Chapter 163: Eating the World

"Huh?" Night asked.

​"I never really liked being the City Ruler," Sara said. "The only reason I became one was because Diana left for somewhere and didn’t want the city to fall into chaos by the time she returned."

Looking at Night’s confused expression she continued

​"I was basically managing it for her, and honestly, it was a chore. Managing just the academy was at least manageable; I used to have some free time to cultivate."

​"But once I became the City Ruler too, it became impossible to cultivate because I was always busy dealing with the messes people caused."

​Night looked at her speechlessly. "Then what do we do with the city?"

​Sara looked at him and said, "You rule it."

​Night shook his head. "I don’t have time for that."

​"Then assign it to someone, like Diana did," Sara replied.

​"Master, I think you can leave a clone to manage the city," Eve chimed in.

​"I can do that, but isn’t that a waste of a clone?" Night asked.

​Eve said, "The boost you get from being the City Ruler should improve as you expand the city, so I think it should be worth the investment."

​"Hmmm..." Night muttered.

​Honestly, he didn’t think the boost was all that good.

It just doubled his stats inside the city.

But when he thought about all the trouble he would have to go through to maintain the place, he got a headache, especially since he would be facing Demigods soon.

​He was stuck in the Rank 2 and if he wished to level more he needed to complete the quest before he could level up anymore.

He was already preparing for the tutorial under the guidance of [Dream], he would enter the tutorial when [Dream] approved he had improved enough, but till then he was stuck in Rank 2.

​"Besides," Eve added, "I think wherever we choose to live must be fully in our control. Don’t you think?"

​"That is true," Night agreed. This he could accept.

​They all talked for a while longer, and one by one, everyone left to continue what they were doing.

...

​Night sat on the roots of the Nightmare Origin Tree, which was holding the City Core inside it.

​He had already created five clones again, leaving them in the surroundings of the city to check if there were any Demigod-level monsters nearby.

Since he decided he would be Ruling this city he decided to do it earnestly.

This was a stealth mission, so it would take some time.

Right now he was her with his main body because he was about to do what he had promised System Girl.

...

​Inside the Soul Space.

​In the Void of the Nightmare World, the sun and the moon orbited each other in a mesmerizing way.

​Night stood with System Girl and [Dream] beside him.

​The others were left outside the Soul Space because what he was about to do might cause some drastic changes, and he felt it was safer for them to stay away.

​Night felt the addition of the sun and moon had made his Soul Space even more beautiful.

​[Dream], reading his thoughts as always, said, "Yes, it is indeed more beautiful than before."

​System Girl asked, "[Dream], why do you have the poor wind in your hand?"

​Night too looked at [Dream]. She was currently wearing clothes similar to Night’s, but hers looked much more refined, and no Nightmare Mist drifted off of them.

​In her hand, she held the Wind of Desolation. It struggled and tried to escape, but [Dream’s] grasp was tight.

​[Dream] smiled at its antics. "Night, isn’t it about time you did it justice and merged it with your soul?"

​"But I don’t have the Wind aspect yet...," Night said.

​[Dream’s] smile grew brighter. "Do you think you still need the aspect to bond with a Spirit Wind?"

​Night was silent for a moment. He looked at the wind, which had suddenly become still at the mention of bonding, and thought, I don’t think I will fail to merge with it, especially after I increased my affinity with the five elements.

​At this, [Dream] tossed the Wind of Desolation at Night like a ball, and he caught it carefully.

​Night looked at the Spirit Wind and asked, "Do you want to bond with me?"

​In response, the Spirit Wind bounced up and down in his hand.

​I think that is a yes? Night thought.

​Night tried to recollect how he had bonded with the Nightmare Fire, and then he attempted to do the exact same with the Wind of Desolation.

​As he did, the ball of Spirit Wind in his hand dispersed and merged with the surroundings. Suddenly, the whole Soul Space shook as powerful winds appeared out of nowhere.

​Even the Void, where no wind was supposed to exist, was howling.

​The wind felt dry and had an ancient feel to it, making it seem like his Soul Space had aged considerably in its presence.

​It was so overwhelming that, for a second, Night thought his Soul Space might wither away entirely.

