Arcen sat in the middle of the R&D station Gamma - 17 after swallowing everyone that came willingly towards him like moths to a flame.
During this big meal, he eventually realized there was something more important than love. Each person he swallowed had some amount of flame around them. The longer they stayed in his stomach, more of their flames became his.
His own flame reached towards the chamber ceiling, and he felt powerful. Feeling so powerful was nowhere near as pleasant as love, but he liked it, and wanted it all the same.
He ran out of people to swallow just when he was beginning to like it.
He felt drowsy because he’d overeaten in his frantic search for love.
With the amount of people he swallowed, it was strange how no one had any love for him.
His world was still bleak, cold, and he was alone. His stomach grumbled, extracting every bit of flame from the people in his stomach.
Sitting there like a rotten pudding, he wailed up at the tower in pure frustration. His quest was over. Finding love felt impossible now.
The tower echoed his wail back, his voice bouncing off the chamber walls.
As his flame grew towards the ceiling, the red void that he summoned by opening his mouth grew to the far corners of this tower chamber. There were other flames of all shapes and sizes moving around like critters, desperately looking for safety.
They couldn’t obey his commands. They were too insignificant. He wanted ones that could give him brighter flames or love—the only two things he cared about.
His eyes scanned the far reaches of his red void as it slowly filled the chamber. A single flame caught his attention. It was quite far, but it was very bright, reaching high above everything else in the chamber. It was moving fast over the canopy.
“You, come to me.”
YOU, COME TO ME
He commanded, pointing his finger towards the peculiar flame. It stopped moving and then slowly started weaving its way through the gaps of vegetation.
Arcen knew who it was when he saw the figure at the center of the flames. The specifics were clouded by his drowsy mind, but he knew this face and that orange raincoat.
Oh? It’s the oily brat.
IT’S THE OILY BRAT
This girl was nothing but trouble.
Her flames looked enticing. He couldn’t pass up any opportunity to look for the things that he wanted. Maybe she had more flames than anyone else.
Maybe she stole love from everyone else before he could, and maybe that was the reason behind her flames growing that large.
His hand was the size of her torso now, and she stood dazed before him after obeying his command to come to him. He tried to grab her off the ground.
Except he couldn’t grab her no matter what he did. She slipped right off every time he tried, like a piece of raw chicken drowned in melted butter.
“Stay there!”
STAY THERE!
He commanded out of pure frustration as she slipped off his fingers again. The muddy ground didn’t help with her oil at all. Everything was wet and slippery. The command did nothing. It wasn’t something that she could will herself to do.
If anything, it made her ooze even more oil where she stood.
Arcen dropped to his knees and elbows on his bulbous stomach. He couldn’t grab her with his hands. He had to use his mouth, where he was going to shove her either way.
He opened his jaw wide open and carefully placed it over her, fitting her into a bite like a slippery hotdog planted on the ground.
He felt her oil coat every inch of his esophagus as he swallowed the girl whole. He could no longer feel his own tongue, mouth or lips. Her oil had some sort of a numbing effect. Despite the struggle to grab her, she went down way easier than everyone else—in fact, he barely even felt her going down.
To his utter disappointment, she didn’t have any love for him either. The world remained bleak, cold and lonely, with none of the pink clouds as before. The heart pounding excitement that he had was lost entirely to a creeping drowsiness.
In the absence of any more people to command, the red void slowly lost its color. This tower chamber had given him everything of value that it had. He wanted to move on and search the rest, but he could barely move with his big bloated stomach. He wanted to sleep.
He rolled up on the muddy ground. He’d eaten way too much way too fast.
The last remnants of the red void collapsed and faded, drowning the chamber back in its bioluminescent darkness. He closed his eyes and went to sleep.
Arcen snapped awake, his face buried in the soft mud. He couldn’t tell where he was. Things were burning around him. The research station Gamma-17 was a complete mess. The last thing that he could clearly remember was asking Jenna for his pills and her running away from him.
The rest was a fever dream where he had wanted something or the other, in a dangerously obsessive way.
What the fuck happened?
This felt like the worst hangover ever, his forehead was about to bubble up and burst.
“Hello? Anybody here?” He asked, but the sound came far different from the voice that he remembered as his own.
“What’s—” He grabbed his throat. His mouth was slippery. His lips were coated with what felt like lubricant. When he shoved his finger between his teeth, it came back soaked with oil instead of saliva.
