THE GOD EATER

Loki immediately asked, saying, “You can assimilate a Cave Heaven belonging to a living divine being?”

Hammock nodded and said, “Yes. That’s exactly what happens when a divine being surrenders their Cave Heaven.”

So Loki nodded in understanding and said, “That’s true.”

Then he said to Hammock, “You may continue with your explanation.”

Hammock obliged by saying, “If the owner of the assimilated Cave Heaven is alive, as in the situation of surrendering a Cave Heaven, the core of the assimilated Cave Heaven will still fuse with the core of the host Cave Heaven. But everything in the core of the assimilated Cave Heaven won’t belong to the host.”

“The host will only be able to snuff out the Life Fire of the surrendered divine being at any time and borrow their Divine Position and Divine Metacs if they have a higher mastery of the pathway than the surrendered divine being.”

Then his compound eyes took on a crazy gleam, and he began to chuckle as he said, “As for what will happen with the core of a small heaven, I don’t know. I bet no one does.”

“But they are not to be blamed. After all, who can believe that a whole world can be assimilated? That’s just crazy talk. It is enough to boggle the mind.”

He began to laugh after he said. His behavior made Loki concerned.

Hammock had regained his senses after he was cut off from the influence of the will of the world. But what was going on right now was threatening to make Hammock go mad.

So Loki decided to stop bothering him. He decided to make a decision himself.

As he looked at the colorful mountain of a heart that was shining with a rainbow light, he said to himself, “I know what will happen if I eat it. I will gain some lifespan and nothing else. But what will happen to Hammock if I eat it?”

“Will Hammock lose his power as a world king if I eat it? Could Hammock also lose his life once the heart of the world is gone? It is possible.”

“It is also possible for Hammock to lose his power and lose his life if I kill the world heart. What is also certain is that I will lose whatever benefits I can get from the heart if I kill it.”

Right now, the fusion of the small world and his Cave Heaven is similar to what should happen when a Cave Heaven is surrendered to another Cave Heaven. In this case, the small world is the Cave Heaven being surrendered.

Just as Hammock had said, the will of the small world is still alive and well in the heart of the world. As the host, he has total control over the life and death of the will of the world since the heart of the world is in the core of his Cave Heaven.

He would like to kill the will of the world so as to put an end to any influence it might still have over Hammock. But he is not sure if Hammock would still retain his power as a world king if the heart of the world dies. This is why he is struggling to make a decision.

As it is, even if Hammock loses his power, Loki would still gain a lot from this trip. Not only would his Cave Heaven have increased in size, but he would still gain a lot of lifespan from eating the dead world heart.

But he is not content with this. He wants to make a powerful army of drones with Hammock, so he has to find a way to eat his cake and have it.

After thinking about this issue for 13 seconds, he decided to leave the heart alive. This was because he remembered what Hammock said about the condition for a host to borrow the Divine Position and Divine Metac of the surrendered divine being.

Hammock had said that the host must keep the surrendered divine being alive, or they would lose the surrendered Divine Position. With this as a precedent, he decided to err on the side of caution and keep the heart alive.

So he shrugged and said, “Anyway, I am the host, and this is my Cave Heaven. I can kill the will of the world anytime I want. If it messes up, I will just kill it.”

“Until I kill it, I have to make full use of the heart. I have to put it to work and make it carry its weight.”

As he thought of all of the things he could do with this heart, he began to grin. This grin appeared on both his physical body in the third dimension and on the golden statue of Fenrir in the core of the Cave Heaven.

He was grinning as he stared at the Cave Heaven. When the will of the world saw what he was doing, it shivered in fright. Then it began to plead with him.

In response, Loki said, “I will keep you alive. But you must make yourself useful. If you turn out ot be useless, I will kill you.”

The will of the world immediately said to him, “I will.”

So Loki nodded in satisfaction. Then he said, “I want you to make every living thing from your world start reproducing. You should also stop them from rampaging about. Keep them ordered and peaceful.”

“After you’re done calming them down, you should get to work creating and managing the weather. I want favorable weather to help every animal and plant grow quickly. So you must give plants that want a lot of water some rain and give them sunshine when they need it.”

He began listing out one thing after another on the to-do list of the will of the world. It was as if he were treating the will of the world as his secretary. But the position of the will of the world has become a manager of sorts.