Augustus heard hesitant footsteps walk close to him, and the breeze brought the smell of smoke and beer. It was the girl who gave him food.

“um, I apologize if I was um, a bit… presumptuous? Is that the right word? Yes! Sir, I apologize if I was a bit presumptuous in bringing food to you without your request. I just…”

Watching the young mortal girl fumbling to speak, Augustus’ mind went back three hundred years ago when he was at the Incarnation State, and the whole world was nothing but an adventure.

Trion was vast, and now and then you would be able to see marvelous people and locations.

A wrong teleportation sent him to a secluded location where a rash of attacks by beasts had killed all the men leaving thousands of women and children behind.

Augustus had lived with them for weeks and watched as they were all slaughtered, he had enjoyed every bit of such prime entertainment, their cries of help were met with mockery, for if there had been any other adventurous people among them, they would have discovered that a few hundred miles away was a vast city that would solve their problems. Why did they not run? Why stay behind and defend a useless dirt mound?

Was it because of ignorance? Or some pathetic attempt to hold on to their meaningless culture?

These people had been content to live inside their tiny valley in a world as prosperous as Trion, where mighty gods roamed, their death was the inevitable consequence of being small-minded.

He looked at this shy yet smart child and he could no longer call up any argument in condemnation of them. If he told them the truth what could they do? They cannot run, it was impossible for mortals to travel in the void. They could not hide from what was to come, they could only die.

Just like me, I’m already on my road to death, and I cannot run, I cannot hide, I can only wait to die.

Augustus growled, “Fuck off!”

Ignoring the look of confusion and pain on her face he began to walk away, his head bowed in frustration. He did not know when he found himself behind an alley and then he heard the hurried footsteps and breathing of four men.

When he felt the hit on the back of his head, Augustus smiled just before his face was smashed into the ground, flattening his nose.

Unlike any normal man who would cover his head and fold himself to reduce the area of impact on his body, Augustus turned around and opened his arms as if he wanted his attackers to have easy access to all his vital organs.

His assaulters stopped their actions at his weird behavior but after looking at each other, they shrugged and the four men began stomping on him while cursing and berating him in turn. Augustus was a bit disappointed, for he noticed there was no intent to kill, only cause pain, this realization struck him as incredibly funny.

Augustus began to grin, as he spat blood and broken teeth, and that grin soon turned into a full-blown manic laughter

“You like it, don’t you? Keep laughing, I’m gonna kick all your teeth in.” one of the men spat in his bloody face and they all pulled back.

These were all hard men, but there was something deeply disturbing about someone who seemed to have no self-preservation instinct.

As they turned to leave, Augustus called out, “Hey!”

They all turned to look at the madman who seemed to be craving pain.

“What? You want more pain, freak?”

“No, no, no, you guys are too weak to cause me any pain. Look at this…”

Augustus tore open his shirt to reveal his chest, all the men gasped as their faces went pale like they all saw a ghost, the youngest among them took another look and bent down to vomit explosively.

The sight of Augustus’ torso was nightmare-inducing. His chest and stomach had been flayed, so there was no skin and his beating heart could be easily seen. Nestled between his lungs and intestines was a small creature with the resemblance of a baby, except it had black needle-sharp teeth that were stuck around his heart, and from the slurping sounds escaping from its mouth and the swallowing motion in its throat, it was busy feeding.

“You see this?” Augustus pointed out, “That is what is about to happen to you all, except unlike me, you are mortals, and so your pain shall be brief. So if you want any advice from me… not that you should ever listen to a fool like me. Go home to your families, hold your wives, hug your children tight, and ask for your last blessings from your parents, before the end of this day, you shall all be food.”

Suddenly the ground shook, and Augustus sighed, it was too late. Lamia was here.

Another loud thump sounded and a house not far from them collapsed. The mentality of these men was in chaos as they fled. Augustus covered his chest and walked outside the alley.

His eyesight was able to see a gigantic figure far on the horizon that resembled a giant spider. It stood beside a mountain, and the sheer size of it made the mountain resemble a small footstool.

It shifted its enormous bulk on its twelve legs, each movement causing heavy thumps like an earthquake.

This was one of the interplanetary creatures created by Lamia called Akhuril. She already had three of those. Two would be in orbit and it would appear she believed only one of these monsters was enough.

She was right, an Akhuril could battle gods.

Yet their dreadfulness did not lie only in its combat power, but in what else it was capable of, which was harvesting a planet of its entire biomass, both plants, sentient and nonsentient lives would be collected. It could drain the life force from a planet leaving it on the edge of death.

Once again another world was going to end.

A crowd of people came to the streets from their homes and workplaces as they all watched in horror at the gigantic figure of the beast.