The Supreme Soul, Starting with Death

The Supreme Soul Begins with Death (Author: Decaying Rope)

Summary:

The protagonist of a shonen manga breaks free from fate through bonds.

The protagonists of shoujo manga warm the world with love.

The protagonist of a horror story uses courage to illuminate the darkness.

Hmm? You're asking me how this protagonist writes his own story?

Well, to my shame, I relied on connections.

Captain Aizen, the Incubators are trying to outsmart me. Could you spare some time to set a trap for them?

Hey, Dumbledore keeps telling me about the greatness of love, why don't you go show him what true love is?

Phosphophyllite, this guy's got some nerve playing with gem magic! Why don't you bring your friends over for a spin?

Doraemon, this world is so much fun! Bring Nobita and the others here for summer vacation!

Wow, this old guy is a bit difficult to deal with, Lord Spirit King~ The Law of Cycles~ The Seeder~

Anyone have time to beat him up for me?

Yes, as you can see, this is what I rely on to be the main character~

Chapter One: The Giant Beast Under the Moon

"Wow, am I dead? I'm so happy!"

Wait, why would dying be a happy thing?

"Roar! Not only is it dead, but it's turned into a monster! This is so interesting!"

[Damn it, what's so fun about turning into a monster? Am I crazy? Why am I so excited?]

"Huh, am I a Hollow? Have I been transported to the world of Bleach? This is amazing!"

[Ugh! The Bleach world is seeing hordes of weaklings dying, what's so great about that? What's wrong with my brain? Why am I getting excited about this?!]

Under the moonlight, the four-legged monster covered in white bone armor scratched the ground restlessly. Soft soil and hard rocks were no different under its sharp claws, which easily cut them into neat little pieces.

The pale, bone mask concealed the monster's face, making it impossible to see his expression. However, the alternating flashes of joy and anxiety in his blood-red eyes revealed that his mental state was not stable. The muffled growls that he unconsciously emitted further intensified the dangerous aura emanating from him.

"...I see. I remember that in the setting of Bleach, when a normal soul becomes a Hollow, it will randomly lose a certain emotion, forming an unhealable void in its heart. Is it because I lost some negative emotions that I feel happy at any time, regardless of the occasion or situation?"

Suddenly, the terrifying monster uttered human language, seemingly sorting out its current situation. Although every detail of its body exuded strong bestiality, its words were logical and coherent, giving it a touch of humanity.

"Actually, there's nothing wrong with being optimistic, but I don't know what emotion I've lost. Fear? Annoyance? Anger? Or despair? Hmm? Is this my void? It actually went right through my chest and doesn't hurt at all. That's amazing!"

Having roughly figured out why he was filled with a strange excitement, Gu Shi's tense mind relaxed slightly. His attention suddenly shifted, and he began to study his body with great interest. Without any sense of public decency, he broke off a twig from a roadside tree and inserted it into the hole in his chest. As if he had found a new toy, he happily stirred it back and forth for a while before arriving at an obvious conclusion.

"Hmm, it seems that a Hollow hole really is just a hole in the body. Even if you stuff things into it, you won't feel anything. Tsk tsk, I really feel sorry for those guys with Hollow holes on their hands. They must be misunderstood a lot for having special hobbies."

While he expressed sympathy, Gu Shi's eyes only held undisguised pleasure. He casually tossed aside the branch he had grown tired of playing with, looked around, and his scarlet eyes pierced through the dark night, quickly locking onto the small village not far away, which was immersed in the darkness.

"Hooray, target spotted. The entire village is completely dark at night. There's no electricity, not even candles or oil lamps. It seems there are still at least two hundred years before the story begins? That's great news."

After a rough mental estimate, Gu Shi twisted his body on the spot to loosen up, then suddenly exerted force with his limbs, controlling his monster body without any sluggishness, and ran wildly towards the village in the night. His strong limbs gave him extremely fast speed, and when he ran, he even left a long white afterimage behind him.

Within minutes, Gu Shi appeared outside the village. He stared silently at the quiet village, his feelings slightly complicated.

These dilapidated wooden houses in front of him once again proved his previous guess. Japan was still in a very backward era, and there was still a considerable gap between it and the 21st century when the story began. Although there was still a risk of being attacked by Shinigami and Quincy in the short term, it was generally safe, at least safer than the era when all kinds of outrageous combat power emerged after the start of the story.

The confirmation of his conjecture should have boosted Gu Shi's mood and made him even happier, but the alluring aromas carried on the night breeze made it impossible for him to feel happy. He knew in his heart that the aroma that made him feel hungry did not come from any delicious food, but rather from the souls of the sleeping people in the village.

The Void are ferocious beasts that devour souls. Eating humans is one of their deepest instincts. Only by devouring more and stronger souls can the Void become stronger and gain the strength to protect itself. Gu Shi already knew all this, but actually smelling the aroma of humans and realizing that he had developed a craving for them still made him feel nauseous.

