SSS Awakening: I Can Devour Gods to Evolve My Goddesses

Chapter 2: What Is a Complete Prey Worth?

The Godblood Hound lowered its body.

Its front paws pressed into the rubble outside the Chain Gate, and its shoulders slowly bunched. Dark red saliva dripped between its teeth and hissed into white smoke against the stone.

Cassian gripped the control lever.

In the next instant, several broken images crashed into his mind at once. Fangs grazed his throat. A front paw landed on his chest. His hand was still on the lever when his body was dragged into the darkness beyond the gate.

War Instinct I didn’t tell him which image was real.

The hound kicked off with its hind legs.

Cassian hurled himself to the right.

His bruised knee lagged half a beat behind. His toe caught in a crack, and he nearly went down sideways as the hound’s jaws swept past his ear. Hot, rancid breath poured down his collar.

He seized the control lever and forced it down.

Clack—

The Chain Gate only shook loose a layer of dust overhead.

It didn’t fall.

The hound’s claws scraped across the floor as it wheeled around inside the temple. There was no hesitation in its golden eyes, only the hunger of a predator that had found living flesh.

Cassian pushed himself upright. The cut on his left forearm had started bleeding again.

When he first acquired War Instinct I, he had thought half a beat of warning was a lot.

Now he understood. If his body couldn’t keep up, seeing his own death early wasn’t worth much.

”Let go of that lever.”

Veyra’s voice came from the divine seat.

”Push it again, and it will break first.”

Cassian kept his hand on it and shifted behind the broken half of a gatepost.

”You know how to use it.”

”I know how it used to be used.”

The Eclipse Chains bound Veyra’s wrists and waist. She still sat perfectly straight, her gaze passing Cassian to settle on the hound stalking toward him.

”That isn’t an execution gate. The Chain Gate was used to recover divine war beasts that went out of control. Pull the lever all the way down, and the remaining chain on the right will contract once.”

Cassian glanced at the gate frame.

A length of blackened chain lay buried beneath the rubble. Only two rusted links were visible.

”Will one pull kill it?”

”No.”

There was no pause in her answer.

”It can only bind the beast. It might catch just one leg.”

The hound took another step.

Cassian’s stomach tightened with it.

”The cost?” he asked.

Veyra looked down at the restraints around her wrists.

”The gate chains are still connected to the Eclipse Chains. That final pull will draw power from here.”

”From you.”

”Yes.”

Her voice was calm, but the fingers of her right hand slowly curled into her palm.

”What do you want?”

Veyra’s gray-gold eyes settled on his chest.

”After you devour an intact Godblood creature, I want to know what it gives you.”

The hound suddenly accelerated.

Cassian retreated from the gatepost. Its claws struck the stone, spraying chips past his cheek.

”One truthful result,” he said between breaths. ”Not the source of the ability. Not how we’ll divide anything in the future. Give me this one use, and if I survive, I’ll tell you one practical result.”

Veyra stared at him.

”You are revising terms now?”

”This is exactly when I can’t agree to terms I didn’t hear clearly.”

The hound turned its head, a growl rolling in its throat.

Veyra closed her eyes for an instant.

”Deal.”

Cassian released the lever and retreated toward the center of the temple.

The shattered armor of the Chain Warden Fragment still littered the floor. Its chain blade had snapped into two pieces. The shorter one was wedged beneath a broken brick, its point stained with Cassian’s blood from earlier.

He bent to pick it up.

Another image flashed through his mind—the hound pouncing on his back, its jaws closing on his hand.

Cassian jerked sideways.

The Godblood Hound only took half a step forward.

”Good,” Cassian muttered. ”Even this animal knows how to feint.”

He pulled the broken chain blade free. It was a little longer than a dagger, but only a ring of cracked metal remained around the grip. The edge bit painfully into his palm the moment he tightened his hand.

The hound watched the weapon, lowering its head even further.

Cassian kicked up a fragment of armor.

It spun toward the hound’s left eye.

The hound turned its head and pushed off with its hind legs at the same time.

This time, one of the images from War Instinct I abruptly vanished.

Only the right-hand line remained.

Cassian didn’t rush for the control lever immediately. He waited until the hound crossed the first broken pillar, then turned and sprinted back toward the Chain Gate.

Pain numbed his knee.

The control lever was right there.

His left hand closed around it, but blood from the cut made the metal slick.

His grip slipped.

A crushing rush of air was already bearing down behind him.

Cassian had no time to look back. He folded forward. The hound’s front paw raked through his coat, tearing three lines down to his waist. Its claws missed the skin by less than an inch.

He wrapped his right arm around the lever and dropped his full weight onto it.

The iron bar gave a tortured groan.

The chain buried beneath the rubble snapped upward.

Not from above.

It whipped sideways along the ground and wrapped around the hound’s raised left foreleg. The impact pulled the chain taut, yanking the hound off balance and slamming its shoulder into the gate frame.

