Chapter Three: The Mutated Divine Martial Beast

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In truth, Gluttony found things increasingly strange. After staring for a long while, he finally said, “I remember it wasn’t like this before. It was just a small bud with a few little leaves; what’s to talk about with a plant-type?”

Phantom Thief observed Gluttony’s expression carefully and, certain he wasn’t being deceived, couldn’t help but remark, “You’re right, this is indeed a peculiar plant-type divine beast. It’s really odd.”

The bizarre face in the middle of the strange flower remained utterly unmoved. Phantom Thief asked, “Hey, weird flower, you seemed to be able to talk just now. Say something else.”

The strange flower pulled a funny face at Phantom Thief and replied, “What do you want me to say?”

Phantom Thief let out a joyous screech. “It really talks! Hahaha!”

He grabbed two crystals from the box and held them to the flower’s mouth. “Here, these crystal cores are for you to eat.”

The face at the center of the flower clearly hesitated. A green vine suddenly sprouted from its body, curling around the two crystals. After glancing to either side, the flower asked, “Are these for eating?” Each word was pronounced with effort, revealing that speech did not come naturally to it.

Phantom Thief nodded enthusiastically. “Of course you can eat them.”

The strange flower suddenly held one crystal out to Phantom Thief’s mouth. “Liar. Eat it yourself and show me.”

This made Phantom Thief burst into laughter. After a while, he said, “You’re as dim as your master. These magic beast crystal cores are food for divine beasts like you. Though plant-types can’t usually use them, surely you’ve heard people mention it?”

Gluttony shook his head off to the side. Even among noble families like his, who owned entire planets, it was impossible to regularly buy crystal cores to feed their divine beasts. Besides, everyone knew Gluttony’s beast was a plant type—no mouth, no digestive system, so obviously it couldn’t use crystal cores. No one had ever brought it up to him.

The strange flower seemed willing to try. Cautiously, it placed a core in its mouth. Both men stared in surprise; they realized then that the flower had no internal organs. Phantom Thief peered at the flower’s mouth for ages, then sighed and looked up at Gluttony. “It has a mouth but no organs. There’s nowhere to digest things.”

The flower spat out the crystal core, then turned to Gluttony. “Master, my ugly sibling can digest things. It’s asking to come out for some air.”

Gluttony was startled, recalling his other bizarre divine beast. But the memory made him shudder—last time that creature emerged, it secreted a corrosive liquid. If it had grown, the room would be done for.

Phantom Thief asked curiously, “What ugly sibling? Kid, what else are you hiding?”

Gluttony forced a bitter smile. “It’s the other twin divine beast.”

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“Ah, kid, not bad! A twin divine beast—hurry, let it out so I can see!” Phantom Thief was amazed.

Gluttony shook his head quickly. “No way. That thing’s liquid is too corrosive. I’m afraid the alloy here can’t withstand it.”

Just then, the strange flower spoke slowly and deliberately, “I have a way.”

With that, a multitude of thick, finger-sized vines burst from the flower, instantly covering the entire room.

Gazing at the enormous, peculiar leaves, both Gluttony and Phantom Thief were dumbfounded yet again.

The vines soon wrapped Phantom Thief up completely, prompting him to shriek and squirm.

At last, once the green vines had filled every part of the room, the flower with the human face emerged from the masses of leaves, appearing beside Gluttony. Phantom Thief, cocooned in vines with only his head showing, shouted, “Good heavens, kid, call out that treasure of yours—let me see it! What sort of monster is your divine beast? Even this one is amazing.”

Gluttony smiled wryly and waved his hand. With a flash of black light, a shower of inky droplets suddenly appeared. As the droplets landed on Gluttony, wisps of smoke rose from his body. Before he could react, he was startled by the sight before him—a bizarre flower with a wide maw appeared, about a meter in diameter, filled with rows of gleaming, razor-sharp teeth.

At that moment, Phantom Thief suddenly screeched, “Dear god, kid, how come you’re so pale? I told you to train, where did that go?”

Only then did Gluttony realize he was completely naked. He cried out in alarm, grabbed a giant leaf to cover himself, and flushed scarlet, shooting Phantom Thief a furious glare. “Yell all you want—better this than your whole skeleton showing.”

Phantom Thief didn’t want to argue and turned to the strange flower with the human face. “Throw two pieces to that thing, see if it can eat.”

But his excitement soon faded. The two crystal cores he tossed in were instantly reduced to smoke within the big mouth and absorbed by the flower’s walls. Whether it was truly eating or absorbing the energy, they couldn’t tell.

But the flower with the face knew. After a while, it exclaimed in delight, “It works! It replenishes our energy—much faster than absorbing from Master, and this energy is pure bioenergy, exactly what we need.”

With that, vine after vine tossed crystal cores into the gaping mouth. Realizing what was happening, Phantom Thief yelled, trying to stop it.

Once it stopped, both Gluttony and the flower with the face looked at the cocooned Phantom Thief. His face was thunderous with rage. “Do you think those things are rocks? Feeding them like that—each one is worth at least half a million Soth.”

Gluttony was puzzled. “Half a million Soth? How much is that?”

Phantom Thief snapped, “Never mind, just know it’s expensive. Sold in the Federation, each one fetches at least a hundred Universal Credits.”

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Gluttony gasped. He knew exactly how much a Universal Credit was worth; as the most powerful human nation, the Federation’s currency value was often mentioned by his economics professors.

Hastily, he recalled the big-mouthed flower. The human-faced flower quickly withdrew all its vines and leaves, returning the room to normal. Gluttony, now completely exposed, gratefully caught the protective suit Phantom Thief tossed over and dressed as quickly as he could.

Once clothed, he noticed Phantom Thief staring mournfully at the open cargo container.

Curious, Gluttony asked, “Old ghost, what’s wrong?”

Phantom Thief turned and growled, “In just a moment, your big-mouth flower devoured nearly thirty crystal cores. Aren’t you afraid it’ll burst?”

He seemed to come to his senses and asked, “Kid, you’re not feeling unwell, are you?”

Gluttony shook his head, a bit confused. After checking himself over, he replied, “Nothing’s wrong. Why, what could happen if you eat too many?”

“Of course you can’t just swallow them down recklessly. You have to absorb one before eating the next, or the differing energy attributes could cause a runaway reaction. It could even endanger you, the host. Don’t forget, the energy between a divine beast and its host is shared. If it can’t take it, the excess gets transferred to you. If you can’t handle it, you could explode—or at the very least, your meridians will be damaged.”

Still worried, Phantom Thief added, “Kid, go practice your breathing techniques just to be safe.”

After circulating his Dragon technique five cycles and confirming all was well, Gluttony stood up. Phantom Thief eyed him curiously. “Even your divine beasts are monsters, you strange kid.”

Then, with a sly grin, he sidled up to Gluttony. “Kid, you brought back this cargo box, but I opened it. We split it half and half.”

Gluttony had no objection, but replied, “Fine. But if you can help me get back to the Carol Empire, you can have it all.”

Phantom Thief burst out laughing. “You said it—no take-backs!”

Gluttony glared. “Of course. But if you can’t get me back to the Carol Empire, you’d better watch your back from now on.”