Demon's Evolution
The moment I rose to my feet on my perfectly regenerated legs, the dark crimson demonic aura cloaking my body rippled violently, as if swallowing the very oxygen in the mine. My eyes gleamed with feral intensity as I kicked off the ground toward Ignis.
"Y-you... you fucking monster...!!!"
Startled, Ignis swung his greatsword, erecting a wall of flames, but my fist—empowered by demonic strength—brutishly tore through the searing barrier of mana, aiming straight for his face.
Boom! A thunderous crash echoed as Ignis's head snapped back. But my triumph was fleeting. He was a battle-hardened lord who had ruled this frontier fief through iron will, surviving thousands of brushes with death over decades. Even as he reeled, Ignis instinctively manipulated the deceptive armor on his lower body, kicking me in the gut. The magic stone embedded in it detonated, ripping apart my freshly regenerated flesh once more.
"Is that all you've got? You think raw power alone can surpass this Ignis's experience?!"
He was right. The awakened demonic power was destructive, but my movements handling it were crude and unrefined. Ignis, meanwhile, fluidly blended magic and physical force, slipping into my blind spots. The masterfully crafted lower armor seemed to predict my attack trajectories, deftly deflecting my lethal blows every time.
The longer we clashed, the more anxious I grew. The demonic energy was corroding my body, threatening to run wild, while Ignis's cunning combos charred my regenerated flesh anew, leaving it ragged and scorched.
To bridge that desperate gap, the sisters—panting from the rear—made their move.
"Master... use us... please...!"
Bloody and battered, Rubia and Seria began chanting. They were already at their limits. But their obsession and guilt toward me forcibly roused their spirits. Rubia shaved off her own life force to lay a gravity bog at my feet, slowing Ignis's movements, while Seria coated my fist's tip with the sharpest wind magic, maximizing its destructive power.
The problem was my body. The pure support mana they desperately fired at me twisted upon contact with my skin, invariably converting into hideous demonic energy that stabbed back at me like blades. The eerie friction sound of mana warping into demonic power filled the mine.
"Aaaahhh!"
The screams came from the sisters. Their bodies crumbled miserably as they maintained their support spells, taking Ignis's flame storm head-on. His merciless inferno licked Rubia's smooth thighs and calves. With a sickening sizzle, her pale flesh blackened and melted in an instant.
Even as her legs liquefied and she collapsed, Rubia gripped her staff with one hand, straining to feed me her mana. Seria fared no better. Trying to swat away an incoming flame spear with her bare body, one arm burned to charcoal up to the shoulder. Amid the blinding white pain of her melting flesh, she bit her lips until they bled, stifling her cries.
"I... won't give up... for Master...!"
Dragging her melted legs across the floor, dangling her charred arm, the sisters offered their once-noble bodies as sacrifices solely for me. The acrid stench of burning flesh and their agonized screams tore through my mind. Pinned on the defensive, they were literally erasing themselves to aid my fight.
My regenerated dark crimson demonic claws raked Ignis's deceptive armor, sparking horrific flames. The awakened power was devastating, but it couldn't instantly overcome the lord's decades of slaughter-honed experience or the blacksmith's masterpiece. Ignis read my trajectories plain as day, grinning wickedly.
"A worm with nothing but brute strength. Before this Ignis's battle experience, it's just thrashing about!"
His greatsword grazed my side, shredding demonic flesh. Pain pierced my brain, but worse were the sisters' wretched groans from behind me. With legs melted and arm incinerated, they vomited blood yet kept supplying mana. Even their desperate mana twisted into savage demonic power upon touching my skin, searing the Mark of Subjugation on their lower abdomens and shredding their womb walls.
The grotesque friction of warping mana mingled with their pitiful moans, filling the mine. They were erasing themselves to support me.
"Tch, persistent bitches."
Irritated by the encroaching demonic aura and the sisters' tenacious support, Ignis's eyes gleamed with loathsome malice. He brushed off my attack effortlessly and turned his gaze to my back.
"Annoying pests. I'll burn you to ash first—not even bones left!"
The blood-red patterns covering Ignis pulsed madly. The gems on his deceptive lower armor flashed grotesquely, mercilessly sucking in the mine's mana. From his fingertips erupted a 6th Circle flame spell—overwhelming and destructive, surpassing 5th Circle.
A bluish inferno, nurtured in hell's depths, roared forth, targeting Rubia's head as she crawled on melted legs.
"Rubia! Dodge!"
I screamed and lunged, but on the defensive, I was too late. In that instant, Seria—serving Rubia despite her own melted legs—spewed blood and threw herself forward. Thrusting her charred arm, she squeezed out her remaining mana for a desperate barrier spell, shielding Rubia.
KABOOOM...!
"Guh, hack...!"
The 6th Circle blaze devoured Seria's frail body without mercy. Her clumsy barrier shattered like glass on contact. The ferocious flames ravaged her noble flesh.
"Haaaaahhh...!!! It burns, Master! Save me...!"
Her scream tore through her shredded throat. Her smooth skin blackened and burst under the fire, flames burrowing into muscle and veins, melting her alive in horrific agony. Her beautiful face twisted grotesquely, charred limbs warping as they crushed her body atop the ashes.
Unable to withstand the full 6th Circle barehanded, Seria collapsed in a pool of blood, her body covered in gruesome burns. Her dimming eyes met mine before losing light, consciousness slipping into black void as she fainted. The Mark of Subjugation on her abdomen throbbed savagely, feeding on my despair and rage, spilling dark crimson blood over the smoldering ashes.
In the wake of the bluish 6th Circle inferno, Seria lay crumpled like charred log in her blood. Her once-smooth skin was hideously burst open, arms extended to protect me melted to expose bone. Even her faint breaths seemed ready to cease.
Witnessing that horror with my own eyes snapped the last threads of my human reason and patience.
My body inherently couldn't channel a drop of mana. The desperate mana the sisters had wrung through their marks slammed into the abyss within me, forcibly converting into the most vicious, sticky demonic power. Even the familiar pain of that conversion regenerating my wounds and bones was gone now.
The converted dark crimson power greedily devoured my erupting rage and killing intent, surging past limits into rampage. It transcended mere flesh regeneration—a new providence awakening from my soul's deepest abyss.
"Ka, hahaha! Excellent! Utterly brilliant!"
From the darkest, sticky depths of my soul, Asmodeus—coiled there—reacted to the mad rampage with ecstatic laughter.
"To unlock my forbidden powers yourself in such short time! This boiling hatred, the scent of corruption! It's enough to take down that arrogant fire mutt! Now listen closely. This great power you've just awakened is—"
Her noisy cackling and grand explanations grated like madness. If Asmodeus's voice delayed me killing Ignis by even a second, it was worthless garbage.
Without hesitation, I raised my right fist—dense with rampaging demonic power—and smashed it into my own skull with full force.
Crack...!
"Shut the fuck up. You're in the way."
My cranium caved, blood spraying from torn skin. My head felt like it would explode, but the demonic power instantly stitched brain and bone, regenerating in seconds. Silencing Asmodeus's drivel with self-inflicted agony, I cracked my neck and locked eyes on Ignis.
Ignis's massive frame visibly flinched at the grotesque, sanity-defying self-mutilation before him. A monster unmoved by his 6th Circle spell, smashing its own head and regenerating. For the fief's absolute ruler, steeped in countless slaughters, primal fear and shock toward an incomprehensible being dawned in his eyes for the first time.