Allowing the Parasite within him to devour the remains of Phaeia, Noah sat quietly on the ground; eyes trained on Morgiana’s floating body. He was waiting for the Parasite to inform him if it could salvage the way to free her from Phaeia’s memories.

Eyes distant and glazed over, he examined the new biomass and the metallic components of the armor he had recently devoured thanks to the Parasite within him.

His absentmindedness was a condition that occurred whenever he had an excess of food through the usage of his devouring ability. More often than not, his mind would shut down to focus all of its power on digesting the food. It was the prime reason why he would sometimes find himself in the stomach of some beasts who found him on the way.

Obviously, after blasting his way out, the tables would turn, and he would be the one preying on the beasts and eating them whole.

Eat or be eaten.

A philosophy, a law that he had to abide by for so long to live on this barbaric planet. The time that went by following this law had made his time on Earth feel like a short blip in the endless passage of time.

“How long do you think I have been on this planet now?”

— I do not know nor do I have an idea. My perception of time is tied to yours as you already know.

“Hum…”

Noah hummed quietly to himself, bones cracking, hair growing, and his body changing and adjusting as he digested the power and energy he received from the female cyclops’ body.

“Okay. Now I am sure, simple food is not enough for me to grow. I need what these people call Dark Matter to advance.”

It wasn’t like this was a discovery, but it was nice to finally have some confirmation of the theories he had weaved.

The more Dark Matter he devoured, the stronger he would become. It was pretty simple.

“Parasites are truly a cheat existence, aren’t they?”

— No, that’s not how it works. If it was that easy, we would have been the Overlords of the universe. When we devour someone, it’s not an instantaneous boost in power for us. We merely obtain memories and skills, the existence of the person we have devoured. Then the next generation born becomes even more perfect by using the memories and skills as well as some of the energy obtained from the devouring.

Parasites were dangerous entities precisely because they did not simply attack by rushing to their prey. A queen could continuously give birth to more and more perfect children the more she devoured beings. Those children would have progressively higher degrees of skills, intelligence and understanding— up to the point where one could even say that the inhabitants that they would prey upon wouldn’t just be fighting parasites but a superior version of their race.

— But you are different from us. Your innate power allows you to Adapt and forcibly evolve yourself. It may take time, but you have no need for multiple generations.

Heh, so you are implying we are the perfect team, are you?

One brought his evolution through Adaptation.

The second brought the evolution of others through Predation.

When alone, each skill took a very long amount of time, but together, Predation could increase the speed of Adaptation tremendously and lead to unexpected changes in the host.

Noah laughed, “How many times did we have this discussion?”

— Exactly 777 times. It’s a good number, I believe.

“Oh, yeah… A lucky number.”

When you had one voice in your head and all you could do was eat and live alone, even being eaten became boring and stopped being novel enough to occupy your mind.

Repeating the same discussion again and again was nothing particularly weird for the duo. Another coping mechanism for Noah and a pastime for the Parasite. The repetitive talks always occurred between his episodes of blackout or general times when his mental fortitude wavered due to a sudden change or the accumulating burden of his loneliness.

“I am tired. I want to eat some hot food. I want to sleep on a real bed.”

Wallowing in depression, he couldn’t help but hate these vulnerable moments. Moments when the walls protecting his mind weakened so much that it showed the man within. A pitiful and lonely existence with no one to a call friend and nowhere to go.

— But, you had fun, right?

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

Hearing the voice, Noah smiled, “Yeah. Fighting was fun. It has been such a long time since my heart pumped with so much excitement.”

Sighing, Noah could feel the energy returning to his body and strengthening every aspect of his existence. His sight became clearer than ever before, making the world far more vibrant and noticeable than he could ever give it credit for. His processing of the newly obtained energy had finally come to a close.

“Now how do I use this… thing, called Dark Matter?”

— I do not know.

“How much do we need before we can open that?”

— Not much more, fortunately. We are approaching the threshold. I’d say we are very close to our goals. Furthermore, I have a surprise for you. I finished studying the structure of the armor I devoured as well as the information contained in the memories of the scientist girl.

Say what now?

Tilting his head in confusion, Noah couldn’t help but retort inwardly. However, abruptly, he could feel the dark billowing substance that the voices in his head were composed of stir within him and leak out of all the pores in his body.

