Rise of the Godking - Chapter 22

Daneel felt that it was incredibly hard to form a coherent thought as he watched suck away half the bodies of the other two men, too.

He kept wondering whether he had wandered into a nightmare of sorts. But as he watched the giant grow slightly larger, he slowly connected the dots.

'So all those little dwarves… are those that he has absorbed from? How the hell does such a power even exist? On the surface, all I was told was that I should eat nutritious foods and grow stronger… well, the taskmaster did say that there was a lot of hidden information, but I thought he was doing so to sound cool. I was supposed to find out about all of them after going to that special school…but that plan went into the trash.'

The giant leaned back contentedly after he was done. It almost looked like he had forgotten Daneel, so he used the opportunity to think things through.

He went back to what the man said before… and of course, he saw the familiarity between the powers of the two of them, and saw how impossible it would have been for anyone to guess the connection if they weren't privy to what he had just seen.

'She… absorbs the vitality of a person, turning them ten years older, but this giant directly takes away the height of someone? But… how?'

The last thing the giant had said hadn't been of much help either, either. He didn't know a thing about the pathway of taking energy from the crystals except that he could do it, so how could he be expected to know anything about what it had given way to?

'What if… the thing he actually absorbs is vitality, too, but in his case, he does so directly? After all, everything that one eats allows them to grow, right? If there was a way to transform all of that energy so that it could be observed, like I absorb power from those crystals… then it may make sense. Then why does the hair fall off?!'

If this was a story, he wished that he could pummel the author until he was gasping for breath. After all, everything that had been established had been taken and turned on its head, so how could anyone not be annoyed, if not outright infuriated?



Having finally come out of his fit of satisfaction, the giant chuckled as he witnessed the confusion writ on Daneel's face.

"I bet that you must have many questions… and if it's about our power, then we have no problem with answering them. After all, no matter how much you find out, you will not be able to replicate it in any matter. It is something that needs to be passed down. Or… it is something that needs to be taken, but the means of this 'taking' is hidden, too. We know for a fact that that Madeira killed her master to obtain her powers. Oh, we are rambling… well, let us give you the short answer. In this world, there are ways in which the natural order of things can be… circumvented. You see, all three of these men have been living for decades, eating, pissing, shitting their way to what they are, now. They worked so hard to live, and in so doing, they survived… but what if it was possible to take the fruit of their hard work, and gobble it down? What if doing such a thing would also give you eternal life, although you would be tied down to a place where you can obtain fresh life force over and over again? This thought… resulted in the creation of this path. It is the path…of a Glutton. You see, you must eat, eat, and keep eating no matter how sick you become. There are other fancy names that some people use. They dub themselves as 'devourers' or even the 'gourmands of humanity'. We prefer this simple name. We are just on a rock feeding the Mainland with blood and sweat, and there are many pathways over there that are much… cleaner, by comparison, but this is our own, our pride, and our hope. They know nothing of how it feels to scrounge for power. They know nothing of how devastating it is to dream of being able to absorb the sweet, sweet energy of all those crystals… but having no means to do so! We could have let it go, calling it our fate… but we didn't! We rose, and succeeded! And one day…we will have our revenge!"

The giant's rousing speech sent a cheer in the two caverns behind him, but Daneel didn't know whether it was because of his passionate words that must have made the simpleminded dwarves who had laughed at him before believe that they should cheer, or because they understood what he was saying.

He heaved after he was done. He had been leaning more and more forward with each word, and toward the end, his face had come so close to Daneel's that it had been very hard not to step back. Daneel had held his ground, remembering quickly how detested the man had sounded when he had spoken about the way people ran or tried to hide after arriving here.

And in the silence that followed… he had to fight hard to keep a straight face.

'If only this guy knew that he could solve all his problems by just banging his head on that rock nearby…'

The thought was so funny that a bubble of laughter reached his lips, and he had to bite down to stop it.

'Was U crazy in my past life, too? Or maybe I'm just dumb, now?'

He decided to take his mind away from these things by concentrating on what he had just learned. His vague explanation about what he had seen had somehow been right. He also realized that the hair falling off must have been one of the side effects of the giant's absorption just like the long list he had been given by the system in the case of the succubus.

As soon as he remembered the system, he felt a strong urge to touch the giant so that he could analyze him, too.

Yet, he found no way in which he could make such a thing happen without seeming crazy, so he dropped the idea, for now.

"We hope that we did not bore you with our speech. It is something that is always on our mind. Anyway, go inside, there is a feast prepared for you. You shall eat, and then we shall talk."

Daneel's stomach rumbled at the thought of food.

But since he had arrived, one question had been repeatedly pricking his mind, so he decided to get the answer to it, first, before accepting the giant's hospitality.

"Why are you doing this? Don't you hate me like all those slaves do? Wasn't I almost as cruel as that man you absorbed from, just now?"

It might seem dumb to ask such a thing, but he had already seen that he was completely under the giant's control. There was no way out, nearby, and besides, he wasn't strong enough to fight through hundreds of dwarves and a colossus, to boot.

The man looked at him with narrowed eyes for a few moments before answering.

"Its…simple. We know something that no one else does. Three hundred and thirty-two years ago, we were abolished from the surface, too. We didn't spend much time there, but even as an infant, we were brutal. We even remember our mother saying that we would only eat if the sounds of someone being tortured or dying reached our ears! We came down here…and became a King. Why? Because unlike all the others, we were not willing to come to terms with being a slave! You are the same. You…are like my brother. And together, brother, we will take over the Pit, and massacre the inhabitants of all three layers above. My children! It is a day of celebration, for we have found our brother! Break out the wine!"