It's in me…
It ravaged my insides and made my brain its home.
Aunt Maria screamed at the top of her lungs. My ears hurt, but I already lost control of my body. She tried shaking my shoulders, but it was futile.
The system… has already taken control of my brain's motor cortex.
All I could do was watch Aunt Maria's brown pupils tremble and start shedding tears. She seemed to realize what was happening despite the few words I told her before. Her delicate and beautiful face had turned to defiance and begging.
"Aerus, please, tell me you're fine! I promised your late mother I'd protect you!" Her faint voice reached me.
Right. I had already forgotten about her. Where is she now? Did she watch me kill world after world in the previous time loop?
[Control of motor functions… Success!]
The familiar voice of the system dredged memories spanning a million years. I was its slave in the first loop, and it was doing the same thing despite the preparations I had made.
"Aunt Maria… run! Run, far away! Find someone and make them kill me!"
Perhaps it was the result of my magic earlier, but the system lost control over my voice box, and I was able to warn Aunt Maria.
"Aerus…"
She realized what I meant and started backing away, almost tripping on a rock.
The system, now in control of my body, inched with small steps towards Aunt Maria as she backed onto a tree. Fear and anxiety filled her face as she tried to look for someone to explain what was going on.
This was just like my previous life… Ahh… This is so familiar to me.
As my mind sunk into the depths of despair and acceptance, the memories of my past life—the first loop—flew by my vision.
When it first appeared, I thought it was a treasure of some sort. The cube, also known as the Evolution System, was from another universe devoid of magic, one in which alien races dominated hundreds of galaxies with empires spanning a billion light years.
That time I touched the cube's metallic surface, it melted like water. It wrapped around my arm and entered through my eyes, nose, ears, and mouth. I was powerless against its evil grasp.
Aunt Maria was with me. A while ago I couldn't remember her name. If it weren't for the loop, I would have never remembered her name ever again. It had been a million years since then, after all.
She tried to help me using her magic, but it was useless. This alien machine was the crystallization of knowledge from a universe twenty billion years old and an intergalactic empire spanning a billion light years.
The cube had shown me scenes of that civilization—videos played through my mind. Their technology was even more advanced than the magic of my time. They could cross stars with a single step and move stars with their will. There was nothing they couldn't do.
So, my fourteen-year-old self was quite powerless against that kind of beast.
I eventually found out that the machine was supposed to evolve distant intelligent races to the same level as its creators. It was meant to be a token of good will to the universe and its eternally suffering lifeforms. However, there was a mishap in its programming.
Maybe it would be more appropriate to call it a system than a machine.
As it attached to my brain the first time, I felt it—its evil will. It was hungry—it wanted to create a life surpassing the goal of its creators, whatever that may be. I never found out.
After that, it gave suggestions to my mind. It controlled me. First, I ate the random animals surrounding my village.
When the village elders found out, they started investigating. Inevitably, they found out, and I was kicked out. That was the time when it first took control of my body. In short, it killed them all.
I ran and ran, crying for the deaths of my family in my hands. I could feel my body evolving as it used their genetic information to improve my lifespan and change my constitution.
It made me better at magic. The system then recognized its usefulness. It pursued an evolution path catered for the storage of mana, and my magic grew stronger and stronger until a certain being noticed me.
After eating cities upon cities of people, a rabbit appeared in front of me. It came out of the shrubs, and my mind was still clouded by hunger driven by the system. I tried to eat it, but it displayed an immense power like no other.
That was when I learned the existence of gods. The system tried to fight back. It increased my physical abilities to the limits and removed my body's ability to restrain itself.
The end result: I won at the cost of a near-death experience. It was the first god I killed among many.
After that came another round of evolution; I became a god, and then I hunted them all.
When I was done, I left my world and soared into the heavens. I found other planets bearing life and ate them too.
No one stood in my way.
Until I saw it. It was a whale the size of my vision. Its length extended from one end of the universe to the other. It drifted and ate worlds, stars, and galaxies.
And then it noticed me. The magic my body contained attracted it like a beacon.
In a few minutes, it was in front of me. No amount of running saved me.
Its expansive mouth swallowed me like a black hole.
That was when I found my chance. The system went into hibernation. I visited many worlds within the whale's stomach.
I learned to control my power after hundreds of thousands of years of trial and error.
Finally, when I tried to remove the system from my brain, it turned on again. It immediately took control of me and reminded me that I was its slave.
It was the same story all over again.
Death? Death. Death! Death!!
Eat? Eat. Eat! Eat!!
I ate whole worlds inside the whale's stomach. After nearly a million years of my life, I escaped through its other end. I had emptied the space whale of all the worlds it had consumed.
I caught its attention long ago, so the whale immediately attacked me as soon as I came out. I fought to the bitter end—No, the system controlled me and fought to a bitter ending.
The space whale died. The system tried to analyze its genetic information, but it failed to my rejoice. Finally, there was an end to this.
I was near death, and it needed a source of new genetic information to renew my body and repair my living cells. I knew I would soon become free.
Right then, death seemed liberating.
And that was how I found myself drifting into the emptiness of space. I stared at the stars around me. It was beautiful, but I never had the chance to enjoy the view.
As the life slowly drained out of me, I heard the system one last time.
[Critical! The host is dying! If there is a true God, give him another chance!]
Hah, I thought. Where else would you see that? A machine begging for God's forgiveness. I sneered even as my thoughts faded away.
As the darkness enveloped my soul, I wondered if my sins could be washed away. Could it be even quantified? I must've eaten several galaxies worth of life.
Recalling everything that happened in my million years of life, I felt at peace.
Almost everything could be summed up with one word: Carnage.
Never had I had peace since the arrival of the system. At the start, I was horrified and guilty about all the people I was eating. However, after a certain point, I grew numb.
They were tasty, I thought at some point. I didn't believe it initially, but I have grown to like it.
Animals, Humans, Monsters, Aliens, and Gods… All of them were tasty.
I didn't know if it was because the system had taken control of my mind for a million years, but I knew I had gone crazy. Was I crazy? Maybe.
I lost sense of anything normal a long time ago. No friends and no women. I was alone with the Rogue Evolution System. It was as usual for me.
If there was a true God, I would like to ask a favor.
Will you give me another chance?
I sneered at myself just like how I sneered at the system. Why would the true God let me eat all those lifeforms across the galaxies if it existed?
It never existed.
But then, I heard a whisper.
"With my life… I shall grant you another chance. Your soul… is pure, one of the rarest in all the universes. I pity you."
Its voice echoed like it came from a distant time.
"Who is this?" I asked amidst the darkness embracing me.
"I'm the Void Whale…"
"T-the whale? You're a true God?!"
"Perhaps not, but it was your actions that brought me to this universe. I sensed your fury and carnage all the way from the void beyond."
"Can you really give me another chance?"
"I pity you. I will use my remaining energy to send your soul back through time across the fourth dimension."
"Why? Why?? I'm a sinner! It was a joke. I never wanted to redo everything. I don't want to suffer once more!"
"You can have as many tries as you want. Certainly, you will attract another Void Whale if you failed. Tell it about me, and it will know and send you back."
"Why! I told you, WHY!?" I shouted as loud as I could. My ears started to ring.
"I pity you, that's why."
I never did know the reason why it pitied me.
. . . . .
. . . .
. . .
. .
.
And then I woke up back in my village like nothing ever happened.