Demonic Po*nstar System

Chapter 579: Eternal Hunger

’When did it get that big...?’

The thought slipped out unguarded as his throat worked around a shallow breath.

His fists tightened at his sides, arms heavy, shoulders sagging a fraction under the scale of it. From here, the difference was impossible to ignore. His enlarged frame barely reached a fraction of its height. The distance he’d created only made the imbalance clearer.

His jaw trembled once before he locked it down.

Then something changed.

The flow shifted.

Kaiden’s eyes narrowed as the streams around the creature began to skew. The particles no longer rushed inward evenly. Their paths bent, subtle at first, then more clearly, curving toward a tighter point. The hollow’s edges drew in, contracting, the endless mouth narrowing as if adjusting its bite.

His skin prickled.

The space between them felt different.

The void at the creature’s center pulsed once. The vibration carried through the ground and into Kaiden’s boots, a low tremor that climbed his legs and settled in his chest. His breath hitched without permission.

It was looking at him.

Kaiden swallowed hard, throat dry as the hollow aligned with his position. The pull across the realm dulled, background pressure dropping away as the thing’s attention locked in, acknowledging his presence for the first time since their encounter began.

The acknowledgment landed heavier than any blow.

The Bottomless One shifted.

It stopped drawing everything around it.

The particle streams thinned. The ambient drag slackened, the constant pressure easing just enough to register. The hollow tightened further, its edges folding inward as if bracing.

Kaiden felt it before his eyes finished adjusting.

The pressure snapped onto him.

It punched into his chest, feeling like a hook driven straight through his center mass. His stomach lurched as the force aligned perfectly with him, stripping away any sense of shared pull. There was only him and the draw.

The creature’s focus settled fully.

The hollow vibrated harder, the sound rattling through his teeth as the void compressed and deepened. Space warped inward around Kaiden, air screaming past him as the concentrated draw slammed into place.

His boots slid forward instantly.

”No!” Kaiden shouted as his legs strained, and his body pitched forward.

The pull hit like a collision.

His vision smeared as the force dug into him, dragging at muscle and bone, crushing breath out of his lungs. His ribs compressed hard enough to make his chest stutter. Gluttony surged on instinct, density packing into him as fast as it could stack, reinforcing frame and weight in a frantic rush.

The ground beneath his feet shattered.

Cracks raced outward as his heels tore free. His body lifted, dragged forward in a violent lurch as the hollow reeled him in.

Kaiden snarled through clenched teeth, spine bowing as he fought to bring his limbs back under control. His arms shook as he tried to brace against nothing, shoulders burning as the pull wrenched him closer.

His feet left the ground completely.

”No! I won’t let you!”

Kaiden twisted midair and slammed his hands down as the ground rushed past. His fingers struck stone and dirt and bit in on instinct. Nails tore. Skin split. His grip held for half a second before the pull wrenched his shoulders nearly out of their sockets.

”I refuse!!!” He roared and dragged his hands back down again, clawing harder this time. Fingers hooked into cracks, into loose rock, into anything that would slow him. Blood smeared across the ground as his nails peeled back, pain flaring sharp and bright up his arms. He didn’t let go.

The pull answered by tightening.

His elbows buckled. His chest slammed into the ground hard enough to knock the air out of him. Dirt packed into his mouth and nose as he slid, body scraping forward in short, violent jerks. Every attempt to brace ended the same way: fingers tearing free, ground exploding under the strain, his weight dragged another meter closer.

The hollow loomed.

It filled his vision now, massive and close, the void at its center vibrating with a pressure that crushed his ribs inward. The sound it made scraped through him, rattling bone and teeth alike. His breath came in broken pulls, each one thinner than the last.

The pull didn’t slow.

His arms tore free completely.

Kaiden was airborne, dragged across the last stretch like a hooked fish. The ground vanished beneath him as the hollow swallowed his lower body, pressure slamming in from all sides at once.

The void closed around his legs.

Weight vanished. Direction vanished. The pressure became everywhere at once, crushing inward, peeling sensation away layer by layer. His spine bowed as his torso followed, ribs compressing until his breath cut off entirely.

His mind flashed hot and fast.

Luna’s smug grin. Aria’s needy hug. Nyx’s amused smirk. Bastet’s golden eyes watching him with that lazy, desert queen confidence. Calypso’s battle cry and the contrast it made to how she acted when she entered ’demonic maiden deep in love’ mode. The way the girls crowded around him at camp, loud and warm and alive.

He clawed at the edge of the hollow, fingers sinking into nothing.

His scream ripped out of him raw and broken as the void surged up his chest, crushing, grinding, and dragging him inward. Sound died. Light twisted. His body folded in on itself under a pressure that felt eager, invasive, and absolute.

”No! No... Girls... I’m sorry...”

The sorrow-filled cry tore out of him, and the world snapped.

Kaiden gasped and staggered forward, boots slamming into solid ground. Air rushed into his lungs in a harsh, burning drag as his hands flew to his chest on reflex. His heartbeat hammered loud enough to drown out everything else.

He stayed upright by force alone.

The ground beneath him was intact. Unbroken. Clean.

He whipped his head around.

The Bottomless One was gone.

No hollow. No pull. No warped mass blotting out the sky.

The realm had reset.

Particles drifted through the air once more, countless fragments of loose potential hanging in suspension around him. They glimmered faintly, waiting, untouched.

Kaiden flexed his fingers.

Power answered.

Gluttony still sat in his core, dense and heavy, filling him with that familiar pressure. His body was also reset, returning to his original size.

His breathing slowed in uneven pulls as he straightened and lifted his gaze.

The titan still stood in the distance.

Seven arms. Motionless. Watching.

”You cruel fucker... I thought this was the end...” he breathed.

Kaiden dragged a hand down his face and exhaled through clenched teeth. No one told him there were resets. His heart kept pounding, each beat sharp and loud in his ears as the memory of crushing pressure lingered in his bones. Being eaten alive like that was the most terrifying moment of his life.

The helplessness was crushing. His hands shook even after the pull was gone.

But his morale wasn’t defeated. The memory of his amazing girls surfaced again, and his desire to return to them, to hold them in his arms, to see their smiles and feel their warmth was mounting from one moment to the next.

”So that’s how you want to play it,” he muttered hoarsely.

His shoulders rolled once as he steadied himself, posture settling back into something usable.

A challenge.

He looked down at his trembling hands that all of a sudden seemed small, then back toward the distant titan.

Kaiden clenched his fists and felt Gluttony answer, heavy and patient.

”I will find a way to kill it.”