A Hunger Parasite without a compatible host is like a leaking nuclear reactor. It doesn't just want to kill; it wants to consume mass to fill the void where human consciousness used to be.

  The monster that was once the Solar Knight roared. It wasn't a sound. It was a physical shockwave that shattered the glass of the VIP box.

  "SCATTER!" I shouted.

  Luna leaped to the left, using the recoil of her sonic baton to slide across the stage. I threw myself to the right, activating my boot thrusters at the last millisecond.

  A tentacle of black flesh crushed the spot where I had been standing, pulverizing the reinforced concrete.

  [COMBAT ANALYSIS]

  [TARGET: UNSTABLE.]

  [ENEMY BODY TEMPERATURE: 400°C AND RISING.]

  [RECOMMENDED STRATEGY: AVOID DIRECT CONFRONTATION. AWAIT METABOLIC COLLAPSE.]

  "Wait?" I snarled, rolling to my feet. "If we wait, he eats the front row! We have to accelerate the process!"

  The monster swiveled its multiple heads. It ignored the fleeing crowd. It wanted the source of the pain. It wanted us.

  "Hey, squid-face!" Luna yelled, climbing on top of a fallen speaker. She adjusted her microphone. "This one’s to burst your eardrums!"

  She unleashed a focused sonic blast. The air distorted.

  The attack hit the monster's open chest, making the flesh vibrate like Jell-O. The beast recoiled, screeching, but quickly adapted. Its muscle fibers readjusted, becoming rigid as steel to absorb the sound.

  "He evolves fast!" Luna warned.

  The monster fired a beam of golden energy from its main mouth—the remnant of its "hero" power, now corrupted and purple.

  The beam swept across the stage.

  I couldn't dodge. Luna was in the trajectory.

  "SHIELD!" I ordered my Parasite.

  My left arm exploded into black chitin and bone. I planted my feet on the ground.

  The beam hit my shield.

  I smelled my own skin burning. The force was colossal. My bones screamed. I was dragged backward, carving trenches into the stage floor.

  "Arthur!" Luna stopped attacking, horrified.

  "Keep playing!" I shouted, teeth gritted, holding back the torrent of energy. "Keep him busy! I'm going to perform invasive surgery!"

  The beam ceased. The monster needed to recharge.

  It was my three-second window.

  I dropped the shield (which dissolved into smoke and dead skin) and ran.

  Not away. Inside.

  I ran straight into the mass of tentacles.

  The monster tried to grab me.

  I used the Parasite's perception. The world went into slow motion.

  Left. Slide. Jump.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  I sliced a tentacle with the Mithril scalpel. Acidic blood splashed onto my mask, melting the visor. I ripped the mask off.

  I was now face-to-face with the beast's core: the exposed heart in the open chest, glowing like a furnace.

  "You're hungry, aren't you?" I whispered, my red eyes reflecting the horror before me. "A God's metabolism is expensive. You need calories."

  I pulled the last vial from my belt.

  It wasn't poison. It wasn't acid.

  It was Dungeon Pure Glucose Concentrate mixed with Dragon Cardiac Stimulant.

  Basically, it was enough liquid energy to make an elephant run at the speed of sound until its heart exploded.

  The monster saw the vial. Its instinct didn't see danger. It saw food.

  It opened its ribcage, launching smaller mouths to devour the vial in my hand.

  I didn't throw it. I let him bite.

  The secondary mouth clamped down on my right hand and the vial together.

  I felt the fangs pierce my glove and flesh.

  I screamed in pain, but I smiled.

  "BON APPéTIT!"

  The Parasite inside me reacted to the bite, hardening my blood to trap the monster's mouth on my hand for one fatal second. The vial shattered inside its throat.

  I kicked the beast's chest to break free, tearing my hand in the process, and leaped back.

  The effect was instantaneous.

  The monster's metabolism, already accelerated by the lack of a host, received an injection of rocket fuel.

