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Published at 23rd of May 2023 05:19:32 PM


Chapter 35

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Leveling up begins to restore me to full health just like it’s done before, but it’s slower. I don’t think that the slowed healing has to do with my soul damage—last time I leveled up, my soul was severely damaged, and I still got a full heal.

No, it’s rather obvious that the hardened earth currently impaling me is an issue.

The inside of the whale isn’t much more pleasant than the outside. Its gullet is as full of barbs as its exterior is, and they separate my flesh from my bones just as easily as Noren’s spell did.

As I fall through the gullet, tumbling down end over end, I fire off Phantom Shape to form extra arms, which I use to reach for the broken-off spikes. There’s not much leverage, but my ghostly limbs aren’t restricted in their movement.

I tear out a spike, then another. Blood spurts forth from every wound as I do, each individual exit a gaping fist-sized hole that would be lethal in any ordinary being, but the healing process of leveling up is still taking place. As soon as I remove them from my body—for a certain value of remove, given that some of them snap off and just sink into me—the wound closes over, anything within me dissolving as it does.

Phantom Shape advanced to level 5!

Your phantom limbs gain 10% extra strength. Maximum usage grows to 30 minutes per hour.

There’s a lot of earth in me, but I have a lot of extra limbs.

Even as the surface of my skin breaks once more thanks to the whale’s sharp innards, I break Noren’s final fuck-you bit by bit.

Phantom Shape advanced to level 6!

10% extra strength becomes 15%. Maximum usage grows to 36 minutes per hour.

The more dire the situation, the faster the leveling, apparently.

Soon enough, the level-up has completed healing me, which means I’m no longer in immediate danger of bleeding out. Always a nice state to be in.

The whale’s barbs are cutting at me, though, and while the cuts themselves aren’t that harsh, the wounds sizzle more and more as I continue sliding. The further into this thing’s maw I go, the damper it is—I think the insides are coated with some sort of liquid, though it’s completely lightless in here so I can’t make anything out.

Now that I’m no longer fighting anything, Demonic Heritage starts to take effect once more, so I’m not as worried about the acid as I should be. I still need to figure out a way out of here, but funnily enough, I have more time to figure out my next steps while the whale-demon tries to digest me.

Eventually, the narrowness of the gullet widens out and I splash headfirst into a shoulder-deep pool of some viscous liquid. It hurts every inch of my exposed body, sharpening the wounds, but it’s not going to kill me and pain is just pain.

More importantly, emptiness saps at my core, and this time I recognize the feeling.

This acid is eating my soul.

Alright, the situation may be a little more pressing now. With Soulless, I can survive whatever it does to me, but I’d much rather have a more intact soul if it means I can progress more.

I wonder why Noren threw me in here. He wanted to kill me, that much is obvious, but isn’t it a little stupid to trust something else to kill your enemy?

It’s very likely that he gains something out of this. A distraction, maybe, or some way that consuming me will make the whale-demon stop or go away. I can’t be sure, but there’s a reason he fed me to it, and I would much like to ruin every carefully-built plan he has.

Nothing’s trying to kill me in here, though I do feel shards of dissolving bone and demonic flesh brush by my legs in the darkness. It’s a bit uncomfortable, but it’s not dangerous (yet), so I check the special skills I’ve been offered.

Demonic Call (Rare)

Tier: Gold

Cooldown: 1 week

Summon demonic influence to your location. Teleport as many demons as you wish within a 100-mile radius to your current location. If none are available, you may summon up to 100 from a demonic plane. Warning: allyship not included.

 

Corrupt (Legendary)

Tier: Gold

Cooldown: 9 days

Spread demonic influence. For the next ninety-nine minutes, any individual you come into contact with becomes a vector of demonic corruption. Their access to the system will be modified. They will gain resistance to system-based skills. They will gain power upon consuming others. Inhibitions will be removed. Effect increased with each successive usage of the skill.

 

Undying (Legendary)

Tier: Gold

Cooldown: 1 week

You will survive. For the next hour, you cannot die by any means. At the end of the hour, your body will be restored to the state it was at before this skill was used.

 

Wraithfire (Legendary)

Tier: Gold

Cooldown: 9 days

This fire burns away at the soul itself. You can cast a limited amount of Wraithfire for ninety-nine minutes. Wraithfire will remain burning for ninety-nine minutes after activation. You have high resistance to your Wraithfire.

 

I know what Wraithfire does already thanks to the demonic dragons in the fragments beneath the city. I wonder if this current infestation was caused by them. Maybe Sapphire? It seems in character for the half-elf.

The other skills are interesting as well. I almost want to reject Demonic Call immediately when I see that it’s only Rare, but rarity hasn’t seemed to be the only determinant of quality so far.

Demonic Call is actually usable, too, if for nothing more than an XP farm or a skill to throw a sudden wrench in things.

