Cursed System-Chapter 111: Starving

RAGNA POV...

Just like before, I felt it—that wicked, intoxicating surge tearing through my veins as though my very blood had been set ablaze with festival drums and mad laughter—my entire body reacting violently to the sensation, trembling and tightening as if I were on the brink of bursting apart in maddening euphoria, my heart pounding so wildly in my chest that it no longer felt like a heart at all but a war drum of conquest beating in savage delight, each thump louder, faster, more ravenous than the last.

The rhythm intoxicated me. The rush of blood was so fierce, so overwhelming, that for a brief, dizzying moment I forgot where I stood. My eyelids quivered, fluttering like fragile wings caught in a storm, before snapping fully open—and when they did, the world reflected back in crimson. Lit. Glowing. Hungry.

[Requirements to devour a Cursed entity has been met]

[Analysing how many percentages of the cursed entity can be consumed]

[Devouring compatibility ’1%/100%]

[Analysis completed ’99%/100%’ can be devoured except demon reproductive apparatus]

I barely spared the floating notifications a glance. They were irrelevant. Meaningless. Background noise. My gaze had already settled on what truly mattered—my meal standing right in front of me.

Across from me, Marcus stiffened. I could practically smell the unease radiating from him when our eyes locked. An ominous ripple passed through him, and for a fleeting second, I saw doubt flicker in his expression. But pride—stupid, blinding pride—won over fear. He straightened, shrugging off the chill crawling up his spine. He couldn’t back down now. Not with the others watching. Not when he had to "teach the newbie a lesson."

Yet the way he stared at me... it changed.

It was as though he wasn’t seeing me anymore. Not the small imp before him. Not the supposed weakling.

He was staring at something else.

Someone else.

The memory of cold golden pupils flashed in his eyes—the same gold eyes of the black steel knight who had once captured him, the memory of absolute helplessness resurfacing like a festering wound ripped open.

And that hesitation was all I needed.

The moment he swung, I knocked his arms aside with casual force. The impact alone sent him sliding backward across the ground several inches, sand and dust kicking up around his boots. Before he could regain balance, before his mind could even process what had just happened, I lunged.

I reeled myself forward and pounced.

We crashed to the ground together in a messy tangle of limbs, but when the dust settled, I was on top.

Instinctively, Earth elemental mana surged from within me, thick and dense and oppressive. It spread across my body like a second skin of stone, hardening, anchoring me down. My weight multiplied grotesquely, crushing him beneath me. Every attempt he made to shove me off was laughably useless.

"Get off me, damn ba*tard!" he screamed, voice cracking with fury—and fear.

He tried to rise. He tried to summon fire through his palms. But his hands—his pathetic, trembling hands—were stuck flat against the ground, as if the earth itself had decided to betray him. The more he struggled, the more futile it became. The more he stared into my crimson eyes... the weaker he grew.

I could feel it.

His concentration fracturing.

His will splintering.

And then there was that noise.

That horrifying, maddening noise reverberating inside his skull—though he didn’t know it came from me. A low, distorted hum that gnawed at sanity itself.

Meanwhile, something far worse was happening to me.

Saliva pooled heavily in my mouth, thick and excessive. An unbearable itch crawled along my gums, deep and urgent, until I felt it—each and every tooth tugging, stretching, multiplying. Pulling free and growing anew in grotesque succession. Endless. Layer after layer.

My mouth widened.

Too wide.

I lowered my head until it hovered mere inches from his neck. I could hear his pulse. I could smell the iron beneath his skin. I prepared to sink my unending rows of teeth into him and tear— 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

And then—

Pain.

Sudden.

Explosive.

Someone yanked me backward by the shoulders with crushing force. The world spun violently. My mind shuddered as though struck by a hammer, splintering at the edges, threatening collapse.

The next thing I knew, I was being hurled away from Noah’s limp body toward the crowd.

[Devouring a Cursed entity failed]

[Your hunger has grown further]

[You shall never know fulfillment other than insatiable hunger]

My head throbbed too violently to even focus on the words.

"Enough."

That single word.

Simple.

Calm.

Yet it made my mind tremble.

I lifted my gaze slowly—and there he stood.

One of the black steel knights.

Golden eyes gleaming with quiet authority.

Even without shouting, even without lifting a weapon, his presence alone suppressed everything. Had he arrived a heartbeat later... Marcus would have been nothing more than torn flesh between my teeth.

Gradually, the queue returned to its former shape, but the demon children around us were frozen in place, their mouths parted, their eyes stretched wide in disbelief as they stared at me.

Had that truly been Marcus the Beast pinned beneath me?

Or had something else entirely taken over the battlefield?

Whispers spread like wildfire.

Amazement.

Veneration.

Shock.

Even Reiner and Berthold could only stare, their expressions suspended between disbelief and awe as we silently collected our food.

With my back turned to the crowd, I could still feel it—two distinct gazes drilling into me.

One pair burned hot and fiery with malice.

The other was cold.

Golden.

Unreadable.

They followed my departing figure until distance swallowed me whole.

The fiery gaze promised revenge.

The golden one promised surveillance.

From that moment onward, I knew two things: I had made an enemy... and I had been marked.

Several days later, we traveled deep within the desert.

The golden sands stretched endlessly beneath a merciless fluorescent sun, its light pouring down like liquid fire, bleaching the horizon and turning the air itself into a suffocating furnace. Heat waves shimmered violently, distorting everything in sight, while narrow sandstorms slithered across the dunes like restless serpents, blurring our vision and scratching against exposed skin.

After confirming the area was secure—for now—the black steel knight signaled for a temporary halt.

The incident with Marcus had spread like legend among the cursed children.

The image of me pinning him to the ground had become both a special topic of fascination and a recurring nightmare for many of them. Whenever I entered the carriage, conversations would die. Eyes would follow.

Noah himself barely left his corner after returning. He avoided me entirely, hiding within the carriage as though I were some lurking predator waiting for dusk.

And the others?

They stared.

Everywhere I walked, I felt like some rare, dangerous beast placed on display behind invisible glass.

Strangely enough, this was one of the few times I didn’t relish the attention.

The atmosphere inside the carriage was unbearably awkward.

But what troubled me more... was myself.

With each passing day, it was becoming harder—much harder—to restrain the hunger clawing at my insides. The notifications haunted me. Echoed in my thoughts. Especially the last one.

[Your hunger has grown further]

[Host has entered self-starvation mode]

[Host HP will begin degeneration]

[All host attributes will be halved until the Main Quest has been successfully completed]

That final message had turned my world upside down.

Self-starvation mode.

HP degeneration.

Attributes halved.

It wasn’t just hunger anymore.

It was a curse.

And the worst part?

The more I resisted devouring... the weaker I became.

The more I gave in... the less human I felt.

Somewhere between predator and prisoner, I sat within that sweltering carriage, staring into the shifting desert beyond, knowing that sooner or later—

Something inside me would break.