At the center of the arena, the wall shuddered violently.
Flesh began to rise from it, swelling outward as if sothing beneath the surface was forcing its way up. Veins split open, red light leaking through the cracks, and within monts a towering pillar of living flesh stood in the middle of the enclosed space. It pulsed slowly, rhythmically, like a gigantic heart dragged out into the open.
People scread and stumbled backward, clutching one another as fear rippled through the crowd. Adventurers raised their weapons instinctively, while guards shouted for everyone to fall back. The air grew thick and hot, carrying the sickening sll of burning at.
Kaeya stepped forward, her sword raised, her voice cutting through the chaos. "Hey! You said you wouldn’t attack us until Tyler cos back!"
Her shout echoed across the arena.
The tower answered.
Flas erupted across its surface, not igniting from the outside but blooming from within, as if the flesh itself had decided to burn. The fire was unnatural—deep crimson mixed with sickly gold—licking upward in slow, deliberate waves. The pillar began to lt, its shape sagging and collapsing inward, just like a candle left too close to a fla.
Chunks of burning flesh dripped down, hissing as they struck the ground and dissolved into dark smoke.
From everywhere and nowhere, Gluttony’s voice resonated, heavy with mockery.
"When this tower is reduced to ash," it said, each word vibrating through bone and stone alike, "your ti is up."
The implication settled over the crowd like a suffocating blanket.
No attack yet.
Just a countdown.
People stared at the burning tower, unable to look away. So fell to their knees, whispering prayers to gods they had not spoken to in years. Others clenched their fists, eyes fixed on the slow, relentless shrink of the flesh pillar, counting each second as it lted away.
Kaeya lowered her sword slightly, her jaw tight. She turned her head just enough to glance at the sealed wall, as if trying to will Tyler to return faster.
The flas crackled softly, almost peacefully.
But everyone there knew the truth.
When the last ember faded, Gluttony would no longer wait.
---
Sowhere deep inside Gluttony’s domain, where the ground pulsed like living organs and the air itself felt thick with hunger, Tyler stood before the massive, spiraling core. The suction howled around him, pulling at everything nearby, yet he remained unmoved.
"So," Tyler said calmly, tilting his head as he looked down at the demon in his grip, "will you die if I put you in there?"
Kevin’s disembodied head thrashed violently, his voice cracking as panic finally consud him. "Of course I will! But my vitality isn’t enough, okay? It won’t work like you think. It’s useless to Gluttony. So d-don’t... please don’t kill ."
Tyler’s eyes narrowed slightly. "Did your victims ever beg you like this?"
Kevin froze.
Then he began to sob, thick, dark blood leaking from the corners of his eyes and mouth. "N-no... I—I never gave them a chance to beg. Please, I’ll help you. I swear. I will be a good demon. Just don’t—hey, what are you doing? If you squeeze like that, I’ll lose consciousness—"
His words cut off abruptly.
Tyler tightened his grip, pressing both hands against Kevin’s skull. The vitality demon shuddered once, then went limp, his consciousness snuffed out like a candle in a storm.
Tyler exhaled slowly, steadying himself. He reached for the copper pot at his side, whispering a command as it expanded. Without hesitation, he placed Kevin’s unconscious head inside.
Then he reached in again.
Another head erged, an exact copy, identical down to the smallest detail.
Tyler set the copied head aside and retrieved the original. Without ceremony, he hurled it straight toward the DNA-like core.
The suction intensified for a split second.
Kevin’s head elongated, twisted, and vanished, devoured instantly by the spiraling structure.
For a brief mont, Tyler watched closely.
Nothing happened.
There was No explosion, No rupture and No sign of overload.
The core continued to pulse, hungry and patient.
"It was right." Tyler frowned. "Even that wasn’t enough," he muttered.
---
Far above, beyond the fleshy layers of the domain, the consequences were imdiate.
In the trapped city where Kaeya and the others waited, the walls shuddered violently. Cracks sealed themselves shut, broken buildings knitting back together at a speed far faster than before. The mouths embedded in the walls pulsed brighter, their glow intensifying as the city healed itself with renewed vigor.
Kaeya clenched her sword, dread creeping into her chest. "The demon is healing faster," she said under her breath.
She looked up at the burning flesh tower, now shrinking at an alarming pace, its flas roaring higher as if mocking them.
