My Goblin System : Levelling up with my SSS Class Devouring skill-Chapter 46

Chapter 46: Chapter 46
Far to the northeast, Satou’s scouting party had just finished setting up camp for their first night. They’d found the river, mapped a significant portion of the territory, and even encountered and defeated a pack of Dire Boars.
It had been a successful expedition.
Satou sat by the fire, reviewing the mental notes he’d made about the terrain. Jessica and Kelvin were practicing their combat forms nearby, their movements much more refined than they’d been weeks ago. Grimnir and the orc warriors shared stories, their deep voices rumbling with laughter.
Everything was perfect.
Then Satou felt it.
A chill ran down his spine. His enhanced senses screamed warnings he couldn’t interpret. Something was wrong. Terribly, fundamentally wrong.
He stood abruptly, his head turning south toward where the settlement lay.
"Satou?" Grimnir noticed his sudden tension. "What is it?"
"I don’t know," Satou admitted. His Tremor Sense wasn’t picking up anything at this distance. His enhanced smell couldn’t reach that far. But every instinct he possessed was screaming danger.
Then he saw it.
In the distance, barely visible against the darkening sky, columns of dark smoke rose into the air. Not thin wisps from cooking fires. Thick, heavy smoke that spoke of major destruction.
And it was coming from the direction of their settlement.
"No," Satou breathed, his blood turning to ice.
More smoke joined the first. Then more. The sky to the south was turning gray, the columns merging into a dark cloud that blotted out the stars.
"That’s..." Finn stared in horror. "That’s too much smoke for a normal fire."
"The settlement," Ragar said, his voice hollow. "Something’s happened to the settlement."
"We need to go back," Grimnir said urgently, already grabbing his weapons. "Now."
"Everyone!" Satou shouted, his voice cracking with urgency. "We’re heading back to the village! Double time! Leave the supplies, just grab weapons! Move!"
They ran.
Through the forest, over streams, crashing through undergrowth, ignoring branches that scratched and roots that tripped. The smoke grew thicker as they got closer, the smell of burning wood and something worse reaching their noses.
Burning flesh.
Satou pushed himself harder, activating every enhancement skill he had. His legs pumped faster, his stamina draining rapidly but he didn’t care. Lyra was there. Urgak was there. Dozens of goblins and orcs who’d trusted him to keep them safe.
And he’d left them.
After what felt like hours but was probably just over one, they burst through the tree line.
The sight that greeted them would haunt their nightmares forever.
The village was destroyed.
Buildings Satou had carefully constructed with earth magic were crumbling, their walls cracked and shattered. The wooden structures the orcs had built were burning, sending thick black smoke into the sky. Bodies lay scattered throughout the square, some moving weakly, others completely still.
"No," Satou whispered, horror overwhelming him. "No, no, no."
He ran into the ruins, his enhanced senses immediately assaulted by the carnage. Dead goblins. Dead orcs. Blood everywhere. Wounded crawling through the dirt, crying for help that wouldn’t come.
Jessica and Kelvin screamed behind him, seeing their home destroyed, their friends dead or dying.
Then Satou’s eyes locked onto the center of the village square.
A figure stood there, surrounded by fallen bodies. His clothes were clean despite the destruction around him. Shadows writhed at his feet like living things. And in his hand, held by her head with her feet dangling off the ground, was Lyra.
Her face was bruised, blood trickling from her mouth. Her eyes were barely open, consciousness fading. But she was alive.
The figure holding her was young, maybe in his early twenties. Dark hair. Cold eyes. An expression of casual amusement as he surveyed the destruction around him like an artist admiring his work.
And beneath his feet, pinned under shadow constructs that held them like iron chains, were the massive forms of Urgak and several other high-ranking warriors. All wounded. All helpless. Urgak’s eye met Satou’s across the distance, filled with pain and shame at failing to protect their home.
The world around Satou disappeared. The sounds faded. The smells vanished. There was only the figure holding Lyra. Only the destroyed settlement. Only the bodies of people he’d sworn to protect.
Something inside him snapped.
The air itself seemed to crack as Satou’s presence exploded outward. Every skill he possessed activated simultaneously. His Predator’s Gaze intensified to levels he’d never reached before, the pressure so intense that several wounded goblins nearby lost consciousness just from proximity.
The Pack Leader’s Instinct screamed through his mind, cataloging every detail of the enemy, identifying weaknesses, formulating strategies. His Orc’s Might flooded his muscles with impossible strength, his body swelling slightly as power coursed through him.
The ground beneath his feet cracked from the sheer force of his bloodlust.
The figure, Vegeta, noticed him for the first time. His expression shifted from amusement to interest.
"Oh?" Vegeta said. "Speak of the devil. You must be Satou."
The world blurred.
One moment, Satou stood at the village entrance, thirty meters away from Vegeta.
The next moment, he was right beside him.
Vegeta’s eyes widened in genuine surprise. He’d been a hero for five years, fought countless battles, killed demons and warlords and monsters beyond counting. And no one, not a single enemy, had ever moved fast enough to surprise him.
Until now.
Satou’s hand shot out, fingers wrapped in crackling energy from his various enhancement skills all firing at once. He grabbed Lyra’s body, and the instant his fingers made contact, power surged through him.
Shadows tried to interfere, tried to hold her, tried to tighten their grip. But Satou’s strength, amplified by rage and desperation and every skill he possessed, tore through the shadow constructs like they were tissue paper.
He pulled Lyra free from Vegeta’s grip with such force that the sudden release sent Vegeta stumbling backward. It was the first time in years anyone had physically overpowered one of the Shadow Hero’s techniques.
Vegeta’s foot caught on a piece of rubble as he stumbled back, his perfect balance broken for just a fraction of a second.