"I WANT YOU TO DEVOUR A GOD."
Arthur's consciousness reeled. He had no body, no physical form to express shock, yet somehow he managed to convey it through sheer disbelief.
"You want me to... what?"
Beelzebub's presence expanded, and suddenly Arthur found himself in a different space. No longer the empty void, but something that resembled reality if reality had been partially digested and vomited back out.
They stood in what looked like a throne room, except the throne was made of crystallized hunger a substance that seemed to simultaneously exist and not exist, constantly consuming itself and reforming. Beelzebub now appeared more defined, though Arthur immediately wished he hadn't. The entity towered at least fifty feet tall, its form a grotesque amalgamation of insectoid and humanoid features. Wings that dripped with a substance that devoured light. A body covered in chitinous plates that opened to reveal gnashing teeth. And a face multiple faces, actually that shifted and changed with each passing moment.
Arthur's soul-form manifested as a translucent human shape, barely reaching Beelzebub's ankle.
"Can you... shrink?" Arthur asked, squinting up at the massive entity. "I'm getting a crick in my non-existent neck."
For a moment, Beelzebub stared down at him with what might have been annoyance. Then, with a sound like reality belching, the entity compressed itself down to a more manageable twelve feet tall.
"BETTER?" The voice still carried that bone-shaking resonance.
"Marginally."
"UNGRATEFUL WRETCH," Beelzebub muttered, then waved one clawed hand. "LISTEN CAREFULLY, ARTHUR HAYES. I WILL EXPLAIN THIS ONLY ONCE, AND YOUR FUTURE DEPENDS ON YOUR COMPREHENSION."
Arthur crossed his translucent arms. "I'm dead and talking to a demon lord. My future is pretty much fucked regardless."
"I AM NOT A DEMON LORD," Beelzebub corrected, its multiple mouths speaking in discordant harmony. "I AM A GOD. THE GOD OF GLUTTONY. ONE OF THE SEVEN PRIMORDIAL SINS THAT UNDERPIN REALITY ITSELF."
"Semantics," Arthur said. "Get to the point."
Beelzebub's eyes all seventeen of them focused on Arthur with an intensity that should have been terrifying. Instead, Arthur felt... nothing. He was already dead. Already empty. What more could this thing do to him?
The God of Gluttony seemed to sense this and, surprisingly, let out something resembling a chuckle.
"YOU TRULY DO NOT FEAR DEATH, DO YOU? BECAUSE YOU NEVER TRULY LIVED." Beelzebub gestured, and the space around them shifted. Images began to materialize a world, vibrant and alive, filled with magic and monsters, kingdoms and chaos.
"THIS IS VANTREA," Beelzebub explained. "A WORLD WHERE GODS WALK AMONG MORTALSOR AT LEAST, THEY DID. A WORLD WHERE MAGIC FLOWS LIKE WATER AND POWER CAN BE OBTAINED BY THOSE STRONG ENOUGH TO TAKE IT."
Arthur watched the images with growing interest despite himself. Cities with impossible architecture. Creatures that defied biology. People wielding elements like weapons.
"Looks like every fantasy world ever," Arthur commented. "What makes this one special?"
"BECAUSE IT IS DYING," Beelzebub said simply.
The images shifted, showing darkness spreading across the world like a cancer. Cities crumbling. People screaming. And at the center of it all, a figure radiating malevolence so intense it seemed to warp reality itself.
"THAT," Beelzebub spat the word like a curse, "IS VORATHIS, THE CONSUMING GOD. AN ABOMINATION BORN FROM TEN THOUSAND YEARS OF WAR, HATRED, AND DEATH. HE IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN NEGATIVE EMOTIONS COALESCE INTO DIVINE FORM."
Arthur studied the figure. Even through the projection, he could sense the wrongness of it. Where Beelzebub's hunger felt ancient and purposeful, this thing's hunger was chaotic, mindless, destructive.
"So he's like you, but worse?"
"HE IS NOTHING LIKE ME!" Beelzebub roared, and for the first time, Arthur sensed genuine anger from the entity. "I AM HUNGER WITH PURPOSE. I CONSUME TO SUSTAIN, TO EVOLVE, TO UNDERSTAND. VORATHIS CONSUMES BECAUSE THAT IS ALL HE KNOWS. HE IS HUNGER WITHOUT REASON. DESTRUCTION WITHOUT PURPOSE. IF LEFT UNCHECKED, HE WILL DEVOUR NOT JUST VANTREA, BUT REALITY ITSELF."
