The hidden objective I received didn’t grant me anything. Nothing I can track, at least. Maybe it’s part of a larger objective that I don’t have access to yet. Something that my divine passenger can detect, maybe?
It irritates me, but the power of the Unique skill I’ve just received more than makes up for it.
One of a kind, huh? The thought amuses me, honestly.
“Something funny?” Adrian asks.
I look at him, tilting my head. Just a week ago, he definitely would’ve shrunk away. Now, though, he just coughs, caught a little off guard.
“You’re smiling,” Adrian says. “That’s all.”
“It’s nothing big,” I reply lightly, leaning against the side of the elevator. “Don’t worry. If someone comes for me, I’ll kill them all.”
“Broken gods,” Adrian says, taking a puff from his cig. “Evelyn, you can’t just be saying that shit.”
“I can, and I will,” I say. “What’s wrong with that?”
“Society has standards, y’know,” Adrian sighs, exhaling acrid smoke. “I know you don’t really have memories. Fucking A, most people who spend too long talking to the Jades end up like that.”
“Really,” I say, inhaling the smoke he’s breathing out. “This smells like shit, by the way.”
“Tastes like shit, too,” Adrian replies. “And yeah, seriously. Y’know Sierra’s powerful. If she weren’t on our side, she’d be dangerous. The rest of the Jades are the exact same.”
“Are they?” I ask. I don’t really care that much, but more information on potential and future enemies is always important.
He seems much more relaxed now. The fact that the plague-like magical effect is dying down must be contributing to that. Sierra is still sweating uncontrollably, soaking her clothes through, and she bites her tongue so hard that blood has trailed its way all around her face, but she’s not screaming at the top of her lungs every few seconds anymore.
Adrian fixes his comrade’s sweat-matted hair, dragging clumped-up bits out of her face. He smiles sadly.
“Never thought I’d see the day,” he says. “Sierra’s always been the stronger one. It’s weird, being in this situation. I’m glad you’re here. Wouldn’t have known what to do otherwise.”
“How strong, exactly?” I ask, ignoring the part of his sentence that might be a compliment. “I still can’t Appraise either of your uncloaked classes.”
“Can’t say,” Adrian says, exhaling another cloud of smoke and making a zipping motion over his lips. “Soul oath. Binding. I can tell you that she had no business uncloaking in the fucking Crowned Islands. She has no business uncloaking in Novarath, either, even though her Blue Mage class is pretty underleveled for the Seven Kingdoms.”
Soul oaths, huh. That’s not within the range of my amalgam’s knowledge.
“What is the power level here?” I ask. “I’m not familiar.”
The low-tension conversation has me itching to get moving, but I take solace in the fact that this elevator is rising fast. A porthole in the side reveals the outside world—we must have gone ten levels in about a minute and a half, which isn’t bad considering how much magic power it would’ve required from us. We’re not wasting time.
Still, my new skill aches to be used. It’s like a beast within me, roaring to be let out.
Peace, I assure it silently. You’ll have your time soon enough.
“It varies,” Adrian says. “Tsubera and the Whitestar Kingdoms are Category 0 with some exceptions. Oh, uh, Categories are—“
“I’m familiar,” I say, waving for him to continue.
Whatever method of transportation Sapphire is using, it’s getting faster. She’s five miles away now. I don’t think I’m getting out of here without her permission.
Well, if she doesn’t want it, I’ll deal. And by deal, I mean commit extreme acts of violence.
“They go all the way up to Category 2, and I’ve heard Sierra say that Marie says there are certain areas in some of the kingdoms where Category 3 monsters roam freely.”
“Not so sure about that one, are you?”
Adrian takes another long drag from his cigarette. “Like I said, Evelyn, I’m just a student. I’m way the fuck behind on everything. You might even be stronger than me now.”
I eye him dubiously, then attempt to Appraise him.
Name: Adrian Stahr
Age: 19
Race: Human
Class: Warrior/Hydrokinetic
Level: 8/[APPRAISE FAILED]
Last Used Skill: Water Magic - Hydrokinesis
[APPRAISE FAILED]
“I can’t even read your level,” I tell him. “I doubt it.”
Adrian takes another drag. “Level ain’t everything, Evelyn. You reached level 20 faster than anyone I’ve ever seen, and you’re more powerful than most people twice your level.”