At the same instant, chains cracked tight in the direction of the divine seat.

Veyra’s upper body jolted.

The Eclipse Chains dug into her wrists, and a thin line of blood seeped through the dark cracks in her skin. Her mouth opened on a sharp breath, but for half a second, no sound came out.

The remaining chain would only hold for a few seconds.

Cassian knew it.

So did the hound.

It opened its jaws and bit down on the chain around its foreleg. The first bite bent one of the links inward.

Cassian saw those teeth, and for an instant, his legs didn’t want to carry him closer.

The three tears in his coat hung at the edge of his vision.

Before the second bite landed, Cassian charged anyway.

There was no path outside. The control lever was breaking, and once the chain came loose, he wouldn’t get even these few seconds again.

The hound sensed him closing in and whipped its head around.

An image of its jaws closing appeared in Cassian’s mind first.

He dropped low. The broken chain blade passed beneath the hound’s jaw.

Too low.

The point only opened a shallow cut.

The hound’s bound foreleg tore madly at the floor. Its other paw struck Cassian across the shoulder. He dropped to one knee, his bruised kneecap striking stone as pain snapped through his clenched jaw.

The chain began to snap apart.

Cassian didn’t retreat.

He caught the instant the hound tried to bite and drove the broken blade horizontally into its open mouth.

Its jaws slammed shut.

The iron bent inward between its teeth, but the force also drove the point into the roof of its mouth.

Hot blood sprayed across Cassian’s face.

The hound gave a muffled howl and thrashed wildly. The chain around its foreleg broke link by link. Cassian pressed down with both hands, his injured knee dragging half a step across the floor.

He didn’t let go.

Deeper.

Just a little deeper.

The broken blade finally punched all the way in.

The hound’s body locked. Its hind legs kicked twice against the stone.

Then it stopped moving.

Cassian kept the blade pinned for several more seconds. Only when every death image from War Instinct I had faded did he slowly release it.

The control lever snapped into two pieces behind him.

The first Godblood Hound lay at his feet.

This wasn’t a Fragment on the verge of fading. It was complete prey that had nearly bitten through his neck.

Dark golden light seeped from its blood and bones.

Cassian’s throat went dry at once.

The hunger was far stronger than before. An itch spread through the roots of his teeth, as though another mouth inside him were urging him closer.

[Complete Divine Target Detected — Deceased]

[Godblood Hound]

[Devour?]

Cassian wiped the blood from his face.

”Devour.”

Dark golden light flooded into his chest.

He didn’t manage even half a step before both knees struck the floor.

Heat.

It wasn’t a single piece of red-hot iron. It was an entire ball of fire exploding inside his stomach. Fine grinding sounds came from deep within his bones. His muscles tightened, then felt as though they were being torn open and rejoined from the inside.

Cassian bent forward until his forehead almost touched the stone.

He could hear his own ragged breathing. He could also hear the Eclipse Chains near Veyra, still trembling from the backlash.

[Divine Essence: +2]

[Divine Essence: 3]

[Acquired: Godblood Physique I]

Three.

Cassian stared at the number.

The pain hadn’t faded, but one corner of his mouth lifted first.

A damaged Fragment had only given him one point.

One complete hound gave him two, along with a physique.

He placed his left hand on the floor and slowly tightened his fingers. The arm that had been going weak now held his body steady. The strength in his back and shoulders suddenly felt as though it had somewhere solid to settle.

The cut on his left forearm hadn’t vanished, but its edges had tightened and the blood was no longer dripping.

His knee still hurt.

But when he stood, the leg no longer shook.

Cassian tested his footing against the stone.

His mind showed him where his foot would land half a beat later. This time, his body actually followed.

A short laugh escaped him.

The moment he heard it, he pressed his lips together.

Not because he cared what Veyra thought.

He had simply remembered the candidate placard being turned facedown on the awakening platform.

F-rank.

An empty grave.

If every complete divine target was worth this much, then what those people had failed to price might be far more than one chained woman.

”The result.”

Veyra’s voice was lower than before.

Cassian looked over.

Two bloody marks now crossed her wrists, but her back remained straight. Her gray-gold eyes tracked every change in the way he stood.

”Godblood Physique I,” Cassian said. ”My body can now keep up with the half-beat War Instinct gives me.”

Veyra waited a moment.

”That’s all?”

”One truthful result.”

Cassian reminded her of the term.

Veyra looked at the broken control lever, then at the blood on her wrists.

”You didn’t lie.”

”Neither did you.”

The moment he finished speaking, a low growl came from the darkness of a side corridor.

The smile hadn’t fully left Cassian’s face, but his body had already taken one step back.

The second Godblood Hound emerged from the corridor.

It didn’t pounce.

First, it sniffed its companion’s corpse. Then it studied the scattered gate chain and the lever broken at its base. Its front paws stopped outside the Chain Gate, never crossing the place where the first hound had fallen.

