When Evelyn literally melts before her and dives towards their mutual adversary, Sierra is close behind. She glances once at Adrian. He’s already halfway to the tree, leaving the Blue Mage and the Relentless Demon behind him. Jets of water propel him, and Sierra can almost hear him whooping as he leans back into his signature magic.
It’s been nearly two years since she saved the Hydrokinetic’s life, and they’ve been traveling ever since.
Sierra knows him well enough. She doesn’t need to be worried for his safety now that he’s uncloaked his primary class. Not unless the tree-demon reaches the next stage of its blossoming form, of course, but she thinks it’ll be a while before that.
It’s disappointing, though. One of the conditions Aunt Marie gave Adrian for his training was to keep their cloaks on at all costs.
In Sierra’s professional opinion, Adrian made his choice too quickly. After a year in the Crowned Islands, he’s made it from level 1 to 8. An impressive feat by anyone’s standards.
Then again, the woman she fights alongside makes Adrian’s accomplishment seem like child’s play.
Evelyn—or, at least, the bloody trail that currently composes the other girl’s body—falls downwards. Sierra wishes she had that level of blood magic, but alas, her Power Copy can only mimic great magic like that when it is freely given. Though she’s aware that she’s not always the most tactful, even Sierra knows that a lady like Evelyn isn’t willing to part with her secrets.
For the time being, she does what she is able to. She’s run out of the uses for much of the great spells she does have. Her staff’s Obliteration Ray has two more charges, but she has more important targets to use it on than an aging guard who hasn’t even surpassed level 40.
Instead, she relies on the basic aspects of her class. Sierra knows better than practically anyone that level isn’t the only measure of combat power—she’s overwhelmed people dozens of levels above her in the past, simply because her primary classes had a strong matchup against them and she knew how to use her magic optimally.
Evelyn seems keen on proving that. Sierra provides air support, using her staff to amplify the power of her Dispel Magic. This, unlike most of her usable combat spells, is inherent to the Blue Mage class. Magic is about balance; the Blue Mage balances giving and taking; Dispel Magic is opposed by Amplification. It is simple as that.
As she eliminates the earthen barrier separating her from Noren, Evelyn and the ground, Sierra sorts through her copied magic.
The Silver-tier Personal Telekinesis has been with her practically since birth. She has no fear of losing it now, and she uses it to guide herself downwards, avoiding the debris created by Noren’s attacks.
When she breaks through, she uses Imprisoning Arrow, a tentacle-like conjuration modified to not require a bow that she used to almost capture the Earth Mage earlier. She gained this one recently—as a matter of fact, the Noble Archer she’d spent a couple of nights with had said her goodbyes only a single night before Sierra had met Evelyn.
It’s still fresh, and though the limited duration of her contact with Ashley means that this skill will disappear within weeks, she still has uses of it today. She just needs to wait for an opening, which she seeks to help create by using her staff to rain down near-costless Mana Strikes, the most basic mage attack there is. If she has any effect on the fight, she can’t see it.
But Sierra’s not here to win the fight. She’s here to observe.
Maybe Marie really is rubbing off on her.
Evelyn explodes in wraithfire, and Sierra’s jaw drops even as she casts her Imprisoning Arrow. Power like that doesn’t belong on someone who’s merely level 10 in their first class. It doesn’t belong on someone thrice her level.
She’s not sure whether Evelyn knows this yet.
Sierra watches impassively as Evelyn dismembers Noren, her magical tentacles unmoving. Though the Blue Mage has grown familiar with the sight of death, she can’t help but wince at the brutality with which Evelyn executes her… victim feels like the wrong word. Her prey.
She suspects that the experiments that produced Evelyn were geared to make a perfect sociopath, because the demonic woman doesn’t even flinch before she tears into the burning corpse’s chest, red and black magic flowing out from her body to assist her in devouring her late enemy.
And then Evelyn falls still.
And she stays there.
Sierra drops to the ground, eyeing the flowering demonic tree. It has reached the second stage. Advanced enough to require containment, not enough to necessitate immediate destruction by one of the UCC’s best.
Adrian is currently fighting it alone. Sierra knows that there’s other personnel here, so the fact that he’s the only one attacking it almost certainly means that Marie has ordered them to hold back.
He’ll be fine for the time being, Sierra assesses, but he’ll die the second the tree advances to the third stage if he remains unassisted.
The Blue Mage turns her attention to the fallen woman next to her, searching for a cause. She dearly hopes that Evelyn hasn’t suffered permanent damage. Unnaturally explosive growth aside, the other woman has been a fantastic addition to their party so far. Sierra had initially planned to drop her off in Ravendale before moving on, but after seeing her at work, the Blue Mage thinks there’s much more value in working with her.
If she survives this, at least. Evelyn’s eyes are open, the usually fierce red of her eyes dim and glossed-over.
