The Ultimate Devourer

Obedience seals

After a day of training, I returned to my residence, meeting with the two new squad mates. Who were now a little bit more refreshed after resting.

Zerath looked at me with a serious expression as he covered Mawi with his body, making sure that I wasn't going to do anything to them.

I shook my head. They were quite untrusting, but that didn't matter.

I sat down and started to regulate my breathing according to the information residing in the basic sword technique.

While I couldn't improve or learn further, the breathing technique could make my mind clearer and give me a better rest.

The information I got from eating the prisoners even stated that the technique would heal wounds once it reached a high level, but none of the people that I ate reached said level with the technique, and even if they did, I would need to eat quite a few of them to reach the same level as they did.

This wasn't something that I could look forward to.

I shook my head, clearing it using the breathing technique and ignoring the two jumpy teens who were eyeing me from one of the corners of the dilapidated house.

My senses were sharp, and if they decided to attack me, I could make up the excuse of devouring them in self-defense.

It wasn't like Aratas didn't know that this type of thing would happen when you created a squad of cannibals.

Them eating each other was something that would eventually happen as the hunger deep in their guts would take control of their minds.

I experienced this hunger only once because I was fed constantly since I became a cannibal.

The moment the energy that pulverized my body into pieces was also the moment everything inside became empty, including my destroyed stomach, my life was flashing before my eyes, and my pain from having everything destroyed was overriding the hunger that I should have been feeling then, but if I could move for even one centimeter in that form, I would have slurped all of the remaining blood from the dungeon floor.

That was a food craze that was numbed by the imminent death that I was feeling, so I wasn't sure how 'crazed' I was, but this will be easy to examine with the other two.

I wasn't sure how much time it will take before the craziness appeared or if it would ever go away as I continued to eat, but I needed to make sure I never fell into it myself.

In that state, I could overstuff myself for sure.

As I was thinking about those things, a small shuffled could be heard behind me. I stopped breathing and I took a small glance behind, seeing that Zerath was taking a step toward me.

However, the moment I turned my head back, Zerath immediately froze as he got caught.

I glanced at his expression and asked:

"Need anything?"

Zerath took one step backward as he felt my aura washing over his body before he asked:

"I... I..."

I wasn't sure what he tried to do beforehand, but I didn't see any killing intent, so I decided to retract my aura and I asked again:

"Do you need anything?"

Zerath could talk normally without being pressured so he said:

"Mawi needs to go to the toilet."

I couldn't help but facepalm, making me unsure if these two would be useful on the battlefield later, they were urchins. I had battle experience and newfound strength due to my new 'diet', but these two would surely get killed on the battlefield with their lack of experience, regardless of how strong they became through devouring.

I touched my chin and told Zerath that they could go outside for that, making them leave me alone in the house to think.

"Would my first mission also be the last one?"

It was obvious that Aratas didn't seem that he would train them in getting combat experience. Did he think that they would gain enough from devouring the brains?

From my experience that surely won't be enough.

Having incompetent teammates on the battlefield was worse than having none.

I wasn't sure if I wanted to go through with this.

I closed my eyes and regulated my breathing once again, the battlefield was a good place to grow, but it was also a place where I could simply leave my life behind, which wasn't something I wanted to do.

It wasn't my time to die yet.

I took in one more breath before my body froze involuntarily, I could sense something slithering inside my body as the oracle ability I gained from that old man exploded into activation by itself.

An image appeared at the forefront of my brain which had transmitted to me...

I was standing on the training field with Aratas when he suddenly did a hand seal, and my body grew slack.

Zerath and Mawi were also there. A bright light engulfed both of them, and after doing the same hand seal, they ended up just like I did.

The oracle vision ended there, but blood was already flowing down my eyes and nose while the pain was invading my whole body.

I grabbed my head and tried to sense the cold slithering feeling in my body once again, but it disappeared as if it was never there.

My senses weren't good enough to inspect the insides of my own body yet, I wasn't at that level of strength, but as I grew stronger I should be able to. Unfortunately, this oracle wasn't one of the immediate future, like in a few seconds or even nanoseconds, but one that would happen a certain unknown time later.

I wasn't sure what to do in this situation, there was no way I could remove whatever Aratas inserted into me by myself, I needed help, but who could help me and why? For the Church, I was only a weapon. And for anyone else I was a monster that ate its own race.

Could there be anyone in this world that wouldn't discriminate and help me?

I cocked my head to the side slightly as I wasn't sure about that, but I could walk around the city, and try to find out such a place.

The city was rather big, and I only have been around the Church this whole time. While Aratas was out doing god knows what and waiting for our devouring 'cooldowns' to reset, I should do my best and find some help with the thing that sat inside my body.