At that moment where all of her carefully assembled accomplishments fell to pieces, Lady Iellaya felt fear. A hopeless fear like she hadn’t known since the first days when she learned how powerless she truly was from the Nexus, when she struggled to gather enough energy to survive. As one who grew up while her world was enduring the last of the Third Calamity, every day was a struggle.

Every dawn was another success. And it came at the cost of another sacrifice.

Just for her to be born, Lady Iellaya’s parents had to give up everything they had managed to gather in their lifetimes. The tribe that they had led for decades was sacrificed to give Lady Iellaya the strength to grow. And those villagers had given up their lives and energy willingly, all to create a future for one of their own.

A future where they were no longer weak. Because there was no greater sin than being weak.

Lady Iellaya would not forget that lesson. And it was also the reason that she eventually discovered how to consume the potential of her subordinates. That would always be her role, to rise to the top so that she could bring glory to the people who had been sacrificed for her to reach these heights. And yet now, against all odds, she was reduced to nothing but an empty husk, all of her assembled power somehow… undone by the act of Randidly Ghosthound.

Randidly… Ghosthound… Impotent rage whirled in her heart, kept tightly under lock and key.

She might have not missed it before, but how could she miss the terrible image that he possessed now, as it ripped all of her carefully managed accomplishments asunder? The mental shape the key took was extremely abstract, one of deconstruction and ownership. The subtle cover of an unadorned key that hid a power that was entirely unsubtle in its simplicity and brutality. A key designed to subvert the System.

Up to the point, as she saw him working to remake her Class, Lady Iellaya had assumed that this young man was just extraordinarily talented with runes. With that weapon, he had endured without a body and had slowly gathered strength. And by watching him prepare, her thoughts were confirmed; he certainly had a great deal of experience Engraving.

Plus, the fact that he had been able to work with Nether had opened Lady Iellaya’s eyes and given her a detail that she could hold onto tightly. This was the reason that he was able to accomplish so much, even as an image. He also had familiarity working with Nether. Which should be impossible. And yet, here it was. It was also obvious that it was a critical component in the work he was doing on her Class.

But that wasn’t the main thing. There was also that heavy image and the key. That key that filled Lady Iellaya with helplessness. Because as he wielded it, Randidly Ghosthound became inscrutable. This wasn’t about skill with Engraving or understanding Nether. This was an otherness that Lady Iellaya couldn’t understand. What sort of image was this? How could he so casually unmake everything she had struggled to create?

It took her assistance, yes, but everything had been unmade in a second.

But Lady Iellaya mastered that bubbling fear, stuffing it into the hidden corners of her heart. She kept her chin high and endured the feeling of helplessness without complaint. She would endure. All the while, she kept her attention away from the furious activity that was occurring within her being. It felt… exceedingly strange. And honestly, the speed with which she could feel things changing within herself was disturbing. Almost like she was going through the System version of puberty, where the body was being flooded with new hormones faster than she could cope with the changes.

All this is supposed to equate to a lifetime of work on my part…? Lady Iellaya wondered.

Then notifications began to pop up in front of Lady Iellaya in swift succession.

Congratulations! Errors have normalized.

Congratulations! You have gained the Class Cult of the Raven-Winged Darkness! +7 Stats distributed between Agility, Reaction, Wisdom, and Willpower! +14 Free Stats! +25 Health, +35 Mana, +20 Stamina. Error, Skills already present! You have gained the Skill Descent of the Raven God (L) Lvl 1!

Congratulations! You have gained the Fate “The Cold Beak of the Blood Drinker Lvl 1”!

Some of the pressure within Lady Iellaya’s chest immediately eased as things began to settle once more. Her Class surged forward, steadily growing up from nothing, then past Level 50, then it continued further toward 99. Even now, Lady Iellaya could feel that Randidly was using the same sort of materials she had used before to create the substance and images of her Class, but she could also clearly feel a difference. There was… something-

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The potential! Lady Iellaya’s eyes flashed. That must be what this is.

Now the potential she had taken from others was inexorably being woven through the fabric of who she was. At the bottom it was subtle, but as the Class grew, it became increasingly dominant. The cold energy of it was unfamiliar but somehow reassuring. It was part of her Class, it was part of her Fate. And somehow, its presence made a marked difference.

