Damien stared at the carnage around him, the piles of corpses were all that remained of his foe. His entire domain was littered with rotting bodies. All 28 square feet of it. Every time a worm crawled into his domain, he had butchered it. A few more hours had passed since his he finished his rampage and had to settle for the slowly migrating worms to enter his territory, however he had not grown any further. The more he expanded, the stronger his hunger became, and the more he had to devour. As the early dawn light began to trickle through the cave mouth, he stopped to ponder his situation.

As impossible as it had to be, he was a living crystal with the power to subjugate his surroundings. He survived only by draining life from the living, and he had somehow carved out the firmly packed dirt of the hillside without his "body" moving in the slightest. It was a small tunnel, only six inches wide now that he saw it, and the dirt he had moved wasn't a large amount, and yet it was still absurd. As he waited for new victims to enter into his domain, he experimented. Without expending too much energy, he could draw in the dirt with nothing but his force of will. It wasn't that he was thinking about doing it. He had to do it, as if putting his body into motion. It was a strange distinction, one that caused him difficulty at first, but the more he used his "body" the more natural it felt.

He wanted to experiment more, but he was afraid of using too much energy and losing what progress he had made. As he continued to brood, he spotted new victims within his domain. This time, they were flies. They seemed to be attracted to corpses of his prior victims. Grateful for some variety in his dull routine, he pounced on the first. His full power as a mighty butcher of worms completely outclassed this pathetic specimen, and the fly was paralyzed by the onslaught. He drove it down to the ground, and kept it pinned while he siphoned away it's pitiful life. But it was over all too soon. Compared to his usual diet of worms, there was almost no gain from such a small creature. He was about to tear into the second fly to vent some of his frustration, but he saw something that gave him pause.

This other fly was a female. And as he whirled upon the intruder, she was laying eggs in one of his past victims. As he watched, she lay dozens of tiny white eggs within the worm's remains. Damien had a moment of revelation, there was a far, far better way to sate his hunger. One fly wouldn't make much difference, but how about a hundred? Or a thousand? He waited patiently until the fly completed it's business and made to fly away, before he pounced. Bringing it down just as he had her predecessor. She had served her purpose.

As Damien continued his hunt for worms, he began to watch the air above him for his new airborne intruders. By mid day, he had a steady stream of fly customers, perusing his slowly rotting wares. So he continued his careful hunting of his cattle. Males were culled on sight, but the females were free to come and go as they pleased. Until they laid their eggs of course. With the new source of life force, he stretched out his domain even further. He had nearly taken hold of the entire first room floor. As the day wound down to it's close, he felt satisfied with his accomplishment for the first time since he had awoken. It was strange, but he was truly happy with his progress.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As dawn arrived on the second day, the first of the eggs began to hatch. The larvae began to feed on the corpses around them, and Damien had his first dilemma of the new day. How many of his newborn herd to cull? He had no knowledge of the fly's life cycle or the survival rate of the larvae, but he hungered. He didn't want to wait and watch to see for himself. He couldn't wait. Something deep within him knew that he must grow, and quickly. He was in danger. Despite his unease, he knew moderation would be key. His compromise was half. He slaughtered half of all the maggots birthed in his domain.

As the day progressed, he flexed his power. He dug deeper grooves in the ground to experiment, and filled them in again. He gathered the corpses into neat piles, gently carting over those infested with maggots. A maggot had less of his craved life force than an adult fly, but even with a tenth the benefit from each victim, multiplied by the hundreds which emerged every hour it was a prolific harvest. As he watched the surviving prey feed upon their fallen brothers, he noticed something missing today. Very few adults had come to lay their eggs, despite his continuing to drag up new worms that entered his domain. This was a problem, as he didn't know how long his flock would take to mature and begin breeding themselves.

He looked to the entrance, and saw his first rival brazenly flaunting his success at the entrance to the cave. A spider had crafted a web across the narrow entryway to his den. Damien was outraged. These were his cattle! His food! And this meddling arachnid dared to interfere! Damien gathered his power, and rushed through the short tunnel expanding his domain far more aggressively in response to his new foe. He culled maggots by the hundreds to fuel his expansion, leaving only a quarter of the original number to grow. As he reached the entrance, he carefully surrounded his foe. It was a common brown spider, it's web had likely started the day in pristine order, but due to it's monopoly on cave entry, it was a mangled and hastily patched mess with a dozen flies caught in it's trap. Just as Damien was about to sweep down upon his new and most fearsome foe yet, he came to an abrupt halt at the last moment. The flies were dying.

