Following nothing but his instincts, Orion forcibly pulled his body from the rubble. Tearing his muscles and shattering his bones in the process, but he paid them no heed. A mysterious force powering his movements all the while healing his injuries at a rapid pace.
Orion never removing his mouth from Mia's body, was unaware of the changes happening in his body at the moment.
His meal getting all of his attention.
He was even unaware that at this moment he was no longer stuck, or the fact that he was eating one of his few friends. He did whatever he did at the moment only to consume his food better, nothing else mattered.
His hands, twitching and bloodied, worked with mechanical hunger, guiding him from flesh to organ, from bone to marrow.
> [Digestion Progress – 28%]
Target: Mia Ramirez – Human – Level 2
> +2 Health, +1 Strength, +1 Endurance
He ate and ate, devouring her piece by piece, not noticing the flow of time.
From the head to the brain then the chest, the organs, the innards, and lastly the hands and legs. He didn't even leave the bones behind, grinding them with his teeth he sucked the marrow dry. Consuming anything and everything on his plate.
> [100% Consumption Complete - Target: Mia Ramirez]
+3 Health, +2 Strength, +2 Endurance, +3 Agility, +2 Mana, +1 Spirit
With each bite, his body roared with new vigor. His broken bones began to twitch, shifting. Mending.
But other than the first bite he felt no satisfaction whatsoever, his hunger rather than being satiated by the huge meal he just had was instead growing at a rapid pace, driving him mad.
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"
Orian clawed at his stomach, screaming his lungs out, trying to stop the haunting hunger he felt, now stronger than ever. He didn't know what was happening, his condition had never been even a hundredth as bad as it was now.
Now that he had nothing left to eat his reasoning was slowly coming back amidst the excruciating pain. He writhed on the floor, surrounded by cracked tiles and blood-soaked concrete.
The weight of what he had just done weighing down on him.
Memories of Mia fluttered through his mind, the jokes she made, how she talked to him, how she felt worried about him… and her laughter.
"I…I just ate…that laughter…"
A loathing feeling overcame him in an instant, even the pain of his hunger was unable to stop the despairing tears escaping his eyes, and the urge to vomit.
The revulsion he felt after registering the fact that he just ate a human being, his friend no less, was too much, causing him to gag, putting his fingers in his mouth trying to vomit, but nothing came out.
Even after eating so much his stomach was seemingly empty, sending constant signals of hunger to his brain.
Orion was going insane.
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH"
Orion cried, the despair he felt knowing he had eaten and digested Mia being so immense that his tears started turning red, blood dripped from his eyes. He didn't know what he should do, he felt lost.
But alas his suffering had just begun.
As the hunger increased it slowly overpowered his sense of guilt, once again turning him into a monster driven by desire.
More. More. MORE.
As there was nothing organic to eat around, Orion grabbed a handful of debris putting it into his mouth, only to later cough it back out, choking, as it had blocked his throat.
In the end, seeing no other option he did the unthinkable.
Without hesitation, he bit into his arm tearing off a huge chunk of meat swallowing it in a hurry without even chewing. Right now, all that was on his mind was to douse the fire burning in his stomach.
Pain lanced, then—
[Gluttony activated]
[Self-Consumption Detected – Gluttony Reversal In Effect - Your hunger is further boosted]
CRUNCH!
The sound of him biting his bone broke the notification in half; only then did the next line scroll:
HP: -11 | Strength: -2 | Essence Recycled: +10 HP, +2 Strength
> [GREED HAS BEEN STIRRED]
Your overwhelming desire to consume, to devour, to take everything you see, has awakened something within your soul.
— Greed is not a sin. It is a throne, waiting for its king.
[You have acquired a new ability]
[Authority of Greed – EX Rank (Unique)]
[Title obtained – "Holder of the Authority of Greed"]
As he ate the mysterious energy returned more powerful than ever, giving him strength and healing his wounds much faster than before. But surprisingly along with the power came an even stronger craving, the momentary satisfaction he felt after that bite already being swept away by that new wave of hunger.
Along with the hunger a wave of confusion spread over Orion as this had never happened before.
Then it clicked him.
Gluttony!
This must be the effect of gluttony.
A sense of dread overcame Orion, the thing he considered his most powerful weapon turned out to be his undoing.
Great power in exchange for great hunger.
Now Orion realized that his trump card had a great side effect, especially for someone like him.
"If only I had known its details earlier," Orion thought in despair, realizing now that it was too late. He was already trapped in a spiral of consuming himself.
The system's awakened abilities didn't come with a description like in animes, only a feeling the owner had, a hunch as to what it could do and how to use it.
Clearly, it wasn't enough.
Orion knew about the great power part but only now did he discover the great hunger aspect of his power.
Orion's thoughts ended with another bite to his body. He kept eating like a man possessed and his body kept healing at a rapid pace, forming a strange balance for some time.
But no matter how great a power gluttony was in the end it couldn't create something out of nothing. As the tug of war continued the favor slowly started shifting towards Orion. The speed of his wounds' healing started to slow down and the speed of his eating grew faster and faster fueled by an endless hunger.
…
Sometime later Orion lay on his back staring at the ceiling.
"I'm going to die," he thought "how ironic that my last meal was myself"
He had stopped eating but not because his hunger was satisfied.
No, his hunger was stronger than ever so much so in fact that his body was digesting itself from the inside out.
The reason he had stopped eating was in fact simply because he couldn't.
He had eaten both of his arms and legs, unable to support himself any longer, his mouth couldn't reach anywhere near his body.
After an unknown amount of time, his body had finally stopped healing.
Now all he could do was lie there thinking about how to devour everything. The extreme hunger and his digesting body slowly eating away at his consciousness.
His eyes blurry Orion muttered" Someone anyone please give me something to eat"
That's when he saw out of a corner of his eye a glimmering pill dropping from the sky.
He didn't care who sent it or what it was all he cared about was knowing that it was food.
Orion crawled towards the pill, using his mouth to grip the earth moving forward.
As he reached the pill without any suspense, he opened his mouth and swallowed.
But even before the momentary satisfaction hit him a thunder shook his body his muscles convulsing his eyes rupturing and his hair instantly turning white under extreme stress, Orion gritted his teeth so hard that they broke, shattering into tiny pieces swallowed by him. He was feeling pain not meant to be felt by any living thing in the universe, his very soul crying, tearing due to the pain.
He opened his mouth and wailed with all his being and more.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"