Six years ago, in a certain desolate place in Berlin.
The sky was dark and gloomy, black clouds pouring down heavy rain. The musky smell of wet soil assaulted the youth's nose as they stood silently in the downpour, their faces expressionless.
These two were the only living humans left in the area. All around them lay corpses upon corpses — an uncountable number. Men, women, the elderly, and even little children. The pungent smell of blood had long mixed with the wet mud beneath their feet.
One of the youths had purple hair with a bundle of white hair on the right side of his bangs. His usual shiny, lively purple eyes were now dull and emotionless, as if all excitement had been drained from them. This was Max at eighteen years old. He was still taller and stronger than most boys his age, but far less bulky than he would become later. His posture was tense and vigilant.
His gaze flickered across the sea of corpses. After a long silence, Max turned to the other youth.
They had both just turned eighteen, and they had just finished killing an entire village's worth of people.
The young Eric sat on a small mound made of rotting corpses, hands clasped, staring at the ground with lifeless black eyes. His face was cold and expressionless, lost in a daze.
They were both wearing tattered bodysuits of purple and pink.
Max's mouth slowly opened as he spoke in a hoarse, deep voice, as if he hadn't spoken in years.
"Are these the last of them? Did anyone escape?"
The young Eric slowly lifted his lifeless eyes to look at Max. A small spark of light flashed in them upon seeing his friend. His mind calmed slightly.
"Yes. These were the last. We have killed everyone related to the small organization we joined."
He glanced at a small boy's corpse nearby. The boy's eyes were wide open, mouth frozen in a scream of shock.
Eric heaved a deep sigh and stood up, walking toward Max.
"It is quite the pity that all these people had to die, but we couldn't afford to let anyone escape after killing so many. They were merely implicated."
Max nodded slightly.
After the incident during his advancement to Lysi Nova in Shirakawa-go, Eric had become much colder and even more distrustful. After recuperating and helping Max advance as well, they had set out to eliminate every member of that organization — and then everyone those members had known. These people were the final batch.
"You know… I have realized something."
Eric looked up at the sky, raindrops falling directly into his eyes without bothering him. His hands were clasped behind his back as he spoke in a low tone.
"What have you realized?" Max asked curiously.
"Through these two years of killing and slaughtering, running and hiding, escaping and retreating… I have understood many things. First, as long as you have strength, no matter what you do, nobody can do anything to you. Second, you cannot truly trust anyone in this world. Except you, I have no family or friends I can fully trust or be vulnerable around. Third… life is as cheap as grass. As long as you are weak, you will be trampled on."
A small smile formed on Max's face, his eyes shining with a joyous light.
"Well, what do you want to do now?"
"Haha. Recuperate, find anchors to help us complete the steps of the Lysi Nova rank method of control, and live peacefully… for as long as we can, away from all this chaos."
...
Back in the present, New Dawn High School.
School had ended. Students poured out of the main gate, chatting excitedly about their plans for the evening.
Adrian walked silently among the crowd. Mr. Clown walked beside him, invisible to everyone except Adrian.
Just as Adrian was about to speak, he felt an intense sensation in his chest. He clutched his shirt tightly, eyes widening in shock and confusion.
"Huh… what is this premonition? This is the first time I've felt something this strong."
Even with his limited experience as an aura user, Adrian could tell this was no ordinary feeling. It carried huge significance.
Mr. Clown stopped and looked back at him.
"What happened? Why did you stop so suddenly?"
Adrian gulped, his body trembling slightly, voice hoarse.
"I-I don't know… I just felt an intense premonition."
Mr. Clown stepped closer and placed a hand on Adrian's shoulder, his plastered face showing patience.
"Can you describe it to me?"
Adrian thought for a few moments, then spoke.
"It felt like… waking up one day to find one of your family members suddenly missing. That shock, confusion, worry, and fear. Or like all the people you know are connected to you by ropes, and suddenly one rope just disappears, leaving you wondering what happened."
Mr. Clown smiled gently and patted Adrian's head.
"It's okay. I'm sure something happened, but for now, let's go home and make sure your sister is safe before worrying too much."
Adrian nodded. He loved his sister, even if they didn't talk much. The thought of something happening to her made his worry spike. He quickly ran off, leaving Mr. Clown behind.
Watching Adrian's retreating back, Mr. Clown sighed.
"I just hope he doesn't find out what happened to Marie. It's not my responsibility anyway. I'll leave it to the third one. It was his orders, after all."
...
In the narrow, dark alley.
Eric and Voyage stood on the other side of the street. Before them lay Marie's headless body.
Her neck was like a broken fountain, blood still gushing out in weak pulses before slowly stopping. A dark pool formed beneath her, soaking her white and blue school uniform crimson. The metallic odor of fresh blood soon filled the entire alley.
"No wonder Voyage chose her," Eric thought. "This girl had the potential to become an aura user. That alone made her body far superior to ordinary children. With the boost Voyage receives from consuming people of the planet he was reborn on, she was the perfect choice."
Marie had been like a bright star when alive — a delicate, blooming flower. Now that flower had wilted forever.
In the stroller, Voyage slowly sat up. He climbed out and walked toward the corpse on tiny, short steps that still looked strangely cute. Yet his black eyes flickered with a dangerous, sharp light.
He spat out the pacifier onto the ground.