​But nothing of the sort happened.

​On the Nightmare Origin Tree within the Soul Space, new light-green leaves sprouted, and their numbers perfectly matched the red leaves that corresponded to the Fire aspect.

​Night blinked. "Huh?"

​System Girl asked with a worried expression, "What happened?"

​"Nothing," Night said. "I think I just awakened the Wind aspect."

​System Girl’s worry changed to a beaming smile. "That’s great! Now you don’t have to worry about using the Spirit Wind."

​Night nodded.

​Back in the outside world, Night raised his hand, and a blackish-purple wind gathered in his palm.

Then thinking about a certain concept, he made the wind spin extremely fast.

​As the wind concentrated, he made it spin faster and faster, until in no time, he held a dense ball of spinning wind that didn’t look like wind at all.

​It looked more like his Yellow Bomb, but it was entirely composed of the Wind of Desolation mixed with Nightmare Mist.

​Night chuckled. "It looks like the Rasengan from that manga."

​"Let’s call it the Desolate Bomb," Night declared.

​He suddenly felt proud that he didn’t just name it ’Nightmare Bomb.’ He felt like he was becoming more creative by the day.

​He waved his hand, and the Desolate Bomb flew forward. He used his Domain to maintain precise control over its energy.

​It hit a rock in the distance and sank right into it.

For a second, Night thought the attack was a dud, but then he was stunned.

The rock, which had looked perfectly fine a second ago, abruptly imploded in on itself. It looked as if it had rapidly aged millions of years, and then... there was nothing left.

​Only fine dust remained, and even the dust wasn’t spared as it merged with the wind and returned to him.

​Night jumped up in shock. "What?"

​"Did I just eat a rock?" he muttered.

​He then spread the Wind of Desolation around himself like a coat of aura and inspected it.

​Sure enough, his wind now contained tiny dust particles, which were all that remained of the rock.

​"Crazy," Night whispered.

​Dream commented, "Interesting. You are no longer limited to eating corpses. Now you can even devour precious ores, metals, and the like."

​"Yes, but don’t you think that’s completely absurd?" Night asked.

​"No, why?" Dream replied.

​"Because right now, if I wished to, I could literally eat this entire world..." Night pointed out.

​System Girl: "..."

[Blaze]: "..."

[Aqua]: "..."

[Other Stalkers...]: "..."

​[Blaze] broke the silence. "Brat, I think you should hold off on that."

​"Why? What is wrong with that?" Night asked.

​"The planet you walk on is as alive as you are, and in many ways, more alive than you," [Blaze] warned. "If you attack it with the intention of eating it, it might ignore you for some time, but after a certain point, it will retaliate."

​[Blaze] said the next words heavily, ensuring Night didn’t take his warning lightly: "And trust me, you won’t like it when it does..."

​But then, Night heard a female voice that was different from [Dream’s]. If [Dream’s] voice had a mysterious feel to it, then this voice had an incredibly soothing feel.

​[Aqua] advised, "If you really want to eat it, just make sure you do it in one bite."

​Night: "..."

[Blaze]: "..."

Dream: "..."

System Girl: "..."

​This time, Night was stunned as well. He had only been joking when he said he could eat the world. But here was someone who took it seriously and was giving him genuine advice on how to do it.

​Night sensed the other party was using [Blaze]’s link to talk to him. He carefully asked, "Is that even possible?"

​"Yes, very much possible..." [Aqua] said warmly. "My father used to do it all the time."

​Night had a blank look on his face, but his thoughts were racing faster than a bullet train.

​It seems I am merely a rookie in eating.

Here I was, feeling proud of eating a Demigod.

It truly is right when they say; there is always someone out there who will make all your achievements look completely meaningless.

​"Oh, but it’s best not to eat too many planets either," [Aqua] added cheerfully, "or else other planets will reject you or suppress you the moment they sense what you did."

​Night swallowed hard. "That’s enlightening, ma’am. I feel like my vision has been broadened by your words."

​"Ma’am, you are...?" Night asked.

​"I am the Azure Water Dragon, and I go by the name [Aqua]," she replied gently. "I am [Blaze]’s wife."