Kaela watched Ori in stunned silence.
He sliced, bit into, and crushed the beasts, every next kill granting him more strength.
"Is that… What all Threadrippers are like?"
Of course, she couldn't have known that Ori housed a deity inside his body, making him uniquely powerful amongst his kind.
The ground trembled, trees unearthed, and dozens died by the second.
"Should I be proud or scared, I wonder, to have befriended such a monster?"
It was hard to tell.
But regardless of that, the battle was far from over - as if on cue, the air's temperature sharply spiked..
Glancing back at the source of the heat, she saw a gigantic sphere of fire rapidly approaching Ori.
*Crash!!*
The comet, a human within, crash landed right before her friend.
Kaela's hair swayed in the wind.
I won't be of any help. Best try and not get caught in the aftermath.
Making up her mind, she shakily stood up and limped as far away as she could before the clash could graze her.
***
Vaynar was tired, every motion a slog.
Though, as was to be expected, he masked his exhaustion well - showing weakness before your opponent was a surefire way to see yourself killed.
The king's essense was not limitless.
I cannot say the same for Ori… For Voracity.
He felt like he was up against an impenetrable wall, the height of which only grew as the fight went on.
It wasn't like that at the start. Vaynar was winning, in fact.
But, just as victory was within arm's reach, the tides of battle took an unexpected turn.
Vaynar didn't hold back in the slightest, and his opponent was clearly losing ground, its enormous frame shrinking under the king's relentless assault.
However, that weak girl he'd simply dismissed as a non-threat…
Well, the results spoke for themselves.
Against all reason, she'd managed to drag a horde of demonic beasts, too numerous to count, towards the battlefield.
Which meant only one thing - the mass of flesh he'd methodically reduced to ashes was about to return to its previous strength.
Scrap that; it will become even more dangerous than before… I must stop it.
Yet, what could he really do in this situation?
Should I fight the monster wave? No, killing them all would cost too much essence. But, if I were to target Voracity instead, it would just ignore me and continue feasting.
Worse still, he couldn't even summon reinforcements, as they would only serve to fuel the monster further.
It was unfathomable, for a being of such caliber to plot behind the scenes and come up with a contingency plan.
Suddenly, a thought struck him - or rather, it was the only logical conclusion:
Was it the kid within who did the planning? Most likely.
…Ori, I made a mistake dismissing you as a mere host. Looks like I'll be paying the price for my negligence now.
Realizing that he was all out of options, he grit his teeth and made up his mind.
You may have outplayed me, Kid. But, I am no ordinary man. Even if your plan might seem flawless, there's always a way overcome any adversity.
And in this case, the method is plain and simple.
I will destroy you before you can finish recovering. No point in overcomplicating things.
And so, resolve steeled, Vaynar shoved his worries aside and gathered up all of his remaining essence.
The blazing heat swirled around him, before suddenly-
*Fwoosh*
All the raging heat streamed into Vaynar's body, spreading through his veins.
His presence, already fearsome, became outright crushing.
This was the final form of Nether's fire arts - one that nobody had ever survived witnessing.
And you, Ori, will be no exception.
Heart of Fire.
It put a heavy toll on the body, yes, but right now? It was do or die, simple as that.
I'll deal with the repercussions later. For now, there's a rampaging mutt begging to be put down.
***
It was hard not to feel overjoyed at the food which came rushing to us on its own accord.
However, our hunger couldn't possibly be satiated by a meager swarm of demons; no matter how much we ate, it wasn't enough.
What to do, then? Why, of course we should just eat more. Devour everything in sight. And then, just maybe, we'll finally be satisfied.
With those thoughts, we continued the feast. That was, until the ever-so-irritating human blocked our way.
Again.
"Come… To spoil. Our fun?"
I growled at Vaynar; unbenownst to me, my manner of speech shifted, now referring to myself as 'us' under Voracity's influence.
The thoughts weren't entirely Vorscity's, either. Just like it influenced my mind, I had an effect on its own.
We gotta to tear this tiny squib to bits…
Vaynar didn't react to our words. Instead, a white hot fist plummeted down.
"You dare… Get. In the way?! Of our… Feast!"
