Belial hated bugs. He always had, back when he was human, and even now, as something people might call a dragon or a juvennile Godzilla. Whatever he was now, the hatred stuck.
These little things loved to creep around in dark corners, and sure, in theory, any regular person, even a kid, could squash them without effort. But he still found them unnerving.
Creepy. Gross. He didn't think it was his fault either.
Most people weren't fans of bugs unless they were hardcore collectors. Bugs showed up in horror movies and monster flicks as symbols of everything revolting.
One in particular made his skin crawl, centipedes. Even though he technically knew they were arthropods, he lumped them in with spiders and cockroaches anyway.
In nightmares, he imagined some people probably dreamt of giant bugs too.
Right now, he was lurking silently, eyeing one such oversized monstrosity. A massive dark brown centipede, probably seven or eight meters long, slithered along the lake's edge.
Its sharp legs twitched in a wave of motion, its mouthparts looked like jagged knives, and its two antennae whipped the air like they owned the place as it claimed a chunk of shoreline to drink.
He'd watched it hunt earlier too.
A group of muscular young water buffalo had tried to drive it off, clearly annoyed that the creature had taken over their watering hole. Their powerful bodies tensed, hooves scraped against the ground, and they charged like tanks, horns gleaming in the sunlight.
The centipede didn't budge. Instead, it lifted its upper body and the carapace on its back glowed faintly with heat, then, it unleashed a burst of flame.
A huge wave of fire surged forward, boiling away part of the lake and swallowing the lead water buffalos.
The three unlucky ones caught in the front were charred instantly. The others tried to swerve, but two were snagged by those whip like antennae.
They were skewered, roasted alive until the smell of burning meat filled the air. Moments later, they too collapsed, flames puffing out of their nostrils as they died.
Not far off, in the steaming part of the lake, a black-scaled lizard peeked out of the water, snapping up some half-cooked fish that floated to the surface. Belial narrowed his eyes in satisfaction. The water, now above 90 degrees, was barely a warm soak to him.
It should be mentioned that this world wasn't exactly normal. Here, creatures, even bugs could breathe fire. One time, while on a hunt, Belial got hit point-blank by a fireball from something he thought would be an easy meal.
It was like taking a face full of a grenade. But he didn't flinch. His scales were tougher than steel.
Even though he was still young, the worst he walked away with was a layer of ash on his snout.
He'd started doing it on purpose. Letting dangerous monsters try out their special tricks on him just to see what they could do.
Most of the time, he didn't feel a thing. Occasionally, he'd take a scratch or a scorch mark.
Either way, he always ended up biting them in half. As he grew, fewer things could even put up a fight.
What kept bugging him, though, was the way he felt after devouring something strong. It wasn't just filling his belly, he could feel a strange warmth running through his body, like energy pulsing through his veins.
His inherited memories hinted it might be magic.
That made sense. He had eaten dozens of magical beasts by now. So where was all that magic going? Shouldn't he be able to use it?
He looked at the centipede again, considering. "Not today," he thought, settling deeper into the water. "I'll kill you later."
On the shore, the centipede now faced a new challenger a massive water buffalos, far bulkier than the rest. Its body was covered in battle scars, and it carried an icy chill in its breath. The leader of the herd.
It stepped forward with slow, heavy steps, letting out a deep, vibrating bellow.
The centipede paced along the shore, pretending to retreat, but its body coiled tighter, its fangs glowing a deep red.
The water buffalos scraped the frozen shoreline with one hoof, steam rising from the contrast of cold and heat. It lowered its head, ready for the charge.
The centipede launched first, exploding forward in a blur of flame and heat, like a missile streaking toward its target—Then came a splash.
Out of nowhere, a massive black lizard leapt from the lake, jaws clamping down on the centipede mid-attack. The two vanished back into the boiling depths. The surface rippled, blood and chunks of carapace floating up moments later.
The water buffalos's eyes went wide. He hadn't seen that coming. Around him, the rest of the herd panicked and backed off from the lake, keeping their eyes on the bubbling water.
That's when Belial struck again. Bursting from the muddy lakeside, he leaped forward and sank his jaws into the leader's thick neck.
The crunch of bone and rush of warm blood was satisfying. The water buffalos went limp instantly. With their leader gone, the rest of the herd scattered—too slow.
He weaved between them like a shadow, grabbing, crushing, killing. The chaos only lasted a few moments before the lakeside was littered with corpses.
Then came the feast.
Belial piled the bodies and tore into them. Skulls cracked, spines snapped, hearts and livers disappeared in a blink. He left nothing behind, meat, bones, organs, all devoured.
Other creatures nearby froze in terror, staring from a distance as Belial tore through his meal, gore coating his claws and face.
As he ate, he grew visibly. His frame bulked up, scales stretched tighter over swelling muscle, and his bones creaked as they thickened and lengthened.
Every part of his body was evolving under the force of the Godzilla DNA, pushing him toward an insane level of strength.And yet, the question echoed again in his mind, 'where was the magic?'
He thought about it for hours, poking through memories that didn't feel quite like his own. But in the end, his stomach always won the argument.
The hunger came back. Even after devouring tens of tons of food, it still clawed at him. He looked down at the bloody mess surrounding him and muttered, "When the hell will I finally light up that atomic furnace and become a real Godzilla?"
The thought drifted away just as quickly, swallowed by the rumbling in his belly. And he kept eating.
Time passed in a way Belial couldn't really track. Days slipped by while he wandered, no longer counting them. As a larva, he was absurdly powerful, ridiculously so.
That fact alone gave him peace of mind as he roamed the area freely, devouring the entire local food chain from top to bottom.
After a massive feast, Belial lay on his back, belly bulging, rubbing it with a satisfied grin. "Man, I'm stuffed."