Demonic Devourer: First, I Eat the Babies

Current stats:

My Diamond tier Devour is an offensive skill now, but it’s still stuck at level 1. I didn’t open with it because I haven’t proved its effectiveness in battle yet.

Its utility, however, is vastly improved from what I’ve grown used to. From Bronze to Gold tier, Devour required me to take time to stop fighting and physically take a bite out of my unfortunate victim.

At Diamond, however, crackling black and red magic tears parts of the pirate’s body, disassembling him into skin, blood, muscle, and bone, and then it dissolves those away, sending the essence flowing into my body.

Devour granted +102 XP!

These people aren’t very high-leveled, are they?

Temporary skill unlocked: Sharpshooter

When using this skill, you gain a 150% bonus to damage with ranged weapons. You are 100% less prone to distractions. Your accuracy is 50% better with ranged weapons.

 

Temporary attributes gained!

With my enhanced Mind (Speed), I examine the bloody wreck of a body. The corpse does, in fact, have twin revolvers holstered at the waist.

I use Phantom Shape. In this messy location, this cramped watery coffin of an underwater vessel, with the ocean pouring in and destabilizing my balance, it’s a cinch to use. With no skill-disruption fields or effects in play, it’s child’s play for me to create a second set of ghostly spider-limbs to pluck the guns right from the dead man’s belt.

Before I can fire, though, the other three in the vessel attempt to act. The water itself surges up and over me, and the liquid freezes in place as it splashes over my skin. Someone’s skill is trying to imprison me in solid water.

Another pirate draws a similar-looking pistol from her waist, but they’ve drastically underestimated me.

I use Shape Blood, sending the liquid remnants of their former comrade flying at all of them. The blood muddles the seawater a dirty brownish red, and it distracts them for a crucial second as I cast Bloodpath.

It doesn’t need to take me far—I just need to move far enough to escape the water I’m stuck in. Even unmoving water lets blood dissolve through it, and I only need a few drops of myself to make it through the barrier to remanifest myself outside of it.

The sound of the pirate woman’s gunshot echoes through the tiny capsule, deafeningly loud. With the visual and sonic chaos, they don’t actually notice that I’ve vanished from my location, leaving a bloody mess behind.

It gives me enough time to engage my own Firearms skill in conjunction with the temporary Sharpshooter.

I aim the revolver and pull the hammer back in one smooth motion, then squeeze the trigger.

My first shot misses as well, grazing the gun-wielding pirate’s scalp but not quite connecting lethally.

These weapons are significantly less powerful and less refined than the rifles I appropriated from the UCC. Is that just because these pirates can’t afford anything better, or is it because of a lowered level of access to firearms in general? I know I saw almost no usage of firearms in the Crowned Islands.

Whatever the case, this revolver is kind of crap. At least it fires in these conditions.

To her credit, the woman I grazed doesn’t even flinch even as the side of her head begins to bleed. She wheels on me, her movements made slower by the water, and she fires before I can finish priming my second revolver.

This time, she hits me straight in the gut. Pressure suddenly sucks at my torso as if a miniature black hole’s formed there. Proper pain follows a second later, but Pain Resistance makes it irrelevant enough that I truly do not care.

My second shot hits her square between the eyes. She doesn’t even have time to scream.

Firearms advanced to level 7!

Steady your aim and fire. When active, you gain a 140% boost to accuracy with firearms.

Enemies killed: [2/12]

I Devour her before her body can hit the water. Her body refreshes my temporary Sharpshooter, but I’m less interested in that than the other benefits the skill provides me.

Devour granted +89 XP!

Temporary attributes gained!

Though their attributes are nothing comparable to even the demons I fought in Ravendale, each death and subsequent Devour grants me a fractional increase in power. It’s temporary, of course, but I don’t plan on this fight taking longer than a few minutes.

Most importantly, the gunshot wound in my gut begins closing almost immediately. I use Shape Blood to punch it open just a little wider, allowing me to put a finger inside the wound to dig the bullet out, and then the flesh starts mending on its own, Devour filling me with stolen vitality.

The water is getting deeper fast, I notice—it’s up to my belly already. It’s also starting to grate against my skin, which is almost certainly the work of the still-surviving water mage here.

I shoot both surviving enemies.

Firearms advanced to level 8!

My first shot connects with a neck, my second with the final man’s chest. The increasing pressure of the water around my legs slackens immediately as the latter target falls, but the first lives long enough to throw a dagger at me.

Unlike the guns, I can actually react to the knife. I drop one of the guns, relying on a Phantom Shaped limb to catch it, and I reactivate my own Soulknife before the knife can hit me. Knifefighting guides my hand in combination with my enhanced mental speed. Though it’s too late for me to fully deflect it, I’m able to react and predict the blade’s path well enough that I can turn it aside, changing a potentially debilitating blow into one that strikes me in the shoulder.

