3 Analysis

East Borough, on the street where Ethan found Charles Rouqueford on the brink of death.

A group of official Beyonders from the Machinery Hivemind approached the body of the deceased Criminal.

"We finally found him. If he hadn't used that powerful scroll we would have gotten him way faster, sigh." One of the members carrying a steam rifle said, his tone filled with poignancy.

However, he soon went on to shut his mouth, seemingly confused by the state of which the body currently was. The corpse was completely naked, like the man was robbed of all his possessions and left there to rot in the middle of the sidewalk.

"Someone was here. They took the corpses' things." The captain soon came to the cadaver, after crouching beside the corpse, he started to turn it and look at all of its sides, clearly searching for something.

"And they also took the Beyonder characteristic." The captain's tone was soon filled with gloomy coldness.

"Captain, you think it was the Blood Sanctify Sect? This man was one of its members after all." A female member of this squadron asked.

"No, it wasn't them. Or else the body would've been taken too. But it was left here, the robber was in a hurry, afraid he would be caught. However, what intrigues me is why would they take the clothes?"

Such a question must be considered when one thinks about the robber's understanding of Beyonder characteristics, after all, which common person would take an organ of strange origin that sprouted from the corpse they were robbing?

"Linda, try using divination to find this man's clothes." The captain turned to the female member and commanded her with a gentle tone.

"Yes, Captain!" Linda then took what seemed to be a silver-inlaid cane and held it straight on the ground, all while murmuring 'This man's clothes' seven times.

She then let go of the cane. However, like a magic trick, the cane stayed upright for a full seven seconds before falling to the ground.

Seeing this, her facial complexion becomes a bit regretful while she says, "Either the clothes don't exist anymore or the divination was interfered with."

"I see." The captain, not very surprised by such an outcome, decides to just take the body to the cathedral for a purification and continue his investigations later on.

…

Cherwood Borough, Backlund, at Rosewood Rest Hotel.

Ethan finds himself awake when a ray of sun, even when filtered by the curtains, finds itself directed at his eyes. "Yawn"

Stretching himself out of bed, he can't help but think about everything that happened to him last night. From raising from a grave, to directly becoming a Beyonder. Everything seemed too strange to even be possible.

'Well, now that I'm a Beyonder, I at least have a chance to extend my lifespan. I don't want to ever return to that hellish void.' After getting up from the bed, Ethan's stomach started to strongly rumble. It's very possible the previous owner of his current body hadn't eaten a single thing in many days.

Walking up to the wardrobe, he chose another one of the outfits he 'stole', wore it, and looked at himself in the mirror once again. He was now wearing a light-blue tweed suit and trousers, a white shirt, a light-blue vest, white tie, black social shoes, and a black top hat with silver embroidery and a light-blue stripe.

'What beautiful, refined gentleman I have in front of me, were I to tell someone I was lying in a coffin in a random cemetery with a bunch of straps yesterday, they would laugh it as a joke.' Lampooning himself a little bit to clear his rejuvenated mind, Ethan left his room, intending to head for the hotel's cafeteria.

Just after opening the door to the hallway, Ethan meets with another one of the hotel's patrons. A young woman, seemingly in her first twenties, with flaxen colored hair, brown eyes, and wearing a refined outfit with beautiful silver earrings inlaid with emeralds.

After noticing Ethan, she politely smiled and said, "Good Morning."

"Good morning." After returning her greeting, he soon followed, "I'm Ethan, pleased to make your acquaintance."

"I'm Evelyn, it's my pleasure." She appeared to have an air of eloquence and elegance to herself, after the exchange of pleasantries, both of them started walking down the stairs, and as the lady didn't seem to wish for a continuation of their conversation, Ethan kept quiet.

On the hotel's first floor, he noticed a plaque at the side of one of the archways, there was the word 'Cafeteria' on it.

Making his way towards the cafeteria, he separated from the lady known as Evelyn, her figure leaving through the hotel's main entrance.

Through the archway, Ethan met with a great venue full of tables, it was more or less crowded with a few waiters coming and going through the table aisles.

After finding himself a table by one of the big windows, Ethan sat himself and waited to be attended.

While waiting, he came to revise the most important pieces of knowledge Charles had. In summary, there were a few formulas he bought or got from killing Beyonders in the Intis Republic, the Law of Beyonder Characteristics Conservation, the acting method, general knowledge about many different pathways powers and weaknesses, a few weak rituals he couldn't use at the moment, and 4 languages, namely Intisan, Hermes, Feysac, and Loenese.

