Three months have passed.
What have I been doing all this time?
It's simple.
I hunted, I killed, and I devoured.
At first, I attacked anything that moved.
To survive, and to become stronger.
But not anymore.
I am no longer a hyena wandering in search of scraps.
I have become the king of this ashen wasteland, devouring everything that dares to enter my territory.
"Kuh... Wh-What the hell are you...!"
The last remaining High-Class Devil glared at me while coughing up blood.
His armor was crushed, and one of his wings had been torn off.
Three months ago, he was an opponent I would have had to risk my life to fight.
Perhaps... I would have had to die and revive hundreds or thousands of times just to barely catch him.
No, actually, I probably wouldn't have been able to kill him even then.
But to the me of now, he was nothing more than slightly troublesome prey.
"So many questions. Does everyone get talkative before they die?"
I snapped my fingers.
Immediately, dozens of blades formed from pitch-black magic emerged from the shadows behind the Devil, severing his limbs.
It was a power I had stolen from another Devil—likely his comrade—just moments ago.
"Gah...! Th-This is... the intrinsic ability of the House of Sabnock...!"
"Correct. But there's no prize."
I grabbed him by the collar and lifted him up.
Then, I conjured a sphere of holy light above my other palm.
A Devil dying by the power of an Angel.
It's a natural, yet utterly shitty sight to behold.
The Devil looked at the light in my hand with a mixture of terror and shock.
"Y-You... Devil and Angel powers at the same time...?! That's impossible...!"
"What's impossible about it? I just made it possible."
Crunch—!
I slammed the sphere of light directly into his face.
Accompanied by a gruesome scream as his flesh burned away under the Light Power, his thread of life snapped.
I placed my hand over his collapsing corpse.
As always, the Grail sucked in his soul like a starving ghoul.
"Ugh...!"
The soul of a High-Class Devil was on a different level from the Mid-Class ones.
In both quality and quantity, it couldn't be compared to what I had consumed before.
Thousands of years of memories, combat experience, and deep knowledge of the Underworld.
Even amidst the terrible pain that felt like my brain was being ransacked, I couldn't help but smile.
This overflow of power.
The pleasure of growth.
It was ecstatic.
This was the only sensation that made me feel truly alive.
"Phew..."
Once I had absorbed everything, the world looked different.
The flow of magic, the distortion of space, and even the faint aura of other dimensions.
Now, ordinary High-Class beings were no match for me.
Unless an Ultimate-Class entity decided to come at me with everything they had, victory was all but guaranteed.
However, at the same time, annoyances had increased.
"The flies are starting to swarm."
Rumors about me had begun to spread.
An unidentified human who hunts indiscriminately regardless of race and devours souls.
They call me this:
Soul Eater.
Fuck, it's childish as hell, but it suits me quite well.
The problem was that because of this name, all three major factions designated me as a dangerous element and began sending specialized subjugation squads.
I hadn't even touched the Angels initially, but they attacked me first, claiming I was a "dangerous element," so I decided they were just the same breed of bastards as the rest.
The ones I just disposed of were one such subjugation squad.
"Is the game of hide-and-seek over now?"
I rose from the pile of corpses.
There was no need to hide anymore, nor any reason to run.
If they came to find me, I would simply devour them.
It was then.
I felt the space around me cracking like a spiderweb.
Dozens of massive magic circles completely surrounded the sky and ground around me without a single gap.
The scale is quite large this time.
Pouring out from the magic circles were thousands of Mid-Class Devils, dozens of High-Class Devils, and one Ultimate-Class Devil who seemed to be commanding them.
The crest engraved on his fluttering cape... Bune, was it?
A Devil clan from the original story that possessed the ability to transform into dragons.
"So it is you. The vermin disturbing the battlefield."
The black-haired Ultimate-Class Devil looked at me with contempt.
"In the name of the Underworld, I shall execute you. If you die quietly, there will be no pa—"
"You talk too much."
I cut him off.
I condensed Light Power in my right hand and Demonic Power in my left.
Seeing two opposing forces coexisting casually in my hands, their eyes were dyed with shock.
"You lot didn't just come here to kill me."
I grinned.
"You came because you covet my Sacred Gear, my ability. Isn't that right?"
The black-haired Devil's expression stiffened for a moment.
Hit the nail on the head.
"I like those greedy eyes."
I charged into their midst and slammed the Light and Demonic powers together.
KABOOOOOOOM──────!!
The two diametrically opposed forces repelled each other, creating an explosion of transcendent power.
"Arghhhh—! Wh-What on earth is this...?! You, what are you!"
He survived that.
The surrounding Devils below High-Class were all wiped out by the explosion instantly.
So High-Class and above can withstand it?
Though, they look like they're on the brink of death anyway.
"I heard that question earlier."
I walked slowly toward him.
The surrounding High-Class Devils tried to block my path, but crushed by the killing intent I radiated, they couldn't move a single step.
"I am a hunter."
I approached right in front of him, staring into his terror-filled eyes, and whispered.
"And you all are merely food for my growth."
I laughed.
Fully aware that my mind had already strayed far from the realm of humanity.
"Don't fuck with meeeee—!"
The strongest commander, the Devil, transformed into a dragon.
"I will kill you, you maggot!"
Boom—!
The Devil, now a dragon, stomped down with a massive foot directly at me.
"What a pity."
I've become a bit too strong to fall for something like that.
I focused all the remaining Light Power in my hand.
The amount of Light Power I had obtained from devouring countless Fallen Angels and Angels until now was unimaginably vast.
I compressed it.
Compressed it, and compressed it again.
Bang! Bang! K-Boom!
The Devil relentlessly tried to trample me with his massive dragon feet, but he was only stomping on a phantom made of illusions.
Before I knew it, a single spear, fully compressed and glowing, was held in my hand.
"Die now."
I threw the spear straight at the dragon's heart.
Thwack───!
The Devil, who hadn't even realized where I was, died instantly with his heart pierced.
"Haa... The feeling of completely exhausting my Light Power really isn't pleasant..."
Anyway, shall we harvest?
"Devour."
[Grail of Death (Qlippoth Graal)]
I devoured the souls of every dead being in the vicinity.
"Grrrggghhhhh...!"
Experience amounting to hundreds, thousands of lives.
A torrent of immense lifespans.
And the myriad powers gathering within me.
Pain that felt like I would lose my mind washed over me.
But the pleasure of becoming stronger that surpassed it all was transcendent.
And after devouring every single soul...
"Hahahaha...!"
I finally reached it.
Ultimate-Class.