[Destruction Attunement increased]
Angelica fell to her knees yet again the moment the last of the three snake heads perished. She was glad that she’d added the caveat about protecting the dog “from the snake” in her order. Otherwise the interpretation could have been skewed. It could have become “protect the dog from anything and everything for the rest of its life.” But now that the freakish reptile was dead, it was no longer a threat, and the mammal had been sufficiently saved.
The pup seemed to sense that it was no longer in danger, sniffing at the remains of the three-headed snake. Hopefully, it wouldn’t try to eat it. But Angelica’s eyes only widened when the corpse suddenly turned white, or rather, rapidly lost all of its color. The body began to decay, crumbling away like a broken statue into small fragments.
Then, ever more confusing and worrying, the pieces lifted off the ground, flying through the air, straight at Angelica. She didn’t have the strength to move, and her body made no attempt to dodge them. Instead, they hit her in the chest, but she didn’t even feel it. The moment they made contact, they glowed and vanished, like they’d been absorbed into her.
[Gained 13 Essence]
[Achievement unlocked: Scourge-Cleanser – Rank 1]
Like the first achievement, this one also came with an additional message.
[Good job. You have done your duty and proven your worth. Demon Lord Ferrul applauds your effort. But this is only the first. Take this gift of power and use it to defeat every Malignant you see. Cleanse the scourge and reap the rewards.]
[Might notably increased. Next Reward: 10 Malignants defeated]
So that thing was called a Malignant? Or was she just so tired that her brain was making up words? Whatever, she didn’t particularly care about that or some obscure reward. The real reward was right in front of her, and she was hoping to be compensated. Angelica held out her free hand in the direction of the dog, hoping it’d come near and let her pet it.
The animal recognized the act immediately. So it wasn’t blind after all? Strange. The mutt walked over toward her, about to let its head fall under her hand, but it paused. Then it backed up a step and hesitantly began to sniff her. That was when a switch flipped in the dog, and it took a defensive stance yet again, growling at her. Did she really smell that bad? She’d just showered yesterday, but the stink of a thousand pieces of trash certainly wasn’t helping. Unfortunately, the animal didn’t stick around to give her an answer, and it bolted off into the night.
Damn. Well, she’d saved it, at least, so that’s what mattered most. And now she still had to save herself. Angelica was already running on fumes before that encounter. It had sapped the last of her energy. There was no way she’d even make it home in her current state, especially because all forms of public transport would have stopped at this hour. She could maybe find a hotel nearby, but that would eat into a good chunk of the money she’d just worked so hard for.
No, I just need some fuel, and then I’ll be fine, the starving artist attempted to convince herself. With her last remaining strength, she pulled herself off the ground and returned to the convenience store parking lot. Before she headed inside, she needed to free her hand from the trash poker, since the clerk might raise an eyebrow at such a thing. One by one, she pried her fingers free from the grip around it and then pulled the tool loose with her other hand. It felt like her skin was being ripped off, and there was a new cooling wetness around her palm as the pain surged, likely blood or blister serum.
She was struggling to see it due to the dark night. Angelica grabbed the poker and the bag of trash she’d left behind earlier, setting them off to a side where hopefully no one would bother them, and headed inside the store. Her first stop was the bathroom, and her appearance was about what she expected: ratty. The girl’s hair was frizzled, her clothes grimy, coupled with the exhaustion on her face, it looked like she’d just woken up from a rough nap in a dumpster. If only she’d been so lucky.
Angelica took another look at her hand. That was a nasty blister indeed, one she’d already popped and scarred. Yet at the same time, it wasn’t nearly as bad as she was expecting. Still, Angelica would have to hide it, not wanting the cashier to get freaked out when she was buying things and exchanging money. And it was probably just a good idea to wrap it up to begin with until she could treat it better at home.
After a brief glance around at the limited options of the bathroom, she decided to unroll some toilet paper and use that as a bandage since it would be softer on her skin than the rough paper towels. When she went to wrap it, though, she was met with another oddity. Her hand was fine. In fact, it looked completely pristine, unblemished in any capacity.
Could it have actually healed that quickly? It was difficult to tell any aching pain on her body apart from another, so with her other hand, she prodded the palm. Holy frits! Angelica reeled with stinging pain, like stabbing a knife and twisting into an open wound. It definitely was not healed. She ran her fingers more gently along it this time, and she could feel the wetness and tears of the damaged blister, but it looked perfectly smooth and dry. Yup, I’m going crazy.
