When the hot and cold energies inside of her collided, Maria was surprised when she started feeling an excruciating pain assault her chest, or particularly, her heart. She fell to her knees as her legs buckled from the sudden pain, but she stopped herself from screaming out in pain.
“Ungh...crap…”
She stood back up and dragged herself to one of the empty rooms in the temple before collapsing onto her knees again once she got inside one of them. Gaia stared at her for a moment before closing the door as she said, “I cannot help you with this. You will have to overcome the imbalance of life and death inside of you by yourself.”
Maria didn’t hear her as she gritted her teeth and tried to desperately endure the pain in her heart. It was like she was experiencing a heart attack. If this was how it's actually like, then it was just so awful. The pain kept on escalating until it was slowly becoming a little bit too much for her to bear. Even though her pain parameter setting was set to the lowest possible, she could tell that this event was bypassing that setting.
Previously, whenever she experienced one of her major power-ups from devouring a Sin Devil soul, she would only feel some heat well up throughout her body because of her pain parameter setting limiting the amount of pain she felt. Also, with the 'pain' entirely distributed throughout her body, Maria only felt like she was having a mild fever whenever she ate one of the souls. However, this time, it was completely different. The pain was concentrated on her heart and even with the pain parameter set to low, she felt as if her heart was seizing and she was having a heart attack.
With every heart beat, the pain also continued to slowly amplify. She could tell that just from this that the pain she was feeling was bypassing the pain parameter setting of the game. There were instances of this happening to her before, and she seriously didn't like it. Maria cursed at the game for not giving her prior warning of something like this happening. She didn't know why the game was like this, but right now, it was better if she focused her mind and endured the pain rather than complaining about it.
The pain was intense and Maria was practically digging her nails into the stone-cold floor, causing her fingers to bleed as she gritted her teeth so strongly that she might even shatter them from the pressure. She was hurting all over when suddenly, the pain disappeared. However, with the disappearance, she felt her face suddenly go wet as her vision began to blur and turn red. If there was a mirror around, Maria would notice that she was actually bleeding out of all her orifices. This would've freaked her out, but thankfully, she wasn’t aware of it. She also closed her eyes after her vision went blurry from the blood flowing from her eyes, so she didn't see the blood dripping onto the floor.
“Ugh! Ow…”
The pain returned again and this time, it really was too intense. She fell on her face as she curled her body on the ground and began clutching her chest in agony. Even through all the pain, she could still feel her heart beating even faster and stronger to the point where it sounded like there was a drum beating in her chest. Maria cursed her luck, but continued to endure it because this was the process she needed to go through in order to get stronger.
She consoled herself, saying that everyone had to go through something like this in Unitale in order to get stronger, but unfortunately for her, she was wrong. Though people would feel a little bit of pain when they consumed an item that would elevate their stats or trigger some kind of evolution, what Maria was experiencing was completely unheard of since most players didn't experience a power up event where the process of said event would bypass the game's pain settings.
Previously, she thought that something like that was a bug and filed a report to the game's overseer, the AI Zeus, but after reviewing her account, settings, game backlogs, and everything, the AI didn’t find anything wrong. So since there was nothing wrong, Maria naturally thought that what she experienced was simply something she had to go through as it was part of the game.
Maria didn’t know how long she endured, but it felt like an eternity for her. Eventually, the pain started to subside as the hot and cold energies inside of her body had reached some sort of harmony with each other. She couldn't move at all and just laid on the ground, completely numb from head to toe. At some point, Maria had started to bleed from her skin, so her entire body was covered in her own blood.
The heat her body was emanating had dried up the blood, so she was now covered in a dry layer of her own red body fluid. This caused her body to feel stiff and since there was a dry layer of blood covering her eyes, she couldn't even open them. Maria slowly got up from the floor with stiff movements and she quickly peeled off the weird thing that was covering her eyes. She looked around and saw that there was a pool of blood all around her and her face darkened a bit.
"I...I was bleeding? There's so much...I won't die, right?"
She quickly looked at her HP bar and noticed that it was still at 100%. She let out a sigh of relief after confirming this and then started peeling off the crisp, dark red layer of what she assumed was likely her dried up blood that was covering the skin of her entire body. It felt extremely unpleasant since it made her body feel all stiff and grimy, so she quickly cast a [Fire] spell and a [Ice] together.
Maria had never done something like this before, but she just felt that it would work, so she tried combining them together. The [Fire] spell mixed with the [Ice] spell and it melted all of the ice formed from the [Ice] into water.
*DING*
You have successfully used the spell [Aqua] for the first time! The spell will be recorded inside of [Paimon's Magic Tome]!
"Wow...it actually worked..."
Combining magic spells together to create new ones, Maria immediately thought up a variety of possibilities with this new ability she had and wanted to immediately try it out. However, she first needed to deal with the disgusting condition of her body and just poured all of the water created from her spell onto her body.
Maria wasn't stupid. She knew that she had been bleeding profusely throughout the entire ordeal after she took the time to observe her body. After all, it was hard to ignore the bloody stench in the air. Even though she knew this now, she wasn't bothered by it. It had already passed and the only thing she needed to do now was tidy herself up. She took off all her clothes and threw them in a bin that she created with her [Terra] spell before conjuring a large water ball with her [Aqua] spell and started to take a shower inside of the room.
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After that was over, she used [Fire] to quickly heat up her body and then proceeded to burn the entire room. Eliminating all of the evidence of her painful experience from earlier.
“The bloody stench is gone. Thank goodness...Hmm, I wonder what changed with me.”
Maria quickly opened up her [Log] and saw the large number of notifications that she had missed.
You have absorbed the Essence of Life and received some [Life Energy] Warning: The [Life Energy] you have received contradicts with the [Death Energy] inside of you!
