Depthless Hunger

Chapter 145: Building Against Fate

For one beautiful second, Kai thought that the flames were filling his soul, then he realized that he was burning alive. The dragon was unleashing a torrent of flame while simultaneously roaring, trying to burn him into a crisp. If not for his Physique he would have already been dead.

The raw power bound him in place, so Kai roared back. Instincts deeper than any human intuition told him that he couldn't win this fight, that he was going to burn to a crisp, but he wasn't going to go down accepting his fate.

Kai felt his mouth opening even wider and something dark yawned within his soul. He tried to summon forth Isulfr's Bite even though he was out of range and instead felt a maw open, trying to consume the golden flames. They were burning him from the inside out but he kept roaring back his defiance.

Suddenly he was lying on his back and he was no longer on fire. He could smell his own flesh cooking, but he was alive. The dragon was flying further into the sky, pumping its wings rapidly.

After that rejection, Kai had no reason to hold back. He extended his spiritual sight after the dragon.

Monster: Elder Golden Dragon

Threat: XII (Mu)

>

"Fuck you, dragon." The words hurt his scorched lips. "I'll eat you one day."

It didn't respond, simply continued dwindling into a golden speck.

Kai wanted nothing more than to lie there and hurt. The burns to his skin were bad, agonizing in a way he hadn't experienced before, but it felt like his soul itself had been scorched. He didn't need to observe himself to know that he hadn't been granted any magic dragon ability. Either the monster had sensed his real soul or it had just rejected him the way fate always rejected him.

Abruptly he realized that he was at risk of being killed off by Graetri and jerked upright.

Some of his skin tore away and sand dug into his wound, but Kai ignored the pain, searching for a threat. Nothing nearby. When he staggered to the top of a dune, he saw that Graetri and all his minions were running at full speed, probably having fled as soon as the dragon attacked. Which was actually the smart thing to do.

After wavering on his feet for a while longer, Kai slumped back down. He knew he'd live, but Aquagorgon's Health was straining itself to regenerate the deep injuries and he wouldn't be at his best for a while. And yet, despite all the pain, he felt strangely clean. As though all the flames had burned away his distractions and concerns.

Kai sat down carefully, his stance not meditation or cultivation or anything else, just a position where the burns were tolerable. It all seemed clearer now. When had fate ever granted him an easy blessing? If he was going to acquire an advantage, he'd need to build it himself, and that meant examining his soul.

Name: Kai Clanless

Total Power: 153

Cultivation: Qi Condensation 99% (25)

Physique Level: E-4 (92)

Soul Level: 6 (36)

Monstrous Hunger - VII (eta)

Direboar's Strength - V (epsilon)

Aquagorgon's Health - V (epsilon)

Gomodo's Stamina - V (epsilon)

Isulfr's Bite - IV (delta)

Tyrant's Claw - III (gamma)

-

Direclam's Shell - I (alpha)

Wallcrawler's Feet - I (alpha)

Infernotoad's Burst - II (beta)

Direserpent (???)

Goreram (???)

Pitbeast (???)

Shademonger (???)

Behemoth's Heart (???)

>

Surviving the dragon's breath had at last increased his Soul Level, and it made him feel surprisingly light. It wasn't just luck that he had endured, it had been the combined strength of his journey to that point. In a strange way his soul felt more free, and the monsters inside felt restless.

It was time. He could merge them together into something new.

Kai had come to the firm conclusion that he needed to feed the monstrous essences to one another, and that there should be one monster that served as the primary. It had to be one of the strongest, which meant there were really only two options: Behemoth's Heart and the Shademonger. He dismissed Wallcrawler's Feet as too weak to be useful and set aside Infernotoad's Burst for a later technique, which left him with four monsters.

After a little thought, he decided that it had to be the behemoth. It had been one of the most difficult battles of his life, fought to defend the city where he'd been born. He didn't think the monstrous essences were ruled by wishy-washy emotions, but starting with the ability he'd earned through blood and hunger felt right.

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That monster had been immensely powerful and he felt certain that it could serve for his defensive abilities, the question was which. Could he feed it Gomodo's Stamina? Kai began to move the statues within his soul and realized that he could, but it would be the wrong decision.

The behemoth was much hungrier than that. He needed more.

In that case, his first step would be to prepare his other abilities, to bring them to their peak before merging them. Kai experimented with Gomodo's Stamina and immediately realized that the Goreram was compatible. Its thick hide and apparently inexhaustible charges were a good match. His stamina essence grew more powerful, but also heavier within his soul.

If he was merging different monsters into one excellent defensive technique, why not go further? Kai had never been able to make Direclam's Shell work for him and doubted that he was going to grow a shell. But that defensive power could definitely fuel another... he should feed it to Gomodo's Stamina to transform it into an even better technique.

Yet when Kai made the attempt, the monstrous essence resisted. It felt full and sated, and only a supreme effort of will managed to force it through.

That was another lesson that he'd needed to learn stumbling in the dark: there was a limit to how much he could feed the essences together. Then it likely wouldn't be possible to just eat a bunch of moderately strong monsters and keep merging their powers. He needed to be smart and selective.

Kai took a break to focus on his physical body. He definitely didn't feel well, and his burns looked hideous, but his body wasn't in agony anymore. Most likely it would be premature to do anything with Aquagorgon's Health, so he decided to just continue working on the theory.

Perhaps his ideal would be to merge all of his physical abilities into the behemoth essence. He wasn't sure what he would call it: not "Behemoth's Hide" or anything similar, he wanted an ability that would enhance his body in every way.

Clearly, the smart move was to merge the greatly enhanced Gomodo's Stamina with Aquagorgon's Health. Not wanting to risk that just yet, Kai instead turned his attention to Direboar's Strength. That was certainly a strong contender for physical enhancement. Yet when he started pushing the monstrous essence together, everything felt off-kilter, unbalanced.