At least they’re not completely dark. She hasn’t been corrupted, thank the broken gods.
Sierra checks for a pulse and finds one. Evelyn’s chest still rises and falls. She’s alive.
Before she can determine what to do with Evelyn’s unconscious body, Sierra hears the telltale howl of a wolf-shaped demon.
By the energy it lets off, it can’t be higher than Category 1 or 2.
Not even worth her attention.
She doesn’t look up as she casts a Mana Strike, adding an Amplification to it to seal the deal.
“Evelyn, Evelyn,” Sierra whispers urgently, shaking the woman in question by the shoulders.
Nothing.
“Fine,” Sierra mutters, hefting the experiment by her shoulders. Evelyn’s unconscious weight is much heavier than she expects. “Let us get you to safety.”
She needs to help Adrian before the tree progresses to the next stage. By the time it advances to full blossom, even Sierra’s full power won’t be enough to put it down alone.
This place isn’t safe, though. Normally, Sierra would trust Evelyn to take care of herself, but something’s clearly gone wrong. If the unthinkable has happened and Evelyn has somehow managed a second class evolution before most people would receive their first, it’s not a successful one. Sierra can’t think of anything else it can be other than magically-induced sleep, but a Dispel Magic does nothing.
Though the demons that sprout from the seeds are largely Category 3 or lower—all beasts that even a cloaked Adrian could handle—Evelyn is unconscious. Sierra needs to get her to safety before she can fight.
But as she activates her Personal Telekinesis again, the skill barely drawing any mana from her expansive power well, Evelyn’s eyes flutter shut, then fly open.
“Oh, good,” Sierra says, preparing to set her down. “You’re finally—“
Awake, she means to say, but Evelyn cuts her off both figuratively and literally. A ghostly spike sprouts straight from the red-eyed woman’s chest, nearly spearing Sierra straight through the throat.
It takes her completely by surprise, but Sierra still manages to jerk her head back just quickly enough for the spike to slash straight across her face instead. It’s a shallow wound, and Sierra kicks Evelyn away immediately, but something about it bites more fiercely than a typical slashing wound would.
Sierra’s been cut enough times to know.
She cycles through the list of possibilities and settles on the correct sensation in a fraction of a second.
Soul damage.
That realization sends her flying even higher into the air, her Personal Telekinesis buoying her. The skill comes less steadily this time, and she wobbles as she flies upwards, creating more space between herself and the suddenly-rabid Evelyn.
Something must have happened. As Sierra starts to ascend, she casts Appraise. It’s not complete either, the fresh soul damage reducing the integrity of the skill.
Name: Evelyn Carnelian
Age: (0/18/???)
Race: ???
Class: (Relentless Demon/???)
Level: 10
Traits:
Demonic Heritage
Enhanced Blood Affinity
Kinslayer II
Killer II
Free Bird
Relentless
Soulless
Merciless
Voidtouched
Godsmarked
Special Skills:
Wraithfire
Skills (collapsed, displaying last used):
Phantom Shape (Bronze)
Devour (Gold)
Bloodpath (Silver)
??? (???)
For the second time in thirty seconds, Sierra is caught off guard. This display looks nothing like what she expects out of this skill. The only time the system is supposed to display question marks is when she Appraises an anomaly, and Evelyn isn’t an anomaly… or at least, she wasn’t.
The woman that Sierra thought she knew stands tall, and the Blue Mage sees Evelyn as her enemies must. Nine long, sharp limbs extend out of her back, each of them glittering a dark, bloodstained blue.
The spike at her chest continues growing, demonstrating surprising flexibility as it feeds into her mouth. Evelyn licks the blood off her phantom limb as it desolves, and her eyes grow even fiercer. There’s a wildness to them that chills Sierra to the bone, and suddenly power explodes out from Evelyn’s body.
Suddenly, Sierra can’t move, every muscle in her body seizing up as Evelyn’s sudden presence stuns her.
She only knows one other individual that can do this. Aunt Marie’s mysterious benefactor, the white-haired woman that the Blue Mage has only ever witnessed once.
It doesn’t help when a red flame so dark it could be black ignites across Evelyn’s entire body, framing her crimson eyes in wraithfire that exudes death. Against the dim light cast by her own flame, Evelyn casts a shadow long enough to drown out the city.
For the first time since she arrived in the Crowned Islands, a spike of fear seizes Sierra’s heart, squeezing tight and threatening to never let go.
And then Evelyn takes a step forward and screams.
That voice… is not Evelyn’s. Not entirely. Sierra can recognize traces of the anguished woman she’s fought alongside, but there’s an inhuman quality to it. Evelyn isn’t human, but it goes beyond even that. It hurts Sierra’s mind just to hear, sends her thoughts spiraling in on themselves.
Anomaly.
