Kaiden was larger than ever before. His head brushed warped clouds as his body towered over the shattered landscape, power roaring through him in crushing waves. Across from him, the Bottomless One had already surpassed that, its swollen form looming higher and wider until Kaiden barely reached halfway up its bulk.
The pull turned hostile again.
Pressure locked onto Kaiden’s center as the creature’s draw overtook his own. His feet dragged across the ground despite his mass, trenches carving deep as the force reeled him forward. He strained, pouring everything he had into resistance, but the imbalance kept widening, the hollow claiming more and more of the available flow.
The void surged forward and swallowed the space between them. Kaiden felt himself lifted, dragged bodily toward the hollow as its pressure wrapped around him with crushing inevitability. His enlarged fra resisted for seconds longer than before, but the result stayed the sa. The draw tightened. His limbs locked. The world compressed inward.
Then the hollow took him.
Darkness and pressure closed in at once, sensation tearing away as the void consud him whole.
The world snapped back.
Kaiden reappeared on intact ground with a violent gasp, body back to its original size as air burned into his lungs. He staggered and dropped to one knee, sweat pouring off him as his chest hitched uncontrollably. His hands shook harder than before, fingers curling into the dirt as the mory of being outgrown and swallowed settled deep into his bones.
He stayed there, breathing through clenched teeth, forcing his body to obey him again.
The Paragon of Sin refused to admit defeat by this glutton. So, he rose again.
Reset after reset, he planted his feet and opened himself to Gluttony the mont the fight began. The first seconds were always the sa, particles tearing loose in violent streams as he pulled with growing confidence and sharper control. His intake refined with repetition, less waste, less turbulence, more power packed into his fra before the Bottomless One even finished manifesting. When the creature appeared, Kaiden t it the sa way every ti, standing his ground and feasting alongside it, matching greed with greed.
Each attempt lasted longer.
His body adapted to the strain, learning how to channel intake without destabilizing himself, how to stack density without collapsing his footing. He grew faster, taller, heavier than any prior attempt, his presence pressing down on the realm hard enough to fracture the ground in widening circles. The particle flow bent around him more cleanly now, streams responding faster when he widened his pull, resisting the creature’s claim for precious seconds longer than before.
The Bottomless One still outpaced him.
Its hollow refined itself faster than Kaiden could adjust, widening its reach and stripping the field clean with terrifying speed. The mont always ca when the flow tipped, when particles tore past Kaiden toward the creature despite his effort, when its mass surged ahead, and the pull locked onto him with focused intent. Each cycle ended the sa way, with Kaiden dragged forward, engulfed, crushed, and erased as the void closed around him.
The resets followed in ruthless succession.
Kaiden would return gasping, shaking, sweat-soaked, and hollow-eyed, forcing his breathing under control before standing again. His mastery grew. His tolerance deepened. His fear of being eaten alive dulled into sothing harder and colder. The result never changed.
Then the world snapped back once more.
But this ti, Kaiden stayed still as the particles drifted around him, the five-second window stretching longer than it ever had before.
His hands hovered at his sides, fingers flexing once before curling loosely, and his breathing slowed without him forcing it. Gluttony pulsed inside his core, ready and eager, waiting for the familiar command to pull everything in and swell him into sothing vast and heavy.
"What am I even doing?" he muttered quietly, the thought surfacing before he could bury it. He glanced down at his hands, then imagined them enormous again, thick and swollen beyond proportion, imagined a body so large and distorted that it blotted out the world around it.
Power without limit. Growth without restraint. A shape that barely resembled the man he was anymore. His jaw tightened as the image lingered longer than he liked.
His girls flashed through his mind, uninvited and vivid. Arms around his waist. Faces pressed against his chest. The way they leaned into him without fear or hesitation. None of that fit with the towering, grotesque form he had beco every ti he chased raw intake. No one embraced a walking mass of hunger. No one held onto sothing that existed only to consu.
The thought settled heavy in his chest, heavier than any density Gluttony had ever packed into him.
Kaiden lifted his gaze and looked around the realm again, really looked this ti. The empty space. The drifting particles. The deliberate pause before the creature appeared. This whole setup felt too clean, too intentional. A trial built around hunger and escalation, dangling free ti in front of him like bait. Five seconds to gorge. Five seconds to rush. Five seconds to prove he could take more, faster, harder. He let out a slow breath as understanding crept in from a different angle.
"Is that the trick?" he murmured, more to himself than anything else.
The idea settled uncomfortably well. The creature was perfect at consumption, so the obvious answer looked like either beating it up quickly or matching it. Rush down the scaler, or outscale the scaler.
No matter how efficient he beca, he was still playing the sa ga on the creature’s terms.
Kaiden’s shoulders lowered as the seconds ticked away.
He closed his eyes.
Instead of pulling, he let the particles drift. Instead of hardening his fra, he softened his breathing. His heart slowed, each beat steady and controlled as he centered himself where he stood. Gluttony remained present, dense and watchful, but he did not feed it. He acknowledged it, felt its weight, and left it contained.
The pressure began to build at the edges of the realm as the Bottomless One prepared to manifest, but Kaiden didn’t react. He focused inward, calming the lingering tension in his muscles from his previous straining effort and consequent violent death, settling his stance without force.
Kaiden stood quietly, mind clear and body ready, saving the five seconds for himself instead of spending them on feeding his hunger.
The Paragon of Sin decided he’d remain himself while tackling this challenge.
Consuming until he beca a monster was a horrible fate.
Using up every little second he had to rush ahead, to gleam all possible value out of all monts of his life, was also a horrible fate.
He loved the little monts. Eating lavish als with his girls. Going to the bath. Sleeping long in each other’s arms. None of that was needed. In fact, if he had foregone all the warmth, he could have had a higher level by now. He would be a stronger fighter.
But that fate was so miserable, Kaiden refused to even think of it.
Thus, he closed his eyes and decided to appreciate the little monts, like the five seconds he was given to stabilize himself after a violent ending.
And then, the Paragon of Sin parted his eyelids, letting his bright, orange eyes illuminate the realm.
"I see now."
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