Voyage reached the body and sat down directly in the pool of blood. His cute yellow clothes were instantly drenched red, but he paid it no mind.
"Tch, so much blood got wasted. It's okay though. I'll savor the body properly."
He opened his small, toothless mouth and latched onto the gaping wound where her head had been crushed like a watermelon.
A wet, rhythmic sucking sound filled the alley as dark red blood gushed into his mouth. He swallowed greedily, though some still escaped his lips and ran down his chin. His lips quickly became smeared with blood.
Pop.
He pulled back with a wet sound, a huge, satisfied smile spreading across his face. He looked genuinely content.
Soon, his body began to change. Teeth formed in his gums. His frame grew larger. He had already become a one-year-old infant. His hands clenched in excitement as he pounced on the corpse again, sucking and biting with newfound teeth.
He chewed the soft flesh, the meat mashing between his teeth before he swallowed with clear joy.
"But this is not enough."
Voyage had centuries of experience in consuming corpses. He knew the perfect balance of blood, flesh, and other fluids to maximize growth from a single body — especially a high-quality one like this.
As he sucked and chewed, his red rebirth aura with black particles floating like fireflies emerged and entered Marie's corpse. Her remaining blood began turning into a thin, yellowish, watery liquid — warm, odorless amniotic fluid.
The mixture created a disgusting, thick fluid that Voyage happily bathed in. When it entered his mouth, it tasted strangely salty and sweet.
The more he drank and ate, the faster his body grew. Hair sprouted on his head. His eyes became smaller. His height increased while his chubby cheeks thinned out. His arms and legs grew longer and slimmer.
He was already a seven-year-old child.
Eric watched everything from a distance with an expressionless face. He was long used to the cruelty of this world — the cruelty of life.
Past scenes flashed through his mind as he stared at the blue sky above the alley.
"The journey of an aura user is built on the consumption of vast resources. Even if every pathway has a limited number of users, can the available resources ever satisfy everyone? And even if they could, could humans ever suppress their greed? For how long?"
"Most people on this planet don't even know aura users exist. In that ignorance, the weak and unaware can only be devoured — just like this girl being eaten right now."
Did she want to die? Did she want to stop living, abandon her dreams, her crush, her future marriage and children? No. She definitely wanted to live.
Did Eric want to kill her? Did Voyage hold any personal grudge against her? No. There was nothing.
Yet she still had to die.
For Eric, it was to strengthen his cooperation with Voyage and Divine Karma while earning contribution points. For Voyage, it was to consume her and grow stronger, escaping his vulnerable state.
To achieve their goals, Marie had to become the stepping stone — losing her life in the process.
Morality and sympathy toward the weak eventually faded for aura users. Even the kindest ones could only hold onto their principles for so long.
It was ironic. From childhood, people preached kindness and empathy, yet in reality, these qualities rarely helped one grow stronger.
Plants absorb nutrients from the soil. Deer eat grass. Lions eat deer. This was the cycle of nature — and of the universe itself. Even without animosity, to become stronger, one had to step over others. It was hard to accept at first, but over time, one grew used to it.
Time passed slowly in the alley. The only sounds were the wet sucking and chewing noises from Voyage. At first, he grew rapidly from small amounts of blood. Now he needed to consume much more just to advance a little.
Soon, Voyage could no longer extract blood with his mouth alone.
Eric raised his right hand. Pink gravitation aura with flowing black particles emerged. He willed it, and Marie's body floated upward, inverted. He slowly clenched his fist, causing cracks to spread across her corpse. Blood poured down like a fountain onto Voyage.
Voyage closed his eyes, bathing in the crimson shower with a calm, almost serene expression. He released more of his aura, converting half the blood into amniotic fluid, then licked the blood from his lips.
The blood on his body and the ground was gradually absorbed through his skin as his body continued to grow.
Marie's corpse had thinned dramatically. There was almost no blood left.
Eric clenched his fist fully. Her body compressed further until it became a small, dense cube of meat and crushed bones.
The meat cube fell into Voyage's hand. He opened his mouth wide and tossed it in, swallowing it in one gulp.
Voyage's face was no longer cute. It had become more defined and handsome — above average, though not on the level of Eric or Max.
He stood there completely naked but unconcerned.
He looked down at his newly grown body, particularly between his legs, and nodded happily.
"Good, good, good. This little brother is the biggest among the twelve others I've had in my previous twelve lives. Hahah!"
He burst into laughter.
Birth Pathway aura users naturally possessed superior reproductive organs and abilities, so such a difference was normal.
His voice had also deepened significantly due to the development of his larynx.
Eric remained expressionless, staring at Voyage with cold eyes. He subconsciously took a step back, his gravitation aura ready.
Voyage noticed and stopped laughing. He turned to Eric.
"I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart. You helped me a lot today, Third One. The organization will grant you a huge amount of contribution points for this."
"Since I'm in a good mood, I'll tell you another aspect of my aura. You must have felt a premonition when you were near me at the nursery, right? Making House pick me up was a wise choice. I have a passive ability: within one year of my rebirth, anyone who touches me with harmful intentions will get pregnant and implode. It was very fortunate you didn't take the risk."
Voyage turned around as golden Meditation Aura enveloped him.
"With this, the mission is complete. I shall take my leave. Goodbye, Third One. May we have an even greater cooperation next time we meet."
Saying this, Voyage teleported away, leaving Eric alone in the blood-soaked alley.