Darkness.
At first, that was all Orion could register.
Thick. Heavy. Suffocating.
His lungs burned—compressed under a crushing weight. Dust and blood choked his throat with each shallow breath. One of his arms was twisted behind his back, the other pinned under the collapsed concrete mangled into a mush. He tried to shift his weight.
Nothing.
No pain. No sound. Not even the hunting hunger. He felt nothing.
What happened?
Am I dead?
Then—it returned.
First the pain.A sudden all-consuming brutal eruption across his body.
"Aaaarrrrrgg"
The scream tore from his throat before he could stop it.
Blazing flames of agony surged, searing, tracing their way up his crushed leg, pulsing in his temple. His ribs cracked, throbbed like shattered glass burning in pain. The only part of his body free from pain was his unfeeling left hand resting under the rubble.
And then... came the hunger.
That eternal monstrous void clawed its way back from the center of his being. A primal craving, unsuppressed.
His body demanded fuel more than ever right now, not only to heal itself but more importantly to satiate its Unending cravings.
> [HP: 21/110]
What... Oh right, I remember.
His eyes cracked open, a faint blue glow pulsed above his face, his status window, flickering in the dust-heavy air.
His memory was coming back to him slowly, like ice melting. "Heh... wasn't a dream after all" chuckled Orion in despair.
"At least the shaking seemed to have stopped"
[First Planetary Evolution complete]
[Gravity and Mana density increasing]
"So that's why I'm feeling this suffoc-Aaaarrrgg"
Suppressed groans escaped his gritted teeth. The pain was ever-growing, assaulting his recovering consciousness.
It wasn't his gruesome injuries. No
It was his body demanding energy.
" How long was I unconscious for? "
Orion had never experienced his condition so extreme before.
His hunger stronger than ever, maybe due to the extreme state his body was in, or maybe it was due to a long absence of food while he was unconscious.
He didn't know nor did he cared.
"Wait" his eyes snapped open.
" Mia! What about her, Where is she?"
"MIAA- chough* chough*"
He tried shouting for her but pain lanced through his chest, cutting him off. His lungs damaged from the fall did not allow him such strenuous activity.
"Blood…great just what I need right now"
Orion said in a mocking tone when he discovered blood amongst the saliva he coughed out.
That's when he noticed the mushy wet feeling behind his back, he shifted slightly trying to look over his shoulder and that's when he saw it.
Mia's body.
Broken beyond repair. Unrecognizable.
Steel bars and concrete blocks decorating her back. One of her eyes popped out dangling by a vein, her skull cracked wide open. Blood painted the concrete like a mural of violence.
It was a sight as if straight from a horror movie.
"Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh get off get o-aagggh"
Orion thrashed, horrified by the body on his back he shouted, terror in his eyes as he tried to scurry away. But such open movements only aggravated his injuries, causing a sharp pain to shoot through his body, forcing him to calm down.
Still, he kept trying.
He didn't want her on him.
After several agonizing seconds, his strength gave out. He collapsed, panting, the taste of iron heavy in his mouth.
He stared at Mia's mangled corpse. A vision stuttered in: Mia laughing as she raced the ward corridors, hair streaming like a comet. He bit through his lips in helplessness, drawing blood.
Unable to do anything else he settled down, closing his eyes.
His thoughts unraveled.
"I'm stuck unable to move, I can't scream unless I want to die coughing blood and I've got Mia's corpse on my back, whom I tried to save..." "Technically she's the one who ended up saving me… Is this what they call karma?"
Now her corpse pinned him, her blood mixing with his. The irony wasn't lost on him.
"Oh, and let's not forget this tormenting hunger of mine. " Analyzed Orion after he had a few minutes to calm down. But the more he spoke the more he fell into despair.
Trapped. Crushed. Dying. Starving. And no one was coming.
It would be an understatement to call his situation bleak. He feared it was the end of the road for him.
…
The hunger he felt was so extreme that it slowly devoured all his other feelings leaving nothing else then a cruel pain in his body demanding food, The pain hit him in waves growing as if tormenting him, preventing his mind from falling unconscious.
Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh
Orion shouted no longer able to suppress his screams
"Something, someone help... Please, food... I need food"
He scurried around wailing his hands in search of something to consume, uncaring about his worsening injuries.
But unlucky for him the hospital was too clean, nothing, not even a rat or insect was found. All that came into his grasp was dust and rocks.
...
Orion had no idea how much time had passed, hours, days, months.
All he knew was that he could hold on no longer. His vision blurred. Every beat of his heart came slower, more laboured.
Then came the whispers, hallucinations maybe, not from outside but within.
Feed Me.
Orion shook, tears mixing with blood.
"I'm not a monster..."
Aren't You?
His mouth opened on its own. His head leaned down.
FEED ME.
And so he did.
Revulsion fought instinct, but only for a moment. Then…
Crunch.
He did what he had been constantly telling himself not to do even through all that hellish pain he experienced.
He bit down on the thing in front of him, a dangling eyeball.
The fluid burst across his tongue—salty, bitter, warm.
He froze.
Time stood still.
All his concerns, all his dilemmas about him not being a human anymore faded away when he took that first bite. All he felt in that moment was a deep satisfaction but even more a deep greed. A greed for more, to eat everything and anything he could find.
> [Gluttony activated]
Name: Mia Rao
Race: Human
Level: 0
Digestion Progress: 7%
DING!
> [Essence Absorbed]
+1 Mana,+2 Spirit
> [Title obtained – "First Sin: Flesh of My Kin"]
> Description: You consumed a fellow human as your first act of Gluttony.
> Effects: Your Gluttony evolves. Future devouring of sentient beings will yield greater returns.
> You are now closer to sin.
At the moment he swallowed his food he vaguely felt something awaken inside of him, his body pulsed with newfound power, as some windows flashed before his eyes. But he couldn't have cared less at the moment. All he could think about was the next bite.
He licked the juice remaining on his lips and started to move. Summoning strength from a mysterious place he lifted his body, twisting his head and forcefully pulling his arm out of the rubble to bite down on the body above him. His extreme hunger not allowing him to feel any pain, only an intense craving to consume.