9 Cravings.
Once the [Nightmare Worm] heard that it was pissed.
"How else would my parasite enter you! You have to digest it! What, would I just put it in your nose, and have it travel that way!? NO! That would be stupid, putting it in your mouth would've been faster!"
The [Nightmare Worm] shouted at Nemesis, he couldn't see him, but he was sure he could hear him. He was right, Nemesis' eye twitched, as his body shivered in fear. "Not this again. Not this again. Not this again." Nemesis repeatedly chanted in fear of a repetition of prior events, back then, in his first life, he had been mentally scarred by the souls he had taken, as before they weren't consumed by Hunger, but instead followed him everywhere. Constantly shouting at him. He couldn't have a repeat of last time, he just couldn't! He wouldn't survive then!
Nemesis panted heavy breaths as he tried his best to ignore the [Nightmare Worm]'s soul, by chanting something different. "Souls of the deceased shall be forgotten, forsaken and with a forlorn attempt at escape, shall be consumed." As he continued to chant it repeatedly, he bent down. He didn't bother covering his ears, as he had tried before, but only to end up with the souls' voices to be heard within his head.
As the demon host had become mentally dead, he would now have the chance to take a second one to complete his mission faster. He halted his chanting for a moment and swallowed the saliva that had built up in his mouth, then reached out for and grasped the demon's arm. He would be busy for a while, trying to block out the soul of the [Nightmare Worm] and consume the demon's flesh.
A [Void Blade], around a meter in length was manifested on his right hand, and with a single slash, he cut the demon's arm off. He cut slashed at his leg as well, cutting it off. Blood began to gush out of the wounds as the demon began to writhe in pain. He began to let out incoherent groans and animalistic screams. Nemesis rolled his eyes in annoyance, he would try to finish this as soon as possible so he could get rid of the two, to preserve his sanity. He gave one final sigh as he moved the demon's now severed arm, into his mouth, chomping down on the flesh, with blood splattering on his face.
As he chomped down on it, the demon let out a deafening shriek and with more effort, began to vigorously move, flopping around like a dying fish, causing the blood spewing out of his wounds to quickly envelop Nemesis' clothing in a dark, crimson red.
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Nemesis stood silently as if in a trance, hearing the frenzied [Nightmare Worm]'s soul scream. He blankly stared at the demon's body, which lay motionless. His clothes were now tainted with a sickly, dried, dark, crimson hue and the pale skin on his face had now changed looking similar to a [Blood Stalker]. It was covered in a dull, freshly coated, red which streaked across his face. His face also housed several small, darker crimson patches, strewn about his cheeks.
He didn't know why he did it... He just didn't know why he did.
The demon was missing both his legs and arms. It only had its head and torso. He had regained his mind, but now he wished he didn't. He didn't know if it was a cruel joke the world plagued him with after all if he stayed brain dead, he wouldn't have had to deal with such an intolerable amount of pain.
He had felt every single bite! Every time Nemesis bit into his flesh, every time he chewed on it, each time a limb was removed from his body, now he was literally a fraction of his former self. He didn't know how, it just felt like the nerves within those severed limbs stayed active, just to inform his brain of how much pain they were in, so he could feel said pain. He knew it had happened all due to that youth, him and some strange black magic.
He was brought out of his thoughts as he heard a loud thud. Something had fallen again, and he knew what it was. He slowly twisted his head to confirm the identity of what had fallen...
Bones. More specifically, the bones within his arm. All the muscles and flesh had been eaten, he couldn't even see a bit of flesh on it; it had been licked clean. He knew his fate was over, he had heard this three times already, each and every time the skeletal remains of his arm or legs had been dropped and discarded; as if throwing away trash.
He could see the shoes of the freak, standing there motionlessly. If he didn't know better, he would've thought that the youth had died, but he felt the burning sensation of his eyes staring directly at him, as if into his soul. He lay there waiting while Nemesis stood silently for a minute...
A gulp echoed throughout the entire room, breaking the silence. A long drawn out sigh was then emitted. Nemesis bent down, onto one knee. Once he did so, he kept his, dry red, gloved hand directly above the demon's chest, where his heart was. A purplish-black aura surrounded the tips of his fingers, as the [Void] was being used to create phantom claws, these were sharp enough to tear apart [Rank - 1 Demon Overlord] class demons, let alone a pitiful [Rank - 12 Demonic Trainee]. In one swift motion, he brought his clawed hand down, and pulled it back up, holding tightly on a heart beating at a snail's pace.
The demon felt an unbearable amount of pain, he hadn't expected that even after his heart was removed, he would still be alive... but that was what frightened him. He would have to suffer the pain of him eating his heart now.
The [Void] surrounding the tips of his fingers disappeared. He wished to hurry, he hadn't expected that he would have been lost in a trance, eating as much flesh as possible...
'I need to stop that lust... that craving for flesh. The gluttony I felt... I need to stop.'
Nemesis shoved the still-beating heart into his mouth, gobbling it down quickly. He wished to be done with it already, he couldn't be lost in another episodic fantasy like that ever again! If someone were to find out about his... cravings, they would surely never trust him ever again and see him as a foe.
'Finally... peace. I'll be free of this suffering. Mother, father, I'll see you in the next life...'
Were the demon's final thoughts as he died. But the cruel harshness of reality had yet to destroy him enough, Nemesis immediately covered his face with his freshly-bloodied, gloved hand and used [Soul Absorption]. The unnamed demon's soul was forcefully taken away, moments right before it had gone to repeat the cycle of life and had been reincarnated into a new life.
Nemesis could now see two red orbs which were the two souls wandering around him, one pleading for freedom; a new life. While the other wishing for the worst death imaginable to befall upon him. His soul parade of the tormented was growing again... He was grateful that Hunger had allowed the souls to be removed... permanently, this time at least.
"Hunger! Consume them."
Nemesis stated in disgust, not at Hunger, but at the rancid smell of blood. He had never been so covered in blood before, for longer than a few seconds, as he would always instantly cleanse himself of it. For this time, he had just been so entranced by the idea of flesh that he had forgotten to clean himself.
From his shadow, swiftly came out a Nocthum. Hunger with his single pentagon-shaped, sapphire eye glared at the two souls. Instantly the two souls quivered and silenced themselves. While they normally couldn't see anything, as all they saw was darkness. They could sense the soul of the one who had killed them and the souls of the others slain by him.
Hunger silenced them by showing several extremely graphic images to the souls. The souls were flooded with nightmarish acts, things and visuals. They were paralysed with fear.
Hunger reached out his lanky, spectral, sharp, purplish-black claw and grasps the two souls, placing the two souls into his eye.
"Don't forget, time is ticking. Don't forget Shane either." Hunger stated seriously, as he shifted his gaze to look at Nemesis. Once he finished his statement, he turned to face the doorway.
Nemesis confused as to why Hunger would look at the doorway, and so he couldn't help but follow his gaze. His body froze up when he saw Shane, with a look of horror etched onto his face, at the doorway. He quickly looked down and saw how badly tainted his clothes were in blood.
Shock. That was all Shane could see in Nemesis' eyes. It seemed like he hadn't expected him to appear there. He was mortified to find out that someone he believed with many similar traits and a seemingly similar past would do such an act. Shane was so stricken with dread that he was paralysed. The clean bones, the bloody Nemesis, the mutilated corpse, the heart-eating, the red orbs being taken from the mutilated demon and being absorbed by that unknown phantom-type demon which manifested itself from Nemesis' shadow. Everything was so superstitious, it seemed too absurd to be real, but he couldn't deny what he saw. All he could do was ask a single question.
"..."
