Diana finally felt free within the Mystic Realm as she could be herself away from prying eyes.
Last time she had chosen a world of pure water Qi as she desperately tried to suppress the darker side of herself that she wanted to keep hidden away.
However, things had changed since her last visit to the Mystic Realm a month ago. The darkness within her soul was becoming harder and harder to suppress. The monster within was trying to claw its way out, and she couldn't hold it back anymore.
It wasn't until she saw the Redclaws take the heart demon truffle that she realized she was different from them. When she had taken the truffle, she had been able to beat down and suppress the demonic Qi within herself. Subduing it with dominance. Whereas for the Redclaws, the truffle forced the demonic Qi outside their body like some cursed-looking creature.
Luckily the mask had hidden it, but when she saw the demonic Qi crawling out from their throats, she had licked her lips and felt hungry. Perhaps foolishly, she had given in to her primal desires and stepped forward, offering her 'assistance.'
She destroyed the first few with her own demonic Qi, but for the last one, she had absorbed it and barely managed to suppress the sudden increase of demonic Qi within her soul for a few minutes.
So when the Mystic Realm shrouded her in celestial fog, like a starved beast, she ran through the dense fog in search of a pocket realm overflowing with demonic Qi where she could run wild.
She had chosen hell. A realm of scorched earth shrouded in a haunted fog. If one looked closely, one could see red eyes and shifting shadows within the fog accompanied by the occasional howl.
Diana's eyes of pure darkness snapped open, and she exhaled a breath of demonic Qi. "9th Stage of the Soul Fire Realm." She grinned, showing her newly grown fangs.
I wonder if I will be stuck in this demonic form when I reach the Star Core Realm?
A sudden tickle on her cheek made her look down to the side, "You hungry, Kaida?"
The inky black snake had grown during their month together, and Diana reached up her clawed hand of shadows to scratch him on the head. She had done extensive testing, and all her demonic features seemed to be a step up from illusions. She liked to call them manifestations, as they looked like shadows but were solid enough to tear into the flesh of monsters.
Although she looked like a demon, Kaida didn't shy away from the sharp claws her fingers had become and happily closed his eyes while sticking out his tongue.
"Kaida, do you think Stella will see me differently if she sees me like this?" Diana wondered aloud, and Kaida seemed to look at her curiously. Sometimes she wondered if the snake was actually very smart and could understand her.
I mean, just look at me... I have feathered wings sprouting from my back, my eyes are pure black, and I have claws. Even my body has changed shape. I almost look like a succubus. What if she gets jealous of me? I've seen how jealous she gets of everyone around her.
Kaida nudged her on the cheek with his head.
"You're right, Kaida. I shouldn't worry so much," Diana sighed deeply as she stood up, looked around the haunted mist, and spread out her improved spiritual sight, "Now, where can I find you some food."
Picking a random direction, she began to walk. Even though she had large feathered wings almost identical to a raven, she could not fly despite her best efforts.
Maybe once I reach the Star Core Realm, I can fly. I mean, it only makes sense... It would be silly if I could fly around on a sword but not with these massive wings.
Even without flying, she could move through the pocket realm's haunted fog with immense speed due to her water affinity. She could also detect anything alive for a thousand miles in all directions.
Where is everything? I know I have feasted on the flesh of one too many demons over the last month, but for there to be none around me is bizarre... oh!
Right on the edge of her spiritual sense was a demon she detected around the 5th stage of the Soul Fire Realm. Switching her direction, she headed straight for it. Once she got within a few miles, it seemed to sense her incoming presence and turned to escape.
A savage grin appeared on Diana's face. Something about being in her demon form made her enjoy the thrill of the hunt. Within seconds she had arrived right behind the demon.
It reminded her of a hideous fish as it seemingly swam through the haunted fog. Spikes jutted out from its purple-skinned body. It turned to face her with a malformed mouth of sharp teeth. Diana coated her manifested claws in demonic Qi, gripped the fish between its teeth, and held it in place.
There was a brief moment where the demon seemed to realize it was about to die and let out a screech. Ignoring it, Diana grunted as she ripped the fish in half down the middle. Its clump of organs slid out of the carcass and dropped to the scorched ground alongside a beast core which Diana grabbed and chucked into her mouth.
While absorbing the beast's core, she tore off bits of flesh from the carcass and fed them to Kaida, who greedily gobbled them down.
As Diana cycled the demonic Qi from the beast's core through her body, her mind drifted to something that had been bugging her.
