Devour

An elderly woman was the first thing Enshin saw as he opened his eyes.

"Let me hold him..."

A weak voice was heard somewhere out of his sight, and soon he felt himself upon another's arms.

This time he saw a frail but beautiful woman. Two huge mounds of flesh covered his sight from the face of the woman, but just from the charming pair of violet eyes he knew this woman was a beauty. She had long messy red hair that draped over her shoulders, some even poking at his face, making him swat it away with small chubby arms. The woman noticed this and raised him, revealing a bewitching face, and her charming face was looking at him with an intense loving gaze.

"He has my eyes..." She muttered softly, " And my beautiful features too."

"He does doesn't he."

A man's figure appeared over the woman. The man was handsome, smiling lovingly as he placed a hand on the woman's shoulder. His long black hair seemed greasy from sweat, with black eyes that were wet from tears.

"I'm so glad you're both ok." He said,

Enshin stared at them with a dazed expression.

"He's not crying, and he has a weird expression on his face, is there something wrong with him Miss Meadow?" The woman asked worriedly.

"It is indeed strange, but it is not unheard of." The elderly woman answered, "They say it's a sign of high intelligence."

"High intelligence? We have to name him something smart then." The man said as he stroked Enshin's face. "My little Einstain, or baby Aristhrottle."

What kind of names are those! Enshin wanted to protest, but all that came out of his mouth was a cry.

"...If I wasn't so tired right now, I would smack you so hard." The women said as she lulled Enshin to calm down.

"I was just joking!" The man replied,

"I'll be the one naming him since his last name is already yours."

"What!? My wife, We should discuss this."

"Well, we could have discussed this if you weren't out working so much."

"I...." The man held his tongue as he lowered his head. The women looked at him and sighed.

"Don't worry my love, I don't blame you." She said as she revealed her bosom to the crying Enshin, "I know you can't do anything about the sudden attacks of beast hordes."

Enshin retracted his head as he pushed the nipple away.

"Ahh...Why won't you drink little guy?" The woman hugged Enshin towards her bosom. Enshin turned his head away but alas, the nipple poked him at the cheek.

Enshin's mind was in total disarray, before he could even make sense of the situation, a nipple was being shoved in his face. He himself knew how old he was, the last time he ever sucked at a nipple was only a few weeks ago, but that was an entirely different situation.

Suddenly, he felt something grip his head and turn it towards the boob, the nipple slowly placed itself inside his mouth. He tried to tilt his head but sadly, with the body of a baby, all he could do was resign himself to his fate.

"See my child, It's just mommy's milk." The mother said as Enshin pitifully sucked.

Mommies milk? How does that sound better?

Enshin narrowed his eyes as he sucked. The woman was watching him with the same loving gaze from earlier before turning towards the sullen man.

"My love, I'll name him Enshin. Erin plus Shinzo, Enshin."

Enshin froze.

The man looked up with a glint of joy in his eyes and nodded as he smiled.

"Come, hold him. I need to heal."

"Oh! Yes, let me see my boy." The man said as he took Enshin in his arms. With baby Enshin in his arms, he proceeded to make funny faces and gibberish baby noises, to which Enshin paid no attention to as he eyed his new mother.

The woman held her own chest with a hand and a light green glow filled the room.

Healing arts!

The healing art, although low-leveled, was the exact same healing art that he was familiar with all his life.

With all that happened, Enshin knew that he was somehow reborn, and right now he was sure that he was in the same world. He hadn't even seen anything beyond the tiny room, but the healing arts made him sure.

Beneath the blanket that he was cocooned in, he tried to channel a healing art that gave a person energy and sure enough, he felt himself tire within a second and he wasn't even sure if it worked, but the words of his father made him know it did,

"Oh! My lovely boy, just holding you makes me feel better." His father said as he hugged baby Enshin who was exhausted from doing healing arts.

Enshin didn't realize that a low level healing art was so exhausting, he could barely keep his eyes open to look at his father's goofy face. He stretched his arm out only for it to fall back down as he lost consciousness.

Four years quickly sped by.

For these four years, Enshin behaved like a baby, obediently sucking milk, laughing at his father's goofiness, and the occasional pooping on his diapers or peeing on the floor. Baby life was quite a strange experience for a man filled with bloodlust and rage. He'll never forget the rage, but he won't let it mess with his mental state.

His father's name was Shinzo Malik, and from the occasional injuries and bloodstains on his clothes, Enshin concluded that he was some kind of warrior, a warrior that his little city of Samara held in high regard. Despite being a person of high reputation, his father often acted like a goof around his family which gets him scolded by Enshin's mother Erin.

Erin was a woman well versed in magic, a wizard. From fire, ice, water, wind, and healing arts, she was quite skilled. Enshin was even surprised someone of her skill was staying in this small city.