"And the other gods can't stop him?"
Beelzebub's expression twisted into something bitter.
"THE GODS OF VANTREA ARE BOUND BY LAWS. WE THEY REPRESENT ASPECTS OF REALITY AND CANNOT DIRECTLY INTERFERE IN THE MORTAL WORLD WITHOUT CATASTROPHIC CONSEQUENCES. THEY TRIED ONCE, THREE THOUSAND YEARS AGO, TO DIRECTLY ENGAGE VORATHIS. THE BATTLE NEARLY TORE THE WORLD APART."
The images shifted again, showing destruction on a scale Arthur couldn't comprehend. Continents splitting. Oceans boiling. The sky itself seeming to crack.
"SO THE GODS MADE A PACT," Beelzebub continued. "THEY WOULD SUMMON CHAMPIONS FROM OTHER WORLDS BEINGS UNBOUND BY VANTREA'S LAWS, WITH SOULS COMPATIBLE WITH ITS MAGIC. THESE CHAMPIONS WOULD BE GRANTED DIVINE ABILITIES AND TASKED WITH DESTROYING VORATHIS BEFORE HE REACHES TRUE GODHOOD."
"Let me guess," Arthur said. "It didn't work."
"TWELVE TIMES," Beelzebub held up clawed fingers. "TWELVE CHAMPIONS SUMMONED OVER THREE THOUSAND YEARS. ALL FAILED. ALL DIED."
"Inspiring," Arthur said dryly. "Really selling me on this job."
"BUT ONLY ONE OF THOSE CHAMPIONS WAS MINE," Beelzebub said, and something like pride entered its voice. "AND HE CAME THE CLOSEST."
The images shifted once more, showing a figure in black armor standing atop a mountain of corpses. The figure wielded weapons that seemed to be made of solidified darkness and hunger itself.
"HIS NAME WAS MORDRED KANE. I GRANTED HIM POWERS SIMILAR TO WHAT I WILL GRANT YOU. FOR FIFTY YEARS, HE GREW STRONGER, CONSUMED COUNTLESS ABILITIES, BECAME A LEGEND THROUGHOUT VANTREA."
"What happened to him?"
Beelzebub's expression darkened.
"HE WENT MAD. THE HUNGER CONSUMED HIM FROM WITHIN. IN HIS INSANITY, HE TURNED ON THE OTHER CHAMPIONS, DEVOURING THEM TO GAIN THEIR POWER. HE THOUGHT IF HE CONSUMED ENOUGH, HE COULD BECOME STRONG ENOUGH TO FACE VORATHIS ALONE."
"Did it work?"
"NO. HE BECAME TOO POWERFUL TOO QUICKLY. HIS BODY COULDN'T HANDLE THE STRAIN. HE EXPLODED DURING HIS FINAL BATTLE WITH VORATHIS, TAKING HALF A CONTINENT WITH HIM."
Arthur was silent for a moment, processing this information.
"So you want me to succeed where your previous champion failed. Where twelve champions failed. You want me, a depressed office worker who couldn't even keep a fake girlfriend, to kill a god."
"YES."
"And you think I'll do better because...?"
Beelzebub leaned down, bringing its shifting faces level with Arthur's translucent form.
"BECAUSE UNLIKE MORDRED, UNLIKE ALL THE OTHER CHAMPIONS, YOU HAVE ALREADY ACCEPTED THE EMPTINESS. YOU KNOW YOU CAN NEVER BE FILLED. THAT AWARENESS WILL BE YOUR STRENGTH."
"That's the stupidest logic I've ever heard," Arthur said flatly.
"PERHAPS," Beelzebub straightened. "BUT YOU HAVE TWO CHOICES, ARTHUR HAYES. CHOICE ONE: I RELEASE YOUR SOUL, AND YOU DRIFT IN THE VOID BETWEEN WORLDS FOR ETERNITY. CONSCIOUS BUT UNABLE TO INTERACT WITH ANYTHING. AN EXISTENCE OF ABSOLUTE ISOLATION."
Arthur's consciousness shuddered at the thought. An eternity alone with the emptiness inside him? That was genuinely worse than death.
"CHOICE TWO: I SEND YOU TO VANTREA WITH MY BLESSING. YOU GET A NEW LIFE, A NEW BODY, AND THE POWER TO CONSUME EVERYTHING IN YOUR PATH. YES, YOUR ULTIMATE GOAL IS TO DESTROY VORATHIS. BUT UNTIL THEN? YOU'RE FREE TO DO WHATEVER YOU WANT. CONSUME WHOEVER YOU WANT. BECOME AS POWERFUL AS YOU DESIRE."
