It’s now been five months since we all awakened our aptitudes. Coal had managed to reach the middle stage not long after I had. Even though he’d spent most of his essence on practicing, his aptitude alone made him still have a lot to use for cleansing impurities.

He could use Wound Heal six out of ten times, and was now practicing using spells like Blood Blade and Rupturing Blood Spike.

On the other hand, Flint, Dark, and Grass - the C-Grades - had yet to reach the middle stage, but had perfected the use of Blood Spike and begun to use it in fights. I assume that in their free time, they’re also trying to learn another spell.

This just goes to show how much Steal Yin has changed my fate. By my estimates, it should only take me another month to reach the upper stage. For comparison, the average time from becoming a Sorcerer to reaching the upper stage for a C-Grade is nine months. Coal should be able to reach it in maybe a month and a half.

But for me, as long as I can keep using Steal Yin, I can likely keep up with even the A-Grades! Of course, I had a three month period where I could do nothing, so I’m still behind.

Oh, and as for Dust, although she can cast Blood Spike while standing still, she’s yet to be able to do it while moving, let alone in a fight.

Meanwhile…

Completely mimicking the motions of Coal across from me, I raised up my cut hand and began casting Blood Spike. Thanks to my practice, I did every seal at the same speed as him, but my target is obviously going to be different than his.

Our spikes launched out at the same time, and Coal had to practically dive sideways to avoid my attack, which had been aimed at his abdomen. That’s the advantage of my high yin, after all!

As for myself, I just took two steps to the right to dodge his spike. Hmm, if I hadn’t forced him to dodge so drastically, he probably would’ve tried to cast Rupturing Blood Spike, which would’ve been more difficult to avoid.

The fight continued for around a minute, I could only cast Blood Spikes, after all. Even if I’m at the middle stage and can cast it nine times with my full essence, it wouldn’t be smart in the slightest for me to expose that I had advanced so quickly, now would it?

Coal walked over and placed a hand on my shoulder - a bit roughly, if I may add. “Fighting against you is always the best, Shadow. None of the others are able to keep up with me, but you… Ah, it’s great!”

He laughed loudly, and I remained silent as always. With that, I went to sit down and watch as Coal had another practice fight, this time against Flint.

Hmm, how long has it been since I got back into this pattern? A month, was it? I thought that they had been avoiding me, but it turns out that most of them had been forbidden from getting close to me by their families.

They were afraid that I might do something crazy, and although not all of them were forbidden, they felt there was no point going to me if they couldn’t all do so.

All I can say is that they’re ridiculous for obeying their families despite being adults.

So like usual, I laid down on the dirt and watched the main cloud layer of the Sky Above slowly move from east to west. Sometimes, I wonder what it’d be like in the other great regions.

Here in the Wasteland, the clouds would reach the end of the world before fully blocking the sunlight. If you go to the far far west, then wouldn’t the period of twilight last longer than the actual day?

…Maybe my mind just isn’t capable of comprehending things like that. As for venturing far far away to experience it myself… It’s impossible. The peace for our lands won by the heroes who survived the Red Rain prevents the Gold Court from invading us, but also prevents us from leaving the Wasteland.

My mind always wanders when I stare up at the sky like this, huh. Well, it’s probably been long enough by now.

I got up and, as I left for the day, walked past Dust. Our shadows crossed paths for a moment and hers became imperceptibly darker. Shade had transferred over to Dust’s shadow, just as we’d planned. With this, I could now track her location.

For me, what I had to do was walk to the abandoned district. I’d found a nice little region deep in the maze-like buildings, in which there’s a girl I had captured and tied up last night. After waiting a bit longer for my essence to be high enough, I cast Steal Yin and took her yin to replenish the rest that was missing.

My essence was completely full now, at its limit of 47%.

Then, I began heading towards where Dust was. Once I determined the path she was taking, I went ahead and set up in a desolate spot she would pass by.

It was dusk, and since I was sitting against the walls of the area like other homeless girls, she didn’t recognize me. It also helped that I had completely smeared my hair with dirt in order to hide its ash color. With my head down and my hands concealed within my sleeves, I began casting Blood Chains.

Just as she went past me, ten chains flew out from my sleeves and completely locked down the area where Dust was, anchoring onto the walls and ground. She couldn’t move in the slightest.

It seems she was stunned in shock, but it didn’t take long for her to recover and scream at the top of her lungs, “Somebody help me!” But I put a stop to that by swinging a metal rod into the back of her head. How could she scream if she’s unconscious, after all?

Her body quickly collapsed to the ground, and I tied her up using the ropes that I had been using to tie up the captured girl just earlier. As I dragged her to a remote area - a different one than where I had just been, I couldn’t help but snicker.

