Rise of the Devourer

Chapter 19: Who's the best ungendered parasite? Yes, you are!

Tony was born not that long ago. Before now, before it had become Tony and gained a name it had not truly existed. It’s home was dark. Really really dark. Light did not exist in Tony’s home, and neither did time. It knew it existed, but sometimes it was hard to tell. It was a lot like sleeping, but permanently. With no sensations or feelings to distinguish existence from non-existence now.

And it was boring.

The big-scary-god did not like Tony thinking that. Creatures of the dark and void were not supposed to be bored. But Tony could not help it. There was literally nothing to do.

The only thing that differentiated Tony’s not-really-existence in the unmoving endless dark had been the other creatures of the Void.

Some of them, unlike Tony, moved around. And very rarely, they bumped into Tony, and it was magical!

The last time he had been awake, a much bigger void creature had passed by, almost eating Tony, and that was the most sensation he’d ever felt! It was almost enough for Tony to let itself be eaten, just to be able to experience what that may feel like.

But Tony had held off.

Because Tony knew. There were things outside the endless-dark.

Unlike most of the sleeping creatures of Tony’s home, the big moving things were restless. They ate other creatures, and moved in the dark, as if aching the loss of something painful. They were always hungry, no matter what they did, and always aching to go back, as if they couldn’t bear to be in their home anymore. Tony agreed. Their home was really boring.

One day, as Tony had bumped into another big void thing, and almost gotten eaten again (exciting!) it had wondered what made them so hungry. And curiously, it had bit into big creature. Well, bit was a lie. Nothing really existed in the dark, but Tony had taken a metaphorical not-bite. And it had eaten life from them. That was the first time Tony had truly felt something. It had fulfilled a sensation it had been born with, and never knew could be fulfilled or lost.

Hunger.

But that time, it had felt less hungry, and it was the best thing Tony had ever experienced. There was no comparison. No coming back. Tony’s life had changed the moment it had eaten, and it understood why these creatures moved so restlessly.

You could not suffer the hunger after you had satiated it once.

That was the day Tony grew afraid of death. Before that point, death was quite close to its home. Just more permanent in its non existence.

But now? Death meant losing on the chance to maybe one day eat this again. To feel sensations.

No. Never. It could not allow that. And so it had been waiting patiently.

It was hard.

Very hard.

An eternity of darkness and nothingness was really boring to wait through.

But Tony had held on, and on and on and on. Sometimes it would move a little, to try and intentionally come in the path of the big void creatures to get a taste again. But most of the times, it would just sit still. Waiting.

And it worked. After void knows how long, Tony heard a voice. A voice! It had never heard a voice before. It didn’t even know what sound was until then. But it had called out, offering life!

Tony had rushed. Every creature nearby around him, the entire summation of void summons had moved, trying to reach out to the voice. But there had been a barrier. The voice only wanted some kinds of void creatures, and not others. Tony had not cared, simply rushing through, and the barrier had allowed him to pass.

Briefly, it had sensed the hunger as every other void thing behind him ravenously bit at the barrier to pass through as well, and felt some pity. But not for long. Not for long at all.

Tony had been sucked into the voice, as it had said all sorts of stuff to Tony. Don’t eat everything. Don’t destroy everything. Don’t be bad. Listen to Master. Master is priority. Accept every command.

Tony had heard every word inside it, memorising it by heart. It did not matter what the voice asked. If Tony could feel that sensation again? It would do it instantly.

And as Tony had been sucked out of the void, a lot like being pulled through a viscous shell that covered it on all sides, the world had expanded.

Tony had felt things. So, so so many things. Air, ground, vibrations, the scent of life on every corner of this place, the magic that tied it to its master. It’s master’s mind, mana, dirt. It could eat, it could feel, it could sense, it could hear, it could think.

For the longest second, Tony had felt frozen. It was so much. Too much. It could not think.

Then the spell had kicked in.

It had moved Tony, automatically, and given it form. For the first time in Tony’s life, Tony had a body. An actual body that could touch thing. But that wasn’t the end of it. Far from it. Before Tony could even marvel and wiggle in joy at existing, it felt the master ask it to move into a body. And so it had. The wave of life had almost knocked Tony out.

Tony had felt drowned. The hunger was screaming at it now, screaming to eat through everything until nothing was left. It wanted to eat, it wanted to eat so much that it felt more anguish than the eternal void had ever made it feel. But it could not. Not yet. And so, despite the pain, it waited.

Then the spell told it to get a name.

Tony did not know what a Name was. And so it thought about asking its master.

The master, apparently knew, and after thinking for some time, not for very long, he had given Tony its name.

And thus, Tony was born.

Tony wiggled in joy, as its master had picked it up, and then told Tony to say ‘hi’. Tony did not know what ‘hi’ was, but it could not refuse. The spell would’ve sent it back to the void if Tony had, and the mere thought made Tonyshiver with dream. NOPE.

And so Tony did its best, and moved partly outside, and wiggled a little. That seemed to have worked, and Tony felt happy again.

It had done a good job. Right?

The master didn’t understand Tony’s question, but Tony didn’t feel undeterred. It would’ve been impossible to.

But Tony’s tasks were only beginning. The master told Tony that his life-flesh-full-of-blood thing needed to be attached back. The spell immediately flooded Tony with information about how exactly the flesh-thing, a hand, worked.

Tony felt a rush of joy. It had a job now. The first job his master had asked of it. There was no way Tony could mess this up.

And so Tony dug in, burring through the flesh till it found the nerves. Tony didn’t quite understand how it knew what to do, but it knew what to do. Probably because it was the most awesome Tony there ever was.

