The moment Simon appeared in his Sea of Consciousness, his eyes were instantly drawn toward one of the black stars that represented his Seven Stars Blessing.
And then... he saw a scene he would never forget.
At first, inside the star was a drop of black blood, the blood essence of the Devourer. In the next moment, the blood began to expand and contract violently, and with every passing second, the blood got bigger and began changing.
Before Simon knew it, the blood transformed into a humanoid being.
The humanoid being had white, porcelain-like skin with cracks running across its body. From the cracks, faint dark light seeped out. It had only a pair of hollow, empty sockets filled with black flame on its face. There was no mouth, nose, or ears.
On its back was a pair of wings that constantly transformed from flesh to smoke.
The moment Simon saw this demon, he felt two things.
An instinctive fear that threatened to destroy him in both body and soul, but the Black Star with the Fearless skill shone brightly, causing the immense fear he felt to recede instantly.
Simon inhaled and exhaled deeply with his eyes wide with disbelief.
"What the hell is that?"
The moment Simon asked this question, he felt the second thing from the demon.
An emotion.
Pride and sadness.
A strange understanding flooded his entire being, and he realized that this demon was the source of the Devourer’s blood essence, and it was cursed.
This demon devoured not out of malice, but hunger. It was a being cursed to consume endlessly to exist, but its pride was strong to the point that he could hear the curse’s whispers and screams being emitted from the demon’s body.
"Wait. What’s happening again?"
Simon watched with wide eyes and a baffled expression as the being began to morph and change.
"What the—?"
A massive serpentine demonic beast with smooth, obsidian skin that rippled like liquid shadow appeared in the black star.
Its massive size nearly filled up about 30% of the space in the black star, and this was a massive size considering the immense size of the Black Star. Simon thought for a moment that the serpent would shatter the black star with its size, but it could not.
The serpent had faint constellations glowing under its surface, as if the night sky were trapped inside it.
It roared to the skies in anger, and when it did, Simon saw what was inside of the serpent’s jaw.
Serrated teeth filled the edges of its jaws, and at the center was a black void that bent light, matter, and every single thing in existence.
It devoured everything.
Simon could feel his spirit body and physical body trembling violently as he saw the demonic serpent. The black star with the Fearless skill was shining brightly as it protected Simon from dying due to the fear he instinctively felt toward the serpent and the previous strange humanoid demon.
As Simon looked at the serpent that was roaring at the skies in rage and anger, he found his blood boiling with a primal fury that nearly threatened to overwhelm his mind.
And this was shocking to him because his mind was not that of a fifteen-year-old child but of a sixty-year-old man with countless life experiences.
’What sort of a demon is this?’
Just as Simon had this thought, the serpentine demon began to change, and in less than a minute, a new demon appeared.
This demon was colossal, twice the size of the serpent. It was humanoid and had six arms with a cracked exoskeleton that was like molten rock. On its back were six massive black wings, and on its chest was a circular mouth filled with endless rotating teeth.
Six golden eyes were on its massive face, and its every breath was like a black hole that devoured everything, even light, without giving anything back.
When Simon looked at this creature, all he felt was hunger, greed, and pride.
It was extremely baffling to the point that Simon groaned as he felt his entire being experiencing a strange transformation.
As he held his head while groaning, the colossal demon looked at Simon, unnoticed by him, and then the demon attempted to glance at the Black Star with the Fearless rune on it, but it exploded into an ocean of black blood before it could.
The Black Star suddenly became darker, and the blood began to swirl rapidly and violently like a turbulent ocean that was placed in a planetary washing machine.
Simon’s groan of pain increased as he felt something in him beginning to change, and as the ocean of black blood suddenly became a tiny dot, Simon fell on his knees.
He gasped heavily, and when he looked at the tiny black dot in the black star, the dot suddenly exploded, shocking Simon.
Before Simon could comprehend what was happening, a black rune appeared at the center of the Black Star, and Simon felt a refreshing energy wash over him when he saw this black rune.
Depending on how Simon wanted it to be, the black rune could appear as a colossal rune the size of the colossal demon he saw, or it could be as tiny as a dot.
Simon gazed at the rune for a few seconds, and although he had a lot of questions, he knew that this rune gave him the skill... Devour.
Simon went through the skill, and his eyes flashed when he absorbed information about the skill.
’This has to be the skill with the largest amount of information I have ever encountered. Only divine skills have this level of information, but for some reason, I feel like this skill has far more information in it than a divine skill.’
’Although I might not understand much of it, I believe I can surpass my previous self with Devour.’
Devour, just like its name, was a skill that allowed Simon to consume things, but with extreme efficiency and with a terrifying result.
Simon suddenly recalled something he had forgotten due to the strangeness of everything in the last few minutes.
"What about the baptism?"
The moment he said this, the black star lit up.