----------------------------------------
Assure Hestia doesn’t cripple herself. The solar core is currently damaged and she has shown little interest in fixing it, so adjust its output by reducing the thermal energy fueling her flames. Redirect it into Mana and Stamina recovery. If you fail this task, I shall destroy all of you.
“You piece-of-shit Kramps! We are all part of your granddaughter, too! Don’t threaten us!”
“Yeah, what Parallel Mind 2 said! We’re being oppressed by a tyrant!”
“Number 2 and Number 3, if you two are done, how about you resume your stations and help us out? Original Mind is about to attack!”
How long has it been since we last took control of things? Oh right, when Original Mind went berserk after Shiterno messed with our skills and forgot to tone down the pain. And, once again, Original Mind was going out of control and now we had to ensure she wouldn’t go around destroying everything like last time.
Fortunately, unlike last time, we made some arrangements with O.M. where, if she went crazy again, we would retain the ability to cast spells and control a few functions of our body. Although we were copies of her mind, we were still creations of the Divine System, so we needed her permission beforehand to be productive.
During the last berserk moment, we had to stop our rampaging body, but this time, I don’t think we could stop her before she quenched her [Battle Frenzy (Major)]. Her mind was focused on a single thought — kill. Our job now was to help her fulfill that goal while preventing too much collateral damage.
[Bearer of Kargryxmor’s Blood] has integrated certain abilities from Titles: [The Light], [Divine Inferno]. Seeking permission for activation… Individual [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor] has usurped control over [The Light] and [Divine Inferno]. Permission automatically granted
“Holy shit. Hey, Manager Mind, our hair is changing color!” One of the nine other parallel minds called out to me.
Looking through our body’s eyes, I could see our crimson hair slowly turn snow-white and begin to glow like a lightbulb. Upon checking within our body for the reason for this phenomenon, it appeared that our general mana type was changing to the holy element. In other words, if we were a monster in a certain RPG game, we were becoming holy type alongside our usual fire type.
Has to be from that message. Is this one of the benefits of [The Light]?
But a reply to my question didn’t come. The System didn’t send me another notification to explain what abilities we received. Kramps said something about unlocking the true power of his blessing, but what exactly did he do? There was no information for us to work with.
Unfortunately, we did not have any more time to work on that particular issue since Origin Mind finished roaring.
“Dammit! What is with that roar of yours?! I thought I was about to—What?!” The demonkin complained since we used [Draconic Roar], but he blocked it with an [Air Shield]. Was he a mage? We did not see him conjure a magic circle for it.
In any case, while the demonkin was speaking, our body used [Gale Steps], closing the distance between us. We used [Instant Heat Ignition] on our right hand, flaring up in bright flames despite it raining all around it. With [Inferno Coating], none of the flames on our body could die out for any reason without our consent, meaning we were creating a steam cloud around us.
“Belarghk!” he spat out as we landed a fire punch to his stomach.
But what made me wonder more was that, as we swung our fist, the flames around us created a trail behind us, lingering there before gathering around our fist. They grew in size, creating a propulsion effect like our rocket boosters, shooting the demonkin upwards.
“[Solar Beam] already?!” I shouted as our body gathered up the small amounts of solar energy inside our core, shooting it toward the demonkin in a concentrated laser. The demonkin used a [Wind Blast] to shoot himself out of the trajectory of the attack, landing on a nearby roof.
“Oh shit! Everyone, get to work! Stop the laser prematurely, deactivate any [Corrosive Fire] powers, conjure up some [Air Shield] around Eshe’s, Alikar’s, and Anivh’s bodies! And start playing [My Darkest Thoughts]!” I gave out my commands to the other parallel minds. We had to support our body!
[Music Resonation (Moderate)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]
“Staring out the window while it rains ♫
No one here to talk, silence is all I have ♫
So I delved into my thoughts and wondered, “What if?”♫”
That slightly depressing song we wrote for Ellaine to control Klea’Hatma began playing in the background through [Aerokinesis], doing everything in our power to forcibly stopp our body from spending too much solar energy on the laser. Kramps’ words about permanently crippling ourself still lingered in our mind; we had to control our usage of the solar core.
The pain has dulled ever since we returned to the surface, but once Original Mind used [Solar Beam] again, the pain started to return. Thankfully, we were currently in the third movement of [Symphonie des Feuergottes] — minuet. Our offensive power wasn’t as great as it could be in this phase, but our defenses and regeneration were superb right now. Our Mana and Stamina pools were quickly recovering from the fight with Eithalr.
