Chapter 4
Felix lowered his head slightly. "Thank you… for saving me."
The words tasted bitter on his tongue. Deep in his heart, unease gnawed at him like hungry worms. Demons didn't save humans. They toyed with them or ate them. So why had she stitched his wounds and let him live?
He pushed himself to his feet, expecting her to strike the moment his back was turned. She didn't. She simply watched him with calm, unreadable eyes.
At the cave entrance, he pushed aside the curtain of hanging leaves and paused.
"What's your name?" he asked without turning around.
Silence.
He glanced back. She stared at him for a long moment, then waved her hand dismissively.
Go.
So he went.
The moment he left the cave, the air changed.
It felt heavier. Thicker. The darkness clung to his skin like wet cloth, and every footstep echoed far too long, as if the tunnels themselves were listening. Something was wrong with this place. He could feel it in his bones.
He kept walking.
The path grew worse. Bones littered the ground—skulls, ribs, shattered limbs. Some were ancient and yellowed, others still slick with fresh blood. It looked like this tunnel had been used as a dumping ground for years.
Then the smell hit him.
Rotting meat. Coppery blood. And something sickly sweet.
Felix froze.
A human carcass hung from a thick root overhead. Male. The body had been ripped open from throat to groin. Strips of skin dangled like wet, bloody laundry. The intestines had spilled out and been partially eaten.
Beneath the corpse, a massive rat feasted.
It was the size of a full-grown pig, its body bloated and covered in greasy black fur. It sat on its haunches, chewing noisily on the dead man's organs, letting out satisfied little squeaks every few seconds.
Squeak. Squeak.
Felix stopped breathing.
The rat hadn't noticed him yet. Its head was buried deep inside the corpse's chest cavity, tearing and pulling with wet, disgusting sounds.
Then it paused.
The creature slowly lifted its head. Two beady black eyes met his—then two more smaller ones above them. Four eyes. All of them wet, shining with hunger and intelligence.
Felix's stomach twisted violently.
He should have run. But hunger had become a living thing inside him, clawing at his insides worse than any wound. His last meal had been a centipede days ago. His body was shutting down.
If I don't eat… I die.
His eyes darted around and landed on a broken femur lying among the bones. It was heavy, jagged at one end — a crude spear. He snatched it up, gripping it so tightly his knuckles turned white.
The giant rat tilted its head, four eyes narrowing. Then it screeched and charged.
Felix swung with everything he had.
The bone club connected with the rat's skull with a dull crack, but the monster barely flinched. It barreled into him, its weight slamming him against the tunnel wall. Pain exploded in his freshly stitched wound as claws raked across his chest.
He screamed.
Blood poured down his torso, reopening the injuries the demon woman had carefully closed.
The rat lunged again, jaws wide. Felix barely managed to shove the jagged end of the femur into its mouth. The creature bit down hard, nearly snapping the bone. Its foul breath washed over him — death and decay.
"Get off me!" he roared.
Desperation gave him strength. He twisted the bone violently, driving the sharp end deeper into the roof of the rat's mouth. Black blood sprayed. The rat shrieked and thrashed, its claws tearing deeper into his side.
Another wave of agony nearly made him black out.
But he refused to die here.
With a guttural cry, Felix yanked the bone free and brought it down again and again on the creature's head. He struck its eyes. Its snout. Its skull.
Crack. Crack. Crack.
The fourth eye burst under the final blow.
The giant rat collapsed in a twitching heap, its massive body still jerking.
Felix fell to his knees beside it, gasping, covered in his own blood and the rat's foul fluids. His vision blurred. The pain in his torso and chest was almost blinding.
But the hunger… the hunger was stronger.
He stared at the dead rat. Four glassy eyes stared back. Disgusting. Mutated. Demonic.
He didn't care.
For someone who had eaten nothing but insects and algae for days, this was meat. Real meat.
With trembling hands, Felix tore into the rat's flesh. He ripped off chunks with his teeth, chewing frantically, barely tasting the bitter, gamey blood. He ate like a wild animal, tearing muscle from bone, swallowing without chewing properly.
Warmth spread through his body.
At first, he thought it was just the food hitting his starved stomach.
Then the warmth turned into fire.
Demonic force — thick, violent, and pitch-black — erupted from the rat's corpse and flooded into him. It poured down his throat, seeped through his skin, and invaded his very core. Every vein, every muscle, every cell screamed as the foreign energy rampaged inside him.
Felix dropped the piece of flesh and collapsed onto all fours, vomiting blood and half-digested meat.
"Arghhhhhh—!"
Pain unlike anything he had ever felt tore through him. His wounds burned. His bones felt like they were cracking and reforming. Dark veins bulged across his arms and neck.
The demonic energy didn't ask for permission.
It consumed him from the inside out.
Felix screamed until his voice gave out, writhing on the bone-littered ground as the the demonic force sinking into the depths of his powerless body, somewhere deep inside, something awoken.