I opened my eyes to a pitch black room. Raising a hand to my face and trying to rub the sleep out of my eyes I turn my head to look at my nightstand. On my nightstand I see my digital clock with the blocky red numbers ‘6:00’. ‘Six O’clock huh, guess old habits die hard.’

I throw one leg out over the side of my bed then another and place my feet on the ground. Reluctantly leaving the comfort of my bed, I walk to the kitchen to start my breakfast. I look in the fridge and take out eggs, bacon, and hashbrowns. ‘The usual.’ I smile. ‘But I like the usual.’ Once I’m finished cooking and eating my breakfast I walk out of the kitchen and into the bathroom.

I turn on the water in the shower and wait for it to warm up. Glancing down I notice the damage my armor has, ‘we’ve been through a lot haven’t we.’ I run my hand along the whole in the elbow, feeling the scar tissue. My eyes are then drawn to the gashes on my left side. Sliced clean through my armor had done almost nothing to stop the blades of the Predator and the white scar tissue on my side a crucial warning of what my enemies can do. Shaking my head I strip off my cloak and sweat soaked bodysuit and step into the warm water.

Letting the tension leave my body I enjoy the moment of peace that the water delivers to me. ‘No enemies and no danger.’ I sigh, ‘is this all my life will be? Moments of extreme stress and danger followed by periods of peace.’ My hands travel to my face and rub my eyes. ‘I’m tired, so very tired.’ I let my hands fall to my sides then I clench my fist. My eyes shoot open and I punch the wall of the shower. ‘I can’t stop now. I won’t stop now! This will not be my end. I will make it through this.’ My fists pulls back and weak hits the wall. ‘I will.’

After taking a shower and brushing my teeth I head out to meet Charlie and Jack. When I open my door I find that I am the first one out. ‘I might as well get it over with while I have the system to myself.’ Putting one leg in front of the other I make the tedious journey up the great white steps to what might as well be god. Excitement puts some extra pep in my step as I take the last step and stand before the ball of light. I connect with the system, in my mind there was no choice to make as I had already decided what to get.

A beam of light descends and slowly raises me from my standing position on the platform. Blood red orbs start to cascade upon me, I am left floating for what seems like an eternity until a final pitch black orb invades me, then I am let down. The systems work done and it’s touch no longer upon me.

The difference between the me that ascended and descend is like night and day. I have transformed into something only resembling a human. My skin is now a deep grey nearing black and has the toughness of hardened leather, muscles bulge and ripple from a formerly lacking frame, my previously small horns now stand proud curling behind my head, my claws have grown longer and stronger, and my teeth as well have grown stronger. But these physical enhancements pale in comparison to the expansion of my demonic essence pool which is now more akin to a lake and the 2 innate spells branded into my soul, infernal flame and minor curse of weakness. The enhancement that lead to these developments was the fiend enhancement, the next stage of an imp’s evolution. It costed me 2000 points and a C ranked reward. With my remaining 1000 points I enhanced my cell vitality and reaction speed by 50.

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‘Good thing I have my camo cloak or I’d scare the newbies with my appearance.’ I examine my body for a few minutes then I snap my fingers. A tiny flame, like that of a lighter, hovers over my thumb. The flame is a blood red that grows darker until it reaches a black at its core. I will the flame and it hovers between my knuckles until I stop it over my index finger. The flame hops to the point of my index finger. My face twitches as a stream of demonic essence speeds up sending more fuel into the tiny flame. The flame slowly grows larger and dark until a baseball sized flame hovers above my index finger. ‘I have enough juice to make about 10 of these then I’m out.’ My arm shoots out and send the flame flying to the other side of the room. I clench my fist and the fire ball stops then it shoots back to my hand.

A smile blossoms across my face. ‘I’m going to have a lot of fun with this.’ My fist opens again then close quickly and just like that the flame disappeared. ‘Yep, lot’s’

I hear a laugh from below me and a voice asks, “having fun?”

I grin down at Charlie. “Yep.”

Charlie quickly jogs up the steps then slaps me on the back. “That was a pretty impressive display there, how’d you do it?”

“What can I say, it just comes naturally.” I respond.

Charlie gives me a shove. “Haha, very funny smart ass but really what was that.”

“That was a new ability I got from my enhanced bloodline, it’s called infernal flame.” I say with a chuckle.

“Nice, now you can do more than just lobbing blobs of demonic essence at the enemies.” Charlie responds with a smirk.

“Shut up, anyway I got the Fiend bloodline enhancement. It gave me some stat boosts and 2 abilities although it costed a pretty penny, 2000 points and a C ranked reward.” I punch Charlie in the arm while I explained my enhancement.

“What’d you spend the rest of your points on?” Charlie asked as he rubbed his arm.

“Just stat upgrades, cell vitality and reaction speed to be specific.” I answered then I squeezed my hands relishing the feeling of power coming from my body.

“You have been needing an upgrade in terms of physical prowess so that’s good.” Charlie said with a nod.

“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean.” I respond in faux outrage.

“That you weren't exactly the fittest person in the world.” He answered with a smug smirk. “Anyway, enough about you let’s talk about me. What do you think I should get?”

I chuckled at Charlie’s phrasing but answered. “I think you should get some sort of protective device like the force field the predator and a movement technique to help with skirmishing and quick reinforcement of other team members, although it’s currently only you and me, but other than that I got nothing.”

“Thanks, I’ll take that into account when I’m getting enhancements.” Charlie said then his eyes went out of focus. Realizing that it might take him awhile I sat down on the top step and got comfortable.