Samara of Sky Country. A country located in the Profound continent.

This small city of Samara, even though Enshin called it small, was still a place with a population of fifty thousand people, with small structures that seemed to be mostly made of polished stone and wood. Other than the common builds and structures, in the middle of the city was a castle, the castle towered over every structure like a king imposing its prestige. The city was located in between mountains filled with beast hordes and wildlife, besides the attacks of beast hordes, natural calamities were quite rare there.

Four year old Enshin stood at the roof of their house, which gave him a wonderful view of the city below. Their house was situated on top of the mountain that stood over others, presenting the status of their family. Their home was a household, a place with multiple structures with separate functions. The place could pass for a small village mostly comprised of servants and guards.

Since the time he was reborn, he was puzzled and confused about his circumstances, but he was certainly thankful. The ways of the heavens truly cannot be discerned by man, he did not investigate further regarding his rebirth, what matters was that he would grasp this opportunity to wreak havoc upon those that wronged him.

A fluttering of wings was heard, Enshin quickly took a pebble from a stack of stones beside him and threw it at a bird with frightening accuracy. The wounded bird crashed behind him with a thud. He took it in his grasp and initiated the forbidden art of devouring. A slightly darker green glow appeared on his hands.

Healing bestowed life upon those who have suffered severe damage to their vitality, healing injuries to the soul and the physical body. However, to be well versed in healing, one must know what causes death. When a person gets injured, their vitality leaks out of the injury. The more injuries one attains, the faster a person's vitality dissipates, slowly killing the person. A healer forces the vitality to circulate within the injured body, but it can also draw it out. Drawing it out would be often used for removing poisoned or contaminated vitality, but in Enshin's case, he was molding the bird's life force to merge with his own.

If anyone else did this, they risk their own vitality leaking, and the vitality they lost wouldn't even be substituted by what they absorbed, because only ten percent of vitality could be absorbed by a different body, any more and it would only dissipate into nothingness. But who was Enshin?

The Heavenly Saint. In the whole world, no one could rival him in healing, even his wretched disciple would not be able to replicate what he could do.

Enshin slowly tapped onto the little bird's leaking life aura and absorbed it. The bird twitched within his hold, turning slowly into a withered corpse.

Enshin felt his body reach the limits of what it could hold for a four year old body. He threw the bird corpse in a bucket full of withered animal corpses and jumped down from the roof of his house. Four year olds were often clumsy and could barely run, much less survive a jump from two stories, but Enshin, who had the strength of a teen compressed in his body, landed gracefully as he rolled upon landing.

"I didn't break a leg this time," Enshin said with a relieved smile on his face as he paced towards the training hall where his father sparred with his guards.

Shinzo was shirtless, revealing a ripped body bursting with vitality. Enshin could barely resist to try and absorb his vitality when he's asleep but he felt pity for them. Enshin was obviously a grown man around his fifties, but he was in their son's body, or perhaps he truly was their son. As their son he felt obligated to be filial to them, so he wouldn't really be despicable enough to kill them in their sleep.

"Ah!" A guard screamed out as Shinzo parried his sword away. The disarmed guard was the only one who was still standing, the other guards were swept to the ground in mere seconds since the bout began.

"Sir Shinzo got stronger all of a sudden!" One of the guards on the ground yelled.

"Hahaha! I am Shinzo, the peerless sword after all!" Shinzo claimed as he took glances at his son who was approaching.

He was obviously showing off in front of his son, and Enshin of course played along.

"Father is truly a dragon amongst men!"

Enshin never displayed excellence within their household, he simply acted like an average child who knew nothing of the world. If he displayed excellence, his parents would stop at nothing to nurture his talent. He doesn't need someone to be training him, he doesn't need the attention, he simply didn't have the time to be with a low lever tutor of Samara.

It was better to attain strength at a much faster pace by himself.

"Men, you are dismissed!" Shinzo commanded, "Come, Enshin! I will teach you how to be strong like father."

Enshin scoffed in his heart, but he obediently walked towards his father. Shinzo picked up a wooden sword and tossed it at Enshin. Enshin caught the sword with ease but he feigned weakness as he lowered his two hands holding the sword.

"Ow! Father this is heavy!"

"It's okay son, as long as we practice every day you will get used to it." Shinzo held Enshins arm from behind and channeled sword aura into the wooden sword giving it a golden glow.

Enshin blinked his eyes in shock as he observed the wooden sword. He was not new to infusing materials with aura, as a healer, he often infused healing aura at needles and as someone who was frequently attacked, he was also used to infusing weapons as well.

In his past life, he had only attained the level of armament master. Armament masters were skilled in handling various armaments, the aura that they could infuse into the armaments were vast and dense but it would be compressed neatly in the weapon. However, the aura that his father infused in the sword was leaking!

Sword intent!