I consider that. I could probably take down Noren without too much of a sweat now, that’s true. Still…
“Something’s been bugging me. I remember you saying that leveling from 7 to 8 was really tough, but your main class is obviously much higher than that. Sierra said she was a prodigy for hitting level 17 so early, but her Red Mage is apparently high enough to be in the wrong Category. Were you just lying to me?”
“Not exactly,” Adrian says. “Some classes start at higher levels, and it’s way harder to level up at lower levels—I’m talkin’ sub-50, here. Later down the line, you get quests that give you frankly stupid amounts of XP. Also, we’re not exactly your average humans.”
“How so?”
“Soul oath.”
I sigh. Figures.
Before I can formulate another question to ask him, the elevator dings softly. We’ve reached the top.
My Phantom Shaped limbs keep Sierra’s unmoving body from hiting the ground as we step out of the elevator onto the 375th floor. This tower ends here, it looks like.
“Keep holding her close,” Adrian suggests. “One of the reasons she chose Blue Mage was to help with backlash, I think.”
Come to think of it, she has been recovering ever since I took her into my arms. Is that a passive skill of hers? If so, it’s supremely useful.
We attract even more weird looks now that we’re on the highest floors. A scant few rays of sunshine manage to percolate down to the floor we’re at, but magical sunlamps make the entire place look like a perfect summer midday. People walk around with a purpose, their clothing by far the finest I’ve seen in this place so far.
It feels faker than the laboratory, somehow.
“Keep moving,” I urge Adrian. “We’re running out of time.”
He doesn’t need to be told twice.
We make our way up with stairs, escalators, and ramps, avoiding heavy usage of skills when we see well-armed security guards patrolling the towers around us. Appraise reveals that a few of them are even at the upper end of Category 0, which isn’t something I’m quite ready to deal with yet.
By the time we make it to level 415, the first one with access to the side of the crater Novarath is built in, it’s too late.
Adrian and I finally set eyes upon the clear blue sky, using our skills to make our way to the flat walls of the crater. They’re less heavily guarded than I thought they’d be.
When the guard nearest to us simply disappears in a flash of blood and heat, leaving not a trace behind, I realize why the city seems so poorly guarded.
Objective: Find Sapphire [COMPLETE]
Sapphire has found you.
1 XP rewarded!
She’s here.
I clench a fist at the reward. Even the system doesn’t seem to want me to succeed.
Sapphire lightning flashes through the cloudless sky. Thunder starts to roll towards me—and then it cuts off.
All the sound cuts off. I’m eerily reminded of the magical earplugs Simon and Rin stuck us with. The air seems to still. I can’t hear my own breath. My heart is silent where it beats within me.
I whip my head around on instinct, ready for a hidden blade to strike, but none appear.
“Adrian?” I ask. My voice still works, at least. She hasn’t taken that from me.
“Fuck,” he says, with feeling.
When I turn my head back, she’s standing there.
The half-elf is as unnaturally perfect as she was last time, her hair not even tussled from the movement and she’s not alone.
I raise my arms to strike her, and I find I can’t.
“Oh, Evelyn,” Sapphire practically purrs, tilting my head up with a finger. “How you’ve grown. You managed to avoid disappointing, this time.”
She kisses my forehead, raking my cheek with a single fingernail as she does. “A shame the same can’t be said for the Jade girl. Revealing her full strength against a pitiful demon in the Crowned Islands, my word.”
“Fuck… off,” I manage to grit out.
“Worry not, I will,” Sapphire lilts, a too-wide smile spreading over her face. “But first! Allow my erstwhile partner here to introduce himself.”
I lock eyes with the man she’s brought, and incandescent rage flutters through me.
This face is familiar to me. I know his name.
“Alexus Rylar,” he says as I whisper the same. “Scientist and soldier.”
The [0/32] of my objective to kill my creators hangs in front of my eyes, taunting me.
“What are you here for?” Adrian grunts, the words clearly taking effort for him to say.
“I am just here to check in on a dear friend,” Sapphire says lightly. “Alexus, however, simply made a request of me. One I deemed suitable to grant.
“Fear not, Evelyn, for I will return soon enough.”
Her smile grows even wider, and she cradles my face with one arm. Her index finger brushes over my eyebrows—and then it plunges into my eye socket, severing the eyestem.
