If you guessed that our little deväk, was wounded because of overconfidence then you'd be mostly wrong. It wasn't overconfidence that drove its assault, no my friends it was the desire to eat, and grow. It was the desire for more. Yes, our little insect was overconfident because it had never been injured before, but that was not the driving force behind its action. For good or ill, this combination resulted in both the destruction of the ant colony, and in the tendrils on the deväk to be nearly burned away.
While the carapace of its aväk progenitor was extremely sturdy and resistant, the malleable flesh of a marg, just wasn't. Fortunately for the small insect it didn't have a highly developed nervous system. Unfortunately, our small friend was still in agony. Which as you might have guessed, my dear friends, did not leave it in a good mood.
In fact if I had to describe its mood in a single word I would choose, 'rampagy', and indeed when the hatchling finally regained control of it body it began rip and tear at the Queen desecrator's corpse. Viciously, and without reason. Turning the ant into a weird meaty jigsaw puzzle that had about half the pieces missing. After its light snack, and the deväk calmed down a bit. It began to inspect the chamber. Looking for what the queen could have been protecting, it wanted to either take for itself or smash it.
I did say it only calmed a bit.
With that bit of clarity, the not-quite-but-almost-monster-deväk realize that whatever the queen had sacrificed her life for must have been very important. At least to the queen it was, and that queen had hurt the deväk. So it wanted to return the favor by destroying her precious things. If the deväk had known what spite was, and how futile it was to spite something after death. Then it might've reconsidered, but the imbecile that this insectoid was didn't process the nature of its mental state. No in fact it just thought that smashing the queen's precious thing was the only way left to hurt the ant.
I suppose I should give the deväk some credit, while it does have a small and very limited brain. The brain in question is very complex, and it did manage to connect the dots regarding the queen. Honestly, by the standard of aväks this reject is years ahead of even the highest of the high class aväk hatchlings.
However, it did not take a genius to find a hollow wall. Actually, it helps if you aren't a genius and just start hitting walls when you can't find anything obvious. Making short work of the offending wall the deväk peered upon the hidden chamber, which was filled with strange glowing orbs that pulsated ever so slightly. Picking one up the deväk nearly popped it. The incredibly fragile orbs were, well, rather gooey with a purple-ish blob in the center.
Being an idiot the deväk wanted to eat the 'squishy glow ball', and would have done just that if its tendrils hadn't been more mangled than the rest of the bug. They were both a mess. The deväk had lost a significant portion of both tendrils so when it tried to reform them as they were, it was left with tendrils that were significantly skinnier and shorter than before. Upsetting the bug even further. Which at this point was like added fuel to a bonfire.
It picked up the orb it had inspected in the tendrils mouth, and once it was all the way in, it crushed the orb. Then all at once its mouth was filled with sweet nectar. It was more like a smoothie than actual food to the deväk, but it truly didn't care about that. It tasted good and fill the deväk's belly. So it began to gorge itself on the indescribably delectable orbs. It ate, and ate, and ate, and ate. Not even realizing, nor caring for that matter, that it was eating unhatched desecrator larvae. After a while a blue thing popped up in its vision, it barely glanced at it before absorbing the message.
[1003/1000 Des Ants consumed. New abilities, physical attributes, and skills gained upon next metamorphosis. Arthropod gene pool half stabilized, 2 months until destabilization and death will occur. Continue to consume in this gene pool for added benefits upon metamorphosis. Be warned keep things balanced, to keep all gene pools active.]
Pleased and yet still annoyed the deväk processed the developments slowly. On one hand it was thrilled that the 'snack-balls' were actually useful to instead of being just food. Albeit, really tasty food. It was also pleased that it had bought itself more time before the bad thing happened to it. On the other hand though, it really wasn't looking forward to waiting for its rewards and just the thought of trying to figure out how to balance its gene pools seemed like a nightmare to its tiny mind. Well really it just thought it sounded heavy or like a lot of work, but that was close enough. The bug didn't know about dreams.
The whole time the deväk was processing the message it was stuffing its face, err, well back tendrils I guess. The sun had long ago set and the deväk was still eating. When it got full it would spend some time to vent its frustration by attacking the ant corpses still inside the nest. It would rip and tear and stab until the corpse turned to paste or until it got hungry again before going back to eat more eggs. It did this several times until the eggs were all gone, which was done in just a couple of hours. It had eaten a collective of one thousand two hundred thirty six desecrator ants, wiping out the entire colony in its single day feast. Just as it was about to collect some of the corpses from the outside and bring them in. The little deväk felt an intense burning in its chest, as something new filled its vision.
