Eating Your Weight: First Meal
Got hit with a huge burst of inspiration after watching the anime and wrote this in one sitting. Please Enjoy!
~~~
My eyes snapped open and I was awake in an instant, not an ounce of lethargy or exhaustion in my body as I went from being unconscious to wide awake in the span of a single second. My head throbbed with a bad headache, but I ignored it as I familiarized myself with the place I had found myself in.
I was back in the cave, though not in the same place as before. My body had been propped up against a wall, the cold stone pressing against my back and feeling strangely good against my skin. I slowly stood up, placing my hand against the wall as my head swam for a moment before I managed to get ahold of myself and stand up straight.
A wet crunching sound came from my right and I immediately turned towards it, only to be met with a sight I would rather not have.
The creature that had put me in this state was only a few meters away, facing away from me as she bent over a motionless mass of… something. It was the same white sack that I had seen her holding when I first came in, though it was in a much worse state now. Even from this distance, I could see the thick pool of red spreading along the ground as the mangled woman crouched over the sack. Her arms moved down towards him and came back up over and over, and thanks to the wet sound of flesh tearing and rampant swallowing, it wasn’t hard to figure out what she, or what was inside the sack. Guess she wasn’t lying when she said she was looking forward to tasting me.
She muttered to herself, and my ears strained to pick up the words, “Mmm~ You humans always taste better when you’re full of my venom. All the tough bits become soft and all of the soft bits become perfectly tender! And you especially have an exquisite mouthfeel. You should be proud that in death you provide some pleasure to your betters!”
Was she talking to her food? So she was a monster and a freak. Good to know.
I grimaced in disgust as more wet crunching sounded out from underneath the woman as she dug into her ‘meal’, before turning to look for a way out of this horror show. Unfortunately, the cave only had one exit, and it was currently being blocked by the six-foot tall spider lady currently feasting on human flesh like she was at a ten-dollar buffet. If I wanted out, I would either have to wait and hope that spiders hibernated post meal, or go through her.
Which begged the question, how was little old me supposed to get past someone who was not only several feet taller than me, but had also killed me once before?
As if answering my question, something tingled inside of my chest. It was a strange sensation yet oddly comforting, like a cup of hot chocolate on a cold winter day without the fun of actually drinking hot chocolate.
I focused on the feeling, willing it to come forth, and in a flash of yellow light, two strange gloves appeared on my hands like they were summoned there by God himself. I examined them with interest, taking in their strange appearance with a curious gaze as I turned my hands this way and that.
They looked like something an edgy anime character would wear, black fingerless gloves with spiky bands where the cloves met my wrists. The knuckles were studded and a large, topaz colored gem was embedded in the dead center on the back of my hand. The material that they were made out of was weird, sturdy and plated, almost like large scales, and it only took a moment to connect their general appearance to that of the dragon apparently stuck inside of my soul.
‘So you’ve already manifested your Sacred Gear. Good, that will make this much simpler.’ A voice rumbled inside of my mind. I recognized the grumbling voice of Nidhogg and looked around, wondering if the dragon was somewhere close by. ‘I am not there, fool. I am still trapped within your soul.’
‘So you can just talk inside my mind whenever you want? Trippy.’ I wrinkled my nose as I suddenly had a thought, ‘Wait, can you see what I’m doing too? Because if so, then I am so, so sorry for everything you’ve had to witness since puberty.’
‘I have better things to do than watch a teenage girl succumb to her lustful urges, human. I am fully capable of shutting our connection if the mood strikes me and so long as the gear isn’t being manifested, I have no reason not to do so.’
Well that was good. Now I wouldn’t have to worry about a voyeuristic dragon watching me while I tried to get my rocks off. I was into some kinky shit, but there were some things that crossed the line and that was… probably one of them.
‘Your Sacred Gear, Abyss Eater, is a conduit for my immense power. With it, you will be more than capable of devouring the putrid devil before you.”='
Devil, huh? That was what he had called it before, too. I clenched my fists, feeling power surge through my limbs, and grinned. Well it looked like I had a name for the thing I was going to be feeding its own heart.
‘Good. Don’t think for a moment of showing them mercy. Devil's such as this are the lowest of the low even in their own society. They are rabid dogs bereft of masters, only capable of killing and eating the scraps that happen to come their way.’ Nidhogg’s voice turned dark, ‘But be warned. Should you fall to impress me, I will rip my power from you in your last moments and wait for a more suitable host, so don't hold back.’
And there was my motivation. If being eaten alive didn't already cover that.
Drawing myself up, I strode towards the feasting devil and called out to her.
“Hey, ugly! Maybe stop filling your disgusting stomach for a second to make sure that you actually finished the job!” The disgusting crunching sound stopped as the devil heard my voice, “You know messy eating isn't a very attractive trait, right? Well I say that, but whatever the fuck is going on with your face has kind of ruined any chance of that.”
