Chapter 14: Decadent

The dancing black flame entranced Peace.

Peace slowly approached it and reached out his front claw, touching it. Just like he expected, despite having no Resonances and therefore surely having an open slot, he was unable to absorb it.

But there was something else about this Wisp... something strange about it. While Peace couldn’t absorb it, his instincts were screaming at him to clamp his jaws around the wild, corrupted flame.

Regardless of the obvious danger posed by something so unknown, Peace was driven by curiosity and a rapacious appetite.

He opened his small jaw as wide as he could and, in a swift motion, lunged forward and swallowed the center of the fire. Peace expected it to burn or something, but instead, it tasted sweet and juicy...

It was a flame in form only, not function.

It tasted as if he were drinking a strawberry milkshake.

The taste was healing... maybe literally, too. He could feel his body repairing itself, his injuries mending.

Not to mention, Peace felt full...

Like he’d finally satiated his unending desire to eat.

[???] — (condition to unlock 9/100)

’9?’

That was odd...

Devouring corpses wasn’t the only way to progress this hidden condition; he could eat Wisps, too.

It made him a little happy that he actually had a use for the main power component of the game.

Peace looked down at the gigantic body of the Tier 3 beast beneath him.

The Sun Drinker wasn’t the strongest Tier 3, but it was by no means the weakest. It was a Tier 3 C-Class.

It was much like the Titanboa in appearance. However, it was larger; its scales were tougher, and it had spikes running along its back near its head and clustered near the end of its tail. Instead of fangs, it had a gaping mouth lined with rows of jagged, backward-facing teeth, similar to those of a leatherback turtle.

Its mouth was the reason for its name...

The main way it consumed prey was almost as if it were drinking them.

It was no wonder it had been able to kill six people...

Though, it was a little strange that these corpses were outside of it and not, well, in its stomach. Still, it wasn’t like the Sun Drinker was incapable of causing that carnage without swallowing them.

It still had its abilities and its monstrous body to throw around. Then, enhanced by the corruption, that raw physicality became even deadlier.

Peace wondered for a moment if maybe the rest of the group chasing him had died as well, swallowed whole by the Sun Drinker, but he doubted it.

While the Sun Drinker was strong, it wasn’t that strong... relatively, of course.

In any case, why had it not consumed the dead bodies? At least the five who belonged to the first group.

Unless Peace had assumed incorrectly, these parties hadn’t faced this beast together...

’Wait... did they face this beast at all?’

Thinking about it logically, it made no sense that neither the corpses had been consumed nor the weapons they dropped had been retrieved by the survivors.

There was definitely a stronger, more ferocious beast at work here. Those sounds he had heard while hiding in the tree were proof of it.

’Does it even matter?’

He’d survived, and his pursuers had been either killed or chased off.

’Not to mention the free top-tier dessert!’

Although, only seven toward unlocking [???] seemed a bit stingy.

Even if Peace felt full, he could tell his body was capable of breaking down and absorbing much more than its size should’ve mathematically allowed.

It was a slow process, but he used one of the gaping gashes in the side of the Sun Drinker to reach its more tender and welcoming core, literally fitting his whole body inside the dead abomination.

It was still a little tricky to chew, with him being a Tier 9 and the beast being a Tier 3, but his teeth seemed unnaturally durable and capable of rending most soft flesh.

Peace chomped and chewed on the divine-tasting meat until he heard a familiar voice in his head.

[???] — (condition to unlock 10/100)

Peace smiled, then suddenly felt something similar to what he’d experienced the night before... almost like an instinctual warning. He didn’t know how he knew, but somehow, he was certain he was going to swap back to the body of the Night Elf soon...

He still didn’t understand the connection between this tiny monster and the Night Elf, but now he knew there was a connection.

While it wouldn’t happen in the next few seconds, Peace didn’t have much time.

Knowing the weapons scattered around him would be retrieved sooner or later, he couldn’t just let a Mythic weapon escape his clutches so easily.

Hastily, Peace made his way out of the belly of the beast and over to the Shadow Dancer. He gripped the hilt of the formless blade and slowly dragged it to the tree bearing the deep gash before heaving it inside. Then, he laid it against the inner wall, hidden from obvious view.

’Surely they won’t check in the tree...’

At least, the scene all around was so harrowing it would draw any and all attention away from it.

With little time remaining, Peace climbed up the tree and found the spot where the leaves were densest, then wrapped himself around the thickest branch he could find and dug his claws and talons into the black, corrupted wood.

His mind felt like it were growing lighter and lighter as he clung to the wood.

’I wonder...’

’What will I think of this carnage?’

How would a Peace of sound mind see what he’d done?

For better or worse, he was soon to receive and answer.

The dizzy spell came over him and his face fell forward, smacking into the tree.

He opened his eyes to the familiar dark brown ceiling.

Color had returned to his vision.

A hard pillow lay under his head and thin sheets strewn over his body.