Armament dwellers are skilled in handling every weapon but the mastery of this was much much harder than focusing on one weapon, causing the armament dwellers to slowly decrease in number. No one would usually train with all armaments, however, for Enshin who was constantly attacked, it was perfect for times when he had to desperately use any weapon that he could grasp. His father, on the other hand, was focused solely on the sword, perhaps it was why he has reached the level of sword king, and he didn't even seem to be past his twenties!

Sword amateur, sword novice, swordmaster, sword expert, sword king, and sword saint!

A sword king! His father, within the small village of Samara, was a peerless sword king, two levels above him!

The astonishment in Enshin's eyes was subtle, but it couldn't escape Shinzo's keen eyes. He smiled proudly as he said,

"This is your father's sword intent, I know it's amazing but first focus on what you feel inside the sword. That is your father's sword aura."

Enshin calmed his heart as he felt the aura. This was a sword king's aura, never mind an armament master like him, even an armament expert would be excited at the prospect of being guided by a sword king's aura.

To increase a level as an armament master, he would need to attain the same mastery in every weapon. If a single weapon was a level higher than the others, his level as an armament master wouldn't increase at all.

Enshin is actually a master of every weapon with the exception of the dagger wherein he was an expert. If he could comprehend the aura of his father, it would surely give him a boost in the understanding of the sword, perhaps he could breakthrough to the level of sword expert.

Enshin poked and probed at the sword aura with his own weakened sword aura. He forcibly compressed his aura into the level of a sword amateur, but it was still completely condensed.

Shinzo's heart trembled as he felt the astonishingly thick sword aura of his son. It was on the level of a sword amateur barely emitting light, but it was laced with a strong essence of the sword.

His breath quickened at the discovery that his child had an innate talent towards the sword and it made him excited for his son's future.

Shinzo wanted to yell out in joy, however, he stopped himself out of fear that he would disturb his son's comprehension.

A few minutes passed by, but Enshin could only grasp small bits and pieces. It wasn't due to his comprehension being weak but due to being only able to probe with his weakened aura.

He could only sigh and stop, just to see that his father had the widest smile he had ever seen on him.

"How was it, son?" He said,

Enshin put on an act of innocence as he spoke, "I felt something weird on the sword, a warm feeling like when you pee."

"Mn, I'm glad you felt...something." He paused, " Son, would you like to practice swordsmanship every day with me?"

"Yes, father!" Enshin answered immediately, if it was anyone else teaching him, it would be a waste of time but who would've known that his father was a sword king? He was planning on hunting beast to gain attainment, but if there were other opportunities that present themself, how could he say no?

"That's good, let's get inside now. It's time for lunch. I know because I could sense your mother's frightening gaze." Shinzo chuckled as he placed the wooden swords on a rack. He held Enshin's hand to walk towards the household wherein Enshin caught a glimpse of his mother waving at them from a window.

A mother who was at least at the level of magic expert and a father who was a peerless sword king. His family was truly an interesting one.

At the dinner table, Erin and Enshin noticed that Shinzo was acting much more goofier than usual. He had a wide smile on his face as he chewed on his food and occasionally he would laugh by himself. It was somewhat disturbing, Enshin was much more tolerating than Erin was so she glared at his husband before she asked,

"Husband? Have you lost your mind?"

"No, no, I'm just too happy that our son inherited 'my' innate talent of the sword." He answered rather pridefully, "Someday, he'll be an unrivaled swordsman like his handsome father."

At that moment, the air around them turned chilly. Erin slammed a fork on the table and said in a low voice, "What are you trying to say, husband!?"

"Nothing." Shinzo quickly replied, but he had a teasing expression on his eyes

Erin let out a quick snort, "Hmph, I'm sure my boy is twice as talented with magic than he is with swords."

Enshin was at a loss for words. He didn't have any recollection of his old parents, so he was truly bothered whether his current situation was normal for a lunch conversation or any other conversation for that matter.

Erin angrily ate while Shinzo munched happily, in the middle was Enshin, eating as quietly as a mouse.

"Hmph! Tomorrow, before doing anything with your father, you must come to me and we'll practice magic."

Erin said, before taking the serving bowls away.

The father and son were left at the dining table with unsatisfied stomachs.

"Father, why was mother so angry?"

"Ahh, my boy Enshin, do you know what a bet is?"

Enshin nodded in reply.

"Me and your momma made a bet on whether you would be a wizard or a swordsman, the winner would get bragging rights."

"Ahh?"

Wasn't that simply too childish?

It didn't matter anyway since no one would win the bet. Enshin was much more than just a wizard or a swordsman.

Enshin reached out for his father's meal, and since he couldn't reach it with his short arms, his father pushed it towards him.

Shinzo watched his child eat in silence, with a proud smile and a slightly rumbling tummy.