"Hello?... Helloooo!? Ya there?" Words of greeting snapped me from my stupor and caused a miniature panic attack. I was inside of my soul once again with Muerta floating in front of me.
"Hey what happened you've been gone for over a month?" Muerta said with a worrying glance.
"What!? I was literally just walking to Erispire though."
"Yeah, I was talking to someone else. You got here just in time." Muerta said and sat down in her invisible chair and returned to a sinister smile once again.
"You've got to listen to me when I talk to you, I warned you while you were in town but it seems you failed to adhere. You've got to kill some sentient beings here soon, If you don't kill and get stronger you won't be able to live one second as a death god." Muerta ended her sentence staring directly into my eyes and pulsed her pupils violet for a split second.
"I'm not a death god Muerta, you are, and I'm not ready to kill people just yet."
"Magnus don't be stupid, If you don't satisfy our needs I will."
"Oh, and who in the living hell would be in my soul besides you? Doesn't seem like killing will be on your bucket list any time soon."
"Magnus, if you don't start soon you will push me to take control. Once I'm in control I won't stop until I've razed an entire city." Muerta waved her hand and showed an image of my last body. It was nearly unrecognizable. My body was vertically split in two with red chunks sticking out of my chest where my ribs should be, my arms were sprawled backward in a direction that shouldn't be possible and blood slowly oozed in all directions.
"Stop, I get it. Retract the anti-magic barrier so I can go big again." I said and waved my hand through the gruesome image in front of me. Just when the image vanished a soft thump sounded as saliva hit the ground.
"Hahahahahah Magnus. You can't hide your draconic instincts from yourself anymore. Look at you! Slobbering over a tasty snack!" Muerta floated forward and began to whisper in my ear in a darker tone.
"If you want, I can tell you how he tasted. Hehehehehe, HAHHAhaHAHHAHAH!" At that moment I raised my right hand and slapped her to the side as hard as I could. Muerta flew to the left a few feet and hit the 'floor' with a thud. I put my foot on her neck and said.
"Let me show you how it feels." I stomped down with all my force and snapped her neck.
"Ho Hooh! Does it feel good to fight in the body of a human? Sad you won't ever get that experience again!" Muerta stood up effortlessly and snapped her head back into place with her hands.
"That slap kinda hurt. Emotionally of course. Don't you know it's wrong to slap a girl?" She said in a sarcastically sad tone.
"That goes for humans," I replied, annoyed yet unsurprised.
"Yeah yeah, whatever. Also, it isn't an 'Anti-magic barrier' It's death energy. You are almost out. I will be able to retract it into your body for a bit but that's all I can do. Let's do this again sometime"
"Masochist. Send me back."
"Okay okay, also what's wrong with a Masochist? I also don't mind Sadism every once in a while. You don't know anything till ya've tried everything as they say." As Muerta finished her last words my vision faded to green.
__________________________________
"Magnus, Magnus. What happened? You zoned out there for a minute." Meredith called while patting me on the head. We were currently in the jungle
"Oh nothing just some crazy bitch in my imagination, hey can we split off from the group for a second?"
"Yeah sure, what's the matter?" She said as she went off to the left out of sight from the rest of the scouting party
"My anti-magic is retracted right now. I need you to grow me back and let me kill some people." To my suggestion, Merridith looked surprised. She always thought I didn't particularly like killing and was taken aback.
"May I ask why?"
"It is the only way for me to replenish my energy and if I don't I will die."
"Okay, I'll help you."
"Good, grow me back, and grab some of the weak people in the back."
"Okie Dokie!"
Vines came down from the trees and snatched up the adventurers in the rear. Everyone took guard immediately and Brain unsheathed his sword from the leather backstrap scabbard. Meredith grew me to my original size and dangled the terrified victims in front of me.
'Better to just get this over with' I thought as I grabbed one of the bondaged victims. The wriggling sensation of her squirming in my grasp and the muffled screaming for help, made my heart pump faster and filled me with adrenaline and excitement. 'I'll at least give her a quick end.' With that said, I raised the tear driven adventurer to my snout and bit her in half. The comforting sweetness of blood instantly filled up my taste buds and sent me into a heavenly rampage. I quickly gobbled down the rest of my meal and locked my eyes on the next target. There were five more people with tears dripping off their foreheads staring back at me. I plucked the man on the right from his perch and crushed him within my grasp, my claws tearing through half of his body in the process. I lifted my hand up and let the warm fresh blood stream into my mouth. It was intoxicating, I couldn't get enough. I threw the body into my jaws and crunched down on the morsel while gazing at my next victim. There was a little girl among them that looked to be a water class healer that I couldn't take my burning red eyes off of.
With the same bloodied claw I grabbed the others in I reached for her and snatched her from her living prison.
"Magnus… Is that still you?" Meredith asked, taken aback.
"It's the new me," I said with a smile as I reached my other arm to the girl's head.
"Mmmff STMOOOMFFFPPHH! NMOOOO PWEETHHSHH!!!" The little girl shouted unclearly. While gagged, crying, and screaming, the little one fought with all her might to shake my grip. But to no avail
"Hush little baby don't say a word." I sang, widening my smile to nearly match Muerta's.
"Papa's gonna buy you a mockingbird." I finished as I snapped her neck so far that her spine poked out of the side.
The other captives started to struggle even more as I swallowed the girl in one bite. The guy on the far left had a stain on the right side of his pants to the middle of his shirt and was dripping a liquid that wasn't tears.
"Piss yourself?" I asked with a burst of sinister laughter as I chose him for my next target.
Doing anything you want. I realized the purpose of a dragon. A being that no one but the gods could touch. Power surged through my veins and I felt a rapid increase of death energy. This is what it feels like to be a god. Even the weakest dragon in existence could do this? Power, I wanted more power.
I grabbed the remaining two with my free hand and threw all three in my mouth for a blender of bliss. The three screaming subjects cried until the third chew where no more cries could be heard.
"Hop on Meri, We're going back to the cave. I need some sleep."