Cosmetic damage at best, but the embers of anger within me flare into a blaze of hatred.
Sapphire tosses the eyeball into the air. “Do not disappoint me.”
The half-elf woman catches my eye and disappears as soon as she came.
She took my fucking eye. It’ll grow back with magic, but she took my fucking eye.
Her skill was silent. Unlike Rin and Simon’s transport skills, not a single trace of magic formed to indicate that she was activating it, and nothing has been left behind except her comrade.
Alexus Rylar is a tall, thin man with greying hair, a full business suit, and long white gloves that look completely out of place on a businessman. Appraise fails when I target him.
“Doctor Rylar,” Adrian says, his demeanor shifting somehow. He sounds colder, and a tinge of distate works its way into his words. “The fuck do you want with us?”
“The Stahr child,” Rylar says, sounding like he’s looking at a particularly interesting rock. “So you survived, after all.”
“No thanks to you,” Adrian says, sheathing his sword.
“Allow me to rectify that,” Rylar says, pulling off his gloves. “A test for the young lady cannot be accurately conducted with an interfering project.”
Oh, great. Now both of us have a reason to kill him. This skips the part where I need to talk Adrian into doing it, at least.
The man in question sighs, taking one final drag from his stub of a cigarette before tossing it aside.
“Uncloak.”
A geyser explodes from the rock where the crushed, burnt stub lands, water bursting with so much intensity that it splits the ground apart where it bursts out. A moment later, another one joins it.
Adrian throws his hands to either side, and pressurized blades appear as extensions of his hands. They smell like the sea.
Overwhelming power explodes forth from him, an odd sense of pressure accompanying his sudden attacks.
He’s different. He feels different. Adrian decloaked before, but that was to activate his secondary class. This… this is something else.
“Stay,” he orders. I don’t have anything better to do than protect Sierra, so I do.
I follow through on my suspicions, using Appraise on my ally once more.
Name: Adrian Stahr
Age: 19
Race: Human
Class: Warrior/Hydrokinetic
Level: 8/126
Last Used Skill: Water Magic - Blade of the Eternal Sea
Adrian has allowed his cloak to fully fall. He is a Category 1 Hydrokinetic, the result of intense physical and magical enhancement. Trouble comes to him naturally and supernaturally.
One… twenty… six…
The cringing doormat of an adventurer is six times my level?
A wave crashes against air, and suddenly we’re surrounded by a thick dome of water, one that barely excludes Sierra and me. It rolls onto and over Dr. Rylar, engulfing him entirely. Adrian dashes through his water faster than I’ve ever seen him move, his blade a bright outline in the dome.
Light barely percolates through the water, but I can make out Adrian’s figure as he slashes straight through Rylar’s body.
The man splits into two, torso and head separating from his legs. Before his blood can disperse into the water, the blade’s second effect comes into play. I watch as the water visibly distorts, extreme pressure bearing down on Rylar’s two halves. Flesh and bone crumples away under the force of the magic, and before I can even finish processing that, there’s nothing but slowly-dissolving chunks of meat particulate.
Water falls away to either side of us, the dome parting and pouring down over the edge of the cliffs. Adrian returns to my side, not even breathing hard. His hands are empty.
“What was that?” I ask, tamping down on my surprise.
“Fuck, that was stupid,” Adrian says. He raises a hand to the light, and I see the same dark veins plaguing Sierra running over his wrists. “I’m going to be useless for the next few days.”
Sure enough, when he tries to use another skill, a few droplets of water float up from his hand. Nothing else happens.
Alexus Rylar is a paste on the ground. He is dead beyond dead.
Except he isn’t. His smashed-up body paints the ground, but the objective I have, the one that tells me to kill my creators, hasn’t updated.
“He’s still alive,” I say.
“He—“ Adrian starts. He looks hard at the bloody paste, and part of it moves. “Shit.”
I pull on Hemokinesis, but it does nothing. Even at Silver tier, whatever Rylar is doing is overpowering it.
Blood and meat flies together, and half a second later, Rylar is standing in front of us, wearing the same drab suit that he was earlier.
What kind of overpowered healing skill is that? Restore Self and Demonic Heritage put together can’t even hold a candle to this. My skills don’t restore my clothing, either, but this guy’s apparently does.
