Sumatra's Greatest Fan

Chapter 160: Hungry?

’Where am I?’ Torq found himself in the blankness of the void, unable to move for a while. He seemed to float aimlessly for an eternity before something hard touched his feet, causing him to land on the floor.

And then, he turned around, noticing the battle between two behemoths.

One was a creature with 800-metre-long arms, spanning a height over a kilometre. Its eight arms flailed around in breathtaking flashes, launching projectiles with enough kinetic energy to generate minor nuclear fission across the projectile path.

A glance at it, and Torq recognised the entity, ’The Royal Zinger!’

Then, his eyes grew wide as he observed the entity that was deftly evading such breathtaking throws, amidst the scattering of a flurry of feathers. One such feather drifted through the void, ’Celestial Rotocok!’

In horror, he watched one feather slip through the Royal Zinger’s defences and land on its shoulder. And then, the arm got separated from the body.

One after another, the Royal Zinger’s arms were cut. It regenerated its arms at speeds a storm occurred every time. But steadily, the more and more feathers slipped through its defences and took out the arms faster and faster.

Eventually, the Royal Zinger plopped to the floor weakly, bearing only one arm. Perching upon it was the Celestial Rotocok, which opened its mouth and spoke for the first time since the battle had begun, "I heard your arms are the strongest on Sumatra."

"Why don’t I put them to the test?" Saying so, its two legs perched widely on the arm, and then, its beak pierced through the centre, hooking the bone. Followed by a grunt, it pulled, causing creaking sounds akin to explosions of thunder upon every crack that appeared in the Royal Zinger’s arm.

"Strongest arm, huh?" It chortled and kept bending the Royal Zinger’s arm, amidst the other party’s screams.

Tendrils of energy appeared between the Celestial Rotocok and the palm of the Royal Zinger. The energy tendrils formed a stream and surged into the Royal Zinger’s palm, causing it to regain its strength.

HMPH!

The Celestial Rotocok plunged all three of its beaks into the Royal Zinger’s arm and tugged with its full might, ending up snapping the arm like a twig. "And now, you’ve lost your final arm."

It calmly leapt back and landed a fair distance away, watching the Royal Zinger get up with severe wounds, bleeding nonstop from its eight arm sockets that showed no signs of stopping.

"You are, henceforth," The Celestial Rotocok proclaimed, "Sumatra’s Cripple!"

And then, it swirled once, using its train of feathers to lop the Royal Zinger’s head off.

Thud!

The Royal Zinger’s face landed before Torq, causing him to stumble back in shock. He observed the face twisted to the extreme, akin to a demon’s. Every facial muscle had pulled upon itself, from utter desperation, from maintaining it forever, and from its knowing demise.

Thud! Thud! THUD!

One after another, dozens of the Royal Zinger heads landed around him. And then, followed by a soft flutter, the Celestial Rotocok landed atop one of the heads, perching its talons through the eyes in a head to peer down upon Torq, "The creature with the means to revive endlessly, the Royal Zinger!"

"I’ve just destroyed it. There’s no more of its kind anymore." Its beak lunged and stopped right before a terrified Torq, "Every single existence you believe can oppose me, I’ll keep killing them, again and again, until even if they have the means to defy death and revive, will no longer dare to do so."

Its talons tapped the Royal Zinger head underneath it, "That’s your reality, Brat. You can maybe defy a Disaster,"

"But never a Calamity!"

...

Gah!

Amidst an intense gurgle from his stomach, Torq woke up, promptly observing his stomach to exclaim mentally, ’It’s a success!’

The Celestial Boar’s Primary Nature of Internal Tangible Cultivator was only able to maintain and cultivate one Tangible Nature in its stomach. It was impossible to exceed this limit.

Primary Nature–Spectral Boar Transformation!

Secondary Nature–Internal Tangible Cultivator!

Those were Torq’s Natures. In his human form, Torq only had his Primary Nature. But once he activates his Primary Nature and transforms into a Spectral Boar, his Secondary Nature would manifest itself.

This will remain as long as he remains a Spectral Boar. The moment he reverts to human form, the Secondary Nature will vanish. This was how the Wean Clansman build worked.

With his power as a Blessed Clansman, Torq was confident in upgrading the power of his Tangible Nature to levels otherwise impossible on Sumatra. However, when he spent a century as Boiboi within the dome in his previous life, he thought of ways to improve his Spectral Boar build.

Irrespective of how powerful a Nature he conceptualised, the synergy with the existing build was an issue. And most of all, there was never a path to reaching a State of Harmony.

That was why he began to limit the power of the Natures and focus on harmony instead, with a weaker initial build, and an almost limitless potential. Towards that, he had an answer, which he had reached now, eight years since his birth.

Tertiary Nature–Spectral Shell!

Torq was jubilant to the extent, he didn’t even notice where he was currently. Only when a voice, subtly imposing, resounding in his ears did he break out of reverie, "About time you gained consciousness."

There were soft murmurs around him, mostly with the intent to maintain a hushed silence. As he turned around, Torq noticed that he was positioned on a stage of sorts, circular in shape, as if put on trial.

To the side, among the crowd, was MyuraBuntara, currently bowing until she had arched her back perpendicularly. There was a mixture of sadness and relief in her face. And judging by her puffy eyes, she seemed to have stopped crying only mere minutes ago.

Wean Clansmen formed multiple rows, all wearing white robes with minimal decoration, appearing no different from subjects picked among the masses. They were all bowing with a devoted expression, not towards him.

Torq was merely the subject brought to trial, one among the countless scheduled for the day. That was when he lifted his head, peering at the existence seated on a raised platform on the other end of the kilometre-wide hall.

On a humongous throne that seemed like it had been carved out of a mountain, sat the existence, head resting upon its raised fist to look down upon the world. It was an existence that preyed upon Deities to satisfy its palate, something so powerful that Sumatra’s strongest across an entire era tried to hunt it.

’T-Thats...’ Torq felt at a loss for words, for all he felt when staring at the other party was one, singlemindedly powerful emotion–Fear!

Fear that a prey felt towards its absolute predator.

"You’re awake now." The predator on the throne eyed Torq and asked after a moment’s pause, "Now that you stand here, do you,"

"Feel hungry?"