“The laughing kid stomping loudly upstairs ♫
The damn lovebirds flirting on the streets ♫
Those rich asses living in their golden bubbles♫
I just wish they would all just disappear ♫”
“Argh! What are these sounds? By Lord Marsven, why does it feel so hard to control this form— Urgh, arrgk!”
The figure of the demonkin began to morph. Flesh and muscles began to twist around, contorting into impossible forms for something with a humanoid body. Eventually, the flesh warping stopped and the demonkin’s true form was revealed — a single horn on the left side of his face, four eyes, long, ungroomed hair flowing down his back, and a single thick, hairless pink tail. There was only one word to describe this form — ugly.
“N-No, why?! Gaaaaaaaaaaah! No, no, no, no, no, not this face! Not this face! This isn’t worth showing to the world! Morph, morph, I face the original sin of my bloodline, I call upon my Envy to surface, Original Sin: Demiurge!”
But nothing happened.
“N-No, youuuuuuu! What have you done to me, you slave of that unworthy Goddess?! Why can I not switch away from this obscene form! This isn’t what I look like!” The demonkin lashed out at us.
“Because [My Darkest Thoughts] is a song we created to counter the power of demons. Good to know that it also seemed to reveal a demonkin of envy’s true form.” I spoke my thoughts out to the other parallel minds, but obviously it wouldn’t reach the demonkin. Our body couldn’t gloat and speak what we say, but I couldn’t lose this chance to do so, even if it was redundant.
After all, we parallel minds shared our Original Mind’s emotions, and, right now, we wanted this guy to suffer for everything he did. He deserved no mercy.
“Kraaah!” Our wings flapped, sending scale-dust around the demonkin and with a snap of our fingers, everything exploded.
[My Darkest Thoughts] significantly weakened demonkin, but it also meant we couldn’t play combat songs to buff ourselves like with [Dragon Fire]. We had to rely on our current strength.
But our body didn’t need to hear this from us. It was obvious enough, even to our berserk Original Mind.
With [Solar Beam]’s buff active, flames were exploding from underneath our scales even as we unleashed a dragon breath at the demonkin. He dodged it by jumping onto another roof. As if we had no control over the fire breath, the flames fanned around the area, spreading to every building it could.
Scheiße!
“Use [Pyrokinesis] and—” I wanted to give a command to the other minds, but for some reason, our vision suddenly became completely muddy, and in the next second, we were behind the demonkin!
“W-What?!” the demonkin gasped.
“Flashfire,” our body mumbled before landing another fire punch to his stomach, sending him crashing far away from the orphanage’s ruins like a bullet. As the demonkin struggled to get himself up after crashing to the ground, our vision went muddy once again before reappearing behind him once again.
“Shit!”
But this time, black mist gathered around his hand, materializing into a black sword made from voldunna, which he used to block our next punch at the last moment. Still, the sheer force of our attack was enough to blast the demonkin away. And then it repeated.
Our vision muddied and we appeared somewhere close to the demonkin. He would parry our attack, but he would still be blown away further and further away from Eshe’s body. One, two, three, four, and so on and so on. I had no idea how our body was able to do this.
“I got it!” Parallel mind #4 yelled. “It’s the fire! She’s teleporting towards the fire she spread around beforehand! That’s [Flashfire]’s effect!”
We still had no idea exactly what Kramps did, but we now knew that it actually gave us a pretty crazy ability. Knowing this, I looked into our senses, noticing that our body was intensely preoccupied with our hearing, touch, and smell whenever the vision muddied.
[Flashfire] wasn’t some kind of teleport ability, but rather it was a high-speed movement towards any flame around us. But, due to the extreme speed involved, it was nearly impossible to see. Our body was focusing on the sound of the demonkin’s breathing, their smell, and the feel of the wind against our skin. Even if we couldn't see anything during [Flashfire], our other senses compensated for it.
The moment we were far enough from the orphanage for our taste, we dashed with [Flashfire] and conjured up a house-size [Scorching Sun] over us, aiming to end the demonkin with this one hit.
“Damn you, do not underestimate me, Aurena pawn!” Black mana surrounded his hand before an ominous purple-colored ball shot out from his hand. “Mist Ball!”
Demonic energy. It felt similar to the demon abilities Klea’Hatma could conjure up as well as that weird morphing the demonkin underwent earlier. The two spheres collided, causing a spell duel between the two of us, but thanks to all the power-ups we had active right now, we were pushing the demonic energy ball back.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
The black streaks on his face glowed us as he roared, causing the ball to grow larger and larger. We weren’t losing the advantage, but I could feel Original Mind becoming annoyed. As such, with our spare hand, we emitted a bright light in our hand, without any spells, at the same time as our white hair lit up.