He spat. It was even more oily.
He patted his stomach, and the sound surprised him—it sounded like a hollow pot. He felt things shift inside. Food crawled up to his throat, and he wanted to throw up.
A few seconds later, he realized how utterly big he was.
The realization came with a slow crescendo of his heartbeat. Somehow, he was as half as tall as the research lab that was made of container boxes. He had no idea how any of this happened.
His stomach heaved more with each passing second. Something was bubbling inside, and he spat more oil out after each heave. He raised himself back onto his knees. Every movement hurt his bloated, bulbous stomach.
Am I fucking pregnant? What’s going on!
His eyes brushed against a blue piece of fabric on the muddy ground. He grabbed it with his huge, oil drenched fingers.
His eyes widened. This was Jenna’s dress.
Looking around, he saw more pieces of clothing, shirts, helmets, boots, various accessories. It looked like he turned into a giant and smashed a thrift shop.
Why did Jenna take her clothes off?!
He looked around. Jenna couldn’t be here. Every tent and building in the vicinity was either flattened to the ground, collapsed or twisted.
He tried to remember what he was doing.
There was a black egg inside the lab. He went inside it.
He remembered meeting King.
He remembered being swallowed by King.
He remembered waking up from that cursed red world as liquid nitrogen froze Norm Lorraine’s corpse.
He remembered taking some pills that made him feel alright.
Arcen stared at his palm, now decorated with a mixture of mud, blood, and oil. There was a faint golden glow around his fingers like an outline. He could see it whenever he squinted.
What the hell am I?
The tower showed him exactly what he was as soon as he thought about it. It hummed in his ears, Gold veins grew from the corners of his eyes and resolved into letters that he could read.
╭────────────────────╮
?╭─ GOLD ─╮?
╰ 111,981 ╯
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
?╭─ AURA ─╮?
╰ 23,157,282 ╯
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
I have twenty-three million of whatever the fuck Aura is?!
He’d seen that in the dive session. Norm Lorraine had more than a million. The queen that laid her egg on his chest had ninety nine million.
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
He used to have zero there.
How the hell did I get this much?
He tried to dismiss the numbers. He had to try a couple times.
Close! Close!
Something else came up as soon as he dismissed them.
╭ ╰︶?? ERITHERIA ?? ︶╯ ╮
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ QUEST ╰︶
????
EARN YOUR NAME
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ REWARDS ╰︶
????
NAMING
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ STATUS ╰︶
????
COMPLETED
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╰︶COLLECT ︶╯
He remembered getting a quest when he stepped into the tower. It had told him to kill something half his weight or above to earn his name.
This is saying I killed something half my weight?! when?!
The question made less sense when he looked down at himself. He was larger than an elephant. There was no dead thing half his weight lying around.
He’d grown to this size at some point. That could only mean that he killed something before he grew out of proportion.
Collect?
Just thinking about the word weaved a different set of letters in his eyes.
╭ ╰︶?? ERITHERIA ?? ︶╯ ╮
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ ITEM ╰︶
????
NAMING
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ DESCRIPTION ╰︶
????
ALLOWS YOU TO NAME
YOURSELF
??
I WILL ALWAYS
REMEMBER YOU
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╰︶USE ︶╯
His eyes briefly brushed over ‘use’ and the naming item activated. He hadn’t intended it to happen. He was too used to his Mind Matrix that abstracted all such interactions to eye gestures. The tower system fired off at the speed of his thoughts.
I’m not used to this at all!
╭ ╰︶?? ERITHERIA ?? ︶╯ ╮
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ WHAT IS YOUR NAME? ╰︶
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╰︶CONFIRM ︶╯
How am I supposed to–
╭ ╰︶?? ERITHERIA ?? ︶╯ ╮
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ WHAT IS YOUR NAME? ╰︶
????
HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╰︶CONFIRM ︶╯
Oh, crap.
╭ ╰︶?? ERITHERIA ?? ︶╯ ╮
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ WHAT IS YOUR NAME? ╰︶
????
HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO OH CRAP
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╰︶CONFIRM ︶╯
The tower system required mastery over his thoughts. He didn’t have the time or the patience to deal with this now. He wanted to get these pesky gold veins out of his eyes.
Confirm!
╭ ╰︶?? ERITHERIA ?? ︶╯ ╮
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ THAT IS NOT A NAME ╰︶
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
Fuck it. Close! close! close!
