Months passed.
Nothing changed.
Happiness Through Taste ;) kept destroying food and delivering chocolate.
On average, one caravan arrived every three days, and each of them delivered several tons of food.
If all that food were directly given to the populace, almost nobody would need to feel any hunger anymore.
Nick had run an entire city for five years. He knew how much food people needed, and he could tell that this city had about 15% more food per citizen than Crimson City.
And food was not an issue for Crimson City.
Under normal circumstances, the food should be dirt cheap here since the supply outstripped the demand.
However, around 70% of the food was converted to chocolate.
This meant that the entire city was in a constant state of famine, and people had to take drastic measures to deal with the hunger.
Once per week, the CCO of Happiness Through Taste ;) delivered food to the big Specter in the city headquarters.
The next delivery would happen in about an hour.
'It's about time,' Nick thought as he moved down from the dark ceiling of the isolated cavern.
Last week, he had moved into the cavern but hadn't left.
Today was the day.
It was time for Wrath to take over.
Nick turned corporeal in the middle of the cavern and walked down the dark hallway.
After just a couple of seconds, his ability deactivated.
However, he just kept walking calmly.
Eventually, he passed by the bend in the cavern and came face to face with the gigantic pregnant Specter.
Naturally, the Specter was the one that perceived Nick, but it didn't seem to care a lot about him.
'Just as expected,' Nick thought.
He had kept watch over the Specter for several weeks, and he could confirm that this Specter was one of the insane ones.
In general, Specters could be put into five different forms of classes when talking about intelligence.
The first class were almost exclusively Possession Specters. They essentially did not have any awareness or intelligence. They were simply objects.
The second class were Specters that were acting like forces of nature. Most Force Specters belonged to this. One could say they were not more intelligent than a single cell.
The third class were Specters that were as intelligent as the average animal. They had instincts and could learn simple concepts, but that was it.
The fourth class were intelligent Specters that were insane. The Bleeding Lady, the Talker, and the pregnant Specter belonged to this class. They were theoretically as intelligent as humans, but their minds were not lucid.
Naturally, the fifth class were intelligent Specters. They were about as intelligent or even more intelligent than humans.
Nick was also a Specter, and because of that, most Specters wouldn't react in any way to his presence. After all, he was neither food nor enemy.
Only intelligent Specters or insane Specters would react to his presence.
Intelligent Specters would react since they realized that Nick's presence was suspicious, and insane Specters could react because they were… well… insane.
The pregnant Specter in front of Nick was insane, but not in an unstable way.
She was more catatonic than aggressive.
"Food… please… I need… food…" she kept moaning.
Nick had watched her for a long time, but she only moaned like this when someone was near her.
If she didn't sense anyone, she didn't even moan.
She just lay there in complete silence.
It was almost like she realized that there was no meaning to pretending to be pathetic when no one was seeing her.
Nick looked at her evenly.
Then, he sent her a wave of feelings with his Specter Core.
The wave essentially asked her if she was hungry.
A wave of feelings came back.
Nick's eyes became unfocused, and his mouth started to produce a lot of saliva.
The hunger.
It was unbearable!
He was soooo hungry!
Nick quickly shook his head and gritted his teeth.
The hunger was absolutely brutal, but he forced himself to focus.
Next, Nick sent a couple more pictures to the Specter.
Corpses.
Mountains of meat.
Hands, organs, legs, faces.
Then, he asked a question.
Was this food?
The image appeared in the Specter's head.
"Food…"
Waves of concepts were sent to Nick again, and he had to use all of his power to resist the hunger.
'I'm not sure how long I could stay sane with such intense hunger!' Nick thought.
The answer was clear.
Yes, the Specter was hungry.
Anything that could be digested counted as food.
Humans could be digested and, therefore, were food.
Next, Nick sent another picture to the Specter.
A picture of her hand.
A picture of a severed human hand.
A picture of her eating the severed human hand.
A picture of her hand.
A picture of a human's hand.
The same hand.
They looked the same.
Was her hand food?
The Specter didn't answer for a while.
But then, her arm started to move.
It lifted towards her face.
And then, she shoved her hand down her maw.
She shoved it deeper and deeper.
But then, she reached her limit.
Her arm could only move so far.
