Rieren took a deep breath, one that didn’t settle in her whatever was going on in her transformed lungs. It just hung there. Her body didn’t exhale it out naturally. She had to actually focus before her lings obeyed and pushed out the air.

It was going to take some time to acclimatize to the fact that she no longer had to breathe.

Pain throbbed all over her body again, within and without, centred on her heart. They didn’t call it a heart demon for nothing. She looked around. A way out. That’s what she needed to find. Fast.

So, Rieren shook off as much of the monster’s blood clinging to her as she could and began climbing back through the hole her captor had dug. She knew the situation would be strange when she reappeared. But it didn’t matter.

Monster or not, in the end, it was still Rieren.

That reiteration of her surety did nothing to calm her heart demon. The agony still bled bright and hot.

But Rieren had come to a pause. Several realizations were settling in on her one after another, forcing her mind to halt as much as her body.

For one, the tunnel was blocked. There was a landslide sealing up the hole the Fellserpent had dug barely two hundred paces from where she had left the monster’s corpse behind. The surface was still distant, however. Rieren was certain she would have heard the battle raging on top if it was closer. That blockage would be impossible to dig through. Unless one was a Fellserpent, of course.

That didn’t mean her path forward was completely obstructed. There was another passage, not far from the point where she had met her obstacle. It was thinner, looking more like it had broken open on its own thanks to the shifting of the earth caused by the monster’s passage.

It was difficult to conclude what exactly had caused the first blockage, but that wasn’t the other thing that had made Rieren pause.

She had realized just then that she was taking it all in stride a little too casually.

Rieren swallowed, though the feeling of alarm was dull. Simply being swallowed by a Fellserpent had seemingly converted her to being perfectly alright with corrupted Essence running rampant through her elixir field and her meridians with such ease. She hadn’t even thought twice about her current looks.

Her looks…

Her identity. That was what heart demons normally arose from. A spirit-deep clash in one’s estimation of oneself, an integral difference that had to be resolved, one way or another. Thankfully, she might have found a simple way to fix it.

Rieren summoned her Domain. There was no light to see much with, but all she had to do was summon some lightning, letting it flicker continuously along the pool around her feet.

She stared down. The water wasn’t normal. It was dark, sort of like oil, just with all the reflectiveness and none of the multihued shimmer. Of course. Even her Domain had been corrupted by her new Essence.

Nevertheless, it more than sufficed to show what Rieren had now become.

Rieren couldn’t take her eyes away from the reflection. There was no telling if it was her, or if it was the corruption itself, but something was making her transformation look attractive somehow.

Half her head turned the same deep-grey-almost-black colour that the Aetherian’s body had been, just with golden fissures spiderwebbing across her face. Her hair had regrown, but instead of black, it was now somewhere between shimmering silver and the palest of golds, like lines of sunlight and moonlight woven together. Oh, and she had horns now too. So monstrous.

Much of her hair had regrown in twisting patterns over her head and solidified to form a spiky mane similar to that of Blightmanes’. Hers just looked far more like spiralling horns than the spikes that adorned those lupine monsters.

On her forehead, a strange crack had opened up. At the centre, a gleaming red dot could be visible. It was tiny. Too small to even tell if that glimmer of crimson was blood or not. Something told Rieren that it wasn’t.

Abyssals and Aetherians didn’t bleed red, after all.

The corruption had changed her eye colour too. All the whites had turned fully dark, while her irises were now brilliant gold. Rieren pulled herself closer to the strange liquid’s surface with a squint. Had her transformation removed her eyelashes and eyebrows? What in the world did the Abyss have against hair on lashes and brows?

She was fascinated by the consistency of her hair a little bit as well. They really were like strands of light. Almost translucent, as though Rieren could pass her hand through each strand.

The rest of her body was much the same. Rieren only had to look down to see the same ashen consistency had taken over her arms and legs, to catch sight of the golden cracks slowly spreading there as well.

For a moment, Rieren wondered why she couldn’t summon any true alarm or despondency at her current state. She had lived her life abhorring corrupted Essence and monsters of all sorts. Never once had she ever entertained the idea of becoming one herself.

Yet, here she was, turned into a creature that looked almost nothing like her past self.

