Ryan stood in the small cabin, Sora's lifeless body cradled in his arms. Gently, he wrapped her in a woolen shawl, covering her face, the face of the only person who had shown him kindness in this frozen hell. His eyes, once full of a vengeful fire, were now hollowed by a pain deeper than any wound.
He carried her outside, intending to find a peaceful place for her, only to be met by a scene of absolute horror.
The village was a graveyard. From every hut, from every doorway, the other villagers lay dead, their bodies contorted, dark blood frozen as it trailed from their eyes and mouths.
"Why?" he whispered, the word stolen by the wind. "They all died the same way... it was the food. It was poison."
The realization struck him with the force of a physical blow. The village leader. He had eaten different food, feasting while his people received rations of death.
Ryan's grief did not soften; it crystallized. It turned as hard and sharp as the ice beneath his feet, forging into a weapon of pure, undiluted revenge. He laid Sora's body gently in the snow, a promise in his heart.
He turned and marched toward the great house, his mind a single, focused thought: kill the glutton.
Driven by a cold fury, he kicked the heavy wooden door, splintering it from its hinges. It crashed inward, and a blast of snow and wind followed him into the cavernous hall.
The scene inside was monstrous. The fat man he had seen before was now a grotesque mountain of flesh, five times his original size, surrounded by a vast midden of gnawed bones and scraps. The creature was lying on the floor, but the sound of the door roused it. It pushed itself up with hands the size of shovels, shattering the wooden floorboards under its weight. Ryan looked like a child before a giant.
A voice, thick and wet, echoed in the hall. "Is that you, Ryan? I have waited so long for you. So, you broke the 'Wrath'... and now you come to me?"
Ryan's mind reeled with questions, but they were drowned out by the roaring in his ears. He only wanted one thing.
"You poisoned them all!" Ryan's voice was a raw, thunderous shout. "They were your people! Why did you do this?!"
The Glutton laughed, a sound like choking. "Why? With them dead, I can eat as much as I want! And you know how I did it? So simple. A little poison in their rations." He leered. "I think you met 'Kindness'... or as you called her, Sora. What a fool she was. I told her to kill you if she found you, but she refused. I hated her for that! And the people... well, I had already eaten all the winter stores. They would have starved anyway. This was... more efficient."
Ryan stared, his hands clenching into fists so tight his nails drew blood. "Because you wanted to eat, you murdered them all? What kind of monster are you?"
"I am your Gluttony!" the beast roared, its vast body quivering. "I am you, and you are me! If you had just eaten the food I gave the people, you would be dead, and your precious 'Kindness' would still be alive! Her blood is on your hands, boy!"
"SHUT UP!" Ryan screamed, his control shattering. "I will kill you! I will make sure you never feel hunger again!"
With a bellow, the Glutton snatched a massive, meaty bone from the floor and swung it like a club. Ryan pulled out the simple hunting knife he had taken from Sora's cabin—the only weapon he had.
He charged. As the bone whistled toward him, Ryan dropped and slid through the filth on the floor, driving the knife deep into the creature's bloated stomach.
"AAAAAARGH!" The Glutton roared in pain and backhanded Ryan with terrifying force. Ryan's body was hurled across the room, crashing straight through the wooden wall and landing in a heap in the snow outside.
The monster stormed after him, bursting through the shattered wall. He plucked the small knife from his gut as if it were a splinter, tossing it aside. A dark, viscous fluid oozed from the wound, but it did not slow him.
"Do you really think you could kill me with that?" he sneered, looming over Ryan. "Now you die. I will take your body and live a good, long life, eating everything I desire!"
Ryan pushed himself up from the snow, blood trickling from a cut on his forehead. He looked at the beast, not with fear, but with a grim, final acceptance.
"Gluttony... you are me, and I am you. This is what I must accept," Ryan said, his voice low and steady. "But I will show you a hunger you have never known!"
As he spoke, a crimson aura erupted around him. The air crackled with violent energy, and his eyes glowed with the same hellish red that had once belonged to the Wrath.
The Glutton's smug expression faltered. "What is this? He has already fused with the power of the Wrath Soul!" it muttered to itself. "No matter! I will show him that my hunger is stronger!"