"And when I fail like the others?"
"THEN YOU DIE," Beelzebub said simply. "BUT AT LEAST YOU'LL HAVE LIVED FIRST."
Arthur stood in silence, weighing his options. It wasn't really a choice, was it? Eternal isolation versus a chance at something more, even if that something ended in death?
But there was something else. A thought that had been growing in the back of his mind since Beelzebub had started explaining.
"Why me?" Arthur asked. "Specifically me. You said you've been watching souls from my world. There must be others with emptiness, with hunger. Why did you choose me?"
Beelzebub's mouths twisted into something that might have been a smile.
"BECAUSE OF YOUR LAST THOUGHT BEFORE YOU JUMPED."
Arthur tried to remember. The roof. The city lights. The emptiness. What had he thought?
Then it came back to him: "I'm so tired of being hungry."
"EXACTLY," Beelzebub said, reading his thoughts. "YOU WEREN'T SEEKING TO FILL THE VOID. YOU WEREN'T LOOKING FOR REDEMPTION OR PURPOSE. YOU SIMPLY WANTED THE HUNGER TO END. THAT ACCEPTANCE, THAT RESIGNATION TO YOUR OWN NATURE—THAT IS WHAT MAKES YOU PERFECT."
"You're insane," Arthur said.
"PERHAPS. BUT I'M ALSO YOUR ONLY OPTION."
Arthur looked at the images of Vantrea still floating around them. A world of magic and monsters. A world where his hunger might finally have purpose. Where he could consume without guilt, take without shame.
A world where being empty might finally be an advantage instead of a curse.
"If I do this," Arthur said slowly, "I'm not playing hero. I'm not saving the world out of the goodness of my heart. I don't have any goodness in my heart."
"I KNOW."
"I'll consume whatever I need to. Whoever I need to. If innocents get in my way, I'll devour them too."
"I EXPECT NOTHING LESS."
"And I'm not doing this to make you proud or fulfill some grand destiny. I'm doing it because the alternative is worse, and because for once in my pathetic existence, I want to take what I want without apologizing for it."
Beelzebub's grin widened across all its faces.
"ARTHUR HAYES, YOU ARE GOING TO BE MY GREATEST CHAMPION YET."
"I doubt that," Arthur said. "But fine. I accept. Send me to your world, give me your powers, and let's see how long I last."
"EXCELLENT!" Beelzebub clapped its clawed hands together, and the sound echoed through the space like thunder. "BUT FIRST, WE MUST DISCUSS YOUR DIVINE ABILITIES."
The throne room shifted, and suddenly dozens of crystalline pillars rose from the ground, each one glowing with different colors. Some shone with brilliant gold light, others with silver, bronze, and three that seemed to absorb all light around them.
"EACH PILLAR REPRESENTS A DIVINE ABILITY I CAN GRANT YOU," Beelzebub explained. "YOU MAY CHOOSE THREE. CHOOSE WISELY, FOR THIS DECISION WILL SHAPE YOUR ENTIRE EXISTENCE IN VANTREA."
Arthur approached the pillars, studying them one by one. Information flowed into his mind as he touched each one.
[Divine Regeneration] - Heal from any wound, even regrow limbs. Condition: Requires consuming flesh to fuel regeneration.
[Soul Sight] - See the true nature of living beings, their strengths and weaknesses. Condition: Must maintain eye contact for ten seconds.
[Plague Master] - Create and control diseases. Condition: Must first contract and survive the disease yourself.
[Dominion] - Command lesser beings to serve you. Condition: Must consume part of the creature you wish to dominate.
The abilities went on and on. Each one powerful, each one with significant limitations. Arthur recognized the pattern similar to what he'd read in countless web novels. The strongest abilities always came with the harshest restrictions.
Finally, he reached the three dark pillars that absorbed light.
The first made his consciousness resonate with recognition:
[GLUTTONY] - Devour and assimilate anything. Abilities, knowledge, even concepts. The more you understand what you devour, the better the assimilation. Condition: Must consume the target. Living beings must be dead first. Understanding accelerates assimilation; ignorance causes rejection.
Arthur touched the pillar and felt hunger not his hunger, but something vaster, older, more purposeful flow through him.
"This one," he said immediately.
