Foreboding Feeling

The two dishes move, each with the same desire to consume another.

The lion avoided the axe and tried to bite the spear and swiped its claws but the denizen moved away, however, its chest armour was scratched. Making a dull sound like tree bark.

Both of them are learning, the lion has never fought before until in this place. The other monsters it faced were just fodder it devoured.

This is its first battle against something that can truly kill it.

The newborn also was the first to fight with the weapon.

It learned the hard way that, touching the meals unprepared will burn it body that why it brought extra mouth.

The axe, spear and the armour are part of its mouth, every hair, blood, and flesh it cut from the lion was the same as eating them and they passed to its main body.

In a few minute of clashes that made the lion bloody, the newborn was getting stronger and gaining more mastery.

Certainly, this lion seemed stronger physically than the other three serpentines it fights but it doesn't have a venom like them.

The lion was always jumping around avoiding the spear as it judged it to be the most dangerous. It has longer reached.

The axe was dangerous but with agility it can avoid that.

It has slashed at the armour many times but it wasn't breaking, it seemed like wood but the lion knew better. As it was getting stronger and stronger until now it was feeling like it was striking metal.

The lion up its game and masters it moves gradually by avoiding more strikes and slashing.

Soon, its claws weren't even leaving a scratch on it now.

The newborn denizen trembled as its body glowed with blue before slight red appeared in its vein. Its body became more manly and its eyes began to develop irises.

It immediately began to feel on its skin, it began to smell, and its mouth that was watering began to taste the true extent of the meal before it.

Hair appeared on it navel and desire began to be born in its heart. Its brain began to process ideas and immediately the technique it was given began to evolve to suit it well.

The spear was just 6 feet with a sharp tip but it transformed and became longer and more metal like before the sharp tip became like a saw.

This way it will grab flesh and tear it, causing a gauging wound that will bleed. The axe too transformed into saw teeth.

The newborn armor spotted spikes and sharp edges for the same reason.

That wasn't the only transformation, its mind has assimilated the whole fight it has from beginning to the end and crafted new skills and techniques.

With absolute certainty it will dominate the battle and feed on its dish slowly, savouring every second.

It didn't take long for that to happen but the lion should have attacked but it didn't.

"I will get my name by devouring you, creature. Rejoice, this mighty denizen finds you delicious!"

It spoke in a language humans can understand.

The lion has stared at the denizen transformation as it becomes more dangerous.

Especially now that it was bigger.

The denizen moved back the hand that held the spear and then threw it with all its newly gained strength.

The sharp and saw spear cut air as it came toward the lion.

The lion relaxed its muscles the denizen didn't know when it stepped back out of uncertainty and then a graceful wind passed it.

In an unexpected turn of event by the newborn denizen, the lion's graceful sidestepped the spear and rushed fast with speed its newly gained eye couldn't read.

It questions reality, has it become stronger or weaker.

The next second it felt pain and it screamed, its minor evolution has brought sensation to it body and now that was biting it negatively.

The newborn turned haphazardly, the lion had chopped its hand, that one that used to hold the spear.

Second later the lion slurped the hand and chewed, relishing every part.

Goosebumps appeared on the newborn body, as the emotions of fear began to come to its new reality.

Then it noticed something as the spear it threw was held by the tail of the lion and the lion pushed it toward its mouth and crunched on it.

The denizen stepped back, now it understands, the big cat was just playing with it all this time.

However, if the newborn knew the lion, it would know that there was no game here. The lion wasn't playing at all, it was just adding some finishing touches to its delicacy.

Ever since the axe took the lion's blood, the lion sensed that the newborn had become a better dish than before. For that reason, why not improve it more.

Along the way, of course it will hone its fighting skill.

The newborn denizen has no idea how much the lion has struggled in fighting it.

The lion has never struggled this much in its life, the sheer struggle it endured to lower its strength was something the denizen will not even begin to understand.

But since the dish finishing touches has reached its zenith, then the lion needs to hold back no more. It can finally consume its delicacy.

And adding it with the burning spicy sauce spear made everything come together in the most tantalizing way possible.

As such the lion fed on the hand and bit the spear at the same time until it swallowed them whole.

The lion's stomach had begun to fill, and the hunger had reduced.

The critters, cretins and the monster organs were appetizers that aid its body to get ready for the big meal.

The denizen moved a muscle and then its right hand and axe were gone, it can't follow the lion movement at all.

The pain made it scream and fear of death finally struck.

The walls and the ground vibrated and the cries were taken to another battle happening, distance away.

The Father has breached the woman's abode and now they have engaged in a deadly battle.

A massive serpentine creature that can sprout clawed hands everywhere in its body was battling against a smaller target, a humanoid creature dressed like a warrior with a war axe on it.

Its movements were fast and sharp, the axe saw head cutting through the serpentine creature with ease and devouring blood and flesh at the same time.

This enlisted a scream of fear and pain and more hand sprouted and attacked the denizen, before the massive body if the serpentine creature moved away.

She was in defencive battle all this time by showing most of her body while hiding her vital organs away from the menacing fighter.

Unfortunately, it's a battle of devouring, every attack done by the axe consumed her body and reduces her body size.

This will continue until when she is small and the Father gets to her.

A clawed hand appeared and slashed at the humanoid with venomous gas, but it only jumped back before it roared which nullified everything.

The roar made it freeze and the denizen attacked furiously.

That was when her miracle came as the denizen suddenly stopped attacking and it looked back with anger before he bolted ,its speed creating a shock wave that shattered its surface skin.

At that moment, the lion felt a sense of foreboding and went all out, devouring the head of the newborn denizen and went for the rest of the body fast and bolted away from the location.

[You have devoured Newborn Denizen]

It didn't even get to enjoy every bite as the danger was too much for it to care about. The only hope was that it would get a chance in the future.

Due to how not straightforward the passages were the Father arrived 5 minutes later, there were no remains of the newborn but it could still feel it moving further away and it ran in that direction.

Every second that passed made the lion stronger as the denizen was being digested in its body but that wasn't the only thing that happened, it felt bloated as if it ate more than it filled.

But that was not all, the lion was feeling a connection, it wasn't the only one consuming these things. It was fighting but wasn't the only one eaiting.

That creature from Blind Sanctity was also in it.

No, after it thought more, the lion brain grasped the full picture. Eugene was a madman; he has used the Forbidden Path two times now.

In a way, the lion and Silent Treader are one now.

This realization made it understand they were in delicate balance that one mishaps they will truly collapse and die.

But also that made them strange creatures, making them attain what Shifters can do to a degree.

But that not all, deep in them, there was a portion that wasn't them, Eugene life was their slumbering.

The weight of two powerful beasts with incredible potential was just too much for Eugene to be conscious.

The only good thing was the lion's desire to preserve Eugene and also the Silent Treader that had already become an integral part of Eugene after their first merger.

If not, he will have long perished. That was why the comments from the Ephemeral Light were vague.

[Force Merger in strange situation]

Both the lion and the silent treader made a conscious effort to push the digestion energy to that part of their body and immediately Eugene was jolted awake.