Descent of the Raven God, huh… Lady Iellaya forced her jaw to unclench and looked at this new addition from her changed Class. I’ll need to experiment with it to see if it is worth improving. But just from the fact that it is a new Legendary Skill…

Then Lady Iellaya froze up again as she felt her Class reach its apex, the 99th Level. There was a moment of hesitation where she worried that Randidly Ghosthound was stumped by what to do, but then she felt that same deft touch moving within her.

But what shocked Lady Iellaya was how she felt her Great Path change. Originally, she had taken the Great Path ‘Raven who Wore a Cloak of Blood’. As far as Lady Iellaya was concerned, it was a Path that did a good job of encapsulating who she was. She was the Raven Winged Vanguard that had to sacrifice countless lives to get to this level of strength.

How often had Lady Iellaya been forced to swim through rivers of blood and fear in order to grow and survive? And because she always knew that fear that stunk like coppery blood was lapping at her heels, she never dared slow down in her quest for power. She thrust herself forward, finding more and more individuals with potential to plunder. She couldn’t hesitate, or everything she had worked for to get here would become lost.

She would be drowned in it. She would be consumed by all the things that followed her. The things that had followed her for years, waiting for an opportunity just like-

A tremor ran through Lady Iellaya’s body. Her hands instinctively came to her chest, as though to rip the foreign image that was currently remaking her System presences, but her fingers just pressed helplessly against the steel front of her armor. Her feathers flexed and her back arched as the feeling intensified. Everything was finally coming to an end, and it felt so-

But then the potential that had been woven through her Class surged upward. It seemed to liberate her from the hesitation, bringing her to an emotional completion that Lady Iellaya hadn’t known she needed.

Congratulations! You have completed the Great Path “Ritual of the Final Darkness”! You have reached Level 100!

Due to your accomplishments, you have obtained a Great Fate! You have obtained the Great Fate “Avatar of Apep, the Peregrine Serpent Lvl 1”!

All at once, Lady Iellaya collapsed, breathing heavily. That strange presence in her chest withdrew lightly as if it was never there. And her first response was to feel a flash of rage that this man had seen her while she was so weak. That he had held her at his mercy. Even though Lady Iellaya knew it was for her own benefit, she felt such a horrible need to erase proof of that part of herself.

Yet Lady Iellaya mastered that childish impulse. Resting on her hands and knees, she took the time to slowly breathe and calm herself. Once she had full control of her body once more, Lady Iellaya turned her focus inward. The name Apep was unfamiliar, but as for the rest of her Great Fate...

And there she found a pure darkness, unlike anything she had ever known. A darkness that was so complete and hungry that it would slowly consume the sun until the daytime hours were hollowed out and dim. In its wake, the night would rule for eternity, covering every aspect of existence.

And in that darkness she found power.

“Hahah….haha… hahahahahahahahah…!” Lady Iellaya began to laugh, almost uncontrollably. Although she still felt extraordinarily strange inside of this remade body, she could feel the weight of what she had gained from this process. She could feel all of the potential from her subordinates, part of every move she made.

In comparison to the influence she exerted with her image before, Lady Iellaya now felt like a giant. Compared to her, everything was small. Suddenly, all of the control that Lady Iellaya had regained disappeared. Her hand was trembling as she held up a hand and darkness pulsed from her pointer finger. The air around it shook.

Still trembling, Lady Iellaya dropped her hand and pressed that finger of darkness into the ground. It instantly began to corrode, with thin veins of darkness slithering outward from the point where Lady Iellaya touched. Within a few seconds, the ground in the surrounding area began to disintegrate into nothing. The darkness devoured it. And it was still hungry.

It was the beautiful thing Lady Iellaya had ever seen. She raised her finger and looked at the darkness pulsing there in wonder.

“...satisfied?”

Lady Iellaya looked up sharply. Then she straightened and brushed herself off while she cursed herself for forgetting that Randidly Ghosthound was still there. At least he had the decency to look thoroughly exhausted, standing arms akimbo and panting.

“Yes, thank you.” Lady Iellaya favored him with a little bow. Then she turned and looked upward. “However… perhaps its time we part ways? I wish to test the changes to myself. And there is no better way than this mountain ahead of us.”

Randidly just nodded, watching her go with a curiously blank expression.

Still, Lady Iellaya couldn’t be bothered with his expression. As she felt the tantalizing darkness within her, all she felt was excitement. With a rapidly beating heart, she rushed upward toward the hill.