Human No More

Disclaimer: If you are stupid and think I own DxD, then sorry to burst your bubble. I don't. If I did, then DxD wouldn't have failed as much.

Summary: He dethroned the kings, seeking an end. Yet, as he embraced death, it turned him away. Perhaps his story was never meant to end?

I feel constrained, suffocated.

I do not know if this is what blind people see, or rather visualise the world as, but it's scary. I see nothing. Not black. It's just nothing.

My panicked mind still hasn't calmed down. I have been trying to see and not getting any response from my attempts is fuelling my dread.

What if I have to live in this darkn- No, void for eternity?

'Calm down', I repeat this for the thousandth time and yet it still has as much effect as it had before.

Despite the exertion it takes, I again try to breathe by expanding my chest. For a second, I feel my being expand a little and yet soon that feeling is replaced by an even more tired wave spreading across my body.

Again. A failure.

Despite not wanting to give up, this time the wave is too strong to resist. I feel myself losing consciousness.

Yet as the voice in my head continued its march towards nothingness, it was pulled back. Suddenly, I felt something within my being shift and felt a literal stream of air flow through it.

I was breathing again, albeit not the way I knew humans did.

It was honestly.. disgusting. I felt 'something' move within a lower part of my body. Yet I couldn't help but be flooded by relief at finally breathing. I thought of trying to breathe forcefully, but erased that idea.

Somehow, I felt that my body knew how to breathe better than me.

With my mind no longer being occupied by any thoughts, I sensed something.

I sensed something outside my body. Instinctively, my mouth opened on its own and I felt my tounge roll out, yet retrieved it hastily and pressed it against the top of my mouth.

Since having gave up on thoughts, I had forgotten to keep trying to see. Yet now that I had stopped, I saw something.

The blankness of my mind was filled with.. something. Something that I couldn't understand. It was surreal. It felt like nothing I thought possible to see.

It was a mix of colours that I never saw forming an almost blurred image. The colours didn't make sense to me.

Seeing the pattern, I tried to let go of myself and let my instincts, or whatever these may be, take over.

I did the correct thing, for right after that, I understood.

The colours made sense, it felt unnaturally natural. It felt horrifying.

There was another source of sensation that felt more familiar that the.. vision. I was "smelling", just not the way I used to. As a human is supposed to.

It wasn't even a scent. It was a presence, a map of everything nearby. I could taste the movement, the heat, the lingering water near me.

It flooded my mind. Too much, too fast. My instincts grasped it before my thoughts could. I didn't understand how I knew it was water, I just did.

I felt them. The tiny creatures travelling nearby, the dampness of the soil, the distant warmth of something larger yet distinctively not alive. I wasn't smelling them. I was interpreting them.

With all this information flooding my mind, I was forced to admit one thing to myself.

Whatever I was. I wasn't a human anymore.

As if that realisation lifted off something akin to a limit, suddenly the feeling of the panic that should have come was gone.

I didn't know how long I stayed still, suspended in that realization. It should have terrified me, should have driven me into a hysterical fit.

But it didn't.

There was something wrong about my mind, about my emotions. The fear that had gripped me moments ago.. where had it gone? Why did I feel so... calm?

Was it shock? Denial? I don't know. That should be terrifying, yet it isn't.

I focused inward, searching for something, anything, that still felt human. A sense of warmth, a familiar instinct, a memory that would remind me of who I was.

But all I found was silence.

A part of me recoiled at that, but another part, a newer part, found it comforting. Found it comforting that it would remain.

The world was basked in sensations I had never known before, the ground beneath me vibrated with life, the still air carried knowledge I couldn't explain.

Everything felt more alive than it ever had before.

And yet... it was distant. Like I was an observer, not even a participant.

The thought should have unsettled me.

But it didn't.

I decided it was enough. I need to get moving.

I tried pushing against the coarse surface of the soil. At first, I found it somewhat difficult, but as I continued to try, my body instinctively moved in a certain way.

As if it always knew what to do.

I moved again, feeling the way my body curved, the way my muscles rippled in a motion that felt almost… natural.

It didn't feel human.

I ignored the thought. No time for that. Focus on my surroundings.

Then I saw it.

A pool of still water, reflecting the world above it.

And in the reflection, I saw something. Something long, coiled, covered in dark, smooth scales.

My body.

I froze.

I stared.

I waited for my mind to reject it. To say it wasn't real. To tell me that this was a mistake.

But deep down, I already knew.

My mouth opened, out came a forked tongue and I saw four white fangs standing out in the abyss of my mouth.

They felt foreign. They felt wrong. But no matter how I twisted the thought, no matter how much I wanted to deny it, there was no other answer.

I wasn't human anymore.

I never would be again.

A serpentine triangular head stared back at me. Its eyes and skin's colour something I can't name. It was massive. Its skin was adorned with diamond shaped scales, giving it a monstrously beautiful look.

This was me. I was now a monster.

Before I could even process the information properly, my body coiled and muscles tensed. I was hit with a pang of extreme hunger, as if I hadn't eaten for days.

I need food.

My head wildly looked around for any food. My tongue kept flapping in and out and pressing against my mouth.

