The Extra's Rebellion
Chapter 56: food

Chapter 56: food

The Aether Hearth.

It looked almost unnatural in the biological mess surrounding it— perfectly round, smooth, deep crimson with flecks of gold running beneath the skin like veins of light.

It pulsed faintly in his hand, giving off a low warmth and a faint, sweet aroma that seemed to rise above the blood and viscera. It shimmered like a forbidden fruit, its surface taut and almost glassy.

"Looks like a... fruit?" he muttered, turning it in his hand.

"It is," came the voice of Elden from his phone. "Eat it. That’s the creature’s Aether hearth. It’ll feed your Aether hearth."

Zephyr blinked. "Eat it? Raw?"

"Affirmative, upon death Aether hearth turns transforms to be a fruit like structure. It is very sweet"

He raised it to his nose and sniffed. The scent was unexpectedly pleasant—sweet, like a blend of pomegranate and citrus, with a faint undertone of something floral. His stomach rumbled.

But instinct stopped him.

Eating this felt... momentous. He could feel the potency buzzing in his fingertips. It wasn’t just energy—it was life. Power. Change. And he wasn’t sure if he was ready to eat something like that. Not yet. Not now.

"No," he whispered, setting the fruit-like Hearth aside.

Instead, Zephyr turned his attention back to the carcass. With practiced movements, he sliced open the riftsprawn’s lower abdomen, creating a hollow pocket in its stomach. He carefully wrapped the Aether Hearth in a strip of fine grass and slid it inside, cradled between the warm organs. Then, he hoisted the beast onto his shoulder, he held the head on his other hand.

During his failed three hours he learned through Elden about the riftsprawn in this forest and that was how he settled on hunting what he considered closest to what he knew back on earth. And if he didn’t want to pay with his credit for the ingredients he would be using for cooking, he would be taking the birthmark and on the case of the deer it was on it’s head.

"Yep, pay for ingredients". When he first heard it, he almost choked on thin air.

It was heavier than it looked, but he bore the weight without complaint. The cursed forest loomed behind him as he made his way back—through the outer ridge, past the sleeping thorns and wailing branches.

Eventually, the shifting trees gave way to rusted walls and flickering light panels—the border of the forest. He passed through the border of tree line nodding to the half-bored sentry before trudging through the courtyard toward the cafeteria sector.

The large cafeteria was mostly quiet at this hour, but one of the automated food stations glowed faintly in the far corner. Zephyr carried the body inside, shoved open the heavy prep door, and dropped the carcass on the metal table with a loud thud.

He tied on an apron, rolled up his sleeves, and got to work.

The station whirred to life as he selected his utensils—a serrated butcher’s knife, bone saw, and long-handled tongs. The beast’s meat was thick and gamey. He cut and separated the good portions with care: flank, shoulder, heart, strips of rib.

He trimmed away the fur, but after realizing it was a wasted effort he stopped. Then he seared slabs on the auto-grill, and spiced it with whatever was left in the communal spice rack—salt, dried whitefire root, maybe a little ghost-ginger— Whatever that was

A satisfying sizzle filled the air, and the smell hit him like a warm punch to the face.

Zephyr smirked, leaning back as the scent of his labor spread through the space.

Tonight, he wouldn’t go hungry.

"Finally meat, no more pastries".

The meat was soon ready to be eaten, Zephyr served himself the entire thing and begun to dig in with the grace of a barbarian.

After a while Zephyr sat hunched over the metal table, bones picked clean beside his tray, the scent of seared riftsprawn still lingering in the air like a glorious, meaty fog. He licked the last streaks of juice from his fingers, then let out a deep, satisfied sigh.

He hadn’t eaten this well in weeks. Maybe ever.

"I’m telling you, Elden," he said aloud, voice still rough with the afterglow of dinner, "that thing almost made me bite my own fingers. Who needs high cuisine when you’ve got wild beast and desperation?"

Elden’s voice crackled to life from the embedded device on the counter. "Acknowledged. Enjoyment level: 87% detected in vocal pattern. Shall I record this as a preferred meal profile?"

Zephyr chuckled. "Sure. Call it... Riftsprawn a la Freedom."

He rose slowly, still digesting, and made his way to the back of the prep area. He hauled what remained of the beast into the refrigeration module, the device letting out a chime as it registered biological mass and sealed itself.

"Preserve the rest," Zephyr said. "That should be enough for two more meals."

"Confirmed. Remaining meat stored. Freshness retention estimated at 98% over next 24 cycles."

He took the cold yet still dripping head of the deer and placed it upon a weight scanner like object.

The scanner blinked red, then green.

"Payment Accepted: Ingredients Compensated."

Zephyr snorted. "Yeah, figured you’d like that." He turned back to the table.

There, wrapped in grass and still glistening with a faint internal glow, was the Aether Hearth.

He lifted it with both hands this time, as if reverence might still change what he felt. It hadn’t cooled much—it was still warm, pulsing like something alive. The strange, thin skin shimmered beneath the dim light, veins of gold now moving slower, thicker. It had been waiting for him.

He hesitated.

"...This is edible..... right?"

Elden’s voice responded calmly. "Affirmative. Consuming it will accelerate restoration and natural resonance."

Zephyr nodded slowly.

He sat back down, took one last breath, and pressed his thumbs into the side of the Hearth.

Crack.

The fruit’s skin peeled apart like it had been waiting to bloom. Inside was another layer—softer, glowing more intensely, a soft red core streaked with living gold. It pulsed once.

"This is insane," he murmured, eyes closed. "Alright... bottoms up."

He bit into it.

CRUNCH.

His mouth exploded with sensation.

Sweetness. Bright, electric, almost holy sweetness. It was like honeyed sunbursts, like lightning soaked in nectar, like biting into something that remembered starlight. He gasped, eyes watering again—but this time not from sadness or exhaustion, but from overwhelming taste.

He gripped the table with one hand, the Hearth with the other, as his body surged.

Aether rushed through his limbs like molten current. His core ignited—not violently, but naturally, like a long-dead forge relighting. He could feel the gain, like his inner circuitry had just received clean power for the first time in days. He didn’t need a scanner to know his capacity had gone up.

Not by much—but definitely enough.

"...Hah," he exhaled, sagging back against the bench, hand resting over his chest. "That was real. It actually... does not taste disgusting."

"Current Aether reserves increased by 7.2%," Elden confirmed. "Hearth resonance slightly optimized. Latent flow stability; improving."

Zephyr couldn’t help but laugh softly to himself.

"No more pastries," he said again, as if to seal the moment in history.

Still buzzing with residual warmth, Zephyr cleaned his tools with half-drunken precision, stored the rest of the meat, and walked the quiet halls of the facility back to the dorm wing.

The silence now felt earned. The room was soaked in silence with the only source of light being from the large TV.

When he finally collapsed onto his cot, the taste of the Hearth still lingered on his tongue like a promise. He wanted to stay up and participate in watching whatever was playing but his body was beat and barely a few seconds after he layed on his bed he slept off.