"...Forget it, I'm not mentally prepared yet, let's retreat first."

After standing there hesitating for a while, Gu Shi gritted his teeth and forcibly suppressed his urge to barge into the village and feast on a buffet. He decided to return to the wilderness where there were no humans to tempt him and wait patiently for his surging appetite to subside.

Once he decided to give up, Gu Shi quickly became happy again, letting out low, muffled laughs.

"Hehe, as expected, escaping is shameful but effective. I feel much lighter now."

Muttering to himself, the pale monster turned to leave, but just then, a breeze blew by, and an incredibly tempting fragrance drifted into his nose. The sweet scent was so alluring that compared to it, the fragrances of human souls that Gu Shi had smelled before were nothing more than the stench of rotten fish and shrimp.

The strong, exotic fragrance acted like a sturdy iron chain, firmly binding Gu Shi, who wanted to leave.

Bathed in moonlight, the pale monster's eyes beneath the mask glowed even more intensely crimson. He slowly turned his head, his movements stiff, staring intently at an inconspicuous little wooden house in the corner of the village. The surging appetite in his eyes was as suffocating as thick, foul blood about to spill out.

"Just one look, I'll only look once. I won't eat it, I promise I won't eat it, so just let me look..."

Muttering whispers that seemed to be trying to convince no one, the man-eating monster stepped into the peaceful village under the cover of night.

Chapter Two is really quite satisfying!

Driven by intense hunger, Gu Shi quickly arrived at the small house located in the corner of the village. It was no different from the other wooden houses, just as dilapidated and old. But as the old saying goes, a mountain is not important if it is high, but if there is a deity living there. Similarly, a wooden house doesn't need to be too big, as long as the delicious food inside is attractive enough.

Gu Shi stood outside the wooden house, hesitated for only a few seconds, then smashed through the already dilapidated window, poked his huge head into the house, and locked his gaze on the child sleeping on the floor by the window.

Judging from appearance alone, this child does not meet the requirements of "color, aroma and taste" that good food should have. He is short and thin, so much so that it is impossible to tell his gender. The only way to guess that he is a boy is by his short hair.

In addition, the child's skin was an unhealthy waxy yellow, his cheeks were as dry as a monkey that had been infected with the plague in the mountains, and there were unexplained scars and stains all over his body. He was the kind of child that would make people lose their appetite at first glance.

However, none of this affected Gu Shi's appetite, which continued to rise. The strong aroma emanating from the boy's soul was enough to make any discerning diner overlook the slightly less appealing appearance of the ingredients.

Gazing at the boy, Gu Shi realized for the first time that his appetite could be so intense. In all his experiences before and after death, he had never felt such a strong urge to eat something. This unprecedented feeling had a powerful impact on his mind. He unconsciously opened his mouth slowly, and the huge, dark maw loomed over the boy's head.

Just then, the boy seemed to finally be awakened by the noise of Gu Shi smashing the window. He belatedly opened his eyes and, with the help of the moonlight streaming in from the window, immediately saw the huge mouth hanging above his head. His pupils contracted sharply, and his body tensed up instantly, as if he could jump up and run away at any moment.

However, unexpectedly, the surprise and fear only lingered in the boy's eyes for a brief moment before his entire body completely relaxed. His clear eyes met Gu Shi's bloodshot eyes, and a smile that Gu Shi couldn't understand slowly appeared on his face.

"Lord Yokai, are you hungry too? Hunger really is a terrible feeling."

The sound of human language ringing in his ears instantly snapped Gu Shi out of his gluttony, making him realize that what was in front of him was not some unremarkable delicacy, but a real human being, an intelligent life form no different from his former self.

As his overwhelming appetite slowly subsided, Gu Shi quickly pulled his head back, afraid that he might accidentally bite off that slender neck.

Having personally experienced death, Gu Shi had no aversion to killing, but cannibalism was different. It seriously violated the ethical and moral values ​​he had cultivated over the past twenty years, making him feel disgusted from the bottom of his heart.

However, thanks to the fact that he accidentally lost negative emotions such as fear or despair when he was in the ethereal state, he can now quickly regain his happiness. The disgusting feeling of almost eating people did not linger for long before his mind became active again, and he poked his head into the window again to look at the gaunt boy.

"Little guy, you don't seem afraid of me at all, and what you just said was strange. Are you going to reveal your true form next and say something like, 'Since we're both hungry, let's see who can eat whom!' and then turn around and eat me up?"

The boy, who had already sat up, was clearly overwhelmed by Gu Shi's long string of words. After a moment of confusion, he finally understood what Gu Shi meant and quickly shook his head vigorously.

"No, no, you misunderstand, you monster. I'm just an ordinary human, really."

