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Chapter 274 - Second Awakening

*DING*

You have acquired the essence of the Seven Deadly Sins! Recalibrating race, specifications… Calibration complete!

*DING*

You have fulfilled the conditions to undergo a second Awakening!

Maria had just returned to the regular plane and immediately fell to her knees when her body received a sudden shock right as the system notification appeared.

“U-Ugh, what the–AHH?!”

“My Queen!”

“Your Highness!”

Her entire body was suddenly assaulted with unbearable heat and pain that caused her to curl up on the floor. Her skin was completely flushed red and when Ash tried to touch her, he burnt his hand.

“Ahck!” Ash said as he pulled his hand back. “M-My Queen, what’s happening to you?”

“Get…back! Stand…guard…” Maria uttered as she struggled to keep her voice in check.

Even though she was in so much pain, she didn’t want to let out a single peep and sound pitiful in front of her subordinates. This pain was the familiar pain of receiving an upgrade to her character only this time, it was a bit unbearable. Her flesh felt like it was being melted and her bones were being grounded into dust. Blood was leaking out of her orifices and pores which caused Ash and Carmilla to be a bit worried but the blood began pooling together to form a cocoon around Maria. Half an hour later, Ash and Carmilla heard a pained shriek come from the cocoon as 7 pairs of crimson-red wings suddenly burst from it.

They didn’t move from their spot and only continued to keep watch as their master had told them to. When the cocoon had appeared around Maria, the two vampires knew that she was undergoing another awakening just like the first time. This time’s awakening seemed more intense and although it pained them to see their master be in such agony, they just stood by and kept watch over her without interfering.

Maria had been trying to keep her voice down but the entire time, she couldn’t help release groans and whimpers of pain because this time, the pain that she had to put up with was truly unbearable, even for her.

An in-game day later, the Awakening process was finally over and Maria emerged from the cocoon. She was in a fetal position as 7 pairs of oddly-shaped crimson wings stretched from her back. All of her clothing and equipment had been unequipped and stored into her [Inventory] so she was completely naked right now. Carmilla quickly rushed towards her and put a blanket over her body while Ash arrived a second later and gently picked her up.

“Careful, Her Highness seems really weakened right now!” Carmilla cautioned.

Ash nodded as he gently cradled his vulnerable Queen before saying, “I think we should return to the Capital. It’s not safe here on the frontlines!”

“You go. I’ll take care of things here.”

“Mhm.”

With posthaste, Ash quickly flew back towards Heltania City, the capital of the Dire, and arrived a few hours later. He was discreet about his return and didn’t inform anyone of Maria’s condition. Her second Awakening was a cause for celebration but her current state wasn’t. If their enemies obtained word of Maria’s current state, it could be bad for them so he didn’t allow anyone else to know about it.

Even the people that were inside of the hall back at Bloodwing fort that had witnessed Maria’s sudden collapse had been immediately silenced by him and Carmilla so the people who knew about her condition were only the two of them.

After putting her to bed, Ash left the chambers before sealing it with a spell and stood guard outside. It would be more reassuring for Ash if he was inside of the room but he didn’t want to die once Maria woke up and saw him inside her bedroom. Another day passed before Maria woke up. She opened her eyes and groggily looked around before noticing that she was in her bedroom chambers at her castle.

“Ugh…what happened…?”

*DING*

You have successfully undergone your second Awakening!

Your race has evolved! Fallen Ophanim → Arch Seraphim → Nephalem

Appropriate adjustments have been completed to your Status and Skills!

You have successfully evolved into a Divine Being. Divinity +100

The Skill [Dark Ray] has evolved! Dark Ray → Sin of Greed

The Skill [Enfeeble] has evolved! Enfeeble → Sin of Envy

The skill [Decrepify] has…

The skill…

...

Maria received a long string of notifications that showed a complete overhaul of her character.

“...Aeh?”

*DING*

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For being the first player to naturally receive Divinity you will be rewarded with the title: Hero!

Title Name: Hero (First) Rank: Legendary Increase the rate of EXP and Skill proficiency gain by 200%. As a Hero, you will be granted the skill: Limit Break. As the FIRST hero, you will be granted the skill: Supreme Limit Break Description: Only mortals blessed with Divinity or Divine Power can be called Heroes. As the first mortal of the [Pioneers], you will be regarded as the First Hero of your kind!

Extra Skill: Limit Break Rank: EX Description: Increases all of the user’s stat attributes, resistance, and defense by 100% for 30 seconds. The user will receive a minor penalty for 1 day once the effect of [Limit Break] is over Cooldown: 72 hours Cost: 50% of HP/MP/SP Penalty: 25% Stat reduction, EXP reduced by 25%

Extra Skill: Supreme Limit Break Rank: EX Description: Increases all of the user’s stat attributes, resistance, and defense by 200% for 30 seconds. The user will receive a major penalty for 3 days once the effect of [Supreme Limit Break] is over Cooldown: 168 hours Cost: 75% of HP/MP/SP Penalty: 75% Stat reduction, EXP reduced by 75%, [Blind], [Mana Sickness], [Exhaustion], …

Having all of those notifications suddenly thrust into her face all at once made Maria so dizzy that she nearly fainted and went back to sleep. She dismissed all of them immediately as she got off her bed. Maria felt that there was something quite wrong with her body as she stood up and nearly fell over. She quickly balanced herself and noticed that her center of gravity was all over the place.