What do I eat? There's nothing around me…

I heard a sound. It travelled through the Earth. There was someone. Something in the direction west of me.

Without thinking my body turned with some effort. It felt heavy, and yet. The hunger was heavier.

It wasn't a normal hunger. It wasn't a slow, growing ache of an empty stomach that I was used to. This was overpowering, primal, even urgent.

It felt like I hadn't eaten in weeks, like my body was collapsing in on itself.

Nothing else mattered. Not my thoughts. Not my confusion.

Only food.

I needed to eat.

I pushed forward, my body dragging awkwardly through the dirt. I was too big, too heavy.

The bushes around me tore against my new scales as I tried to move through them.

My body got caught between branches, stuck in the undergrowth, unable to squeeze through places I once would have walked past without effort.

The hunger roared, demanding movement, demanding that I find something.

I tried again, but my thick body snagged between two trees, halting my progress. I twisted, trying to force my way through. Nothing. It wasn't working.

I thrashed and yet I wasn't able to get out. Along with the hunger, came something else. Something akin to a flame, engulfing me for a split second.

Frustration built up, and crashed against the confines of my mind. I coiled, tightening instinctively.

I "heard" a sharp snap rickoketing through the forest.

My hold on the tree loosened unnaturally, I felt my own scales touching each other.

What?..

I looked at the tree, only to welcome my eyes to an impossible sight.

The tree split at its base.

For a moment, I froze.

Had I just…?

The weight of the tree groaned as it toppled to the ground, splintering on impact. My body uncoiled from where it had wrapped around the trunk, and for the first time, I truly understood.

I was strong.

I fucking crushed a tree just by squeezing it.

A deep unease settled inside me.

What has happened to me?

But I didn't have time to process it. The hunger gnawed at me again, forcing me forward.

I tasted the air.

There! Something small. Warm. Moving fast.

A rabbit.

I didn't think. I didn't plan. My body just moved with a mind of its own.

One moment, the rabbit was there, nibbling on something, its little heart resounding in my mind like a siren.

The next, my vision blurred.

Then I felt an impact.

Something wet. Something fragile. My jaws had snapped shut before I even realized what was happening.

A sound, high-pitched and shrill, cut through the air. A scream. No. Not a scream. Rather a death wail.

The rabbit's body twitched in my mouth, its tiny limbs flailing in desperate, broken movements. I felt its bones, thin and delicate, break between my fangs. Warm, wet blood dribbled down my tongue, spilling into my throat.

It was… disgusting.

The taste was overwhelming. Coppery, thick.

The texture was utterly wrong and horrid.

I could feel everything.

The heat of its dying body, the little spasms in its muscles as they thrashed in revolt, the last, shuddering pulse of its heart, right before it stopped.

It was still moving. No… I was still moving.

I felt my throat expand, something wet and warm forcing its way down. The fur scraped against the roof of my mouth, drenched in sticky saliva and blood. The twitching didn't stop until the weight passed the threshold of my throat, swallowed whole.

Gone.

Silence.

Then I waited.

I waited. For the disgust. For the nausea.

For the part of me that should have been screaming, "What the fuck did I just do?!"

But nothing came.

The warmth inside me.. the foreign weight of a body that had been alive seconds ago, shifted slightly. Stretching something that shouldn't have been able to stretch.

I felt it. Still warm. Still fresh.

Still wrong.

I had just swallowed a living creature, felt its heart beat and die inside my mouth. It should have made me retch and vomit, should have made me collapse in horror.

But my body?

It felt… satisfied.

No, not yet satisfied. Just less desperate.

The hunger was still there. Lingering. A background ache, waiting to consume me again.

I curled in on myself, deeply and profoundly disturbed by what had just happened.

Not just the act.

The ease.

The natural, instinctive casualness of it all.

No hesitation. No second thoughts.

One moment, I was searching for food.

The next? The rabbit had died, and I had swallowed it like it was nothing more than a piece of meat on a plate.

There was no chewing. No time to register the texture. Just bite, squeeze, swallow.

And the worst part?

A distant, quiet part of me liked it.

Not in a way that could be put into words. Not satisfaction. Not pleasure.

Something deeper.

A feeling of rightness.

Like I had done something I was always meant to do.

Like I was exactly what I was supposed to be.

I recoiled from that thought.

But the hunger didn't let me sit with it for long.

It was still there, still gnawing.

Still waiting.

I shook off myself, trying my best to ignore the drops of blood leaking from my mouth and flowing to the earth, forming a bloody waterfall.

I waited for the hunger to fade.

It didn't.

It wasn't enough.

Not even close.

I needed more.

Something else. Bigger.

I needed to eat.

I had to eat.

No.

I forced my body to stop moving.

This wasn't right. I should be thinking about my situation, not chasing food like an animal.

I had just woken up in a body that wasn't mine. I had lost something.. something fundamental, and yet, the only thing I could focus on was eating?

That's not right.

I had always been in control. I had planned. I had thought.

I wasn't about to let some primal instinct override that.

My tongue flicked out.

I hadn't told it to.

It happened again.

My jaw clenched. My body was still moving even as I willed it to stop.