Although Coal and the others were mean to me, they kept it within limits. But you, Dust, you were the meanest. Every time I failed at casting Blood Spike, you’d ridicule me, and when I became better than you, you started cursing me in secret?

During the walk, Shade had listened to every Dust said, which included a large amount of swearing about how I had suddenly become better than her. Whether it’s true or not doesn’t really matter, since it wouldn’t change what I was about to do.

I threw her to the ground and woke her up by slapping her face a couple times. Her mouth was blocked by a piece of rope, but she still screamed at me immediately when she saw my face.

Lifting my foot, I stamped on her chest to press her onto the floor. Of course, she couldn’t resist. “Dust, have you ever felt regret for all those times you were mean to me? Hmm, probably not.”

“Well, today I’m going to repay you for it all.” From my sash, I pulled out the dagger that I always use to cut my palms. “Aren’t you glad?!”

Dust’s screams were muffled by the rope as I cut various wounds across her body. But that quickly became boring, but it didn’t take long for me to have a better idea. I dragged the edge across the skin of her right arm and stopped the blade once I reached her fingers.

“Hey, Dust~ The hands are the most important thing to a Sorcerer, right? I wonder how it’ll feel to be permanently worse than me, unable to cast even a single spell?!”

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It was such an easy task to practically cripple a Sorcerer, as all you had to do was destroy one finger on each hand. But to drive the point in - hehe - I used the dagger to sever, gouge, and sometimes even flay all ten of her fingers with the dagger.

Seeing her tears of pain and fear, hearing the muffled screams of agony, and feeling her tremble and twist her body back and forth… Ah, I’m so extremely happy. The only unfortunate thing is that there’s a limit to what I could do to her before she dies, and Steal Yin won’t work anymore if she’s dead.

I stood up and looked down at my artwork. Lines of red ran across Dust’s naked body, and blood pooled on the ground, especially around her mutilated hands. It’s tempting to carve some sort of message on her skin, but I’m not stupid enough to do something that could easily reveal my identity.

But even if I can’t physically do anything more to her, I still have my words.

My knees bent and brought me down, and I reached out a hand and placed it over the spot where her essence core would be. Of course, my hand was also close to something else, obviously… “Say, Dust. Are you a virgin? I want to know if there’s anyone I could send your corpse to for the most fun.”

Her eyes shook intensely at the words. I could feel the smile on my face grow wider. “So you aren’t a virgin… Who’d you do it with? Did you sell your body to one of the guys? Or, did they force you to do it? Just nod if that’s the case, and I’ll gladly take revenge on your behalf!”

Unfortunately, all she did was struggle against the ropes even more intensely. Ah, the screams coming through the rope are even more lovely.

But this can get better. “So, was it Coal? Or maybe Flint? Or… Dark?” Hah, just by going through their names and seeing which she had the biggest reaction to, it would be easy to figure out which of them it was.

In the end, it wasn’t any of the guys in the group, but I just continued going through the names of guys that I remembered. Unfortunately, even after I’d gone through all of those, she didn’t give me the specific reaction I’d wanted.

Suddenly feeling a wet sensation on my hand, I looked away from her face and towards her lower region. Blood, flowing from the cuts on her stomach, had reached my hand. Moving it away, an idea quickly popped into my head.

“Oh dear…” I raised the bloody hand to cover my mouth. “To imagine that you’d be on your period right now… Well, at least that means you aren’t pregnant, Dust.”

Hahaha, the various emotions that flashed across her face were enjoyable to watch. So many that I couldn’t figure out which was which, except for the obvious anger. But that’s enough, I guess.

“Well, fun time is over now.” I put away the dagger and began casting Steal Yin. “You should be glad though, Dust. You have low aptitude and never would’ve become a good Sorceress. But don’t worry, I’ll let you fulfill that dream. Although you’ll be gone, your energy will help me become the strongest ever!”

Following the initial seal, I placed my bloody right hand on her bare chest. Ah, I couldn’t help but give her breast a squeeze, and I could feel her quiver with the pain. I did it to make it painful, after all.

And finally, once the spell finished…

An intense current of yin energy far unlike anything I’ve ever felt from the previous girls rushed through my body. My control over the spell began to collapse, but all I could feel was the pleasure that made me audibly moan out loud.

Shadow, stay in control! Shade’s voice brought me back in time to continue the hand seals and reign in my essence, but it’s truly hard to resist the sensual feelings ringing through my entire body. I’ve never felt it obviously, but I wonder if this is what orgasming is like?

