The snow had stopped falling.
Malric stood still among the bodies. The air was silent save for the whisper of wind through pines, and the soft hiss of blood steaming in the cold. Light clung to the horizon like an afterthought—dying gold stretched thin across the northern sky.
He didn't move.
Not yet.
His arm throbbed where the paladin's blade had carved through it. White-hot pain spiked each time he flexed his fingers. The system had sealed the wound, but the bone was still fractured beneath the crude regeneration. It would take time to set properly.
> [Wound: Stabilized – Incomplete Regeneration (48%)]
[System Regrowth Priority: Vital Function > Combat Capability]
Malric exhaled slowly.
It wasn't the pain that kept him still.
It was the change.
It pulsed under his skin, threaded through his bones. The system was no longer just reacting to him—it was redefining him.
> [System Mutation: Glutton Seed – Stabilizing...]
New Trait: Hunger Bleeds
Passive: Hunger now increases gradually with time and use of the system. Suppression no longer possible.
Ability Unlocked: Devour Mind
[Level Requirement: Overridden | Access Granted: Level 5]
Ability Preview – Soul Devour: Locked. Requirements unknown.
A flicker of pain lanced through his skull.
Not a wound. A fracture of self.
He fell to one knee, hand in the snow, breath caught in his chest.
The world tilted. Not from dizziness—but from something deeper. Like reality itself had shifted a fraction of a degree off-center.
> [Devour Mind – Initialization Sequence Begun...]
[Warning: Host Mind May Be Compromised Without Reinforcement]
He gritted his teeth, eyes squeezed shut. Fire licked at the edges of thought.
And then—
He saw.
Not visions. Not dreams.
Memories.
Fleeting. Fragmented. Snatched from the paladin whose soul he had devoured last.
A prayer whispered before sleep. The scent of holy oil. A woman's voice—calm, stern, familiar.
"You are the light. You are the blade. If you falter, the dark returns."
Malric's breath hitched.
> [Devour Mind: Partial Assimilation Complete]
[+1 MIND | Fragment Acquired – Faithbound Memory (1/3)]
He stumbled upright.
The world was too quiet now. The system, for the first time, watched him. Not like a tool waiting for input. Not like a machine.
Like a beast.
Coiled in his soul. Waiting. Hungry.
> [Hunger: 16%]
It was rising again. Always rising.
"Is this the price?" he whispered.
The system didn't answer.
It never had.
He looked down at his hands—blood-blackened gloves, one torn open, skin beneath burned where the holy blade had struck. His veins beneath looked darker. Thicker.
He tore the glove off.
For a moment, he swore his fingers didn't look entirely human. Shadow clung to the joints like ash, and a faint pulse of crimson light flickered beneath the skin.
Then it faded.
> [Mutation: Stable – Phase One Complete]
> Further changes will occur with continued use of Devour abilities.
The system was no longer just a source of strength.
It was a path.
One paved in soul, sealed with hunger.
He didn't know what he was becoming. Not exactly.
But it wasn't a man. Not anymore.
He turned north.
The wind blew from that direction, heavy with smoke and distance. Somewhere beyond the frost-rimed forests and the fractured hills lay the thronelands of the gods. Aurelion. Isareth. The Twelvefold Flame. All those who had declared this world theirs.
Malric clenched his jaw.
He'd been prey once. Broken. Cast out.
But now?
Now the system was blooming inside him like a second soul.
And it wasn't done growing.
He started walking. Slow at first. Measured. The trail ahead bent into the trees, darkness coiling around its edges. Behind him, the corpses cooled in silence.
Ahead, something called to him.
Another whisper in the bones.
Another soul to claim.