My family name is Ravenborne, and my claws resemble that of a demonic bird, and my wings also match that of the birds that used to hang around in our courtyard full of scorched trees. There's a good chance this is all a coincidence, but what if it's not? What if I was always supposed to turn into this demon?
If that were true, she would feel more comfortable revealing her transformation to Stella and Ashlock. Whenever she remained in her 'human' form, she felt the need to suppress her emotions or risk showing this side of her.
My memories are vague, but didn't I turn into a version of this form when Ashlock gave me the heart demon truffle the first time, and I fought down in the cavern with that slime? There's no way Ashlock didn't notice me then... right? I mean, I was hidden within my haunted mist technique, but at least a shadow of my monstrous form should have been visible.
Diana shook her head to clear her thoughts. It wasn't an ideal situation. If the Ashfallen Sect deemed her a monster and kicked her out, she would have to retreat to the wilderness, as no demonic sect would accept a demon, and neither would the Celestial Empire.
Demonic cultivators would hunt me down and devour my soul core to further their cultivation. I would become the ultimate prize for them.
A shiver ran down her spine at the thought. She didn't feel in the mood anymore to eat the demon's meat, so she gave a few more chunks to Kaida until the snake was satisfied and tossed the carcass to the side.
As Kaida finished his final bite, Diana detected something suddenly appearing within her spiritual sense as if it had been teleported into the realm.
"What the..." She muttered as she closed her eyes and became one with the mist to try and figure out more about the new threat. "Earth Qi and I can't detect its cultivation realm? But why does it feel so weak?"
One of the features of her demonic form was the ability to gauge an opponent's threat level. It seemed to be a survival instinct of all demons as Diana had noticed some demons gave off the feeling that they were much more threatening than they actually were, almost like animals that color themselves to seem poisonous.
"Kaida, there's some weird earth Qi monster in the mist. Should we go and fight it?" The snake tilted his head and flickered his tongue at her nose.
Diana chuckled, "I'll take that as a yes."
Without wasting any more time, Diana began to dash through the mist, which swirled around the large manifested raven wings on her back that was thrice her size.
Within a few minutes, she arrived a few meters from the target. Up close, she could see the grotesque thing was like a segment of a giant worm as if it had been cut on both sides. It didn't appear conscious as it kept convulsing and spewing out blood.
Diana cautiously approached and noted the foul-smelling slime that coated its skin.
"That's definitely the worm Ashlock had fought before we entered the Mystic Realm, but why is it here..." Diana ran through some scenarios in her head, and none were good. Ashlock had been left alone with only Larry for protection, so if a part of the worm had ended up in her pocket realm, had Ashlock cut it up and thrown it into the Mystic Realm?
Was the Patriarch fine? Or was she about to leave the Mystic Realm and see the Ashfallen Sect gone?
With a bloodthirsty rage rising in her chest, Diana summoned a ball of water above her palm. She then loaded it up with demonic Qi to the point it turned pitch black and then hurled it at the motionless piece of worm.
To her surprise, the segment of worm that still towered over her by many times seemed to react to the incoming threat as earth Qi rippled across its surface.
The slime coating its skin then began to boil and rise off its flesh as a poisonous cloud. Diana snapped her fingers, and the mist swirled around her, directing the toxic cloud away from herself.
I doubt this segment has a beast core, so it's just a large chunk of flesh making use of the latent Qi leftover to defend itself. Therefore I should win in a battle of attrition...
***
Diana collapsed to the scorched earth, out of breath. Her 9th stage Soul Core was near empty, yet a grin arose on her face, followed by exhausted laughter.
"Haha... what a tough bastard." She groaned as she flipped her body over onto her back so she could rest. Beside her, Kaida was slowly pulling off chunks of the Star Core Realm worm meat and gobbling it down.
"You're such a glutton, Kaida," Diana petted the top of his head, but the snake was too preoccupied with his meal to pay her any attention.
The worm corpse looked like an archery target board with how many holes had been made by Diana's claws and thrown balls of demonic Qi. "I don't see how any of the others could have even put a dent into this thing. Except maybe Elaine with her void affinity."
After a short rest, Diana staggered to her feet and put her hand on the worm's side. All the poisonous slime had long boiled away, so it was safe to touch. She then closed her eyes and let the demonic Qi from the corpse flow into her system and cycle through her purified spirit roots, thanks to Ashlock's truffles.
She breathed in and out, slowly cycling her Qi, and debated whether to suppress the demonic Qi within herself and try to return to 'normal' or remain a demon.
