Chapter 67: Was It Just A Nightmare? (1/2)

But no matter how loudly he shouted, no voice other than frightening growls and roars escaped from his mouth.

He couldn't even understand how he could even let out such hair-raising roars. Even he himself felt his soul shaken by hearing it.

If it were anyone else, he was sure they would have peed on the spot. But he slowly realized that he was starting to lose control over his own emotions and instead was feeling more hungry, angrier, and most of all, intense bloodthirst that seemed to cloud his senses.

Within just a short while, all he felt was primal hunger in the depths of his soul, wanting to only kill and devour.

And seeing his claws tearing through the Jawfiends, his rage and killing intent only seemed to skyrocket.

'I have to kill...kill them all...devour their hearts...devour everything!'

The more pranic hearts he devoured, the more his thirst and rage were becoming feverish. Even his mouth couldn't stop salivating after relishing the taste of the hearts he devoured.

It was as if the more he devoured, the hungrier he was becoming, thirsting to shed and devour even more blood.

Soon he felt like he was becoming one with whatever he was right now; his thoughts and actions all coming into sync as if his consciousness was merging together.

”Ari!”

But suddenly, Mei's voice entered his ears, disrupting his consciousness to again split into two and regaining some clarity of mind in the process.

'What the hell am I doing??' Arion's heart thudded against his chest when he realized that he had almost started to think like a monster, feel like a monster, and most of all, he felt like he was about to become one for real.

The scenes before him suddenly started to dissolve as his thoughts became chaotic, and all he wanted was to let this nightmare end.

”Ari! What..are you doing?”

He heard Mei's voice again, which made him suddenly regain some control of his consciousness and opened his eyes, only to receive the shock of his life to see that he was trying to strangle Mei while sitting atop her!

Mei was holding off his hands, but he seemed to be applying intense strength to grab her neck involuntarily.

Arion was horrified, and he quickly jumped back, his eyes still rippling with shock and panic. He looked at his own hands to make sure they were his, and indeed they were looking human, like his own hands and not the terrifying claws and limbs he saw earlier.

Mei got up immediately with a shocked expression as she asked worriedly, ”Ari...are you okay? Why were you trying....”

”No! It isn't me...it isn't….” Arion mumbled as he clutched his head, his mind full of chaotic thoughts.

Then as he took a glance at Mei, he saw how there was a reddened mark around her neck, which meant that he must have taken her by surprise at first with all his strength before she was able to pull back his hands.

Seeing it made him feel intense guilt and anger at himself for doing something that was the last thing he would ever do.

Mei slowly came forward without saying anything but the worry in her heart was showing up on her face, not understanding what was going on with him.

She could see that Arion probably wasn't even conscious when he tried to strangle her, but that also confused her since he never did anything like this before and wondered if he had a bad dream.

And the most surprising thing was she felt his strength skyrocketing for a brief moment and wondered if it was just her imagination.

”No, don't come near me!” Arion saw Mei approaching and gestured her to stay away while he stumbled back, only to have his back hit against the wall.

Right now, he was afraid of himself, wondering whether he might 'attack' her again. He was quite shaken by what he saw in his nightmare and couldn't help but wonder if the things he saw came true in front of Mei, wouldn't he hurt her for sure?

'Am I really a monster?' Knowing about his bloodline and Devour Aspect, Arion couldn't help but come to that conclusion which made his muscles stiff just by thinking about it.

Suddenly, a hand gently grabbed his wrist and said, ”Ari, it's okay. It was just a bad dream. I understand.”

Arion wanted to tell her to move away from him but feeling her gentle touch and soothing voice, he couldn't find the heart to move his mouth.