Devouring the Abyss

Deep within the gray mist.

A vast, chaotic consciousness slowly writhed.

He had no memories and did not know who he was.

Nor did he know why he had appeared here.

He had been here ever since he gained consciousness.

Relying on instinct, he gradually spread gray mist outward.

The mist dispersed, touched, and infected those vibrant living beings.

Within those lifeforms, he incubated a twisted form of reason.

Once that reason ripened, he swallowed it in a single bite.

Like eating ripe fruit from a tree.

By instinctively feeding this way, he slowly grew.

Several hundred years passed, yet he was still in his infancy.

Until some time ago.

Somewhere in the unseen, he suddenly sensed an aura.

A natural enemy.

It was a fear carved into his very bones, originating from the deepest part of life itself.

He was afraid.

He wanted to flee, wanted to grow quickly.

As it happened, that enormous insect swarm mother nest was delivered right to his mouth.

He burrowed directly inside and turned the mother nest into his vessel.

He knew that once he entered this shell, the upper limit of his future potential would be firmly locked in place.

But he had no choice.

If he did not grow up quickly, he would die.

Now, though he was still in his infancy,

with the mother nest's foundation, he had become vastly more powerful.

Suddenly.

That chaotic consciousness violently surged.

It stared fixedly in a direction within the gray mist.

It was here. That natural enemy was here.

It was on that human who had charged in.

Fear instantly turned into hysterical madness.

"Hiss—"

An eerie howl beyond the description of human language erupted from the depths of the rotten flesh.

"Buzz... Gah... Sah..."

He had gone mad.

Dark red tentacles hundreds