Finding something to kill turned out to be surprisingly difficult. As Zoe continued to stumble down the dark corridors, she realized she couldn’t even hear the shrieks and wails of the demons. She couldn’t hear Alexander either — the entire battle had faded into silence.

She definitely didn’t want to backtrack, but that was seeming to be an increasingly necessary option. Unfortunately, she had become completely turned around in the almost maze-like complex of sprawling underground tunnels.

Sighing, Zoe collapsed against the side of the passageway. She didn’t let herself slide down to the floor, though — it was all too likely that she wouldn’t get back up. At least not in time to get out of here.

The darkness was almost complete now. She could just barely make out her own hands — she wasn’t sure she would even be able to reliably guess how many fingers she was holding up.

There was one way she could get more light to see by — her {Cleansing Flames}. Unfortunately, her mana had only ticked back up by a single point. At least that meant that it would regenerate automatically with time.

All of this brought her back to where she had started. She needed mana to actually do anything, and to get mana she needed to kill something. Probably. Or was there another way?

Shutting her eyes, Zoe allowed herself to slide down to the floor. Crossing her legs, she assumed a meditation-like pose. She had never really meditated back on Earth, so she was mostly just going by what she had seen in movies. How hard could it be?

Meditation seemed like a good way to try to boost her mana regeneration. While she wouldn’t bet on it working, it seemed sensible enough to try. At the very least, it couldn’t hurt, and it might calm her down somewhat.

Several minutes passed. Zoe heard nothing but the low rush of blood in her own ears. She saw nothing but the speckles of visual snow, something she had learned wasn’t actually normal for most people only recently. Nothing happened to her mana, but she did feel just a little bit better.

Opening her eyes, Zoe furrowed her brow and straightened her back. Stretching, she tried to think of something else to try.

Her mana ticked up.

Zoe blinked. Was it related to the meditation, or was it just a coincidence of her natural regeneration? That would take more time and experience to test. In any case, she decided to try something a little riskier.

Closing her eyes and assuming a meditative posture once more, Zoe activated {Mana Manipulation}. Nothing happened at first, because she didn’t will for anything to happen. She even did her best to prevent the ability from expelling any of her mana at all.

Carefully, she began probing around with the ability. Was there mana in the air that she could draw in? Was there some sort of process in her own body that she could alter?

The former turned out to be the case. There was a faint — almost imperceptible — tinge of something wafting through the corridor. It was so faint that she would never have noticed it if she weren’t both actively looking and almost completely devoid of all other senses.

It felt like just barely lukewarm water — only a million times fainter. It drifted slowly, winding around her and brushing off against the stones around her.

{Mana Manipulation has leveled up! Mana Manipulation is now level 3.}

While she was immediately pleased, Zoe did her best to ignore the system notification. She focused on the sensation of mana drifting by and attempted to pull it into herself. It resisted — it felt like trying to get a speck of dirt floating in a water glass up and out of the rim.

She kept trying, and even when her mana ticked down to just one point, she remained focused. Finally, she got some of it to slip inside her own body.

{Mana Manipulation has leveled up! Mana Manipulation is now level 4.}

Nothing else happened. Finally breaking her concentration, Zoe cursed under her breath. There had to be a way to use this mana somehow! Biting her lip, she continued using {Mana Manipulation}. Her very last point of mana was now at stake.

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Diving down into her core, Zoe probed around with her newly leveled ability. Frowning, she thought back to the demon core from the ritual. It was a physical object, and it had struck her chest. Should she look for it there?

Recalling the excruciating sensations from her change from a human to a demon, she probed for it in her chest. Her ability brushed against it. She suddenly realized that there was a whole web strung throughout her form. It was faint, dark, practically unlit. It was knotted, and at the center it converged into a tangled up mess.

A single tiny spark glimmered within.

Mana.

Almost frantically, she grabbed the little bit of mana she had brought inside and shoved it into the ball of yarn that was her core. For a terrifying moment, the spark flickered. And then the rest of the mana burst into flames, engulfing her core like kindling in a campfire.

{+1 Mana.}

That was it?

Zoe opened her eyes and huffed. That was a lot of work for just one measly point of mana.

