The white eagle was large, it was three meters high and had a wingspan of more than a dozen meters.
It was lifeless, impaled in its chest on the cracked wall by the spear that she had thrown.
She walked to the dead beast, then reached for her weapon and took it out.
Thud.
The eagle fell on the ground, its white feather smeared by its own vibrant blood. Its ribcage was caved in with a big hole.
Lilith willed, and her spear exploded into a whirlwind of navy blue sparks that entered her body.
She flipped the eagle on its back with little effort, and with her bare hands, she stabbed its chest and grabbed a large chunk of its warm flesh—feathers included.
Feeling her mouth water with saliva, she hurriedly stuffed the bloody meat inside it.
She felt relieved as she was finally able to eat something worthwhile for a while. While in the camp, she ate what could only be described as shit.
But when she munched on the meat of the eagle, she felt that she was finally a person again.
"Oh my, how inadequate. Lily, couldn't you have at least cooked it first?"
While still munching gluttonously on her meal, she looked sideways at her brother.
Noah was sitting on a large rock, his legs crossed and his chin resting on his hand. He looked down at her amusedly with his smug smile, as if fascinated by a weird specimen.
Lilith scoffed and said to him:
"Hmph! You're just jealous that you can't eat like me. Watch me as I take all of this to myself and myself alone!"
Or, at least, she tried to say.
Her voice was an incoherent mess as she was talking while her mouth was stuffed like a squirrel. Every time she made a loud gulp, she immediately stuffed her mouth with more meat.
Nevertheless, he understood her.
Noah's smile twitched and he wanted to retort, but he let it go and asked her instead:
"So, how do you feel now?"
He shares her senses, so he already knows what her situation is. But this wasn't why he asked, he wanted to discuss and plan with her.
Lilith noted her verbal victory to herself and replied to him, her voice still muffled.
"I'm healing quite well, my deep wounds are almost closed. But my new body is quite weird..."
She gulped another large chunk, then sighed and wiped her mouth.
"I feel that I'm both material and immaterial, so that my soul is fully merged with my flesh. Although I don't think that I'm especially durable for a Calamity, I have high resistance to energy-based and physical-based attacks."
Noah nodded.
"True, your constitution is rather unique. Also, have you noticed what happens when you eat that eagle?"
Lilith thought about it, then nodded in acknowledgment.
"Un, I have a ridiculous energy conversion rate. I feel like there is almost no wasted energy."
She didn't eat the eagle only because she was hungry, but to absorb more heavenly essence than she could do passively and heal faster.
What surprised her was that there was basically no wasted energy, 99.9% of the heavenly essence inside it was refined by her body and accelerated her healing. The access energy was dispersed in the environment from her body.
Her brother commented with amusement:
"It's like you're a walking heavenly essence nuclear reactor..."
Lilith arched an eyebrow and continued stuffing the meat inside her.
"Nuclear reactor? What's that?"
Noah shrugged.
"Just something from Earth."
Lilith shrugged as well and continued munching.
"Anyways, do all Calamities have basically infinite reserves of heavenly essence? I feel that I can use a powerful Category 1 Spell indefinitely without any drawbacks."
Heavenly Ascenders have a limited amount of heavenly essence inside their Heavenly Cores. They would need to rest and replenish their reserves after depleting them.
However, Lilith didn't sense that limit.
No matter how much she used her heavenly essence, her reserves were always full. More heavenly essence simply flowed from deep within her being. Even if she didn't have a Calamity Core.
Of course, it wasn't all perfect.
She could support a powerful Category 1 Spell for a theoretical eternity, but that didn't mean that she could use infinite energy.
Her body wasn't strong enough to do that, it had a limited energy output.
And, to fight enemies stronger than her, she would have to use [Output Overload] to be able to invoke more powerful spells.
And the obvious drawback was that her theoretical infinite stamina would be thrown out of the window, and her pathways would receive damage that would put her in a limited fighting timeframe like normal Heavenly Ascenders.
But it wasn't that bad.
Her brother chuckled.
"Nah, Lily. All Calamities have infinite reserves of heavenly essence. You aren't the special child, sorry!"
She ignored his words and shifted her focus to her meal. What was left of the chest was just the ribs, the organs were almost gone as well. However, a shining object caught her attention.
She reached inside with her hand and pulled out a bloody crystal. The crystal was round, jagged, and rough like stone. It was transparent, but there was a white glow inside it, flickering like the beating of a heart.
It was a Soul Core.
"Judging from the shape of the Soul Core, the eagle should've been equal to a Late Stage Rank 1. You're really quite powerful for half of a Calamity."
His words were accurate, the crystal had three small lights inside it, each one representing a Stage.
Generally speaking, only humanoid races are capable of becoming a Heavenly Ascender normally.
And beasts, usually unintelligent ones, use unorthodox means to ascend through Pathways.
One of the most common ones was the method that this white eagle had used.
It had formed a Soul Core and began ascending like normal Heavenly Ascenders.
Beasts typically have weaker souls than humanoid races, and that's the suspected reason as to why they can't become normal Heavenly Ascenders.
So, they create a Soul Core. Fulfilling the soul requirements for ascending Pathways.
Lilith looked at the Soul Core strangely and tilted her head, she had seen other ones before, but she had an inexplicable feeling when she observed this one.
Following her intuition, she brought the crystal to her mouth and ate it.