The devil turned around, tilting her head curiously as she caught sight of me, standing and decidedly not dead, “You’re alive? You are resilient for a human, I’ll give you that.” She brought her bloodsoaked hands up, licking them clean with a tongue that, in any other circumstance, would have made me think some definitely not PG-rated thoughts, “But how... Ah~ So that’s it.”
Her eyes locked onto my gloves, and a wicked smile spread across her face, “A Sacred Gear… The last bastion of the human race. I never imagined I would be lucky enough to run into one. I wonder if it will make your flesh taste any different.”
I growled, “Why don’t you come find out, bitch? I’ll be more than happy to rip your goddamn head off using these gloves.”
The devil flinched for some odd reason, before her eyes narrowed in rage at my words, “Don’t get cocky. Even if you may have access to a tiny amount of power now, you’re still human! My poison will make your guts into soup!”
The devil rushed forward on skittering legs, moving extremely fast for something as large and grotesque as she was. Not willing to let her get close like last time, I stood my ground, not fleeing in the face of her rampant charge. I didn't panic as she closed the distance, and a calm instinct guided me to raise my hand in front of me.
I clenched my fist and the gems covering my Sacred Gear immediately glowed brightly, as if they were responding to my desires.
Barbed, black chains, each as thick as my wrist, burst out of the ground in front of the devil like snakes. There were long nails on the end of each chain, and they struck out as she passed them by, stabbing into her disgusting body and digging deeply into her flesh.
She snarled, snapping the chains and sending them scattering across the cave floor, before continuing towards me, unabated. I narrowed my eyes, bringing my other hand to bear, and more chains burst from the ground directly in her path, this time wrapping around her body before stabbing into her bloated abdomen.
The amount of chains stabbed into her this time was too much for her to just shrug off, and tripped as her momentum was suddenly completely arrested, sending her tumbling to the ground with a shriek. More chains appeared, wrapping around her like a cocoon and stabbing deeply inside of her body, making her shriek.
“AAAAGHH!” She writhed on the ground, her limbs flailing about wildly as the spiked chains dug deeper into her body. She clawed at her skin, trying to pry them out and failing, “YOU FILTHY HUMAN! WHAT IS THIS!?”
“Not so fun when your prey can fight back, is it?” I jeered, “You caught me so easily before, let's see how you feel when the shoe’s on the other foot!”
Getting an idea, I closed my fists, imagining the chains choking the life out of the devil who had almost made me her meal. They began to do just that, digging into her body as they began to constrict as if the ends were being pulled by some unseen hand. And then, to my surprise, they began to glow.
The Devil's flesh began to sizzle and she screamed even louder, echoes of her agony bouncing throughout the cave. The gems on my gloves glowed brightly, and my eyes widened as power surged within me, filling my body and suffusing me with strength that wasn’t my own.
It only took a second to realize what was going on as I watched the Devil’s struggles begin to weaken. I was absorbing her power. My chains were taking her strength and adding it to my own, devouring her energy for my own use.
‘Guess that’s why he’s called the Devouring Dragon.’ I thought as I gleefully watched the devil writhe in agony. After what she had tried to do to me, this was just karma at its finest. I honestly wish I could make it hurt worse.
As if they had heard my thoughts, the chains began to glow even brighter, and the Devil’s wails magnified to the point of being almost deafening.
“HOW ARE YOU DOING THIS!? I’M A DEVIL! ONE OF THE STRONGEST BEINGS IN EXISTENCE; YOU’RE JUST SOME HUMAN WITH METAL CHAINS!” She thrashed against her bindings and I eyed her as I walked up.
Trapped like this, she looked just like a bug caught in one of those hanging glue-traps. Actually, scratch that, bugs were a hell of a lot less gross. The tits weren’t as nice, though.
“So here’s about the time you start begging for your life so I can make some sort of epic one-liner.” My gear glowed again and a spiked chain dropped into my hand, “I’m thinking something about the devil getting his dues, what do you think?”
She didn't appreciate my attempt at humor judging by the angry snarls she began to let out. She rolled around like a toddler having a tantrum. Unfortunately, she didn’t have the energy to keep it up for long and soon enough, she was huffing and puffing as the last of her energy was sucked up by my chains.
I clicked my tongue, “Aww, what’s wrong? Out of breath already? I guess there’s a reason you have to catch your prey by surprise. Really fitting the insect stereotype with that one.”
The devil glared at me with her numerous eyes, “You think you’ve won just because you managed to beat me?”
“Uh, yeah?” I looked at her body, trussed up like a thanksgiving turkey, “This feels like winning to me.”