It’s a special skill, though, so it’s limited. The concept of special skills is one that my amalgam recognizes, but it recognizes it in the sense that I know it manifests differently for different people. The one constant is that the skills completely lack levels—the only way to advance a special skill is to break through and push it up a tier.

Mine apparently also come with a cooldown. Whichever one of these I pick, I’m only going to get to use it once before this entire Ravendale debacle settles down.

Demonic Call is usable, but it’s entirely useless in getting me out of my current situation. Also, I am not a big fan of the idea of deploying another invasion onto my location, especially given the fact that I’m inside a demon right now.

The burning is getting worse. Whatever this acidic solution is, it’s no joke. I need to pick fast.

Corrupt is powerful but does absolutely nothing to help me here. I discard that easily.

It comes down to a choice between Undying and Wraithfire. I already know that the latter is exceptionally effective, but avoiding death entirely for an hour is incredibly strong.

Undying, I notice, doesn’t specify that I take no damage. If I take it now, it’ll just allow me to burn in this acid and suffer soul damage until the skill’s duration is over, at which point I’ll likely still be stuck in this thing. I can’t see a way out, and every movement is difficult.

Also, I can mimic its effects to some extent. I’m already quite hard to kill—I think I can bridge the gap between my current state and Undying with new skills and progression of my current ones. On the other hand, the entirety of my offensive capabilities put together can’t even hold a candle to Wraithfire at all.

There’s really only been one true decision for me from the moment I saw the list of skills.

Special skill unlocked: Wraithfire

Special skills cannot level up. Once used, they cannot be used again until their cooldown is complete.

In the darkness of what is probably the whale’s stomach, I feel unearthly power surge through my veins.

I grin, though nobody sees it.

Burn.

Black-and-red fire tumbles forth from my hands, oddly heavy. It pours over the acidic liquid like molten rock rather than flame, illuminating the space around me.

It’s larger than I thought it would be. From the claustrophobic sharpness of this thing’s gullet, I thought I would be in a slightly larger demonic coffin, but the light casts the entire area into sharp relief.

I’m three-quarters submerged in a bubbling lake of greenish liquid. The inside of the whale’s stomach is ten feet wide and thirty feet long, and the… stomach acid (?) is smoking. Part of that is dissolving flesh being torn to shreds, but the supermajority of it is actively on fire.

Wraithfire spreads fast. I don’t think the acid I’m sitting is supposed to be flammable, but the wraithfire takes to it like it’s the purest oil nonetheless. Wtihin instants, the whale’s stomach is burning as far as I can see.

And then I’m on fire again. This time, somehow, it hurts less. Thanks to a combination of my own Wraithfire hurting me less, Soulless, my high Silver-tier Pain Resistance, and my newly Gold-tier Wraithfire Resistance, my body is even burning slower than it did last time.

Still, even though my flame knows that it needs to hold back, licks away at my flesh and soul alike, leaving me cold and empty on the outside even as every nerve ending flares. I’ll burn too if I’m not careful, and it’s not exactly possible to be careful here.

The wraithfire consumes the soul-eating acid hungrily, and I think I know why. If the acid eats souls and the fire is fueled by the same, the fluid’s got to be the richest food possible for the devouring flame.

Slowly, the inside of the whale starts rumbling, and it bellows. It’s a little unnerving to hear it from within, the creature’s body shaking as it screams, shaking and stabbing into me again and again. It doesn’t leave the deepest wounds—its internals seem to be designed to inflict death by a thousand cuts, not a single major one—but they’re still irritating. Combined with the soul-devouring acid, they’d be devastating towards humans.

My wraithfire is spreading, igniting the air and the acid and the flesh around me, but the demon must have some innate resistance as well. No matter how much pain it’s in, it’s not yet enough for its flesh to slough off its bones.

It is, however, enough to weaken its body, and I’m not sitting idle even as I push more wraithfire from my body. The skill is extraordinarily tiring to use, moreso than Bloodstep or Blood Echo or any of the high-cost skills I’ve taken in the past, but Relentless power still blazes through me.

I shut it off when I’ve filled the entire stomach with flame and I start punching at the weakened walls. Soul-devouring fire has lowered its integrity enough that my physical strike smashes through flesh and bone alike, and I’m able to tear it off with my bloody hands, Shape Blood keeping my lifeblood within me as I do.

I eat the chunk of flesh.

Devour granted +4 XP!

 

Objective: Restore your soul

Targets devoured: [5/???]

 

Even pieces of this thing’s body heal me, and they count as a separate target for some reason. They provide me with soul-nourishing energy, tiny sparks of comfort for my cold, empty core.

Time to get eating.

 

Devour granted +71 XP!

 

Objective: Restore your soul

Targets devoured: [6/???]

 

Carving out larger chunks with Wraithfire dripping from my fingers and Devouring them works too, apparently.