Not just anomalous. Evelyn has two new traits. The touch of the void, which Sierra recognizes, and Godsmarked, which she doesn’t.
Something to worry about after Sierra survives.
Despite the uniqueness of this stunning effect, Sierra’s not entirely unfamiliar with this type of attack. It is an anomalous imposal of will onto the area around her. She can handle this.
Evelyn brings her hands to her eyes, still screaming, and Sierra activates her Personal Telekinesis, sending her flying back before Evelyn can jump at her.
“Give it back!” Evelyn shouts, voice hoarse. She claws at her face, drawing blood. “Give me back!”
She trails off into the inhuman scream once more, and then Evelyn falls still again, still on fire.
The pressure lifts, and Sierra is free to move once more. She’s under no impression that Evelyn’s down for good. Something clearly went wrong on a level-up or an evolution or something, which means that there are now not one but two potential calamities to address.
As Sierra turns to assess the situation, she reaches into her Storage, a Gold-tier skill that she’s focused on refining since childhood. She retrieves an anchor, a small slate-colored tablet the size of her palm, and she passes her mana into it as she looks for her comrade. The cold, numb part of her soul that’s suffered an injury starts to hurt less.
Adrian is still fighting the tree, Sierra sees, dashing around it with bursts of dark water. Liquid discs surround him, spinning fast enough to shred flesh apart. The seeds are concentrated on his position now, but he’s still managing.
For now. The tree is showing signs of advancing. The pure black of its trunk and branches distorts, veins of corrupted color slicing through it. The blooming flowers are starting to take on hints of vibrant hues, and the palpable malice permeating the air is growing heavier.
It’s growing faster than it should be, and a quick sweep of the area reveals why.
Bodies crumple like rotten fruit when wayward debris falls on them, practically exploding when low-category demons crawl over them, their limbs sinking deep into chest cavities like the corpses are no more than the mud they’re on top of.
The demonic blood that paints the ground is colored with glimmering soul-essence, and it flows into the ground, feeding long-reaching roots.
Sierra curses. The tree’s spread its influence to the land already, and it’s feeding. At this rate—
Before she can continue her train of thought, another pulse of authority flows out from the anomaly once named Evelyn. Sierra’s muscles freeze up again, but they slacken a moment later as the anchor in her hand glows a soft grey.
She grimaces. She hadn’t counted on having to use any UCC creations so soon.
Evelyn’s flame redoubles in intensity, and Sierra pours Amplification into her Personal Telekinesis to get away from her. At the same time, she uses Dispel Magic. Though it will have no effect on wraithfire, she hopes it may do something to alleviate Evelyn’s state.
The girl with a broken class screams once more, and there is even less of the Evelyn she knows in the voice. Once again, the anomalous effect flows out over her, willing her to be still, and once again her anchor prevents her from succumbing. Sharp phantom limbs come sailing for her once more, and it takes all her attention to dodge them.
Sierra rearranges her priorities, keeping careful track of how much mana she has remaining.
Soon, Adrian is going to be overwhelmed, even uncloaked. Sierra might be able to handle that right now, but while Adrian uncloaking merely means that the two of them will no longer be permitted in the Crowned Islands, Sierra prefers a swift death to what she knows she will have to do if she unleashes her full power here.
With Evelyn apparently gaining power and turning feral, Sierra has another problem. Within that problem, however, lies a potential solution.
“I’m sorry, Evelyn,” she says, and she dives, aiming her path towards the base of the demonic tree nearly half a mile away.
The creature behind her screeches as Sierra flies, and she explodes into a misty cloud of blood and flame.
Mist turns to liquid in moments, and a wall of blood begins to follow the Blue Mage.
Demons on the ground look up towards Sierra, sensing someone they can attack, and they miss the cloud behind her. Bloody spears pierce straight through demons, flensing their flesh from their bones, and then they ignite, wraithfire consuming what remains of their bodies.
Evelyn—or whatever broken deity is piloting her body—is strong. Not yet strong enough to strike Sierra from this world, but she fears that that may be coming soon.
“Adrian!” Sierra yells as she gets within a couple hundred feet of her target. “Watch out!”
For a moment, she fears that the ambient sound is too much for him to locate her even with his enhanced hearing, but then the direction of the cyclone battling the tree shifts, traveling away from the tree and Evelyn both. She hopes that he manages to get out of effective range of a stage three overdemon, but with the size of this one, it’s possible the entire city is within its reach.
Adrian is never going to let her hear the end of this, is he?
Evelyn reforms for a single second, free-falling in humanoid figure. She falls to the ground, her flame guttering out, and Sierra watches as she rips her own throat out. When she screams, Sierra thinks it’s more human than it was last time.
For a moment, Sierra holds out hope that the demon girl might break through whatever condition has taken hold of her.
