Evil

Preparation

She collapsed onto me, breath burning hot, fanning heavily on my neck,"That was—"

"Intense? Yeah."

"You're...A better kisser than expected."

Just then, an awkward cough sounded,"Ahem. Lady Rhode?"

Our heads turned to see that man who brought me to see her standing there quietly, a smug, knowing expression on his face,"I apologise for interrupting this passionate romp but there are matters you should be made aware of."

My eyes widened as I quickly patched my dress up, covering myself, embarrassment with nonpareil smashing into me like an oncoming truck, clenching my teeth in the hopes that it would stop this unending flow of blood to my cheeks.

"What is it?"

"The Demonic Faction has invaded. Rank 8 Galeion Hannes, Devil King and rank 8 Haley Jude, Queen of Hearts are leading the charge. The ships have brought all guests away but I cannot take on two alone. Furthermore, we need to guarantee the safety of Sinphony. The soldiers of the demonic faction are in a formation rivalling a pseudo-rank 9."

I turned from demure to dead serious. Now wasn't the time to feel like this. I hadn't the liberty to let my feelings run rampant.

But from this seriousness turned to anger. My peace had been interrupted. My partner's livelihood disrupted and our intimate moment shattered.

I remembered Tom vaguely speaking about a reward. In my storage ring, I found a conspicuous black box.

A wave of information entered my head as a smile slowly made its way onto my face,"Charlie."

"Let's route the diamond corps to—Huh?"

"You stay back with him to defend the island. I think I can handle the main force."

"Now's not the time to brag Artemis. Two rank eights and a pseudo rank 9? You're just woken up from that coma and I don't—"

"I've got a new toy to try out. If I'm in danger, I'll retreat, alright?"

"...Promise?"

"I won't die on you. I didn't against that rank 9 now, did I?"

"Just...Be safe, alright?"

"Kiss for good luck?"

With a peck on the cheek, I left hastily, box appearing in my hand,"Inquirer. 20,000 from the rank 7 right?"

[My creator decided to reward you with 200,000 since you technically fought a rank 9 and nearly killed it.]

"Generous, alright now," I fixated on the box, the dull gem Charlie had given me appearing in my hand.

The box was named Transmutator. As long as sufficient mana or items containing mana were infused into the box, an imprint of equal power could be made.

Unknowingly, Tom had absolutely broken the balance of this game he had made. I had no intention to keep the balance. Besides, he pissed me off once and I was a very petty person.

"What kind of imprint would I want?" I inserted the gem inside, a value of 15,000 appearing.

"How much would an imprint making all rank advances require only mana stones cost?" A value of 5,000 appeared.

"Deal." In an instant, the value dropped to 10,000.

"I need something overpowered why not..." I took off all my imprints, including chromatic flame and inserted everything into the box, a value of 20,500 appearing.

"Immortality and eternal beauty?" 250. Without hesitation, I exchanged for two. One for me, and one to sell to Charlie. I wasn't vain but eternal beauty for 10 value seemed like a steal.

20,000 value remained. I needed to make something powerful. Besides, micromanaging hundreds of imprints was tiring. I preferred one method of overwhelming power to rule them all.

Then, inspiration struck me. A smile tugged at the corner of my lips,"An imprint to turn into a true dragon?" 10,000.

"With low mana consumption and mental stress?" It shot up to 15,000. It took a little more adjustment before I ended up new imprint I had the privilege of naming as it hadn't existed in this world before—La Bestia. I fused one of the immortality imprints with the mana imprint for simplicity's sake.

With that, the positioning of everything changed. The achievement tattoos melded into a ring with an arrow sitting on my right shoulder just below the ancient mark from Tarkyol, the bloodline tattoos melding into red circle which fitted into the ring, the white diamond signifying my forms in the middle of the circle.

On my right hand, intricate patterns circled around a black circle with a fountain drawn from white. (A/N: This is the closest I could find, just add a fountain and ignore the finger part.)

La Beastia sat on my left hand, mirroring the mana imprint, a dragon darker than midnight with a spiky frame coiled around in a circle, spitting out black flames.

I had 19,990 souls after fusing. It would need to be used well. Spending 4,910 on 50 blue marks, leaving me with 15,080 souls. 500 lives ought to be enough, right?

Splitting it three ways, I put 2,000 into speed, strength and strength rising to 15 each and poured 9,000 into defence, climbing to 15 blue squares and put aside 2,000 for a rainy day.

Just as I had finished applying them and kept the box, I walked out finding myself face to face with an army surrounding the island, a voice calling out,"ARTEMIS BLYTHE! THE DEMONIC FACTION WISHES TO RECRUIT YOU! JOIN OR FACE THE FULL MIGHT OF THE FACTION!"

Just as I had finished allocating stuff, I summoned hundreds of mana stones and absorbed them rapidly, my power raised tremendously as this mana sink had drained me of every single piece of mana stone on me, leaving me at rank 7.

I looked down to find additional 60 marks on speed, strength and defence, raising the total to 75 marks each respectively. I sucked in a deep breath, finally realising why the gap was so large. No wonder I couldn't even overpower Charlie with amplify.

It seemed that raising my rank was a far more efficient way to raise my strength, now that it had been made blindingly obvious. I felt a great surge in my mana capacity, my control over the elements far more fine-tuned than before.

Of course, despite my very apparent power-up, I wasn't about to walk in unprepared. No, I was about to fly in.

"Demon form."