“...There were other incidents when the...Devourer came out from Talia, right? You talked about something like this yesterday.” Lord’s face immediately changed to bitter. He had been too excited to see someone wielding the Radiant Bell so well that his tongue had slipped. Nevertheless, he answered.

“Yes, at least once more and surely twice. The second time was during a decisive fight against the Energy Eaters known as Angels in the world Orius. The third time might have been against the evil being that took a step to transcendence. I have footages about the former, but they are really violent so I can’t really show it to you.” Sanya was not averting her gaze.

“Please, show me.”

“No, I really can’t. This was a brutal fight. It was the final fight before the end of the World Stabilisation. It is at this moment that the Energy Eaters are the most dangerous and numerous. It’s also called the fight that decides the fate of a world. We sent Protectors over the world, and Talia’s group ended against a Seraphin, a Master, near Grandmaster class monster and its army of angels. Their battle was a bloodbath. There were bodies of angels and people from the world everywhere. In the end, the Devourer literally ate the Seraphin.” Sanya imagined the scene. It sounded very gruesome, but she was still not giving up. She stood up with a brave face.

“Please, I have to see this. The moment I decided to tell my feeling to her, I prepared myself to stand next to her! No matter what she went through. If I don’t have the courage to see it now, I will never.”

Lord scratched his head with his eyes closed for a moment before sighing in defeat. “Ahh, Talia will definitely kill me if she knows about this. Fine, I will show you, but immediately stop me if it’s too much.”

“I understand. Thank you.”

A screen appeared in front of Sanya. It was showing a chaotic battlefield. The scene was taking place in green plains with big rocks sprouting from the ground. There was an army of about 10 000 humans in futuristic battle suits. Streams of silver light were coming from their body to the firearms that they carrying. Some were also inside grey-colored 3-meter tall exoskeletons armed with heavy weaponry. The humans were shouting something like energy blasts at a larger group of other humanoid beings that were flying around them.

They were as tall a normal human, but some differences were present. Their arms were longer and finished in 3 vicious looking long claws. Most of them had 2 or 4 wings on their back, making them capable of flying. Some had up to 8 wings. A crimson tattoo-like thing was on their bare back. The engraving was linked to the neck and the arms by crimson lines. These beings were fighting back against the human attack. Flashes of fire, strikes of purple plasma and other supernatural attacks struck the human army, resulting in many casualties. However, many angels were also falling from the sky. War cries resonated throughout the field.

Fighting alongside the humans were 2 special individuals. One was a giant of around 5 meters tall. He was very massive with bulging muscles. He had a giant double-edged ax in each hand. His battle suit was slightly similar to Talia’s. The other person was a cat-eared woman. She had ash colored long hair and tail. She seemed in her late teens. Two very long pistols were in her hands. Each pistol had a violet crystal embedded in it, providing energy. Laser blasts were coming out of the muzzles.

The giant’s face was bitter in front of the situation. “Nu Ly! I can’t reach them.”

The cat girl replied without leaving her vertically slitted eyes from her preys.”Don’t complain to me, you useless mass of muscles. I’m already mad enough at being unable to be beside Croz. If you are so bored, you can go help Talia and the others. If we eliminate the Seraphin, it would be easier to deal with headless chicken.”

The giant nodded with an expressionless face even after being insulted. He seemed used to this. He looked in the direction where another important battle was happening. However, his eyes opened wide in surprise. “...Little Talia?”

Hundreds of meters from there. A giant angel was hovering in the sky. From its build, one could tell that it was a male. He was similar to the other angels, except for some details. He was a lot taller with a height of more than 15 meters. He had countless pairs of wings attached to his back. His Angel Exo-Skill was golden orange in color. The rotating triangles around the hollow circle were slow. An angel looked a lot like a human, but they lacked the display of emotions on their face. The only thing that they seemed interested in was to kill.

Hundreds of red spears were circling around the Seraphin. They were all controlled by him. Outside of the zone covered by spears was a group of 3 people. There was another cat girl who was very similar, like a twin of Nu Ly. She looked with frowned eyebrows at her two comrades 3 meters from her. “...What is going on with Talia?”

A thirty-something-year-old human man with two swords on his waist was kneeling down with a clueless face. “Dunno! She started sweating and breathing heavily when the Seraphin appeared.”

He looked at Talia who was just beside him. Her mouth was wide open to inhale air as much as possible. She was kneeling down with her hands on the ground. Her untied blue hair was covering her face.