'This guy actually had so much knowledge, he's almost like a Reader or Mystery Pryer…' The formulas Charles possessed were, by order of Sequence: Sequence 9 Seer, Assassin, Marauder, and Criminal; Sequence 8 Unwinged Angel, Instigator, and Swindler; And Sequence 7 Serial Killer.

The reason Charles had so many formulas is very simple, as a rich merchant and tycoon, he bought many formulas in different Beyonder circles to try to find which Pathway was the best for himself.

After buying so many formulas the one he found to be most interesting was that of Criminal, he then proceeded to buy the necessary ingredients and concoct the potion.

After that, he came in contact with the Blood Sanctify Sect and was accepted as an outer member, he then went on to kill some people as missions for the Blood Santfy Sect, torturing them to acquire any relevant knowledge he could.

And the reason he met his demise was: after a few months, he was able to digest most of the potion and came to Backlund to participate in a certain Beyonder gathering that could potentially have the main ingredients for the Unwinged Angel potion.

However, when he came to the gathering, he realized it was a trap set by the Church of Steam and Machinery, they were able to capture and kill many wild Beyonders, and Charles was one of the few that were able to escape.

But even after escaping, he soon found himself unable to resist his grave injuries, dying on the side of the road right in front of Ethan.

'Well, it's more than well deserved for you. I hope I don't end up the same way…' After consoling himself, Ethan tried to sense how much of the 'potion' he had digested.

'How is that possible!?' Sensing his digestion, Ethan came to realize that, just like Charles, he had most of the 'potion' already digested, with no more than five or ten percent away.

'How can I have so much of the characteristic digested already if I just ate it today?' Looking at a nearby wall-clock, Ethan calculated that it had been no more than nine hours since he found Charles and came to rest at the hotel.

Which is to say that he completely digested most of the characteristic in no more than a few hours.

'Impossible! There's no way to digest a Beyonder characteristic so fast, even if I were to act to an extreme level.' Ethan thought hard about why he had digested so much of the characteristic, and he soon came to one final conclusion.

'Charles' memories weren't the only things that came with the characteristic… I have also acquired his digestion of the potion. Such a thing goes far beyond Charles' knowledge, it can be said that he never heard about anything similar in any Beyonder circles.'

At this moment, Ethan recalled the words of that mysterious voice in the darkness, *** '[...] it's been a very long time since an 'Original Soul' has been corrupted to such a degree [...]'

'Is that the reason? My 'soul', or a very important part of my existence, has been corrupted. Allowing me to do things that go beyond the restraints of this world?'

Thinking to this point, it could be said that even in this world, raising from a grave is still very abnormal for a common person, acquiring the memories of a dead Beyonder from their characteristic is even more so, and getting their level of digestion from such characteristic goes beyond all others, it's inexplicable.

After thinking so much, Ethan recalled the state of mind he was in when he ate Charles' Beyonder characteristic.

'I was hungry, beyond hungry, but it wasn't a hunger for food, no, it was something else, it was like an irrational… Gluttony…' When Ethan's mind had such thoughts, his mind went blank, it was like the barrier his subconscious created to protect itself was completely fractured, and such action had its consequences.

Ethan's mind immediately became chaotic, like his thoughts were being jumbled by a three-year-old.

After a few seconds, he was finally able to calm down. However, now, there was a strange piece of information in his mind.

Gluttony: The sin of eternal hunger. It has the Authority over Devouring, being able to absorb anything and everything it consumes, making it a part of itself forever. Its current power is still limited to Sequence 9, unable to break all parts of *¨&$%¨#*#$%#*¨$%*@

The parts of the information he could understand ended there, after that, it was just a bunch of incomprehensible symbols and strange-looking runes.

'So that's how it is… After understanding a part of myself, I'm able to essentially recall the information about the ability itself.'

The power of Gluttony was very simple; it had the power to devour and absorb the characteristics of anything he eats, which is why he was able to get the memories and digestion of Charles.

He might have even gotten more than just that, it was just that he didn't know what it could be yet.

'This power is just like a cheat, while others take years to digest their potion, I can just kill them and eat their characteristics.' Having such thoughts coming and going in his mind, Ethan was finally attended by a waiter.

The dish he asked for was a creamy porridge with a honey topping for starters, poached eggs and crispy bacon with grilled tomatoes and savory sausages as the main course, freshly toasted bread as accompaniment, and a nice cup of coffee with milk.

The price came to be an expensive three soli and 12 pence, but as it was quite a significant meal made from good ingredients, it was worth it.