Cassian gripped the bent chain blade. The first hound had already proved that the creature in front of him had value.

”Is there another gate chain?” Cassian asked.

”The gate is dead.” Veyra’s breathing was still shallow. ”And I can’t pay that price for you a second time.”

Cassian retreated toward the side of the divine seat, keeping a route open behind it.

The second hound still didn’t follow.

Dark red patterns across its neck and chest lit up layer by layer. Godblood crystallized beneath its fur, forming armor thicker than the first hound’s. Even the soft flesh around its throat sealed beneath crystal.

It planted its front paws and lowered its head. War Instinct I stabbed through Cassian’s mind as a dark red line pierced the place where he stood.

His feet moved first. A blood-crystal spike grazed his coat and punched into the stone pillar behind him.

This time, his body had truly kept up with that half-beat.

Excitement shot through his chest. Cassian saw crystal light gathering at the hound’s throat again. He charged with the broken chain blade, intent on taking the second hound in the same rush.

The hound retreated two steps. The second time it lowered its head, it moved faster.

The dark red line had only just formed in Cassian’s mind when the blood-crystal spike was already in front of him. He twisted hard, but the crystal still ripped across the outside of his right shoulder, tearing away cloth and flesh.

Pain loosened his right hand. The broken chain blade hit the floor. Cassian backed behind the gatepost and pressed one hand over his shoulder. Blood seeped between his fingers, but he could still lift the arm.

Dodging the first spike didn’t mean every exchange after it belonged to him.

He had gotten greedy and taken one step too many.

The second hound didn’t close in to finish him. It stayed behind its companion’s corpse, waiting for Cassian to charge again.

Cassian didn’t move.

Before both shots, the hound had anchored its front paws while the thick crystal on its neck and chest flowed toward its mouth. For those few seconds, the underside of its throat was exposed.

Cassian looked at the half of the control lever still lodged in its cracked base.

He took the iron bar in his left hand, braced a foot against the base, and pulled it free of the broken joint. It was a weight he might not have steadied with both hands before. Now, he could finally settle that weight into his back and shoulders.

The hound lowered its head a third time. Its front paws dug in, and the thick crystal began drawing toward its mouth.

War Instinct I gave Cassian half a beat.

Enough.

He twisted from the waist and hurled the broken control lever.

The hound tried to dodge, but its anchored front paws cost it an instant. The heavy iron bar shattered the thin crystal that hadn’t yet closed, punched up through its throat, and flipped the beast onto the rubble.

It struggled to rise. Only a leaking rasp came from its throat.

Cassian didn’t approach immediately. He waited until the dark red line had vanished completely from War Instinct I, then recovered the broken chain blade and stepped forward to make sure it was dead.

[Complete Divine Target Detected — Deceased]

[Godblood Hound]

”Devour.”

This time, he didn’t wait for the interface to finish asking.

Dark golden light peeled away from the corpse and poured into Cassian.

Familiar heat spread along his bones.

He sat on the floor and closed his eyes, feeling that power settle into him. He didn’t pretend he was merely checking a status panel.

It felt good.

His right shoulder was still bleeding, but every breath came deeper than before. The strength inside his body was also growing steadier, little by little.

This belonged to him.

Two complete Godblood Hounds. Both killed by his own hands.

[Divine Essence: +2]

[Divine Essence: 5]

There was no second new skill.

Cassian wasn’t disappointed.

Targets of the same kind could still provide a stable amount of Divine Essence, but they wouldn’t stand still and wait to die the same way.

Both facts had value.

He was about to look at the number again when a tremor rose beneath his feet.

It wasn’t distant.

It came from directly beneath the black-gold divine seat.

A thread of gray-gold light followed the cracked floor toward the depths of the temple, as though something that had slept too long had finally heard him.

A new interface appeared.

[Abandoned Dawn Mausoleum Core Detected]

[Activation Condition Met]

[Divine Essence: 5/5]

Cassian’s fingers twitched.

Those five points didn’t have to remain inside his body.

They could awaken this tomb.

But they were also all the Divine Essence he possessed. He still didn’t know what the Core would give him, what it would take, or whether activating it would make more things aware of this place.

Cassian didn’t confirm the activation.

The interface trembled again.

[Cumulative Divine Essence Has Reached the Minimum External Record Threshold]

[External Rule Synchronization in Progress]

A low hum came from deep within the mausoleum passage.

It was far away.

It sounded like neither the Chain Gate nor the Eclipse Chains.

Veyra raised her head. For the first time, she didn’t look at Cassian immediately. She looked instead toward the patch of gray daylight beyond the fractured dome.

The satisfaction slowly faded from Cassian’s face. Five points of Divine Essence still burned warmly inside him, and the Mausoleum Core had answered him for the first time.

But something outside seemed to have heard as well.

He pressed his bloodied hand to his chest.

Before the rules outside finished counting him, he would awaken his own tomb first.