Anna

Anna was rushing towards the Black Shoal when the last Borealis detonated. Even from a distance, she knew something terrible awaited Isarelle. This explosion was unlike all of the previous ones.

A kaleidoscope of lights painted the skies briefly before everything went mad. She watched, jaw-slacked as Thanatos collapsed from the cliffside. The ever-present spire that loomed over Isarelle was suddenly no more.

Mom. Dad.

Emil's words resounded in her head. Her parents were last spotted in the Black Shoal. Anna cursed as she broke into a sprint. Volt charged her body with short electric pulses, stimulating her muscles beyond human limits. She glided over the wreckage of the Black Shoal while extending her senses. Why were her parents here? The Seibert Merchant Company should have been camped out in the Commerce District to peddle their wares.

Did yesterday's monster outbreak cause them to change spots?

Anna's heart raced as her mind spiraled with chaos. She knew getting answers to these questions were pointless, but it was the only way she could distract herself from the brink of panic. The Black Shoal was a mess. Dust and sand filled the air. Entire neighborhoods had been flattened or tore apart by fragments of Thanatos. Sporadic fires broke out in the distant. It was deathly silent. Anna lost count of how many bodies she passed.

Each time her heart screamed. A part of her feared that her parents would be the next victims that she encountered. A part of her agonized with guilt for every person that she stormed past. She wanted to help them all—she truly did. But she would never forgive herself if her parents died because she was late to their side.

It didn't take long before she found trouble. A group of civilians were running away from something. A bunch of volunteers were haphazardly hauling out the injured on makeshift stretchers. Fear and panic inundated their faces. Anna was about to demand what was happening when she overheard a conversation.

"Where are the bosses?!"

"I don't know! The Seibert madame is telling everyone to run!"

Goddammit.

Anna dashed past the group of escapees. It was obvious that they were getting away from danger. A danger that her parents apparently decided that they were too great to run away from.

When she arrived at a set of broken medical tents, she found her mother on her knees. Her body was trembling as she stared blankly ahead. Anna followed her gaze.

And her heart dropped. A man had her father by the throat. A bloodied spear dropped from his hands. The man lifted him up into the air effortlessly. His eyes gleamed with a sadistic hunger as he opened his jaws. His teeth were drenched in red.

What happened next was a blur.

"Let. GO!"

A high-pitch whine cackled in her ears as Anna suddenly found herself in front of the assailant. She lowered her shoulders and drove her enhanced body straight into his abdomen. At the same time, a lesser version of Thunderfang snapped out of her hands. The condensed spear of lightning severed the hand gripping onto her father's throat.

The assailant was shot back into a collapsed building. Meanwhile, Anna immediately switched off Volt as she grabbed her falling father's body.

"A-Anna?"

Her father was still conscious. Blood was streaming down from his left shoulder. A chunk of his flesh had been torn off, unveiling harrowing glimpses of the white bone underneath. Anna shuddered at the teeth marks embedded in his skin. What the hell?! She quickly checked him for any other injuries. Her father was in terrible shape, but he'll live as long as the bleeding was staunched.

"Mom! Take dad out of here and bandage his shoulder!" she cried out. Her mother, still frazzled by what was happening, quickly stumbled over.

"Anna, what's going—"

"I don't know!" She almost tossed her father into her mother's arms, "All I know is that bastard is still alive. And he's dangerous. And the two of you need to get out of here. Now."

Her mother looked like she was about to complain, so Anna immediately put an end to it by reactivating her Gift. The dissonant cackles of Volt caused her parents to flinch. Something seemed to have clicked in their heads as they stared at her with a renewed recognition. This was the first time that her parents had taken a proper look at her since their estrangement.

"Please. Just listen to me," Anna pleaded, "This is a fight between Exalted. You can't help. There's nothing, and I mean nothing, that you can do for me. You will only stand in my way if you remain here. I can't afford to be distracted while protecting the two of you. So please, just get to safety."

The rocks rumbling behind her stole her attention. Anna spun around, only to find the man from earlier crawl out of the collapsed building. His right arm was still bleeding after being cleanly severed at the wrist by Thunderfang. His torso was scarred with charred flesh from Anna's initial assault. Despite the gruesome injuries, he moved without difficulty. A fiendish smile plastered on his face.

