Amidst the destruction, that dark entity stood, its size comparable to the stack of hundreds of Noens, yet still, the World Tree behind it made it look like a child.
The monster stood, staring through its dark, colossal eyes. The hollowness had gone to a light, just a light swirling in and out, staring at one person standing before it.
Noen it was.
It tilted its head slightly, giving an eerie smile, its aura surging outward, making the trees rot completely, incinerating them as if they were burning. Corrosion mushed the ground, and complete darkness devoured it.
It moved forward.
Noen stared, his hands slightly trembling; a cold sweat ran down his face. Looking at it, he instinctively took a step back.
He wondered, "How will I even fight this?" questioning even his strength. His calmness had gone with the presence of what stood before him.
The monster took a step forward, the surroundings trembling as if an earthquake had taken place. Trees fell; other monsters living nearby ran, taking in hiding. Noen just stared, unable to think of anything.
He closed his eyes. Tightening his left hand, which held a blood sword, his determination returned, his eyes fierce and cold.
Taking a deep breath, he silently lunged forward. The monster glanced at him with delight, seeing its prey coming to it.
It raised its hand, gesturing a formation of attack as darkness swirled around its arm, lunging at him at monstrous speed. They were like swirls of arrows, but he dodged it all, cutting, slashing.
That made the wind produce a whipping sound.
He jumped, forming and shifting his sword into a giant spear. He launched it forward toward the monster's eyes.
A sonic boom formed behind him, his body deteriorating as more blood was sucked into the throw. He roared,
"Ahhhhhh!"
The spear moved forward with a deafening sound, twisting the wind around. Looking at it in shock, the monster moved its shadow to block it, but it wasn't enough.
Boom!
Piercing its hand, it forced forward, moving toward its face, but the monster stood there as if the attack wouldn't even touch it.
And then giant tentacles tore open from its stomach, moving like worms. The first one came out, then the other, all lunging at the incoming arrow, and before one could have blinked, they held it in their maw, crushing and devouring it like hungry larvae.
Noen stood breathless, staring, and without thinking, he dashed forward as he knew stopping here wouldn't do. His body regenerated again, torn through the flowing corrosion.
Skin abraded like melted butter.
Burning, melting, revealing his bones, blood gushed while his eyes stared with their red, shining glow; he didn't even flinch from the stinging pain.
Clenching his teeth, he pushed again, vanishing from sight, while the monster launched its tentacles. A mouth sticking to their ends, filled with thousands of teeth, searched for Noen.
But he was nowhere to be seen.
Suddenly, someone appeared behind its back. It was Noen, hanging onto its back. He pulled his dagger, merging his bones and blood into it, making it larger as half his body deteriorated, revealing only his ribcage and a half-beating heart.
He pierced through the dense skin of the monster, plunging his blade deeper and deeper till it got stuck.
And then, with everything he had, he kicked the blade at its grip, dragging it down in a straight line.
He pushed himself, his body torn open, bursting apart from the corrosive darkness while his own strength tore the body.
He smiled before, with a single gesture of his hand, the sword turned into a large spike growing from everywhere, sacrificing his remaining body.
He fell where, behind his back, the World Tree stood tall, looking like an ant. His body shifted again, flesh forming to his bones while he kept regenerating. His fall became faster by each minute till there was a second of gap between him and the ground.
A loud boom echoed; dust flew as he stood again in a crater, blood pouring down his head. One eye opened, and with a single arm, he again pointed his dagger toward the monster, which stood tall before his eyes.
His breathing was hard and ragged; exhaustion was inevitable, but the previous fear had stopped lingering inside him.
He again moved forward, stumbling through the crumbled ground, which corroded under the presence, rotting away into a black ooze.
He dashed again, his feet holding the dirt tight, while the blood soared out, continuously melting away like sizzling cheese.
The fight was one-sided, but someone was more persistent, and like a beast, he jumped heights, covering the monster's leg in an instant, an imprint left behind, and with a deafening shout—
He clung to it like a pest climbing upward.
The tentacles attacked him, lunging at him like sharp projectiles, but nothing touched him as he held onto the monster's skin with one hand, armless on the other side.
He bit one of the tentacles, digging his teeth deeper. He tore its flesh away; black blood poured out, making it scream in stabbing pain. It screeched.
While he climbed higher, spitting away the rotted flesh from his mouth.
But the monster didn't stand still, and with a screeching, beastly roar, it plunged one of its tentacles deep into his stomach, piercing him through before it swung, smashing him onto the rocky plains.
He coughed up blood, eyes sore, but still he stretched his arm forward, grabbing the tentacle's maw and, with one hand, pushing all his strength into his fingers.
He tore it, splitting it in half as black ooze sprayed, ignoring his own body.
He stood again, kept regenerating and burning from the corrosive darkness.
The monster stared at one of its tentacles like it meant nothing to it, and then its other tentacles ate away the dying one without mercy, scorching its flesh.
Noen could only stare at it in his battered state, his breath ragged, while the monster stood unscathed, smiling, its smile stretching across its face. Its white, hollow eyes glanced at him with superiority.
It bent forward, moving like a machine, as it grabbed Noen with its long fingers engraved with sharp claws, looking sharp enough to cut through anything.
Holding him tighter, it pulled him closer to its face.
Staring at him like a small toy.
And then, with its other hand grabbing his head—
Crunch.
It tore it apart, throwing his whole body like some kind of trash. Laughing, it said,
"You are quite an annoying pest."
Its voice echoed through the forest, its rotting breath steaming out of its mouth.
"Your efforts are futile, yet you still try. I love this persistence—the suffering you are feeling right now."
"And what a power you have, who keeps you alive no matter how you are cut. How interesting that it made my hunger fall for you more...!"
It moved closer, staring at the hanging head of him held by its claws. It spoke in a cold voice,
"Your power, yet similar to mine. We both crave for a different hunger, but we are the same, you and me… so why won't we live as one flesh?"
"I will keep your head as my heart; we both will be able to pray to our god, the world tree"
It opened its mouth wide open, tearing apart as flesh stretched outward. More tentacles lunged out, holding his head tighter, while his eyes stared lifelessly,
"Look, he's smiling; my god is smiling at me"
Gluttony turned around, bowing before the world tree, smiling as its mouth ripped open, holding Noen's head with the tentacles that came out of its mouth, like an offering in an act of madness
"Please bless me with that smile of yours..."
"Grant me your divine powersss—!"