It should have been a warning in and of itself. Her feelings were so muted. She could barely muster up a reason to care that the appearance of her current form should even matter. A part of her even recognized that the corruption had no doubt reached her brain too, twisting and suppressing some of the more human aspects that had previously been more at the forefront.

Rieren wasn’t certain that was a bad thing. Then again, her transformation hadn’t removed her ability to be logical, and she had to admit that she couldn’t be sure about good or bad in her current state.

But what was the solution to having one’s own mind slowly being changed? The shifts were too subtle. Just because she was suddenly a monster now hadn’t changed her goals. In the end, Rieren was determined to get to Vanharron and end the divine corruption there. She had to oust the gods and root out the claws they had sunk into the Mortal Realm.

The drive behind that goal hadn’t changed. Rieren still felt motivated and ready to achieve it, still yearned to fix the wrongs of the world. She would do it. Monster or not.

Did that fix her heart demon? Definitely not. That needed a more permanent sort of resolve than just thoughts. But the pain felt slightly less life-threatening now. Less a soul trying to tear out of her and more stinging her beneath her skin like a thousand bees.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Another thought struck her. A recollection that she still had her class evolution point. Like almost all other things, class evolutions could be purchased off the System Shop, which meant Rieren could browse through her option to find the one she had already gained and properly observe it.

“Integral advance in base abilities with potential for change in skills and techniques,” Rieren murmured. Her voice sounded strange, but she was too absorbed reading the altogether too succinct description to pay attention to it. “Boost to stats with additional binding Essences.”

Alright. Rieren had read enough of them before to parse what that meant. A change to her Domain and to her perk. That was it, for now, mostly. And a boost to her stats as well. That actually didn’t sound awful, especially considering her skill and technique changes would be optional, though she would need to see what exactly the changes to her Domain and perk entailed.

Unfortunately, the system was sparing with information. Advance suggested positive changes, going by priori experiences, at least.

Rieren closed her eyes. This sounded like regular class evolution she was used to. A forward change in one’s path of progressions that incorporated what had already been built up, not a complete removal of current abilities to bring in an absolutely new fighting style.

But she hesitated. This evolution point still wasn’t something she had aimed for. It almost felt like a part of the monsters’ scheme, something to make her even more like them than what her appearance already suggested.

Rieren didn’t want to give in to their ideal for her, if that was what this was. Of course they’d make it look enticing, even natural, to get her to go along with it. Imagine what her friends would think when she started displaying monstrous powers and the like. How much could she strain the trust they had built up?

Sighing, she strode forward. She would allow her mind to percolate on it and make a decision before rejoining battle.

The crack next to the blockage was big enough for her to travel through. Somehow, shoving herself through it didn’t bother her in the slightest. Distantly, she recognized such worries like finding herself stuck inside it at some point were legitimate threats. But Rieren couldn’t bring herself to care.

It was a good thing that danger never materialized. Rieren pushed through the crack. At times it did threaten to squeeze and make itself too thin for her but her strength came in handy.

Rieren crushed aside the walls to make greater space for herself. At times, she was digging more than walking forward. She even had to use her Domain to make the passage slippery and erode away the walls to widen the passage for her travel. It never got worryingly bad.

Or maybe worries about personal safety just couldn’t reach the front of her changed mind. She certainly couldn’t recall a time when any monster had been particularly zealous about protecting itself.

Eventually, Rieren made it out. A light appeared. It made her climb faster, made her determined to reach it and break through.

Another strange thing of note—the passage of time no longer registered for her the same way it used to. Now, this wasn’t a foreign feeling. When she had ascended to the final realm of cultivation—the Primordial realm—and gone on to become a goddess, something similar had happened. It was as though she had become untethered from the regular passage of time.

Ah, of course. Monsters didn’t age. They weren’t considered immortal in the same sense as the gods and their Banishedborn for they were far more easily killable. But still. Leave a monster alone and it would not die of old age. That was purely yet another mortal foible.

The opening to the surface was small. Tiny, in fact, compared to the rest of the passage Rieren had forced herself through.

Nevertheless, there was enough space for her to pull her arm back and punch her way through the hole. Rieren crashed the rest of her body through, stumbling out into open light and distantly surprised she found no reason to squint. Her ocular biology had changed, her very perception of intensity of illumination no longer a factor in her sight’s capabilities.