“Quite impressive, I must admit,” Rylar says, completely unfazed. His gloves aren’t on anymore. “Perhaps there is merit to your survival after all. I will administer the test to both experiments.”
Both experiments? I was surprised enough by Adrian being this ridiculously powerful as well as his apparent familiarity with one of my creators, but he’s an experiment on top of that?
The world around us drifts away, the dark towers and blue sky drifting away, replaced by utter darkness. Only the cliff surface under us remains.
Rather than magical pressure, physical weight presses down on me. A little bit at first, then enough to knock me down to the ground.
“Welcome,” Alexus Rylar says, spreading his hands.
“Special skill: Pressure Amplification Domain.”
His voice reverberates, echoing over itself until all I can hear is gnashing, grinding gears that might’ve been speech.
The weight on my shoulders increases, and Adrian grunts too, falling on his face next to me.
“Shit,” the Hydrokinetic curses. “A domain? This fucker’s Category 2?”
Those are supposed to be Category 2 skills?
Before I can ruminate on that further, Rylar speaks. I can’t see him, but his voice permeates the entire space.
“Amplification: one.”
It’s not a terrible weight at first, but lifting myself off the ground takes effort.
“Amplification: two.”
I hit the ground again. This time, the weight presses down even harder onto me, as if I’ve attached lead weights to every inch of my skin. I can barely raise myself to my feet. I try to use Hemokinesis, but the blood just falls to the ground and dissipates.
“Amplification: three.”
If I couldn’t lift myself up the last time, I can’t even raise my hand this time.
Sierra screams again, and I start. I almost forgot she’s here.
Fuck. She can’t defend herself. I have a strong body, and I put another three points into Body (Durability) to enhance that, but Sierra doesn’t have access to the same body-enhancing skills I do.
She’s going to die if this keeps up.
Adrian cries out in pain, and I remember that I’m the only one here with a properly leveled Pain Resistance skill.
This is bad.
I hear my wrist break when I try to push myself up again.
“Amplification: four.”
Unacceptable.
Before Rylar’s special skill can enhance his domain any further, my passenger screams its displeasure in my head.
For once, I agree with it.
The weight on us is increasing even further now, and I have to shut out Sierra’s screaming and Adrian’s pained groans to even think.
Adrian said this guy is Category 2. That’s level 200, bare minimum. Over ten times as powerful as me.
But I have no other choice.
“Join me,” I rasp out.
I activate every skill in my repertoire. My blood magic falls to the floor, disabled by the domain. My aura permeates the space, but does nothing. My Devour has no target.
Use it all.
Divine assistance enabled.
Backlash probability: extreme.
Lethal backlash probability: moderate.
Divine assistance granted.
This may not occur again.
I hiss out an epithet. Over the sound of Sierra, Adrian, and the gear-grind of the domain itself, I can barely hear myself, but I’m counting on Rylar to be aware of what goes on within.
Every remaining stat point I have goes into Magic (Power), bringing it to 26, and I act.
Special skill: Soulpyre.
Burn them.
Special skill: Carnelian Domain.
Break them.
Blue-black flame sears out from my body in all directions, consuming the soul energy I’ve built up, and the domain around us burns.
Everywhere the flame touches, my second special skill takes hold. Darkness infuses itself with crimson light, and the swirling concotion beats back against the void of Rylar’s skill.
Carnelian Domain (Unique)
Tier: Bronze
Cooldown: 7 days
Your existence is contradictory. A bloody demon blessed by the divine, carrying a broken god in your mind. Enforce this contradiction onto those around you. While this domain is active, you have vastly enhanced control over blood, divine, and demonic magic. Using them together temporarily activates a magical effect that annihilates enemies caught within your contradiction.
Because no matter what aspect you add to the confusing concotion that is your self, there is more than one truth to you, Evelyn Carnelian.
You advance.
You kill.
I tear him apart in an instant, reducing him to atoms. Divine light sears his skin, demonic darkness strikes directly at his soul, and blood rips him apart as I enforce the paradoxical truth of myself over his.
“I am Evelyn Carnelian,” I hiss, expending every last drop of magic I have, ruining every attempt he makes to pull himself back together. “And you are in my way.”
Seven hundred and thirty-one seconds pass before the notification appears.
Objective: Marie’s monster
Kill your creators.
Targets killed: [1/32]
Reward: ???
