Preview: This! This feeling. Is it the same as back then?! He thought back in lingering fear to the time he almost died. He almost cursed out of fear but still tried to move his shaking legs towards Sunirae. There, he saw a tree. A tree with dark barks and black sunflowers growing all over its branches.
Sunirae stood in amazement and pleasure as she felt power coursing throughout her entire being. This time, she managed to succeed. She managed to not only finish augmenting her roots, but also her body.
But her augmentation in her body wasn’t complete. It would slowly wear off as time passed but it was no longer the same as before! Last time, she had to borrow the power from the Underworld and watch it go back to its origin in sadness.
This time, she used the power she absorbed from the Shadow Hound and Angel’s Graveyard to form a delicate balance. It managed to keep the other energies tamed and finally assimilated them towards her roots. This would mean that she no longer needed to borrow strength in the future nor intentionally strengthen her roots. Her roots at this moment are already Augmented! And due to the fact that her augmentation was different from the usual route, by directly integrating all the nutrients and different kinds of essences into her cells, it became a part of her!
This would mean that she would have extremely powerful roots from here on out! This excited her so much but she encountered some bottleneck in assimilating the power when it comes to her body and above. She could do the same trick as before and assimilate the power but it would slowly wear out. Then the mana would extinguish as they return to their origins - Underworld.
All demons came from Hell and their energies are no exception. And what she’s attempting to do could be called a rebellion if anything. She’s directly trying to steal the Essence energy of the Underworld and integrate it into her body!
But due to the complexity of her body and number of things to consider, she couldn’t immediately assimilate the energy. She was having a headache on what to do next when Yhaele came towards her fearfully.
“What’s wrong?” Layered voices overlapped with each other as they assaulted Yhaele’s mind. Thankfully, they weren’t as bad as last time and Yhaele managed to keep his composure in front of others.
“We finished subduing the Ketus.” His words were short and concise as he slightly turned back to look at the direction of the battlefield that is now quiet.
Sunirae sensed the direction with her vines, leaves and roots and uttered a single word. “Excellent.” The sense of urgency that they were feeling due to the unknown impending danger has been slightly averted now. With the three of them gradually leveling up in several aspects, it would mean their survivability has increased and their chance of dying has lowered.
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With her body still augmented by the various energies inside her, she brought herself to the place where the Ketus gathered and surrendered.
The Ketus were discussing softly with their unique language when the ground was suddenly pierced by a dark tentacle. Then the main body of the tentacle was brought over. It was a horrifying mass of dark and twisted tree. It had black flowers and flower buds growing on its branches and the pressure it emanated made the Ketus bow their heads down.
“Guh. We.. Greet.. The Lord..” Unknowingly, she had already reached the level of being able to crush demons like Ketus with just her aura alone. Although this was done through her partial augmentation, it was still an impressive feat.
“Who is your leader?” She went straight to the point as she felt that her body’s augmentation was slowly fading away. She wanted to get through this as quickly as possible while she’s still strengthened.
The Ketus were surprised and excited by her strength and thus, obediently complied. Their leader came out amongst the crowd and came closer.
His scales were clearly different from others. They were tougher and had more luster, one look and you could tell that he's different. And his size is also a meter bigger than the rest, making a tiny giant among their midst. His arms and forearms are also abnormally large for their race, and his twin-tails developed in an unexpected way. His twin-tails developed upright scales that acted as spikes to cut through and hack his enemies. His entire being packed with muscles and powerful defense spoke volumes of strength.
His terrifying visage got closer to Sunirae, but he was shaking. Not even he was spared of the immense horror and pressure as he stood in front of the eldritch tree.
“Open your mind and don’t resist.” Layered voices overlapping echoed directly inside his mind, giving him an immense headache. Although he didn’t know why he had to, he still followed the instructions and opened his mind.
Just then, a searing pain tore through his mind and made him scream loudly. But it only lasted for a moment before disappearing. He fell half-kneeling on the ground as the pain lingered in his mind. Although it was gone, the illusion that his mind was about to be torn apart stayed.
“Herundira. That is your new name.” The terrifying voice echoed in his mind again as he was granted a name. He felt honored and immediately expressed his gratitude by slamming his tails on the ground “I am grateful for the name!” His headache gradually subsided and he went back to his tribe.
Sunirae’s size slowly shrank as the augmentation wore off. But unlike last time, the power did not just fade and disintegrate into thin air. They looked as though they were inwardly exploding as the flowers and darkness in her body gathered in her flower head and disappeared.
Her size returned to normal, except her roots as she thought about her current power. At least, the power she used to augment herself returned to her. This means, she’d no longer have to worry so much about running out of power, unless she releases them externally.
But to do that, one must become a Mid-Rank Demon and open their Magic Circuit and Natal Attribute. I need to grow stronger. She tells herself as she wonders about her path to power.
Meanwhile, Pendra was sleeping soundly on her stem, coiled around and squirming. From time to time, crackling sounds would echo but they were too soft to be audible.
Yhaele was at the side sitting crossed-legged and closing his eyes as though contemplating. His set of moves hasn’t been perfected yet and he needed to strengthen his flesh and blood through eating more demonic meat. The three were gradually embarking on a path of improvement and empowerment. Their goal of conquest doesn't seem to be too far anymore.