Kayn's mind floated in the middle of consciousness and unconsciousness.
He could see with his eyes, but his vision had become flashes of pictures, as Kayn could only see a slide show of demons getting killed all around him.
One had their limbs dissected, others were scorched from being burned, and another simply lost their heads.
In his mind, there was no Kayn.
Not anymore.
Only hunger.
Only the whisper that echoed in the dark corners of his mind filled his thoughts.
"Kill."
"Consume."
"Become stronger."
The forest was behind him, but the madness had followed. He needed to run to survive from the forest, but now, he needed to kill to survive.
At least that's what he felt.
The desperation that clawed into his chest like a beast from within now ruled his thoughts.
It wasn't fear. It wasn't rage. It was a necessity. Like a drowning man gasping for air, his new instincts screamed that without death, he would die. Without souls, he would be prey.
He didn't even feel the lingering pain from the embedded roots anymore. At some point, he saw his own arms pull the roots with ease, not even grimacing when black blood poured out of the wounds.
More flashes of pictures appeared in his vision as his arms grabbed a round ball of darkness from the dead body of a demon and consumed it.
The bleeding wound on his body started mending at a visible pace as even his half-conscious mind could feel the ecstasy his body felt.
That feeling lingered on his body for a moment before disappearing, urging Kayn's instinct to kill more, eat more.
He continued running around, finding all kinds of demons in his trail.
Kayn's claws sliced through the demons' flesh as though they were paper. The image of a steel sword barely capable of cutting the skin of a demon became long forgotten.
The fire swirling in his throat burst out in a guttural exhale. Not strong enough to turn the demon into charcoal, but definitely capable of charring their skin and blinding their eyes.
His snake tail coiled around a fleeing one and restricted its neck with such force that Kayn's ears could hear the cracks.
The strong muscle in his tail lifted the demon up and slammed it into the earth so hard its bones cracked.
Any human would be dead from receiving such treatment, but the demons were resilient.
It only stopped twitching and struggling when Kayn saw his feet stomping the demon's face, caving it inward and releasing the gel-like brain matter to the coarse, dark earth beneath.
The moment it stopped moving, Kayn pierced the demon's stomach before pulling his hands out, bringing another black orb, a soul, and ate it with joy filling his chest.
The soul tasted like something that he had never had before.
It was sweet, yet savory, it felt like however he wanted to interpret it, it's just simply so delicious that one couldn't get enough of it.
However, it was slight. Momentary.
Then the hunger soon returned.
He hunted again.
It wasn't calculated. It wasn't clean. He slaughtered everything that moved.
The adolescent demons, smaller and weaker, fell one after another under his relentless assault.
Time lost meaning. Minutes bled into hours. Maybe longer.
Then… stillness.
A demon in his claws fell limp as its soul vanished down his throat.
As the last soul entered his body, Kayn finally felt something different from before.
The empowerment he felt when consuming a soul lasted longer this time. He felt pain once again as his bones grew and his muscles were torn apart.
But with the power of the soul circulating endlessly inside his body, Kayn felt relieved of the pain as the soul filled him with power and mended the damage in seconds.
Bones continue growing, muscles torn and rebuilt, the fire in his mouth becoming more intense for a time before it finally stopped as if nothing had happened.
Kayn's breath came in slow heaves, not from fatigue, but… confusion.
Why wasn't he moving?
Why wasn't he… killing?
He looked down at his own hands. No, his claws. 16 of them, as another set of hands also came into view when he wanted to see his own hands.
The blackened luster of the claws gleamed in the dim light. Each of the sixteen claws, thicker and longer than before.
He blinked, slowly, and realized he could see clearer. Smell sharper. Hear further.
The fire in his throat now flared with each breath. His larger demon wings flapped behind him instinctively, almost causing him to fall over from the force the wings generated with a single swing.
His body towered at least two and a half meters tall now. His shoulders were broader, his tail thicker and more muscular. His red skin had turned a shade darker.
Ever since being barely conscious from the moment he absorbed the fruit, Kayn had now just realized that he… had changed.
"What… am I?"
The fog of bloodlust faded. His human thoughts surfaced their way back into his mind. Kayn's black-red eyes flickered.
Then he looked around.
Dozens of corpses littered the blood-soaked ground. All small demons, barely reaching his waist. Horned, clawed, some even winged, and some others looked like animals, but they're all dead.