The hidden objective I received didn’t grant me anything. Nothing I can track, at least. Maybe it’s part of a larger objective that I don’t have access to yet. Something that my divine passenger can detect, maybe?
It irritates me, but the power of the Unique skill I’ve just received more than makes up for it.
One of a kind, huh? The thought amuses me, honestly.
“Something funny?” Adrian asks.
I look at him, tilting my head. Just a week ago, he definitely would’ve shrunk away. Now, though, he just coughs, caught a little off guard.
“You’re smiling,” Adrian says. “That’s all.”
“It’s nothing big,” I reply lightly, leaning against the side of the elevator. “Don’t worry. If someone comes for me, I’ll kill them all.”
“Broken gods,” Adrian says, taking a puff from his cig. “Evelyn, you can’t just be saying that shit.”
“I can, and I will,” I say. “What’s wrong with that?”
“Society has standards, y’know,” Adrian sighs, exhaling acrid smoke. “I know you don’t really have memories. Fucking A, most people who spend too long talking to the Jades end up like that.”
“Really,” I say, inhaling the smoke he’s breathing out. “This smells like shit, by the way.”
“Tastes like shit, too,” Adrian replies. “And yeah, seriously. Y’know Sierra’s powerful. If she weren’t on our side, she’d be dangerous. The rest of the Jades are the exact same.”
“Are they?” I ask. I don’t really care that much, but more information on potential and future enemies is always important.
He seems much more relaxed now. The fact that the plague-like magical effect is dying down must be contributing to that. Sierra is still sweating uncontrollably, soaking her clothes through, and she bites her tongue so hard that blood has trailed its way all around her face, but she’s not screaming at the top of her lungs every few seconds anymore.
Adrian fixes his comrade’s sweat-matted hair, dragging clumped-up bits out of her face. He smiles sadly.
“Never thought I’d see the day,” he says. “Sierra’s always been the stronger one. It’s weird, being in this situation. I’m glad you’re here. Wouldn’t have known what to do otherwise.”
“How strong, exactly?” I ask, ignoring the part of his sentence that might be a compliment. “I still can’t Appraise either of your uncloaked classes.”
“Can’t say,” Adrian says, exhaling another cloud of smoke and making a zipping motion over his lips. “Soul oath. Binding. I can tell you that she had no business uncloaking in the fucking Crowned Islands. She has no business uncloaking in Novarath, either, even though her Blue Mage class is pretty underleveled for the Seven Kingdoms.”
Soul oaths, huh. That’s not within the range of my amalgam’s knowledge.
“What is the power level here?” I ask. “I’m not familiar.”
The low-tension conversation has me itching to get moving, but I take solace in the fact that this elevator is rising fast. A porthole in the side reveals the outside world—we must have gone ten levels in about a minute and a half, which isn’t bad considering how much magic power it would’ve required from us. We’re not wasting time.
Still, my new skill aches to be used. It’s like a beast within me, roaring to be let out.
Peace, I assure it silently. You’ll have your time soon enough.
“It varies,” Adrian says. “Tsubera and the Whitestar Kingdoms are Category 0 with some exceptions. Oh, uh, Categories are—“
“I’m familiar,” I say, waving for him to continue.
Whatever method of transportation Sapphire is using, it’s getting faster. She’s five miles away now. I don’t think I’m getting out of here without her permission.
Well, if she doesn’t want it, I’ll deal. And by deal, I mean commit extreme acts of violence.
“They go all the way up to Category 2, and I’ve heard Sierra say that Marie says there are certain areas in some of the kingdoms where Category 3 monsters roam freely.”
“Not so sure about that one, are you?”
Adrian takes another long drag from his cigarette. “Like I said, Evelyn, I’m just a student. I’m way the fuck behind on everything. You might even be stronger than me now.”
I eye him dubiously, then attempt to Appraise him.
Name: Adrian Stahr
Age: 19
Race: Human
Class: Warrior/Hydrokinetic
Level: 8/[APPRAISE FAILED]
Last Used Skill: Water Magic - Hydrokinesis
[APPRAISE FAILED]
“I can’t even read your level,” I tell him. “I doubt it.”
Adrian takes another drag. “Level ain’t everything, Evelyn. You reached level 20 faster than anyone I’ve ever seen, and you’re more powerful than most people twice your level.”
