Devour Vol 2 Ch 9: I Don’t Want To Be A Destroyer, Goldens Regret

The fabric of space itself trembled as the Golden Devourer moved, her very presence distorting reality. Gravity bent and wavered with each step she took, and the stars themselves seemed to dim in reverence. Her golden hair flowed like waves of liquid sunlight, and in her hands, she cradled the tiniest of specks—a mere fragment of life, a mortal being so insignificant compared to the vastness of her existence, yet held with the utmost care.

Her enormous golden eyes, capable of seeing galaxies in a single glance, focused entirely on the unconscious form of Conrad, his fragile body wrapped in a shell of dark energy.

Her heart, a force that pulsed with the energy of a thousand dying stars, clenched with worry.

"What the hell were you thinking?!" she roared, her voice sending tremors rippling through the cosmos. Moons cracked, stars flickered, and planets on the edges of distant systems shuddered at the force of her fury. She turned her glare towards her sister, the Dark Devourer, who floated idly with a blank expression, her inky form absorbing the very light around her.

Darkness shrugged. "It was the only way to stop the fighting," she replied smoothly. "Would you rather I had let you guys tear each other apart?"

Golden's focus on Conrad increased slightly—just enough to feel the warmth of his tiny existence without crushing him under her immense power. She could still sense the flicker of life within him, fragile but steady. Relief flooded her, though it didn't extinguish the anger bubbling beneath the surface.

"He's a mortal," she hissed. "You know how easily they break!"

A laugh rang out—a sharp, mocking cackle that echoed through the vast emptiness of space.

Golden and Darkness turned to face the third presence among them. Crimson, the wildest of their kin, hovered nearby, her arms crossed, a smirk twisting her lips. Her form burned with the intensity of collapsing suns, her crimson hair flickering like a wildfire across the void.

"All this anger over a speck," Crimson scoffed, shaking her head in amusement. "A speck that could probably get lost inside one of your nipple pores, dear sister. How foolish."

Golden's glare darkened, her cosmic energies surging violently. But Crimson only laughed harder.

"What happened to you, sister?" she mused, tilting her head. "I remember when you stood tall amidst the ruins of entire civilizations, watching planets crumble to dust beneath your body. You never shed a tear then."

Golden said nothing, her gaze shifting back to the tiny life in her palm.

Crimson's smirk widened. "Have you gone soft?"

Golden's fingers trembled slightly.

"Don't you ever stop to wonder, Crimson?" she asked, her voice quieter now, but heavy with something far deeper than rage.

Crimson raised an eyebrow. "Wonder about what?"

Golden exhaled, and her breath sent ripples through the very fabric of reality.

"We call them mortals, as if we are something greater," she murmured, her voice barely above a whisper, yet it resonated through the stars. "But we are not immortal either."

Darkness and Crimson both stilled.

Golden continued, her golden gaze distant, lost in memories spanning eons. "We've existed for so long... going from one galaxy to another, devouring, consuming, feeding—all just to stave off this hunger inside us. But why? How many lives must be taken just for us to survive?"

A silence stretched between them, vast and unbroken.

Golden's fingers tightened around Conrad as she felt her vision blur.

"I see their faces," she confessed, her voice cracking. "The faces of all the beings I've destroyed. The civilizations we've wiped out. They haunt me, Crimson."

For the first time, real emotion bled into her voice, shaking the very stars around them.

"I don't want to be a destroyer."

A tear—huge enough to extinguish suns—escaped her eye, falling into the abyss of space.

Far below, a distant planet cracked from the sheer force of her sorrow, molten rivers spilling from its core.

Crimson's smirk faded.

She had seen Golden angry. She had seen her merciless.

But she had never seen her broken.

Darkness floated closer, the abyssal void of her body drawing in the faint light around her. Without hesitation, she wrapped her arms around her sister, pressing their celestial forms together. The universe itself seemed to settle as she whispered, "I don't know why we were created this way either... but we were created this way."

Golden trembled beneath her embrace.

Darkness pulled back slightly, looking into her sister's glowing eyes. "I never cared much for the little microbes scurrying on those planets," she admitted. "But I care for you."

Golden swallowed, her hands still cradling Conrad's unconscious form.

Darkness turned to Crimson.

"Truly, if this is troubling her so much, then we should find answers together."

Crimson stared at them for a long moment.

Then she exhaled sharply through her nose, running a hand through her fiery hair.

"This is ridiculous," she muttered.

But there was no venom in her voice.

She sighed, rolling her shoulders as she glanced into the cosmic abyss surrounding them. "If we're going to search for answers," she said, crossing her arms, "then we'd better hurry."

Golden furrowed her brows. "Why?"

Crimson's eyes flickered with something unreadable.

"The All-Mother is waking," she said simply.

Golden and Darkness stiffened.

"The Grand Family is assembling," Crimson continued. "The others will be gathering soon."

A heavy silence fell between them, heavier than anything before.

Golden stared down at the mortal in her palm. The weight of the cosmos pressed against her chest.

The All-Mother... the being who had birthed them, who had made them what they were.

If there were answers to be found, it would be with her.

And yet, Golden felt a chill crawl through her existence.

Would she like the answers she found?