The unceremonious interference couldn't continue; and so, we dove deeper into the fray.
But, like a moth to an oil lamp, Vaynar continued his relentless pursuit.
Fine. If this is how you wanna do this, We'll reciprocate. Just don't regret it later.
Our body halted to a stop, leaving deep skid marks across the ground.
Hundreds of beasts of various shapes and sizes began scaling our legs and arms, wasting no time on sniffing their prey out and instantly going for our essence-saturated flesh.
"Stay. Down…"
It was time to use our favorite move.
We pushed our limbs deep into the ground, sending tentacles snaking down.
*Rumble*
Vaynar, realizing what we were about to do, sprung into action - he slammed a fist, concentrated with the force of a true Nether bloodline, directly into our body.
His essense streamed out of his scorching knuckles and into our flesh.
Our body swelled up, a gale of fiery wind expanding from within - and yet we didn't budge an inch, the tentacles firmly rooting us in place.
A few more seconds of this, and we'd be blown up from the inside.
But that was alright; we were done routing the spiny tentacles into position.
*Crack*
The ground erupted, tentacles bursting out and gripping onto each and every beast in a hundred meter radius.
At the same time, the sweltering heat rampaging within finally reached a breaking point - our body exploded in a rain of blood and bones.
A horrid stench of burned meat filled the air.
However, we survived.
Despite the enormous size of our body, all of the processing was still done in the vessel's original brain, which we'd managed to save from annihilation by moving it into one of the tentacles before the main body was reduces to ash.
Vaynar seemed to understand that we'd escaped relatively unscathed, too.
With urgency, he evaded a few large chunks of flesh that nearly crushed him with their sheer weight, and shoved his fists into the earth.
Essence coiled around, and then streamed inside.
The remainder of our body, currently stuck beneath the earth' surface, began to swell up just like before.
This time, the fire would kill us for real.
But, heh. Too bad, little Vaynar… You were just a bit too slow to react.
*Squeeze*
*Crunch!!*
A disgusting crunch rung out all.
Thousands upon thousands of beasts were squashed to death, eyes popping out of their sockets.
However, before we could enjoy invigorating feeling to its fullest…
*Boom!!*
Jets of white fire rose from beneath, piercing the heavens.
Clouds parted. Viscera rained. Fire engulfed everything in sight.
***
One hour earlier.
A party of adventurers sat around a circular table at a bar, out for some drinks.
They were on their final day of rest after an exhausting trip to the Red Zone forest.
Naturally, the party were a group of familiar faces:
Kanna, Rennie, and Bill.
Bill clinked his mug against Kanna's, while Rennie stared her plate down in silence, as if the food would run off without constant surveillance.
The two leaned back and downed their mugs in one go.
"Phaaa, that hit the spot… Care for round two?"
With a sly grin, Kanna asked her bulky companion.
He returned the smile.
"Sure, why not? Hey, could we get two more - ?!"
"!!!"
"..!"
Just as Bill raised his arm to call on the waitress, an immense wave of pressure stole his attention.
Brows furrowed, he gave his party a look; as expected, both Kanna and Rennie also reacted.
And how could they not?
This level of strength was unprecedented, and while regular practitioners might not have sensed anything out of the ordinary - these adventurers were far from regular.
They exchanged grim glances before all turning their heads in the same direction.
"Nether's Palace? And the quality… Is that Malrik's essense?"
Rennie shook her head at Bill's question.
"No. Too strong. I think… It's the king."
Kanna chimed in to back Rennie up.
"She's right. Malrik might be strong, but natural talent could only carry one so far. Definitely seems like the king's presence to me."
Bill couldn't disagree.
"…True that. So, what are we thinking?"
"What else? Of course, we'll snatch some front row seats to the spectacle. Who knows, might even catch a glimpse of the continent's strongest in play."
"Mmm!"
At Kanna's confident statement and Rennie's overly enthusiastic nod, Bill let out a hearty laugh.
"Ahahaha! Well, shouldn't have expected anything less from you two. Let's get going then, shall we?"
Without the need to exchange any more words, the adventurers stood up from their stools and strode out, weapons already drawn.