But this… Rieren looked around. This wasn’t the battlefield at all. There was something familiar about the place still. She had been here before.

“You’ve come. Though, you don’t appear to be in the best of states.”

Elder Olg’s voice made her twist around. Ah. That explained it. That smaller passage had led her outside the forest, right to where the Dreadflood was still waiting.

“I am now a monster, yes, Elder,” Rieren said.

It was the first time she had spoken. Her voice hadn’t changed much. If anything, that was more surprising than it would have been had her voice taken on some strange new monstrous slant.

“Ah, beyond that,” the Elder said from within the flood of darkness. “Your soul… it’s frayed.”

Rieren hesitated for a second. He could sense that deeply in his current state? “Yes. I believe I’m suffering from a heart demon. You seem unsurprised, Elder.”

Maybe the corrupted Essence hadn’t reached her larynx yet. Come to think of it, the larynx had never been one of the organs that required Essence reinforcement to advance through the realms. Maybe that was why Abyss-Aspected Essence hadn’t gotten to it. Maybe it couldn’t do so, not when no Essence at all had ever reached it.

“If I had been just your Elder, I would possibly have been taken aback a little more by your current state.” The Dreadflood’s dark surface bubbled, Elder Olg’s corrupted main form slowly emerging from the pool of liquid black. “But I am not just your Elder anymore, after all.”

“You have not been for quite some time.”

“Too true. But to the matter at hand, a heart demon is troubling, Rieren. But not unexpected, considering the changes you have undergone.”

Once he had fully emerged, he smiled at her, though there was a slight concern there as well. Rieren was trying to decipher the meaning behind it. There was nothing beyond just the pleasure of a master seeing his favoured pupil once more.

She frowned. Had she always been suspicious of people who she ought to have trusted? Then again, she’d had that little argument against the Elder not long ago.

In fact, they’d argued the very reason she was now standing before him.

“Were you the one who dug that little hole?” she asked. “With your flood?”

He nodded. “I was under the impression that you would need some assistance.”

She shook her head. “How much of this did you plan, Elder? The Gravemark Puppeteer must have orchestrated much of this, though you surely have a hand in it too. As you yourself said, it is no longer just you in the Dreadflood’s body any longer, is it?”

Elder Olg crossed arms that weren’t his. She wondered what Mercion would have felt, seeing his brother’s body being used by a monster.

“I don’t think there is anything I can do to restore your faith in me,” Elder Olg said.

“Well, that depends. You can start by telling me everything I want to know.”

“I was going to do that anyway. But in return, I need a favour as well.”

Rieren sat down at the edge of the dark flood. It eased her pain a little bit. “A favour? Is that truly all you seek, Elder? A favour that involves getting you this anchor from the Celestial Realm you want?”

“No. Asking that of you would be cruel. Especially when you have so much else to accomplish, Rieren.”

“Interesting choice that you still call me by human name.”

Elder Olg sighed. For the first time in a long while, he looked actually frustrated with her. “This is no time for you to be giving in to your paranoia.”

Rieren shook her head, laughing a little. “That is not at all the case. There is simply a greater clarity that I am enjoying at the moment. A certain lack of prior emotional influence that is now allowing me to probe matters that I normally would not have. But do go on, Elder. You were about to tell me to perform some favour?”

“Yes, I was.” He took a seat opposite her. The dark liquid supported his eight without letting him sink. Then again, it had been supporting his weight since he had stood on it without sinking as well. “All I want, Rieren, is for you to follow your true heart, but to do so while taking your new form along with you instead of dragging it behind you.”

Rieren frowned. This position was a strange mockery of their past. Elder and disciple sitting facing each other, the student poised to learn from the teacher. True enough, there was much she wished to learn.

But none of it was anything Elder Olg could teach her.

“Is that how you propose I deal with my heart demon, Elder?” Rieren asked.

“Yes. That relates to all that you wish to know as well, actually.”

“How? And how do you know what I want to know?”

Elder Olg smiled again. This time, it did tug at old memories of when they had faced each other before, when Rieren had been eager to obtain all the knowledge her somewhat-eccentric teacher was ready to impart. When Elder Olg himself had been eager to share his bountiful wisdom and experience.

“Listen closely, then,” he said. “For this involves all that I have learned of the gods and the current state of the Abyss and the Aether. Of why you are what you are now.”