The letters were permanently stuck in his vision. He couldn’t see anything, and it didn’t close no matter what he did.
His stomach grumbled, acid and oil crawling up to his throat. This was a bad situation to have gold veins blocking everything that he could see.
He tried to move, tripped over something and toppled into a crushed container.
Fuck! Retry!
╭ ╰︶?? ERITHERIA ?? ︶╯ ╮
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ WHAT IS YOUR NAME? ╰︶
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╰︶CONFIRM ︶╯
Arcen!
╭ ╰︶?? ERITHERIA ?? ︶╯ ╮
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ WHAT IS YOUR NAME? ╰︶
????
ARCEN
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╰︶CONFIRM ︶╯
Confirm!
╭ ╰︶?? ERITHERIA ?? ︶╯ ╮
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ YOU HAVE EARNED A TITLE ╰︶
????
EATER OF PEOPLE
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
Eater of what?!
He burped aloud as a thick bubble ballooned at his throat. Whatever that was bubbling up within him was burning his insides.
Smoking oil poured out of his nostrils.
Oh God!
The weight in his stomach shifted as he felt something move inside.
I’m gonna throw up!
He shoved his fingers in his mouth as far back as they could go and tickled his throat. Thick streams of hot oil and blood poured out from his mouth and nostrils, floodgates wide open.
He closed his eyes, keeping his jaw wide open for everything to come out.
Fire and white smoke burst forth from his mouth and nostrils. The oil burned his insides on its way out and he threw up like a snake that tried eating something it couldn’t digest. He caught blurry glimpses of things shooting out of his mouth.
He couldn’t believe how large they were.
It felt like he threw up for hours. At the end, he felt sore as if his digestive tract unfurled out of his mouth.
“What the hell is this!” He yelled desperately. He collapsed face-first into the mud, feeling weak at the knees.
He had grown a lot smaller as he threw up.
He saw the wretch through teary eyes—an oil drenched mess of corpses lying before him in various twisted poses. Most of them looked like half cooked meat, roughly human shaped.
He watched their twisted faces and broken limbs, his heart sinking to his feet, body numb and paralyzed with fear.
Oh, my God what happened!
He couldn’t even scream. He wasn’t sure if he had a throat to make sound with. He was burning from within.
The pile of corpses shifted, and someone slowly stood up.
The oily girl! I ate her too?!
She no longer had her raincoat. It had dissolved, leaving only the thick collar part hanging around her neck. She was covered in a gel-like layer of oil. Her bodysuit was half dissolved as well, and she was struggling to breathe through the gel, coughing up even more oil as she hammered her fist on her chest.
Arcen tried crawling towards her as fast as he could. His body was trembling, and his legs no longer worked as well as he wanted.
I should help her!
He reached for her as the corners of his vision darkened. There was a mountain of corpses to wade through. It felt impossible.
“H-help!” he cried when he couldn’t get any nearer. He couldn’t even hear his own voice. “Help me!”
The oily girl ripped the thick gel layer off her face as if she was tearing polythene packaging. Tilting her head, she looked at him as she rubbed her mouth with the back of her hand, her orange eyes glowing like molten iron.
Arcen couldn’t move anymore. He gave up and slumped face first into the pile of corpses.
As he blacked out, he saw a familiar face.
It was Jenna—her skin translucent and her face frozen in pain. She didn’t look as melted as the others.
Except her face wasn’t frozen. Her eyelids fluttered ever so slightly, and her unnaturally blue eyes fell upon his face.
Oh! no! she’s alive! help! her!
He tried to yell at the oily girl for help, but everything went dark before he could utter another word.
What is this?
WHAT IS THIS?
He stood from an oily pile of corpses. They hadn’t given him any love. He’d wanted to sleep, but he wasn’t sleepy anymore.
He was smaller now.
He felt incredible.
There was a fire inside him, one that was very different from the pleasant warmth that love gave him. This one burned his insides, and it hurt just right.
Just enough to fill him with glorious anger.
There was someone standing at the top of the pile of corpses. He recognized her immediately. It was the small, slippery little thing that he had to try so hard to swallow earlier.
Her oil was everywhere. Every corpse beneath her feet was slowly slipping away as if dead ants in a water fountain.
She seemed to have an endless supply of oil. He wished he had one like that for love, or better yet—for these wonderful flames that made him feel so powerful.
