In front of him, a towering figure of a corrupted being stood tall, gazing at the blue moon.
In the creature's right hand, a lifeless woman lay unmoving.
"Aaaarrrghh..."
Another scream echoed, bringing deep sadness to those who heard it.
And then, inside the boy, an emotion began to bloom.
Hunger.
The same hunger he had felt before in the white space returned once more.
This hunger was what made him eat his own hand, so he truly hated this feeling. He didn't know why the hunger had come back. To make sure he didn't do something similar to what he did in the white space, his eyes darted quickly, searching for anything edible.
Then his eyes stopped when they landed on the towering figure. He felt a strange emotion—an urge commanding him to eat the corrupted creature.
He tried to resist, knowing how dangerous it was. But the hunger was unbearable.
As he tried to push the emotion away, something he hadn't noticed began to happen.
His right hand turned greyish black from the elbow to the tip of his fingers, and a slit opened, revealing two rows of jagged teeth—teeth that belonged to a carnivorous creature.
"Screeech!"
His right hand split into two, and from within, a monster's scream rang out. His hand had transformed into the mouth of a creature longing for food.
Then he leapt toward the corrupted creature. With all the strength he had, he charged forward.
He lost control of his body. It moved on its own, like a puppet with invisible strings. But the worst part was that he had no idea who or what was pulling those strings.
The creature still stared at the moon, unmoving like a statue. The sorrow it felt made it oblivious to its surroundings.
The boy circled around it, then jumped from behind and tried to bite the creature's head with the mouth on his right hand.
His monstrous mouth stretched to its limit, and the creature's head—twice the size of a human's—was devoured with ease. Blood splattered everywhere, covering the boy in red.
Even after its head was gone, the creature didn't move. From the wound where its head had been, something small crawled out.
It shifted and morphed into a replica of the head that had been devoured.
The creature turned to face the boy. Its two round eyes locked onto his.
"Aaaarrrghh.."
The creature screamed and lunged toward the boy, using the chains around its body like a whip in a horizontal strike.
The boy didn't have enough time to dodge. He raised his right arm to block the attack.
Boom!
The boy was thrown far to the side and crashed into the ground. He tried to stand, but his left foot bent at a strange angle. He tried again and again, but it wouldn't move.
"Aaaarrrghh."
The scream of the corrupted creature forced him to look up.
The creature pulled an iron rod from its own body and hurled it at the boy. Before the blood could gush out, the wound where the rod had been healed instantly.
Seeing the rod flying toward him, the boy rolled to the side.
Boom!
The ground where he had just lain exploded into a crater. Dust flew everywhere, blurring visibility.
As the dust surrounded him, something incredible happened. The injury in his left foot began to heal.
It didn't take long before it was completely restored.
The boy tried to stand again, and this time, unlike before, he did so easily.
The creature, seeing him rise, grew angrier. Its sorrowful tears of blood stopped flowing.
"Aarrghh."
The boy's uncontrollable body dashed toward the creature. He closed the distance quickly.
His right hand transformed into the gaping mouth again, filled with teeth. He lunged to bite, but the creature dodged and counterattacked.
They continued like this—dodging and attacking, again and again. Neither landed a decisive blow.
Then the boy's body jumped back and scanned the area. His pupils moved rapidly, searching for something. They stopped when he spotted a woman's corpse.
"Oh no, don't do that."
He tried to stop himself. He knew what would happen if he reached the woman.
"No, no, don't eat my mother," the boy pleaded. But his body didn't care.
He dashed to the corpse on the ground and swallowed it whole with the mouth on his right hand.
"Aahh nooo.."
The boy screamed, but no sound came from his lips. The body vanished into his hand.
"Aaarghhh.."
The creature screamed again, this time with fury and rage. The power of the scream cracked the ground and shattered the surroundings.
The boy didn't wait. He dashed toward the creature with all his might. His speed had increased after consuming his mother.
He bit into the creature's flesh over and over. Blood splashed in every direction.
The creature could no longer dodge the boy's attacks.
But its wounds healed as quickly as they appeared. Each time the boy bit it, it regenerated.
The more the boy ate, the stronger he became. But the creature, too, grew stronger with every wound it suffered.
They returned to the same stalemate—attacking and dodging, without gaining ground.
Realizing this, the boy leapt back and opened the monstrous mouth in his right hand even wider.
It stretched to twice its normal size and began to suck in everything before it—debris, rubble, anything that could be swallowed.
The creature couldn't keep its footing. It searched for something to hold onto but found nothing.
It tried to dig its claws into the ground, but even that wasn't enough.
The suction was too strong. It dragged the massive creature—twice the size of a human—toward the boy.
"Aaaarrrghh.."
The creature screamed, digging deeper, trying to resist. But nothing worked.
Its body was pulled in.
Devoured by the mouth on the boy's right hand.
And once again, silence returned to the night.
The boy's body collapsed to the ground. He remained conscious, aware of what had happened, but he couldn't move.
High above him, silhouetted against the moonlight, a winged creature—its wings twice the size of a human's—glided silently through the sky.