A whole new world (1)

Another month passed by since Aziel had an encounter with the mutated winged creature that seemed to be the apex predator ruling the heavenly abode.

After killing it and assimilating its most dominant traits, he didn't laze around but had learned a great deal of many new tricks that came with these newfound abilities. For example, he could manipulate how the traits are expressed or used. His wings for one did not necessarily need to be grown in place of his arms, but after his recent assimilation, he could now sprout it from his back, allowing his arms to be free to use instead.

He could even turn parts of his body completely into the limbs of another creature.

His [Essence Restitute] trait also seemed to grow stronger, gaining more efficiency during the absorption process. He no longer needed to necessarily absorb the entire mass of the creature if he only wanted to gain its traits, merely the creature's brain and heart seemed to be enough to do the trick.

Also, with the increased efficiency, Aziel was now capable of freely converting the surplus mass into the energy used to power his abilities and transformation.

This energy that is closely tied to each living creature on this strange new realm, he decided to call it [Aether] for the lack of a better term. For now, he was incapable of investigating it more thoroughly. The only mental note he had made so far was that unlike the [Mana] found in abundance freely in the air and everything in Nova, his old home, [Aether] was something closely related to the creature's very own vitality.

Essentially it could also be referred to as its pure life force, its essence.

...

Standing at the sandy shore of a lake, Aziel was currently doing his best attempts at fishing; his mouth morphed into that of a beak he stood still as he waited for the fishes to approach him.

To cease his growing boredom, he took up fishing as a way to pass the time in his new home. Already conquering the lands and the clouds he was bored; no longer having a challenge in either.

Focusing on fishing, Aziel was oblivious to a creature stalking him from behind a tree waiting for the right moment. Seeing that Aziel was focused on his activities, it slowly crept closer and closer to his back, prepared to pounce at the right time, and kill him.

Once it was close enough, the creature jumped at Aziel with its claws aimed at his back and its fangs aimed at his neck.

*BANG!*

As it got closer, Aziel had sensed it as it arrived within his sensory range. Casually swinging his fist back he sent the creature flying into a nearby tree, cracking it.

The creature receiving this blow was fatally wounded and was now suffering from internal hemorrhaging as it struggled to pick itself back up from the floor.

Fear visible in its eyes, it began to limp away as it was casually defeated and fatally injured in the hand of this strange-looking figure, fading into the forest.

Not losing focus, Aziel continued to observe the lake in search for fish. Hours had passed like this, he was still crouching there motionlessly as he still couldn't find any fish in the lake.

"This is pointless…" He grew annoyed.

Picking himself up, he reverted his mouth to normal as his attempt at fishing was proving to be a fruitless endeavor at its core. He has been crouching in one place for the past several hours and still, no fish could be seen anywhere in the entirety of the lake.

Scratching his head, Aziel turned around and began walking around the lake to see if he could find anything at its edges.

Scanning the rest of the waters, he could see no fish and absolutely no signs of life. Aziel was growing bored as he no longer had anything to challenge his title as the strongest creature on the planet. He had already killed and absorbed any possible threat both on land and in the skies, leaving him to a fate of deep emptiness.

As he gradually kept on rising higher and higher on the food chain, so did his interest in this world slowly began to wane.

In his mind, this was the truth, he believed that nothing could contend with him anymore, but he didn't know how wrong he was. Lying at the bottom of that very lake he was scanning, was a beast many times bigger than anything he has ever seen on the surface. A super predator that ruled the waters in this ancient, prehistoric world.

Growing curious as to why it was empty, Aziel took a deep breath and dove into the lake, swimming to its bottom, growing more and more puzzled the deeper he went. It got harder and harder to see as the light was dimming the deeper she reached. However, aided by his ability to see in the dark from the many predators he had already absorbed, these changes were negligible to him.

Reaching near its bottom, Aziel slowed his descent and began to observe the bottom of the lake in search of some form of life he could absorb to further evolve himself.

Swimming at the bottom of the lake, he still came across no signs of life and was growing bored in his search for anything he could find at the depths. He soon collided with what felt like a rock as he wasn't paying attention to what was in front of him.

'The hell?'

Scratching his head, he looked up to what he had hit.

Seeing what appeared to be an underwater hill, he just decided to swim around it, since he was still in search of life at the edge of the jungle. Swimming for a while longer he came across an opening at the bottom of the lake's edge.

Curious by this discovery, he journeyed into the opening to see what he could find.

It has been 20 minutes, and Aziel was still swimming through the dark, unlit pathway that the opening had led to. Eventually reaching its end, he could see another opening where he could exit out from.

Reaching the exit to the pathway, Aziel arrived into a much larger body of water, roughly five times the size of the previous one, not just in size but depth as well.

However, unlike the previous lake, the one he was in now was filled with schools of fish or what appeared to be fish, though they were much scarier looking than any he had ever seen before.

'About time…' he inwardly exclaimed.

Ecstatic by his find, Aziel began swimming around to see if he could catch any of the fish to absorb it and gain the ability to breathe underwater. His lungs might be able to allow him to hold his breath for an extended period of time, but that didn't mean it was comfortable doing so.

Swimming at the nearest fish he tried to clumsily catch it, only for it to escape from his grasp within moments. He then tried to catch other fishes but he failed every time; they were just too fast, too agile in their natural environment.

Since all his attempts failed, he decided to change his approach and hid behind a rock to wait for one to come by and pass him. Extending his claws he lied in ambush for his unsuspecting prey.

After about five minutes later, a rather large fish spanning around 20 feet in length, sporting a thickened layer of bone-like armor on its face swam in front of the now coiled-up Aziel.

Wasting no time, he rushed at the creature as fast as he could and sunk his claws deep into the side of the creature.

The creature receiving Aziel's attack began to thrash around in the water in an attempt to shake its attacker off. Not giving it the chance, he latched himself onto its back and continued to stab the animal in its side, rending its flesh in the process.

The creature was beginning to bleed out and lose more of its vigor the longer Aziel held onto its back. Soon succumbing to its injuries, the fish stopped its trashing and could no longer resist its incoming demise by Aziel's hands.

Stabbing the creature in the eye, it finally died. He decided to absorb it immediately as he had no intention of wasting any more time.

With the new mass fusing with his body, Aziel's frame began to warm up, causing the water around him to boil and generate bubbles from the intense heat he was generating.

Struggling to hold his breath due to the pain, he held his neck as the pain concentrated there. Just as he reached out for it, lines started to form on Aziel's neck, soon opening into gills, allowing him to breathe. Additionally, his feet soon grew a thin webbing to aid in his swimming.

Realizing this, he took a deep breath and sucked in a large amount of water. This held no ill effects anymore, thanks to the changes his body has just gone through from absorbing the fish. Inspecting himself, his upper body was now covered in armor made out of a bone-like material, similar to the creature he absorbed.

Inspecting himself further, he was not aware of the current situation he was in.

The blood of the fish he had killed attracted a beast vastly greater in size than what he had ever seen, rushing in his direction at high speeds.