Devourer - Empire of Nexus

"The path's this way. Follow me."

Eri started following him, but her mind kept burning with curiosity.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"I guess kids forget their playmates too easily." he answered.

And the whole way, Eri stayed deep in thought. Who was this kid?

She was sure she'd spent her entire life locked in her room.

This boy looked maybe seven years old. How could she have seen him before and not remember What did he even mean by playmate?

They passed another tree, and finally a huge lake came into view.

Sunlight made the water's surface sparkle even brighter.

Eri stared with wide eyes.

"Whoa… so this is when water gathers in a huge hole… it's called a lake, right?" she said excitedly.

She glanced around quickly—but the boy was nowhere to be seen.

"Where'd he go all of a sudden? Little boy?!" she called out in confusion.

When she couldn't find him, she just shrugged and walked toward the lake.

"Maybe it was just my imagination. The main characters in the novels I read always hallucinated anyway. Pretty normal, right?"

She knelt by the water and dipped a finger in carefully.

It was so cold it sent a shiver through her.

That's when her eyes caught a tiny green plant floating on the surface nearby.

Curious, she reached her hand toward it.

But a voice from behind made her freeze.

"If you're planning to lose that wrist of yours, go ahead."

Eri pulled her hand back and turned her gaze to Noah. "Human? Why did you come here?"

"To make sure you don't get swallowed by that thing. You definitely have a 'poke everything with a finger' syndrome. Stop messing with creatures out of curiosity, alright?"

Eri looked at Noah with a puzzled expression.

The only things she knew were maybe a bird or a crocodile, like she read in her novels. She really didn't know anything about the outside world or its creatures.

All creatures come from one of three Seeds:

Feral Seeds, the ordinary animals

Nexus Seeds — some lose control and become Monsters, others find balance and become Synceds.

And Mutant Seeds… unstable, unpredictable, can mutate into Monsters or Synceds.

At first, they looked small and harmless.

But once they went through mutation, depending on the energy they absorbed during their life, they could become so dangerous that even multiple squads of soldiers couldn't handle them.

Of course, each type of Mutant gathered energy in its own way.

Blackfangs bit people to force their energy out, then drowned themselves in it to absorb it. They had to repeat this over and over until their energy storage was full, then they could mutate.

But Devourers… well, they made sure to eat everything. They were the most dangerous kind of Mutant Seeds, because they always turned into Monsters after mutation. Some that ate humans even mutated into beasts with a human-like appearance.

Noah knelt beside Eri and grabbed the flask to fill it with water.

"To survive, you need to learn a lot about creatures. Especially Monsters and Mutants. That thing on the water isn't a plant. It's a Mutant. A Devourer. It only takes one second to swallow whatever comes near it. So don't underestimate it just 'cause it's as small as your fingertip. I'd bet you could fit right inside its mouth."

Noah was explaining all this to Eri.

But she was totally spaced out, staring straight at that Devourer that had just poked its head out of the water, its two huge eyes fixed right on her.

Noah shot her an annoyed look. "Are you even listening to me?!"

The second his attention turned to Eri, the Devourer slipped back under the water.

Eri jolted at Noah's words—she really hadn't been listening but tried to cover it up.

"Y-Yeah, yeah… we shouldn't eat them 'cause… uh… they touch us or something."

Noah just stared at her for a few seconds, then finally sighed and stood to leave. "Forget it. Anyway, as long as I'm here you don't need to worry about anything. Let's go before that old thief burns everything down."

As soon as Noah walked off a bit, Eri's eyes darted back to the Devourer.

It was still watching her, only its big eyes and the little piece of plant on its head sticking out of the water.

Eri picked up a tiny leaf from the ground and slowly reached it toward the Devourer. Without caring that she'd just been warned it could eat her hand or fingers.

They both stayed still.

The Devourer didn't seem interested in the leaf.

"Makes sense. I don't like eating leaves either."

Eri tilted her head thoughtfully, then suddenly had an idea.

This time, she plucked a strand of her hair and held it out.

