Chapter 473: Every second, more strength.

The forest air was never the same after that roar.

With each passing second, the invisible pressure enveloping the clearing grew more suffocating, as if the entire world held its breath at what was happening.

Hours passed… or days. Time had lost its shape.

Vergil no longer knew if it was morning or night—everything was a succession of blows, blood, and flesh.

The demonic cow, once little more than an instinctive beast, was now a living wall of muscle and energy, a beacon of raw power that drew attention from all around.

Vergil, Yamato always in hand, attacked her mercilessly. Each blow wasn’t meant to kill her, but to force her body to respond. And it did. Always.

With each open wound, he cut off a piece, infused it with demonic energy, and shoved it into the creature’s mouth.

And she ate. Always ate.

The cycle repeated itself like a macabre prayer.

Cut. Flesh. Blood. Energy. Growth.

At first, the ground was scarred only by a few cracks.

Now, craters opened with each step of the cow, and her hooves burned the earth with black fire. The heat was unbearable, and even the air seemed to vibrate like metal about to shatter.

The meat was running out.

And that’s when the others came.

The smell of demonic flesh—a thick, sweet, and poisonous aroma—spread through the forest like an invitation. The predators responded.

The shadows among the trees began to move. Multiple eyes glowed in the darkness.

Creatures twisted by Hell emerged, first one or two… then dozens.

The first to appear was a demonic wolf with exposed bones and jaws capable of crushing rock. Vergil wasted no time.

A single cut from Yamato separated the head from the body, and before the blood could cool, he was cutting off the flesh and throwing it to the cow.

She ate it, and her muscles swelled, pulsing as if breathing.

More came.

A bird with four wings and a beak made of black metal dove from the sky. Vergil met it with a vertical blow that split its body in two.

More flesh. More energy. More growth.

Titania watched from afar, not daring to approach. With each cycle, the power she felt from both Vergil and the cow was so dense it suffocated her.

Zuri, on his shoulder, no longer commented. She simply watched like someone watching an inevitable disaster.

“Come on…” Vergil murmured, sweat streaming down his face, his breathing heavy, but his eyes burning with euphoria. “Stronger… you need to get stronger.”

Time dissolved into an endless sequence of confrontations. Creatures came from all directions: felines with obsidian spines, worms that crawled under the earth, formless creatures that screamed like children.

They all died. They all became meat.

They all fed the cow.

The clearing became a smoldering graveyard. Melted bones, boiling blood, and charred pieces of monsters littered the ground.

The smell was suffocating, but to Vergil, it was intoxicating.

The cow no longer fit in the space they had. Her horns were like flaming spears, and each breath made the air vibrate. Her eyes, once savage, now held a cruel clarity—and she looked at Vergil as an equal.

“You understand now…” he said, almost in a reverent whisper. “We were both born for this.”

The meat was truly running out. The last remaining piece was in Rize’s hands, who watched her as if holding a rare diamond.

“If we end this, the hunt will intensify,” she said with a thin smile. “They’ll come in droves.”

“Good,” Vergil replied, his voice almost hoarse. “Then let’s hunt.”

The last piece was handed over. The cow swallowed, and its skin split open in fissures from which light escaped. Energy leaked from it like steam from a volcano about to explode.

It was at that moment that the earth shook.

These weren’t the footsteps of one or two predators. It was a horde.

The forest opened in all directions, revealing dozens—perhaps hundreds—of demonic creatures drawn by the scent and suffocating presence of that energy.

Vergil smiled.

“Now, yes.”

The massacre began.

It moved like a slashing shadow, piercing bodies, tearing off pieces with surgical precision. Each creature that fell fed the cow, which devoured the flesh with bottomless voracity.

And with each new meal, she grew, her aura burning brighter, her paws cracking the ground as if the earth were too fragile to support her.

The sky darkened. Not from clouds, but from the density of the accumulating energy.

The forest was no longer a forest. It was a battlefield, where vegetation rotted instantly at the touch of demonic energy.

The creatures that had previously come to attack began to retreat. But Vergil wouldn’t let them. He hunted them. He dragged them back. He killed them and fed them to the cow. It was a vicious cycle that fed on itself, and the gleam in Vergil’s eyes showed he had no intention of stopping.

“More… more…” he repeated, almost in a trance.

Rize, who had previously observed like a scientist, now seemed fascinated by something deeper. “She’s not just your creation anymore. She’s part of you.”

Vergil didn’t answer.

In that moment, he was no longer a man controlling a monster. He was one monster creating another, and together they were a force reality refused to accept.

By the time night fell—if it was still night—the cow was the size of a house.

Its body was a wall of muscle and energy, and each step generated shockwaves that felled trees for miles.

Vergil, bathed in demonic blood, breathed heavily, but the smile never left his face.

He looked at the creature, which now watched him with fierce reverence.

“Tomorrow…” he said, running his hand over its glowing horn, “…we will hunt something bigger.”

And, in the suffocating silence that followed, the distant sound of something far more colossal answered.

Slightly behind Vergil… Titania hovered above, wings spread, observing the scene as if gazing at a painting that should never have been painted.

“He won’t stop,” she said, her voice low, almost carried by the wind. “I… I’ve seen Vergil fight before. But this…”

“It’s not fighting,” Zuri interrupted, sitting on a thick branch, staring blankly at the clearing. “It’s giving birth.”

Titania turned her head, confused. “Giving birth?”

Zuri jerked her chin toward the cow, which was currently swallowing another piece of demonic flesh and letting out a roar so deep it made both their bones vibrate.

“You’re looking at the wrong thing. It’s not just about the creature… it’s about him. Vergil is giving birth to something. And it’s not just this cow,” Zuri said, her eyes narrow, feline. “He’s giving birth to an idea.”

Titania frowned, watching as Vergil climbed onto the creature’s back to cut off a fragment of horn that glowed like lava. He reached down, infused it with energy, and… offered it back.

The cow ate without hesitation.

“This is insane. What is he feeding a monster for? To prove he can?” Titania asked.

Zuri gave a wry smile. “No. He’s creating something that never existed. It’s not about proving anything. It’s about being the first. The only one.”