Rennie could've sworn that she'd heard a shout - something about needing to pay for their meals - but she promptly feigned ignorance, all too absorbed in the events unfolding just an hour's walk away.
In this manner, followed by desperate calls of the poor waitress, they headed straight for the eye of the storm.
One hour passed. All throughout, intermittent explosions shook the air.
Eventually, they'd finished making their way across the mountainous terrain and reached a wide clearing.
Kanna's mood soured; so did Bill's and Rennie's.
They were still too far away to make out any real details, but just the sight of a wide clearing made their stomachs churn.
"More plains… Ughh, I'm sick and tired of plains."
"No kidding. Nothing good ever comes of these, I tell ya."
An image flashes through the adventurers' minds.
One of a crazy bastard happily sitting amidst a carpet of gore, entirely unbothered.
This sucks. Should we just dip?
*Booom!!*
For a moment, Kanna considered outright turning back, but she quickly changed her mind when a colossal explosion - the largest yet - reverberated through the air.
Off in the distance, a blinding flash of light erupted, and with it a rain of what looked like blood and meat.
"Hah! That's the king, alright. Let's pick up the pace."
"Yeah. No time to dawdle around."
Without the need to say anything more, the three sped up.
Later on, they would come to regret that decision dearly - as, instead of getting to watch a fight between two high level martial artists, they would witness something worse.
Way, way worse.
Jets of white hot flames engulfed everything in sight, reaching as high as the sky itself.
There was also blood. So, so much blood.
And above it all loomed death. Its smell penetrated deep, assaulting the nostrils.
"Hell… This is hell."
Kaela muttered with trembling lips.
Truly, there was no better way to describe it.
They were, by all means, witnessing a scene from the deepest reaches of hell.
One that should have never reared its ugly head within the mortal realm.
***
Whew, that was close.
We'd somehow managed to transfer our brain, for the second time now, into a newly assimilated body of a demonic beast - it was of a beast which we'd caught in our grasp right before getting blown to smithereens.
There was no time to waste, and so the meager demon's body was swiftly stretched across the ground.
Like snaking tree roots, or perhaps a system of veins, the hair-thin tendrils latched onto each and every one of the crushed beasts.
As it'd only been a few seconds since their deaths, their vitality had yet to dissipate into the atmosphere.
Now in contact with the scattered bodies, we tightly grabbed onto the corpses…
And channeled all of our remaining essence through those roots; the bodies grotesquely convulsed before unraveling into a myriad threads.
The next moment, guided by our will, they slithered along the laid out tendrils, coalescing into a singular mass.
Finally, the mind numbing hunger subsided, if only partially, and our body was restored to its old glory.
No, it was even more grand the before.
Corrupted energy streamed in, temporarily clouding our single, sorely lacking brain's ability to think.
The influx of energy felt almost too abundant for the brain to handle.
Shit! The vessel is failing.
And unfortunately, It turned out to be more than just a feeling.
But before we could come up with any proper countermeasure, an indescribable pain spread through our being.
"Aaaaarghhh!!!"
We cried out with our restored vocal cords; the anomalous state hit the vessel so hard, it fact, that a rift tore within it's mind.
After writing in agony for several seconds, I felt my consciousness forcefully detach from Voracity's.
"Huh? Wait, what? Why am I not starving anymore?"
Realizing that I'd become myself again, and that my state was dire to say the least, I directed a question to my cohabitant in a panic.
My body was, after all, falling apart at breakneck speed.
"The hell's going on?! I thought we were doing fine just a second ago! And you said you could handle way more than this!"
"I can. Handle... Much more."
At Voracity's reassuring words, my panic was slightly reigned in and I responded in a relaxed tone.
"Shoulda said that from the start, my guy(?). Got me stressing over nothing. Welp, I hope you can handle this situation. Uhh, good luck!"
I cheered it on.
The new plan was simple - I would sit back and leave all the hard work to Voracity, since it seemed much more capable than me.
But as always, my hopes were shattered when the stupid deity delivered its next line.
"I. Can handle… But not. You… The vessel… Is weak."
"Oh, god damnit! That again?!"
Though I roared at Voracity in anger - I knew that, in actuality, it was blameless.