With this light, we smacked the two balls, somehow causing the space around them to literally crack. When it broke, it echoed like glass shattering from a powerful blow, turning the entire area completely black before the light returned. The two giant balls were gone.
How was this even possible was a mystery to me, but I could guess that this was part of our boon from [The Light]. We literally emitted light, something we normally couldn’t do without using [Shine]. The fact that we erased what was inside that area was true magic, and it absolutely frightened us parallel minds that this power was in our hands.
And we weren’t the only one; the demonkin, too, was flabbergasted at what we had done. Before he could react, we unleashed [Dreadflare Aura], blowing him away from us. He crashed through a building while we parallel minds deactivated [Dreadflare Aura].
We wanted to continue the assault, but a sudden sharp pain stung our chest like a giant needle, causing us to roar out as it kept worsening. A chilling cracking sound resounded from our chest area as we were unable to continue moving, falling onto our knees as heat began to escape our body in the form of flame waves.
“Solar core overheating! Turning fire into white flames to help cool things down.”
“Turning solar energy into mana and nutrients. Hey, I need help over here, we need to do all of it manually!”
“Shit! A crack in our solar core confirmed! No idea how to fix it but it’s probably from either overheating or mana usage. Deactivate any unnecessary mana usage, including the Symphonie! Keep the music!”
No spells, no high maintenance buffs, or skill-based power boosts. Our glaive was also in our storage, but it seemed like our body had no intentions of taking it out. We were relying purely on our dragon and physical abilities at this point. Kramps warned us this could cripple us if we weren’t careful, so it couldn’t be helped.
“Daaaaaaamn yoouuuuu! Gluk… GuuuAAAAARRRRGH!” We felt a surge of energy from inside the building that the demonkin had flown into. [Detection Sensor] warned us how the target was growing in strength, and our instincts began to warn us to be careful. “FooOOOurgGrh LOOOrghhhH MAARRRSVEEEEEEN!”
Long, spiked tentacles shot out of the building at me, which I dodged. They dug into the ground, and dragged the demonkin out. What crawled out looked nothing like him. It was a giant mass of black flesh with his face fused onto it. We were struck with a strong sense of deja vu.
The troll shaman and Davison!
It was a similar eldritch abomination, but somehow, this was probably the most grotesque of them all. Tentacles were growing out from its body right at this moment, although they couldn’t be compared to the two extremely long ones he threw at me at first. The fleshy mess used these smaller tentacles to move around, crawling towards me in that oversized meat bag.
I could see a pair of arms and legs each sprouting from that mess in random places, while its tail looked nothing more than a fat tentacle at this point. A giant mouth with sharp spikes formed from this flesh and mask-like indentations were visible all over the body. But probably the worst inclusion on this “thing,” was truly the demonkin’s face, which looked like just another random addition to this eldritch creature.
“KiiiiiIILllll youuuuuu!” Multiple voices were synched together like in a chorus, bellowing those words out as it was in agony.
“What in the— Why, why? What the hell is that potion they’re drinking and why does it turn you into something like this?! It doesn’t make any sense! T-This is not right.”
That black potion — the one the troll shaman and Davison drank before they turned themselves into real monsters. What was it made from that allowed them to turn themselves into such a state? I heard from Saori that Davison had drunk a potion prior to his full transformation that gave him a lesser monster-like form, but it allowed him to retain his consciousness.
So seeing even this demonkin wasn’t immune to black potion was unsettling. As much as I wanted to sympathize with what he had done to himself, the wrath and grief he inflicted on me by taking Eshe away from everybody trumped it. The disgust his form gave me disappeared instantly as I charged towards him with [Gale Steps].
Just like before, its body was shooting out spells without needing to conjure a magic circle, including that black ball from before. One of these was a fire spell, which was a serious misjudgement, since we had [Flashfire].
We teleported towards the fire, right above the abomination where we saw the demonkin’s pained expression as he roared at us. Flapping our wings, we somersaulted and performed an axe kick after using [Instant Heat Ignition] to wrap our leg in fire, landing a devastating explosive attack.
“GuuuuuOOORgh!” it belched out.
The ground cracked and the abomination’s flesh was burned. [Dread Burn] prevented it from regrowing or healing itself, despite it casting white light on itself in a mimickry of [Major Heal]. This proved one of the parallel minds’ theories that the various demonkin of envy can not only assume others’ appearances but also copy spells and maybe even skills.
Maybe it could have proven a challenge to others, as it did to Eshe and her knights buffed up with [Honored, Sworn Knights], but to us, this bastard was just an ant. [My Darkest Thoughts] weakened it, [The Light] had turned ourself into a walking demon energy destroyer, and my flames naturally countered any types of regeneration. Not to mention the high elemental resistance I had to any of my magics.
