Creation’s hammer twirled in his hand, he dispelled the mana shield around Sofia and called out to her.
Alright lassy, get naked, it’s your turn on the chopping block.
“E- Excuse me?”
Clint raised an eyebrow at Sofia’s confusion, What? I’m about to make you a new body, you think I can do that through your clothes? The only reason skelly-boy didn’t have to take his clothes off is because he didn’t have any to begin with.
“I… Does everyone have to do that?”
Yeah. Clint answered with a shrug. Most people who can reach this level aren’t really that prude, you know. No one in your whole group had any issues with it.
Seeing that Sofia was still hesitant, Clint rolled his eyes, and his appearance changed. I can do that, if that helps. He said with a more feminine voice, his beard gone and his appearance now changed to that of a big muscular woman wearing the same clothes.
“...” Sofia exhaled. “I don’t know if that makes it any better. Well… I need to keep a glove on, and I can’t let go of Anna’s dagger. Is that fine?”
The dagger is fine but the glove and any ring or such all have to go. You can just keep it in your hand if you must but you can’t be wearing anything that’ll hinder my work.
“Alright… What about my left eye, it’s actually a storage item, will it cause issues?” Sofia asked.
That’s part of your blueprint already so nothing to worry about. Old lich does some great work.
Sofia gave her storage ring and her armguard to Pareth, and she stored the rest of her things including her clothes in her eye, then she flew to the center of the spherical chamber.
No need to be so embarrassed, really. We Gods get none of your reproductive urges… Well, except for a certain solar freak… Anyway, we’re going to go in steps here, there’s too much going on with you so I can’t do it all in one go.
Sofia nodded, she had a hard time looking at female Clint in the eyes.
I’ll be getting your mana heart about fifty percent of the way there, then I’ll pull all the mana I can, Kyle is already up there to make sure this goes well. This is where your Scribe’ll have to work fast to do its thing while I work on your race evolution. When that’s done, I’m teleporting us as far away from the planet as I can and finishing up with your heart.
“W- Wait, teleporting away?”
Yes. We can’t have you level up here. We might actually kill people with the mana wave from the fusion.
“Alright then… I’m ready.”
Great. Let’s get started.
Just like Pareth before, Sofia was locked in place by mana restraints, and she felt all of her passive and classless skills losing power one by one.
Clint brought Sofia’s mana heart before her chest, and raised his hammer.
A torrential burst of mana hit Sofia from above, and the hammer of Creation came down, hitting her luminous mana heart. Sofia felt the impact propagate through her body and soul like a wave of power scrambling her insides.
You alright? This was the warm up. This is gonna hurt. Clint warned as his hammer rose.
“I’m fine,” Sofia mumbled in response.
Good.
The hammer came down again, and Sofia’s mind went blank from the pain.
What happened to her was the same thing that had happened to Pareth before, her body was pulverized in billions of fine particles before snapping back into place, and the pain of the deconstruction and reconstruction was excruciating.
The hammer was coming again. Sofia's instincts were to avoid it by any means necessary, her body acted on its own to try to find a way out, but she now understood why there were mana restraints to keep her firmly in place. She couldn’t move in the slightest.
Her consciousness slipped every time Creation brought down the hammer.
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Every time she came to, she felt that her body was slightly different, until the entirety of her thoughts were captured by the terrifying hammer again.
After what felt like an eternity, the hammer stopped.
Clint looked tired, beads of sweat rolling down his still female face, he took a second to compose himself. There we have it. Race evolution complete.
The God’s words shook Sofia out of her torpor. “Wait… Really? But the… My Scribe absorbing the mana?”
Yeah, that’s done, you were out of it for most of the process, though.
I was?!
You woke up about once every ten hits but that never lasted long. Honestly it’s commendable that you ever woke up at all, most people with an SSS rank heart just never come to until the process is over.
It took a gargantuan amount of effort for Sofia to gather her thoughts into a coherent whole, and a few system windows appeared in front of her.
[Race evolution complete!]
[Please choose a name for your new race]
[Available names:
* Essence Eater
* Primeval Exarch
* Lumian
* Great unhinged luminescent bone calamity of the gods and reality as it stands as well as everything in between]
The last name made Sofia giggle. Her voice was still weak but she had to say something, “Really Clint… So much for giving me a choice. I get it, Lumian is fine.”
Great choice, that was also my pick, Clint answered with a smirk.
“Do I at least still look like myself?”
You tell me.
A large mirror appeared in front of Sofia, allowing her to view her entire body. Her mana heart was still in front of her, glowing fiercely, which made it hard to see too well, but she could see that she was mostly unchanged save for a few key details. First and most shocking, a pair of horns sat on top of her head, they looked like ever burning flames made of light, constrained in the general shape of two hand-length pointy horns. They grew from under her hair, splitting them apart. Her hair was the second thing which had changed, they had become solid strands of golden light much like her mana heart, and they floated unnaturally behind her, as if rustled by a wind that did not exist. Her eyelashes and brows were similar, though with a much fainter glow.
Lastly the final big change were the runes from [Runeforged Overlord] they used to only cover her top half, but they now extended down to her lower body all the way to the tip of her toes.
So?
“The horns are a bit strange,” Sofia commented, uncertain of what she thought about them, she wanted to touch them but she was still restrained. “Beyond that, I don’t mind it. What’s up with the runes, though? Did you upgrade my skill?”
Sofia could feel she had changed but she currently had no real control over her body or her magic, it was hard to tell what was what, she could not even feel her mana.
Clint laughed. No, but these runes do serve a purpose, though you’ll have to discover that by yourself, lassy. Think of it as your race’s hidden passive. Speaking of, let me help your scribe update your racial skills.
A mana pearl quickly took form in Clint’s left hand, and he slowly pushed it into Sofia’s mouth.
Sofia realized then that she could not open her status sheet or interact with the system at all, and new system windows opened by themselves.
[Race: Lumian]
Prerequisite conditions for evolution:
* Human, Exidian, or Demon race
* Carry 10 or more divine essence
* [Venerable physique of the primeval void] last step second realm
* SSS Rank mana heart or above
* Tier 3 Scribe
* Has entered the primeval void at least once
Racial features :
Dead light: Your hair, teeth, nalls and bones are made of tangible solid light. After its permanent death, your entire body becomes a shining light that never fades away.
Mana weave muscular system: Your muscles and tendons are made of tightly interwoven mana threads capable of rapid self-repair as long as you have mana available.
Exhaust: You bear horns of divine light that burn away the superfluous divine energy held within your body.
Hereditary Physique: Offsprings require 10 divine essences and are born as the Lumian’s original race with the [Venerable physique of the primeval void] skill at the first step of the light forging realm. They automatically evolve to a Lumian when the prerequisite conditions are all reunited.
??? : Strange runes cover your lower body. What could they possibly do?
Racial skills :
[Edgewalker]: You are immune from slipping out of reality.
[Pillar of creation]: When your Health goes from 30% to 20%, your skin starts to crack, revealing the primordial light hidden within you. In this state, you will rapidly lose the ability to move, but your spellcasting range is multiplied by your remaining percentage of mana (from 0 to 100 times), and you take halved damages from all sources.
Healing back up over 30% will end this state.
[Mockery of the divine]: Your body feeds on the essence of the divine, pîercing the realms through them, and keeping them hostage within the shadow of mana core prisons. By arranging the mana cores within your body in the shape of divine constellations, you can gain a limited hold onto their absolute domain.
Sofia quickly read through the racial traits with a smile on her face, and she raised her eyes to tell Clint what she thought of it, only for her to see a raised hammer. Her mind blanked again.
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