Demonic Po*nstar System

Chapter 578: The Bottomless One

The pull intensified.

Particles screamed past Kaiden, ripping free from the ground, the air, the space between moments. They funneled toward the Bottomless One in violent streams, vanishing into the hollow at its center without resistance or delay. The creature didn’t prioritize one source over the other. It took everything.

Including him.

Kaiden’s boots dragged furrows through the ground as the force caught hold of his body. His enlarged frame held for a second, muscles locking as he leaned back and planted his feet.

The pull didn’t care. It only increased.

"Gh!" His teeth clenched as his arms lifted against his will, fingers stretching toward the void.

He dug in, calves screaming as the ground beneath him began to crack. Gluttony answered reflexively. Power, the result of his own gluttonous intake of the surrounding particles, poured inward, dense and heavy, packing into muscle and bone as he tried to anchor himself through sheer presence. His body grew denser, heavier, harder to move.

The Bottomless One grew.

It had been much smaller than him when it arrived. Now its swollen limbs thickened, its bulk expanding outward as the stolen particles layered into it. Its pull sharpened with every breath it took, the void at its center widening.

Kaiden’s boots left the ground for half a second before slamming back down.

’Too fast... It’s growing much quicker than I am...’ he muttered through his teeth.

The creature swelled again.

’I can’t let it finish feeding.’

He leaned forward instead of back.

The pull became his ally instead of an enemy to resist.

Kaiden raised his fists.

’If it can eat everything, then the answer is to kill it before it grows too powerful.’

Kaiden played more than enough games to understand. Those who were scalers, trying to reach the endgame where they’d be more powerful than others, had a glaring weakness. The early game. Those who had foregone scaling for early power had enough strength to shut the scaler down before it could begin outpacing others.

That’s why Kaiden stepped into the pull.

The force tore at him, yanking his body forward, and he let it. He dropped his weight, twisted his hips, and rode the drag like a sling winding tight. The ground vanished beneath his boots as he launched with every ounce of mass and momentum packed into a single line.

*Bang!*

His punch landed.

The impact thundered.

The shock ran through the Bottomless One’s body in a visible wave, its swollen form rippling outward as if struck by a collapsing wall. Layers of distorted flesh buckled. The hollow at its center warped, edges folding in on themselves for a fraction of a second.

Kaiden felt it travel.

Bone-deep feedback rattled his arm, the force rebounding through his shoulder and into his spine. The pull faltered.

Then it resumed.

Harder.

"What...?" Kaiden sucked in a sharp breath as the vacuum bit down again, stronger than before.

The creature didn’t retreat or try to fight back. The void at its center kept inhaling, wide and steady, drawing particles past Kaiden’s shoulders, past his ribs, past his face. Its body continued to swell even as the last echoes of the punch faded through it.

"What a greedy creature!" Kaiden snarled and twisted midair, slamming another fist into it. Then another.

He struck faster, using the pull to snap his body forward again and again, blows chaining together as Gluttony reinforced his limbs on the fly. Each punch landed with concussive force, space cracking around his knuckles, shockwaves tearing loose fragments of warped mass.

The Bottomless One staggered.

Its bulk lurched, uneven limbs dragging as the repeated impacts shoved it backward through the air. The pull wavered, shuddering under the barrage.

Kaiden pressed.

He drove himself into it, fists blurring as he unloaded everything he had. Short, brutal strikes meant to crush, to rupture, to overwhelm before the thing could adapt. His arms screamed with strain as he forced more power through them, density stacking tighter with every blow.

For a few seconds, it worked.

Then the particles surged.

Streams thickened, pouring into the hollow faster than before. The creature ballooned outward, mass layering over mass, its frame stabilizing even as Kaiden’s punches kept landing. The stagger times shortened. The ripples dampened.

His next strike sank in and stopped.

Kaiden’s fist buried itself in yielding bulk that no longer gave way. The recoil snapped back into him, jarring his elbow. He ripped his arm free and struck again, harder.

The response barely changed.

The Bottomless One loomed larger now, its swollen form dwarfing Kaiden’s expanded frame. The pull deepened, dragging at his torso, his legs, his breath. Particles ripped past him in blinding torrents, feeding the thing faster than he could damage it.

Kaiden’s teeth ground together as he reared back for another punch.

The pull spiked.

It stopped feeling like a giant, greed-powered vacuum and started feeling like actual hands gripping his body and pulling violently.

Kaiden’s torso jerked forward mid-motion, shoulders yanked toward the hollow as the force locked onto him with clear intent of consumption. His arms snapped out wide as his balance broke, boots skidding across the ruined ground again.

"!!" His breath tore out of him in a sharp bark as his chest compressed. His jaw clenched as hard as it had ever.

Being consumed by this horrible creature was a nightmarish prospect that Kaiden wanted to avoid no matter what.

The pull dragged him another half step forward despite everything Gluttony packed into his frame. His heels carved trenches. The ground buckled under the strain.

Kaiden forced his arms down, shoulders shaking as he fought to bring his weight back under control. His breathing broke rhythm, sharp and uneven, chest hitching as he tried to force air in against the pressure crushing inward.

A new strategy was needed.

But to do that, he had to create some distance.

His leg came up.

He twisted hard, core screaming as he rotated through the pull instead of against it, hips snapping around with everything he had. The kick tore through the air in a wide arc, heel leading.

*BOOM!*

The impact detonated through the creature’s bulk.

The force rippled outward, the Bottomless One’s swollen mass folding around the strike as the shock punched through it.

Kaiden used the chance.

He rode the recoil, slamming his planted foot down and unloading everything into his legs. Muscle compressed. Tendons screamed. The ground cratered as he launched.

He went up and back at the same time, body folding into a tight arc as he ripped himself free from the immediate draw. Air tore past him as he cleared distance in a single explosive leap, momentum carrying him high and away.

He landed hard, boots digging in as he skidded backward another several meters before stopping.

His chest heaved.

Kaiden straightened with his shoulders rising and falling as he lifted his head.

The Bottomless One filled his vision. His entire vision.

"What..."

It towered over him.

Its bulk had multiplied again, without Kaiden even noticing it. He was too busy killing the creature with his barrage of punches.

Swollen limbs were stacked upon each other. Its mass was such that it was blotting out chunks of the warped sky behind it. The hollow at its center stretched wide enough now to swallow skyscrapers whole, its edges vibrating as particles streamed continuously inward.

The consumption never stopped. It was still going, still growing. Its hunger was truly endless. Its capacity bottomless.

’When did it get that big...?’