The pain began as burning embers in my veins, but soon it became a wildfire, impossible to control. Every fiber of my body blazed, as if I were melting from the inside, only to be reforged anew.
"AAAHHHHH!!"
I writhed on the bed, the silken sheets tearing beneath my claws. My bones cracked like dry branches; I could feel them stretching, reinforcing, hardening. My skin split open in dark fissures glowing with crimson light before sealing themselves again, as though the darkness itself were stitching me back together.
< The host is undergoing reconstruction. >
My heart pounded violently—not with a human rhythm, but with an irregular pulse that made the air around me tremble. The shadows in the room began to lengthen and stir, moving as though alive, answering to that monstrous heartbeat.
From my wrists and forearms, black veins crawled outward, twisting like organic tattoos. A cold, vampiric energy surged through my fangs as they sharpened into natural weapons. My nails grew longer, black and curved, like small daggers.
"Ghhhaaaahhh—!"
I could barely breathe. The elven mana of my mother and the vampiric blood of my father were clashing violently, like two wild beasts fighting inside me. My body shook, unable to contain them.
And then—something clicked.
The mana stopped tearing me apart and began to flow in harmony with my blood. I felt the shadows bend to my will, the cold air wrap around me with reverence, as though the very room bowed before what I was becoming.
< Installation of "Profane Midnight Body" complete. >
I slowly rose, gasping. The pain didn't vanish, but it had changed—it became a constant flame, reminding me that I was no longer human, that my essence was something far darker.
I looked into the mirror once again.
My skin was firmer now, ivory laced with dark veins that glowed faintly in certain places. My horns had grown sharper, more refined, glowing with a crimson pulse that beat in time with my heart.
But the most terrifying of all were my eyes.
The left—violet with silvery sparks—shone with a cold clarity, able to analyze everything around me.The right—burning crimson—flickered with each breath, pulsing with a primal hunger.
I extended my hand and, without meaning to, the shadows beneath the bed rose like living tentacles, wrapping around my arm in a chilling embrace. With a thought, they slithered back into place.
< The host has unlocked new abilities: >
Profane Body: Physical and magical resistance multiplied. Your body no longer corrodes; it now consumes excess mana as nourishment.
Midnight Twin Eyes: Enhanced vision, mana perception, and the ability to read emotions through eye contact.
Shadow Dominion: Initial capacity to manipulate shadows as extensions of your body.
Eternal Hunger: Your abilities strengthen when consuming blood. The greater the hunger, the stronger the power… but the harder it becomes to control.
I smiled, exhausted but brimming with a power I had never known.
I was no longer the weak Nyx of the past.I was something more.Something the world would learn to fear.