And then Evelyn’s figure melts into blood again and pursues, wraithfire igniting the air around her. This time, she becomes a crimson bullet, outspeeding Sierra’s telekinesis.
What can she even do? Sierra fires skills back at the mass of burning blood, but nothing takes effect.
“Evelyn!” she pleads. “Evelyn, listen to me!”
The blood advances.
And then a wall of water nearly as tall as the tree slams into the formless blood-cloud.
Adrian.
He hasn’t run nearly as far as Sierra hoped. Instead, he flies atop a swirling stormcloud of his own, using the river to create a tsunami, drowning out their former ally.
Sierra breathes a sigh of relief, and then the mass of water disappears, sucked away in an instant.
Floating right where she was, Evelyn has returned to her human form. She laughs, a grating sound that seems to have more than one voice, and she pats her stomach.
Before Adrian can react, Evelyn points a finger, and a bright beam of energy strikes out from the tip of her finger.
No, not energy.
Water.
Evelyn returns Adrian’s attack in kind, compressing it down to a single beam of incredible pressure. Sierra is too far to see Adrian in detail, but she sees the stormcloud fade. She sees his armored figure fall from the sky, plunging towards the river below.
She reacts more on instinct than anything else, drawing her staff from her Storage. Sierra almost stops herself mid-spell, but she hardens her resolve.
Evelyn’s wormed her way into Sierra’s heart in a way that the demonic woman likely doesn’t even recognize. Sierra wishes she could resolve this peacefully with all her heart, searches her arsenal for anything that can end the thing wearing Evelyn’s skin.
But a Jade knows when someone is past saving.
She fires an Obliteration Ray, an attack of pure annihilation that eats the air itself apart. It puts wraithfire out where it spreads, though it weakens the attack.
Sierra’s skill strikes true, and the demon’s torso vanishes.
Evelyn starts screaming and doesn’t stop.
Even when she turns to blood, replenishing her vitality instantly, the otherworldly screaming fails to cease.
The staff has failed to kill its target.
For a moment, though, the screaming diminishes, and then Evelyn’s form becomes human again. Sierra dares to look back just long enough to see her friend’s body writhing. Portions of her flesh turn to bloody spines, and they tear into her own body. Sierra isn’t sure what’s happening until she senses the struggle in the magic around her.
Evelyn is fighting.
Soon enough, though, the monster is back, stilling its blood and reassembling itself.
Sierra keeps running, hoping beyond hope that Adrian is still alive.
The Blue Mage has a lead on Evelyn, but the demon closes that gap quickly.
Sierra closes her eyes briefly, then stares straight ahead. The outermost branches of the tree are two hundred feet away. Evelyn is less than fifty feet behind her.
This is going to hurt.
Sierra cancels her Personal Telekinesis and draws on a skill that she’s only gained recently. It isn’t as strong as it could be, so she feeds mana to it. It sucks it up greedily—after all, she copied a Bronze-tier skill, and what she’s about to try is far more advanced than that.
The ground isn’t far below her, and she tumbles when she hits it, broken buildings slashing at her body as she slides. A simple application of a Shield skill keeps the worst of it from annihilating anything important, but she’s so focused on the temporary skill that she can’t stop herself from taking some damage. Wet blood streams down her face as a rock or a beam or something similar slices her forehead open, and then the blood sharpens.
Evelyn’s handiwork.
Sierra uses everything she can short of uncloaking. In the microsecond before she commits her entire mana pool to her next action, she considers activating her second class.
Not now. If she fails here, she only faces a painful death. It’s preferable to the alternative.
Her magic reaches a peak as Evelyn charges towards her, a bullet of blood still crying bloody murder.
Temporary skill - Shape Blood evolved into Hemokinesis!
Hemokinesis (Gold)
Attunement: D
Charges: 1/1
Control blood, inside and out.
With every magical fiber in her body, Sierra fights.
And for a crucial moment, Evelyn doesn’t realize what her opponent possesses.
Sierra sends the blood that forms the demon flying towards the tree faster than the eye can follow.
Suddenly, she’s safe. For a brief, blissful second, she’s safe.
Her vision frays around the edges as she tracks Evelyn with the Hemokinesis that she gained from the woman herself, ensuring that she remains on track towards the tree. Momentum carries Evelyn even after Sierra’s control over her starts slipping. If Sierra knows anything about the void-touched, it’s that they’ll kill whatever’s in front of them. She may yet live.
An electric jolt of pain shocks her from head to toe.
A Blue Mage is about giving and taking. She’s asked for her magic to give, and now it will take.
She hopes that she’s done enough.
The last thing she hears before darkness consumes her is a voice so unclear she’s not sure if it’s a dream or reality.
“Humans and demons and elves and gods,” Evelyn Carnelian shouts, so far away that she may as well be underwater.
“I am going to kill you all.”
Sierra passes out.