“W-What?”

Her body must have changed or something so she stumbled over to a mirror to see what was wrong with her and noticed it almost immediately.

“W-Where are my wings?!!” Maria immediately panicked when she noticed that her wings were missing and right at that moment, the doors to her chambers burst open.

“My Queen, is something wrong?!”

Ash rushed into his Queen’s chambers without permission the moment he heard Maria’s scream, thinking that something was wrong, but his face immediately turned red and his nose began to bleed when he saw his Queen. Maria was completely naked right now so Ash could see…everything. The two stared at each other for a moment before Maria’s face flushed red as she covered her top and bottom.

“What the fuck are you doing?!” Maria yelled. She unconsciously wanted to attack Ash right at this instant which prompted something to happen.

One of her wings suddenly appeared behind her as a large blazing eye suddenly materialized in front of it and launched a thick beam of black energy towards Ash, blasting him out the side of the castle.

“I’m sorry my Queen!” Ash screamed in apology on his way out.

Once Maria dealt with the interloper who was her most loyal retainer, her wing disappeared with a red flash and she was immediately startled.

“What the?”

She began touching her back but only felt her bare skin there.

“I thought that–what???”

Maria was confused but when she turned around for a moment, she caught a glimpse of something red on her back and quickly stopped in place.

“Eh?”

There were 7 pairs of red wing tattoos on her back and when she focused on one of them, one pair of wings suddenly materialized.

“Oh, thank goodness…”

She materialized the rest of her wings and was a little shocked that she had 7 pairs now, which was 14 wings in total. With so many wings, things became a bit crowded for sure.

“W-Wow… If I have them all out like this, it’s pretty hard for me to see anything unless I keep them stretched towards the back which is kind of tiring…”

Maria stretched her wings back and finally noticed that there were 7 horns growing on her head making it look like she was wearing a crown or something while the large red crystal halo that was rotating behind her back had grown much larger than before.

“Wow, I have horns now…” Maria said as she curiously touched them.

That wasn’t the only thing, Maria noticed that her sclera was black and her skin had turned into a deep ashen color. There were also faint markings all over her bare body that would glow intermittently with a pale light. The only thing she was missing was a tail and she’d look like some high-ranking devil–minus the feathery red wings of course.

“...I look kinda freaky now.”

When Maria dematerialized her wings, her body returned to her previous form that was more human-like–in fact, she was practically a human in this form. Her horns, wings, and halo disappeared while her skin tone became normal again. She smiled when she looked back into the mirror but noticed something was off with her eyes.

“Hm?”

The pupils had retained their changed color from when she had her wings materialized. It wasn’t gold anymore, it was purple with a tinge of gold in them.

“That sure is strange. My eyes didn’t change back…my hair too.”

When Maria had her wings out earlier, her hair was black with a slightly red tinge to it. Now that she was in her normal state, her platinum blonde hair returned but that red tinge didn’t disappear.

“Well, whatever. It actually looks kind of nice.”

Maria didn’t dwell on the changes and opened up her inventory to put on her clothes again after hearing footsteps moving up the stairs leading towards her bedroom. She quickly put on all her clothes and finished dressing just as her castle’s servants and guards appeared in her broken doorway.

“Y-Y-Your Highness! When did you return?” It was the castle’s Head Butler who asked this question, then he finally noticed the damage done to the castle. “What’s with this hole in the wall and why have your chamber’s doors been demolished? Was there an attempt on your life, Your Highness? I’ll immediately dispatch the castle’s soldiers to look for the intruder!”

Maria shook her head and said, “It’s nothing. I accidentally used one of my skills by accident and blew a hole through the door and the castle wall. Tell the dwarves to repair it as soon as possible.”

“Y-Yes, Your Highness. At once!” The Head Butler was about to leave before he quickly turned back and asked, “Your Highness, would you like to eat breakfast?”

“Sure. I’ll eat in the dining hall, bring it there.”

“By your will. Then, if you’ll excuse me, Your Highness.”

Half an hour later, Maria was having breakfast in the dining hall while she sat on Ash who was serving as her chair. The butlers and maids in the dining hall were all sweating a little because of Ash’s treatment but they found out that he had done something inexcusable and was now being punished for it. Maria had applied a bunch of her debuffs spells on Ash so the burden he was experiencing had been multiplied.

“Next time, idiot, you had better knock!”

“Y-Yes, my Queen. I sincerely apologize.”

While she was eating, Maria was carefully reading over the system notifications from earlier and noticed quite a lot of changes which made her jaw drop.

“H-Holy cow! [Status]!”

Player Name: Maria Level: 125

HP: 541,680/451,400

DE: 1,762,440/1,468,700

NE: 2,840

SP: 89,375/74,479

EXP: 0/25,000,000 REP: 137,890 Divinity: 1176 Race: Nephalem

Class: Dark Priestess

Sub-Class 1: Magus

Sub-Class 2: Queen

Titles: Species Eradicator A, 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, First Hero

ATK: 129,492 (+5000~6250)

DEF: 37,697 (+1200)

M.ATK: 19,646 (+5000~6250)

M.DEF: 80,449 (+1550)

STR: 16,884

AGI: 14,633

VIT: 13,708

INT: 29,254

LCK: 40

SIN: 284

FSP: 0

“Woah…”