"NATURALLY," Beelzebub nodded. "IT IS MY CORE ABILITY. BUT GLUTTONY ALONE IS NOT ENOUGH. YOU NEED COMPLEMENTARY POWERS."
Arthur moved to the second dark pillar:
[METABOLIC EVOLUTION] - Your body and soul adapt based on what you consume. Develop resistances, new biological features, transcend human limitations. Condition: Evolution requires "digestion time" proportional to what was consumed. During digestion, you are vulnerable as your body restructures. Incompatible consumption causes rejection or mutation.
Arthur could see how this paired with Gluttony. One took in, the other transformed. But he needed something more. Something for storage, for control...
The third dark pillar pulsed with an almost eager hunger:
[VOID STOMACH] - Create a dimensional space inside yourself that exists outside reality. Store anything consumed but not yet processed. Trap living beings or objects. Partially manifest externally as consuming darkness. Condition: Limited capacity that expands with strength. Excess causes mental strain and physical pain. Living beings trapped inside slowly digest unless consciously prevented. Maintaining the void requires constant energy.
Arthur stared at the three dark pillars, feeling how they would work together. A perfect trinity of consumption, transformation, and control.
But something made him pause. He looked back at the other pillars, then at Beelzebub.
"The other champions," Arthur said. "What abilities did they choose?"
"MOST CHOSE ABILITIES THAT MADE THEM IMMEDIATELY POWERFUL," Beelzebub said. "COMBAT SKILLS, MAGICAL AMPLIFICATION, TACTICAL SUPERIORITY. MORDRED CHOSE GLUTTONY AND TWO ABILITIES FOCUSED ON INSTANT POWER GAIN."
"And they all failed because they couldn't handle the long-term consequences of their choices," Arthur mused. "They wanted immediate results without considering sustainability."
"PRECISELY."
Arthur turned back to the three dark pillars. These abilities were weak at the start. They required time, patience, understanding. They would make his early days in Vantrea incredibly difficult.
But in the long term? If he survived long enough to develop them?
He'd be unstoppable.
"I want all three of these," Arthur said, pointing to the dark pillars.
Silence.
Then Beelzebub threw back its heads and laughed—a sound that consumed all other sound in the space.
"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW DIFFICULT THAT WILL MAKE YOUR EARLY SURVIVAL?" Beelzebub asked between laughs. "THESE ARE THE WEAKEST ABILITIES AT THE START! YOU'LL BE PRACTICALLY DEFENSELESS FOR MONTHS!"
"I know," Arthur said calmly. "But I'm not planning for the start. I'm planning for the end."
Beelzebub's laughter subsided, and it looked at Arthur with something that might have been respect.
"YOU TRULY THINK LONG-TERM, DON'T YOU? WILLING TO ENDURE WEAKNESS NOW FOR POWER LATER."
"I've been weak my entire life," Arthur said. "What's a few more months? Besides, immediate power is what made your last champion fail. He gained too much too fast and couldn't control it. I'd rather build a stable foundation than construct a tower that collapses under its own weight."
"AND IF YOU DIE BEFORE YOUR ABILITIES FULLY DEVELOP?"
"Then I die," Arthur shrugged. "But at least I'll have done it my way."
Beelzebub stared at him for a long moment, then nodded slowly.
"VERY WELL. GLUTTONY, METABOLIC EVOLUTION, AND VOID STOMACH. THREE ABILITIES THAT WILL MAKE YOU WEAK AS A NEWBORN BUT UNSTOPPABLE AS AN APEX PREDATOR." The God of Gluttony waved its hand, and the three dark pillars shattered, their essence flowing into Arthur's translucent form.
He screamed.
Not from pain he had no body to feel pain but from the sheer overwhelming hunger that suddenly consumed him. It was like every moment of emptiness in his life had been compressed into a single instant and amplified a thousandfold.
"YES!" Beelzebub roared. "FEEL IT! THAT IS TRUE GLUTTONY! NOT THE PETTY HUMAN DESIRE FOR MORE, BUT THE COSMIC IMPERATIVE TO CONSUME! TO DEVOUR! TO MAKE ALL THINGS PART OF YOURSELF!"
Arthur fell to his knees, clutching his translucent chest. The hunger was trying to consume him from the inside out. He could feel the Void Stomach forming, an actual emptiness within his being that demanded to be filled. He could feel Metabolic Evolution trying to reshape his soul-form, searching for something to adapt to, finding nothing.