My muscles coiled, prepared to push forward. My tongue kept tasting the air. Even when I didn't want it to.

I tried to hold still.

Tried to stop.

But my body wasn't listening.

Panic flooded my mind, burning harder than the hunger.

What was happening to me?

Was I not in control anymore?

I turned toward a nearby tree.

My tongue flicked out, and I ignored it.

I needed to prove that I was still me. That this body, these instincts didn't own me.

I pushed myself forward. Slowly and deliberately.

The coarse bark of the tree was rough beneath my mouth. I bit into it, tearing off a chunk.

I chewed.

Immediately, my throat seized.

A shudder wracked through me as my stomach revolted. The taste- No, the absence of taste, was wrong. Completely, utterly and wrong.

It was like trying to eat dirt.

I spat it out.

I tried again, tearing at the leaves this time.

I chewed, forcing myself to swallow.

A sharp pain bloomed in my gut, and I felt it travel back up.

My stomach refused it.

I gagged. My throat convulsed, and the leaves came right back out along with white fur.

I stared hard at the materials that came out of me.

I couldn't eat plants.

I physically couldn't.

I didn't even have the proper digestive system for it anymore.

I was a carnivore. A carnivore.

The realization sank into my bones, cold and unrelenting.

There was no escape from this.

I had to eat meat.

I could feel it now, the way my body ached for it. It reminded me of the patients I sometimes saw. It was like a body suffering from drug withdrawal.

There was no choice.

No matter how much I wanted to fight it…

I needed to keep hunting.

As if that thought was itself a sentient switch, it took control of my body. It moved with efficiency unfathomable to me, devoid of all the clumsiness that I had.

Each movement was precise and natural.

My huge reptilian body slid on the ground, navigating it as if I was born to "walk" this way.

I perceived reality in senses that seemed foreign to me before that moment, but now felt as natural as seeing when I was human.

I was human. Now I am not.

I flicked my tongue out, tasting the air, sensing something large, heavy, soaking in the warmth of the sun.

My body turned toward it. My mind barely processed the movement.

I bolted towards that direction, not minding the noise I was making by breaking the fallen branches or the rattling of leaves.

Before long I was face to face with my food.

A pool of water. A massive lizard rested at its edge, its dark, rough scales glistening as it lay in the shallow water, soaking in the heat. It was four meters long, nearly my size.

My first thought was danger.

My human instincts screamed. That thing was too big, too strong, too predatory.

If I were still human, I would never have gone near it.

But my body didn't listen. The lingering human instincts were silenced by my newfound instincts.

I watched, my vision shifted between heat signatures, movement, and vibrations in the earth.

I could feel its slow, steady breaths. Its muscles twitching beneath its thick hide.

Without thinking, I moved.

My muscles tensed. I felt a strangely familiar burning.

Something surged inside me, something that wasn't human. It was hot and warm, covering my entire body and yet concentrated at my head.

I identified this feeling as the one I felt when I broke the tree trunk.

'What is this?'

BOOM

A jet of water erupted from the pool.

The lizard jerked violently, flipping onto its feet, hissing in fury. The water struck its side, but it wasn't enough to seriously wound it. It was just enough to provoke it however.

My body had acted on its own.

The monitor lizard turned, mouth open, hissing, tail lashing the water. It charged.

Something in me snapped.

I didn't flinch. I didn't run.

I struck.

My jaws shot forward, teeth sinking into the thick hide of the lizard's neck. I could feel it struggling, its powerful claws raking against my scales, but I didn't let go.

I coiled.

It thrashed.

Its tail slammed against my body, forcing air out of me, but I squeezed harder.

The more it struggled, the tighter my body became.

The lizard let out a final, desperate hiss, then the click stuck the hour of silence.

I waited. My body didn't release it. Not until I was sure.

Then, slowly, I uncoiled.

The monitor lizard lay still.

The fight was over.

I stared at the dead lizard, my hunger still gnawing at me.

Some part of me—the part that had once been human—hesitated.

I had just killed something with my body. I had felt its last breath.

The former human inside me recoiled.

But the hunger? The hunger didn't care. The burning needed to be quenched.

My jaws opened, stretching far wider than I thought possible. I felt something within me churn, yet wasn't able to identify the sensation.

The lizard's head, its grotesque still eyed head, disappeared first.

Then its thick, muscular body. I felt it's scales brush against the roof of my mouth. The disgusting mud stuck on it had a weird texture and yet I had to continue swallowing it.

Then the tail.

It didn't feel unnatural. My throat expanded, my stomach stretched, and my body accepted it without complaint.

And just like that, the monitor lizard was gone.

Swallowed whole.

I lay still.

The hunger faded, but didn't disappear.

Instead, it was replaced by a different kind of weight.

Not just in my stomach. In my mind.

I had killed. I had eaten.

Not like a human. Like a predator.

Like a snake.

The thought should have horrified me. Should have filled me with disgust.

But it didn't.

I was silent for a long time.

Then, finally, the question came.

"Who am I?"

AN: If you are liking the story, then please give me reviews. I want to know your thoughts and suggestions if you have any