Kneel to your King

Flesh. Bone. Blood. A feast of raw essence lay before the creature, broken, scattered, yet teeming with the lingering traces of mana, blood, and soul. The moment the torn sinew touched its tongue, something deep within its fractured being reacted.

A violent pulse rippled through its unstable form, like a dying ember rekindling itself in the heart of an inferno. The creature shuddered, its jagged body lurching forward as it devoured another chunk, then another.

The corpses of the fallen beasts, their lifeblood spilled uselessly into the dirt, belonged to it now. Each bite stitched together the cracks in its existence. Each swallow filled the void of stolen essence even if it was just a tiny minuscule bit.

The pain of incompleteness remained, festering like an open wound, but this… this was a start.

Hissssss…

This wasn't enough. It needed more. A lot more.

Hissssss… It seethed in anger, reaching out to its slaves. Lesser mindless beasts who were born to serve divine beings such as itself. 

As the first green pit snake slithered into the cavern, the creature willed it to come closer and then without any mercy chomped down on the snake. This tasted a lot better than the rotting corpses. Fresh. Pulsing with vitality. A direct source of raw essence.

More. It needed more. Its gaze flickered to its next slave when abruptly something blasphemous blocked its vision.

[Ding! You have killed a Green pit snake]

[Ding! You have leveled up]

[Lvl 1 > Lvl 2]

[Ding! You have gained 20 free attribute points]

[Ding! Error. Class Selection not possible]

[Ding! Error. Skill Selection not possible]

[Ding! Racial Skill available]

[Ding! You have learned Myriad Tongues]

[Myriad Tongues: A racial skill that grants the user the ability to comprehend and communicate in all languages, including spoken, written, and mental transmissions. This skill extends to lesser beasts, eldritch tongues, and even ancient dialects lost to time.]

The creature froze mid-bite. What sorcery is this? It could feel a strand of mixed essence entering its body gently nourishing it. Before it could savor this moment, a bolt of energy struck its mind. The next instant a vast amount of knowledge poured into its fractured mind.

It wasn't just words. It was understanding.

A tide of unfamiliar sounds, symbols, and meanings crashed into its awareness like a flood breaking through a dam. Concepts it had never grasped before—hierarchy, communication, command—embedded themselves into the very fabric of its being.

The creature winced in pain. But all of a sudden, it could understand what the humans who were stealing from it were talking about. This world was interesting, a little different from its ancestral world. Maybe even suitable to become a temporary stepping stone for a divine being.

It turned its gaze to the next pit snake, its forked tongue flickering. The creature did not move. It did not need to. Instead, it spoke—not in human words, not in any sound bound by mortal tongues, but in the essence of command.

"Come."

The snake twitched violently, its muscles spasming as its instincts fought against something greater. It resisted. For a mere breath. And then— It obeyed.

The pit snake slithered forward, unblinking, unmoving, its body surrendering itself without protest. It was no longer a beast acting of its own will. It was property.

The creature opened its maw, inhaling deeply as it consumed. The moment flesh hit its tongue, a new pulse of raw energy surged through its veins. Power. The feeling was indescribable—intoxicating. Unlike the decayed corpses, this was pure, living vitality. A direct channel of essence.

[Ding! You have killed a Green pit snake]

[Ding! You have leveled up]

[Lvl 2 > Lvl 3]

[Ding! You have gained 20 free attribute points]

The creature stared at the familiar message that flashed in front of its face again.

More.

It needed more.

The creature's gaze flickered toward the others at the edges of the cavern—lesser beasts, weak and trembling, trapped between the instincts to flee and the incomprehensible compulsion to obey. The forked tongue flicked again.

"Kneel to your king."

One by one, the creatures lowered themselves. A rattling hiss rumbled deep within the creature's chest. It was weak now. Incomplete. But the path to wholeness had become clear. It would feast. It would consume. It would build itself anew.

And then, it would hunt.

It would find the thief.

And it would take back everything.