 

Devour granted +109 XP!

 

Objective: Restore your soul

Targets devoured: [7/???]

 

Bit by bit, I devour my way through the whale. Minute by minute, the wraithfire burns away more at its flesh. Its movements are getting more erratic now, and I nearly lose my grip in the makeshift tunnel I’ve created when it bucks suddenly, the sound of shrill screaming filling the entirety of its interior.

I continue onwards.

 

Devour granted +58 XP!

 

Objective: Restore your soul

Targets devoured: [8/???]

 

My soul is healing just a little, but it’s counteracted by my own Wraithfire. Irritating. If I eat this entire whale, I might be able to outpace it, but I somehow doubt that Noren and his pals are going to be okay with peacefully letting me do that.

I continue, tearing away flesh by the handful and consuming my way through where I can. It’s narrow, because of course it is when I’m creating it by hand, but I continue onwards. Shape Self and Phantom Shape assist me—I change the fins I created into sharpened bony limbs that scrape the whale’s flesh as I tunnel.

I have no frame of reference to identify where I am in the whale’s interior, but I can tell which was is up, and I tunnel that way.

 

Devour granted +141 XP!

 

Objective: Restore your soul

Targets devoured: [9/???]

 

I have to have Devoured at least five times my body weight in demonic flesh by now, but I can hear things other than the incessant shrilly scream of the whale’s inhalations and pained groans. Black blood drips from every new orifice I carve out. It’s only thanks to Shape Blood that I’m not drowning in the stuff already.

I hear fighting. Though I can’t see any of them, I can picture what’s happening. Heavy objects crash into the surface of its skin above, fire blazes both outside and inside, and the general din of a few dozen different skills start to penetrate into the makeshift bloody tunnel I’m in.

Above it all, I can hear a distant, even humming. Not a sound I’ve heard before. Disconcerting.

Under me, my Wraithfire continues to burn the whale apart. It’s starting to catch properly, overcoming its resistance. In another minute, it’s going to engulf me.

I just need to keep going.

 

Devour granted +66 XP!

 

Objective: Restore your soul

Targets devoured: [10/???]

 

Something impacts the whale above me.

Suddenly, I can see the sky. It’s not much, but I can see where damage has exposed the whale-demon’s insides.

I keep digging upwards, no longer bothering to consume as I go. The wraithfire under me is rising faster now and the bucking and weaving of the whale is growing more intense. I need to get out of here.

Flesh sizzles away under my touch, the wraithfire clinging to my body burning away my surroundings without searing me too much. At the end of the ninety-nine minutes that my skill is active, this wraithfire is going to start burning me, too. I need to keep that in mind.

But for now, I can ascend.

I activate Bloodstep, shifting into my blood-form. At level 10, I can completely ignore size restrictions, so I funnel myself through the tiny opening to the sky.

When I reappear, I stand atop a dying demon.

Unfortunately for me and the city, there’s a lot more of them.

The wraithfire on the riverbank has started to die down, revealing the area beyond. Noren’s created a full bridge, nothing like the rickety garbage he created for me, and the man himself is no longer visible. There’s twelve unfamiliar people standing on the bridge with sets of wicked-looking harpoons strapped to their backs, attacking the whale at regular intervals.

I think I know where Noren is, because it should’ve been the first thing I noticed.

The city center is grey. All the color’s been sapped out of it, and demons flood the ashen ruins of a square mile of utterly destroyed buildings. People are fighting them, far more than I thought there would be.

Nobody, however, has laid a single scratch on the beast at the exact center.

A jet-black trunk as wide across as any inn I’ve stayed in rises from the ground, towering over the ruins its brethren have created. Dozens of flowering branches extend from the center, grasping and reaching outwards. As I watch, dark spores drop forth from its many branches, and where they land, new demons form.

I scan the area briefly, staying low to the surface of the whale.

Locate Person spots Noren instantly. Just as I thought, he’s in the thick of it.

I think for a second more, then activate Locate Person again.

Sierra and Adrian are in there as well.

Another harpoon lands in the whale’s side, and I prepare myself to slide off. I think I know where I’m going next.

A shout goes up from one of the harpoon men. They’ve seen me.

I jump off the side of the whale, aiming away from the bridge. I know I can swim, and those men with harpoons still have the dying demon to worry about.

As I leap, my wraithfire consumes the whale, finally exploding to envelop its exterior. Piercing screams from the whale and the people fighting it fill the air as I fall.

Objective: Burn it all down

Kill the Flowering Demon that has made Ravendale its own.

Reward: Advance any skill to its next tier

The system is calling that tree a flower? Something’s not right with this thing.

The water greets me before I can think deeper into it, and I activate Phantom Shape, creating false fins to propel me forward.

Behind me, the water burns.

I have over an hour of Wraithfire left.

I better make it count.





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