Way of the Knights

Chapter 899: Old Finn’s Past

Old Finn didn’t know that the afterlife felt this weird.

He can’t see nor hear anything, he just feel like he was wrapped in a slimy and warm liquid. He initially thought that he’d be…you know, somewhere…

Like, he’ll open his eyes and find out that he arrived in a vast field of greenery where the breeze feels cool and fresh, that there will be others aside from him, enjoying an everlasting peace. Or like, the complete opposite of that.

Maybe even somewhere in between. There’s also a miniscule chance that he’ll wake up and realize that he was sent back in the past but honestly he never even considered that.

So, he wasn’t really expecting this. This afterlife feels really weird. It’s as if he’s being digested by something, which is horrible. And the fact that he’s semi-conscious while that’s happening makes this even worse.

‘Maybe this is my kind of Hell…’ he thought to himself, ‘After all, I was once a glutton. I ate all sorts of things and now, I get to know what it’s like to be eaten and digested.’

‘I wonder how long this’ll happen. An Eternity maybe? I mean, this is Hell after all. Still, it doesn’t really feel bad…at least not for now.’

Old Finn’s thoughts continuously swam with all kinds of ideas.

He can’t move. He tried it but no matter what he did, he can’t. So he gave up on it. He can’t open his eyes, can’t smell nor taste anything. He could just feel and think.

He also thought about the chance of this all being but a dream. Even then, it’s an inescapable one so he can’t really do anything.

As time passed by, Old Finn steadily lost himself into his thoughts. Before long, he started watching as his life flashed before his eyes.

Finneas Holgen, this is his full name. Born out of a noble household and fawned by everyone who encountered him due to his status.

As a child, Finneas grew up surrounded by people of his caliber. Arrogant young masters and missus who felt very entitled of what they have. Finneas was a good child who grew up in a bad environment. Due to that, his innocence was tainted and he became twisted.

His home…oh, how long has it been since he last saw it.

He could still remember it’s name; Dazzling Gold Great World. It was one of the more powerful Great Worlds back in the day, one of the richest too.

That’s right…Old Finn was once a child of the Divine Realm. He’s a human through and through, his father was a famous powerhouse and his mother was one of most shrewd businesswoman around.

Finneas was spoiled rotten. If he wants it, he can have it. He only need to say the word.

Perhaps it is due to that, that he was easily converted and tainted by greed and arrogance. Finneas has it all. He didn’t even need to move a muscle and his money will still grow endlessly. This is thanks to his mother’s plan for him.

Finneas cultivated just for the heck of it. He never really had high aspirations in terms of cultivation, what use does it have when he could just buy his way up there? Plus, he has dozens of Elite Bodyguards, there’s no need to bother with that.

The only thing that made cultivation a little bit valuable to him was the fact that it can extend his life and that it increases his metabolism.

See, Finneas was a self-proclaimed ‘Gourmand’, but in truth he’s just a gluttonous pig.

He liked eating a lot. He probably spent more time eating than hanging out with him friends. In order to not get fat, he practice cultivation. That way, he can digest food faster which translates to him being able to eat more.

Hell, even the cultivation technique he practiced was centered around eating.

It was Finneas’ dream to taste everything that Divine Realm has to offer. At a very young age, he was already travelling worlds, visiting them to taste different cuisines they could offer. Sometimes, he would even directly hire the chefs to follow him around so that he can always have access to dishes that he particularly fancied.

His parents were never opposed to this kind of lifestyle. Heck, they were even happy for him. They have so much money that they’ve ran out of ways to spend it but Finneas being the genius that he is, found a way to squander them so that they could earn more.

Because his cultivation was centered around food, being the glutton that he is, his strength swiftly rose. He was never fond of fighting so his strength was mostly useless but it did help him eat more food so he was satisfied.

But then again, fate liked playing games with people’s lives.

Finneas would’ve never thought that the cause of his downfall would be the very thing he pursued.

During one of his travels, he heard rumors about one particular delicacy that is oh-so-rare. It is said that only the lucky ones were able to find it and only the fated ones could eat it.

This delicacy was called: The Primordial Golden Soup.

A dish that is said to be the best of the best. There’s even rumors about people killing themselves after eating it because apparently, everything loses its meaning after they tasted it.

It is that good.

And of course, when Finneas heard about this, he could literally hear the dish calling for his name. So he sets out in search of this Primordial Golden Soup.

He has paid a lot of people to aid his cause. It didn’t matter whether they faked it or not, what’s important to him was clues.

And to his surprise, after about a year of searching, they actually managed to crack down its location. So without wasting time, they went for it.

The route towards the dish was difficult to traverse but with his determination, wits and endless amounts of money, he managed to get it.

The Primordial Golden Soup was taken back to his home.

It was a huge celebration. Even his parents were there to witness the tasting of the dish.

And then, the moment came when Finneas drank the soup.

What followed was something that would haunt him for the rest of his life.

The Primordial Golden Soup was real but its description was a lie.

It wasn’t some delicacy.

It was an unborn child of a dying Primordial.

Finneas stole the unborn child and ate, causing the slumbering Primordial to wail in despair and unleash its righteous fury upon him and his family.

The Primordial descended into to their home world, laying waste to everything it encountered. It wanted to kill Finneas and refine him in order to replace its child.

However, the Primordial was dying. It was weak. That being said, its still strong enough that Finneas’ father barely managed to slay the beast. But before it died…

With it’s dying breath, it struck Finneas with an unbreakable curse.

‘You insolent pig! Since you like eating so much, with my dying breath I hereby curse you to permanently lose your sense of taste! I also curse you to never be able to feel the satisfaction of satiation or enable you to eat to your fill!’

‘You shall never again, know what it’s like to be full! This curse will last until the end of time and be passed down to your descendants! Not even the Heavenly Order itself, shall interfere nor break my curse!’

Finneas despaired, he initially thought that the beast was just letting out it’s final bout of anger before it died but it turns out that the curse did take effect.

His sense of taste was robbed from him. No matter how much food he consumed he never felt satiated, what’s even worse is that his food intake was limited. Anything that exceeds that, he will vomit.

For someone who loved eating so much, this was a horrible curse.

The worst part of it all is that, this curse was unbreakable.

His parents tried to help him break the curse. They used up so much of their money, finding ways to cure him but to no avail.

And since the Primordial laid waste on all of their property before it died, their financial supply was cut off, making it even harder for them to recover.

It was until one day, someone came to them offering a solution to Finneas’ problem.

This man told them that the curse only affects him within the Divine Realm, the Heavenly Order is trapped within the Divine Realm so if he wants to break the curse, he has to do so in the Outer Worlds.

Without any choices left, they decided to take a gamble. They set out to the Outer Worlds, bringing all their remaining wealth with them.

Once they found a decent location, they settled down and Finneas decided to breakthrough the next realm as it was said to be the only way for him to break the curse.

It worked but with a severe cost…

Finneas was branded as an Outsider and his parents were murdered by the Space Pirates who also took all their remaining wealth.

They left Finneas severely injured, staring at the dead corpses of his parents.

Things only got progressively worse from there.