Chapter 540: Demands (1/2)

Before the pain could completely subside, Aiden sprung into action once more. He struck down, grabbing two sides of the gaping hole inside the deceased striped skink's chest and by slowly increasing the amount of strength he exerted, Aiden began to tear the entire torso apart.

The eerie sound of bones crunching and flesh being torn to pieces filled the insides of the still active, albeit waning insides of the energy bubble. If the rest of the team could see the gruesome scene they would most likely be horrified, or even worse utterly terrified of their beloved leader's current sight.

At the side close to the underground jail cell's exit, but still inside the grounds of the creature's closed-off energy barrier, a pile of mangled flesh, barely recognizable as the strange arrogant skink could be seen. His robe was nowhere to be seen, as Aiden made sure to take it off the figure before he lost himself in his primal urges.

Although there was a large, bloodied, gaping hole at its center, it was still usable. It could still serve its newly designated purpose, thus Aiden made sure to transfer it to his inventory next to the creature's Tier 1 ranked core.

After that, he spent the next couple of minutes to engorge in a horrific feast as he took his time ripping the creature apart limb by limb. Still, though he was focused on processing all of the creatures as fast as he could, it still took him too long. The barrier was visibly thinning, barely holding on by this point.

Heaving a sigh, Aiden did his best to increase the pace. Still, maybe because of his restored memories of the previous life, or perhaps due to his time spent amongst civilization, he found it difficult to strip away all the human-like instincts and disgust he felt.

Though he knew it wasn't the case, he couldn't help thinking that absorbing the flesh of a humanoid creature was cannibalistic, something against the laws of nature itself. Every piece of flesh cost him a considerable amount of willpower to wrestle through.

This slowed him down by a considerable deal, not to mention that albeit he tried to hurry it, he still couldn't completely forgo trying to chew each piece of flesh, bone, or organ that he gobbled up.

Thus he found himself losing race against time. If he wanted his plan to work, if he wanted to somehow fool these lowly reptilian races, he needed to push through this very first obstacle and finish off this sudden meal without leaving any traces.

…

'This is pointless… I will never finish before this barrier loses its power…' Aiden muttered with a frown, looking at the barely holding barrier whilst he tore another handful of meat from the mangled, mutilated, headless corpse lying in front of him.

'This idea wasn't feasible after all…' He sighed, biting into the next piece. He hastily chomped down on the mouthful of the deceased skink and with an audible gulp, he pushed it down only to feel it being turned into its building blocks and absorbed by his body in the next instant.

As the piece vanished in the endless abyss of what his body truly was, he shook his head whilst reaching for yet another fist-sized piece.

'Do I really need to completely exterminate a native race for such a whimsical reason?!' He lamented. Truth be told, he really didn't want to result in such an action, and not just because of the threat of this looming, overbearing omnipresence he felt all the time.

-

No. An action like that would be way too excessive, not to mention dark. Power wouldn't give him the right to decide the fate of the entire race, be it hostile, or not. Yes, he did seek to further his knowledge, but that was only to further understand his current situation. He had no desire to be the cause of the demise of an entire species, nor did he felt he had the right to do such a thing.

He merely wanted to learn more. To get to know not just about what these creatures truly were, but also what this powerful entity was and what connection he or she had with these skinks. Also, to understand why did his core react in such a strange manner to his or her presence.