The man on her side was about to talk when a red spear landed just a meter from him, causing the air to be split. He gritted his teeth and grabbed Talia. “Talia! It’s not time to have an existential crisis! There is a goddam Seraphin that want to kill us! Nu Ly, or is it Nu La? Anyways, come-”

“...Get out of there.” The man was yelling in the direction of the cat girl when he heard the blue haired girl's shaky voice. He was about to speak up in doubt when he saw something that he had never seen before.

Talia’s blue hair was rising and shining. A dark mist started to appear from out of thin air. The man was looking at this in wonder. However, a shout woke him up. “Get away from her!”

The cat girl had her eyes wide open when she saw the black mist. She rushed up toward the man and grabbed him. Then, she retreated a hundred of meters from their initial point in a flash. When they stopped, the man broke free and yelled in anger. “The hell you are doing?! We can’t let Talia alone there!”

He was about to go back save Talia from the incoming Seraphin when he saw a shocking scene. The quantity of dark mist kept rising until it covered an area of dozens of meters in radius. The Seraphin was looking at this with an expressionless face, but the rotation speed of the spears rose up, splitting the air. All of sudden, three spears were sent flying in the immobile Talia’s direction. The spears broke the sound barrier. Nothing seemed to be able to stop them!

After a short time, there were only ten meters between the spears and Talia. They had entered the zone covered in dark mist, but they were still unstoppable. The man gritted his teeth and gripped his sword handles. However, an earth-splitting shout shook the place. Talia lifted one of her shaky hand toward the incoming deadly spears. Like it was under her commands, the dark mist condensed, forming a floating giant clawed arm. The moment her hand closed, the monstrous black arm grabbed the spears, stopping their supersonic attack. The raging battle paused as silence fell.

The only audible thing was Talia’s heavy breathing. She then lifted her body and opened her hand, making the bent spears fell on the ground. The spears were strong enough to resist the air pressure, but they were nothing in front of the massive arm strength. Talia's face distorted by rage was visible through her messy hair. Her eyes were glued to her prey, the Seraphin.

The Seraphin seemed to have noticed a possible threat. He sent a part of his numerous amount of spears slicing toward Talia’s body, trying to kill her. The dark mist continued to appear around Talia. It then quickly attached itself to the existing arm. The body of the Devourer was morphing with Talia in the center. Walls of scorching lava erupted from the ground, blocking the spears. The walls encircled Talia and the dark mist.

When the walls had fallen, a ten-meter tall Devourer was looking with madness at the Seraphin through its three blue eyes. Another pair of horns were on top of its head. Two other arms had grown on the side of the body. The beast was looking with hunger at its prey. Its apparition caused fear to spread on the battlefield. It was now rushing toward the hovering prey.

The Seraphin sent most of his spears to try to kill the Devourer. However, a giant sword made of fire appeared in the creature hand. Each time a spear was near it, it would slice it in two with the burning sword. However, some of the spears still pierced the body of the Devourer. But, they would just pass through and the hole would immediately close itself. There was just the region in the middle of the chest that it tried to protect no matter what. The Devourer was unstoppable. The wind was blowing due to the massive moving body. The Seraphin extended its arm in the dark creature’s direction. The hollowed circle and triangles on his back rotated faster and faster.

However, nothing happened. The beast was not stopping. The Seraphin was flapping its wings, trying to keep the distance. Seeing it, the Devourer launched its fire sword. The lump of fire was like a rising comet, piercing the sky and reaching the Seraphin in a split of a second. The sword pierced the abdomen, leaving him no time to dodge. A distorted cry resonated. It was a mix of a woman and a man voice.The sword vanished into the air, but the Seraphin was falling due to the injury. he hit the ground and created a crater and shockwaves because of his enormous mass. He started to crawl in hope of escaping the imminent death. However, a spike went through his back.

*

Another cry was heard. The Devourer was standing on top of the Seraphin, it spiked tail inside his body. It lifted the bleeding body in a calm way. Blood was gushing out of the big wound. It then grabbed the wings with two of its hands and the rest of the body with the other two hands. The Seraphin was trying to break free in a panicked state. His physical strength was not even close to the beast. This Seraphin was strong due to his powerful Angel Exo-Skill. But, it seemed useless against his enemy. Nevertheless, the rest of the spears was sent flying toward the Devourer, but none of them succeeded in stopping it. The Devourer put strength in its actions. The wings began to be torn apart. Sounds of breaking bones, ripping flesh and wailing could be heard.

When the countless wings had all been separated from their owner, the beast grabbed the Seraphin’s arms with two arms. The long tail circled around the waist. Finally, one clawed hand was placed on the right shoulder and the last one grabbed the head. The Seraphin felt the intense bloodlust coming from behind him. Tears of blood were running down his face. Cries for mercy were coming out from his mouth. However, all of this was useless.