This came as no surprise as the spider was dutifully biting each captive in turn and swaddling them in it's silk. But what shocked Damien was that as each fly slowly expired within his domain, he still gained it's strength. He had assumed he had to be the one to deal the deathblow by forcefully drawing the life from it's body, but obviously this was not the case. Now that he had extended his territory past it, every kill of the spider grew his power.

He continued to watch as the hunter silently waited in the center of it's web. A new fly appeared from the outside world, and drifted into the sticky white silk. Trapped, it began to violently but fruitlessly flail. Almost the same time the fly noticed it was caught, the spider dashed across it's web, and bit down into the crunchy insectoid flesh. Within moments the silk began to entomb to the pitiful fly, and as it slowly died from it's wounds, another trickle of life force joined that of the others. He continued to watch, completely enthralled by this spider's work.

Over the course of the next few hours, he learned a great deal about his powers. First, draining the life force slowly would provide significantly more power than killing the creature outright. Second, anything the spider killed resulted in slightly less power than if he did it himself. He proved this when the spider bit down through the fly's head, killing it instantly. However as he watched closely, he realized that this lost life force wasn't being wasted. He sensed a fraction was being absorbed by the spider itself. At first he was annoyed that the spider was stealing from him, but he considered that it was fair payment for the spider's labors. Damien's final lesson from the spider was that the benefits of his raising flies was not merely limited to devouring their children. Flies attracted predators. And just as the worm's corpses brought flies, he hoped that he could gain from whatever came into his world next.

As the sun passed it's zenith, Damien had a second hard decision to make. This spider was a fine pet, however he couldn't allow for it to block the entrance. Without the female flies reaching the worm cadaver stockpile, he would have no larvae. And the larvae were his greatest source of power at the moment. He could either kill the spider, his first pet, or he could allow his cattle farm to dwindle. After a long moments debate, he realized there was in fact a third option. He widened the entrance of the cave, expanding the mouth to a three foot wide diameter. While an arduous endeavor, this expansion allowed both open air and webbing to share the cave entrance. Next, he widened the now disproportionately narrow tunnel but making it 18 inches wide was the limit of his strength. The rest would have to wait. As he nestled down in his heart to rest, a warm feeling washed over him. His domain had grown.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Each day had brought new shocking revelations, and today would be no different. Overnight, he had finally managed to finish expanding through the walls and ceiling of his cave. Everything inside was his. With his lost territory regained, his domain seemed to... what was the word? Deepen? Condense? Solidify? Whatever it was, the stronger he grew, the more control he had over his territory. He had a more acute sense of the events in the cave, his consciousness seeped deeper into the earth around him, but that was not what fascinated him now. The larvae born yesterday, they were becomming part of him. It was small, but he felt connected to them. He could feel what they felt, and although they could not think, he could feel their simplistic instincts and urges. Their hunger, their pain, their struggle to survive. It was background noise to his own thoughts, but he felt it all the same.

Even more interesting were the larvae being born today, being brought into the world surrounded by his denser aura. From the very moment they were born, they were completely his. The connection was stronger than with their older siblings, but there was no question of who was in control. Their consciousness was merely part of his senses, just as he could feel the dirt and the air within his territory. Despite this connection they were still his cattle, and he continued his practiced genocide. Half of every generation met its demise as soon as they hatched. A vampyric ruby had to eat.

He tried to force his way into the mind of the spider next, but it's mind was either far more complex, or it's position at the front of the cave kept it away from his direct influence. Or both. He had noticed that his power was most concentrated at the deepest recesses of his cave, and therefore the weakest at the entrance, but with each passing hour he grew more powerful. He was sure the spider would soon come under his sway.

Damien experimented with his new found power. He discovered that he was able to direct the youngest larvae. They would crawl wherever he wanted. They would roll, flail, eat, or try and kill each-other at his command. And this discovery brought with it a wave of excitement. He had minions.