Attaching itself to the nerves, Tony began to flood it with its magic. The void ate things, it destroyed things, so Tony had to be delicate. There were not-good poison things inside the arm too, and Tony quickly sucked them up and stored them in a separate location away from the blood vessels, before isolating them.

Good. The nasty stuff was gone. Now Tony could begin the real work.

The first thing that needed to be done were the bones, muscles, tendons and everything else. Tony let its body dissipate throughout the arm, flowing seemlesly across it using the blood vessels to the various locations, before it began to create flesh from its own body to attach itself to the disconnected stump.

Black flesh and muscles grew from the inside as the arm began to reconnect with the goop, and Tony made sure everything was placed correctly. After the muscles were done, Tony began to reconnect the nerves. This was the easiest, since the nerves were the part Tony was physically the most connected to as well. He grew the nerves out, letting them trace back their destroyed areas, as new cells grew and began to join.

Good. Very good. Now the last step.

Tony moved out of the blood vessels, and into the muscles, before slowly, and carefully, it began to connect them back. The task was tricky, and Tony had to move carefully to not mess up anything. If there was any gaps or leaks, the blood would flow out everywhere, or air could get in and that would be bad. Very bad. And if he did a bad job, Master may send it back.

No, no that was not allowed.

And so Tony focused, more than it had ever focused. And slowly, after making sure everything was in place he let the blood flow in.

Tony’s mind exploded.

Life. TherewassomuchofLIFE.

Tony wanted to scream, instead, it satisfied itself by vibrating and shaking uncontrollably as life energy flooded it. For a small moment, Tony forgot everything it was doing and just began to eat. If Tony could drool right now, it would be flooding saliva through the arteries, but that would be bad. And Tony wasn't bad. Neither was Tony sloppy.

The blood was delicious. More delicious than anything Tony had ever eaten in its entire life. Which may not be much, but Tony knew that there was nothing that could possibly taste better than this. Because if there was, eating that may very well kill Tony from sheer joy.

Which was bad. Because Tony wanted to stay.

After a few moments, as Tony finally snapped out of its daze. It had grown a lot as it had fed on the blood mindlessly, and now its body was large enough to fill the entire arm. Tony wanted to climb up above the body, but the Master had said no, and with this delicious blood on offer, Tony would not try to even risk angering its master.

So it spread itself through the arm, still drinking in the blood, and continued to grow. Then, there was a moment, a strange odd moment that was just another new experience of the many, but this one was odd.

Tony felt full.

Tony had never felt full.

Everything felt… wrong. The hunger had been constant in the void, a part of eternal existence that tied Tony. But now, it felt calm. Like he had finally satisfied it for now. Tony had never felt like this.

It was satisfied. Content.

But there was no time to linger, more work was still needed to be done.

Tony guided the blood flow through the arteries, and veins, letting the life blood heal through the damage that had happened. The nerves began to work and Tony now could sense the sensations its master was feeling. It hurt. It hurt a lot. But Tony was worried it had messed up for a while. But its master did not tell it to stop, but rather, sent a sensation of pleasure towards it.

I… did good?

Tony couldn’t convey the thought. It didn’t know words. But it shivered in joy nonetheless. It was doing a good job!

Continuing with increased enthusiasm, Tony continued to tie every string of muscle, tendon, nerves, skin and all that it could find. Normally it would be hijacking the nerves and leaving unnecessary body parts to die, but that was clearly not what its master wished. And so Tony would do better.

Everything began to heal quickly from the life-rich blood, and Tony watched the arm begin to recover. The only location that was not healing was where Tony had stored all the not-bad poison. Which was not-good.

Tony tried to think of a solution. Putting it in blood was bad. Master would get sick, and that was very bad. So not that.

Thinking of a solution, Tony created a separate gland. It took dead cells and materials that were being removed and used them to create a pocket that it filled with the not bad stuff, allowing it to come from near the fingers. It would keep the not-bad stuff inside a pocket of dead stuff, preventing it from coming out.

Good.

At this point, Tony’s job was mostly done. It just had to watch and the arm would grow back to normal as it used to be again. This was a good job. A job well done. It had done the best, and surely its master would be pleased to have the arm back. That was what the master had asked of it after all.

But Tony felt unhappy. If this had been a regular corpse, Tony would've sharpened the nerves, heightened its senses, accelerated the musculature. It would've not just fixed the body. It would improve it. Though obviously not for the host. Because they would be dead.

But. Why couldn't it do that now. Why not do the very same thing to its current host, even if it may be a partial one?

And so Tony began. The skin began to form, as the parasite dissipated itself into the bloodstream, breaking into smaller and smaller parts. It fused with the blood streams and bones, modifying the cells within the arms to be better. Stronger.

The arm began to morph, the muscles shifting. Bone grew rapidly as claws formed from the jutting arm. Tough skin grew on top of it, and Tony moved the little glands near the claws to secrete the not poison stuff.

The arm began to mutate, and Tony adapted and grew, as more instincts and knowledge meshed, guiding it to a form superior to what it had been like before. As Tony’s energy faded, and the arm settled down, Tony vibrated one last time, feeling satisfied. The job was finished.

I did good? Master is happy?

Unfortunately for Tony, his master could not understand or hear Tony's thoughts. Not yet. And so Tony merely vibrated, before letting itself drift off to sleep. It would need time to digest all of this, and so it would return to non-existence for just a small while, even though it did not want to. As Tony drifted off, the little parasite vibrated one last time, feeling pleased with itself.

Today was the best day ever.

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