Once everything cleared, they removed the glowing fruits from the tree. As soon as they did, the tree strangely disappeared from their sight.
"Huh! Where did the tree disappear to?" Raelan asked in confusion while looking at Igor.
Igor found it strange as well; such an odd tree they had never seen before. Then, they looked at the strangely shaped fruits with intricate patterns with curiosity. There were exactly seven of them, precisely one for each of them. Was it just a coincidence or was there an unknown force at play? They didn't know and never thought that deeply about it at that time. However, the intuition they got from the fruits was not bad.
So, they divided the fruits among them. Igor got the bigger one, while Olivia also got her share, even though she didn't contribute much.
Olivia looked at the fruit with fascination; she had never learned about this kind of fruit before. However, she felt very attracted to it, as if it was calling out to her to eat it quickly.
Seeing the others eating their fruits with relaxed expressions, Olivia took a large bite and began to eat it with relish.
As soon as it entered her body, she felt rejuvenated to her core. A tremendous amount of otherworldly energy flowed throughout her body, making every cell vibrant with life. It was cleansing her impurities like shedding old skin.
"Uh, this... this!" She witnessed her transformation with fascination. It completely improved her physique, making her features more prominent. Her skin took on a healthy glow with increased vitality, like a fairy herself. Her body became filled with temptation because of her improved hips, breasts, long sexy eyelashes, alongside her purple hair becoming silvery white. She looked extremely beautiful and hot. It was as if she had achieved the characteristics of a completely new bloodline, a powerful one on top of that.
Not only that, she noticed that her Mana core had also upgraded by a few levels. Her Mana core had upgraded to Purple Core from her initial Green Core. She recalled how rare it was to have a Purple Core, only one in a million.
- White Core
- Yellow Core
- Green Core
- Blue Core
- Red Core
- Purple Core
- Black Core
She couldn't be more astonished. What was that fruit exactly?
"Wow! You have transformed like a fairy, Olivia. Is this the effect of that fruit?" Igor said, feeling genuine fascination. His eyes roamed over her body, finding her really beautiful. His body felt a strange heat once, making him confused. "Is this how a mating partner feels for each other? Does this mean I am attracted to her?" he thought in doubt.
But the fruit's effect really intrigued him. His big fruit was still in his hand. He looked at his Tiger friends who had just finished eating.
They had received completely different transformations. The White Tigers had grown long wings, looking like holy angels.
"Awesome!" Raelan cheered, coming close to Igor. "It's really incredible, Igor. We can now fly with these wings, and we received a new elemental power of Air. The Village Chief will definitely be pleased by this.
Thank you, Igor. Thank you. If you weren't here for us, who knows, we might have missed this opportunity altogether." They said sincerely, as they tried to fly in the air with excitement.
Olivia looked at their shiny white wings in awe, while Igor felt genuine happiness from the bottom of his heart.
"Igor, why don't you eat it? Let's see what you get," his tiger friends said in anticipation.
Olivia looked at the big fruit with mirth, "Such a big fruit, what could it bring?" She also urged Igor to eat it.
At their request, Igor brought his mouth close to the fruit and began to eat it.
And what happened next made everyone witness a true horror they would never forget.
As soon as Igor put it in his mouth, something ancient clicked. It was as if something terrifying was about to awaken at any moment.
"Rumble!" The sky rumbled, the wind howled, and dark clouds gathered, casting a veil of darkness over the sky.
"What's going on?" Seeing the sudden transformation of the sky, the White Tigers began to panic. Olivia looked at everything with horror as Igor's body began to be covered in darkness. But Igor had no idea; he was in some kind of trance as if he was receiving knowledge of something of great importance. As a result, he wasn't able to observe the surroundings.
"Igor! Snap out of it!" Olivia shouted in desperation, her face losing all color.
She wanted to rush forward, but Raelan and the others stopped her out of precaution.
Igor could faintly hear Olivia's desperate voice, so as soon as he received the knowledge he was given, he regained his consciousness.
As he did so, immense pain flooded his mind as if his soul was being remolded.
"Ah!" he shouted, veins forming on his forehead. His darkened form became covered with some red patterns over his skin.
He felt immense hunger and unconsciously opened his mouth, imagining he was eating something.
Only then did the true horror begin.
His mouth turned into a dark suction void, like a small black hole. The small black hole began to suck everything around him.
"Human, get out of the way!" Raelan shouted, seeing the situation turning dire.
Olivia cried out, "But, but, what about Igor? Save him!"
In response, Raelan also shouted in panic, "Save him? How? We don't know if we would be able to save ourselves from that strange thing. It's devouring everything, even the trees and small animals!"
"Then call someone for help! What are you doing just standing here?" Olivia cried out, her tears falling nonstop. She didn't even realize she cared for a stranger she barely knew yesterday. Olivia was very emotional, so seeing someone dear to her getting hurt upset her greatly.
However, no one noticed that they could communicate with each other now. The rising crisis and panic caused them to cast it away for now.
As Igor began to devour everything, the entity or the ability began to awaken completely. By now, he had devoured a lot of trees, small animals, and even the air itself.
Not getting enough energy from what he had, Igor directed his ability toward the ground.
Instantly, the soil scattered and began to be sucked into his mouth by the devouring force.
After a while, the beautiful dense forest turned hellish, casting a red ominous aura over the sky as well.
As time passed, the ground area turned into a deep lake of emptiness, nearly 50 meters deep. That means he devoured all that mass all by himself.
But Igor was not in control. He could only helplessly stare at the destruction below as he floated in the air in his red and dark form. He began to feel immense sadness and guilt, realizing he had destroyed all the innocent trees nearby, along with small animals.
He also wondered why it was happening, but he was helpless to stop it. He watched all the destruction with tears falling from his eyes one after another.
"I am sorry, everyone! Please forgive me!" As someone who grew up in the forest, he felt remorseful, feeling their misery as they got devoured by his ability and destroyed the sanctuary he held dear.