The devil sneered, “Don’t expect this victory to last, human. Soon, another Devil, one far more powerful than I could ever be, will arrive to avenge my death. They will do unspeakable things to you once they discover what you’ve done. You, and your family, and everyone you’ve ever loved! You’ll all wish you were sent to the darkest depths of the Underworld once they…”
Aaaand, she was monologuing. How lovely. I watched with dull amusement as the devil went on about the horrible fate that awaited me once this mysterious friend finally got here. She was actually pretty creative with her threats if I was being honest. Lemon-juice and salt were one thing, but the pepper as well? Talk about going above and beyond.
Unfortunately, it could only be fun to listen to someone threaten your life for so long before it started getting egregious. As she began to talk scalping and how it didn’t always mean immediate death, I decided I had had enough.
I whipped the weapon in my hand forward, cutting the devil off mid-sentence as the thick links wrapped around its neck. I pulled on the chain tightly, choking it as I stared coldly into its beady little eyes, “Well if one of your buddies do happen to come along, I’ll make sure to point them in the direction of your grave so they can pay their respects. I’m sure you’d like to be buried together anyway.”
The chain creaked and its eyes widened as it realized what was about to happen, “Wait-!”
I jerked backwards with all of my might, snapping the Devil's spine with a sickening crunch, like a bug being crushed underfoot. To my surprise, the Devil's neck failed to withstand the chain or maybe just the strength behind it, and collapsed inward like a soda can. Her head popped off, rolling to the ground and splattering thick blood everywhere as the rest slumped to the ground, twitching as any semblance of life left her grotesque body.
I grimaced, stepping back as the growing pull of blood threatened to soak into my white shoes, “Ew gross. Should’ve just stabbed her. Guess that’s what I get for getting too caught up in the moment. " I scratched my face, watching as the head rolled into the corner of the cave, "That was a pretty good one-liner though, and I cut off her head like I said I would. Go me.”
With a thought, the chains wrapping around the Devil’s body disappeared, as did the one I had used to do the deed. The moment they were gone, the strength that had been stolen disappeared, fading into the wind like it had never been there to begin with, and I scowled.
“Oh, come on! I don’t get to keep it!? What a fucking rip-off.” I sighed, “Whatever. That was cool as hell so I guess I can’t complain.”
I looked at the Devil’s body as movement caught my eyes, and watched as black smoke began to seep from her skin, before the entire body began to dissolve before my very eyes. Every part of it, even the head sitting a few feet away, quickly turned to dust and floated away on an unseen wind and as it cleared, all that remained was a small, red object around the size of my thumb.
Somewhat wary, I bent down and picked it up, only for my wariness to turn to confusion as I recognized it for what it was.
“A chess piece?” I held it in front of my face, studying it curiously. It was a small, red Pawn that seemed to glow dimly with some unknown energy, “Why the hell did she have a chess piece on her? And why is it still here if the rest of her is gone?”
The pawn suddenly began to glow a bright red, startling me. I went to drop it, now wanting to deal with whatever fucked up curse the devil may have put on it in her last moments, when the gems on the back of my Sacred Gear began to glow as well. The pawn disappeared in a mass of swirling red light, getting sucked into the gleaming gem, and as the glow died down, Nidhogg’s voice emerged from the gem.
‘Demonic Energy, Successfully Devoured.’
I gasped as an intense warmth filled me from my toes all the way to the tip of my scalp. It was like I was being dunked into a warm bath only more… erotic, arousing even, and by the time it was done, my entire body was buzzing like I had just had a micro-orgasm.
I stared at the wall in front of me, and I just barely managed to tune back in as Nidhogg’s voice came from my Sacred Gear.
‘Congratulations, human. You have defeated the weakest of the weak and become slightly less pathetic for it. That Evil Piece you just absorbed will add this Devil’s strength, however miniscule, to your own power.’ Nidhogg’s words weren’t stated with any malice, it was just as if he was stating a simple fact, though that didn’t make it any better, ‘As for your performance, it was… satisfactory. You dominated that creature like a dragon would, and showed it just how beneath you it was while utilizing an infinitesimal amount of my power. Perhaps you could prove to be a worthy host with time.’
The gem went dim, indicating that the dragon was done speaking, and I stared at it in annoyance, my cheeks feeling hot from the sensations I’d just experienced, “So you insult me and praise me in the same sentence? What are you, every high schooler’s mom?”
The gem remained silent and I huffed, dismissing my Sacred Gear after a second of concentrating. I rubbed my hands, feeling the smooth skin where scaly flesh had once been. Now that he mentioned it, I did feel a little bit stronger. About as strong as I had been while I was absorbing the Devil’s energy.
“Guess that chess piece was where she got her power from. Or maybe it was just the power leftover after she disappeared?” I mused out loud as I clenched my fingers, feeling the new strength behind them, “Either way, that’s pretty cool. Though it’d be cooler if some lazy dragon would tell me how his powers worked so I stopped getting surprised by this shit!”
Nothing. Looked like I was alone again.
