The flesh pillar continued to burn, its surface turning into ashes as it slid down toward the ground. Each second it sank lower, the flames eating through it relentlessly, and with every inch it descended, the people trapped within the arena felt their hope drain away.

Adventurers and guards tightened their grips on swords and spears, their stances shifting from protection to final resistance. If this was how it ended, they would not go quietly.

Then the Gluttony suddenly moaned.

It was not a scream of pain, It was a sound of satisfaction.

A low, almost indulgent groan rolled through the air, thick and wet, as if something deep within the structure had just been fed. The flames flickered erratically, no longer consuming the flesh but dancing across it.

"That is good... Feed me more..." Gluttony muttered.

Confusion rippled through the crowd.

"What... was that?" someone whispered.

Before anyone could react, the ground shuddered violently. The flesh buildings around the arena twitched, then began to swell. Walls bulged outward, veins glowing brighter as if pumped full of something far too much. Even the burning pillar stopped shrinking and instead began to expand, its surface ballooning grotesquely.

Everything grew.

The streets thickened. The walls stretched higher. The mouths embedded in them widened, drooling luminous red fluid as if choking on an unseen excess. It was like watching a living thing overeat to the point of rupture.

A cracked, furious voice echoed through the town.

"No— wait. What is he doing? What the hell is he feeding my core?"

Gluttony’s voice trembled, no longer mocking, no longer amused. Panic bled through every word.

Then, without warning, the presence vanished.

The oppressive weight in the air lightened slightly, as if something massive had fled rather than face what was coming next.

Kaeya stared at the swelling walls, understanding dawning in her eyes. Tyler had done something and Whatever it was, it had thrown the demon completely off balance.

She didn’t waste time trying to understand the details.

The flesh around them continued to expand, stretching thin in places. Cracks appeared, glowing from within, and then —explosions. Entire sections of buildings burst apart, showering the arena with chunks of dissolving tissue. Several mouths ruptured violently, spraying red light and collapsing into nothing.

"This place is going to blow!" Kaeya shouted. "To the gate, now!"

Her command snapped everyone out of their shock.

People ran.

The crowd surged toward the gate in a desperate flood. Strangely, the mouths lining the walls did not attack them. They were too busy convulsing, swelling, and tearing themselves apart. Still, danger was everywhere. A sudden rupture sent a wave of force through the street, throwing several people aside. Some were injured, others narrowly avoided death as flesh collapsed just behind them.

Ahead, the gate itself exploded outward.

The darkness beyond it ripped open, revealing a jagged hole filled with sunlight.

"There’s a way out!" someone cried.

Joy burst through the panic like fire through dry grass. People screamed, laughed, and cried all at once as they ran harder, faster, dragging one another toward the light.

Just as they reached the opening, a massive preaching old man’s face emerged from the darkness beyond the gate. Its features were cracked and unstable, its glowing eyes flickering weakly.

Kaeya didn’t hesitate.

Light flared around her as swords of pure radiance formed at her command. With a sharp motion, she sent them flying.

The blades tore through the giant face, slicing it into four collapsing pieces that scattered and dissolved before they could reform.

The path was clear.

One by one, then in a rushing tide, the people of Leafrest ran through the opening and into the sunlight, leaving the screaming, overfed nightmare behind them.

---

The receptionist ran with her brother through the collapsing streets, their breaths ragged, feet slipping on ground that pulsed and ruptured beneath them. The air was thick with heat and the stench of burning flesh, and every step felt like it might be their last. Behind them, the living walls groaned and split, mouths bursting apart as if the town itself were choking.

Ahead, light broke through the darkness.

"There—!" Neto shouted hoarsely.

A jagged opening yawned before them, sunlight pouring through like a promise. Beyond it lay the outside world—clean air, solid ground, freedom. For a moment, the fear that had been strangling them loosened its grip.

They ran harder.

Just as they reached the opening, Neto suddenly shoved his sister forward with all the strength he had left.

"What—?" she cried, stumbling through the threshold.