I consider that. I could probably take down Noren without too much of a sweat now, that’s true. Still…
“Something’s been bugging me. I remember you saying that leveling from 7 to 8 was really tough, but your main class is obviously much higher than that. Sierra said she was a prodigy for hitting level 17 so early, but her Red Mage is apparently high enough to be in the wrong Category. Were you just lying to me?”
“Not exactly,” Adrian says. “Some classes start at higher levels, and it’s way harder to level up at lower levels—I’m talkin’ sub-50, here. Later down the line, you get quests that give you frankly stupid amounts of XP. Also, we’re not exactly your average humans.”
“How so?”
“Soul oath.”
I sigh. Figures.
Before I can formulate another question to ask him, the elevator dings softly. We’ve reached the top.
My Phantom Shaped limbs keep Sierra’s unmoving body from hiting the ground as we step out of the elevator onto the 375th floor. This tower ends here, it looks like.
“Keep holding her close,” Adrian suggests. “One of the reasons she chose Blue Mage was to help with backlash, I think.”
Come to think of it, she has been recovering ever since I took her into my arms. Is that a passive skill of hers? If so, it’s supremely useful.
We attract even more weird looks now that we’re on the highest floors. A scant few rays of sunshine manage to percolate down to the floor we’re at, but magical sunlamps make the entire place look like a perfect summer midday. People walk around with a purpose, their clothing by far the finest I’ve seen in this place so far.
It feels faker than the laboratory, somehow.
“Keep moving,” I urge Adrian. “We’re running out of time.”
He doesn’t need to be told twice.
We make our way up with stairs, escalators, and ramps, avoiding heavy usage of skills when we see well-armed security guards patrolling the towers around us. Appraise reveals that a few of them are even at the upper end of Category 0, which isn’t something I’m quite ready to deal with yet.
By the time we make it to level 415, the first one with access to the side of the crater Novarath is built in, it’s too late.
Adrian and I finally set eyes upon the clear blue sky, using our skills to make our way to the flat walls of the crater. They’re less heavily guarded than I thought they’d be.
When the guard nearest to us simply disappears in a flash of blood and heat, leaving not a trace behind, I realize why the city seems so poorly guarded.
Objective: Find Sapphire [COMPLETE]
Sapphire has found you.
1 XP rewarded!
She’s here.
I clench a fist at the reward. Even the system doesn’t seem to want me to succeed.
Sapphire lightning flashes through the cloudless sky. Thunder starts to roll towards me—and then it cuts off.
All the sound cuts off. I’m eerily reminded of the magical earplugs Simon and Rin stuck us with. The air seems to still. I can’t hear my own breath. My heart is silent where it beats within me.
I whip my head around on instinct, ready for a hidden blade to strike, but none appear.
“Adrian?” I ask. My voice still works, at least. She hasn’t taken that from me.
“Fuck,” he says, with feeling.
When I turn my head back, she’s standing there.
The half-elf is as unnaturally perfect as she was last time, her hair not even tussled from the movement and she’s not alone.
I raise my arms to strike her, and I find I can’t.
“Oh, Evelyn,” Sapphire practically purrs, tilting my head up with a finger. “How you’ve grown. You managed to avoid disappointing, this time.”
She kisses my forehead, raking my cheek with a single fingernail as she does. “A shame the same can’t be said for the Jade girl. Revealing her full strength against a pitiful demon in the Crowned Islands, my word.”
“Fuck… off,” I manage to grit out.
“Worry not, I will,” Sapphire lilts, a too-wide smile spreading over her face. “But first! Allow my erstwhile partner here to introduce himself.”
I lock eyes with the man she’s brought, and incandescent rage flutters through me.
This face is familiar to me. I know his name.
“Alexus Rylar,” he says as I whisper the same. “Scientist and soldier.”
The [0/32] of my objective to kill my creators hangs in front of my eyes, taunting me.
“What are you here for?” Adrian grunts, the words clearly taking effort for him to say.
“I am just here to check in on a dear friend,” Sapphire says lightly. “Alexus, however, simply made a request of me. One I deemed suitable to grant.
“Fear not, Evelyn, for I will return soon enough.”
Her smile grows even wider, and she cradles my face with one arm. Her index finger brushes over my eyebrows—and then it plunges into my eye socket, severing the eyestem.
