The first hunger came like a knife.
Not in the stomach—he didn't have one anymore—but somewhere deeper. Somewhere older. It scraped along Ren's mind like claws dragging across stone, peeling away the safety of thought and revealing something raw beneath.
He floated in the crushing dark, his tentacles drifting like torn ribbons. The deep pressed against him from all sides, whispering, watching, waiting for his next movement the way a predator waits for prey to slip.
Something inside him pulsed.
Thoom.
Thoom.
A heartbeat he did not remember earning.
A heartbeat that did not belong to a human.
Ren tried to think—really think—but the moment he tugged on the threads of memory, pain exploded behind his eyes.
A voice followed.
Not sound.
Not thought.
Not anything he had ever known.
A pressure that slithered through his bones.
ᚺ̶̤̔u̵̼̒m̶̭͠a̶̼̍n̷̯͝.
Y̵̡̽ö̷̖́ü̸͙ d̶̢̕r̵̘͝o̷̞͐ẇ̴̧n̶̳̄ḛ̶̄d̸̝̃.
Ren's vision flashed white.
Suddenly he wasn't in the abyss.
He was inside the steel coffin of a deep-sea submersible. Alarms screamed. Water burst through cracked seams, spraying his face as the hull groaned like a dying beast.
He remembered the smell of burning circuits.
He remembered the impossible pressure crushing the vessel from outside.
He remembered—
His colleague's voice, panicked:
"Ren, pull back—! The trench is destabilizing—!"
Then the world imploded.
Metal.
Blackness.
Silence.
The abyss dragged him back to the present.
ᚨ̶̖̐l̶͚̉w̶̛͙a̴̫͝ÿ̵̰́s̸̜̚ ẗ̶̝́h̷̯̓ḛ̸̋ s̶͈̈́a̸̢̒m̵͉̽e̵̞͒.
D̶̡̒ō̸̺w̸̙̓ṉ̸̅.
D̴̹̃o̵̫̓w̸̝̎n̵̨̆.
Ḑ̶̍o̵͙͝w̸̗̄n̸̥͂.
Ren tried to scream, but no air left his body. Only a trembling ripple of water.
The Abyss chuckled.
A sound like continents grinding together.
He drifted lower, past broken columns and shattered stone tablets etched in symbols his mind refused to understand—but his new body recognized them as if he had seen them carved yesterday.
Something flickered below.
Movement.
A faint shimmer of blue light, writhing like a dying starfish caught in a current. The moment Ren saw it, hunger surged through him—not gentle, not instinctual, but violent.
A command.
F̶̹͆e̸̢͝e̵͓͘d̵͈͘.
Ren jerked forward.
His tentacles snapped through the water, each movement clean, surgical, too perfect for something so newly born. The glowing serpent turned in fear, its tiny eyes widening as it fled between pillars.
The chase lasted seconds.
Ren's body moved before he understood what he was doing.
Before he even decided to move.
A tentacle wrapped around the serpent's throat.
Another pierced its side.
His beak descended.
The serpent screamed—high-pitched, muffled—and then its light sputtered out as Ren's beak cracked into its flesh, drawing in warmth and mana and memory.
His body shuddered.
His mind twisted.
The Abyss whispered:
A̵̬̽d̸̻͋a̵̰̚p̷̲̊t̸͖̕.
T̴̯̆a̶̮͆s̸̤̐t̵̛͎é̶͍.
B̵̠̕é̷̘c̶̭̈́o̷̺͝m̸̙̐ḛ̷͘.
Ren convulsed as a shock ran through him.
For a moment he saw, through the creature's fading memory:
Cold caverns.
A massive shadow circling above.
A trembling clutch of eggs swallowed by something with teeth the size of anchors.
He tasted fear.
He tasted death.
And he tasted a fragment of power.
A faint heat swirled inside him.
> [Predatory Assimilation Complete.]
[Mana Threading Instinct Acquired.]
The "voice" wasn't mechanical.
It wasn't a system.
It was the Abyss whispering inside his skull, pleased with its newest monster.
Ren tore himself away from the corpse, trembling.
What am I becoming?
The Abyss answered.
N̴̢͛ỏ̷̜t̴̗͒h̸̜͆í̵̭n̸̳͠ǵ̶̦ ŷ̴̥ô̸ͅŭ̷̫ w̶͓͘e̵͎̾r̴̞̋e̶̠͐.
Ḙ̶̽v̴̮̽ȅ̸͜ȓ̶̦ȳ̶̫t̷̢̃ḫ̸̈́i̷̻͛n̵͉͆g̵̰͑ y̸̢̐ȯ̵̞ų̴̀ c̷̳̋a̵̯͛n̴̢̈́ b̸̫̽e̴̖̒.
Ren's pulse quickened.
His tentacles curled inward.
He hated the voice.
He feared the voice.
He obeyed the voice.
A tremor ran through the ruins.
Not from movement—
but from presence.
Ren froze as cold instinct slid over him like a second skin.
A cavern yawned open below, its mouth framed by broken statues of beings long dead. Darkness poured out of it in oily waves.
Something inside the cavern breathed.
Slow.
Heavy.
Ancient.
A whisper reached him, softer this time. Almost tender.
C̷̤͛o̴̡͘m̶̙̌e̵̥̿,̸̱̓ Ṟ̷̋ȅ̵̠n̵̻̈́.
F̵̢͘e̴̱͊à̴̢r̷̬̉ i̴̫͌s̴̝͊ t̷̝̿ĥ̵̤ë̷̯́ f̶͈̌ḯ̵̼ṟ̷́s̴̳̅ẗ̴̯ g̶͉̍i̵̡̅f̸̳̄t̴͎̄ o̴͈̎f̵̠̀ ṱ̷̓h̶̟͗e̴̗̋ D̵̥̾ë̸̝́ẻ̸̥p̶̛̦.̷̻͛
Ren shivered.
Not from cold—cold could no longer reach him.
But from the feeling that something inside that cavern was waiting for him specifically.
Not drawn by scent.
Not drawn by hunger.
Drawn by destiny.
Ren lowered himself toward it.
Slowly.
Helplessly.
Inevitably.
Every instinct screamed to flee.
Every whisper urged him forward.
Every pulse in his alien heart beat the same command:
Grow stronger.
Or be devoured.
Ren slipped into the cavern's maw.
And the darkness swallowed him whole.