The change brought a curious stare from Noah, not a shred of fear could be seen on his face at the abrupt change. In the past, the Parasite was only able to manifest fully on his right side, and the full manifestation occurred in only a finger-sized space at most. Internal manifestation was a different matter altogether though, and the Parasite helped mostly by spreading through his internal organs and reinforcing them with its ominous substance. This had helped him from being bisected into two parts during his early days on this planet.

Even the shifting spear of ominous dark energy was a technique that he could hardly use in the past— becoming far easier to handle now that he had excavated all that energy from the pirate crew’s corpses.

“Not gonna lie, this looks both dope and disgusting as fuck.”

He commented in a nonchalant tone as his entire body was covered by the undulating substance, like the waves of an ever-shifting ocean, from head to toe. He couldn’t continue on his trail of thoughts for long as the texture of the armor abruptly changed and hardened.

Rather than simply being organic, he could feel a texture that was closer to metallic, like hardened titanium, encasing his whole body.

Click!

Something seemed to click in his mind as the amount of information he could receive from the Parasite and the world surrounding them increased astronomically. Be it the temperature, the structure of the room, the air quality, and even the microscopic details of the atmosphere… he could see them all, feel them all, and process them within his enhanced mind.

Everything felt new.

Everything felt different.

He felt stronger, faster, and just… better.

Like a heavily upgraded version of himself.

“What the…”

Looking at himself, Noah quietly marveled at his newest form. Arms covered in black and gold-tinged arm guards, body covered in an armor of ominous black and shifting gold, he looked like the overlord of a galactic empire. The Evil kind. He could even feel a hooded cloak and he pushed it back to reveal his face.

Finally, he couldn’t help but caress his face and feel the rough bumps of the mask.

“Holy…”

Standing up, Noah continued to admire himself before looking at his surroundings, eyes finally landing on a giant black screen.

The surface was not particularly smooth but it was more than enough for him to look at himself and marvel at his new appearance.

What he was wearing now seemed to be very close in design to the power armor he had seen everyone wearing among the pirates of Omid’s crew.

Noah did a small twirl as he inspected his butt and chuckled to himself. At least this one was not as suspicious as the clothes he was offered not long ago.

— What do you think?

“I must say… While it’s a shame I cannot grace people with my majestic appearance in this suit. But… Damn, I look badass in this getup.”

He had to fight the urge to squeal like a fanboy. If he had to be honest, while he did not mind freezing his ass in the snow, he had been quite envious of the armor he had seen everyone wearing around these parts. He wanted some of his own and now he hadsome.

“I did not know you could do something like that.”

— Honestly, I did not know myself. I guess you are not the only one who has changed due to our trips to that place.

Noah shuddered slightly. Even someone as battle-hardened as him could not help but cringe and shrink due to the phantom pain of the time when he remembered exactly where he first was after entering the wormhole back then.

That place was the reason for their fusion.

It was also most likely the reason for the change in Noah’s ability to adapt to almost anything and everything.

The Parasite Queen had not been spared from the changes either.

He shook his head and stopped looking at himself on the opaque surface. All excitement had vanished and he remembered that he did not exactly have the time to dawdle in this place.

Looking down at the controller, all the letters appeared in his vision but close to them was now a translation of their inherent meanings. In words that he could understand, of course.

“Neat. So you are using her memories?”

— Yes, but it will take a few more days to go through all her memories so I focused on the languages first.

He nodded and looked at Morgiana's pod before he used his fingers and wrote some words in the language she would be able to read.

In the end, he planned to go explore the ruin and he could not afford to have a liability close to him.

He didn’t know how strong Morgiana could be even if she used her combat mode but he did not care.

Once the memories of that scientist were processed, he wouldn’t need her either.

It was better to let her sleep here while he went and took care of Omid for her and got them out of this shithole.

The message he was leaving was just in case rescue came for her. It would be quite sad if they tried to free her only for the poison to spread and kill her from the inside, right?

“Very well. Let’s go now. I need to eat the core of those Mchas.”

Soon, one of the very first goals he gave himself since coming to this planet would be completed and for that— he would have to go on a second hunt.

This one would be far more thrilling.