Her grip tightened.
"Richard..." she whispered, her voice barely audible amid the chaos. "Don’t die again."
---
Deep within Gluttony, Tyler took out his copper pot. If feeding the demon one vitality demon wasn’t enough, then he would simply have to change the scale.
After all, Gluttony’s appetite had never known restraint and neither had the Infinity Cauldron.
Tyler studied the copied head in his hand with a careful, almost clinical gaze. It was identical to Kevin’s original head in every physical sense. The texture of the skin, the faint pulse of muscle, even the overwhelming vitality packed inside it were the sa. The only thing missing was the soul.
The Infinity Cauldron could replicate matter, energy, and vitality, but not the essence that defined true existence. Souls were beyond its reach.
"That should be enough," Tyler murmured to himself.
He dropped the copied head back into the copper pot. A mont later, Tyler reached inside again and pulled out another head. Then another. And another.
Soon, a small pile of identical heads lay at his feet, each one radiating dense vitality, each one empty and silent.
Tyler retrieved an empty storage ring from his pocket and began placing the heads inside, stacking them carefully as if handling fragile cargo. Once the ring was full, he closed it and then he tossed the ring into the copper pot.
Tyler reached in and withdrew an identical rings. Then he withdrew another one and another one.
He repeated the process.
Ring after ring erged, all packed with copied vitality demon’s heads.
Without hesitation, Tyler hurled the first ring toward the massive DNA-like structure hovering in the center of the domain.
After a few minutes, The core reacted.
The spiraling structure began to writhe, its coils tightening and loosening as if struggling to breathe. The apertures across its surface opened wider, greedily swallowing everything Tyler fed it. The suction intensified, dragging loose debris, air, and fragnts of flesh toward it.
Around Tyler, the empty town pulsed with unnatural light.
In one of the twisted streets, the receptionist froze mid-motion. She had been clinging to her kneeling stepbrother, whispering sothing cruel into his ear, savoring his despair as always, "Those old n taste like your father."
The sudden glow caught her attention. She turned slowly, her smirk faltering as the walls around her began to throb like overworked organs.
"What the hell is he doing?" she muttered, unease creeping into her voice.
Back at the core, Tyler continued.
He threw ring after ring into the structure, never pausing, never hesitating. The Infinity Cauldron supplied more endlessly, its surface warm in his hands.
The apertures stretched further, their edges tearing slightly as glowing fissures appeared along the core’s surface. Thin lines of unstable energy leaked out, flickering erratically like veins of lightning trapped beneath skin.
The entire domain trembled.
---
Outside, the flesh-buildings began to explode.
Walls burst apart, spraying fragnts of glowing tissue into the air. The mouths embedded in them shrieked soundlessly as they were torn free, dissolving into red mist. The ground heaved, throwing people off their feet as the domain destabilized.
In the distance, the burning flesh tower shrank faster, its flas flaring wildly before flickering uncertainly.
"What the hell is happening? Why do I feel full?" The Gluttony muttered it imdiately closed it’s eyes and looked inside itself.
He saw soone near his core. He was throwing storage Rings, Rings that has imnse vitality.
The ground buckled, their surfaces sagging and collapsing inward. Streets split open, exposing layers of muscle and sinew beneath.
The suction grew uneven, pulling in massive gulps of air followed by sudden pauses, as though the core itself was choking.
Tyler stood his ground, feet planted firmly on the shifting flesh beneath him. He held the copper pot steady, his face calm, almost bored.
"Everything has a limit," he said, a faintly sarcastic smile tugging at his lips. "One shouldn’t eat too much."
The core convulsed violently.
A deafening, wet crack echoed through the domain as one of the spirals fractured. The suction faltered, then surged again in a desperate attempt to compensate. More cracks appeared, spreading rapidly like shattered glass.
It structure twisted in on itself, its rhythm completely broken. The apertures snapped open and shut at random, unable to process the overwhelming influx of imnse vitality.
Tyler threw one last ring.
The mont it vanished into the core, the structure let out a sound that was neither roar nor scream, but sothing in between —a deep, resonant rupture that shook the very fabric of the domain.
The spirals collapsed inward.
Light erupted from the cracks, blinding and violent, as the core began to implode under the weight of its own excess.
Tyler finally stepped back, shielding his eyes as the world around him tore itself apart.
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