Taking a step I began going down the stairs. I wonder how deep this dungeon goes, maybe to the hundredth floor? It doesn’t really matter anyway. I don’t plan to finish it in this run. I mean, if I do finish it that's fine and well, but if I don’t it's not a problem either.

I had those thoughts as I stepped out the stairs into the new floor. However something odd happened. I began feeling weird. A tightness in my chest that made breathing difficult not to mention muscle pain.

“What is going on?”

I said wondering out loud. Then I felt a liquid on my upper lip that slipped into my mouth filling it with a ferrous taste. Wiping it away I noticed its red colouring. Not soon after the tightness in my chest changed into pain as I fell to the ground. Trying to lift myself felt my tendons snapping as my muscles tore themselves.

The pain was steadily growing. I could feel drops of liquid flowing out of my eyes, ears and nose. Suddenly I began coughing uncontrollably as black blood poured out of my mouth. I could understand what was going on. Until now I had been alright. Poison was nothing to me and curses were a similar case. I couldn’t comprehend what was attacking me.

My vision began blurring as my mind became hazy. Breathing was impossible now that my lungs have collapsed. I couldn’t feel the beating of my heart either meaning it probably has stopped working as well. Then nothing, I just lost consciousness.

Waking up I couldn’t help but realize I had been here once before. It’s the place where that green crystal like thing is being surrounded by all other blue ones and the red one. Looking up I could see all of them floating in the black void. However there is something different now. A purplish-black mist is flowing around them and being absorbed by the red crystal.

Suddenly, the red crystal shone brightly as a red haze sipped out of it. Said haze flowed until it was in front of me shifting and moving. Then it formed into a humanoid shape around three meters tall. A red and black full-body plate-armour was revealed. Its aesthetic looked aggressive with spikes and sharp edges as well as a pair of horns adorning the helmet.

“It seems that this time you have bitten more than you could chew”

It spoke with a horridly deep voice. Like nails against a black-board it’s voice was incredibly discomfortable. By instinct I held my fists up preparing for battle. However, in that moment the thing laughter boomed through the place.

“Don’t be foolish, this is your soul realm. There is no use fighting in here. Not to mention I am a part of you. There is no meaning in fighting”

“A part of me?”

“Yes. To be precise, I am or rather was the devil of wrath. As I tried to take over you instead you absorbed me. It was an unexpected mistake on my part. Who could have guessed your soul would be in such an odd state. Not to mention the fragment of a primordial god”

So this is the so-called devil of wrath. To tell the truth, it does have an intimidating appearance. However, I thought it would be an unintelligible monster that is always angry while killing everything on its path. Go figures.

“I see. So, what do you mean I bit more than I could chew?”

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“You are a human like it or not. As such your body isn’t apt to contain and use miasma. The only reason you have been able to do so far is because I have been processing it for you. However, the amount that I can process while being just a part of you is limited. Thus the concentration here has exceeded that amount”

“What will happen to me then? will I just die?”

This is bad, really bad. Had I known about this before I wouldn’t have gotten so cocky. I thought no matter what I would be fine down here. Now I get a real check and discover that is not the case.

“You won’t die. With how your soul is composed and the fragment of the god you are dying is close to impossible. However, I can tell you this. Your body will mutate. I don’t know how it will do so. After all, the first time it did you got a core. Now, you may grow fur or scales, who knows”

“Fuck. Is there anything I can do?”

“Not really. However, a piece of advice. As you can see your soul is composed of many fragments of others. If you wish to properly make this soul whole then you will need to find a way to fuse all these fragments together, my own included”

After that the figure began to disintegrate back into a red haze. As it did, the purple mist that flew in between my soul fragments soaked into a few blue fragments turning them a deep, dark purple.

“Seems like it also managed to affect a few fragments. Anyway, this much shouldn’t affect you too much. With that said, it’s time for me to go back to sleep”

At that moment everything turned black again. When I woke up I was in a pool of dried black blood, presumably my own. My head was pounding as if someone was constantly hitting it with a hammer. My bones, muscles, tendons and everything else hurt. Even my skin felt as if all of it had been sunburnt.

With a groan I stood up and took Naru out of her sheath. Using her blade as a mirror I began inspecting myself. The first thing that caught my attention were my eyes. My pupils had changed from the normal round shape into a vertical slit like those of reptiles.

Aside from that weird marks-like black tattoos adorned my skin. They reminded me of those tribal tattoos some athletes would get. Through them I could feel a sinister flow of mana, no, to be more precise it was miasma that flowed through them.

Concentrating on them I could activate them. However, doing so brought me a terrible feeling of hatred and despair. I felt as if the world itself was against me. I also noticed that when I did a purplish flame would radiate from the tattoos. Last but not least my teeth had become pointier and sharper while my canines extended a little.

“What the hell have I become?”

I couldn’t help but mutter under my breath. I could instinctively tell that my body was way tougher than before. Not to mention the indescribable feeling of power that flowed through my veins and the tattoos.

“Leaving that aside, I hope this things won’t look like this all the time”

If the tattoos were visible all the time that might bring me trouble. After all I can hide most of them with clothes but the ones on my face are another matter. The eyes can be dealt with simply by using contact lenses, if they exist in this world. The teeth are the least conspicuous thing so I am not worried about that.

“Hey you two, any idea on how to deal with this?”

“We could do the same we did with your left arm”

“And become a mummy? thank you but I will pass”

Parkas proposition was rather dumb. It would be the same if not more weird being covered from head to toe in red bandages as having these tattoos for everyone to see. What did I expect anyway. The two are swords, I doubt they will have any good idea about this.

“Forget it”

With that said I began climbing the stairs back up. After what happened here, I don’t feel like risking going any deeper and mutating further. Wrath did say that I should find a way to fuse my soul fragments together so I should concentrate on that. I also made a mental note to not dive too far down into a dungeon the next time I decide to go to one.

The hike back up was rather simple. Just like the way down, kill monsters and advance. Thankfully, since I was ascending instead of descending I didn’t have to fight bosses. Not to mention that to a certain extent I had memorised the way down so to go up I just had to follow it in reverse.

After a day I had finally climbed all the way out. The bright sunlight stabbed my eyes as I had become accustomed to the dim or none existent lighting of the dungeon. Holding my hand in front of my face to shield my poor eyes from the relentless sun I discovered something. The tattoos on my hand had become faded. I could still see them, however, unlike their black colour from before they merely resembled a light tan.

With a sigh of relief I began walking after my eyes had accustomed to the brightness of the midday sun. However, relief didn’t last long. As I walked past an armored man I discovered that my eyes had permanently changed colour. By using his armor like a mirror I saw that my eyes were no longer chocolate brown but instead a dark red akin to red wine.

This was a shock I didn’t expect but not a real problem. If anyone asked about it I could just say that they were always this colour or blame the lighting of the room. That being said, this little event reminded me of the change in my pupils. Doing my best to hide them by looking downwards I walked towards the commercial district. If I get lucky I might find some contacts. If not, I will need to make a personal other. What a pain.