“Well screw you too.” I muttered, “Guy drops me into the middle of a fight with a literal goddamn devil of all things and doesn’t even bother to explain what’s going on. On top of that, he’s just an asshole for no reason. Devouring Dragon, more like perpetual PMS Dragon.”
Before I left the cave, I decided to check on the person that the devil had been munching down on before I woke up. Needless to say, he was in a far worse state than me. The man’s face and torso were utterly mangled and there was blood everywhere. Half-dissolved flesh sloughed off shattered bone like the worst road rash I’d ever seen, and I couldn’t bear to look at it for more than a second before turning away.
“Sorry man.” I apologized to the unfortunate victim as I made my way out of the cave, “I’ll let the cops know you’re down here. Actually, no I won't. I don’t think I could pass this off as a bear attack… Maybe spider bears? Whatever, you’re dead so it's not like you care.”
My first priority was getting back home before Miyo sent out a search party or something. I was sure that with these chains and my new strength, I could make it back up that stupid hill.
“Go outside, she said. Shows what she knows.” I muttered as I left the cave, “I’m so gonna hold this over her head when I get back. Make her make me a cake or something. From scratch.”
~~~
By the time I got back home, it was well past dark. Apparently almost dying and being reborn took more than just a couple hours and even with my new powers, that hill was a bitch to climb, go figure. Pushing open the door, I walked into my home, calling loudly inside, “Miyo! I'm home! Sorry for taking so long! You aren’t gonna believe what happen to m-Hrk!”
My words were cut off as hand wrapped around my throat from behind and slammed me against the wall hard enough to rattle the pictures. I winced, before going stock-still as something sharp and wet was pressed up against my neck.
Miyo's chocolate brown eyes, normally full of happiness or at least light exasperation, stared daggers into my own from only a few inches away, looking like cold chips of ice as the woman held me against the wall with surprising strength.
I looked down slowly, and my eyes widened as I saw what was pressed against my throat. It was a dagger made of solid water that was seemingly held together by nothing but air. It glimmered with golden light shimmering as if it was being held in the sun.
“M-Miyo?” I stuttered wondering what the hell was going on.
The maid’s eyes narrowed “Who are you?” She demanded, pressing the blade deeper against my jugular. Her nostrils flared as she inhaled deeply, before her face twisted in alarm, “A Devil? I could have sworn… Where did you come from?”
What? Miyo knew what Devils were? Not only that, but she could apparently smell one on me? What the hell was going on!?
I stared at the woman, completely aghast at what was happening, “W-what are you talking about, Miyo? It’s me! Naomi!”
That was the wrong thing to say. Miyo’s eyes widened before narrowing into slits. Her hold on my neck increased and I gagged as she choked me while at the same time pressing her knife even harder against my jugular.
“Don’t fuck with me, Devil! I will slice you from neck to navel!” She snarled in my face, “If you’ve laid a single hand on her, I will tear you limb from limb and use you as a practice dummy! Now tell me who you are!”
I shook with fear, just barely resisting the instinctual urge to activate my Sacred Gear. I had a feeling that would make it ten times worse. My mouth opened and closed as I thought of what to say, and it was as I thought that I happened to glance at a nearby picture hanging on the wall and caught myself in the reflection.
And all at once, things started to make sense.
Because the girl who was looking back at me in the glass, was not the plain, almost boring-looking nerd that I had seen in the mirror that morning. Instead, she was striking, with wild black hair and orange highlights that I wouldn’t have a hope in hell of wearing properly, and eyes the same color as the evening sun. My jaw dropped at the sight, giving me a glimpse of the sharp canines that I knew I didn’t have only a few hours ago.
My mind went back to what Nidhogg had said when I accepted his contract, that he would change me to handle his power. I didn’t think he meant like this! No wonder Miyo didn’t recognize me, that fuckass dragon completely changed how I looked! I was basically a different person now!
I gulped, wincing as the blade held against my neck nicked the skin, “So, there’s a funny story about that. And if you could hold off on slitting my throat for like, three minutes, I’m sure you’ll… probably not want to do it anymore. Maybe.”
Miyo continued staring at me for a long moment, and I was beginning to wonder if I’d beaten a literal devil only to come back home and die to my apparently badass maid. That would really suck, and I doubt Nidhogg would resurrect me again after something like this, if he even could.
…Meh, there were worse ways to go. At least the view was better than last time. I glanced down at Miyo’s chest, wanting one last look at those magnificent breasts straining her top before I passed on forever.
And, as luck would have it, that’s what saved my life as Miyo noticed my gaze shift and suddenly became far less certain of what she was doing. Her hold loosened and her eyes became searching instead of threatening. And then, she spoke.
“You have three minutes. If I don’t hear what I want, limbs start coming off. Starting with your lying tongue.”
The words that came out of my mouth next were some of the fastest I'd ever said in my life.