Who else is there to blame for my weakness, other than myself? Tsk, whatever. Self pity can wait.
I scrambled to come up with something - with anything - to salvage the situation.
But alas, everything developed too quickly:
The strings making up my being started separating from one another.
First to go was the outer lair. Came apart like frayed string before collapsing in a slack heap.
Second to go was the inner layer. It unraveled in a manner reminiscent of a blooming rose, the "petals" instantly losing their shape and crumbling into the same, slack threads.
In the end, all that remained of my previously mountain sized body was but a small coffin of tightly woven flesh.
And that, too, didn't last long. The flesh sarcophagus fell apart, leaving only a frail human body beneath.
Disoriented from only having one pair of eyes now and overwhelmed with dizziness, I looked around.
I was up high, atop a pile of meat and bone threads.
The same threads which, just a moment ago, were a part of me.
"Okay, now I'm just lost."
After catching a slight surprise from hearing my own, youthful voice once again, I brought a pair of oddly lightweight hands to eye level.
"Am I… Back to normal?"
Stumped, I sent Voracity a mental message in an attempt to decipher my weird ass predicament.
"What even happened? Why are we - no, why am 'I' human again?"
Its answer came after a slight delay, and the words were even more disjointed than usual, as if simply speaking into my mind was a struggle.
"…I restored… Your old… Body…"
My eyebrow shot up in question.
"Yeah, I get that. But why 'did' you? There's still a crazy, fire spewing dude after my throat!"
"Too much… Energy… Used. To maintain. Form… Within your. Weak… Body."
"That's… Fair enough, actually. But wait, at least help me finish Vaynar off, won't ya?!"
Voracity, being the arrogant deity that it was, ignored my pleas outright.
"I must… Recover…"
"No no no! Hey! You hear me?!"
Nothing.
"…Hello?"
At last, Voracity stopped replying altogether.
And I could tell for a fact that it wasn't just choosing to stay silent, either - its presence had entirely vanished from my head.
Or rather, it was more like it had sealed itself off in the depths of my mind.
Did it fall asleep? Just like that? Hah, you've gotta be kidding me…
I ran a hand through my hair, indignant at Voracity's untimely disappearance.
Now, how the hell am I meant to fight the king alone?
Just then, a strange thought surfaced.
Putting my precarious state aside - why hadn't Vaynar attacked yet? I was defenseless for a good minute back there.
Feeling like things weren't adding up, I'd decided to finally scan the surroundings.
Some beasts remained, though not too many in close proximity. More pressing than that - I couldn't spot the king, no matter how hard I looked.
Is he hiding? Hmm, guess I'll sniff him out.
Suddenly, my head jerked in a particular direction.
"There you are."
It wasn't hard to pinpoint a human's smell amidst the corrupted beasts'.
With tense anticipation, I focused my sight on where his smell was coming from, fully expecting to see the king's intimidating figure:
"Uhh… Huh?"
And see him I did. Only, not at all in his scary, fire enveloped form.
He writhed on the ground, several beasts mauling on his body.
"No, what the actual hell..?"
Mouth gaping, I concentrated on perceiving his essence, to see if he were perhaps playing weak to catch me off guard.
However, that wasn't the case. In fact, his seemly endless pool of fiery energy was dim as a candle.
Dots began to connect, one by one.
The conclusion?
He'd exhausted himself. But, to die to some weak ass demons after displaying such monstrous power seems… I dunno, kinda pathetic, I guess?
It was, really and truly, the most anticlimactic ending for a guy of his caliber.
I don't even know what to think anymore…
Giving the desperately struggling Vaynar one last look, I turned to the smell of another human, slowly closing in on me from behind.
And there she was. Kaela.
Injured, but alive. Whew.
I exhaled in relief.
She waved her hand in a greeting with a wide smile.
But, before I got the chance to wave back, her beaming smile froze out of nowhere, morphing into an unreadable expression.
With a tilt of my head, I traced her gaze to see what it was that shocked her so much.
The reason became apparent in an instant.
She was staring at me - to be exact, she was staring at the lower half of my body.
"Right, that makes sense."
Her shock was understandable.
After all, I was completely nude.
Well, shit…