She turned back just in time to see the ground beneath Neto erupt. Flesh exploded upward in a violent spray. Neto twisted desperately, barely avoiding being swallowed whole, but a heavy slab of collapsing matter slammed into the side of his head. He went down hard, blood spraying across the living street.

"BROTHER!" she screamed.

Her voice was torn away as the force of the exit pulled her through. She vanished into the light, tears streaking down her face, her outstretched hand grasping at nothing.

Neto lay half-conscious, vision swimming, the world tilting violently. He tried to move, but his body refused to obey.

Footsteps thundered toward him.

Tyler burst into view, eyes sharp, expression grim. He didn’t waste a second. He scooped Neto up as if he weighed nothing and sprinted toward the exit, dodging rupturing flesh and falling debris with impossible precision.

Behind them, something vast and obscene rose from the wreckage.

Gluttony emerged in his true form.

He stood nearly nine feet tall, his body grotesquely swollen, layered with folds of flesh and countless mouths opening and closing across his surface. Each mouth spoke in overlapping voices, some shrill, some deep, all dripping with rage and nausea. His massive frame trembled under its own weight, cracks spiderwebbing across the ground as he struggled to stand upright.

"Hello there," Tyler said lightly as he ran, glancing back with a crooked grin. "Did my feast deserve five stars?"

"The hell are you?" Gluttony roared, his many mouths vomiting words and bile at once. "You puny human... I can’t even stand straight anymore!"

His legs buckled, the ground collapsing beneath him as his overfed body sagged.

"Don’t be like that..." Tyler laughed. "If you want, I can feed you more."

"More?" Gluttony gagged. "Yuck— blargh!"

The demon convulsed violently. From every mouth, thick, glowing sludge poured out, splattering across the street in steaming heaps. His body shuddered, swelling even further as the excess energy tore through him with nowhere left to go.

"Curse you," Gluttony snarled weakly, his voices losing cohesion.

"Guess you don’t have Infinite stomach. But I do have Infinite supplies." Tyler skidded to a halt for a split second, adjusted his grip on Neto, and then hurled several storage rings forward with practiced ease. The rings spun through the air, cracking open as they reached Gluttony’s gaping mouths.

Inside them were copied vitality demon heads— overflowing with raw life force.

Several vanished straight into Gluttony’s mouth.

The effect was immediate and catastrophic.

Cracks ripped across Gluttony’s bloated body, glowing lines of unstable energy splitting his flesh apart. His torso ballooned grotesquely, swelling like an overfilled bladder. The ground beneath him shattered, unable to support his expanding mass.

Gluttony let out a sound that was half scream, half choking sob.

Tyler shook his head as he turned away. "A Gluttony dying from overfeeding," he muttered. "That’s probably the first in history."

He leapt over the demon’s collapsing form, sprinting the final distance toward the exit. The portal of flesh trembled violently, its edges crumbling and peeling away as it began to disintegrate.

Outside, people waited in a desperate cluster— guards, adventurers, townsfolk. They stared at the opening with wide eyes, fear and hope tangled together.

The town beyond looked... normal.

No flesh. No mouths. No blood-red glow.

Just Leafrest, quiet and whole, as if nothing had ever happened.

The portal began to shrink.

"Is Everyone out?" Kaeya shouted from outside.

"Tyler is not here." A guard said sadly.

"Tyler?" Kaeya looked around and then looked at the flesh portal like thing.

Neto’s sister pushed through the crowd, her face streaked with tears, eyes locked on the closing opening.

At the last possible moment, Tyler burst through the portal, leaping forward with Neto still in his arms. They hit the ground hard, rolling across solid stone as the opening snapped shut behind them.

The flesh disintegrated completely, dissolving into nothing.

Silence fell.

Tyler lay there for a second, chest heaving, then carefully set Neto down. Kaeya rushed to his side, followed closely by Neto’s sister, who collapsed to her knees and pulled her brother into her arms, sobbing uncontrollably.

"He’s alive," Tyler said quietly. "He’ll be fine."

Kaeya let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. She looked back at the town, at the peaceful streets bathed in sunlight, and then at Tyler.

"It’s over," she said softly.

Tyler followed her gaze. Leafrest Town stood serene and untouched.