When Mephisto finally ended the lives of the four men which was as easy as reaping wheat, blood trickled down from his nose.

*cough..!*

As he touched the liquid, he could not help but grimace in frustration.

"Mortal bodies really are feeble. Just partial activation of Maleficent Eyes and here I am like a dried-up leaf on the verge of crumbling"

'I might have to find another vessel sooner than I have anticipated', with this thought in his mind, he strolled closer to the girl whose body was about to be one with mother nature.

"Young lady, are you still alive?"

There really was no need to ask such a question since his unique eyes could discern whether a living thing had truly departed from the mortal realm.

Death is nothing but another state of being and does not equate to the end of one's journey. The true essence of death is when a soul vanishes, the quintessence of life and spirituality erased from the world.

"....."

"Quite the taciturn type, aren't you?"

With both her mental and physical strength exhausted, she was unable to even offer as much as a grunt to Mephisto's baloney.

"Tha..nk... yo-" yet unexpectedly, she was still able to issue her last words of gratitude albeit it being incomprehensible.

"Truly admirable willpower but you can thank me properly later when you're...err~"

"...more presentable" he then added, finally finding the precise adjective. "Even a venerable lord such as I, who had lived since time immemorial, still got the chills looking at your...abstractly carved body."

"No matter! Let's get started, shall we?" Mephisto then squatted between the girl and the headless corpses of men around him.

After thoroughly examining the corpses, Mephisto commented gleefully.

"You're quite the lucky person. First, you met me. Second, these filthy savages may well deserve to be eternally burned by the flames of Gehenna but at least they have robust physical bodies..."

He reached out his bony hands to one of the men's heads, his fingers hovering a few centimeters above its face.

A supernatural phenomenon occurred as the cadavers gurgled from within like a boiling pot of water. Thick vapors started to percolate around Mephisto's hand, slowly coagulating into a dense, reddish liquid.

It only took a few moments for Mephisto to complete his task as a glob of blood about half a meter in diameter floated above his palm.

The opaque concentration of thick liquid was so flawless as it quietly pulsated like a beating heart.

On the other hand, the corpses laying on the ground had already withered as though every moisture within was completely sucked out.

"It isn't the best but it is what it is, I guess", he said in a bit of disappointment but his face says otherwise. "And now for the final touch"

Mephisto pricked his thumb with his sharp nail as a drop of his blood traveled towards the oversized glob, merging into one.

As a reaction, the surface of the unmoving circular glob of blood began to ripple while countless maggots protruded their tiny heads out in a bid to be freed from imprisonment.

However, Mephisto motioned his hand into a clenching fashion as the glob of blood gradually reduced in size.

The half-meter coagulated blood had now turned into the size of a tennis ball as ghastly wailings resounded. Anyone could now see four specters whose gruesome countenance resembled the four men who just died a while ago.

'Curse you...!'

'boohoo....' 'keeeeek..!'

'Die...DIE!!!'

'Shrieee-'

But the wailful cries of the specters abruptly halted as Mephisto mercilessly silenced them by completely clenching his hand into a fist.

*Splat!!*

The blood did not splatter but instead, Mephisto's hand was surrounded by a reddish gaseous substance as it subtly dissipated into thin air, vanishing completely.

When Mephisto unclenched his hand, a gem like stone was sitting atop his palm. The unblemished ruby like stone was shaped like marble, so immaculate and pristine as if the stone was nurtured by mother nature herself.

"Right, I almost forgot.." as Mephisto thought of something, he took a long, deep breath as the air around him quivered.

He was absorbing the four corrupted souls which had turned into specters, replenishing his vitality and nourishing his psyche.

"Tastes like decayed rodents but I don't have any choice, do I?" he inwardly commented a tinge of disgust.

"Now then.."

With the ruby like stone in his grasp, he moved closer to the girl, "You dead, yet?" he asked while gently kicking her body.

Without forewarning, he tossed the red stone inside the girl's mouth with the precision of an experienced hunter.

A minute had passed but there was no reaction until the girl suddenly convulsed as if possessed by an evil entity. Her eyes that were covered with red veins rolled all the way back as her white eyeballs visibly enlarged and were about to pop out from their sockets.

Her lifeless body then suddenly sat back up in an upright position, head directly facing Mephisto.

Her pupils were now dilated like a pair of black agates which replaced the sclera's whiteness. At the very center situated what seemed like a larva in deep slumber. Her eyelids then subtly closed as though to protect the offspring within.

The girl's mangled body then started to reconstruct itself at a slow yet steady pace. Strands of flesh that loosely hung started to wiggle as it awaited the systematic reattachment.

Mephisto only gazed at the necromantic process with an indifferent expression and said. "If you manage to gain sentience and overcome the ensuing madness, come find me."

Turning his back away from the scene, Mephisto calmly proceeded to his original destination as he left the area as coolly as he arrived, his pair of bony hands clasped behind his back.

One thing worth mentioning, Mephisto does not hand out free meals without reason, more especially not to strangers whose lives meant nothing more than a pebble on the sidewalk.

The trivial ritual he performed to the girl was only a sort of trial to gauge the limits of his current abilities. Normally, his primordial blood would give birth to monsters of extraordinary caliber, yet only a select would exhibit high intellect.

In this particular case, if he finds out that his blood can only bring forth a mere ghoul or zombie then his limits certainly meant a disheartening predicament, a royal headache. In simpler words, he was only on par with a necromancer who's at the bottom rung of the pecking order.

However, if the girl turns out to be on the level of a Lich or Blood Fiend which was nigh impossible for a mortal fledgling, it meant he had at least retained at least a minuscule fraction of his divinity.

'The final outcome would still ultimately depend on her, though..', he thought as excitement welled in his heart.

****

***

**

A few hours had passed since Mephisto left the scene.

The remains of the cannibals had already been absorbed by the craving soil, including the flesh and blood which had strewn the ground.

Except for a singularity that had remained unmoving. The mutilated body of the girl which was a pitiable victim of peculiar human predation was now completely healed. Her porcelain skin, although too pale to emit heat exuded vitality as reddish veins covered her entire person.

Out of the blue, her upper body spasmed wildly as her spine arched, in the ready to welcome what was about to surface from her back.

*RIIP-!!*

Unable to contain the incredible force inside, the area just below her shoulder blades was torn wide open as a pair of bat-like skeletal wings dripped in deep crimson blood sprung out.

The pair of wings each had a total of four phalanges and a thumb. She then fully extended her wings towards the dismal sky, declaring her resurgence into the world.

However, her wings retracted as they wrapped around her entire being in a delicate embrace. A thick glutinous membrane started to cover her whole body which was in a fetal position.

*ba-dump!*

A robust protective crimson layer in a shape of a cocoon had now enclosed a dreadful entity which was ought to never exist in the human realm.

A being birthed from the amalgamation of human's darkest desires then further materialized with the essence of an evil incarnate.

Unbeknownst to Mephisto, his casual meddling into others' affairs had propelled an unprecedented portent - as dire a one as the calamitous breathe of the dragons of old.

On the other hand, the man who was the culprit of the series of events was leisurely strolling about, his gleeful heart fluttering in the prospect of a new world toy with.

***