And Gluttony... Gluttony whispered to him in a voice that was both his and not his:
Consume. Adapt. Evolve. Consume. Adapt. Evolve. Consume
"ENOUGH!" Arthur shouted, and somehow, impossibly, the hunger receded just enough for him to think clearly.
He looked up at Beelzebub, and for the first time, the God of Gluttony looked genuinely impressed.
"YOU CONTROLLED IT," Beelzebub said. "EVEN MORDRED COULDN'T CONTROL THE HUNGER ON FIRST CONTACT. YOU TRULY ARE SOMETHING SPECIAL, ARTHUR HAYES."
"Special's not the word I'd use," Arthur panted, climbing back to his feet. "More like 'fucked up enough to match your frequency.'"
"PERHAPS THAT IS THE SAME THING."
The space around them began to shift again. The throne room dissolved, replaced by a swirling vortex of light and darkness.
"IT IS TIME," Beelzebub announced. "I WILL NOW SEND YOU TO VANTREA. BUT FIRST, WE MUST DISCUSS YOUR BODY."
"Right," Arthur said. "You mentioned you could make me a new one or stick me in a corpse. I'm going with option one."
"WISE CHOICE. POSSESSING A CORPSE COMES WITH TOO MANY COMPLICATIONS—MEMORIES, RELATIONSHIPS, EXPECTATIONS." Beelzebub gestured, and a human silhouette appeared before them. "DESCRIBE YOUR IDEAL FORM."
Arthur thought about it. In his previous life, he'd been average in every way. Average height, average build, forgettable features. He'd always dreamed of being taller, stronger, more impressive.
But then he reconsidered.
"Make me average," Arthur said.
"WHAT?"
"Average height, average build, average features. Nothing that stands out. Nothing memorable."
"YOU HAVE THE CHANCE TO BECOME PHYSICALLY PERFECT, AND YOU CHOOSE MEDIOCRITY?"
"I choose invisibility," Arthur corrected. "If I'm going to survive in a world where everyone wants to kill champions, the last thing I need is to stand out. Let me blend in. Let people underestimate me. When they realize what I am, it'll be too late."
Beelzebub stared at him, then slowly nodded.
"CLEVER. VERY CLEVER. MOST CHAMPIONS WANT TO ANNOUNCE THEIR PRESENCE. YOU WANT TO HIDE UNTIL YOU'RE READY TO STRIKE."
"I learned that lesson the hard way in my first life," Arthur said bitterly. "Standing out only gets you hurt."
"VERY WELL. AVERAGE IT IS." Beelzebub waved its hand, and the silhouette filled in with details. Brown hair, brown eyes, medium build, average features. The kind of person you'd pass on the street and immediately forget.
Perfect.
"ONE MORE THING," Beelzebub said. "IN VANTREA, CHAMPIONS ARE TYPICALLY SUMMONED BY CHURCHES AND EMPIRES WITH GREAT FANFARE. YOU WILL HAVE NO SUCH SUPPORT. I AM SENDING YOU TO A REMOTE LOCATION—A FOREST FAR FROM CIVILIZATION. YOU WILL HAVE TO FIND YOUR OWN WAY."
"Figured as much," Arthur said. "Anything else I should know?"
"THE LANGUAGE OF VANTREA WILL BE IMPRINTED IN YOUR MIND. YOU WILL UNDERSTAND AND SPEAK IT FLUENTLY. BEYOND THAT... YOU'RE ON YOUR OWN."
"Great. No tutorial, no starter pack, thrown into the wilderness. This is definitely a permadeath hardcore mode situation."
"PRECISELY." Beelzebub's grin widened. "NOW, ONE FINAL WARNING: THE HUNGER WILL TRY TO CONTROL YOU. RESIST IT. FEED IT, BUT DO NOT LET IT CONSUME YOUR SANITY LIKE IT DID MORDRED. YOU MUST REMAIN IN CONTROL, OR YOU WILL BECOME NOTHING MORE THAN A MINDLESS BEAST."
"Noted," Arthur said. "Anything else?"
"YES. HAVE FUN."
Before Arthur could respond, Beelzebub thrust one massive claw into his chest. Arthur felt his consciousness being pulled, stretched, compressed—
"GO FORTH, ARTHUR HAYES! DEVOUR MY ENEMIES! CONSUME THE WORLD! AND IF YOU SURVIVE LONG ENOUGH... FEAST UPON A GOD!"
The last thing Arthur heard was Beelzebub's laughter as reality itself seemed to swallow him whole.
Then there was nothing.
Darkness. Warmth. Pressure.