Calculating… Harmonizing the two opposing forces… WARNING: YOU WILL EXPERIENCE SOME DEGREE OF PAIN THROUGHOUT THIS HARMONIZATION PROCESS! WARNING: YOU WILL EXPERIENCE SOME DEGREE OF PAIN THROUGHOUT THIS HARMONIZATION PROCESS! ... ... 10%... ... ... ... ... 90%... ... ... 100%... Complete!
Congratulations, you have successfully harmonized two opposing forces inside of your body! You have received: +10 STR, +10 AGI, +50 VIT and +50 INT Your HP value has now been adjusted! Scaling has changed to a factor of 5!
For successfully harmonizing the energies of [Life] and [Death], player: Maria, has now unlocked the evolution path to surpass the limitations of a [Fallen] being! Continue collecting elements of [Life] and [Death] to complete your new evolution!
“Hm? So does this mean I can evolve into something that surpasses a [Fallen] creature now? Neat.”
“[Status].”
Name: Maria Level: 101 Race: Fallen Ophanim - Awakened Variant Class: Dark Priestess
Subclass 1: Magus
Subclass 2: Queen Titles: Fallen Angel of Sin, Angel of the Apocalypse, The Unlucky One, Fallen Priestess, Fallen Saintess, Harbinger of the World’s End, Queen of the Dire, Species Eradicator A, ... HP: 92,450/92,450
MP: 449,100/449,100
BE: 224,550/224,550
SP: 14,616/14,616
NE: 242/242 EXP: 0/10,100,000 REP: 110,000 ATK: 16,016 (+1800~2000)
DEF: 7,508 (+115~215)
M.ATK: 5,768 (+1800~2000)
M.DEF: 24,371 (+15) STR: 1,302 (+10)
AGI: 1,722
VIT: 2,730 (+8)
INT: 8,862 (+26)
LCK: 12 (+10)
SIN: 24 Free Stat Points: 500
“Hmm, I have a lot of FSPs...I should probably distribute them, but maybe later.”
Maria stretched her stiff body and noticed that her wings felt a little bit different. Before, she only felt a sense of death coming from them, but now she also felt a spark of life actually radiating from her wings. It wasn’t only her wings, but it was also coming from the rest of her body.
“...This is new. I wonder how this [Life Energy] will impact my power though. I guess I can test it out on the monsters inside of the Void Sea.”
Maria exited the room and found Gaia back in the main hall of the temple, silently meditating above the altar with her Origin Crystal outside of her body.
“Gaia, I’m done.”
Gaia opened her eyes as the Origin Crystal began sinking back into her chest before she turned to Maria and said with a smile, “It is good that you managed to endure that.”
“It’s nothing. I have had my fair share of pain already since I’ve...never mind.”
“Though I am quite remorseful for subjecting you to such pain, it was a requirement for you to receive your true reward for completing my request.”
Gaia raised both of her hands in front of her chest as a book suddenly materialized above them. Maria did remember that one of her rewards was supposed to be a spell book called [Gaia’s Verdure], so this was probably it.
“This is a skill that I bestow upon you, Maria, the champion of both Life and Death.”
The book floated towards Maria and she quickly caught it. However, it wasn’t the skill book, [Gaia’s Verdure]. Instead, it was something called [Gaia’s Force].
“Oh? It’s not [Gaia’s Verdure]?”
Gaia quickly explained to her the cause of the change, “It is the complete version of the skill, [Gaia’s Verdure]. I originally downgraded the skill because I was uncertain whether you would be able to endure the pain of obtaining [Life Energy], but since you managed to gather all 8 of my crystal fragments in such a short time, I decided to put my hopes on you, Fallen Ophanim.”
“Hm...is that so?”
Maria tapped the skill onto her body and immediately learned it.
*DING*
You have learned the skill, [Gaia’s Force]. New skill has been listed on your [Skill] menu!
Skill Name: Gaia’s Force Level: 1 P. EXP: 0/1,000 Rank: B Description: Grants the caster the ability to manipulate all plant-type organisms and allows them to use one of Gaia's sacred skills! Duration: 15 minutes Cooldown: 20 minutes Mana Cost: 20% of Max MP
Additional skills Gaia’s Wrath
Absorbs the energy of life from the surrounding vegetation and blasts it at a target, dealing 10% of the caster's Total HP on the target in the form of Magic Damage. The blast can bounce randomly onto 4 nearby targets with every bounce decreasing the damage by 20%. If used on a player, only half of the initial damage is applied.
Mana Cost: 10,000 MP Gaia’s Verdure
Conjures a 5x5 meter boundary of Life Energy. Any ally inside of the boundary gains a 150% increase in HP regen and a shield that is equivalent to 10% of their HP. Any enemy unit that crosses the boundary will be bound in place for 1 second
Mana Cost: 5,000 Nature’s Call
Summons 4 low-rank Treants to aid you. All summoned treants have HP equivalent to 50% of the caster’s own HP and the skill: [Overgrowth]. Summons last until they are dismissed or destroyed.
Mana Cost: 2,500
Cooldown: 5 minutes Note: Cooldown is not shared between additional skills
“I needed this so-called [Life Energy] to wield this skill, huh?” Maria said after she read through the skills description.
“Very perceptive. That is indeed the case. If you were not able to assimilate the [Life Energy] I granted, you would have only been able to receive one of the sub-skills, [Gaia’s Verdure], and not the complete skill, [Gaia's Force].”
“Oh. Thanks, I guess...”
Maria closed the window before turning to Gaia and saying, “Now that’s out of the way, when are you going to open the gate to the Void Sea Realm?”
“Oh yes. I almost forgot. Give me a moment and I will open it for you.”