A chilling silence suddenly fell over the sector where Vara stood, as if the cacophonous battlefield had abruptly lost its voice. The air, once searing with the heat of blood-steam and the friction of internal mana, plummeted to an unnaturally frozen stillness. A thin mist began to rise from the damp earth, but it was no water vapor; it was a physical manifestation of mana being forcibly siphoned from the surroundings.
Vara froze. The hair on the nape of her neck stood on end. Her sharp predatory instincts screamed, signaling a danger far greater than the two Level 5 Core Mana Demons she had just defeated. She snapped her head around, her amber eyes sweeping the mountain of corpses to her left.
There, atop a mound of flesh composed of fallen Warbeasts and Demons, a creature was crawling in a revolting manner. It was a Level 5 Core Mana Demon. However, this creature was not fighting; it was a parasite in the middle of a feast.
Its emaciated hands, tipped with blackened claws, tore open the chest of a recently fallen Warbeast. Vara recognized the Bear Tribe warrior; he was one of those who had helped her hold back the third Level 5 Demon before she finished the others. Tragically, it seemed he had paid with his life. With an uncontrollable, ravenous frenzy, the Demon reached into the warrior’s chest cavity, pulling out a heart still saturated with dense Internal Mana. Not stopping there, it split open its victim’s skull and devoured the still-warm brain tissue. The creature was harvesting the purest nutrients from those with the most perfect mana circuits.
Vara’s eyes narrowed, her pupils contracting into sharp vertical slits. She knew exactly what was happening: the Demon was performing a ’forced harvest’ to trigger an existential leap.
"Damn it..." she hissed.
Intuition commanded her hands to move—to lunge and decapitate the creature before the process was complete. Vara slammed her foot into the ground, preparing to launch. But she was one second too late.
The purple mana pooling beneath the pile of corpses suddenly churned violently, erupting upward like a fountain of liquid darkness. Corrosive bubbles of mana enveloped the Demon’s body. What followed was a sight that would haunt the nightmares of any onlooker.
The Demon’s skeletal frame began to bloat disproportionately. New muscle mass surged with a speed that tore through its old skin, accompanied by the sickening krak and sret of tissues being forced to elongate. Its black skin ruptured in several places, venting foul-smelling steam—a mixture of sulfur and charred flesh.
In the center of its chest, a gaping hole formed, and from it, a dark violet core crystal slowly emerged. The crystal pulsed, radiating a wave of pressure so heavy that the earth beneath it cracked several inches deep.
A Level 6 Core Mana Demon.
Vara could almost see the creature smirking at her.
This was why battling Demons was as dangerous as it was revolting. Their numbers far exceeded their opponents, and every time someone fell—whether Demon or Warbeast—another Demon would immediately devour the remains. In an instant, they would undergo an instant evolution that multiplied their power several times over.
To avoid the risk of this evolution, Warbeasts—who typically favored close-quarters physical combat—were forced to utilize elemental magic. They had to obliterate the enemy’s body entirely, ensuring no scraps remained for other Demons to consume.
But the instant evolution before Vara was finished. The creature now stood three meters tall, its proportions resembling a killing machine more than a living being. Hot steam billowed from its pores, and its eyes were no longer red, but a glowing purple—a vacant stare saturated with pure killing intent.
Without warning, without even a snarl, the Demon vanished.
BOOM!
The creature’s speed defied the logic of the Level 5 it had just left behind. In the blink of an eye, it was in front of Vara, swinging claws that were now significantly larger and coursing with dense, corrosive violet energy.
Vara barely had time to react. Instinct took over; she crossed her arms before her chest, pumping her entire store of Internal Mana to harden her Iron Hide and reinforce her Astral Claws to their absolute limit.
CLANG!
The impact did not sound like the meeting of flesh, but rather two slabs of steel struck with the force of thousands of tons. A shockwave exploded from the point of contact, creating a small crater and instantly clearing the surrounding area of dust, rocks, and blood-spray.