Cosmetic damage at best, but the embers of anger within me flare into a blaze of hatred.
Sapphire tosses the eyeball into the air. “Do not disappoint me.”
The half-elf woman catches my eye and disappears as soon as she came.
She took my fucking eye. It’ll grow back with magic, but she took my fucking eye.
Her skill was silent. Unlike Rin and Simon’s transport skills, not a single trace of magic formed to indicate that she was activating it, and nothing has been left behind except her comrade.
Alexus Rylar is a tall, thin man with greying hair, a full business suit, and long white gloves that look completely out of place on a businessman. Appraise fails when I target him.
“Doctor Rylar,” Adrian says, his demeanor shifting somehow. He sounds colder, and a tinge of distate works its way into his words. “The fuck do you want with us?”
“The Stahr child,” Rylar says, sounding like he’s looking at a particularly interesting rock. “So you survived, after all.”
“No thanks to you,” Adrian says, sheathing his sword.
“Allow me to rectify that,” Rylar says, pulling off his gloves. “A test for the young lady cannot be accurately conducted with an interfering project.”
Oh, great. Now both of us have a reason to kill him. This skips the part where I need to talk Adrian into doing it, at least.
The man in question sighs, taking one final drag from his stub of a cigarette before tossing it aside.
“Uncloak.”
A geyser explodes from the rock where the crushed, burnt stub lands, water bursting with so much intensity that it splits the ground apart where it bursts out. A moment later, another one joins it.
Adrian throws his hands to either side, and pressurized blades appear as extensions of his hands. They smell like the sea.
Overwhelming power explodes forth from him, an odd sense of pressure accompanying his sudden attacks.
He’s different. He feels different. Adrian decloaked before, but that was to activate his secondary class. This… this is something else.
“Stay,” he orders. I don’t have anything better to do than protect Sierra, so I do.
I follow through on my suspicions, using Appraise on my ally once more.
Name: Adrian Stahr
Age: 19
Race: Human
Class: Warrior/Hydrokinetic
Level: 8/126
Last Used Skill: Water Magic - Blade of the Eternal Sea
Adrian has allowed his cloak to fully fall. He is a Category 1 Hydrokinetic, the result of intense physical and magical enhancement. Trouble comes to him naturally and supernaturally.
One… twenty… six…
The cringing doormat of an adventurer is six times my level?
A wave crashes against air, and suddenly we’re surrounded by a thick dome of water, one that barely excludes Sierra and me. It rolls onto and over Dr. Rylar, engulfing him entirely. Adrian dashes through his water faster than I’ve ever seen him move, his blade a bright outline in the dome.
Light barely percolates through the water, but I can make out Adrian’s figure as he slashes straight through Rylar’s body.
The man splits into two, torso and head separating from his legs. Before his blood can disperse into the water, the blade’s second effect comes into play. I watch as the water visibly distorts, extreme pressure bearing down on Rylar’s two halves. Flesh and bone crumples away under the force of the magic, and before I can even finish processing that, there’s nothing but slowly-dissolving chunks of meat particulate.
Water falls away to either side of us, the dome parting and pouring down over the edge of the cliffs. Adrian returns to my side, not even breathing hard. His hands are empty.
“What was that?” I ask, tamping down on my surprise.
“Fuck, that was stupid,” Adrian says. He raises a hand to the light, and I see the same dark veins plaguing Sierra running over his wrists. “I’m going to be useless for the next few days.”
Sure enough, when he tries to use another skill, a few droplets of water float up from his hand. Nothing else happens.
Alexus Rylar is a paste on the ground. He is dead beyond dead.
Except he isn’t. His smashed-up body paints the ground, but the objective I have, the one that tells me to kill my creators, hasn’t updated.
“He’s still alive,” I say.
“He—“ Adrian starts. He looks hard at the bloody paste, and part of it moves. “Shit.”
I pull on Hemokinesis, but it does nothing. Even at Silver tier, whatever Rylar is doing is overpowering it.
Blood and meat flies together, and half a second later, Rylar is standing in front of us, wearing the same drab suit that he was earlier.
What kind of overpowered healing skill is that? Restore Self and Demonic Heritage put together can’t even hold a candle to this. My skills don’t restore my clothing, either, but this guy’s apparently does.