Watching the boy's head sway back and forth on that stick-like neck, Gu Shi was inexplicably worried that he might use too much force and snap his own neck with a snap. So he simply stretched out a paw and gently pressed down on the boy's head.

"Alright, alright, don't get so worked up. Don't worry, I won't eat you. Just consider it a favor to me. Chatting with me helps me maintain my humanity."

Gu Shi's words of comfort did not seem to make the boy happy. A clear look of disappointment appeared on his thin face, and he asked another question unwillingly.

"Lord Demon, are you really not going to eat? I should be fine..."

The boy, who had originally intended to say that he tasted pretty good, paused for a moment, looked down at his withered body, and seemed a little dejected, but he quickly cheered up and continued.

"I should still be quite chewy. I fell from a tree before and was perfectly fine, so my bones must be very strong. I won't let you down."

Gu Shi tilted his head in confusion, and his large head accidentally bumped into the wooden wall by the window. The old, rotten wooden plank was easily knocked open, creating a sizable hole and letting more moonlight into the room, illuminating the boy's sincere expression even more clearly.

"Little guy, is something wrong with you?"

Why are you so willing to treat me to a meal?

Out of a rare sense of politeness, Gu Shi didn't say the second half of her sentence, but this seemed to cause the boy to misunderstand further.

"I'm not sick, really. Although I'm thin, I've always been very healthy. I would never let you get a stomachache, Demon Lord!"

The boy's efforts to clear up the misunderstanding and his desperate attempts to promote himself, while somewhat odd to Gu Shi, also provided a bit of enjoyment in the conversation. He took a closer look at the boy's body and found that the child was indeed telling the truth; his thin frame, aside from severe malnutrition, showed no obvious signs of illness, so food safety shouldn't be a problem…

Wait a minute! Why am I thinking about food again?

He shook his head vigorously, trying to banish thoughts of food safety from his mind, lest he accidentally test the product on the spot and taste it himself to see if the boy really was as chewy as he claimed.

"Stop! I believe you're not sick anymore. Hmm, tell me why you want me to eat you up so badly."

As soon as Gu Shi asked the question, the boy became noticeably shy, lowering his head as if embarrassed, and clasping his hands together nervously.

This bizarre behavior made Gu Shi think, if he didn't know that his current appearance as a virtual being was mostly outside the range of human aesthetics, that the child had fallen in love with him at first sight.

"Hey, you little guy are really something. You're not even afraid of being eaten by me, yet you still get nervous. Just say what you're thinking, don't be so coy."

Chapter Three: Are you out of your mind, kid?

Urged on by Gu Shi, the boy became even more nervous, but since the "monster master" was already impatient, he dared not continue to hesitate. He could only close his eyes and blurt out all his thoughts at once.

"Lord Yokai, could you please eat me first, and then go and eat all those ronin samurai in the mountains too?! Each of them is stronger than me, and they'll definitely have more meat and taste better than me!"

Making a "rude" request to the "monster master" seemed to have exhausted all the boy's courage, and his already thin body appeared to have shrunk even further.

Gu Shi, who traveled from the 21st century, couldn't understand the awe that ordinary people had for "monsters" in this era. However, he knew that with his current monstrous appearance, it was already commendable for most people to dare to speak to him, let alone negotiate with him.

Therefore, Gu Shi's goodwill towards the boy increased. Although he did not intend to actually eat people as the boy requested, if the boy had any grudges with those so-called ronin samurai, Gu Shi would not mind helping the boy get revenge for the sake of the boy keeping him company. After all, no matter how strong the ronin samurai were, they would not be able to resist him.

"Little one, those ronin samurai killed your parents?"

The boy paused for a moment, then quickly shook his head vigorously.

"No, no, my mother died of illness. My father went to work for someone else and will be back in a few days!"

Huh? In this era, even laborers could have room and board provided?

Gu Shi didn't know what era it was, and he also didn't know anything about Japanese history. He didn't know if it was normal to work for someone else's family for several days in a row during this era. However, he quickly put this small doubt aside and continued to ask questions with more interest.

"Oh, since we have no grudge against each other, why did you make me eat those ronin samurai?"

“They’ve been coming to the village to steal food every day for the past few days. If this continues, everyone will go hungry.”

The boy, who was severely malnourished and whose limbs were like sticks, said "there is no food to eat," which was particularly convincing. However, Gu Shi still had some doubts. The boy asked him to kill the ronin samurai in order to protect the food. Protecting the food was so that he could have food to eat and survive. In order to survive, he was willing to give his life to be eaten by this "monster".

Is there something wrong with this logic?

The boy seemed to interpret Gu Shipan's brief silence as a rejection. He clasped his hands tightly together and mustered his courage to speak again.

“Everyone, everyone is a very good person. I want to protect them. Besides, without food, Dad definitely won’t make it through the winter.”