Anna felt her blood run cold as they made eye contact. Her instincts flared with danger.

"Get out! Now!" she screamed this time, pouring bloodlust into her words, "I'll never forgive you if you died because you were too stubborn to listen to me!"

She didn't bother turning around. The footsteps of her parents limping away was enough. Instead, she kept her eyes on the enemy. The man stared at her with unnerving interest. His piercing eyes gleamed like a predator sizing up its prey. There was an inexplicable desire dwelling in his ebon pupils. Something primal. Visceral. Like a deep hunger waiting to be satiated.

"What a heartwarming conversation. Allow me to take a guess, you're not the best terms with your parents?"

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"Shut the hell up," she spat. Deep down, she knew that it was in her best interest to keep the man talking. Anything that could buy time for her parents to get away was advantageous for her.

"And yet, you rushed over to save them anyways. Ah, how lovely familial ties are. Almost makes me miss my own," the man drawled before suddenly offering a bow. The gesture was graceful and practiced as though the man had once been a noble. "I no longer remember my name, but the Lionhearts granted me the moniker, Flesh Devourer."

An inmate of Thanatos. Not that she couldn't have guessed from Melody's earlier announcement, but it was good to have confirmation. Now she knew exactly what kind of threat she was dealing with.

"I'm not telling you mine," she jeered. Sparks flared from her arms as she prepared Thunderfang. There was no need to wait. A formal introduction between Exalted always preceded a fight.

"And nor do you need to. I haven't lost my mind despite being confined in that spire for years. Anna Seibert, was it?"

She clenched her teeth as the man inexplicably licked his lips. His eyes suddenly brimmed with madness.

"I haven't encountered a young lady with such spunk in quite a while. Now you have my curiosity—just how sweet will you taste?!"

Flesh Devourer lunged forward from his position. In the blink of an eye, he had crossed half the distance that separated them. Anna unleashed Thunderfang. The spear of lightning illuminated the overcast skies for an instant as it stormed towards Flesh Devourer with a blistering screech. The Thanatos inmate immediately jerked to the left. The amount of distance he covered in a single move was mind-boggling. Thunderfang went wide, exploding into a mount of collapsed rubble.

Anna wasted no time lamenting her miss. She took a step back to gather power as Flesh Devourer rushed at her again. She wore a troubled look on her face, but deep down she rejoiced. It had been ages since someone willingly engaged her in melee.

Flesh Devourer lashed out with his burly arms. Volt simulated Anna's muscles and nerve beyond human limits as she ducked to evade the punch. The air above her head popped with violence, indicative of the power dwelling in his enemy's attack. Unfazed, she snapped her fingers.

"Shock!"

Distortion crackled. Electric discharge swallowed her vicinity. Flesh Devourer let out a haunting cry. The man was struck with the full brunt of her Gift. Anna's weakness had always been her limited interference range. In a ranged battle, she faltered if she couldn't reach her foes. But up close, she was nearly unparalleled.

And so, imagine her surprise when Flesh Devourer suddenly retaliated with a roundhouse kick.

She raised her arms in a cross guard. Even with her body enhanced by Volt, she still grimaced at the impact of the attack. Her bones creaked and her arms numbed as she was pushed backward by the vicious blow. She dug her heels in, Volt's electric surges helping to root her in place with their electromagnetic pull.

He's not affected by paralysis?!

As if to answer her question, Flesh Devourer howled. Electricity still ravaged his body as sparks sporadically snapped across his chest. With his left hand, he inexplicably clawed a line into his own torso. Blood splattered from the gruesome wound.

"Bleed!"

The airborne blood suddenly congealed into tiny needles. The sharpness of the thin projectiles radiated murderous intent.

"Repel!" Anna called right as Flesh Devourer sent the needles out.

A force field lightning pulsated outwards from her body. The electromagnetic force slammed into the bloody projectiles. After a brief second of resistance, the needles lost their forms. Blood sprayed, drenching the air in a crimson mist. Anna leaped out of the way of the makeshift veil as she prepared to defend against another attack.

It never came.

Instead, Flesh Devourer retreated a hundred meters back towards the collapsed building. His movements were twitchy and erratic from the residual effects of Anna's shocks. His body was a scarlet mess—a patchwork of charred and cauterized flesh. With his working left hand, the Thanatos inmate reached into the rubble and pulled.

