It was a dark night in the Demetra world of Zairus. It was a swamp world that contained over eighty percent marshy lands. This planet was also a world that was eternally dark since there were clouds always in the sky, not allowing any light from the nearby star to reach the surface of this planet.
In this world, all the structures were built from living flesh that pulsed up and down like the heart of a living organism.
The Demetra that lived here lived a slightly different lifestyle than most of those that were a part of their race across the galaxy. This group of Demetra chose to live their lives in cycles that changed every month on the world.
Their way of living had four phases to it, During the first phase, they would fight each to ensure their evolution into a better race. They also did this to help find the Demetra that would become the one Demetra that was powerful enough to rule them all. The second phase was all about gathering pure Paradisus so that they could use it in their method of reproduction. In the third phase, they focus on finding the area in the regions that their packs live in to make hatcheries so that they can place their cocoons. The final phase was a time of hatching to ensure that their species survived.
It was time for the phase of hatching to begin. This was a very important time, so the parents stayed just outside of the hatcheries so that no other Demetra family could attack the cocoons before they could open.
On the inside of these hatcheries there was a massive chamber in the center that had at least a dozen cocoons hanging from a massive vein that fed the cocoons the nurturance to ensure that the Demetras that came out of the cocoons would be strong enough to fight because the young Demetra had to fight each other as soon as they broke from the cocoons.
On the inside of one of the cocoons, I was floating in a liquid that was made from the Paradisus that was being fed into the cocoon.
I was floating in the liquid, and I could breathe clearly while in the liquid. The cocoon opened like a flower but in reverse with it opening from the bottom, which caused the liquid that I was floating in to slowly drain out of the cocoon.
When the liquid drained from the cocoon, I fell from the cocoon and into the spawning pool that my former cocoon was hanging above.
I opened both of my eyes and saw that there were six other young Demetras also in the pool opening their eyes for the first time. At the sight of them an urge to kill them to ensure that I could become a stronger Demetra.
The only form of weaponry that I had with me were my claws, so I rushed at the first member of my family that I saw.
This Demetra did not have any claws, but it had a pair of wings that started to flap as soon as they had fallen into the pool.
I jumped at them, but I fell into the pool as I tried to make the jump.
"Did you truly think that you could possibly defeat me with a simple jump?" the Demetra that was in front of me said in a young female voice.
As I looked up at her, I saw a group of five small locusts fly at her, and each shot some acid out of their mouths.
This caused her body to be pieced in a section of her back. This killed her, and she caused a massive splash in the pool of water as she dropped from her current altitude. Her dead body was now about two feet in front of me.
These bugs all began to rush at me as I rose to my feet.
I swung my claws at them and took out two of them before they could release their acid that was going to be targeted at me. This shattered their tiny bodies into a bunch of small pieces of flesh.
The final three of the small locusts shot their acid at me out of their mouths.
Due to the speed at which the three locusts attacked me, I was not able to dodge the incoming acid in time before it contacted my chest.
The acid began to tear at my flesh, and I let out a very loud screech in reaction to the pain that I was feeling now.
The screeching caused the remaining locusts to explode into chunks of flesh. After that, the hive began to shake around, and holes were beginning to form due to the tears that I was creating in the hive as I was screeching in pain.
Almost all the Demetra died as their ear drums exploded from the continuous screeching that I had ringing out of my mouth.
There was only one of them that remained a male Demetra who had the ability to create a barrier to protect himself with his mind.
"It is just you and me left alive, sister. If I die, you will evolve by absorbing the essence of all our siblings, but if I kill you, I will be the one who evolves." He said to me as I saw him disable the barrier.
"I am not going to make it easy for you to win against me. If you think that a simple barrier will be able to stop me, you are very mistaken." I said to him as I aimed my right hand at him as if I were ready for the fight to determine which one of us would survive and become the stronger Demetra.
I aimed at him with my right hand closed and released my nails, which shot in a straight line at him.
Just as the projectile was about to contact the center of his chest, he activated his blue barrier, which protected him from harm.
"It would seem to me that our deity is on my side today. How do you think that you could possibly even stand a chance against someone who clearly has a god watching over him.
"Are you telling me to believe that because you were given a defensive power that you are untouchable?" I asked him as I shot my retractable claws towards him again.
This shot was different because I did not aim it at him directly. As the claws left my hand, I shot it about ten feet above him.
He activated his barrier and started to laugh as the shots went above him and cleanly missed him.
"Do you truly believe that you can defeat me with such a primitive attack?" he as he disabled the barrier.
The shot that I had fired was not evenly intended to hit him directly. It was intended to cut the three cocoons that were hanging from the ceiling above him.
The cocoons were still very heavy despite the fact that they were all open. As they all fell onto the body of my brother, he was crushed to the point of no recovery. The only part of his body that was not crushed was his head.
"Come and kill me and achieve what you were meant to achieve on this day." He said in a broken voice that told me he was at the end of his life as a Demetra.
"Okay, but I will not do it because you asked me to" I said to him in a tone that made it clear that I was going to do it for me.
I stepped on his head and saw his entire head explode in a single step.
Then I kneeled in a meditative stance and placed my right hand onto the remains of each of my siblings and began to quote a code that came to me as easily as breathing to absorb their essence one at a time.
"Through combat, I gain essence. Through essence, I evolve. through evolution, I survive."
After I said that, I absorbed the essence of each of my siblings. Each of them gave a different trait to further the start of my path to the top of this world of Demetra.
The first person that I absorbed was my sister with wings, and I grew a pair of wings on my back after I did this. Next, I absorbed the brother that spawned small locusts. I got the acid from them into my claws. The other siblings did not give me anything significant, but I got a small increase in my natural regeneration.
Now that I was the only Demetra left in my family, I had to find a way to survive on this planet long enough so that I could evolve enough to lead a pack of Demetra of my own.
I walked out of the hatchery, knowing that the true battle for my evolution into a superior Demetra has not even started.