{You have learned Acid Resistance!}
{Pain Resistance has leveled up! Pain Resistance is now level 2.}
Zoe didn’t really care about the new ability or the level up. In fact, she was barely even conscious of the notifications from her system. All she could focus on was chomping down on the soft inner linings of flesh and the hot demonic blood pouring into her mouth.
{+66 Mana}
The flesh around her spasmed, scraping against her flesh painfully. It felt like a rash had erupted all over her skin. Probably the acid.
Fuck this. {Heal Wound}.
The sensation rapidly abated, and so she stopped, focusing once more on devouring the feast of mana before her. This time, she didn’t just break through the inner lining — she bit off a chunk and swallowed.
{+96 Mana}
That was more like it.
{Acid Resistance has leveled up! Acid Resistance is now level 2.}
{+88 Mana}
As she continued devouring the monster from the inside, and as the pain began to abate, Zoe started to become aware of the muted sounds of battle raging around her. Thunderous vibrations resonated through the flesh around her, followed by the sounds of muffled impacts.
The darkness briefly glowed a dull red, and a prickling sensation washed over her. She recognized it as the presence the paladin had exerted before, only much stronger.
He’s still alive.
With renewed vigor, Zoe continued devouring the creature from within. Blood and guts and mana poured inside of her. At a certain point, she thought she should have been physically full to the point of bursting, but she only felt more hunger.
{+93 Mana}
{+50 Mana}
{+17 Mana}
{+118 Mana}
{Acid Resistance has leveled up! Acid Resistance is now level 3.}
{+105 Mana}
By this point, Zoe’s skin was burning again. Despite the levels in {Acid Resistance}, it felt as if she had been sanded down and was now being cooked alive. But it was okay. {Pain Resistance} helped her through it, and why turn down free leveling? It wasn’t nearly to the point of being fatal.
Something stabbed straight through her gut.
It was sharp, hard, and it burned like the sun. It was a million times worse than the acid, sending spikes of rough, sandy irritation lancing up her veins and nerves. The monster around her shuddered, and she shivered.
The blade withdrew suddenly, but the pain remained. It began to spread, eating around the edges of the new hole in her stomach.
{You have been afflicted by a Purifying Strike!}
With tears in her eyes, Zoe did the only thing she could. She kept eating.
The paladin was clearly still alive and kicking — and to make matters worse, Zoe would no longer place her bets on the demonic flesh monster. She needed to plan further ahead than just surviving.
How much mana was there in this thing?
Shutting her eyes, Zoe activated {Mana Sight} while simultaneously using {Heal Wound} to try to stem the damage eating away at her abdomen. Flashes of silver and gold burst across the darkness around her, all coming from a rapidly moving blur of silver and green. Meanwhile, the whole space close to her was entangled in a web of pulsating crimson.
And while it was dense and bright everywhere, it all converged on one spot above her shining like a ruby sun.
The core.
Even as the purification ate away at her insides, Zoe began eating her way up towards the pulsating core. Flesh and blood filled her insides, and with it came more mana — enough to continually activate {Heal Wound}.
Stolen novel; please report.
{You have learned lesser vampirism!}
Suddenly, it became far, far easier. Her teeth cleaved through the knotted muscle with ease. Blood and gore streamed down her throat, and she began practically swimming upwards. As for the mana gains…
{+190 Mana}
{+172 Mana}
{+235 Mana}
And not only that — she realized that she no longer had to use {Heal Wound}. While it was nowhere near as potent, the healing she gained from devouring the monster was enough to slow down the spread of her injury enough that she didn’t need to focus on it.
And then they were weightless. For a few fleeting seconds, Zoe’s body lurched, and she failed to catch onto the next bit of flesh. They landed with a crash, and Zoe realized that the monster must have landed on its back, as she was now moving horizontally towards the core instead of vertically.
Shit. The paladin was probably winning now, which meant she didn’t have much time. But there was still a good amount of meat between her and the core…
Almost frantically, Zoe clawed her way upward. No longer devouring, she kicked and punched, using a combination of {Kinetic Strike} and {Kinetic Manipulation} to pull herself towards her target.
The monster shuddered. A nova of silver and gold mana blasted through both of them, setting Zoe’s abdomen on fire once more.
Zoe’s teeth hit something hard.