“Insect!” we shouted as we kicked the blob upwards before slicing it in half with our tail.
“Grrrruuuu!” it screamed. Black tendrils erupted from its wounds, binding it together before all its tentacles grew in size and attacked me. Like a venus fly trap, it tried to prey on me, but all it would find was a predator — an apex predator.
We [Flashfire]ed out of there and unfurled my claws for the first time during this fight. Searing hot claws severed the monster’s tendrils like butter. Instead of trying to regrow them, the monster simply amputated any body parts afflicted with fire like a lizard shedding its tail, before growing new tentacles from a different spot.
We did not stop our attack, taking more and more of its body as we dashed around like crazy. Its spells, although numerous, were worthless. [Draconic Barrier] nullified their damage — we could ignore them. The pain in our chest did slow us down a bit, but as parallel minds moved our attention from casting spells to maintaining our body, Original Mind could devote herself to slaughtering this amalgamation of flesh.
Still, despite how badly we were injuring the deformed demonkin, it was tenacious. Each time, the black liquid or something oozed out from its body to simply replace any damaged parts. We parallel noted this for later — there were ways to get around [Dread Burn]’s effect.
Due to the abomination’s immense staying power, the fight was taking its toll on the surroundings. The street cracked, buildings burned, and the corpses of the undead, deformed monsters, and of Griffonpeak’s slain citizens were all consumed by our fire or destroyed by the blob.
We tried to contain it but the battle was getting fiercer and fiercer as we tried to get close enough to the thing to land a decisive blow. We couldn’t appraise it, which made it hard to know what its limit was. Thankfully, there was nobody alive in this area besides the two of us. We had all the time and freedom to wail our emotions onto this thing.
And our patience finally paid off.
“Kkrrriiiiaahhh!”
A flaming claw slash reaped a chunk of flesh from the monster, but as we anticipated it to replace that piece, nothing happened. There was no black ooze or some tendrils. Also, we noticed that the skin of the abomination had suddenly turned into a bright pink at the same time this occurred. Did it finally use up all that dark power?
“Now! Channel our mana into an attack and end this thing!” I commanded the parallel minds as our body seemingly agreed.
“Light Horizon,” our body murmured as we created light from our mana once again, before spraying it out like shotgun pellets. They penetrated the abomination’s skin, at which point those light pellets morphed into needles, pinning the monster down on the ground.
Damn, even light manipulation?
“Kriiiah!” We roared as we stomped our feet into the ground, breaking it in the process. The energy within our solar core then burst out, entering our hand for the killing blow! “Release: Solar Beam!”
A humongous light laser burst from our hand, roaring so loudly that it even made our ears ring in pain. It completely enveloped the abomination in the light, pushing little by little up into the sky with the ground it was tied down to.
From just a small glance, the amount of energy released through this blast would have been enough to probably consume something as large as our dragon form, but this laser also had the length part down, too. We parallel minds didn’t need to guess. We knew very well that this blast could have reached the very ends of the sky like a true solar beam.
Like the light of a lighthouse acting like the beacon of hope and safety for sailors during a storm, our blast pierced the rain, sundered the rain clouds, ruptured the blowing wind, and brought back the incandescence of the sky. And all of this with the dying screams of the blasted demonkin.
“GrruooooAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!” The demonkin’s alien cries ringed throughout the neighborhood, atomizing at the same time as its body. “L-LORD PRIDE! HONORED LORD MAAAAAARRRRRSVEEEEEEEN—!”
[Bearer of Kargryxmor’s Blood]’s release requirement not found. Deactivating effect. Temporary access to the full potential of [Bearer of Kargryxmor’s Blood] has been used up with the authority of the God of Dragons and Oaths Kargryxmor. Usuper rights activated. Attempting to override access… Attempt failed. [Bearer of Kargryxmor’s Blood] has been resealed
Experience has reached multiple breaking points. [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor] has risen from [Level 15] to [Level 16]
Attributes have increased due to level up
Acquired 700 skill points
Experience has reached multiple breaking points. [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]’s Job [Incandescent Blaze] has risen from [Level 3] to [Level 30]
Attributes have increased due to level up
Max level of Job [Incandescent Blaze] has been reached
Mutation requirements acquired. [Level 30] of Job [Incandescent Blaze] was achieved. Mutation skills unlocked for acquisition. [Flames of Purification] have been added to the SP shop
“Holy shit! That was a powerful blast!” I spoke out as [Battle Frenzy (Major)] turned off and we could feel the Original Mind’s presence inside our mind. She was cooling off, confused at what happened.
