I sit on the ground beside the wolf. Now I look at him carefully, his body is skinny and weak. I guess he hasn’t eaten anything for days.

The moon shines brightly in the sky, illuminating the forest. An eerie silence accompanied us.

If my black flame isn’t a flame, then what is it?

When I fought the bear, I believed that my black ‘flame’ is an actual flame while the reality it’s not truly a flame. The flame doesn’t burn his flesh, it's destroying it. That’s why it is so painful, but how can it be hot?

Then, I tried to change its form to a box and it did. I can move it around wherever I want and suddenly it hit me.

What if my flame isn’t an actual flame?

I thought, maybe only the form is a flame, but it’s actually isn’t one.

Then, I want to close the wolf’s wound with my flame, but it’s not an actual flame, that’s why it won’t work. But why is the wolf feeling pain? The flame isn’t tearing his flesh, which means that the wolf is only suffering from the heat.

How can he suffered from the heat but the flame isn’t even hot? Then I thought maybe this black thing isn’t hurting the wolf through physical contact but rather with his mind or mental.

The black thing can hurt people physically and mentally too. The heat is only an illusion that the wolf imagined, it is not real.

I manipulated the black thing into black ‘flame’ unconsciously, which is why it’s hot and painful.

So, I manipulated the black ‘flame’ into something harmless, something that could close a wound. And it hit me again.

If it can destroy things, can it heal things?

But that is just a hypothesis, I don’t know if it will work or not.

So I gambled, I wanted it to become a ‘flame’ that could heal. A healing flame.

If it fails, he will die. If it works, then good job me.

And it worked. Not only closing the wound, it’s literally healing it. I don’t even know how I came to that conclusion… I mean, it’s like I already knows how it work but I can’t remember the full details and suddenly it just happened. I saved him.

This black thing… What are you? It can kill people, heal people, solidify, liquify, and whatnot.

I covered my right hand with the flame and played it around a little.

If I focused really hard, I can feel a surge of power enveloping my hand. Oddly enough, I didn’t notice it before. This power doesn’t feels foreign or uncomfortable, it’s pretty nice actually.

I tried to hit a tree with my right hand, not too strong, not too weak either. The tree got blown away pretty far. It could strengthen my body? I don’t really understand how it works.

Why didn’t I tried this sooner? I’m so stupid.

There’s a lot of things I want to try, but staying here any longer would be dangerous. I glanced at the wolf, he’s sleeping soundly. I wonder what he thinks about me?

I carried him carefully and took him with me. I don’t know any safe place, so I just kept walking and hoping we won’t encounter any monster on the way.

Who would put a bear trap in this forest anyway? Is someone hunting something? There must be someone who puts that trap and it can’t be far.

…

I’ve walked more than 5 hours, the wolf doesn’t show any signs of waking up and I still haven’t found any road or a house.

I’ve been attacked by monsters more than once, but luckily they are just green lions. I would be in a trouble if I encountered a bull or anaconda. The bull is very annoying, always moving in herds, I don’t even...

The anaconda is even more annoying. They hid themselves, waiting for the right moment to strike and ambushed me when I slightly lowered my guard. Fortunately, I rarely met them.

It’s already dawn, the sun is rising and my encounter with monsters is decreasing.

For the past 4 days I felt weird, I don’t know why and then I realized… I’m not wearing any clothes.

Maybe I should skin these monsters… or not. I can’t handle the gore. I will figure it out later.

When I woke up in this world, I always thought I’m in a dream. I can’t feel pain, I don’t have sense of touch, I can’t even speak.

Even now, I’m still doubting myself, am I dreaming or not? Everything that happened is too surreal, like I was in a fantasy book.

Am I really a golem? Is magic truly exist? If I’m really a golem, then is there any way to become a human again? What is my purpose in this world? Who took me here?

I really hope someone could teach me about this world, but I can’t speak, how do I communicate with them? What kind of language they speak anyway?

Now I’m really curious about the people of this world.

I can’t just casually waved my hand at them and hoping they would kindly teach me about this world. It would be ridiculous.

Is Sign Language a thing in this world? Heck, even if they do, I don’t even know how to speak Sign Language.

Hmm? Wait a second.

The wolf is already awake, but he remained silent. What’s wrong with him?

I put him on the ground. Would he run away?

…

3 minutes passed, there’s no reaction at all.

I crouched down and stared his eyes.

I… I recognized that eye, I’ve seen it everyday long ago. He has the same eyes like a dead fish.

An empty eye. He has no will to live. He give up on living.

Being abandoned by his own kin leave a huge scar on his heart. I understand it too well.

Shit, he reminded me of that memory again. Why? Why do you have that eyes? Why are you giving up? You are alive aren’t you? I saved you, please… please don’t give up.

I remember… I gave up too.

I gave up on living. I have the same eyes like you.

What have I ever done to get punished like this? Did I get cursed or something? Does god hates me? There’s no one helped me. I… I can’t remember what’s happened next.

Every time I see his eyes, he reminded me of my past. My past was very bitter and dark, I don’t think I want to get my memories back anymore.

I just… I just don’t want to see anyone went through the same things like me. I don’t want to see people suffer.

But at the same time, I hate people too. I hate those ignorant and selfish people to the point I want to kill them. Uh-oh, I’m starting to feel dizzy, what’s happening?

I’m feeling anger and hate… I want to destroy, to kill everything

Where did this emotions come from!? Dammit, stop! My head is about to explode!

Kill and consume, a voice whispered on my head like a mantra until I slammed my head on the ground.

