The sensation wasn't like eating food. It was like swallowing a live wire that hummed with the frequency of a dying star.
As the essence of the Wolf-God Fenris slid down Silas's throat, his entire nervous system felt like it was being re-wired with molten lead. He collapsed back into the shallows of the Snake River, his fingers clawing into the silt and river-stones. The water around him hissed and turned to steam, obscuring the world in a thick, white veil.
Through the fog, a series of notifications began to strobe against the back of his eyelids, frantic and jagged.
> [CORE SYSTEM ANALYSIS...]
> [SOURCE: DIVINE FRAGMENT (FENRIS-7)]
> [STATUS: DIGESTING...]
> [WARNING: PRIMORDIAL STOMACH AT 100% CAPACITY]
> [INITIATING METABOLIC CONVERSION...]
>
"Silas! Talk to me!"
Leo's voice was distant, muffled by the roar of the "Divine Will" currently trying to tear Silas apart from the inside. His brother reached into the steam, his hand glowing with the soft, oceanic blue of the Tide Caller class. When Leo's hand touched Silas's shoulder, a spark of black lightning jumped between them.
Leo was thrown back five feet, his blue trident clattering against the rocks. "Your skin... it's like ice and fire at the same time."
Silas didn't answer. He couldn't. He was watching his own soul being rewritten.
> [CONVERSION COMPLETE]
> [STRENGTH: 12 -> 62]
> [AGILITY: 10 -> 60]
> [WILLPOWER: 15 -> 115]
> [NEW TRAIT UNLOCKED: 'GOD-SIGHT' (RANK 1)]
> — You can now see the "Threads of Fate" that bind Vessels to their Patrons.
>
The steam finally cleared. Silas stood up slowly, his movements unnaturally fluid. The ache in his lower back from years of hauling scrap was gone. The slight blur in his left eye? Sharper than a hawk's.
He looked at Leo, and his heart sank.
With his new God-Sight, Silas didn't just see his brother. He saw a shimmering, translucent blue tether extending from the base of Leo's neck, stretching up into the golden clouds toward the floating cathedral. It looked like a leash. No, it looked like a straw.
"Leo," Silas rasped, his voice sounding deeper, vibrating with a metallic resonance. "That spear... throw it away."
"What? No!" Leo gripped the blue trident tighter. The weapon pulsed with power, sending ripples through the river water. "Silas, I can feel the river now. I can feel the fish, the currents... I can protect us. The Tide Caller said we're the chosen generation. We're going to rebuild the world!"
"They're not rebuilding, Leo. They're farming."
Silas looked up at the sky. The golden stairs were still there, but they were crowded now. Thousands of people—neighbors from Twin Falls, people he'd seen at the hardware store just yesterday—were walking up those stairs in a trance. Above their heads, golden icons identified them: Farmer, Soldier, Concubine, Battery.
The "System" wasn't a game. It was an operating manual for a global plantation.
Suddenly, the air pressure dropped. The "Wolf" hadn't finished its meal.
High above them, a section of the golden clouds swirled into a vortex. A new notification appeared, but this one wasn't for Silas alone. It echoed across the entire canyon.
> [REGION ALERT: TWIN FALLS CANYON]
> [ANOMALY DETECTED: 'APOSTATE-CLASS' THREAT]
> [BOUNTY INITIALIZED: 50,000 DIVINE CREDITS]
> [OBJECTIVE: SANITIZE THE GLITCH]
>
"A bounty?" Leo whispered, looking at the screen. Then he looked at Silas. The blue trident in his hand began to hum a low, mournful note. "Silas... the System says you're a glitch. It says you're... dangerous to humanity."
"Leo, look at the sky," Silas pointed.
Three shapes were descending from the clouds. They weren't Gods—they were smaller, encased in sleek, white ceramic armor with wings made of hard-light. System Sanctifiers. They were the "Janitors" of the Heavens, sent to sweep up the things that didn't fit the mold.
One of them carried a sword that looked like a concentrated sunbeam. It pointed the blade directly at Silas.
"IDENTITY: SILAS VANE," the Sanctifier's voice was a synthesized drone. "CRIME: DIVINE THEFT. SENTENCE: TOTAL DELETION."
The Sanctifier blurred. It moved at a speed Silas shouldn't have been able to track, but his new Agility stat kicked in like a turbocharger. The world slowed down. He saw the individual photons vibrating on the edge of the Sanctifier's blade.
Silas didn't have a weapon. He didn't have a spell.
But he still had the taste of starlight on his tongue.
As the Sanctifier swung, Silas didn't dodge. He stepped into the strike, reaching out with his obsidian-stained hand. He didn't grab the sword—he grabbed the light emanating from it.
God-Eater Skill: Divine Siphon.
The Sanctifier's eyes, glowing behind its ceramic visor, widened. The brilliant white sword didn't cut Silas. It began to fade, its energy flowing up Silas's arm like water down a drain.
"You're not a God," Silas hissed, his fingers crushing the ceramic gauntlet of the creature. "You're just an appetizer."
Silas pulled the Sanctifier close, his jaw unhinging slightly more than humanly possible. A dark, misty aura erupted from his chest—the Predator's Maw.
There was a sound like a vacuum seal breaking.
The Sanctifier didn't bleed. It shattered into raw data—white cubes of light that Silas inhaled in a single, greedy breath.
> [ESSENCE CONSUMED: 50 UNITS OF 'SYSTEM LOGIC']
> [LEVEL UP: 4 -> 7]
> [STRENGTH +10]
> [INTELLIGENCE +10]
>
The other two Sanctifiers halted mid-air, their wings flickering. For the first time since the Harvest began, the "System" hesitated.
Silas stood over the pile of empty ceramic armor, his body vibrating with newfound power. He looked at Leo, who was staring at him with a mixture of awe and absolute terror.
"We can't stay here, Leo," Silas said, looking toward the dark woods of the mountains. "They're going to send more. And next time, they won't send the help. They'll send the owners."
He reached out his hand to his brother. "Come with me. We're going to find where they keep the rest of the 'Sparks.' And then, we're going to eat the sun."
Deep in the golden cathedral, a being with a thousand eyes turned its gaze toward a small canyon in Idaho. A single name was etched into the "Book of Deletion," but for some reason, the ink refused to dry.
Silas Vane.