When Evelyn literally melts before her and dives towards their mutual adversary, Sierra is close behind. She glances once at Adrian. He’s already halfway to the tree, leaving the Blue Mage and the Relentless Demon behind him. Jets of water propel him, and Sierra can almost hear him whooping as he leans back into his signature magic.
It’s been nearly two years since she saved the Hydrokinetic’s life, and they’ve been traveling ever since.
Sierra knows him well enough. She doesn’t need to be worried for his safety now that he’s uncloaked his primary class. Not unless the tree-demon reaches the next stage of its blossoming form, of course, but she thinks it’ll be a while before that.
It’s disappointing, though. One of the conditions Aunt Marie gave Adrian for his training was to keep their cloaks on at all costs.
In Sierra’s professional opinion, Adrian made his choice too quickly. After a year in the Crowned Islands, he’s made it from level 1 to 8. An impressive feat by anyone’s standards.
Then again, the woman she fights alongside makes Adrian’s accomplishment seem like child’s play.
Evelyn—or, at least, the bloody trail that currently composes the other girl’s body—falls downwards. Sierra wishes she had that level of blood magic, but alas, her Power Copy can only mimic great magic like that when it is freely given. Though she’s aware that she’s not always the most tactful, even Sierra knows that a lady like Evelyn isn’t willing to part with her secrets.
For the time being, she does what she is able to. She’s run out of the uses for much of the great spells she does have. Her staff’s Obliteration Ray has two more charges, but she has more important targets to use it on than an aging guard who hasn’t even surpassed level 40.
Instead, she relies on the basic aspects of her class. Sierra knows better than practically anyone that level isn’t the only measure of combat power—she’s overwhelmed people dozens of levels above her in the past, simply because her primary classes had a strong matchup against them and she knew how to use her magic optimally.
Evelyn seems keen on proving that. Sierra provides air support, using her staff to amplify the power of her Dispel Magic. This, unlike most of her usable combat spells, is inherent to the Blue Mage class. Magic is about balance; the Blue Mage balances giving and taking; Dispel Magic is opposed by Amplification. It is simple as that.
As she eliminates the earthen barrier separating her from Noren, Evelyn and the ground, Sierra sorts through her copied magic.
The Silver-tier Personal Telekinesis has been with her practically since birth. She has no fear of losing it now, and she uses it to guide herself downwards, avoiding the debris created by Noren’s attacks.
When she breaks through, she uses Imprisoning Arrow, a tentacle-like conjuration modified to not require a bow that she used to almost capture the Earth Mage earlier. She gained this one recently—as a matter of fact, the Noble Archer she’d spent a couple of nights with had said her goodbyes only a single night before Sierra had met Evelyn.
It’s still fresh, and though the limited duration of her contact with Ashley means that this skill will disappear within weeks, she still has uses of it today. She just needs to wait for an opening, which she seeks to help create by using her staff to rain down near-costless Mana Strikes, the most basic mage attack there is. If she has any effect on the fight, she can’t see it.
But Sierra’s not here to win the fight. She’s here to observe.
Maybe Marie really is rubbing off on her.
Evelyn explodes in wraithfire, and Sierra’s jaw drops even as she casts her Imprisoning Arrow. Power like that doesn’t belong on someone who’s merely level 10 in their first class. It doesn’t belong on someone thrice her level.
She’s not sure whether Evelyn knows this yet.
Sierra watches impassively as Evelyn dismembers Noren, her magical tentacles unmoving. Though the Blue Mage has grown familiar with the sight of death, she can’t help but wince at the brutality with which Evelyn executes her… victim feels like the wrong word. Her prey.
She suspects that the experiments that produced Evelyn were geared to make a perfect sociopath, because the demonic woman doesn’t even flinch before she tears into the burning corpse’s chest, red and black magic flowing out from her body to assist her in devouring her late enemy.
And then Evelyn falls still.
And she stays there.
Sierra drops to the ground, eyeing the flowering demonic tree. It has reached the second stage. Advanced enough to require containment, not enough to necessitate immediate destruction by one of the UCC’s best.
Adrian is currently fighting it alone. Sierra knows that there’s other personnel here, so the fact that he’s the only one attacking it almost certainly means that Marie has ordered them to hold back.
He’ll be fine for the time being, Sierra assesses, but he’ll die the second the tree advances to the third stage if he remains unassisted.
The Blue Mage turns her attention to the fallen woman next to her, searching for a cause. She dearly hopes that Evelyn hasn’t suffered permanent damage. Unnaturally explosive growth aside, the other woman has been a fantastic addition to their party so far. Sierra had initially planned to drop her off in Ravendale before moving on, but after seeing her at work, the Blue Mage thinks there’s much more value in working with her.
If she survives this, at least. Evelyn’s eyes are open, the usually fierce red of her eyes dim and glossed-over.
