Black veins bulged out from the wrinkled man's body as his muscles contracted and expanded with each blink. His body grew larger and taller as his head started to touch the ceiling.
"His pupils are black…" Titania muttered, filling me in on the change.
The man's breath let out a deeply disgusting scent as his mana surged through the skies to a degree that would make his previous strength laughable. The surging of the mana did not stop, making the entire room shake from the pressure alone.
"Something is off…" Titania muttered. "This is not normal."
He was doping. Of course it wasn't normal.
"Eugene Hall, I think you need help here,"
Irina muttered, the two of us staring at the man that screamed in his transformation.
At last, he let out another long breath and his change stopped. Now tall enough to break through the top of the room, the man with reddened muscles and blackened veins glared down at me.
Small wisps of black fluttered around his chest.
"Now, you are done for… quack…"
"Oh, my god…" Irina gasped. "That quack… this man… did he turn into a demon?"
"Haha… hahaha!" The man laughed, his voice grating through our ears.
"No," I muttered.
I was one, and I could tell.
This man didn't become a demon.
"He always was one."
The man stopped laughing at my words.
His muscles creaked as he looked down at me.
"Shocking. I didn't think a human could tell."
It seemed I wasn't demon enough yet. Since even I was having such a hard time becoming a demon, there was no way some random guy could do it while screaming 'yeah science.'
"It's sad. Now die!"
The man swung his fist ahead.
Irina tried to move in, but before she could, my hand was covered with a swirl of mana and Ki as I punched him in the guts.
The man reeled back, but did not keel over.
With a stomp of his feet, more flames formed around me. Their heat was incomparable to before as they had almost turned into lumps of lava. The flames formed all kinds of weapons and all of them came reeling at me.
"[Honeycomb Defense: Hexagonal Shields]"
The many shields covered me in the blink of an eye as the cave started creaking from the holes in the walls the flames brought.
Not wasting any time, I brandished my sword and lunged ahead.
Demonic energy gathered this time and formed the man a hammer of a murky black.
"GYAH!" He screamed and swung.
I lowered down and dodged before swinging my sword. The blade cut through his shin.
"[Intent Ki]"
My Ki made the same wound on the other leg.
"ARGH!"
The man tumbled backwards.
"[Earth and Fire Magic]" He spoke out loud. "[Room of Death]"
Balls of lava formed all around the place, the mixture of stone and flames reaching temperatures that could melt the very air.
As if that wasn't enough, the balls then started bouncing all around the room without any rhyme or reason. Like a chaotic ping pong ball, the many spheres of lava dashed around forming the room of death.
The walls of the cave started to break apart, melting through with every bounce.
"[Hexagonal Shieldx256]"
Covering both myself and Irina in the shields, I dived ahead once more.
"You're getting really annoying."
"Human! Quack quack!"
The shields melted over and over and formed again over and over, taking up a large chunk of my attention.
But it wasn't something I couldn't do.
I made a small gap in the shields in front of me and feinted a stab before pivoting over and kicking from the back.
The demon fell backward.
One of the spheres came aiming for the gap.
Just as I planned.
I summoned all the shields around and trapped the sphere of lava inside. Then, as fast as I could, I sent the shields over the fallen demon.
The lava melted through it all, and plunged right toward the demon.
"GRAAAAH!"
A feral scream resounded in the air as the other balls of lava fell on their spots, their control lost.
A hole started to form in the demons stomach.
Room of death had only led to his own end.
I walked over to the demon and stepped on his chest, the searing burns still continuing over his stomach.
"Spells that have been materialized can't disappear. I'll move it if you agree to speak."
I doubted if he could hear me over his own screams, but he nodded his head.
I snapped my fingers yet again and the many shields formed around the sphere once more. Before they could all melt, they dropped the ball of lava on the side.
The demon continued groaning as he tried to move.
"Whew, good job," said Irina as she stepped ahead. "You didn't have to cover for me though. You're a hundred years too early for that."
"Can't you just be appreciative for once?"
Irina raised her head at my word.
Then clicked her tongue and looked away.
"Thanks," she said.
I was stunned.
"What, really? I was just messing around."
"Fuck. Whatever," she sighed and pointed at the fallen demon on the ground. "Let's interrogate this guy and get the fuck out of this place."
I agreed.
For good measure, I poured a bunch of water on his stomach and yanked him up by hair. The water had only increased the pain, but that wasn't my lookout.
"Now, what are you?" Irina asked.
"I… demon… quack…"
"What are you doing, managing a drug plant for a human family?"
"We… we sell the drugs to the other demons… that want… to be humans…"
Demons that want to be humans?
"You all… don't deserve this life anyway! What have we done, huh…? Why do we… have to live in that… hell… while you get the sun, and the skies, and the trees?"
The demon screamed.
"The Fonias guys are helping us live! You have… no right… to stop us…"
Irina and I looked at each other.
"Argh a new pain in the ass."
"Goddamn it."
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