THE GOD EATER

From the depth of his soul, he felt as if he was dying. The pain from his soul only got worse when the roots began siphoning something from the godheads. As they drained him, the roots turned golden. As for him, his body dimmed in brightness.

The Devouring Supreme Metac had already fused with one of the godheads, so the roots were also draining it. This made him feel as if he was dying.

The feeling of death was so sharp and clear that he immediately realized that the guardian had been lying to him. As he realized this, he immediately became furious.

Just as he was about to say something, the guardian said, ”Steady now. You’re not dying. It just feels that way.”

The good news was that the guardian was right, and he could heal the damage to his existence with lifespan. The bad news was that it cost a lot of lifespan to do so.

As time went by, his lifespan fell while the roots turned golden. The ten roots all turned gold all the way to the main root and back to the egg. In fact, the egg also became golden.

With the egg slowly transforming, its heartbeat became faster and louder. Its heart was beating as if to announce the coming of a great figure.

When the egg turned gold completely, it retracted its roots from Loki’s body. Its golden roots left Loki’s godheads and Supreme Metac. Then they shrank as they retreated from the Cave Heaven into his arm.

During this process, the egg began to turn black again. Its heartbeat also slowed down.

It looked like it was dying, but in Loki’s perception, the energy level of the egg was rising, not falling. In his vision, he was looking at a furnace that was about to become a bomb because the pressure within it was too much.

By the time the root left Loki’s body, the pressure within the egg had reached a peak. Then the energy within the egg erupted, causing the egg to explode.

That’s what he saw with his energy perception. In his matter perception, the egg didn’t explode. Instead, its shell began to slowly crack.

The guardian said in excitement, ”It is hatching. It is a joyous day.”

Then they turned to Loki too and said, ”You should be happy too. After all, you will become a father soon.”

Loki didn’t care about that, but the guardian was staring at him as if daring him to say it wasn’t a good thing to be a father.

He didn’t want to die, so he said, ”Yes, I am happy.”

Hearing his words, the guardian nodded in satisfaction. Then they ignored him.

Loki took one look at the black egg. Then he activated the Power Identification Ability on himself.

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-Race: Celestial

-Rank: 10

-Energy: 10.486 billion years >> 10.485 billion years.

-Entropy: 47/91,876,400 >> 1,058,273/91,876,400

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-Divine Strength: 3 >> 2

-Divine Defense: 3 >> 2

-Divine Speed: 3 >> 2

-Divine Spirit: 3 >> 2

-Divine Perception: 30 >> 29

-Free Divinity: ||272||

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This is what it cost him to become a father. It cost him 1,058,226 years of lifespan, 1,058,226 units of Entropy, and 5 units of divinity. The cost became greater and more significant the more he checked.

’I don’t care about the lifespan, and while the Entropy stings a bit, I can manage it. It is the loss of divinity that I am unreconciled with.’

He had 42 fixed divinity just earlier, but the egg took 5 from him. That was a loss of 12%. It was too much of a loss in his opinion.

But as angry as he was, he didn’t complain about how he was hollowed out. Instead, he said, ”If this is what I have to go through as a father, I’m sure it couldn’t have been pleasant to be a mother at all.”

When the guardian heard his words, they said, ”It wasn’t pleasant at all.”

They didn’t look up at him as they spoke. Their eyes were completely fixed on the hatching egg as they said, ”We had to implant the egg into them. Then the eggs would drain them of their entire existence.”

”The product of such birth was stronger and had more potential. Unfortunately, it was a one-time thing.”

”Every mother was a consumable that could only be used once. We had to keep invading worlds to find mothers to bear our children.”

”It was an inefficient method. Especially since we incurred losses in conquering worlds. So we came up with a better method.”

”Instead of using conquered territory once and moving on, we can raise the conquered territory like a farm. We can also convert the people of the territory to a cultivation system that is perfectly compatible with ours. That way, birthing will be more efficient, and we will only need to take a little from our livestock once in a while.”

”This method was a quick success. Our birth rate increased rapidly while our death rate became insignificant since we didn’t need to fight anymore. Our livestock also get to live longer, which means this method is a win-win for both parties involved.”

Loki’s mind was reeling as if someone had just struck his head with a bell as he said, ”What do you mean when you said you only need to take a little from our livestock once in a while? Is this not the only time?”

In response, the guardian snorted and said, ”Of course, not.”

Then he asked as if Loki was insane, ”Why would we go to all of that effort to set up a farm only to harvest it once?”

Loki felt a wave of powerlessness wash over him as he said, ”When next am I to father a child?”

Even as he asked that question, he felt a wave of weakness from the phantom pain of all of the divinity that he would lose in the future. He hadn’t lost the divinity yet, but the pain was real.