty to be enjoyed. There were fights to be had and flesh to eat among the dumber bits of wildlife as it grew its strength after years of starvation, preparing to take on the rest of the world, whether that meant slaying its natives or its own kind.
And there were other reasons to go out beyond the bounds of whatever civilization was trying to fight against its god’s will as well. It had hoped it might gain some stronger limbs than what it currently had out in the wilds, even if what it had found had been largely lacking and implied that it had made a mistake in that part of its journey, but in the end it didn’t matter. There would always be more and as its kin cleared the planet, the demon would take anything worthwhile that was left.
With a goal in mind, there was plenty of time before it needed to get to it, time to grow its strength before too many more of its kind would arrive, but it found a new group of prey entering its domain sooner than expected. It had happened before of course and like the last times, it had sent some limbs out to handle it, only to see them die.
That surprised it enough that it held them back instead as it looked at the new group once more, feeling all of the paths their existences created.
There were many. Too many. The more there were, the more options there were to be had, that had always been true but a group like that shouldn’t have been able to create so many for themselves and with how its limbs died along so many of those paths, it told the demon that the new limbs it so desired may have just fallen into its lap.
It watched longer, seeing as they eventually split up before taking them for itself, feeling as the area it encompassed grew when it took them in before focusing on the final ones.
Still too many paths were being made, showing it that it was a member of that last crowd that had been responsible and only made the demon want them more. While it had already found great power in the others it had claimed, the potential one of them must have held had to have been enormous in a way that was irresistible, with only one issue. No matter what it did, no matter what path it walked, it couldn’t take them.
That created the problem as to why, with the answer unseen no matter how many paths it looked down, but just because it couldn’t in the moment didn’t mean it wouldn’t be able to figure it out later. They were trapped and alone with it and it knew it was far greater than them, so despite already having seen how it would turn out, it reached forth to take them all, only to feel something it hadn’t been prepared for as something else reached back.