[Gluttony
You consumed hundreds of lives to satisfy yourself. Behavior that is monsterish has branded you a sinner amongst the rational races. You will always hunger, not eating will cause intense discomfort, you are heavier, and you will never be satisfied with food as long as you bare this sin. As this sin progresses, the effects will worsen. Like sliding down a slippery slope. Your stomach is now a bottomless pit.]
This message was not the calming blue the bug was used to. It was blood red and the message didn't wait to be absorbed, as it forced itself into the deväk's mind. The burning pain and the intrusive message didn't sit well with the deväk. Then it only got worse as the bug stomach felt like it was being torn apart. Stretch, expanded and magically altered from the sins effects. A cavernous empty feeling spread though the bug. It felt as though it expanded out of the small insect, but it was still inside the little bug. Anything lost in here would be gone forever. It understood that whatever this 'sin thing' was, it was definitely not good news.
Well at least it wasn't the best thing. A bigger stomach meant it could eat more so that was nice. However, food losing flavor would be less nice, and being in pain due to the lack of food wasn't appealing. Honestly though the rest was close to how it felt for most of its incredible short life. It was already always hungry, and being heavier didn't seem all that bad. That was until it brought up its status page with a stray thought. Then being heavy seemed a bit worse.
[Name Physical Modifier Attributes
(Blank) Str: -10.0% Str: 6
Age Agi: +1.5% Agi: 3
2 weeks Dex: +2.8% Dex: 6
Species Mnt: +1.0% Mnt: 1
Deväk Per: -0.5% Per: 3
(Hatchling). End: +8.6% End: 8
Con: +7.0% Con: 5]
[Abilities Skills Sins
Malleable Tendrils Minor Shapeshift Gluttony
Parasitical Growth]
[Combat Level 4]
Seeing a minus ten percent did kind of ruin its mediocre outline of the sin. The little deväk definitely didn't like it, and it only hoped that there was a way to remove it. Since it seemed that pulling the sin directly off its status page wouldn't work. The black shelled glutton didn't get too down about it though. After all, it could eat without limit now.
It ate every scrap of every corpse in the colony, and except for a few blood stains the place was like a ghost town. Even to the young sinner it felt erie. Going outside to get away from the quiet nest, the deväk briefly wondered what happened to the bright sky orb, and if something had eaten it. Then shrugging the bug continued its gluttonous rampage. Midway through its extended feast the bug heard something loud in the trees on the other side of the clearing. Its head snapped in the direction of the noise and the bug froze. The bug saw what it could only think of as titans. There were two of these colossi, and they were fighting it out.
One 'titan' was an Undergrowth, a parasitical entity that uses the discarded and dead scraps of plants to make itself a body. Sustaining itself off, sunlight, more rotting plant matter, and the blood of animals. Undergrowths are a mostly beneficial part of the forest that keeps the monster population in check. The undergrowth in question looked like a stag with broken branches for antlers. It was old with twigs bleached white like bones. Actually there might have been bones mixed in, it was quite old.
While the other was a rather large axolotl that far more lithe and vicious looking than its normal counterpart. Everything about this scaled up version was superior to what a normal animal would have. Speaking of scales, the axolotl was covered in brown scales that shone like metal in the dim light. These scales covered its body while its eyes glowed green. Its head was spade shaped giving the monster a large mouth. Its teeth looked serrated, and like something that no axolotl should have. It was definitely a monster.
Fun bit of info for you, dear friends, if animals live long enough and gained enough magical essence they could grow into monsters. More accurately it would be better to say, that animals almost always turn in to monsters, with few exceptions becoming something greater. Which basically just makes them bigger, smarter, and more vicious. While also making them highly prone to mutations, and this axolotl was highly mutated indeed. She had exceeded the hundred year age mark, making both highly intelligent and dangerous.
The axolotl was taking great swipes at the undergrowth knocking off clumps of rotting leaves and dried sticks. While the stag undergrowth kept trying to gore the axolotl with its branch horns. From the bleeding wounds on the axolotl, it seemed that the undergrowth had landed more than a few hits. It seemed like an even match until the axolotl surprised the undergrowth with a swipe from its tail that knock the faux-stag's head clean off. The body stood there stunned for a moment before charging off into the forest. Away from the axolotl. The axolotl in question, snorted before letting out a growling roar.
Definitely not a normal axolotl, exasperated by the sight of the axolotls wounds healing themselves.
A spike of fear shot down the deväk spine and for the first time in its life. It realized that it was insignificant, especially to something like that. With all of its senses and instincts in agreement. The deväk decided to hide in the empty hole, for a long while. Well a long while for the bug. After all one of those gigantic titans could have taken the orb out of the sky, or maybe it something even bigger, and out little bug didn't want to meet it.