Dark Meal Part 3

Slowly but surely, time began passing, as a new process, similar to the previous one, began happening to Beatrice.

Over the course of two hours, Beatrice constantly replaced her old flesh, which she deemed as 'inferior' and 'imperfect', with new and improved flesh.

But even so, in the end, not even the new flesh was perfect for long, being soon replaced as Beatrice's understanding of darkness grew to a whole other level.

Halfway through this process though, Beatrice had to take a small break, and begin using elemental stones to fuel herself, as she had finally managed to empty the elemental energy reserves of her home.

With every bit of flesh that fell out of Beatrice's body and was replaced, the capacity for mana of Beatrice's body improved, slowly but surely becoming larger and larger as time passed.

In the end, it took over three whole days for Beatrice to fully digest Ben's soul, much longer than what it took to digest Kiara's soul.

But even so, the benefits that Beatrice had gained from this far exceeded her expectations, as Beatrice felt her body reach closer and closer to perfection.

But in the end, after fully enjoying Ben, Beatrice was left just a sliver away from that perfection she sought so much, causing her to finally open her eyes.

Staring at the final box in front of her, Beatrice took in a deep breath and finally sat up and slightly stretched her limbs.

"I'm a little bit dirty," mumbled Beatrice as she touched her smooth skin with a faint frown on her face.

Although the earth ants helped Beatrice get rid of all of her excess flesh, Beatrice was bound to get somewhat dirty after completing such a drastic process.

After a moment of thought, Beatrice picked up the metal box in front of her and began walking towards the bathroom.

Even though Beatrice realistically knew that nobody would be able to sneak in here and steal this box, she still couldn't resist taking it with her.

Just to guard against that tiny chance that something had gone.

...

Unlike Beatrice's previous bath, back before the reconstruction, as well as her bathroom in her previous life, Beatrice's new bathroom did not actually have any sort of bathtub.

Instead, in the middle of the bathroom stood a large pool, over ten meters on all sides, with a large statue of Beatrice above it, which was sneakily added into the project by Antonia.

As she sunk her body in the warm pool of water, still holding the metal box in her hands, faintly sighed before quickly beginning to clean her body.

Although Beatrice could very much enjoy a good bath, she knew that this was not the right time to let herself relax, and wanted to quickly clean herself up.

Occasionally, though, Beatrice's eyes couldn't help but peer at the golden statue of herself that stood opposite of her right now, which had a steady stream of water falling out of her palms.

As such, it took Beatrice a little bit longer than she had first expected to clean herself up, just over five minutes, as Beatrice was still rather hurried.

After making sure that she had cleaned herself up properly, Beatrice got out of the pool and picked up a new set of robes that she had placed nearby before quickly dressing herself up.

Only a few moments later, Beatrice, with the metal box, which had not left her hands for even a moment, walked out of the bathroom and back into her bedroom, which was now perfectly clean, having been cleaned by a group of ants whilst Beatrice was gone.

"It's almost there..." mumbled Beatrice as she sat back down and slowly but surely opened the metal box in her arms, removing the seal that she had placed onto it, and revealing the tiny soul that Beatrice had obtained.

As she had not placed any restrictions on the baby, Beatrice simply threw the soul into her mouth and devoured it without doing anything, assimilating its memories, thoughts, and ideas.

Merely a few moments after she devoured the soul, Beatrice couldn't help but slightly cackle, causing a maniacal laugh to exit her mouth.

"This is so much better than expected..." mumbled Beatrice as the scattered memories of the young child entered her mind.

Unlike Kiara, and even Ben, the darkness which filled the soul with the child was much more 'intrinsic', being its entire life.

Whilst darkness had taken everything away from Ben, to this child, darkness was all there ever was, as its eyes did not allow it to see light.

Although the life of the child was short, having been taken away from it by its own mother, who did not show it any sort of love or affection, which meant that the child was not able to develop its intelligence.

Even though the newly born child was not very smart, only a few moments after it was born, it suddenly felt the second darkness in its life, its very own mother, who seemed distant and cold to it, not even being willing to touch it more than necessary.

Merely a few minutes after that, the child felt the third, and final darkness which filled its life quickly approach it.

Death

Although the young human child without a name could not hear or see, it knew a single thing, its life would soon come to an end.

Even though the child was unable to think out these exact words, the moment he reached his mother's arms, the young child knew that he would soon die

Sadly though, all this knowledge did not allow the child to do anything, as its feeble body, unable to even cry, was not able to struggle against its mother, leaving it with only one thing.

Terror

For the young child who could not think much, Darkness was inextricably linked with terror.

From his inability to see, to the quick approach of death, Terror was the only emotion the child had ever linked with darkness.

As well as the only emotion that it had ever felt throughout its entire life.