Chapter 5 – Anguish

My Mom had returned to her old self almost immediately, her eyes no longer polluted by the undermining sadness that just recently plagued her, replaced by a bright smile that would warm even the coldest of hearts. 

She treated me like her own son, to my surprise. I'd expected her to be wary of me because of the way the villagers treated me the day before, and yet she wasn't even the slightest suspicious of me.

Her behavior was a small miracle, a ray of light cutting through the recent traumas. But even miracles wear masks. At night, her eyes would morph into pools of worry, though she made sure I never saw that look.

She'd resumed her work as a chef the day after the incident; seeing her craft meals with that signature, infectious smile filled me with a sort of indescribable happiness.

That is until nobody came to her small little shack to purchase food. I could see her smile waver, as she shook her head, searching for anybody who'd come to purchase from her.

Nobody came, not that day, or the day after. It became evident that we had been alienated. The few times I went out, the adults hastily retreated from me, the children running away from me screaming at the top of their lungs and the old folks glaring at me as though I'd ruined their lives.

The few times some idiotic adult came up to me, threatening to attack me or straight up doing it. I'd scared them off with Coercion. Which, to my delight, was actually an intimidating stare instead of a roar.

My Mom's situation wasn't getting much better, the villagers didn't even dare to get near our humble abode, much less interact or purchase from her. Our stock of food was quickly running out - not that we had much, considering the rate food expired and the lack of refrigerators.

As if struggling with our dwindling food stock wasn't hard enough, Mom got rejected by every vendor she approached for supplies. The men who used to admire her now averted their gazes as if we were the bearers of some terrible curse. I was the source of it all.

My Mom was being treated like a monster, all because of me. I'd grown very attached to my Mom at this point, causing me to feel an indefinite amount of guilt.

Of course, this didn't stop me from discovering more about this world. I didn't gain any other skills after the first time, though my current skills were probably enough to carry me for quite some time.

I was able to instinctively understand how to utilize my skills, but I didn't know the specifics. For example, I was able to instinctively understand that my Unique Skill Nihility allows me to generate and manipulate Nihility Energy; But I didn't understand exactly how I could use it or what the energy was capable of.

(SPOILERS FOR THE WEB NOVEL)

(The day after the incident)

Based on the web novel, Nihility Energy is a primordial energy that can be used in both creation and destruction and is basically super-dense magicules. ( Though it was never thoroughly explained.) I sat on the ground of our home, pondering about my skills.

I wonder if this world will follow the Light Novel or the Web Novel's story. I hope it's the Light Novel, I wouldn't want to compete with Rimuru in the future for a Nihility skill. How do I use this skill now? I thought as I tried imagining the Voice of the World saying Yes/No.

*Would you like to use the Unique Skill: Nihility? Yes/No*

I gleefully activate the skill. Instantly, all the magicules in my body almost instantly get dragged converge at the center of my chest, I could feel my magicules disappearing, as though being consumed by something within me. Until the only thing remaining is a black mist that starts diffusing across my body evenly.

So this is Nihility Energ-. A sickening nausea washes over me, I doubled down and gagged, my breakfast threatening to leap out of my throat. Thankfully, darkness washed over me and I blacked out.

Needless to say, I did this every night after that, leaving behind the bare amount of magicules for me so as to not collapse. Thankfully, I was able to limit the conversion to most, instead of all, of the magicules, most likely because it was my own skill. 

With every day, the quantity of Nihility Energy within me gradually increased, it didn't affect my magicule storage and seemed to have no observable side-effects. 

Though, I wasn't stupid enough to try and conduct an experiment with Nihility Energy here, I've read the web novel, and I've seen how absolutely fucking terrifying it is. 

At the village, my daily routine was basically: Eat, go out and test my skills, come back and eat, go out and search for any useful information (literally none), eat then convert my magicules in Nihility Energy, then sleep. It was a mundane life, but my Mom made it enjoyable.

(Current day, 3 weeks after the incident)

Urgh… what the fuck is that sm- I groggily flipped my head around, seeing a wisp of some gray gas hovering in the air. -el… I jolted awake. SMOKE!? I frantically looked to my right, only to find out my Mom was gone. The bed's still warm, it hasn't been long since she got out.

As my grogginess wore off, I could now hear loud shouting coming from outside the house. Mom! I raced off the bed, reaching for the door, when. 

"SMASH"

The door was thrown aside, ripped apart from its wood hinges, and landed with a loud "Thud", splintering into many pieces in protest before going quiet. 

Two burly men walked in - two men who'd aggressively tried to attack me on a few occasions. Behind them lay my mom, pushed aside onto the dirt outside our home, gathered behind her was a large crowd of peasants, watching the two men break into our house.

The fire continued raging, it'd consumed a large section of the house - thankfully it was the kitchen area. Seeing this, one of the men wasted no time and brandished his ax, preparing to swing it at me.

"STOOOOP." My Mother yelled as she got up from the floor, positioning herself in front of me, her arms outstretched. 

"Move, Linia. We're only here for that Devil, if you leave now we'll let you live." The other man, who was holding a crudely made short sword, said. "Leave or else you'll join it in hell."

Refusing to comply, my mother stood her ground.

"Hurry up and kill that fiend! I'm sure it's been possessed by that evil Storm Dragon, we must kill it before it kills us all!" 

"Yea! A merchant that I bought from recently said that the Storm Dragon comes back to life every time he dies." The second man pointed directly at me. "And that he disappeared 21 days ago, the same day this devil came about!" 