It was a headless corpse. Coagulated blood hid much of the gore from the severed head. Judging from the color of the blood, it was someone who had been killed just recently. What the hell is he doing? Anna kept her distance, not daring to rush in without plan. Flesh Devourer was currently outside of her interference range. He had already established that he had partial immunity to the paralyzing effects of her shocks. She tried to get a grasp on his Gift based on what she's seen already.

Flesh Devourer suddenly bit into the corpse.

The crunch of his teeth as he sank into the meat of the body was nauseating. He ate with an alarming voracity, tearing the corpse apart with his jaws and left hand. He chewed like an indolent noble at a banquet. He grunted with delight. Each bite was savored like a delectable feast.

Anna could only watch as the horrific sight unfolded. Her eyes widened. She held her mouth, feeling an overwhelming urge to puke. Visceral terror stirred her insides. This was something that she shouldn't be seeing. This act was blasphemy. It defied every moral fabric in her body. Cannibalism was terrible enough on its own, but the violence and voracity in which the Thanatos inmate feasted on the dead was beyond her comprehension. The man was enjoying himself. He was relishing in the flavors and texture. He ate as though it was this was natural, as if he was simply just a predator gouging on a prey.

She was staring at a monster.

"S-Stop!"

Her voice trembled as if she finally had half a mind to call out the insanity before her eyes. Flesh Devourer. She should have known. The moniker was not so much a descriptor, but a warning to the depravity of this man.

"Enough!" she fired a bolt of lightning at the Thanatos inmate.

Flesh Devourer quickly leaped away. There was a renewed spryness to his movement as he licked his lips and suckled his fingers. The madness in his gaze only intensified after feeding on the corpse. Anna's chest inflamed with disgust. Terror gave way to righteous indignation.

Only now did she understand why her father had bite marks on his body. The exposed bone and disturbing tear on his father's shoulder told everything she needed to know. Flesh Devourer had feasted on him. And he would have left his father with nothing but bone if she hadn't stepped in when she did.

I can't let this man live.

A monster must be slain.

"Split!"

Lightning surged from the flick of her wrist. She tugged on the stream of energy with her will, directing its trajectory as it blazed across the air. Anna resolved herself to kill. She recognized the voracious hunger dwelling in Flesh Devourer's eyes. She saw the same gaze in her parents when they sought to elevate the Seibert Merchant Company by any means necessary. Morality and ethics became another obstacle to their ambition and greed. Nothing mattered except to satiate their unstoppable desire for more. And while she stopped her parents before they were consumed by their greed, Flesh Devourer had long abandoned his humanity.

I won't miss this time!

The lightning arced with violence as Flesh Devourer tried to evade again. Anna bent the trajectory, stalking Flesh Devourer's movements like a rabid beast. Flashes of the lightning's path flickered in the air. The electrostatic whine grew progressively louder until it became ear-piercing. Soon, Anna's attack landing became an inevitability.

Flesh Devourer must have arrived at the same conclusion. He abruptly stopped his retreat and stomped the ground. The skin of his left leg began to pulsate. The muscles beneath bulged and convulsed with an unholy fervor until a portion of the fleshly mass suddenly extended outwards.

Anna was in disbelief as she watched a thick wall of flesh materialize from the Thanatos inmate's body. Her lightning strike collided into the lump of meat. The chunk writhed violently from the electrostatic shock. Without pause, Flesh Devourer raised his left hand and severed his connection with the fleshly mass before the electricity could travel the length of his main body.

Detached from its host, the lump of meat collapsed. It slammed into the ground, still twitching incessantly from the residual shocks.

Flesh Devourer stared at the mass he produced with a proud and triumphant look. Without warning, he snapped his fingers. Suddenly, the charred and cauterized flesh on his torso returned to its former color. The stump on his right hand began to expand until a new hand had grown from his wrist. In an instant, all of his injuries had been healed.

Anna muttered a silent curse to the Lionhearts and royal family for keeping this monster alive.

Flesh Devourer took a bow with the flair of an actor on stage. His body glowed with a renewed vitality. He smiled with the glee of a madman.

"Anna Seibert, how would you like to be my next meal?"

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