*Content Warning: This chapter contains mature themes, violence, blood, and morally dark actions. Reader discretion advised.*
***
Kevin paused, staring at the system window with a disappointed look.
"Well, is that so? I guess I have no choice then—I have to master all the divine forms on my own, huh?"
A smile crept across his face as he mumbled.
"I should figure something out about it then. First of all, I'll focus on how destructive the God of Void's first divine form is, how strong it is, and what it can do."
Kevin closed his eyes, sinking into profound meditation as if entering long slumber, breath steadying to mountain's rhythm.
"If I want to know everything about the first divine form, I guess I should start by imagining how strong it can be—even if it means imagining it hundreds of times, thousands, millions, billions. I'll keep imagining it no matter what. Somehow, I have to figure out how strong the first divine form truly is."
Meanwhile, in another world, Leon finally mended his grievous wounds, ragged breaths echoing in desolation.
Leon slumped against jagged stones in a light-reddish desert wasteland—no humans, no beasts, just endless dunes of sanguine sand under merciless crimson skies.
He staggered upright using a gnarled stick—long, thick, splintered—gripping it like lifeline, limping forward. As he trudged the interminable path, he mumbled hoarsely.
"Food... I need food. I don't even know how many days it's been since I came to this new world. I'm thirsty too. I need water. I can't even walk properly—it feels weird. I can't even feel my legs anymore. It's like they're moving on their own."
Staring at the non-ending light-reddish trail, he rasped.
"This is... quite weird. This is definitely a desert, but why is it light-reddish? Aren't deserts supposed to be yellow? Yellow sand? What the hell is this? Anyway, the more I look at it, the hungrier I get."
"Damn it, there are not even a single animal or monster. I can't even speak properly anymore—all I can do is mumble to myself. Hm, now that I think about it, what was that weird yet dangerous aura I felt when I entered this world? I can't sense it anymore. What's happening?"
Eyes lifting to cloudless sky dominated by blazing yellow sun, he growled.
"All I can do is keep walking and walking until I sense someone's aura once again."
Hours bled into eternity—Leon trudged relentlessly, collapsing intermittently against sun-baked boulders for scant respite, dragging under fleeting shadows of monolithic rocks, stick gouging crimson furrows.
Then—horror erupted. From dunes surged a nightmarish behemoth: 50-foot colossal caterpillar abomination, segmented body armored in chitinous plates oozing acidic ichor that sizzled sand to glass, maw a vortex of lamprey-ring teeth dripping paralytic venom, thousand needle-legs churning earth to powder, multifaceted eyes glowing hunger-mad crimson, antennae twitching with predatory calculus—evolution's cruel apex, desert reaper incarnate.
Leon's jaw unhinged in shock, and there was only a single thought that comes into his mind first.
Holy shit, does something as big as that even exist? Or am I seeing things because I haven't eaten anything?
A devilish impulse twisted his lips into grin as he mumbled.
"Kekekekeke... I can't run, and at the same time i can't even use any God techniques, i am injured as hell. But I'm hungry. What if I killed this long... no, it doesn't even have a nose. Why does it keep staring like that?"
"This damn big snake bastard—its face ugly as hell, how disgusting. I've decided. I'm gonna kill this long, ugly-looking snake. Kekekeke—you'll be my first food in this world!"
The behemoth lunged, maw cratering sand tsunami—Leon rolled desperately, ribs screaming from unhealed fractures, stick discarded as fists clenched. Weak legs, no mana—pure hand-to-hand. Predict lunge arc... left mandible thrust first.
Chitin jaws clamped where Leon stood, venom spraying corrosive mist—Leon vaulted spine, palm slamming mandible hinge, micro-fracture cracking shell amid pain-lancing fingers. Armor thick; hinge weak joint. Antennae sense next.
Leg-spears erupted needle-storm—Leon twisted mid-air, forearms parrying barrage, skin lacerating bloody but dodging vitals, landing roll kicking dune for momentum. Spears cluster low; maw reload 2 seconds.
Behemoth coiled, tail-whip shattering boulders—Leon ducked under, shoulder-charging underbelly, fist hammering soft segment, green ichor bursting as it shrieked sonic-wave staggering him blood from ears. Vulnerable ventral; sonic backlash hurts.
Acid spray arced—Leon backpedaled, wounds sizzling agony, eyes watering but weaving gaps, counter-palm-thrust piercing plate, wrenching deeper amid roars. Acid predictable arc; exploit stagger.
Monster rampaged, legs impaling earth quakes—Leon ghosted flanks, injured leg buckling but compensating rolls, elbow-smashing antenna cluster, blinding one eye-cluster in ichor-explosion. Sensor loss slows turns.
Final desperation: behemoth reared, maw eclipse descending—Leon surged into blind spot, hands blurring: palm-heel to jaw-shatter, knee to throat-bulge rupture, fingers gouging eyes, final upward double-palm obliterating brain-pan in gore-fountain.
Behemoth convulsed, crashing dune-titan corpse. Leon collapsed atop, heaving, wounds weeping, devil-grin amid blood.
First meal... has been secured.
Time skipped forward in shadowed vignettes—Leon stacking boulders into crude throne under monolithic overhang's precious shadow, sweat carving channels through gore-caked skin.
He slumped into the stone chair, eyeing the colossal caterpillar corpse with weary triumph.
"Well, somehow I was able to defeat it, but the thing is, now how the hell am I supposed to cook it? There isn't even a single piece of wood here, and I just don't want to eat this damn thing raw. Yawk."
A resigned sigh escaped.
"But I guess I have no choice then but to eat this thing raw."
Leon scavenged a jagged shard from shattered chitin, kneeling amid steaming entrails to carve ragged chunks—fist-sized slabs of fibrous, iridescent meat that oozed viscous slime, knife-hand trembling from exertion and hunger-pangs.
After finally placing the monster meat slabs on the flat stone altar before his chair, Leon collapsed back without a care, wiping blood from his hands.
"Hm, I didn't give it any attention yet, but why are there so many damn big stones? I can't figure it out, but well—they're quite good for shadows. Haha."