Wrapping her hands around the smooth, bowling ball sized object, Zoe bit again and again. Frustrated, she smacked it with her fist. And also over two hundred mana.
It shattered.
The tide of crimson was relentless, blasting back the gold and silver, and Zoe frantically slurped it up. The shards slid down her throat like broken glass, shredding her esophagus, but the wounds healed instantly.
She also used {Mana Manipulation} to try to squeeze in even more, and then it exploded.
Soaring through the air, Zoe saw the light once more. The cavern was in ruins, with shattered rubble everywhere. Alexander was bracing himself below, looking much worse for wear. She landed on the other side with a crunch. For the second time in just a few hours, she couldn’t feel her legs.
It hurt to breathe.
But it hadn’t been for nothing.
{Kinetic Manipulation has leveled up! Kinetic Manipulation is now level 2!}
{Lesser Vampirism has leveled up! Lesser Vampirism is now level 2.}
{Mana Manipulation has leveled up! Mana Manipulation is now level 5.}
{You have gained multiple levels!}
But most importantly…
{+3,204 Mana}
Rolling her head to the side, Zoe watched as the paladin rose to his feet and turned to face her. His armor was battered and dented, much of its luster lost. His cape was nowhere to be found, and he was sporting several fresh scars.
“How the fuck are you still alive?!”
Unfortunately, Zoe didn’t have any effort to spare to answer. She was a bit too preoccupied with bigger problems.
{Warning! Your mana has exceeded its maximum capacity by 4,134 percent!}
{Warning! Extreme physical damage may result!}
While that was actually a lower ratio than when she had first become a demon, the absolute magnitude of the difference was far greater. The mana was actually bleeding off of her in waves, even as it dissolved away her insides.
{Mana: 4,234 / 100}
{Warning! Extreme physical damage!}
{Mana: 4,031 / 100}
{Warning! Extreme physical damage!}
{Warning! Extreme physical damage!}
{Warning! Extreme physical damage!}
{Mana: 3,837}
{Warning! Extreme physical damage!}
Use it or lose it.
As the paladin lumbered towards her, flaming sword raised, Zoe lifted a trembling finger to point at him. As she watched, red and black mana evaporated away from it, peeling back her skin until nothing but a blackened bone remained.
{Pain Resistance has leveled up x3! Pain Resistance is now level 5.}
The paladin began to swing. Zoe activated {Mana Manipulation}.
A beam of three thousand demonic mana struck the warrior right in the chest. His armor flared to life, a golden and silver aura flickering around him before shattering into nothing. Zoe expected him to fly back, but instead, he simply collapsed to his knees before keeling over onto one side.
But he wasn’t dead.
Yet.
Activating both {Cleansing Hellfire} and {Heal Wound}, Zoe checked her remaining mana.
{Mana: 797 / 100}
That should be enough.
Gritting her teeth, Zoe tried to clear her mind through the pain. She didn’t need to heal herself completely, right? After all, she didn’t need her fingers. Not right now, at least.
So instead of the blanket healing she had been using up to this point, Zoe began directing the ability to the most important functions to keep her alive for the next few minutes and to stagger to her feet.
{Heal Wound has leveled up! Heal Wound is now level 3.}
Looking down, she realized she still had a hole in her stomach, although it was no longer sizzling with the purification affliction. Her flesh had charred and sloughed off in more places than it hadn’t — though it was nice that it seemed to have cauterized itself.
Staggering forward, she kicked the paladin onto his back. She immediately regretted it, as one of her toes actually broke off. But then again, if it was at that point it was probably dead and useless anyway.
For his part, Alexander didn’t actually look too bad. But he was clutching his heart with one hand and had a glassy look in his eyes. A large hole was burned through his once ornate chestplate. Underneath, the skin wasn’t so much charred as it was…
Well, it looked like he had a pulsating, sickly black and red tumor oozing under his gnarled flesh.
“It doesn’t—” he coughed. “It doesn’t have to end like this.” His voice was weak and dry. “We don’t have to die together.”
“You tried to kill me.”
“Because you betrayed me.” He blinked and sniffed.
“Betrayal? I caused a distraction that I knew you could handle. And then you tried to cut out my heart.”
“If you let me help you, you can heal both of us.” he coughed again. “I still have plenty of mana left. I can share.”
Taking a knee, Zoe leaned over him and grinned.
She raised her fist.
“So do I.”