I don’t know who you are but stop trying to manipulate me! I’m me and me alone! I won’t succumb to your will!

… What the hell was that? That voice, it sounds familiar, I’ve heard it somewhere before. He told me to kill and consume but what does it mean?

Has someone been following me this whole time? No, I don’t think so, it doesn’t make any sense. I guess it’s The Devil’s Whisper, huh?

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Then I realized that the wolf is still laying on the ground still with his dead fish eyes.

What are you going to do now? Laying around until you die?

You can’t die here, I saved you dammit! You owe me a life!

No, I will change it.

I will remove those dead eyes.

I won’t let you end up like me.

I will save you.

I won’t abandon you.

I promise.

I carried him again and took him with me. It will be dangerous if I fight a monster while carrying him around, first I will find a safe place for him to rest.

I walked for around 30 minutes and found a giant tree. This tree is quite unique, some of its leaves are red, while the rest are green. I can use this place as my hideout.

…

I dug a hole deep enough to keep him safe from monsters. It’s about… hmm I don’t really know it’s size but it’s quite spacious enough for 5 people. I covered it with leaves and twigs to camouflage it.

The hole is beside the giant tree. I dug it right beside the tree so that I won’t get lost when I have to get back, it’s hard to not notice after all.

Alright, let’s hunt.

-3 hours later-

I killed 2 green lions and brought it back to my hideout, it’s still noon, not many monsters loitering around.

When I got back, the wolf just laying on the ground, thank god no one came here.

I showed him the green lions, the wolf is actually startled speechless. Oh? A new reaction.

I told him to eat, but he remained silent. Nope, you are going to eat, like it or not.

I grabbed him and forced him to eat. He yelped but I don’t care and keep stuffing his mouth with meat.

Finally, the wolf ate those meat anyway. I took the monster core and absorb them, as expected it is worthless to me. I wonder, can the wolf absorb core too?

I tried to petted his head, he seems happy for a brief moment before he became emotionless again.

Yep, this is good… I think.

There’s many things I want to test with this flame and while doing so, I will make sure to keep him safe no matter what.

And so, another week has passed.

…………

I’ve experimented a lot of things with my black flame for past week and my relation with the wolf has progressed.

I can’t keep calling him ‘the wolf’ forever can I? So I thought of a name.

His name is Ren.

It’s not very creative and original… but it suits him right?

His eyes is filled with passion and vigor now, no more stupid dead fish eyes. Does he found a reason to live? I do not know.

I’ve trained my reflexes and controlling my power these last few days. I’m not a master so I can’t really tell am I doing a good job or not but I’m sure it’s not bad at all.

I thought killing monsters would make me feel guilty but it doesn’t. We are in a god-knows-where forest of monster, it’s pretty obvious the weak get eaten while the strong prevail.

Occasionally, I took Ren with me to hunt. He’s actually doing a great job, I’m starting to wonder what the hell were they thinking when they abandoned their own kin.

And that’s not all. I’ve been experimenting with my black flame too. There’s actually a lot of useful things I can do with it, such as.

Solidify the flame into a sword, spear, shield, axe, and whatnot. I think I can make clothes with it.

Liquify the flame into a whip, rope, and other things.

I can reinforce my own body. multiplying my strength and speed by ten folds.

I can heal and destroy living beings.

And the most important thing is that I can reinforce another being besides myself.

I’ve tried to reinforce Ren’s body, the result was beyond my expectation.

I enveloped his body carefully with my flame, I made the flame to neutral state. Slowly, I reinforced his body bit by bit, it progressed quite smoothly until his body absorbed my flame.

He actually absorbed it! I was shocked and panicked, I thought he was going to die.

But the opposite happened. His became much more stronger, smarter, faster and more... bigger. His body is two times bigger of his original size, he has the same height as me now. I’ve tried to reinforce his body again but… that’s it, his physical capabilities does increased a lot, nothing more.

After a week, his intelligence and strength has increased to a whole new level.

He sees, he learns, and he imitates. How I fight and how I react, he analyzed all of it. Because of that, our teamwork is very extraordinary. He truly impressed me.

I’ve gave him some of my monster cores but he just ignored it. I guess he can’t absorb it, huh? I wonder why.

The image of a skinny, weak young wolf has been replaced by a Big, strong independent wolf now.

Everytime he did a good job, I always petted his head. He looks very happy while wagging his tail around. Even so, I have to say he looks pretty badass now.

I thought my power is too overpowered, it can reinforce my body, it can be a deadly weapon and it can be casted on other people. Such power must have a couple drawbacks.

And so, I tested it to the limit.

I expanded the flame until I reached my maximum limit and tried to maintain the form as long as I can. I made the flame harmless or it would be a disaster.

I can expand it around 70 meters with 50 meter height or so, and I can maintain the form for about 8 hours.

And after that, my head feels dizzy, vision is getting blurry, body feels weak and I can’t barely move. Luckily when that happened Ren was beside me, keeping me safe from monsters.

Other than that, I haven’t found anything. Not even a clue about The Devil’s Whisper.

These last few days was pretty uneventful, it was just hunting for food and monster cores everyday.

It’s not like I hated it but… it’s boring. I’ve never encountered the pink bear anymore and I don’t know if that is a good thing or not.

The next morning, I and Ren is going to leave the hideout and continue the journey.

I thought when he regained his strength he would run off to the wild or something. I guess I was wrong, huh?

We kept walking, hunting, and surviving, hoping we will find a human settlement soon.

And so, 5 months passed.

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If you found any grammar mistakes, please do tell. I'm a human after all.