Chereads / Teras / Chapter 28 - Voracious

Chapter 28 - Voracious

An old man, his face and hands rough from his many years at working as a farmer heard the sound of his sheepdog barking in the distance, he wiped his foreheard off the accumulated sweat and got up, going to the location of the barking fairly fast for his old age, the barking was very much uncommon and sounded panicked.

As he approached the source of the sound, he noticed that it was coming from inside of the nearby forest, he walked through the vegetation as he approached his dog, in the precipitation, the old man had not paid attention to his sheeps and had thus failed to notice how many were missing.

He got very close to the sound and as he was able to hear it more clearly, he noticed that it seemed like the barks were repeating, as if it was only three or four different barks cycling through each other.

The old man kneeled slightly, picking up what looked like his dog's collar, an old thing made of nothing but rope, the dried blood on it made his fragile heart sink in his chest.

He noticed a large shadow covering his own, the old farmer was paralysed with fear for a few moments, he felt something get close to his nape and then, right beside his ear, he heard another bark before his whole head was crushed inside of the creature's maw.

The monster's mouth changed shape, extending to unimaginable proportions as many tongues tied around the body of the old man, shoving his whole body inside of the monster's stomach.

The monster was grey in color and as soon as it was done shoving its food down its throat, its maw disappeared as if it had never been there, leaving nothing but a blank face.

The monster was nearly six meters tall and had an enormous belly, it possessed dark claws on each of its fingers, it made sure to lick any leftover blood or anything else before walking out of the forest, arriving before the old man's sheep, devouring them as well, swallowing them whole and even eating some alive, the monster didn't seem to be running out of space to put its food as it kept eating, even biting into the wood of the house and eating the grass and flowers, as well as the dirt.

Its appetite was not one that could be quelched, it seemed that it would continue to eat anything but it suddenly stopped, raising its head like a deer hearing the sound of an incoming predator, the monster suddenly turned around and felt something poke into its belly.

"What the-" spoke the beastman who had just thrusted his sword into the monster's soft tissue only for nothing to happen beside the belly being slightly caved in.

With a speed unbefitting of its appearance, the monster took hold of the beastman's head, crushing it, sending one of his eyes flying away, immediately scarfing is body into its digestive system.

The monster didn't care that other of these delicious beings were coming at it for now and it didn't have to as the fat that covered its body deflected every strike thrown at its body, be it slashes, thrusts or blunt damage, everything bounced off.

The monster, after being done with its first dish, turned to the smallest of their group, she seemed like a great appetizer, it raised its arm as it approached her, hearing the sound of someone rushing toward it with lackluster stealth as the man was yelling something.

The monster let the man come to it, as he was about to tackle the creature, its whole body swung open like a jaw, chomping down on the man, making him disappear from view as it was instantly devoured.

The monster was then about to grab its original target but noticed that the rest of its food had decided to run, they must be thinking that it couldn't run very fast but one shouldn't try to judge something by its cover, especially when it came to monster.

The monster planted its claws in the ground, using it as a lever to propel itself into the air, landing right in front of the feeing party, destroying the ground as it did so.

It immediately raised its arms and arched its back forward a bit, its belly opened up, revealing another maw that pulled everything inside of it, the jaw kept expanding soon being large enough to fully encompass a whole elephant, the running food was pulled in to never be seen again.

After it was done with its attack, the landscape had nothing to do with what it was before, the lush green pains had become nothing short of a wasteland, in a large area, all plants and everything with it had been swallowed, leaving the monster on the verge of a precipice.

The monster turned away from its destruction and looked over the horizon, it couldn't see anything but its senses for nourishment were tingling, this place was filled with it.

It was about to walk toward it all but stopped, there was no need to move, the monster repeated the same action as before, its belly opened up and kept on expanding, sucking in more and more things, larger and larger animals, monsters, objects.

It was eating the world and its unending appetite guarranted that it would only stop when there would be nothing left.

Its voracious need for food caused cataclysms, natural disasters, the venerer had surpassed gluttony itself as the whole world was consumed and when nothing was left, the venerer consumed itself, disappearing within itself, its fate unknown to all but a few beings.

The act of eating worlds wasn't as uncommon as one may think as the world eater was always roaming around the cosmos for worlds that couldn't defend against its teeth but for a being within that same world to do it was something that had hardly ever happened yet.

This venerer was one of the few that had accomplished its mission by directly killing the world will or rather, by devouring it.

Its time since its apparition had been incredibly short, the fact that a venerer could be spawned with the power necessary to immediately end a world was astonishing and should by all means, not be permitted by the father or the system or so many thought.

The exception confirms the rule after all.