At least they’re not completely dark. She hasn’t been corrupted, thank the broken gods.
Sierra checks for a pulse and finds one. Evelyn’s chest still rises and falls. She’s alive.
Before she can determine what to do with Evelyn’s unconscious body, Sierra hears the telltale howl of a wolf-shaped demon.
By the energy it lets off, it can’t be higher than Category 1 or 2.
Not even worth her attention.
She doesn’t look up as she casts a Mana Strike, adding an Amplification to it to seal the deal.
“Evelyn, Evelyn,” Sierra whispers urgently, shaking the woman in question by the shoulders.
Nothing.
“Fine,” Sierra mutters, hefting the experiment by her shoulders. Evelyn’s unconscious weight is much heavier than she expects. “Let us get you to safety.”
She needs to help Adrian before the tree progresses to the next stage. By the time it advances to full blossom, even Sierra’s full power won’t be enough to put it down alone.
This place isn’t safe, though. Normally, Sierra would trust Evelyn to take care of herself, but something’s clearly gone wrong. If the unthinkable has happened and Evelyn has somehow managed a second class evolution before most people would receive their first, it’s not a successful one. Sierra can’t think of anything else it can be other than magically-induced sleep, but a Dispel Magic does nothing.
Though the demons that sprout from the seeds are largely Category 3 or lower—all beasts that even a cloaked Adrian could handle—Evelyn is unconscious. Sierra needs to get her to safety before she can fight.
But as she activates her Personal Telekinesis again, the skill barely drawing any mana from her expansive power well, Evelyn’s eyes flutter shut, then fly open.
“Oh, good,” Sierra says, preparing to set her down. “You’re finally—“
Awake, she means to say, but Evelyn cuts her off both figuratively and literally. A ghostly spike sprouts straight from the red-eyed woman’s chest, nearly spearing Sierra straight through the throat.
It takes her completely by surprise, but Sierra still manages to jerk her head back just quickly enough for the spike to slash straight across her face instead. It’s a shallow wound, and Sierra kicks Evelyn away immediately, but something about it bites more fiercely than a typical slashing wound would.
Sierra’s been cut enough times to know.
She cycles through the list of possibilities and settles on the correct sensation in a fraction of a second.
Soul damage.
That realization sends her flying even higher into the air, her Personal Telekinesis buoying her. The skill comes less steadily this time, and she wobbles as she flies upwards, creating more space between herself and the suddenly-rabid Evelyn.
Something must have happened. As Sierra starts to ascend, she casts Appraise. It’s not complete either, the fresh soul damage reducing the integrity of the skill.
Name: Evelyn Carnelian
Age: (0/18/???)
Race: ???
Class: (Relentless Demon/???)
Level: 10
Traits:
Demonic Heritage
Enhanced Blood Affinity
Kinslayer II
Killer II
Free Bird
Relentless
Soulless
Merciless
Voidtouched
Godsmarked
Special Skills:
Wraithfire
Skills (collapsed, displaying last used):
Phantom Shape (Bronze)
Devour (Gold)
Bloodpath (Silver)
??? (???)
For the second time in thirty seconds, Sierra is caught off guard. This display looks nothing like what she expects out of this skill. The only time the system is supposed to display question marks is when she Appraises an anomaly, and Evelyn isn’t an anomaly… or at least, she wasn’t.
The woman that Sierra thought she knew stands tall, and the Blue Mage sees Evelyn as her enemies must. Nine long, sharp limbs extend out of her back, each of them glittering a dark, bloodstained blue.
The spike at her chest continues growing, demonstrating surprising flexibility as it feeds into her mouth. Evelyn licks the blood off her phantom limb as it desolves, and her eyes grow even fiercer. There’s a wildness to them that chills Sierra to the bone, and suddenly power explodes out from Evelyn’s body.
Suddenly, Sierra can’t move, every muscle in her body seizing up as Evelyn’s sudden presence stuns her.
She only knows one other individual that can do this. Aunt Marie’s mysterious benefactor, the white-haired woman that the Blue Mage has only ever witnessed once.
It doesn’t help when a red flame so dark it could be black ignites across Evelyn’s entire body, framing her crimson eyes in wraithfire that exudes death. Against the dim light cast by her own flame, Evelyn casts a shadow long enough to drown out the city.
For the first time since she arrived in the Crowned Islands, a spike of fear seizes Sierra’s heart, squeezing tight and threatening to never let go.
And then Evelyn takes a step forward and screams.
That voice… is not Evelyn’s. Not entirely. Sierra can recognize traces of the anguished woman she’s fought alongside, but there’s an inhuman quality to it. Evelyn isn’t human, but it goes beyond even that. It hurts Sierra’s mind just to hear, sends her thoughts spiraling in on themselves.
Anomaly.
