"АААНН!!"
The young demon continued screaming, his voice echoing through the underground corridor as he tore violently at his own body with his serrated claws. It was as if he could no longer endure the skin wrapped around him, as if the very surface of his body had beco a prison he desperately needed to escape.
His claws raked across his chest, his arms, even his shoulders, cutting deep grooves into the thick crimson skin.
And Sakaar continued watching.
Coldly.
Calmly.
What was happening to the demon now was not unusual. In fact, it was sothing that always occurred the first ti soone swallowed a dose of space beast blood. Because of that, none of the demons around him showed the slightest concern.
Seven out of ten who consud it would end up collapsing like this.
Their bodies would be overwheld by the violent surge of energy flooding through their veins. They would fall to the ground, unable to move, unable to fight, barely able to breathe.
For several days they would remain in that weakened state.
But eventually, their bodies would adapt.
They would stand up again and continue their lives as if nothing had happened. Their flesh would develop a strange resilience against hunger, allowing them to go years without needing another al.
Two out of ten, however...
Would die.
Sotis their bodies simply failed under the imnse strain. The power contained within the blood of space beasts was too violent, too overwhelming for their bodies to endure.
Other tis, the pain alone drove them mad.
Unable to withstand the agony tearing through their muscles and bones, they ended their own lives before the process could finish.
But one out of ten...
Sothing different happened to them.
Crack
Crack
"Hm?"
Sakaar's focus sharpened further as the sound reached him.
At that mont, the thick crimson skin on the young demon's forehead began to peel apart with a sharp cracking noise. The sound resembled brittle stone splitting under pressure.
It was as if sothing inside the demon's skull was pushing outward, as if the bones themselves were trying to escape from the body that contained them.
The peeling spread slowly downward.
From his forehead....
Past the right side of his mouth...
Then continuing along the curve of his jaw until it reached his shoulder.
And then it stopped.
For a brief mont, the exposed flesh beneath twitched.
Then sothing new began to erge.
In the place where the old skin had torn away, a new surface started forming.
Scales.
Dark purple scales.
Their color was so deep that it almost seed black in the dim underground
light.
They grew rapidly, spreading across the exposed line of flesh and scaling it completely.
Within only a few minutes, the peeled section vanished entirely.
In its place remained a single dark purple line stretching across the demon's body.
It looked exactly like a scar left behind by the swing of a heavy cleaver. A long, jagged mark carved into his flesh.
Imdiately afterward, the rest of the demon's injuries began to close. The deep wounds he had inflicted upon himself monts earlier started healing at an astonishing speed. Torn flesh sealed shut, muscles knitted themselves back together, and the thick skin covered with crimson scales returned across his stomach, chest, and neck.
Within minutes, it was as if the violent struggle had never happened at all.
Only the scar remained.
After a few more minutes passed, the young demon slowly pushed himself upright.
His breathing was heavy, but his body had regained its strength.
At first glance, he looked exactly the sa as before.
The sa build.
The sa crimson-scaled skin.
The sa rough claws.
Everything was identical... except for the dark scar running across his body.
The young demon exhaled deeply, relief washing over him as he realized he had
survived.
Then he simply left.
He walked away with a satisfied expression, happy that he would not feel
hunger again for a very long ti.
To him, that was the only thing that mattered.
As for the scar...
As for the transformation that had taken place within his body....
He felt nothing.
He knew nothing.
"Another one..." Sakaar murmured quietly.
Demons perceived the world differently from most creatures.
They did not rely on sight.
Instead, they sensed everything around them through soul perception. Their awareness functioned almost like sonar waves spreading outward. Through that sense, they could detect the location of objects, the shape of bodies, and
the outlines of their surroundings.
But most of them could not distinguish colors.
To them, the world was rely a collection of forms and movents.
Only Kings, and demons possessing exceptionally powerful souls, could perceive the subtle differences between colors and energies.
During the past few years, those strange scars had begun appearing on the bodies of countless weak demons.
Thousands of them.
And the demons themselves had no idea.
They did not know the scars existed.
They did not know when they had ford.
And they certainly did not know what purpose they might serve.
And in truth...
Even Sakaar himself did not know.
Sakaar lowered his head slightly, falling into silent thought.
After a mont, he raised his right hand and slowly removed the piece of
armor covering his left hand.
The tal plate slid away, revealing the claws beneath.
Those claws had torn apart countless creatures.
They had crushed skulls, ripped open armor, and drenched themselves in the
blood of enemies beyond number.
Yet now, on the very tip of one claw...
There was a tiny purple scar.
So small it would be easy to miss.
That scar had appeared so ti ago, after Sakaar had devoured a massive
feast of space beast flesh and blood for the first ti.
At the ti, he had expected sothing extraordinary.
A surge of power.
A leap forward in his level.
But nothing like that had happened.
His strength had not increased.
