Wiping away the flood that started to flow from my nose I got into a squatting position before dashing forward. As I flew through the place a loud booming sound could be heard as my body broke through the sound barrier. My flight path was straight and my intention was laid bare for all to see. I was going to split this stupid mage in half as soon as I got in range. However, with a wave of his hand dark purple runes appeared in mid-air forming a barrier. My blades crashed onto the barrier, rippling waves could be seen travelling all over the barrier dispersing the force of my attack.

Looking carefully at the runes I could tell their brightness had dimmed considerably. Without thinking twice I crashed once again onto the barrier applying as much force as I could with each attack. Ripple after ripple appeared in the barrier as the runes grew dimmer and dimmer. Soon enough a cracking sound could be heard as the barrier burst into a million pieces that disappeared in the air.

I had every intention to continue my assault however the pain in my head grew worse in an instant. If the pain before felt like having a blender going wild in my mind the pain now was like having a thousand needles stabbing my brain over and over again. This moment of pain wasn’t enough to cause an opening wide enough for the massage since I got used to the new pain too fast. Dashing forwards once again I slashed aiming at the neck of the mage.

The head separated from the body. However, in an instant, both became a cloud of black smoke as I felt a searing heat coming closer to my back. Knowing about the attack I pumped more mana into my body to accelerate and avoid the attack. Just as I did that the pain in my brain grew even worse. The distraction was enough to freeze me in place for the second it took for the pyroblast to slam my back and explode.

The explosion shook and ruptured my internal organs while the heat incinerated my skin and muscles alongside my clothes. I flew through the air without control until I felt a horrible piercing pain all over my body. Looking downwards my chest legs arms and even my cheek had been pierced by black and purple crystals. I felt my body growing cold and numb as blood flowed out forming a pool of it on the floor two meters bellow.

I tried to move but my body refused to listen. Instead, I felt my body growing out of control. Each cell in my body screaming in pain as chaos took control. The crystals were infusing their miasma into my flesh at a pace so fast my body couldn’t use it all. I could feel my cells exploding from within due to the uncontrollable flow of power. My body was destroying itself at a faster pace than it could be rebuilt. My mind grew fussy as my mental barrier began to fall. The voice that had resurfaced not long ago grew stronger.

This was a bad situation, no. This was a desperate situation, if things kept on going like this I would surely die! And yet, I felt calm. The voice filled with hatred began to suffuse into my own thoughts. I wasn’t a voice anymore, instead, it felt like my own thoughts. Even though I was aware of this change I felt no dread or danger from it. My thoughts changed by they were still mine. I could feel as my consciousness had been tainted by whatever that voice was but it felt natural. Like water that had red taint applied to it my mind had been coloured by the voice. However, that water would still be water, and my mind was still mine.

My mental state wasn’t the only thing I felt changing. My body also suffered drastic changes as it fought desperately against the miasma. It changed and mutated in an attempt to contain more, to use, more to release more. At some point, I realised that the crystal that had pierced my chest had gone so close to my core they were in contact. Because of this, not even my core was spared from the influx of miasma. Soon enough my body began to greedily take even more miasma as the once blue electric-like mana that coursed around my body changed into a deep purple hue.

Suddenly my mind was flooded with the feelings that contaminated and formed this miasma. The pain that those people being tortured had suffered, their hatred towards these mages, their grief and sadness. Everything flew into me. Before this would have been enough to drive me into insanity but now. Now that the voice had become a part of my own psyche they fueled me.

My body began to heat up as my cells restructured themselves growing sturdier with every passing second. The pain was horrendous like having boiling acid poured all over my body, inside and outside. Yet I laughed, I laughed and I laughed. My once shut eyes opened to reveal my maddened state of mind. If the eyes are the windows to the soul then my soul had gone through a drastic change. Before only my left eye changed into that void like black with a crimson red iris. Now both of them were as dark as the shadowy depths of the empty universe. With glowing red irises like a pair of red suns nearing their death into a supernova.

The mage who had his face covered by the hood of his rove suddenly stopped chanting. His hand trembled as he removed the hood to reveal a scared old and decrepit face. Fear and adoration could be seen in his expression. The other hooded mages also stopped and removed their hoods.

“Oh, glorious devil we had waited for years to bring you into this world. Now that you have shown yourself we beg of you to please hear our plea!”

The old man I had been fighting began talking while prostrating himself. However, no reaction came from me as I kept laughing with a mad cackle. Finally, I regained control over my body. Steam could be seen rising from my searing hot body as it slid from the crystals. The healing that closed my wounds was also pushing the crystals out and so I didn’t have to do any conscious move to get off the crystalline wall.

I fell the floor on my feet with a loud thud. However, my laughter continued. I didn’t understand why I was laughing but I simply couldn’t stop. Looking at my reflection on the pool of blood I finally understood what I found so funny. It was myself. I had changed so much since I came to this world that I could barely recognise myself. I hadn’t killed anyone before Lizz but now all I desired was to massacre this bunch. I laughed, I laughed because I was enjoying myself. I laughed before I found my stupid past self ridiculous. I laughed because otherwise I would break and burst into a crying mess.

I looked around once more. All those weak people that cried in pain and moaned in maddened pleasure. These mages that had done such horrible things to these people. They were all weak. These weak people deserved being tortured for being weak, this mages deserved being killed because they were weak. Before I had built a wall with this belief to try and defend my weak self. To try and protect my weak mind but now. Now I truly believe this.

“Oh, great devil. I beg for you to destroy our enemies. In exchange, we will serve you wholeheartedly!”

Once again the old mage spoke. I simply looked at him without any interest. Serve me you say? Why would I want such weak servants? Yes, they had been able to hurt me before but that was because I had been lying to myself. That is because I had been weak before.

“I do not need you to serve me. I need you to die”

With dose words, I dashed towards the old mage. His face cramped into an ugly scowl as he hastily chanted. Soon after a felt a slight discomfort in my mind. It felt like having someone dripping some water on my head. This much wasn’t enough to slow me in the slightest and in a split second the head of the old mage rolled on the floor. No black smoke this time.

Looking at the rest of the mages their expression was one of pure dread as their lips trembled while chanting. A few barriers were erected while fireballs ice lances and other spells were launched my way. With light steps, I dodged some spells while destroying others. I was in no rush, on the contrary, I wanted them to taste fear for as long as possible. I felt some sort of weird pleasure from seeing them cower in fear and terror.

I continued approaching until one of the mages couldn’t take it anymore. He ran with all he had towards the door I had come through. Unlucky him I was his opponent. I waited until he was about to leave the room. Then I threw pyrka piercing his gut. With a pull of the bandages, pyrka came back to me as the body of the mage was flung towards his peers.

The body hit the barrier with such force it exploded into a gory mess. I enjoyed the spectacle of guts and blood wholeheartedly. A wicked grin flourished in on my face as I felt an odd satisfaction at the scene I had just caused. The mages, on the other hand, continued to desperately shoot magic my way. Some had even started to try and dig into the wall with their bare hands. Soon enough I reached the multi-layered barrier. each layer was weaker than the old mage’s barrier but in conjunction, they were twice as strong.

In the end, their efforts were futile. I punched the barrier with enough speed to break the sound barrier. That single punch was enough as a shattering sound reverberated throughout the place. Some mages lost all hope as they fell to the floor with eyes like those of a dead fish. Suddenly the mages’ heads exploded as a silver light pierced them. Looking back I saw the girl that had once been lying naked on the stone altar standing up. Her hair had changed from a simple blond to a gorgeous gold. Looking at her anyone would say she looked like an angel. However, her eyes were like mine, those of a devil.