Not just anomalous. Evelyn has two new traits. The touch of the void, which Sierra recognizes, and Godsmarked, which she doesn’t.
Something to worry about after Sierra survives.
Despite the uniqueness of this stunning effect, Sierra’s not entirely unfamiliar with this type of attack. It is an anomalous imposal of will onto the area around her. She can handle this.
Evelyn brings her hands to her eyes, still screaming, and Sierra activates her Personal Telekinesis, sending her flying back before Evelyn can jump at her.
“Give it back!” Evelyn shouts, voice hoarse. She claws at her face, drawing blood. “Give me back!”
She trails off into the inhuman scream once more, and then Evelyn falls still again, still on fire.
The pressure lifts, and Sierra is free to move once more. She’s under no impression that Evelyn’s down for good. Something clearly went wrong on a level-up or an evolution or something, which means that there are now not one but two potential calamities to address.
As Sierra turns to assess the situation, she reaches into her Storage, a Gold-tier skill that she’s focused on refining since childhood. She retrieves an anchor, a small slate-colored tablet the size of her palm, and she passes her mana into it as she looks for her comrade. The cold, numb part of her soul that’s suffered an injury starts to hurt less.
Adrian is still fighting the tree, Sierra sees, dashing around it with bursts of dark water. Liquid discs surround him, spinning fast enough to shred flesh apart. The seeds are concentrated on his position now, but he’s still managing.
For now. The tree is showing signs of advancing. The pure black of its trunk and branches distorts, veins of corrupted color slicing through it. The blooming flowers are starting to take on hints of vibrant hues, and the palpable malice permeating the air is growing heavier.
It’s growing faster than it should be, and a quick sweep of the area reveals why.
Bodies crumple like rotten fruit when wayward debris falls on them, practically exploding when low-category demons crawl over them, their limbs sinking deep into chest cavities like the corpses are no more than the mud they’re on top of.
The demonic blood that paints the ground is colored with glimmering soul-essence, and it flows into the ground, feeding long-reaching roots.
Sierra curses. The tree’s spread its influence to the land already, and it’s feeding. At this rate—
Before she can continue her train of thought, another pulse of authority flows out from the anomaly once named Evelyn. Sierra’s muscles freeze up again, but they slacken a moment later as the anchor in her hand glows a soft grey.
She grimaces. She hadn’t counted on having to use any UCC creations so soon.
Evelyn’s flame redoubles in intensity, and Sierra pours Amplification into her Personal Telekinesis to get away from her. At the same time, she uses Dispel Magic. Though it will have no effect on wraithfire, she hopes it may do something to alleviate Evelyn’s state.
The girl with a broken class screams once more, and there is even less of the Evelyn she knows in the voice. Once again, the anomalous effect flows out over her, willing her to be still, and once again her anchor prevents her from succumbing. Sharp phantom limbs come sailing for her once more, and it takes all her attention to dodge them.
Sierra rearranges her priorities, keeping careful track of how much mana she has remaining.
Soon, Adrian is going to be overwhelmed, even uncloaked. Sierra might be able to handle that right now, but while Adrian uncloaking merely means that the two of them will no longer be permitted in the Crowned Islands, Sierra prefers a swift death to what she knows she will have to do if she unleashes her full power here.
With Evelyn apparently gaining power and turning feral, Sierra has another problem. Within that problem, however, lies a potential solution.
“I’m sorry, Evelyn,” she says, and she dives, aiming her path towards the base of the demonic tree nearly half a mile away.
The creature behind her screeches as Sierra flies, and she explodes into a misty cloud of blood and flame.
Mist turns to liquid in moments, and a wall of blood begins to follow the Blue Mage.
Demons on the ground look up towards Sierra, sensing someone they can attack, and they miss the cloud behind her. Bloody spears pierce straight through demons, flensing their flesh from their bones, and then they ignite, wraithfire consuming what remains of their bodies.
Evelyn—or whatever broken deity is piloting her body—is strong. Not yet strong enough to strike Sierra from this world, but she fears that that may be coming soon.
“Adrian!” Sierra yells as she gets within a couple hundred feet of her target. “Watch out!”
For a moment, she fears that the ambient sound is too much for him to locate her even with his enhanced hearing, but then the direction of the cyclone battling the tree shifts, traveling away from the tree and Evelyn both. She hopes that he manages to get out of effective range of a stage three overdemon, but with the size of this one, it’s possible the entire city is within its reach.
Adrian is never going to let her hear the end of this, is he?
Evelyn reforms for a single second, free-falling in humanoid figure. She falls to the ground, her flame guttering out, and Sierra watches as she rips her own throat out. When she screams, Sierra thinks it’s more human than it was last time.
For a moment, Sierra holds out hope that the demon girl might break through whatever condition has taken hold of her.