The ax-wielding man glared at me with malice in his eyes. 

"You see, Linia? This boy is WITHOUT A DOUBT a devil." The man gripped the hilt of his ax, "SO STAND DOWN BEFORE I CUT YOU DOWN WITH IT."

"No" Linia's resolve remained strong. I raised my hand to help her, support her, comfort her, anything would be fine. After all, she was putting my life before hers.

"QUICK, HE'S ABOUT TO DO SOMETHING."

  The dagger-wielding man dashed forward hurriedly, his arms locked in a position ready to strike.

My accelerated thoughts picked up on this, but I couldn't move. No, my body could move, but it wasn't fast enough. Quickly activating Coercion, I directed its full power at the man. 

He stopped, his skin pale, color being completely drained from him. However, his momentum couldn't be stopped. 

The dagger implanted itself into my Mom's abdomen, causing red blood to splurt out of her wound. My eyes widened as I watched my Mom collapse onto the ground.

My world went quiet, as though everything had become muffled. My eyes absent-mindedly stare at my Mother's limp body, in a state of absolute denial. The two men were quickly recovering, the ax-wielding man quickly supporting the other. 

But I didn't realize, no, I didn't care. The only thing that mattered to me right now was the dying body of my Mother. I walked towards her, each step making an eerie "Slap" sound on the floor.

I stopped in front of her, dropping to my knees. My mind was a chaotic mess, denying the impossible situation that was happening. 

I just got you… please don't go… please… please. Tears streamed down my face like a waterfall. However, only the closed eyes of my Mother were there to greet me.

"now. attack while he's at his weakest ."

A muffled voice resounded from outside the house.

The two men dashed at me, weapons readied. The two men were pushed back by an invisible force. But I didn't care, the most important person - the first and only person who'd shown me kindness ever since coming into the world was dying.

I couldn't save her. The bleeding was too serious, but I told my body to move, to do something- anything to stop the bleeding… but it wouldn't. move… I SAID MOVE. Nothing worked, I just knelt there, staring at the dying figure of my Mother.

The two men had recovered and were staring at me with an even stronger resolve. Dashing at me once more, they raised their weapons at me.

  A thin translucent black mist started surrounding my body, covering my skin like an extra layer. Their weapons collided with the mist, disappearing into the mist. They leaped back, shock covering their faces as they stared at their hands - where their weapons once were.

But I wasn't paying attention. Help… please… somebody! Save my mom, please! I worked Thought Acceleration to the fullest, however, I couldn't come up with a method to save her.

The black mist started condensing, converging at a single point - between my eyes. Seeing this, the two men rushed forward once more, thinking the mysterious black mist was gone. Closing in quickly and…

PLEASE

A black void spread out from me, covering everything around me in the shape of a circle's circumference It had the color of a black hole, seemingly returning one's gaze if one looked at it. It was an eerie black that threatened to destroy everything in its path. The circle spread out, instantly consuming the two men near me, before spreading outside the house. 

The crowd didn't even get the chance to scream before disappearing from this world. Consuming people and objects alike, the circle quickly increased in size until it grew a little bigger than the village before finally fizzling out of existence, as though it was never there in the first place.

What was left of the once bustling community was a young boy kneeling in front of a wounded woman.

*Notice. Unique Skill: Substitute has been reawakened into Unique Skill: Source*

A smile crept up my face as I heard this, "Maybe I can save Mom with this" were the thoughts I had.

*Notice. Magicule Reserves empty, shutting host's body off. Searching for alternative sources of Magicules… Successful. Proceeding with Recovery.*

Confusion soon became panic as I realized I no longer had any control over my body - though my thoughts were still active

My body opened its mouth, revealing sharp canine teeth that I hadn't felt before. I watched in horror as it slowly inched towards the only available source of Magicules: My Mother.

STOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTO

My mouth didn't stop. My canine teeth preparing to bite down into my Mother's neck like a vampire. As my mouth inched closer and closer to my Mother's bare neck, tears streamed down my face like an uncontrollable flood. Dripping onto my Mother's dirty rags.

Situated directly above my Mother's neck, my frantic thoughts stopped as I saw my Mother look at me. Weakly lifting her hand, she caressed my cheeks, before mustering u[pher strength and saying:

"I'll always love you, my dear." She let out a final smile.

*Crunch*

Her eyes dulled, turning into a lifeless brown hue. Her hands dropped and landed on the floor with a soft "Thud" Her smile remained fresh on her face, not fading despite her death,

Tears rushed down my face even faster. And before I could even recover.

*Crunch*

no…stop..

*Crunch*

stop…plea-

*Crunch*

stop this p-

*Crunch*

don't d-

*Crunch*

pl-

*Crunch*

I-

*Crunch*

…

*Crunch*

…

*Crunch*

*Crunch*

*Crunch*

*Crunch*

*Crunch*

*Crunch*

*Crunch*

*Crunch*

*Crunch*

…

…

…

…

…

A boy was kneeling in front of a cluster of bloody rags, eyes blankly staring at them. 

That day, the boy learned what true sadness was.

*Notice. Unique Skill: Covalent has been inherited from Individual "Lynia Beaufort"

Name :Lucian

Race: Demonoid

Skills :

Unique Skill : Nihility

Unique Skill: Covalent

Unique Skill: Source

Extra Skill: Predator's Eyes (All of Creation, Predation, Appraisal Eye, Thought Acceleration, Coercion)