A sickly yellow energy enveloped the Glutton's body. The bones in its hands elongated, twisted, and sharpened, transforming into two massive, cleaver-like axes of solid bone.
"So the power can also do this?" Ryan marveled for a split second. He focused his will, and the red energy around his hands solidified. With a sharp, metallic shing, three-foot-long blades of solidified rage erupted from his knuckles, forming deadly iron claws on each hand.
The Glutton's face darkened. "So, you can also manifest a Soul Weapon! Now it will be a true feast!"
The fat man charged, his axes sweeping in a deadly arc. Ryan didn't retreat. He leaped high into the air, the Glutton's weapons passing harmlessly beneath him. As he sailed over the beast's head, his iron claws lashed out, slicing a deep gash across its face.
Ryan landed silently behind his foe, the Glutton's dark blood dripping from his claws.
The Glutton staggered, then stuck out its long tongue, greedily licking the blood from its own face. "Soul Axe!" it bellowed.
It didn't charge again. Instead, it stood its ground and swung one of its axes through the air. A crescent of destructive yellow energy shot from the blade, screaming across the snow towards Ryan, who was forced to dive and roll to avoid being cleaved in two.Ryan was faster than the colossal beast, but the Glutton's body was a fortress of fat and muscle, and the relentless blasts from its Soul Axe kept Ryan at a dangerous distance. He couldn't get close enough to land a decisive blow.
Seeing another wave of yellow energy screaming toward him, Ryan didn't retreat. Instead, he dropped to his knees, sliding beneath the attack as it tore through the air above his head. The Glutton, overconfident, raised its axe for another strike, but Ryan was already inside its guard.
He launched himself from the ground, a crimson blur of motion. With a roar of effort, he drove his iron claw blades deep into the Glutton's chest.
"URGH!" The beast grunted, stumbling backward. It had expended too much of its soul energy on its reckless ranged attacks. Its massive legs buckled, and it crashed to its knees in the snow, its yellow aura flickering and dying.
Ryan stood before him, his own red energy pulsing steadily. "Now that you've shown me energy attacks," Ryan said, , "I learned from you."
He focused his will, drawing upon the wellspring of Wrath within him. A sphere of volatile, red energy coalesced between his hands, crackling with pure destructive power.
"Soul Bomb!"
He thrust his hands forward. The projectile slammed into the Glutton's chest and detonated. The force of the explosion lifted the massive creature off the ground and hurled it backward, over the edge of the mountain cliff. It vanished from sight, its bellow of shock and pain echoing until it was cut short by a distant, sickening crash.
Ryan's iron claws retracted, and the red glow around him faded. He walked to the cliff's edge and looked down. A deep crater was visible far below, and in its center, the Glutton twitched, still clinging to a wretched life.
Ryan descended, his movements deliberate. He stood over the broken form of his inner demon.
The Glutton looked up, its yellow eyes dim. "Kill me, Ryan," it gurgled. "This is the time. If you don't..."
"Shut up!" Ryan's voice was like cracking ice. "If I kill you, I save you from the pain of hunger. That would be a mercy. That would be easy for you." A cruel, knowing smile touched his lips. "But do you know what I realized while I was fighting you? I learned more than just a bomb."
He raised a hand, and ethereal strands of crimson soul energy, thin and unbreakable as tungsten, snaked from his fingertips.
"Soul Power: Rope of Soul!"
The energy cords lashed out, wrapping around the Glutton's limbs, torso, and neck, binding him tighter than any physical chain. They did not cut, they did not crush; they only held, an inescapable prison.
"Now," Ryan declared, his voice final and absolute, "I will let you be hungry, forever. You will never eat again. You will never die. You will only want dead
The Glutton's eyes widened in true, abject terror for the first time. This was a fate far worse than death.
"If the trial ends, am I right?"
The green, armored soul appeared beside Ryan, its presence calm and approving. "So, you can see and manipulate souls directly now. That is significant progress." It looked down at the bound Glutton. "Yes, you are correct. If you leave him like this, he will not die. But the hunger... it will consume his consciousness for all eternity."
Ryan didn't even glance at the trapped beast. "I don't care," he said, his gaze fixed on the green soul. His own soul had been hardened in this frozen forge. "Now, take me to the last trial."