And then Evelyn’s figure melts into blood again and pursues, wraithfire igniting the air around her. This time, she becomes a crimson bullet, outspeeding Sierra’s telekinesis.
What can she even do? Sierra fires skills back at the mass of burning blood, but nothing takes effect.
“Evelyn!” she pleads. “Evelyn, listen to me!”
The blood advances.
And then a wall of water nearly as tall as the tree slams into the formless blood-cloud.
Adrian.
He hasn’t run nearly as far as Sierra hoped. Instead, he flies atop a swirling stormcloud of his own, using the river to create a tsunami, drowning out their former ally.
Sierra breathes a sigh of relief, and then the mass of water disappears, sucked away in an instant.
Floating right where she was, Evelyn has returned to her human form. She laughs, a grating sound that seems to have more than one voice, and she pats her stomach.
Before Adrian can react, Evelyn points a finger, and a bright beam of energy strikes out from the tip of her finger.
No, not energy.
Water.
Evelyn returns Adrian’s attack in kind, compressing it down to a single beam of incredible pressure. Sierra is too far to see Adrian in detail, but she sees the stormcloud fade. She sees his armored figure fall from the sky, plunging towards the river below.
She reacts more on instinct than anything else, drawing her staff from her Storage. Sierra almost stops herself mid-spell, but she hardens her resolve.
Evelyn’s wormed her way into Sierra’s heart in a way that the demonic woman likely doesn’t even recognize. Sierra wishes she could resolve this peacefully with all her heart, searches her arsenal for anything that can end the thing wearing Evelyn’s skin.
But a Jade knows when someone is past saving.
She fires an Obliteration Ray, an attack of pure annihilation that eats the air itself apart. It puts wraithfire out where it spreads, though it weakens the attack.
Sierra’s skill strikes true, and the demon’s torso vanishes.
Evelyn starts screaming and doesn’t stop.
Even when she turns to blood, replenishing her vitality instantly, the otherworldly screaming fails to cease.
The staff has failed to kill its target.
For a moment, though, the screaming diminishes, and then Evelyn’s form becomes human again. Sierra dares to look back just long enough to see her friend’s body writhing. Portions of her flesh turn to bloody spines, and they tear into her own body. Sierra isn’t sure what’s happening until she senses the struggle in the magic around her.
Evelyn is fighting.
Soon enough, though, the monster is back, stilling its blood and reassembling itself.
Sierra keeps running, hoping beyond hope that Adrian is still alive.
The Blue Mage has a lead on Evelyn, but the demon closes that gap quickly.
Sierra closes her eyes briefly, then stares straight ahead. The outermost branches of the tree are two hundred feet away. Evelyn is less than fifty feet behind her.
This is going to hurt.
Sierra cancels her Personal Telekinesis and draws on a skill that she’s only gained recently. It isn’t as strong as it could be, so she feeds mana to it. It sucks it up greedily—after all, she copied a Bronze-tier skill, and what she’s about to try is far more advanced than that.
The ground isn’t far below her, and she tumbles when she hits it, broken buildings slashing at her body as she slides. A simple application of a Shield skill keeps the worst of it from annihilating anything important, but she’s so focused on the temporary skill that she can’t stop herself from taking some damage. Wet blood streams down her face as a rock or a beam or something similar slices her forehead open, and then the blood sharpens.
Evelyn’s handiwork.
Sierra uses everything she can short of uncloaking. In the microsecond before she commits her entire mana pool to her next action, she considers activating her second class.
Not now. If she fails here, she only faces a painful death. It’s preferable to the alternative.
Her magic reaches a peak as Evelyn charges towards her, a bullet of blood still crying bloody murder.
Temporary skill - Shape Blood evolved into Hemokinesis!
Hemokinesis (Gold)
Attunement: D
Charges: 1/1
Control blood, inside and out.
With every magical fiber in her body, Sierra fights.
And for a crucial moment, Evelyn doesn’t realize what her opponent possesses.
Sierra sends the blood that forms the demon flying towards the tree faster than the eye can follow.
Suddenly, she’s safe. For a brief, blissful second, she’s safe.
Her vision frays around the edges as she tracks Evelyn with the Hemokinesis that she gained from the woman herself, ensuring that she remains on track towards the tree. Momentum carries Evelyn even after Sierra’s control over her starts slipping. If Sierra knows anything about the void-touched, it’s that they’ll kill whatever’s in front of them. She may yet live.
An electric jolt of pain shocks her from head to toe.
A Blue Mage is about giving and taking. She’s asked for her magic to give, and now it will take.
She hopes that she’s done enough.
The last thing she hears before darkness consumes her is a voice so unclear she’s not sure if it’s a dream or reality.
“Humans and demons and elves and gods,” Evelyn Carnelian shouts, so far away that she may as well be underwater.
“I am going to kill you all.”
Sierra passes out.