I pull the dagger out of my body and throw it back at its sender.

Enemies killed: [4/12]

Devour granted 184 XP!

Temporary skill unlocked: Guided Blade

While this skill is active, you can telekinetically control a bladed weapon until it makes contact with another being.

Hm. Not incredbly useful, but not the worst skill I’ve gotten either. I can see where this might be useful at a higher level or tier than the dead man had, but as it is, it’s just a nice toy.

Temporary skill unlocked: Water Vortex

Target up to 2000 gallons of water. While this skill is active, a vortex slowly forms in the water, restricting movement and dealing damage to your foes.

The other temporary skill I gain is a little more interesting, but I know from experience that it’s not terribly powerful. The “vortex” I was trapped in was barely a hindrance.

Then again, the other pirates aren’t me.

Salty water sprays me in the face, knocking me out of my considerations as another hole pops open in the vessel.

Right. Speaking of those others, I should probably actually get to them instead of drowning with this… submarine? I’m not sure if that’s the right word for it.

Anyway. I have people to kill and items to take. I gather up as many guns and knives as I can see, and then I move.

Bloodpath takes me out through the leak, though it’s a little challenging to do when the pressure of the ocean is pouring in. The skill nearly destabilizes on my way out, but the vessel hasn’t sunk deep enough for the force of the water to be utterly crushing.

This skill is significantly stronger than its predecessor Bloodstep, and it shows in the way that I can actually stay in the air for an extended period of time now rather than reappearing immediately. It’s costly, siphoning away magic power hungrily, but my mana pool is significantly larger now after so many level-ups.

Still, I shouldn’t be using it for too long. Even with my enhanced magic, it’s a significant amount of power usage.

The situation appears to have changed, though not by much. There are still slimy creatures slithering through the water, but they largely ignore the pirate vessels for some reason. Do they have an enchantment on them that hides their vessels from the offshoots?

A memory that isn’t mine clicks into place. Titan offshoots—their spawn, in a sense—can be devastating to the surrounding countries, thanks in large part to their sheer quantity, but there shouldn’t be so many of them over a hundred miles out from one, and they shouldn’t be this directed.

One of the pirates is controlling them.

Both of the remaining vessels are still underwater, dark shapes just under the previously-calm surface of the ocean. The last one sinks out of sight, the damage I’ve inflicted to it sufficient to allow it to flood entirely.

A quick scan around us tells me that we’re still something like a hundred feet from the boat itself, where Adrian and Sierra are defending. Red and blue lightning crackles through the growing water-cyclone. The magical effect dwarfs the ferry itself. Even as I watch, it vacuums up the slimy sea snail offshoots that stick to the side of the boat, leaving no monster untouched.

I turn back, painfully aware that every second I spend not attacking is a second where my magic pool drains. Still, I’m fresh up on magic thanks to the Devoured corpses. I have enough reserves to hold Bloodpath for a while.

Sierra or Adrian alone are probably enough to eliminate every last one of the offshoots. I doubt any of them hold true power.

Underneath me, one of the vessels surfaces.

I remanifest myself into my humanoid form, casting Blood Echo a moment after and using Shape Blood to use my duplicate as a temporary platform. It’s only slightly less draining than using Bloodpath, but it allows me the use of my human arms alongside ghostly Phantom Shaped limbs.

The top of the surfaced vessel pops open, and I meet it with four separate revolvers. These guns only hold four shots apiece, and I’ve already expended four shots. I should have enough for my remaining enemies, but I need to be careful.

With the help of Phantom Shape, Firearms, and my temporary Sharpshooter, three of my four shots land directly on target. The last hits the shoulder, but that doesn’t matter given the successful shots to my victim’s sternum, face, and gut.

Enemies killed: [5/12]

I drop downwards, dropping my expensive Shape Blood platform in favor of creating another Blood Echo. The bloody Evelyn drops faster than I do, and she drops straight into the newly-created opening.

To be completely honest, I have no idea why they even opened that. Why would anyone give their enemy an opportunity to freely enter their vehicle?

Then again, these people aren’t very high levels. It’s entirely possible they lack the equipment and experience to do anything else.

On the other hand, while my lived experience might not be that much, I was born with a dozen centuries of memories of war.

Though I can’t see the Blood Echo, I can sense her, and I hear the screams as my mirror manipulates its body, forming blades out of every limb and surface.

Slowly, the water around the newly-surfaced vessel starts to darken with blood.

Enemies killed: [6/12]

Before my echo can kill anyone else, though, it’s torn apart.

