Was the instinct to swallow the souls a real one? It had no context. Did it mean the spirits would eventually end up in their proper resting place? Or did it mean they were literally consuming them... ending them? Was this a normal action a Cerberus might take? Or was this something a master might grant them as an occasional privilege, a means to end broken souls? None of them knew, but it was unlikely this choice—if you could call it that—would go unnoticed.
The Cerberus exhaled the air from all their many lungs, letting every molecule leave them unto a vacuum inside. As much as they pushed, they could feel the fire all around them, over their shoulders, and up the end of their tail. They were born in the flames and they would be reborn in the flames!
"Wait! What!?"
Was it their voice? A thought? Was it an onlooker? No one knew who was speaking or why, but as the last of their breath left their many lungs, the three who were as one knew there would be no turning back from this choice.
They inhaled... everything. It was like the domed bubble of fire was an external lung they now had to fight to swallow down. The blackness fought the hardest, but was the first to go down. A far away memory of Vari the Nekomata saying 'corruption comes easier to you' flashed through their minds as the darkness flooded their lungs and bubbled under their skin.
But it was chased down by the local fire, and then, an even greater energy. Forty-two souls‚ some corrupted, some weakened, many both—passed into the body of the Cerberus through the open muzzles of the three heads. They all participated as one, and with each soul, there was new life within them... the energy filling them and giving them the strength to keep absorbing what was left of the dead.
At the end, it was only fire. The debris of the immediate combat was first, with the damaged light-post no longer burning as the flames whisked down their throats. Next, the fire over their body, including the green of the tail-fire traveled up and split into three for consumption by each. Lastly, as the fire of the flaming bubble pulled in with their inhale, the dome itself collapsed down upon them, going into their many lungs and sitting there, warm and filling.
Choking a bit at the end, their hands went up and pushed their closed muzzles together, each head against the other, their horns touching. They felt the energy inside of them like a burp that they couldn't swallow. In the end, that was just what happened. They belched and green flames erupted from each of their muzzles in a shocking effect.
They landed on their ass on the ground, heads looking at each other. Their hands rubbed their belly which had grown in size, pressing up underneath their breasts as if they were pregnant. Giddy with energy, they couldn't keep themselves from laughing. It was better than simply drunk...
No, it was drunk... drunk with power.
Rebecca Charmer, Jamal Stanford, and Kenese Dīng exchanged glances as something inside of them moved. Sets of blue eyes looked to green then to black as each suddenly felt very differently about what they had just done.
They couldn't say for certain, but if felt like if they didn't do something, it was going to choke them. Would the spirits go onto the afterlife if they did something? No, no, no... no more questions. Quickly, this energy inside of them had to be focused into something more... but what?