{You have learned Meditation!}

{You have learned Introspection!}

Zoe blinked. Those were actual system abilities? The latter especially seemed quite silly. But perhaps it had more significance here than it did on Earth.

Feeling around the air again, Zoe felt for more mana. It was definitely going somewhere. Should she follow it? And if she did, should she go upstream or downstream? She stood up. Shrugging, she decided to go with the flow. Having some sort of path to follow didn’t seem like a bad idea, even if she didn’t know where it would lead.

It took quite a bit of fumbling around in the darkness, making walking rather inconvenient. Even despite the levels in {Mana Manipulation} and the new skills she had gained, it was still an extremely faint sensation.

Zoe continued for several minutes. After several bends and forks in the tunnel system, she was rewarded for her painstaking efforts.

{You have learned Manasight!}

The world instantly lit up in color. It wasn’t very bright, really, but it felt intensely vivid after being in the gray darkness for what felt like so long. The stone on either side was an extremely dull, faint brown. The stream she was following was a dark crimson. It was actually the same color as her own body was suffused with. However, her body also had streamers of shimmering gold, and on the fringes of her vision, she had a bit of dark, deep purple. When she flicked her gaze around, it stayed on the periphery at all times, lingering around her like a faint, barely perceptible afterglow.

She suspected that the crimson was demonic, or corrupted mana, and that the brown was earth or stone or something like that. As for the gold and the purple, she had no idea. Something to investigate, no doubt.

In any case, the new ability made navigating the tunnel system far, far easier, and she was able to pick up the pace again.

After just several minutes, the stream of crimson mana noticeably picked up speed but also began thinning out. There was also a weird haze around everything — like there was a translucent layer over everything she was seeing.

As it grew stronger, eventually overpowering her {Manasight}, she realized that it was light.

She began to run. It hurt. The pain was getting worse — it was duller, less sharp, but something was clearly injured in her muscles, predominantly in her legs. But Zoe didn’t care. Light meant a way out.

The light became blinding, and then she stepped out of the tunnel and into the open.

The assembly of cultists tensed. Several of them raised weapons. Zoe gulped. The blindingly bright light wasn’t the light of the sun. It was the light of massive, industrial looking lights angled down from the roof of the wide chamber.

The crimson mana was streaming into three different ritual formations spread in an arc around the chamber, each manned by several black robed figures. At the far end — really only a few dozen yards away, but it felt like an infinity — was a stone staircase leading upward.

Zoe tried her best not to panic. They hadn’t attacked yet, and she didn’t want to turn her back. Could she outrun them in this state? And wouldn’t running back trap her deeper in the complex?

One of the cultists spoke, interrupting her racing thoughts.

“It’s a demon.”

The cultists all shuffled. Another one stepped forward slightly, peering at her inquisitively. “Are you sure? It looks far too human to be one of Basil’s experiments.”

Zoe bit her lip. Basil? Was that the name of the cultist chieftain? Her mind went back into overdrive. They didn’t seem like they were set on attacking. Was there any way she could leverage her position?

A sudden, reckless thought came to her. She should have dismissed it immediately, but instead, a smile quirked at her lips. “Ready your weapons,” she drawled, putting everything she had into channeling smooth confidence and superiority. “There is a paladin coming.”

Many of the cultists started. “A paladin? Of Lux?”

The first man spoke again. “Who are you, and how do you know this?”

Zoe rolled her eyes scornfully and strode forward. “Our guest was so rude as to interrupt my ascension. Do see that he pays dearly.”

The cultist blinked. “What?”

“I’m Basil, you dimwit. That fucker nearly screwed up my entire ascension. My new form is… shall we say, better suited to the domain of a demon of lust.”

Zoe had to restrain herself from breaking down as she said that. It was all so stupid, so ridiculous, but it was the best thing she could think of.

A tremor rocked the chamber. Earth rumbled, and dust shook down from the ceiling. Whirling around, Zoe caught sight of none other than Alexander rising up from a kneeling position in a small crater at the entrance she had just come from.

“Well well well, what do we have here?” He strode forward, once again exuding his air of casual confidence. It all shattered when he saw Zoe. “Wait, what are you —”

“Don’t just stare, you fools, attack him!”

Before the paladin could even finish his sentence, the chamber erupted into chaos.