Just like during [Battle Frenzy (Moderate)], Original Mind essentially blanked out. Her body was moving on instincts alone, although, fortunately, she didn’t totally turn into a mindless berserker. My guess is that Kramps did something to make sure we didn't destroy everything while we fought the demonkin. Very considerate.
As we shared the memories we had of the battle to help Original Mind catch up on the situation, we also did some maintenance on her solar core. It was absorbing solar energy, thankfully, but when we had our body open up our shirt to look at it, it certainly confirmed our worry.
“No…” our body murmured in worry.
There was a large crack on the core. It was only a single one, but even that was worrying enough. Since we just had our wings repaired, none of us expected to be injured like this again. We had no idea what detriments this would cause, but we did know that we would try to repair the injury with white flames.
“Why is all of this— Urk!”
“Yo, Original Mind, be care—”
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“Oof!” I groaned as I fell uncomfortably on my back. My landing on the fresh rubble was… rough. Pain was pain, in any case.
The rain continued. I peered up, watching water droplets drop on my face. I checked my hair — it was crimson again. I couldn’t believe that my hair had turned white, but the memories my parallel minds sent me couldn’t be refuted. I remembered the whole fight I had with the demonkin, and now, with my revenge enacted, I felt a deep emptiness as [My Darkest Thoughts] continued playing.
“Those are my honest thoughts, something I wish to hide from them ♫
My life is stagnating, nothing I do brings me forth ♫
All I can do is sing, drowning my sorrows while it rains ♫
Every step I take just brings me back, to a rundown apartment room ♫
Turn away, close my eyes, lock these wishes far away ♫
Not again, not again…or I’ll cry until the end ♫
All of my darkest thoughts ♫
Will serve me as my muse ♫
So, I’ll sing, I’ll sing, I’ll sing, I’ll sing! ♫
As I fade from your thoughts ♫”
Eshe… Alikar and Anivh, too. They’re all dead…
I thought I would grieve, or maybe feel some catharsis from killing their murderer, but I felt no fulfillment. I felt nothing motivating me to stand up. I might have fallen due to overexerting myself, seeing as my solar core cracked, but I could have simply stood up at this point.
But I had no reason to.
Yes, I could hear the loud roars of that geisenlarg monster, and even how it was slowly destroying the wall. I could hear Muraina’s arrows flying through the sky, pushing the monster back as best as she could, waiting for people like me to help her.
But I had no motivation to do so. I felt tired.
“Is this how Mama and Papa felt when I died?” I asked myself, trying so earnestly to remember my parents’ faces, but I couldn’t. The cloud inside my mind obstructed it. I couldn’t even call out their names.
I wanted to cry, but I didn’t have the agency to do that. For me, the rain was enough. It cried for me. I wondered if Krunal, God of Harvest and Weather, was also sad right now.
“I wasn’t fast enough… A dragon unable to protect what is theirs… I am pathetic.”
Has obtaining all these powers done anything good for me? I wanted to protect those I loved but tragedies just keep happening all around me. At this point, I was sure that I even failed Ellaine. Eshe and Ellaine… two friends I’ve come to know in Artorias were lost to me forev—
“HESTIA!”
I pushed myself up, snapping my head towards that voice. And there I saw them.
“E-ELLAINE!”
My party. Saori, Tasianna, Ellaine, Grimnir, Uno, Song, Sarasa, and Quatre. With the exception of Shoyi, all of them were there.
Tears began to stream from my eyes, accompanying the rain, as I ran towards them, embracing Ellaine the moment we were close enough.
“Y-You’re alive! You’re alive!” I cried out, touching Ellaine’s face to make sure. She wasn’t wearing her armor and her clothes seemed like some spares Saori had in her storage, but I didn’t care. “You didn’t die! Waghaghagah… Siiierpf! You didn’t die, thank goodness, you’re alive. You’re all alive! I didn’t lose any of you!”
“H-Hestia—” Ellaine tried to say something but I didn’t listen.
“Hestia, where is… It’s alright. It’s alright, we’re here. Don’t w-worrrry.” I could feel Saori’s shaky voice as she caressed my back, supporting me as I didn’t want to let go of Ellaine.
“Lady Hestia, we’re all here. We’re all safe.” So did Tasianna.
““““Woof!”””” our four garms barked as they came closer.
I could also feel Grimnir’s strong hand tapping my back, but he kept quiet. I didn’t know what he was thinking. I wanted to know, though. I wanted to listen to all of my companions’ voices. I wanted to selfishly have them with me forever.
Why… Why couldn’t everything be more peaceful?