Looking at her closely, he saw something else on the girl that he hadn’t seen before. She was sparkling under the hot oil layers. There was something under her half-dissolved bodysuit.
She had a beautiful gold layer covering her skin from neck down. It looked like she was made of gold underneath—her torso at least. All her limbs and her head were skin colored.
Is that love?
IS THAT LOVE?
He didn’t know what love was supposed to look like in physical form, but if it was actually love, he should’ve felt pleasant when he ate her.
He’d just felt the polar opposite.
Thinking back, he hadn’t seen gold like this on anyone that he swallowed—or rather, he hadn’t paid attention to anyone long enough to see anything they had under their clothes.
Maybe I should’ve looked before swallowing.
MAYBE I SHOULD’VE LOOKED BEFORE SWALLOWING
Maybe people did have gold under their meddlesome clothes. He’d swallowed a lot of them without peeling their clothes off.
Eating so many had been a grave mistake.
He had to be picky with what he wanted to eat. His food needed to either have love, big flames or gold.
He had no business bothering with with those who have none of those things.
What is gold for?
WHAT IS GOLD FOR?
It didn’t matter. That gold looked really beautiful. He didn’t want anyone else to have something so spectacular. He wanted all of that gold on his skin and on his skin only.
No one else should be allowed to be that beautiful, such things were only fit for a King.
That’s my gold!
THAT’S MY GOLD!
The girl rubbed her oily hand on her chest, coating her hand with gold.
The Gold layer wasn’t solid at all. It was a metallic liquid.
She clenched her gold covered fist above her mouth, dripping a thin stream of oily gold directly into her throat.
Once it was all dripped, she licked her hand clean, finger by finger as if she ate something extremely delicious.
Her eyes widened maniacally as she did, all her pupils contracting to the point they turned to dots. The flame around her outline flared in all directions.
Arcen opened his mouth.
“I WANT MY GOLD”
I WANT MY GOLD
The red void spread from him as he spoke.
“DON’T EAT MY GOLD!”
DON’T EAT MY GOLD!
He yelled it without even thinking about it. The girl was turning all her gold into flames. She kept rubbing her hand on her chest and eating handfuls of it.
He didn’t want to let her eat all of it. The gold looked best on skin, not when it disappeared into the stomach. If she turned all her gold into flames, he’d be left with nothing.
Groaning in exasperation, he lunged at the girl, sliding on the corpses beneath his feet. The girl kept eating gold until he grabbed her.
His hands were smaller this time, but they were as large as her face. She didn’t resist at all. He yanked her away from the pile of corpses.
He stopped her just in time to stop her from eating her fourth fist of gold. Her flames had grown much larger now, and there was a hole in the gold layer on her chest. She’d turned all that gold into flames.
“YOU! GIVE ME MY GOLD!”
YOU GIVE ME MY GOLD!
“Your gold?!” the girl asked indignantly, her voice distorted through her oily vocal cords. “Nothing here is yours, baby boy.”
She snapped her fingers, setting off a brilliant white spark. In an instant, she caught fire from head to toe.
It didn’t burn her skin because she was producing enough oil to keep the flames from ever touching her skin.
Things were different on the receiving end of it. Flesh melted from his hands like Styrofoam. Arcen felt a lot of pain, even as his body mended itself immediately.
╭ ╰︶?? ERITHERIA ?? ︶╯ ╮
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ ATTRIBUTE INCREASED ╰︶
????
LIFE +1
[10]
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ SKILL ACCQUIRED ╰︶
????
ATTRIBUTE [LIFE] REACHED
THE FIRST THRESHOLD OF [10]
??
RESTORE [1]
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
“Time to go back to sleep, baby boy!” her bright orange eyes glowed as her pupils flared up and segmented into eight smaller circles.
He lunged at her again, ready to twist her to death like a towel this time. His fingers slipped off her, hot oil bubbling the skin off his palms.
The red void around him flickered, growing unstable as her strange pupils fluctuated.
She’d found a way to silence his red world commands somehow.
She raised her right hand towards him and drenched him in thick streams of oil.
He saw where that oil was coming from.
It was all spurting forth from the gaps under her fingernails.
When he was coated from head to toe, she snapped fingers again, throwing a powerful spark onto him, setting him on fire again.
He pushed forward even as the fire melted flesh off his bones.
Pain could never stop him when he wanted what he wanted.
“MY GOLD!”
MY GOLD!