“Quite impressive, I must admit,” Rylar says, completely unfazed. His gloves aren’t on anymore. “Perhaps there is merit to your survival after all. I will administer the test to both experiments.”
Both experiments? I was surprised enough by Adrian being this ridiculously powerful as well as his apparent familiarity with one of my creators, but he’s an experiment on top of that?
The world around us drifts away, the dark towers and blue sky drifting away, replaced by utter darkness. Only the cliff surface under us remains.
Rather than magical pressure, physical weight presses down on me. A little bit at first, then enough to knock me down to the ground.
“Welcome,” Alexus Rylar says, spreading his hands.
“Special skill: Pressure Amplification Domain.”
His voice reverberates, echoing over itself until all I can hear is gnashing, grinding gears that might’ve been speech.
The weight on my shoulders increases, and Adrian grunts too, falling on his face next to me.
“Shit,” the Hydrokinetic curses. “A domain? This fucker’s Category 2?”
Those are supposed to be Category 2 skills?
Before I can ruminate on that further, Rylar speaks. I can’t see him, but his voice permeates the entire space.
“Amplification: one.”
It’s not a terrible weight at first, but lifting myself off the ground takes effort.
“Amplification: two.”
I hit the ground again. This time, the weight presses down even harder onto me, as if I’ve attached lead weights to every inch of my skin. I can barely raise myself to my feet. I try to use Hemokinesis, but the blood just falls to the ground and dissipates.
“Amplification: three.”
If I couldn’t lift myself up the last time, I can’t even raise my hand this time.
Sierra screams again, and I start. I almost forgot she’s here.
Fuck. She can’t defend herself. I have a strong body, and I put another three points into Body (Durability) to enhance that, but Sierra doesn’t have access to the same body-enhancing skills I do.
She’s going to die if this keeps up.
Adrian cries out in pain, and I remember that I’m the only one here with a properly leveled Pain Resistance skill.
This is bad.
I hear my wrist break when I try to push myself up again.
“Amplification: four.”
Unacceptable.
Before Rylar’s special skill can enhance his domain any further, my passenger screams its displeasure in my head.
For once, I agree with it.
The weight on us is increasing even further now, and I have to shut out Sierra’s screaming and Adrian’s pained groans to even think.
Adrian said this guy is Category 2. That’s level 200, bare minimum. Over ten times as powerful as me.
But I have no other choice.
“Join me,” I rasp out.
I activate every skill in my repertoire. My blood magic falls to the floor, disabled by the domain. My aura permeates the space, but does nothing. My Devour has no target.
Use it all.
Divine assistance enabled.
Backlash probability: extreme.
Lethal backlash probability: moderate.
Divine assistance granted.
This may not occur again.
I hiss out an epithet. Over the sound of Sierra, Adrian, and the gear-grind of the domain itself, I can barely hear myself, but I’m counting on Rylar to be aware of what goes on within.
Every remaining stat point I have goes into Magic (Power), bringing it to 26, and I act.
Special skill: Soulpyre.
Burn them.
Special skill: Carnelian Domain.
Break them.
Blue-black flame sears out from my body in all directions, consuming the soul energy I’ve built up, and the domain around us burns.
Everywhere the flame touches, my second special skill takes hold. Darkness infuses itself with crimson light, and the swirling concotion beats back against the void of Rylar’s skill.
Carnelian Domain (Unique)
Tier: Bronze
Cooldown: 7 days
Your existence is contradictory. A bloody demon blessed by the divine, carrying a broken god in your mind. Enforce this contradiction onto those around you. While this domain is active, you have vastly enhanced control over blood, divine, and demonic magic. Using them together temporarily activates a magical effect that annihilates enemies caught within your contradiction.
Because no matter what aspect you add to the confusing concotion that is your self, there is more than one truth to you, Evelyn Carnelian.
You advance.
You kill.
I tear him apart in an instant, reducing him to atoms. Divine light sears his skin, demonic darkness strikes directly at his soul, and blood rips him apart as I enforce the paradoxical truth of myself over his.
“I am Evelyn Carnelian,” I hiss, expending every last drop of magic I have, ruining every attempt he makes to pull himself back together. “And you are in my way.”
Seven hundred and thirty-one seconds pass before the notification appears.
Objective: Marie’s monster
Kill your creators.
Targets killed: [1/32]
Reward: ???
