{You have claimed a Rank A Demon Core. Prepare for demonic system reconfiguration.}

Wheezing on the top of the stone steps just behind the altar, Zoe dizzily stared up at the bloody gash in reality hanging just overhead. Nothing happened immediately, and through the haze of pain and anger she began to worry that she needed to do something more, or that it wasn’t going to work.

And then the demon core shuddered before streaking through the air straight for her chest.

It burned a blackened hole straight through her bloody hospital gown before burrowing into her flesh. Her skin melted and then reformed around it, leaving nothing but unblemished pale flesh. It didn’t even hurt in the slightest.

She coughed.

And then her everything erupted in the worst pain she had ever experienced.

It felt like she was being burned alive from the inside out. Her heart pumped molten fire instead of blood, a pulsating inferno spreading through her body through her arteries and veins. It reached her brain — and when it did, it felt like pins and needles prickling against every inch of her skull. She thrashed about, heedless of the fresh stab wound in her gut.

She screamed.

Crimson flames erupted along Zoe’s skin, burning away the remainder of her torn and bloodied clothing. Her skin literally charred and sloughed off, before reforming. The new skin melted too — it was like she were a flaming marshmallow that kept getting the crust peeled off.

She couldn’t see anything other than red, and then she couldn’t even see that. Her eyes dried up.

And then the flames stopped. Shivering, she blinked open her tear stained eyes — just in time to read the appearing system notification.

{Your race has been changed from Human to Lesser Demon of Wrath.}

{You may now absorb demonic mana. Absorb 600 demonic mana?}

Wheezing, Zoe lay for a few moments, staring at the chamber ceiling. She reread the system notifications several times. First — she was no longer human. That was kind of alarming, but also probably to be expected. But what exactly did being a demon entail? What did it mean that she was apparently now a lesser demon? And of wrath?

Also important was the message about mana. At first, she was tempted to immediately say yes — but then she realized that there was no more pain. Not from the fire — and not from the wound in her gut. Had the process of becoming a demon healed her?

She was just about to reach down to her now bare stomach when she realized she had forgotten about something very important in the aftermath of the immense pain.

This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

“What have you done?!“

The cultist chieftain loomed over her, his hood thrown back, revealing his surprisingly handsome face. Deep green eyes bore down into her, and though his dark hair was wild and untamed, it was almost stylishly so and he was immaculately clean shaven.

But his handsome features were nevertheless twisted into a vile look of hatred and disgust. His trembling hands rose of their own accord, and Zoe braced for some kind of spell or incantation. But no — it seemed that he was just shocked and stunned.

“Do you have any idea what you have done?”

Zoe gulped. “I —”

“Silence!” The cultist roared, standing up to his full height and pointing down at her. “I will not permit you to steal the fruits of my labor.” He shook his head, his lips pulling back into a sneer. “So much potential wasted — but perhaps I can still salvage some yet.”

Getting an idea of where he was going with this, Zoe flicked her eyes around to assess the situation. Unfortunately, she couldn’t actually see much from her current position. She looked back just in time to see the chieftain’s staff swing towards her face.

Rolling to the side, she narrowly dodged, and the staff impacted right beside her ear with a thunderous crack. Flakes of chipped stone blasted against her exposed skin. Holy fuck. He wasn’t just a powerful spellcaster —he was strong.

Remembering the prior system prompt, Zoe hastily brought it up.

{Absorb 600 demonic mana?}

Yes!

{You have absorbed 600 demonic mana.}

{Warning! Your mana has exceeded its maximum capacity by 5,900 percent!}

{Warning! Extreme physical damage may result!}

Once again Zoe’s body erupted in fire.

Her veins actually glowed through her skin with a fiery light, and steam began to rise from her skin. She was so distracted by the excruciating pain that she failed to dodge the next strike from the cultist chieftain.

The blow knocked her into the air, sending her careening down the pyramid. Through the searing pain inside and the blow to her ribcage, she couldn’t manage to adjust her fall, and she crumpled into a heap.

Something snapped, and then she couldn’t feel her legs.

Blinking through the tears, Zoe managed to see the blurry form of the cultist chieftain approaching. He lazily strode down the stairs towards her, staff raised. She clenched her jaw, or at least she tried to. As he approached, she honed in on his staff.

He wasn’t even using his magic. He considered her so far beneath him that he didn’t even need to use a fraction of his true strength to crush her like this.

The thought filled Zoe with a sudden rage, burning nearly as bright as the mana rampaging through her body, eating it from the inside out like the hungry flame that it was. How dare he treat her this way? She had done nothing to deserve this. Even if she had ruined whatever plans he had, she had only done it to survive — to survive him and his murderous cult.

As the chieftain neared, sweeping his staff back to deliver what would likely be a final blow, Zoe channeled all of her anger into one last act of defiance.

The mana within her was rampaging completely wild, destroying everything in its path and bleeding away at the same time. But there was so much power there — more power than she had ever conceived of her own body possessing.

She tried to redirect it into her arms. Most of it refused — but she was still able to divert a fraction of the torrential currents into infusing her muscles. As she did so, she also activated her ability {Kinetic Manipulation}, targeting her arms to provide even more force.

The cultist chieftain swung.

Zoe caught the staff.

Her arms creaked and groaned, and she felt something crack. But despite the man’s immense strength, she held. Through gritted teeth, she spat blood. “Fuck,” she wheezed, “you.”

{Lesser Demon of Wrath racial perk activated: Last Defiance!}

{All odds are against you, and the battle is nearly lost — yet your anger carries you on.}