The Devourer tensed its muscles and the body was ripped into three pieces. A pool of blood was forming on the ground. The jaws of the beast opened wide with excitation. It then started to eat the still warm body. Munching sounds of meat being eaten were audible. The beast was not holding back in front of the feast.

The angels, people from the world and Protectors were all silent. Fear was the sole emotion that they could feel. None of them dared to disturb the meal of the creature that just took down a near Grandmaster class being.

When they were only pieces of body here and there, the Devourer settled down. Suddenly, intense light was coming from its back. Something was being engraved on it. It was a deep blue hollow circle with 6 blue colored triangles rotating in a calm way around the circle. Lines were spreading from the circle to the neck and the shoulders. The Devourer raised its head and a howl ripped the air. The body was disappearing in the form of a dark mist. The only trace of the being was the unconscious Talia that landed on the blood-soaked ground. A blue Angel Exo-Skill was engraved on her back.

*

Sanya put her hand on her mouth as she tried hard to not vomit. The moment the fight had finished, she had quickly averted her eyes. She was holding her chair as a support. Sweats were covering her face and tears were in the corners of her eyes.

Lord closed his eyes in a pained face. ‘...She is trying too hard. I understand that she wants to see what happened, but if she continues like this, she will turn insane.’

He clapped his hands once and a small spatial tear opened in the room. Sanya focused on this with a questioning face. After a second, a silver box passed through and landed in her hands. She opened the box and raised her head with her eyebrows frowned. Lord explained. “Talia should not have detected this spatial deformation, I hope. Inside is a bag of Uhol tea leaves. There are very good to calm and relax. You should drink it tonight before sleeping.”

Sanya was looking at the jade-colored bag for a moment before nodding. She then took out a small device that was also inside the box. It was a thin transparent card. “This is a new communicator that I created. With this, you can contact me if the Devourer appear. I can’t always keep an eye on Talia, so I need someone that cares about her to stay on alert and contact me if needed.”

Sanya was looking deeply at the small device. Her face turned serious. “...Is there a chance that the Devourer will once again appear? Does Talia have no control over it?”

Lord held his chin. “From what I understand, the Devourer only appeared when she reached a bottleneck in her evolution. Each time she absorbed a power, it was to open new doors and resume her journey to the peak of strength. There is also the fact that it is growing after each apparition. If I am correct, the last time it appeared was when she killed the evil being. After the fight, the dark mist was trying to eat the curse that was hurting her body. She was most likely the one that was controlling the mist at this moment. So, she should have some kind of control over it. But, the thing that I am the most worried is that she reached the peak of mortals.”

Sanya tilted her head for a moment, before opening her eyes wide. “...You mean that if she fights against a being or she is near something that could provide what she needs to become a transcendent, the Devourer could appear?”

Lord nodded his head in a grave tone. “Yes and I don’t think she would be able to control it at this moment. Luckily, I don’t think that there is a lot of beings on earth that would fit the criteria.”

Sanya was silent for a moment. Her fingertips were caressing the cold metal box. ‘...No, it is not cold. It’s just that there a transfer of heat.’

Her lover’s smiling face appeared on her mind. She raised her head with a resolute expression. “I understand. I will directly contact you if I even see something strange. I also think I should not tell Talia about this, right?”

A smile was on Lord’s face. “I believe in you. Yes, telling her might cause further bads than goods. But, don’t worry. There will be a time when I will tell her myself and take full responsibility if needed. I shall let you rest now. Have a good night.”

The Astral Projection vanished, leaving Sanya alone in the room with complex feelings. She looked at the bag with tea leaves inside. “Mom is asleep. I have to be very quiet.”

--------------------------------------

The next morning.

The alarm clock was slammed by Sanya’s hand. She took a few seconds before sitting up. Her eyes were cloudy and it seemed she had not slept a lot last night. She rubbed her face as she got up. “...It seems the tea doesn’t help against bad dreams.”

After a slow morning routine, Sanya was in front of her door. She froze when she saw Talia eating sweets. Unlike the previous days, the sun rays were raising the temperature quite high. Talia’s sweet smile was illuminated.

Sanya recalled the monstrous Devourer tearing apart the Seraphin and eating it. Her face was expressionless as she approached her. “Hi, Sanya...W-Wait, what?”

Sanya was holding Talia’s cheeks with her face brought close due to the fact that she was on her tiptoes. Her intense stare was looking deep into Talia’s eyes. Talia’s cheeks became redder and redder, however Sanya was not noticing it.

‘...This is Talia.” In the end, Sanya closed her eyes and kissed Talia once on the lips. She then grabbed her hand and smiled with a blooming smile. “Hi, Talia. Should we go?”