A second later, the Devourer snapped the end of the hair into its mouth.

Eri lit up like she was fishing, pulling the hair up like a fishing line.

The Devourer dangled in the air, still chewing on the hair, as she lifted it right in front of her face.

Her grin widened. "Wow, you're so tiny! I could totally eat you!"

The Devourer was about the size of a fingertip, perfectly round, with two tiny hands stuck to its ball-shaped body, no legs at all.

Its giant eyes took up almost half its body. It looked like it had grown the eyes first, and the rest came later.

Still dangling from her hair, it kept chewing, inching closer and closer toward her finger.

"Eri, come on already!" Noah called from the forest.

The second she heard him getting closer, Eri panicked, quickly set the Devourer onto her right palm and gently closed her fist around it.

She hid her hand behind her back just as Noah arrived, looking irritated.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing! I was just… uh… thinking how blue this lake looks. Like, super blue!"

Noah blinked, then just turned and started walking again.

This time, Eri followed behind.

On the way, she kept sneaking little peeks into her hand.

The Devourer was sitting right in her bandaged palm, nibbling slowly on a loose strip of bloody cloth.

"Who knows… maybe it actually has some nutritional value, right?"

Noah shot her a quick look. She instantly clenched her fist shut again and hid it behind her back.

But he didn't bother asking and just kept walking.

They finally got back to V, who was holding a huge map and studying the routes.

Noah splashed some water on the fire.

Right then, he noticed a fire crystal among the half-burned wood.

His eyebrows shot up in disbelief. "The hell is this?!"

While shouting in shock, he quickly kicked the crystal out of the wet coals. It was still so hot it couldn't be touched.

He tried to dry it off a bit with his sleeve and shake it so it'd cool down enough to pick up, still couldn't believe V was dumb enough to throw a fire crystal into a fire.

These crystals were expensive,

but in terms of sacred value, V just got lucky there weren't any dragons around. Otherwise, he'd be killed for disrespecting the sacred object.

Of course, V didn't seem to care at all.

V, while studying the map, glanced at the road a little farther ahead, then at the deeper part of the forest where there was clearly no easy path.

He pointed straight at the trackless forest. "We'll go that way!"

Noah blinked. He couldn't understand why anyone would pick the forest when the road was right there.

He frowned at V—then noticed the map in V's hands was upside down.

"You do realize you're holding the map upside down, right?"

"Hush!" V muttered thoughtfully, still studying the map as if it made sense.

Noah's eye twitched. He opened his mouth to complain, but before he could, V already stepped forward onto the path he'd picked.

"Follow me, team!"

Noah's words died in his throat as Eri immediately dashed after V, ready to follow him into the rough terrain.

"Eri, you sure you're just gonna agree to this path?" Noah asked hopelessly.

"If Master V says so, then yeah."

"hah, V... such a manipulator," he grumbled under his breath, rolling his eye at V.

V didn't react, didn't even glance back.

But a soft murmur slipped from beneath his mask, so quiet Eri didn't notice:

"Me?… or you?"

Then, Noah froze.

What did that mean?

As the two walked on, Noah finally forced himself to move too.

Eri stayed up front so she could be alone with the Devourer in her hand.

Behind her, V walked with the upside-down map.

And last, Noah trailed after them, annoyed, with V's backpack slung awkwardly over his shoulder.

'Why the hell I am the one carrying this thief's bag?'

A pretty elf was cooking.

The kitchen was small and simple, and behind her there was a neat living room with fancy furniture.

In front of her was a big window facing their cornfield.

She put another piece of fish into the pan to fry, and right then her eyes drifted outside.

She saw a few people moving through the corn, heading their way.

"Honey, looks like we've got some guests."

A muscular elf, shirtless and holding a hammer, was fixing metal rods into the wall where they'd place their light crystals.

With two nails in his mouth, he glanced at his wife and tried to talk. "Guesh?"

Rosita chuckled softly, walked over, and pulled the nails out of his mouth. "Guests. They must've escaped from the chaos in the capital. I think you should go invite them in."