Kayn recalled his memory, the ones where he saw flashes of pictures, then looked at his own body.
He realized… he was the one who did this.
All the demo- corpses all around him were his doing.
Slowly, but surely, the images that Kayn saw before became clearer and clearer as he remembered swinging his claws around and burning the demons' faces with the fire in his mouth.
'My transformation core awakened, and I have transformed into a demon…And those words that I've heard before losing control of my body…'
"You are the first human to absorb a demon."
"You have become the progenitor."
"You may customize your demon transformation."
Kayn looked at his four hands, his wings, his claws, his snake-like tail, and felt the fire in his throat.
"I really did combine different parts of demons into my body…"
Kayn had never heard of a case where anyone could combine different creatures for their transformation, as each person could only choose a single species to transform into.
"It must be because of that progenitor thing…"
Then he thought of something,
"Wait a minute, if I'm the progenitor of the demon, then are there more progenitors of other races…?"
Feeling that it was a useless thought for now, Kayn shook his head and focused on the things in front of his eyes.
"Now I'm certain."
After transforming into a demon, knowledge, one that he didn't know before, started appearing in his mind.
And one of them finally told him where he currently was.
"I'm definitely not on Earth, nor in Votum… I'm inside the demon world."
Kayn didn't know how he was even transported into the demon world from Votum, as no humans from all 7 worlds even knew this demon world existed, but it was reality now.
"But there's no reason for me now to find out how and why I was transported here.
What matters is how I get back."
He had survived the predicament by becoming a literal demon, but if he couldn't see and help his family, then it meant nothing.
He had strength now, one that he was sure was stronger than any beginner monsters in Votum could stand a chance against.
If he could go back to Earth, to Votum, and hunt the monsters there, he would be able to earn enough money for all the things that he wanted.
"For now, I should find a way back first."
Kayn searched his mind, trying to find it in his stack of new knowledge, a way to go back to Earth.
However, there wasn't any knowledge about that. The new knowledge only told him about the basic, general knowledge the demons had as a race.
Finding himself lost, Kayn looked around his surroundings once more.
He remembered now. After escaping the forest, he'd followed a slope upward. His body had been on autopilot, following its instincts.
He turned his head in another direction.
Demons.
Living ones.
Everywhere.
But they didn't come close. They watched from a distance. Cautious. Afraid.
Dozens of them hid behind rocks and boulders, peeking from the shadows. Some fought among themselves, others scavenged corpses, but none approached him.
Kayn took a step forward. They flinched back.
"They fear me…?"
The demon knowledge in his head told him he had consumed enough souls, and he had become a fully grown demon, while those other demons were still adolescents.
Then, as if remembering something after accessing those pieces of knowledge, Kayn turned his head upward, towards a certain direction.
Then he finally saw it.
A tower.
Far in the distance, yet somehow still looming like a mountain, stood a massive black structure that pierced the sky.
Its base was wide, disappearing into the mist that hugged the horizon, and it stretched high enough to vanish into the ceiling of the world above.
His demon instincts surged. A calling. A pull.
He didn't know what was in that tower, but his instincts knew that if he wanted to get stronger, he needed to head into the tower.
Kayn didn't question it. The demons were grotesque creatures, but he knew that when it came to strength, they were second to none.
And now, he was one of them.
One step at a time, Kayn made his way toward the tower.
The adolescent demons parted before him like shadows fleeing the sun. Not a single one even dared to stand in his way.
He only stopped walking when the cold air hit him.
Now, Kayn stood before a steep downward slope, stopping at the edge and gazing downward.
On the ground after the slope, an unbelievable scene greeted him. Long gone was the scorched ground and heat that assaulted his skin.
Snow covered the ground, frost coated the rocks. The sky above darkened further, and the slope turned into a sheet of pale ice midway. His breath began leaving mist in front of his face.
The temperature dropped rapidly, yet he didn't shiver.
Kayn scanned the frozen expense below him and found something that caught his eye.
At the center of the frozen expanse, surrounded by jagged glaciers, stood a temple made of ice.
Kayn searched his mind to find out what the temple was. And he soon found it.
His lips curled into a smile as he spread his wings and jumped down the slope.
He gently glided downward, his determined eyes locking onto the temple in the distance.