She used more and more power, but she wasn't powerful enough to move more of her arm into her maw.
Then, Nick sent another concept.
If she allowed him to cut her arm off, she would be able to swallow it.
After that, Nick sent an image of her arm regrowing.
Then, getting cut off again and being eaten again.
And regrowing again.
And being consumed again.
Infinite food.
The Specter seemed to become desperate.
Food!
It was hungry!
She tried to consume her arm, but she still didn't have enough power to cut it off.
Nick approached the arm.
"It might hurt," Nick transmitted. "But it's a price worth paying for eternal food."
"The pain is not as bad as the hunger."
Nick was only assaulted by more feelings of hunger.
At this moment, Nick seemed calm on the surface, but deep inside, he was nervous.
This Specter was insanely powerful.
He had almost lost consciousness while his ability was active and while he was quite far away.
This time, his ability was not active, and he stood right beside it.
If it used its psychic attack again, Nick's Specter Core might explode.
That was also the main reason why Nick didn't assassinate the Specter.
He couldn't guarantee an instant-kill, and if the Specter got a chance to react, Nick would undoubtedly die.
Nick took out his blades.
Then, he made a small cut on the Specter's shoulder.
It moaned.
However, it didn't moan in pain.
No, it moaned in impatience and pleasure.
It managed to get a bit more of its arm into its maw.
Nick put a deep cut into the Specter's shoulder.
CRK!
The bone inside the arm broke, and the Specter moaned in impatience.
It was so close!
Nick made one last cut, and the arm left its body.
Almost immediately, the arm was swallowed by its maw.
"Food… Food!"
Its stump moved towards its mouth again.
The arm regrew and was almost entirely in its mouth again.
It demanded more.
Nick cut through the arm, and it was swallowed again.
The Specter wanted even more.
Surprisingly, it didn't give birth to chocolate, but that also made sense.
After all, this wasn't food or flesh.
It just looked like flesh.
In truth, it was just its own body.
Next, Nick sent more images to the Specter.
Juicy severed breasts.
Then, Nick jumped onto its belly and cut off its gigantic tits before throwing them into its maw.
It wanted more food.
Slowly, Nick intensified the images of food and made the portions bigger.
Within a couple of minutes, he was cutting off huge chunks of her body before throwing them into her maw.
It couldn't get enough.
It wanted more!
It needed more food!
Nick cut off a huge part of its chest and threw it down its maw.
At that moment, Nick's eyes narrowed.
In front of him, deep within the Specter's chest, he saw a black crystal.
The Specter Core.
Nick readied his blade.
Then, he used all of his Zephyx before exploding with light.
WHOOOOOM!
The entire hall was bathed in the most intense light.
Nick's ability reactivated.
And then, he struck the Specter Core.
BAAAAAANG!
The Specter Core exploded into pieces.
The Specter stopped moving.
A moment later, it collapsed, and its body started to turn into black dust, which quickly vanished into the atmosphere.
It was dead.
There would be no more chocolate for the city.
Then, Nick waited.
A couple of seconds later, Nick felt the presence of the CCO.
He was moving the cart towards Nick.
The CCO might realize that the Specter was dead before Nick reached him.
That was if Nick traveled the normal way to the CCO.
Nick's terrifying perception created a picture in his mind, and he could see the CCO walking forward.
One had to remember that the Maw had given Nick two abilities.
One ability increased Nick's perception, and the other one took advantage of that perception.
The next moment, a maw opened behind the cart of the CCO.
It opened without any sound, and the CCO did not notice.
At the same time, a maw opened below Nick.
Nick looked down and saw the ceiling through the maw.
He moved to the side and saw the cart.
BANG!
Then, Nick exploded forward.
He shot through the maw below him and charged out of the maw behind the cart.
It was a portal!
BOOOM!
Nick barreled through the cart.
The CCO barely managed to react.
SHING!
But then, Nick's blade had already bisected his body.
Just to make sure, Nick cut through the body several more times.
He wanted to be certain that he had destroyed the Specter Core.
A moment later, the CCO fell into pieces, which all turned into black dust.
He was dead.
An instant later, Nick's senses noticed the CEO.
He had heard the commotion and became nervous.
A new maw appeared below Nick.
And another maw opened behind the nervous CEO.