I raise an eyebrow, entering the Bloodpath for a moment to prevent myself from falling straight into the thick of things. Though I’m confident that I can handle everyone here, I’ve survived this far by only taking risks when they’re necessary.

The surface is metal, slick with seawater, and I almost fall off when I remanifest on it. It’s wide enough for me to lie down on horizontally, so I catch myself before I manage to completely slip off.

Another woman’s head pokes out of the vessel, and I fire twice, exhausting the final bullet in the first two revolvers I stole.

I’m less than five feet from the porthole that she exited from. At this range, Sharpshooter and Firearms mean that I can’t miss.

And yet she remains unhurt. I hear the tink-tink of two flattened bullets dropping and clattering on the metal beneath us.

A shield skill?

“Hey, chill,” she says, drawing a gun of her own as she exits the vessel entirely, swinging her legs out from the inside. “We’re not here to hurt you, you get me?”

“What are you here for, then?” I ask, taking a step forward.

“Well, that…” A smile spreads across her face, unnaturally wide. “That’s for the emperor of the nameless to decide.”

I tilt my head, running through the possibilities. “Scintilla. The Titan.”

Her smile grows wider, and the impact of the ocean’s current against the vessel grows ever so slightly louder.

I trigger Bloodpath just in time to avoid the attack from behind me. Twisted fangs close on nothing but blood, and I melt downwards as a shark with four distinct mouths flops onto the metallic surface before falling back in the water.

I reappear behind the woman who’s managed to stall me, and I reactivate my Soulknife.

Her defenses protect her against bullets, but my knife targets the soul itself.

One clean strike severs her spinal cord. The next decapitates her.

Enemies killed: [7/12]

The lifeless head tumbles to my feet as her body slides into the water. It’s still smiling.

I start Devouring it as I peek into the vessel from which she’s left.

There’s still one pirate in here. His eyes widen ever so slightly when he catches sight of me.

“I surrender!” he shouts. “I—“

My first bullet turns his shout into a scream. My second silences him.

Enemies killed: [8/12]

This vessel, thankfully, doesn’t sink like the first one did. I have more than enough time to get to work on the bodies.

Devour granted +157 XP!

Temporary skill unlocked: Dominate Lesser Monster

Take control over a lesser being.

So the woman was controlling the offshoot. Interesting.

Devour granted +61 XP!

Temporary skill unlocked: Acting

Oh, alright. That’s entirely useless.

I turn my attention to the other vessel, but it’s already retreating.

I chuckle, then activate Bloodpath.

At least, I try to.

Instead of the usual redshift that I experience, however, a crushing pressure overwhelms me. It’s an unfamiliar sensation. Though I can’t quite elucidate the difference, this isn’t nearly the same thing as the demon tree’s skill-dampening aura.

No, that was an active skill. This, on the other hand… this is a presence. Something is putting this out simply by existing.

My skill fails, but it doesn’t fail entirely. The world around me starts to fracture, red lines cracking through it, and portions of it begin to simply fall away, replaced by the vast emptiness of the void.

This isn’t real. Even if every sense tells me that, I know enough about anomalies and the Titans and the world to know that this is an illusion at best and a temporary manifestation at worst. It might be able to materially harm me, but not mortally. Probably.

More importantly, it’s wasting my time.

I sense the presence of a hundred thousand eyes watching me, which would probably have more weight to it if I cared about what the thing behind it has to say.

“Get on with it,” I tell the darkness. “I still have four people to kill.”

You are witnessed, says the being that can be none other than Scintilla, Titan of the Nameless Sea.

“Fuck off,” I say.

This situation does not exist, and if it does, it only does so within a pocket reality that has no influence over me.

You are witnessed.

“I get it. Leave me alone.”

You will die.

Images flash through my mind, a thousand scenes passing in and out of my thoughts in the blink of an eye. Myself, torn to shreds. The dream-mirror Evelyn slicing me to pieces in four thousand different ways. The loss of my ability to control my body. Scenes that only I bore witness to. Deaths I haven’t experienced. I see people I’ve never seen but who feel intimately familiar somehow. I watch myself perish by their hand.

Ashley, the noble who I tricked in the site where I was born, alongside a squad of nobles I’ve never seen. Two investigators with the power of a chained god behind them. Other beings formed in the same laboratory conditions I was.

“Eventually, maybe,” I mutter.

You will die.

The pressure upon me increases, as if the deaths are encroaching on reality, moving towards becoming a reality.

But none of this is real.

You will die.

“Not here, and not today,” I say.

You will die.

“You cannot kill me in a way that matters.”

Even a Titan can’t hold a space like this forever.

When I finally return to reality, though, the last vessel is gone.

I sigh. “Fucking figures.”

Looks like I’ve got a lot more on my plate than I thought I did.