Way of the Knights

Chapter 369 - Desire To Feast

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'Ah, finally…'

A young voice of a malformed human resounded on the depths of his heart. 

He found himself staring at the vast and starry skies of the night while tears fell from his face. He was holding a body that doesn't even resemble a human anymore. The body he held was burnt, all of this person's features were mostly missing due to the incident that happened before their death. 

'I'm sorry.' He said inwardly. He would've liked to apologize out loud but his vocal cords aren't working properly, making him unable to speak. It also didn't help that every time he opens his mouth, black flames will uncontrollably come out burn everything in front of him. 

He knew that he wasn't normal. He's not just some deformed human. In fact, he's not even sure if he could even be called human anymore. 

His face resembled that of a human, but his skin was incredibly pale, almost as if he was a corpse or something. It is wrinkled but that shouldn't be possible since he's just but a teenager, and somehow it is also elastic and durable. A dagger won't even cut his skin and instead would just leave white marks that resembles scratch marks. 

He's unusually short and his back was bent with large hump on it. And unlike any other humans, he had a tail. 

'You underestimated my desire to live. Due to that, you'll become my meal now. You should rejoice, honestly.' The young man said as he ruthless tore the burnt corpse in manageable pieces and started feeding on it. 

His face expressed bliss and comfort as he continued chewing on human flesh, his tears kept falling from face but this wasn't from sadness or regret. It was because of glee. 

Finally, he defeated the strongest human that ever hunted him. His triumphant victory over this human made him cry tears of joy, and he celebrated his victory under the night full of stars and a delicious meal to satiate himself. 

After he finished eating his prey, a satisfied burp escaped his mouth, nary a piece of bone nor hair remained from the human, everything was consumed by him. It didn't take long before an inexplicable power filled his body, making him shiver in delight and causing his laugh manically. 

*Roar!*

He released a provocative roar which also filled with glee and satisfaction. 

'This is it! This is the feeling! Ah!' The deformed young man shivered as he felt power coursing through his body. 'It never gets old, and I don't want it to get old! Who would've known that Humans are the most delicious meal in this place? This is no good! I want more! More! Ah!'

The young man shivered constantly as if he was roaming multiple times in a row. His maniacal laughter resounded throughout the dark forest and anything who heard it felt chills running through their body, causing them to run away. 

A crazed expression surfaced through the young man as his eyes eventually turned red and his consciousness was eroded by the blissful feeling of eating human flesh. 

'I want a feast! Human flesh, I want it! I have to - no! I need to have them! As many as I could! I want to be fed! I want my belly full of human flesh! I want to savor their heavenly taste! I. Want. More!!'

All of a sudden, his raging emotions caused a transformation to occur to his body. The hump in his back exploded and revealed bat-like wings that spanned for a few meters. A black horn emerged from his head, his fangs grew longer and his pupils turned to slits. He released another roar which is accompanied by raging black flames. 

This is the night where he officially discarded the last bits of his humanity and embraced his demonic urges. From now on, he's no longer that same human boy who kept a lot of secrets to himself. He discarded his own name and given himself a new one, along with the promise that he will feed on human flesh as long as he lived. 

"I am Vit'hum!!!"

***

Vit'hum did what he wanted. 

He built a lair in the forest constantly search for humans to feed on. Even if he was a crazed beast, his sanity remained intact and he even kept his memories while he still believed that he's human. 

Vit'hum knows their culture, he knows how they think, how they behave, and how they react in the face of dire situations. This is why he also knows how to hunt them. 

It is not like he couldn't be sated by eating animals. If he wanted to, he could've satisfied himself by eating animals or demonic beast but he just can't control his craving for human flesh. 

To him, they're tastiest food there is. He can't explain it but he just couldn't stop thinking about eating them. 

It also didn't help that he had an idea to make them taste even better. 

It was an accidental discovery, but the more mental stress his human victims suffer before they die, the tastier they get. He had no idea why but it's irrelevant to ask since all he could think about since then, is how to maximize the taste of his future victims. 

He tried a lot of things. Verbal abuse, breaking their bones one by one, making them delirious from pleasure…

But the most effective way he discovered, is through keeping them alive and awake as he eats their flesh while they watch. This was his guaranteed way to maximize their taste so that he could satisfy his own cravings. 

The more he eats humans, the stronger he gets. And the stronger he gets, the easier it is to hunt humans. It is but a simple desire to feast on humans, yet for some reason he can't control it. He wanted more.

Unfortunately, the more he consumed human flesh, the stronger his craving for them gets. He's appetite grew larger and larger until he found himself unsatisfied. 

He discovered that his acts of constantly preying on humans, scared them from venturing through his lair, which in turn caused him to no longer have any supply of his favorite meal. His addiction to human flesh is so great that it pushed him to think about ways to get constant supply of it. 

And through this he thought, 'If humans can breed cattle, then it should also be possible to breed humans as well.' 

This was the thought that gave birth to the Black Curtain Guild. 

Overthrowing the Royal Family? Lording over humans? Taking what originally belongs to them? Seeking for more power? Becoming gods? 

All of these are mere lies he fed to his own subordinates in order to make them do his bidding. What he wanted was to eat humans. No more, no less. 

Unfortunately, he underestimated the intelligence and talent of humans. Time and time again, someone will rise up from their ranks and will force Vit'hum's plans to be ruined. Some of them were so strong that he was nearly killed. 

But his will and desire to eat humans was that strong that he kept clinging to life. He dived to the depths of the world to hide first and recover his energy, after that he'll come back and feast on humans again. 

And through some miracle, he managed to infiltrate the most important place of this plane. 

He saw something he never seen before, and due to starvation, he decided to eat it. Unfortunately, someone was guarding it and that person nearly killed him for real. If he didn't cast his Bloodline Pact that forced the man to cease any thoughts of killing him, he would've been dead for now. 

And thus, he managed to live and feast on a seemingly limitless amount of vitality from the thing in front of him. The guardian did his best to kick him out but Vit'hum latched on to it like a stubborn leech and kept sucking on its vitality. 

Through this feeding, he tasted yet another delicacy that's almost on par with the taste of humans. And the strength boost he acquired from sucking on this thing's vitality is so great that it made him stronger than ever. 

With this, another desire was born on his heart. He decided that not only he will eat all humans, he will suck all the vitality that this mysterious round object has until it runs out of it. 

And through the memories of his own blood, he knew that there is still other humans and worlds that has the same mysterious round objects like this one out there. When he's done here, he will devour them all, he will keep eating until he dies. 

Even in his current slumber, he still knows that he's nearly done emptying this thing's vitality. And through the reactions of the old man, it made him even more convinced that he's nearly there. 

As excitement filled his heart, Vit'hum did something that he never thought he could do. 

Through his desire to feast on his meals, he forced himself to awaken from his short slumber.