The Ultimate Devourer

One of the limits of devouring

The further we went into the prison, the weaker the pressure from the inmates was.

Of course, they were all still stronger than me, but since they were chained and jailed, they couldn't unleash their whole aura.

Aratas stopped in front of a particular jail before he knocked on the bars, making the person sitting in the darkness come up.

He was an emaciated old man with a deep scar running over his nose and left eye. He had an aura around him that felt like he had seen quite some things in his life, and his eyes were empty of all emotions.

It looked like he was on the verge of death, but his emaciated body was full of vitality, I could sense that through my newly stabilized power which I awakened from eating Aratas's previous squire.

It wasn't anything special, it was just the start of reaching 'superhuman' strength, speed, and senses.

Aratas looked at the old man before saying:

"It's your time, Old man Skartion. You finally get to pay for your betrayal of the church with your life."

Skartion didn't say anything as he looked down at me and nodded before Aratas opened the jail's bars, letting the man take a few steps forward.

Aratas looked down at me and said:

"What are you waiting for? Go!"

The last time I ate his squire was because of the adrenaline and near-death situation that put me on the edge, and with those experiences, it became way easier to eat another human being a second time.

My sword easily went through the old man's neck, severing his head in one fell swoop as Skartion didn't put up even a small resistance against his death.

There was a relieved expression on his face as one tear fell out of his tired eyes before the head dropped to the underground floor.

Aratas looked at me and waited, I couldn't help but feel a little bit awkward to be watched eating, but I did anyways, easily getting rid of the body at a speed that I didn't think would be possible.

I usually didn't eat that quickly, but it looked like the cannibal gene in my body was continuously awakening which in turn was increasing my eating speed. That was my guess.

The head was the last bit that needed to be eaten, but Aratas stopped me as he put his hand on my shoulder, making my whole body tremble and paralyzing as it collapsed on the floor.

I shook like I had seizures before an immense pain hit me directly in the chest. My second heart was slowly stabilizing as it grew to normal size, finally rivaling my first one.

After that, the pain subsided, and I could feel a rush of energy exploding in my body, reaching every corner of it and reinvigorating me back to full health. I could feel my strength explode from every inch of my skin, bones, and organs as I took in a deep breath and jumped up from the floor.

Aratas put a hand under his chin as he took another look at me and said:

"You jumped one rank into the Squire category just by eating that old man? Cannibals are truly special, but let's see if you will gain some of his battle experience and knowledge about our Church's fighting style after you eat his head. After all, brute strength without any skill can't get you very far on the battlefield."

I took one step towards the head before devouring it in one gulp, as I evolved once more, my physical changes were done once more, my teeth became even sharper, and I was able to open my mouth wider, just as if I was a snake, and my previous bald head was now full of short red hair.

I could feel it growing out of my scalp.

I cracked my knuckles as I felt a slight pain in my head, but the memories that I gained from the old man were even fewer than what I gained from the young squire.

They only complemented some of the forms that I barely learned through the forceful integration of memories. With these memories, I completed four forms of fighting style out of the total twelve that the basic swordsmanship of the Church had.

I breathed out and looked at Aratas as I reported:

"I was able to complete four forms of the swordsmanship after I finished eating his brain."

Aratas nodded and responded:

"Show me."

I took off my sword from my waist before I did four moves quickly one after the other, slowly slicing the air in front of me almost as if I was dancing, but the dance was quickly cut off, making me stay in an awkward position because of my lack of proficiency in the last eight forms.

Unfortunately, if I didn't learn at least four more forms, the swordsmanship was unusable in a life and death battle.

Aratas nodded and made a note:

"It looks like consuming brains of people who know things that you have already got an understanding off will not need you to trigger those techniques through some more training, but Skartion wasn't only a good swordsman while he served our Church."

Aratas immediately placed his hand on the Warhammer behind his body, making my whole body tense up as I got a vision of what was going to happen next, my whole body would be squashed by the Warhammer, transforming into a puddle of meat before I would be incinerated by a sudden burst of flames that would explode from the Warhammer.

My head hurt as I writhed on the floor. The vision that I got made blood drip from my nose and ears while Aratas nodded his head, pointed a finger at me, healing me using his holy fire, and then asked:

"What did you see?"

My head still hurt as only my outer physical injuries were healed, I barely got up wobbly on my feet as I told him everything that I saw.

Aratas smiled slightly as he said:

"Good, you inherited his oracle ability. It will serve you well in battle, but you will need to get used to the side effects before we send you to the battlefield. I think I understand the limitations of cannibals now. We should move on to the next place to see if there are more limitations to this perverse ability."

I clutched my head and followed Aratas from behind as my eyes glowed red for a slight amount of time, blinding me temporarily.