THE GOD EATER

”It depends,” the guardian said in reply.

”It depends on the performance of this child. You can only have one child of our race at a time, so as long as this child is alive, you won’t need to birth another one. But if the child is killed, you will need to birth another one.”

The guardian held nothing back from him as they spoke. It was clear to Loki that they didn’t treat him like a threat at all.

When Loki heard the answer to his question, he didn’t know what to feel. On the one hand, he was angry that he was being called livestock to his face. Of course, this anger paled compared to the anger he felt for being treated as livestock.

On the other hand, he didn’t know if he should be happy that he wouldn’t be turned into a birthing pig for creating offspring for his overlords.

He hated that he had no choice in the matter and was being forced to become a father at the cost of 1,058,226 years of lifespan, 1,058,226 units of Entropy, and 5 units of divinity. But he was also glad that he only had to have one child alive at all times.

Because of his anger, he wanted to kill the child. He wanted to strangle it and watch the life leave its body.

But after learning that he would have to give birth to another child if this one were to die, the seething hatred within him and the accompanying intent to kill cooled considerably. Without an outlet for his anger, it turned into frustration festering within him.

’This might even be worse than the treatment under Dao Lords. Dao Lords only wanted lifespan and manpower. They wanted to squeeze every hour of labor from us. This one is going too far.’

’Not only am I being forced to become a father, but every time I become a father, but I also become weaker each time I become a father. Will I always be a slave to someone stronger than me?’

By the time he asked himself that question, his frustration had reached its peak. He was so frustrated that he wanted to roar and scream and kill. But because he was weak, he had to remain calm and collected.

As his anger cooled down, he thought, ’At least, I have high potential, so they won’t kill me.’

He chuckled inwardly as he thought, ’That’s one heck of a silver lining.’

After collecting himself, he asked, saying, ”Did every Dao Lord give birth?”

His question made the guardian frown and say, ”Stop using that word. You’re no longer Dao Lords.”

”The title of Dao Lord belonged to the archaic system, and it is no more. You’re demigods now. That’s what this stage of cultivation is called in our pantheon.”

After correcting him, it said, ”To answer your question, not yet. You’re the first one, but every Dao Lord will be made to provide a child soon. It is their purpose to produce offspring, and it is my duty as the guardian of this domain to ensure that they fulfill their duty.”

Hearing this, Loki nodded in satisfaction. Something about shared suffering made him feel a little bit better. The fact that the other Dao Lords were allowed to grow stronger also gave him hope that he might be able to break free from this predicament in the future.

Just as he was about to ask about the great being that appeared when he advanced, the egg finished hatching. The hard black shell of the egg fell apart, revealing a small black wolfen baby.

The guardian took out a piece of glowing red rock and fed it to the baby. The baby took the divine crystal and ate it eagerly. Then the grand will of the universe descended onto the scene.

A pillar of golden light fell from the sky onto the baby while freezing everything around it. Loki felt that the restriction wasn’t strong, so he could still move. But he didn’t want to move at all.

He was frozen of his free will partly because moving now would accomplish nothing good. But he was immobile mostly because he was too stunned to care about moving.

”Is that baby advancing?” he said in surprise.

”Of course,” the guardian said as if he was saying something that was common sense and Loki was stupid for not knowing it.

They said offhandly, ”Every child is at least a demigod at birth. Only the potential and power differ.”

’If someone told me that the child would someday become a Dao Lord, I would accept it without blinking. After all, I am the father. If my son can’t become a Dao Lord, then there has to be something wrong somewhere.’

’But I just became a Dao Lord, and my son also became a Dao Lord. He became a Dao Lord a few seconds after he was born. At this rate of growth, this child will quickly become stronger than me.’

’It is one thing that I have to bow my head to this guardian, but will I have to bow my head to my son too? Is this hell? Am I in hell right now?’

If he were in hell, all of these would be reasonable, and he would be willing to accept it because he had done a lot of bad things in life. So far, he hasn’t had a reason to regret the things he did to reach his current level of power, but he would easily admit that he deserved something like this.

However, deserving something didn’t mean that he would be content with it. Being deserving of something also didn’t mean that he had to get it.

’Just earlier, I killed millions of people for their lifespan. Those people didn’t deserve to be killed. They got killed anyway because they were weak. They were weak and were at the wrong place at the wrong time, leading to their wrongful deaths.’