When the stream of energy finally ended, I collapsed to the floor, quivering. I don’t feel happy, just empty- I want more of that feeling, more of that energy, more of that euphoria! It’s like a holy light in this dark, cold, and ruthless world…

…

I don’t know how long it took me to finally get back up, but when I did, the first thing I did was to check my essence core. Having seen the same lake within it every time, I immediately noticed that something was different. It wasn’t much, but… My core was holding 48% essence.

Shade! My aptitude went up by 1%! Although it was just a single percent, it was practically a miracle. This meant that unless it grew less efficient the higher I went, I would be able to reach the legendary 100% aptitude by taking the yin of around fifty more Sorceress! It was actually possible!

This is truly good news. Shade was similarly excited, or at least, what I recognized as excitement. That was more because it was showing itself within my ‘shadow that’s not actually my shadow’, though. I also noticed that its violet eyes were deeper, the same with its dark color.

My eyes narrowed. “What’s going on? Explain yourself, Shade.”

It’s nothing special. Annoyingly, Shade just shook its head. Each time you use that spell, you absorb the vital yin while I take all of the harmful malevolent yin.

“No,” I immediately refuted its words. “That makes no sense. Steal Yin is being cast by me- the yin is being absorbed by me. All this ‘you’ and ‘I’ and stuff, you’re obviously not me. How about I cast Steal Yin on you, and we find out what happens, huh?”

Hah, Shade was finally silent for once. But this time, it better explain itself, or else I’ll never trust its words again.

You’re too smart, Shadow. I may have lied about some of that, but I truly was born due to the suffering you went through. Its shadowy hands spread out in a typical explanatory motion. I am the manifestation of another yin-type Law.

“And, what Law would that be?” I asked the question, but then shook my head. “Never mind. Since there’s Holy Law, I can probably guess. The Law you’re made of is called Devil Law, right?”

Tch, precisely. It’s satisfying to finally get one up on this annoying thing.

Shadow, you’ve already felt the satisfaction of getting revenge, haven’t you? I can’t understand why people pretend to be good when they’re truly dark and evil below. Why not just show it for everyone to see, that way you can act as you please?

“And what, you want me to do that?” I shook my head immediately. Although I enjoyed getting my revenge, it was… That… madness, it scares me. “I only want to make up for my low aptitude and get revenge on the world, not massacre people! I can’t agree with you.”

You say that, but haven’t you already killed dozens? You yourself admitted that being killed by you was an honor for them. You’re just being a hypocrite; a typical Orthodox Path member, hah.

Even though I know it’s trying to rile me up, I can’t help but get mad. But more than that… “Trying to convince me, maybe you should be using your head instead. You weren’t born due to my suffering. You’re calling yourself my inner devil, but you’re just a Devil yourself, aren’t you? Only a member of the Demonic Path would call an Orthodox person a hypocrite, after all.”

Both of us fell silent after that. Shade’s probably silent because it had been exposed due to its thoughtless words, and I’m silent because of sudden fear after realizing just how dangerous this thing that’s been helping me actually is.

But I need to keep provoking it, to not give it time to scheme further. “So, you have nothing to say now that you’ve been caught? Hah, I can always go to the city lord’s mansion and expose that you’ve attached yourself to me. My crimes won’t mean anything so long as I say that you were controlling my body at night! And as for you-”

Without me, even if your aptitude grows greatly, you’ll eventually be caught. You’re too stupid. To my annoyance, Shade cut me off and made a very good point. And then, it added an even heavier blow on top. And if you get caught, or if you aren’t strong enough, how will you acquire the love of that boy, Flare?

My body and thoughts both ground to a halt as I imagined Flare being with another girl, and maybe even marrying her in the future. …I was undoubtedly in love with the fiery-haired boy, the only one who always treats me nicely, like an actual person.

The only one who ever stood against the abuse of that- of my father.

As expected of someone so brilliant, he was revealed to be an A-Grade talent with an aptitude of 97% during the aptitude ceremony. The gulf between us was too wide, and I haven’t seen him even a single time since he was accepted into the city lord’s mansion for specialized training.

Even though I’m in love, there’s no doubt- No. I admit that I felt inferior. So much so that I didn’t even dare to think about him in the last five months.

So, having finally gotten hope of being with Flare in the future, I wasn’t going to let it slip away. “What can you offer in return, then? Saying you’ll grant me strength isn’t good enough.”

While Steal Yin is definitely a fate-changing existence, neither of us know enough about it. Will the aptitude increase get lower the more you use it? Are there any side effects? And so on. Shade was smiling- I wanted to punch its face, but all I’d do is hit the ground and hurt my fist.

It continued without care while I took deep breaths to calm myself. In other words, Steal Yin is too unknown, and thus too inconsistent. But there’s a very consistent way to become strong.

So, Shadow. What do you say about becoming a Devil like me?

“...Tell me more.”