Arthur's consciousness stirred. He could feel... something. Not quite sensation, but the promise of sensation.
Then all at once, reality crashed back into him with the subtlety of a freight train.
He gasped actually gasped, with actual lungs and opened his eyes.
He was lying on his back, staring up at a canopy of leaves. Sunlight filtered through in scattered beams. Birds were singing. The air smelled of earth and pine and life.
Arthur sat up slowly, marveling at the sensation of having a body again. He looked down at his hands solid, real, alive. He was wearing simple clothes, some kind of rough-spun tunic and pants. Definitely not modern Earth fashion.
He stood, testing his limbs. Everything worked. He felt... normal. Healthy. Average, just as he'd requested.
Then the hunger hit him.
It started as a small gnawing in his stomach, then grew rapidly into an overwhelming need that consumed all thought. The Void Stomach demanded to be filled. Gluttony urged him to consume. Metabolic Evolution waited eagerly for something to process.
Arthur doubled over, clutching his stomach. "Fuck... this is worse than I thought..."
He looked around frantically. He was in a forest, just as Beelzebub had said. Trees in every direction. No signs of civilization. And he was starving.
Not metaphorically. Not emotionally. His new body demanded sustenance immediately or it would shut down.
"Okay," Arthur muttered, forcing himself to think through the hunger. "First priority: food. Any food. Then figure out where the hell I am and how to survive."
He started walking, searching for anything edible. Berries, maybe. Or—
He froze.
Ahead of him, partially hidden behind a tree, was a creature. It looked like a rabbit, but larger, with small horns protruding from its head. A horned rabbit. How fantasy cliché.
But it was meat. And Arthur's stomach felt like it was trying to digest itself.
The rabbit noticed him and tensed, ready to bolt.
Arthur's mind raced. He had no weapons. No combat abilities. Just three divine powers that wouldn't help him catch a fucking rabbit.
Then Gluttony whispered: It doesn't matter how you kill it. Only that you consume it.
Arthur picked up a rock. A large, heavy rock.
The rabbit started to hop away.
Arthur threw.
By sheer dumb luck or perhaps divine intervention from a God who wanted to see him succeed the rock hit the rabbit squarely in the head. The creature dropped instantly.
Arthur ran to it, barely believing his luck. The rabbit was still twitching, but the rock had caved in its skull. It was dying.
His hands shook as he picked it up. In his previous life, Arthur had never killed anything larger than a spider. The idea of eating raw rabbit would have made him sick.
But now, with the hunger consuming him from the inside, with Gluttony screaming for sustenance, with the Void Stomach demanding to be filled
Arthur bit into the rabbit's flesh.
It was warm. Bloody. Disgusting.
And it was the most satisfying thing he'd ever tasted.
As he devoured the creature, he felt something change. The Void Stomach processed the meat, breaking it down into pure energy. Metabolic Evolution stirred, adapting his digestive system to handle raw food more efficiently. And Gluttony
[GLUTTONY ACTIVATED]
[ASSIMILATING: HORNED RABBIT]
[ANALYZING BIOLOGICAL STRUCTURE...]
[BASIC KNOWLEDGE OBTAINED: ENHANCED HEARING]
[BASIC KNOWLEDGE OBTAINED: IMPROVED LEG STRENGTH]
Arthur stumbled back, dropping the half-eaten rabbit. Information flooded his mind not memories, but understanding. How the rabbit's ears worked to detect predators. How its leg muscles generated explosive jumping power.
"Holy shit," Arthur breathed. "It actually works."
He could feel his body beginning to change. Metabolic Evolution was already adapting, strengthening his leg muscles slightly, improving his hearing. The changes were minute he wasn't suddenly going to sprout rabbit ears but they were real.
And this was from a simple rabbit.
What would happen if he consumed something more powerful?
Arthur looked down at his blood-covered hands, at the rabbit carcass at his feet, and felt something he hadn't felt in years:
Excitement.
Not the hollow, temporary excitement of a new video game or web novel. Real, genuine excitement for what the future might hold.
"Okay, Beelzebub," Arthur said to the forest around him, a grin spreading across his average, forgettable face. "You wanted someone who'd devour your world? Let's see how hungry this world can make me."
He picked up the rabbit carcass and stored it in his Void Stomach a bizarre sensation, like swallowing something that immediately disappeared into a pocket dimension inside himself.
Then Arthur Hayes, former office worker, current champion of Gluttony, began walking deeper into the forest.
His villain arc had officially begun.