The Gluttony stood, holding Noen in the grasp of its tentacles, offering it to the World Tree, its eyes yet hollow, swirling outward with devotion and light, where the World Tree stood tall, making it look like an ant.
Its trunk was large, enormous, reaching the clouds, touching the very ceiling, filled with human faces stretching outward, with hands that looked as if they were trying to escape; engravings of eyes bled with red tears; it was blood, although the silence stayed for a while.
The Gluttony kept muttering in pure devotion to its smiling god, asking to be blessed by his divine power...
Tremble.
A sound echoed, shaking everything apart like a giant earthquake; trees around fell with a loud thud, where the Gluttony stood staring, holding Noen's head in its tentacles, its saliva dripping down its body, tilting, moving its giant, long, sharp-like hands toward the tree.
It tilted its head upward, looking forward to a branch.
It came closer; though different from a normal branch, it had a face, a hand stretching out like a giant tube, holding a human body whose face stretched outward, a screaming face with hollow eyes.
"My god is here," he shouted like a devoted believer, a desperate voice for power and hunger
"Do you listen?" It said, "Our god is giving us a chance to live as one. We will live forever, together."
Just as he said that, a giant crunch echoed.
It held a long silence, but the trembling had stopped. From afar, it looked like a tree.
Is it?
A giant body made from stretching hands, a mouth that stretched outward, hollow eyes that stared. Every mouth on the World Tree smiled as they slowly ate away the very devoted Gluttony, who still smiled till the last minute.
Blood dripped; crunching sounds echoed as the tree moved, eating it alive. Its face appeared on one of its branches, where below, near the trunk, Noen's head lay motionless, his eyes less bright, as if life had lost its meaning.
From above, 8 veils stretched outward. It was from the tree, holding Noen's head on its tip, piercing his brain. They held it like a trophy.
But somewhere...
***
"Who are you?" Noen asked, staring at a rotten body that smiled, staring into the abyss. It was held by the veins of a tree branch, looking trapped forever, a soul that had never moved.
Its skull looked partially visible, slightly glancing with its glowing eyes. Its mouth opened.
"You are finally here—it sure took a lot of time, maybe 100 years, haha..."
"Can you just answer my question?"
"Well, I am the World Tree. You sure had heard about me, or this name suits me well: Asatharus."
"Asatharus?"
He looked confused, but then a previous encounter hit him: the talk he had with Lagoon. He pondered,
"Asatharus, isn't that the god that monster talked about?"
"You are right, my child."
"I'm not your child, though. I don't understand why I'm here."
He said while trying to form his blood sword, but found himself in shock.
"Why can't I—" he muttered, though a reply came to his worries in a cold yet calm voice
"Cause this is a dream world, my child. You are in your most original form, your true self."
"My true self?"
"This is your real body. Here, you are only mortal in an immortal realm."
"Fuck are you talking about?" he questioned, confused by the god that stood before him.
It slightly tilted its head as the veins stretched more, trapping him. It said,
"Look there."
It stared toward a direction where many animals ran here and there. A pink moon hung in the mystical sky, covered with twinkling stars.
Trees filled the greenery, but everything was far from normal. Noen stood between the plains, where, far away, the god entity stood imprisoned by the branches that held him tight.
"Do you see… your true self, your origin, Noen?"
"How do you know my name?"
"Cause, because of me, you are @#^$."
"?"
"It seems I can't tell you more than this."
"But—"
Everything vanished into darkness where only the entity and Noen stood alone, facing each other.
He was still wary of its presence, but breaking the silence, its voice echoed...
"Long time ago, when things were peaceful, I, Asatharus, protected the World Tree in the gaze of my power.
Everything was peaceful, but one day someone came. He had greed embedded in his heart, someone who dreamed of immortality... but it's something a mortal can't possess.
Yet, driven by his greed, he consumed the 9th veil, and because of that, the world order was disrupted. The same power corrupted the person's heart, making him a walking puppet.
That's what also caused the Andeneo War... but there was something that changed, something deeper.
The missing veil caused my power to leak, causing undesired entities to be born, corrupting the world. So, desperate to save my children, I asked them,
'Devour me.'
But I forgot one thing.
A mortal cannot devour a god, and they ended up merging with me...
A thing I still regret the most. But at that time, my vastness was too shallow to understand.
And in desperation and agony, I asked a light, 'Please save this world. I'm ready to offer anything.'
And it said, 'You want to grow stronger, or want to be flourished forever, trapped inside this body?'
And you know what I chose...
'Second.'
Yes, I gave my body to that god, trapping me here forever. But it was more of a curse than a blessing.
Because of it, the war stopped, and Andeneo vanished.
But... I feigned ignorance to one thing.
That corruption can't be destroyed unless its roots are woven right.
And that's what caused the beasts from different realms to enter and corrupt the whole world.
And I saw it all.
'Skinwalkers.'
They devoured every species, eating everyone alive. But among them, there were some who chose to coexist and formed cults. They took the identities of other species and became one as them, and came to be known as plagues.
But by then, this world was already destroyed, corrupted by my powers.
'I failed to protect; rather, I aided in its destruction.'
I thought, why am I even alive? Why am I even living, protecting the eight veils which feed the power that destroyed this world?
Then I saw the light again, that same light which stopped the war.
But this time, I asked for something else.
'Please end me, but save this world.'
But its answer was, 'This time isn't right.'
And with that, the light I found hope in vanished, leaving me trapped forever.
But still, I had a feeling someone and somewhere, a part of me, was still alive."
It glanced slightly at Noen, pointing at him.
"Please save this corrupting world. I beg you."
"I-I beg you... please!!"
But that pleading didn't last long, as its own body ate it alive, hands and faces stretching like a giant blob.
Noen just stared at it all, his eyes wide, confused by what had just happened.
As those souls kept devouring it, loud screams echoed, begging in pain, yet they kept eating him like hungry zombies. Blood splattered all around, and before the scene could have lasted longer—
What stood before him was a monster covered in long, deforming bodies, trying to stretch out of the skin that bound them as one.
Hundreds of hands stuck out of its back.
A long, stretched smile followed its face as a familiar voice echoed
"It just smiles."