It took a combination of mana exercises and cultivation meditation for him to discern what was wrong. Gomodo's Stamina was a heavy combination while Direboar's Strength was just a single monster's essence, so they wouldn't balance properly. That was another rule that would have been very convenient to have someone tell him, or for his spiritual sight to make explicit.

He could work with it, though. Kai focused on his most recent monstrous essence and shaped it into a technique his soul labeled as Pitbeast's Assault. Not just physical strength, but the vicious attacking power. Direboar's Strength ate it eagerly and he could feel its base power rising. Now it felt similar enough to Gomodo's Stamina that he thought he could merge the two.

Could he combine three into one? When Kai experimented, very gingerly moving the power so as to avoid a premature fusion, he felt like it could work. Actually, he thought that three might be ideal for a truly powerful new ability. Two would be a little inadequate for a monster as hungry as the behemoth, while four seemed completely impossible when he tried an experiment.

His wounds had yet to fully regenerate and wouldn't for some time, but he was past the point of risking his life. Kai was still in a fugue state and didn't want to let go, so he kept working.

According to what he'd just learned, he'd need to strengthen Aquagorgon's Health for it to balance the other two abilities. Unfortunately, he didn't have many options left. He could feed it Wallcrawler's Feet, but he immediately knew that the essence would just be digested for a minor boost, not a true upgrade.

After a while, Kai decided to use Direserpent's Speed. He wanted his monstrous strength to enhance his speed, after all, and that was a primarily physical ability. Worrying a little about his regeneration, he carefully fed Direserpent's Speed into Aquagorgon's Health.

Immediately something churned in Kai's stomach. It had worked, but the result wasn't quite stable. So there were limits on how far he could push the monstrous essence. The behemoth's power was enough to sustain both capacities, but the Aquagorgon wasn't. Unless he merged them all together soon, he might end up with an ability that was weaker than it could have been.

That meant he had no more time for contemplation or experimentation. Kai gathered up the full power of Direboar's Strength, Aquagorgon's Health, and Gomodo's Stamina, and pushed them together...

And realized that was wrong.

Kai fell onto his hands, panting for breath. His soul felt heavier now and he was running a fever. Everything was coming to a head and he was risking a disaster, but the hunger that had guided him to this point was telling him that the combination wouldn't work.

Desperately diving into his soul, Kai examined the essence, searching for a rationale. It came to him soon enough: Direboar's Strength had been an offensive ability from the very beginning, whereas all the others were passive and defensive. He could create an ability that merged many kinds of defense and regeneration, but an ability that tried to combine every single aspect of his body was too big, too unwieldy.

Yet he wanted three essences or the end result wouldn't reach its full potential. What was left? Kai very nearly considered throwing in the Wallcrawler, just to have something to use before his soul fell apart. It would have worked, he was sure of that, and the result wouldn't have been too much weaker.

Just when he was about to do it, Kai remembered the battle above the abyss.

He had witnessed warriors of unfathomable power, wielding abilities he didn't understand over a battle that dwarfed him. They utterly outclassed not just him, but the Diamond Crystalliers and the Frontier elites and everyone from the other continents. If he wanted to face them one day, Kai needed real power, not a compromise.

Coming to that conclusion was well and good, but determination didn't solve his problem and he was still running out of time. Kai desperately looked over his soul, even considering trying to use one of his techniques like his bite or claw.

Then he felt something else: the Shademonger's essence twisted eagerly. It wasn't a monster he had fought himself, but it still distorted the world just the way the Frontier did.

Abruptly he realized that was his solution. He focused and the essence transformed into Shademonger's Spirit. Monstrous power from his soul began to merge into his flesh, just like his mana and qi had reinforced his body. It didn't make him physically tougher, it enhanced his body to be more resistant to spiritual attacks.

Shademonger's Spirit was strong enough to equal the other two merged essences, but he was running out of time. Kai could feel the edges of his soul beginning to fray, as if the monsters were planning to tear themselves free. Worse, the behemoth had gone from being hungry to not sure it could consume the rest, but he forced himself onward before it was too late.

Aquagorgon's Health, won in battle with allies dying around him...

Gomodo's Stamina, striking down the beast as it rose over and over again...

Shademonger's Spirit, twisting with the raw unnatural power of the Frontier...

Kai forced them all together and then blacked out.

.

..

.

When he came to, Kai realized that his body felt fine. The sun had shifted lower in the sky, so he must have slept for a while. Everyone had presumably thought he was incinerated by the dragon and left him behind, which suited him fine.

His work flooded back to him all at once and he desperately looked inside his soul, certain that he'd find it an absolute wreck. Instead he felt something throbbing in his chest, a new power deeply integrated with his body. Had it worked?

During his experimentation, Kai had wondered whether or not he'd be able to name the new ability or whether his spiritual sight would label it according to its true nature. Now there was no question. Behemoth's Heart pulsed within him, pumping monstrous power through his body.

Name: Kai Clanless

Total Power: 153

Cultivation: Qi Condensation 99% (25)

Physique Level: E-4 (92)

Soul Level: 6 (36)

Monstrous Hunger - VIII (theta)

Behemoth's Heart - I (alpha)

Direboar's Strength - V (epsilon)

Isulfr's Bite - V (epsilon)

Tyrant's Claw - IV (delta)

(Void)

-

Wallcrawler's Feet - I (alpha)

Infernotoad's Burst - II (beta)

>

The resulting ability was only ranked alpha, but he could immediately tell that its potential outstripped all the others. Even now, at the very first rank, it was regenerating his body faster than Aquagorgon's Health had at the fifth. He couldn't wait to test its raw power.

Deep within him, the hunger burned hotter than the dragon's flame.

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