Vara was driven back several meters, her feet carving trenches into the soggy ground. She felt a searing heat in her forearms. The corrosive energy from the Demon’s claws tried to gnaw through her transparent mana, emitting an alarming hissing sound.
However, instead of showing fear, the corners of Vara’s lips curled upward. A wild grin appeared, revealing the sharp fangs behind her lips. Her adrenaline spiked, pumping her body temperature to a level where white steam billowed from her shoulders.
A Level 6 Mana Demon possessed characteristics distinct from a Level 6 Mage. Typically, to maintain the Second Mana God Form, a Mage must continuously keep their Domain open to summon that state. However, a Mana Demon that had evolved into a Level 6 Core would transform into its Second God Form permanently, making it their new normal state.
Vara felt fortunate she hadn’t released her own Second God Form and had chosen to follow her wild instincts. If she hadn’t, that last strike would have surely pierced her defenses. Even if it didn’t kill her, she would have suffered a grievous wound, making it impossible to withstand the next attack.
Many Level 6 Constellation Warbeasts had perished due to sudden evolutions like this. They often didn’t have time to activate their Second God Form and were forced to tank the Demon’s lightning-fast strikes with their normal bodies. Furthermore, every Demon attack carried a curse—ranging from corrosiveness and poison to various other lethal debuffs.
Consequently, Warbeasts had gradually learned to deploy their Second God Form from the very start of a battle. They never knew which Mana Demon might evolve instantly; a weak enemy they could kill with one hand might suddenly turn into an apex predator demanding their full strength just to survive.
"Instant evolution, huh?" Vara murmured, her voice laced with a dangerous challenge. "You think you can win against me just because your body got a little bigger and your stench grew a little fouler?"
Vara dropped into a low crouch. She performed a high-risk maneuver on the mana circuits in her legs, not merely channeling mana but compressing it into her soles to create a highly volatile pressure point. This was Explosive Propulsion, a maneuver capable of shredding leg muscles if not controlled with absolute precision.
"Let’s see how fast this new version of you can react!"
DUM!
The ground beneath Vara shattered into fragments as she released the mana pressure in her legs. She lunged forward, leaving a white afterimage trailing in the air.
The demon roared, attempting to snatch Vara with its claws, but she was already gone. With a speed achievable only through high-level Flow of the Primal, Vara performed a zigzag maneuver in mid-air, shifting from one point to another in the blink of an eye.
A duel of imperceptible speed commenced. To the ordinary soldiers watching from a distance, they saw only flashes of corrosive purple light constantly clashing against streaks of transparent white light. Each time they met, a thunderous boom rang out, followed by pressure waves that shook the valley.
At first, the mana demon could match Vara’s speed, but gradually, it fell a step behind. Vara had initially been testing the demon, searching for a weakness to defeat it without wasting too much mana. A battlefield engagement was not a one-on-one duel; she had no idea what other enemies she would face after defeating this one. However, she realized she couldn’t linger. The mana demon was growing accustomed to its new body, and its movements—initially stiff—were becoming more fluid. Consequently, Vara grew serious. This fight had to be ended immediately.
Vara moved like a white storm. She scaled cliff walls, ricocheted through the air, and attacked from impossible angles. Her transparent claws vibrated more violently now, cleaving the air with a high-pitched drone that pained the ears.
"Too slow!" Vara shouted as she slipped under the demon’s arm, delivering a rapid three-strike flurry that tore through the creature’s flank, exposing its blackened ribs.
The demon tried to grab her, but Vara had already spun in mid-air, landing a granite-hard mana-coated heel kick directly to its jaw. Krak! The demon’s jaw shifted, but as if it no longer felt pain, it immediately retaliated with a blast of purple mana from its mouth.
Vara somersaulted through the air, dodging the blast which instantly liquefied the rock behind her. She landed gracefully atop a remaining stone pillar, her eyes flashing with battle fervor.
"Come on, demon!" Vara triggered her mana flow once more, making the black stripes on her skin glow dimly. "Show me if you can last more than a minute against me!"