  THUMP-THUMP.

  The sound of his heart echoed through the stadium speakers.

  THUMP-THUMP!

  Faster.

  THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP!

  The beast froze. It began to glow.

  Red flesh turned white. The heat radiating from him began to melt the plastic of the stage.

  He tried to scream, but the air in his lungs incinerated.

  "Luna! Sound barrier! Now!" I shouted, running to the edge of the stage.

  Luna understood. She slammed the baton into the ground and created a dome of silence and pressure around us.

  The Solar Knight looked at the sky one last time. The human part of him, the deformed face on the ground, seemed to cry.

  And then, he exploded.

  It wasn't a fire explosion. It was a biological explosion.

  Boiling blood, bone, and corrupted mana flew in all directions, coating the cameras, the empty bleachers, and the giant screens.

  The silence that followed was heavy.

  The smoke cleared.

  Where the world's greatest hero once stood, only a smoking crater of charred flesh remained.

  I was lying on the ground, gasping, holding my mangled right hand. The Parasite was already knitting the tendons back together, but the pain was real.

  Luna approached, lowering the barrier. She was covered in soot and golden slime.

  She looked at the crater. Then she looked at the giant screen, which was still broadcasting the grotesque scene to the whole world.

  "Is it over?" she asked, her voice trembling.

  I stood up with difficulty. I looked at the cameras. The red "ON AIR" light was still lit.

  I walked to the main camera. I wiped the lens with my thumb, stained with blue blood.

  I stared into the lens. I stared at Commander Jin, Helix Pharma, the government, and every citizen who bought the lie.

  "We are the Sanitation Division," I said, my hoarse voice captured by the camera's microphone. "We clean up the trash you idolize. No need to thank us."

  I kicked the camera, cutting the feed.

  Five minutes later, the rear service door exploded open.

  The getaway van screeched to a halt. The side door slid open.

  Valéria was at the wheel, a cigar in her mouth and a shotgun on her lap. Madame Gristle was in the back seat, holding a grenade launcher.

  "Get in, you suicidal idiots!" Valéria yelled. "The Sovereignty Royal Guard is two minutes out! And they don't want autographs!"

  We jumped into the van.

  Luna fell onto the seat, exhausted, dropping the baton. I sat by the door, watching the stadium recede as Valéria sped through the deserted streets of S?o Paulo.

  Sirens wailed across the city. Helicopters with searchlights swept the blocks.

  We were, officially, the most wanted terrorists in the hemisphere.

  "You look terrible, Doctor," Gristle commented, handing me a healing potion and an ogre meat sandwich.

  "I feel great," I replied, drinking the potion. It tasted like mint and kerosene. I looked at my hand, which already had new skin, though pink and sensitive.

  Luna started to laugh. A nervous, hysterical laugh that soon turned into genuine guffaws.

  "We... we killed the Solar Knight on live TV!" she said, wiping away tears. "My Idol career is really over now."

  "On the contrary." I smiled, biting into the sandwich. "You just put on the most unforgettable show in history."

  I looked out the window. The rain had stopped. The city lights looked different now. Less bright, perhaps. But more real.

  The lie was over. The real war was beginning.

  The Parasite vibrated with contentment. It was full. Not of food, but of purpose.

  "Where to now?" asked Valéria, taking a sharp turn onto the highway.

  I pulled the Gospel of Flesh from my pocket, the book we stole from the Church. There was a bookmark on an old map.

  A location where Helix Pharma had no jurisdiction. A place where the Rifts were ancient and the monsters were... civilized.

  "South," I replied. "We're going to the Ruins of Curitiba. They say there's a Necropolis there where the dead don't stay dead. And I need a new lab."

  Valéria grinned and floored it. The van vanished into the night, leaving behind the chaos, the glory, and the remains of a false god.

  The cleanup job was done.

  Now, it was time for reconstruction.