His realm had not advanced even slightly.
The feast had done nothing more than provide the usual feeling of fullness and
a burst of imdiate energy....
And leave behind that small dark purple scar.
Since that day, Sakaar had felt that sothing about the situation was unusual.
Strange.
Uncertain.
Because of that instinct, he had stopped consuming the flesh and blood of
space beasts entirely.
But he had not forbidden the other demons from doing so.
Instead...
He allowed them to continue.
And he watched.
Silently observing the changes spreading among them.
So far, none of those who bore this scar had displayed any difference in their
abilities or their temperant. There had been no visible improvent, but there had also been no decline.
Nothing.
And from what Sakaar had observed over the past years, the more soone
consud the bodies of space beasts, the larger that scar slowly beca. It did not grow quickly, nor did it spread in an obvious way. But it grew.
The weaker a demon was, the faster the strange color spread across their body. So of the younger demons had already turned completely, the dark shade. spreading across their entire skin until nothing of the original crimson
remained.
anwhile, the stronger a demon was, the slower the change progressed.
So of the powerful ones could devour an entire space beast by themselves,
yet the scar would barely grow enough to cover even a single arm.
Whoosh
At that mont, a Shadow Sword appeared beside Sakaar as silently as a
drifting shadow.
He imdiately bowed.
"Marshal, I have brought you the shipnt for the coming year."
Then he presented a ring with both hands.
".....
Sakaar slowly slid his hand back inside the armor protecting his arm. Only after
securing the claw again did he turn around.
He accepted the ring with one finger and raised it before his mask, inspecting it
briefly.
Inside that single ring were tens of thousands of other rings. Their combined value was asured in hundreds of millions of Pearls.
Each of them contained pieces of space beast flesh, thick reserves of blood,
fragnts of bone, and even portions of organs. Together, the contents were enough to feed the demons for an entire year, perhaps even longer if managed
carefully.
Soon he would need to empty them into the storage halls beneath the planet.
After that, the rings themselves would be returned to the Shadow Swords so they could be filled again.
Even the Shadow Swords, powerful as they were, could not operate with an infinite number of space rings.
After a short inspection, Sakaar gave a small nod.
Then he opened his mouth beneath the mask.
"What did Sky Opening City say about the scars?"
"We secretly presented several demons to the three Sky Opening Cities, exactly
as you ordered," the Shadow Sword replied respectfully.
He extended three tallic plates toward Sakaar.
"All of them examined the demons thoroughly. Without exception, they concluded that there was no observable difference in the demons' bodies after
their examinations."
"The reports from the three cities state that there is no asurable difference whether the flesh and blood of space beasts are consud or not."
"If you wish to continue using it rely to suppress hunger and increase the
size of your population, there is no issue. And if you wish to stop using it entirely... the decision remains yours."
Sakaar took the plates and began reviewing the reports personally. The Sky Opening Cities were not what they had once been.
In the past, they had revolved mostly around Zara and a small group of capable
followers.
But that era had long since ended. Their current developnt had elevated them into the largest research institution in the universe. Their laboratories stretched across multiple worlds,
their scholars studied countless fields, and their influence reached even the
most distant sectors.
Even Sakaar, who had been stationed on Virilion for so long, knew very well what the na Sky Opening City now represented.
After finishing the examination of the three reports, Sakaar slowly nodded.
"Space beasts are the strongest living creatures after those three. It is only natural that consuming their flesh might produce so kind of reaction within the body. Since the Sky Opening Cities have reached this conclusion, there is
no need for further concern."
He handed the plates back and pointed calmly toward the direction of the
portal.
"You may wait there. I will empty the rings and return them to you."
"Yes, Marshal."
The Shadow Sword bowed deeply once more before vanishing from sight, dissolving into the shadows as if he had never been there at all. Sakaar remained standing alone at the mountain peak.
He slowly raised his arm again and began turning it left and right, examining
the armored limb thoughtfully.
"...No effect at all? Nonsense."
His voice was quiet.
Then he turned again and spread his soul sense across the underground city
beneath him.
"But whatever change may eventually appear... I doubt it will make us anything
worse than a damn plague."
His perception swept across the countless tunnels, halls, and caverns hidden
beneath the planet's surface.
But this ti, he was not observing the demons.
He was inspecting the storage halls.
Large chambers carved deep within the rock were filled with containers, sealed
reservoirs, and stacks of preserved flesh.
There was enough. More than enough.
If the daily portions were reduced even slightly, the reserves currently stored
there could feed millions of demons for several months without difficulty. When Sakaar confird this, a strange smile slowly appeared beneath his mask.
He lifted the ring he had received and held it in front of his face.
The faint glow of the ring reflected in the dark tal of his mask.
"...This ti," he murmured quietly. "All of your contents are for ."
His voice lowered even further.
"Show ... How you will change ."
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