"You know, Kaida, I'm feeling like the end of the Mystic Realm is coming," Diana said over the sound of munching, "Should I emerge from the Mystic Realm as a demon or a human?"
The snake sadly didn't offer his opinion. Diana left him to his meal. She was excited to see what he evolved into after eating so much monster meat.
"Guess I will figure it out myself."
***
Douglas felt incredibly lucky with his choice of pocket realm. Although he would have appreciated if it wasn't quite so hot.
After finishing a round of deep meditation, he breathed out and opened his eyes. He summoned his earthy soul fire to his hand and marveled at how powerful it looked. "6th stage of the Soul Fire realm. I can't believe I have progressed three entire stages in a month."
Honestly, it felt like cheating to him. A frown appeared on his lips as he surveyed the endless flat plains of grey rock that had remained the same since he arrived and wiped the sweat from his brow.
It was so hot due to the five suns in the sky that cycled on a constant rotation. Douglas had feared that he would have lost his feet once his Qi ran out when he had first arrived in this desolate realm. Luckily he had discovered the giant turtle he was perched on the shell of before that happened.
The turtle was so giant it was like a moving island, and it didn't seem to care about his presence on its back as it munched on the rock as if it was tasty.
Douglas was busy feeling a sense of achievement from his advancement that he almost didn't notice when the giant turtle changed direction for the first time in a month. Until now, it had continued a constant slow march toward what he expected was north.
"What happened, buddy?" Douglas asked aloud and then felt the whole island-sized shell shudder and tilt to the side. The shell rumbled as the giant turtle roared in pain. "Woah! What the fuck is happening?"
Douglas stumbled across the shell for a few minutes due to its ridiculous size and eventually could look down at the ground below. The turtle's legs which were thicker and taller than Ashlock were trembling, and Douglas could see something emerging from the ground and tearing massive chunks of flesh from one of the turtle's legs, dyeing the ground below in crimson.
"No fucking way." Douglas couldn't believe what he was seeing. How had the worm followed him into this pocket realm? Looking closer, he noticed it was injured but was rapidly absorbing the earth Qi in the area and healing itself.
Douglas began to panic as he stood up. Till the horizon in all directions was nothing but burning hot grey rock. If he got down from the turtle and tried to run, there was no way he could survive if the worm switched targets and went for him... or if there were more worms.
The turtle's shell continued to vibrate, throwing him off his footing as the turtle roared in pain and tried to move its leg to crush the worm underfoot.
"That won't work, you dull creature," Douglas shouted, "The worm doesn't care about the rock. It can swim through it. There's no way you can crush the fucking thing."
Looking back under the shell, Douglas watched in horror as the worm had enclosed the entire turtle's leg within its body, and its ring of freshly regrown razor-sharp teeth suddenly clamped down around the top of the turtle's leg where it met the shell.
The following roar of pain was earthquake-inducing as the turtle collapsed to the side, sending a landslide of rock out for a few miles. Douglas dug his hands into the deep grooves of the turtle shell to avoid slipping down and tried to think about what to do. Should he run while the worm was busy with its meal? Would he even get very far?
***
It had been two days, and Douglas was facing death.
The turtle was long dead. The worm had eaten its way inside its shell and devoured it from within. He could hear the poor turtle being consumed through the shell beneath him.
Glancing over his shoulder, he could see more segments of the worm. For whatever reason, these had taken longer to regenerate as they still remained as lumps of worm meat, but earth Qi still rippled across their surface, so he didn't want to take his chances jumping down and trying to dash past them.
Suddenly a terrible crunch, like a bone snapping into pieces, drew his attention, and Douglas's face paled. The turtle's shell that was buried deep into the stone below caved in, and something emerged from the hole.
Douglas didn't even need to look at the grotesque abyssal worm that came out the hole like cursed puss and blocked out the sun as it loomed over him.
He slowly pushed himself up the shell, digging his feet and hands into the grooves as he went, but soon enough, his hand met the air. He was hundreds of meters above the grey rock as he sat at the peak of the turtle shell.
All around him was endlessly flat rock and regenerating segments of worm. And before him was a somehow still hungry Star Core worm that he swore he would have nightmares about if he managed to live through this somehow.
"You don't scare me, you fucker!" Douglas shouted as the worm seemingly stared him down. "I'm the great Douglas Terraforge. The greatest builder of the Ashfallen Sect!"
The worm reeled back and let out an ear-shattering screech that almost pushed him off the edge of the shell. Douglas gripped the shell tightly to hold on and wasn't very proud of the words that escaped his lips.
"Mommy, save me..."
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