Apex Devour
Shinji is expendable.** As an E-rank adventurer, he’s the bottom rung on the ladder, worthy only of carrying supplies and drawing fire. After three years of loyalty, his party finally betrays him, sealing him behind a runic door to die as bait for a pack of ravenous High Orcas so they can escape with their precious loot.
But death is not the end.
As Shinji's life bleeds away onto the cold stone, his final thoughts are not of fear, but of a burning vow for vengeance against the Demon Lord, Zany, who destroyed his family and his world. This resolve catches the attention of **Hinata, the Goddess of Death**. It was her mercy eons ago that allowed a fallen god to become the very Demon Lord Shinji now hates. Plagued by guilt, she offers him a brutal bargain: a second chance at life, armed with a devastating new power.
She grants him **Apex Devour**—a cursed ability to consume the essence of every demon he slays and claim their strength as his own. Along with it comes **Azura**, a sentient sword that hungers for demon blood and promises evolution in exchange for carnage.
Resurrected and reborn into a broken world, Shinji is no longer the weak, trusting boy he once was. He is a predator in the making. His journey will be a year-long descent into blood and agony, hunting the demonic legions from the bottom up. He will devour his way through the ranks, from mindless beasts to Zany's four legendary generals, to confront the ultimate source of the world's despair.
But with every demon he consumes, he risks losing his humanity to the very darkness he seeks to destroy. To kill a god, must he become a monster?