She had to forget about it for now, otherwise her intensifying wooziness would lead to her inevitable collapse. Angelica had to eat something and get home to sleep, those were her only priorities, and she unashamedly drank some of the water from the bathroom sink, just to ease the edge of her current state. Before heading out, though, she did quickly finger-comb her hair slightly and washed away the more obvious stains on her track suit. While the convenience store employees had likely seen all manner of customers, she didn’t want to be one they talked about for days to come.
“Hey, wait, I’ll take some!” Right when she came out of the bathroom, one of the employees was throwing away the “fresh” food that was put out everyday. They were so kind as to even let her buy them at a discount. Frankly, they should have been free if they were going to be trash anyway, but she wasn’t going to complain about them since the employees were already bending the policy a bit for her.
In total, she got a wrap, a hotdog, and a fruitcup for cheap. When she added on two bottles of tea and a pack of catfood for Cherub since they didn’t sell single cans, it was more than she wanted to spend. Definitely would have been cheaper to buy it elsewhere, but finding another store open at this hour that sold them wouldn’t be worth the effort, so she had to go with paying for the convenience fee of convenience stores.
Angelica barely made it out the door before she was stuffing her face with the hot dog, scarfing the stale substance down while it was still lukewarm before the winter air got to it. She then dumped most of the fruit cup in her mouth along with half a bottle of tea, mixing some weird concoction as she chewed. While it tasted fine, even if it didn’t, she wouldn’t have cared in the slightest. When the first bites of food hit her stomach, it was like new life steadily being breathed into her.
She took her time with the wrap. Originally, she’d planned to eat it on the walk home, but her legs didn’t want to move yet. While she slowly chewed, the late-night diner was treated to a strange bit of entertainment. A trio of poshly dressed individuals came running up in front of the convenience store, not looking the type to be anywhere near such a place for those of lower income.
They panted and huffed, scanning around. One of them glanced at her at one point, but she didn’t even have the energy to flinch. And their eyes passed over her anyways, like she wasn’t even there or worth noticing. Bit rude, though she wasn’t really in the condition or mind-state of wanting to be perceived.
“Just where is that thing?” A big man in a bougie scarf muttered.
“Sense Rune isn’t picking it up.” The woman next to him spouted, looking at something in her hand. “And my Bound doesn’t detect it anymore, either.”
“Don’t tell me someone else beat us to it!” the last man complained. “Too cold to be out here running around like this. Whatever, let’s just go back. Something low-ranking like that probably got itself stepped on and squashed. Wasn’t worth our time to begin with.”
“It’s our duty to get rid of them all and keep the city safe!” The woman scolded him for some reason, thumping him across the head. With that, the trio left, hoofing it away, back from whence they came.
Buncha weirdos. To the observer, they almost looked like some improv role-players acting out a scene. Such things were pretty popular back when she was in college, often passing by various groups having a laugh on the campus lawns between her walks to her classes. The last man had been right about one thing, though. It was definitely too cold.
Now that she’d had time to stop and rest properly, the chill was definitely starting to set in again. Her Cold Resistance, assuming it hadn’t been a figment of her addled imagination, wasn’t doing enough at its current level. So it was time to head home. Moving would warm herself up, hopefully.
Angelica forced her legs to life once more, taking heavy steps now that all momentum had been lost, wincing with each one. She then had another deluge of pain when she picked the poker off the ground, instinctually grabbing it with her dominant hand, having forgotten how damaged it was since she couldn’t see the injury. The trash collector still had to drop off the supplies, but fortunately, that was in the direction of her apartment.
After getting everything stored where it should, the victim of her own commands made the long walk back home. Every stride was anguish yet relieving at the same time. It brought her closer to home, to her bed, to her cat she desperately wanted to snuggle, and to avoiding a fate of dying out in the cold winter night. Those things kept her going.
However, they did not keep her mind from wandering during it all, if nothing more than an escape from focusing on how much everything hurt. She dwelled on the absolute absurdity of her day, and more importantly, how none of it added up. There were just too many weird things that had compiled for it to be a coincidence.
The way her body had behaved against her wishes, the weird voices she kept hearing. Those thoughts were not her own. At first she could blame it on paint fumes and malnutrition, but to keep conceiving of concepts like that out of thin air, it was too radical. And the most damning evidence of all: she was alive.
Angelica should be dead. Her impoverished body should have collapsed well before she completed her trash pick-up goal. It was only those resistances and Vigor boosts, or however her mind had said them, that kept her going. Then when fighting the weird snake, she shouldn’t have won that. It should have hit her easily. Those moves were not her own, not anything she should have been capable of, especially with her current physical state.
No, something had happened. Something had changed. She had changed.
[Cold Resistance Lv.2]
[Vigor increased]
[Glacial Attunement increased]
Just like that, further proof came knocking. Once again, the staggering nip of the frosty winter night eased. And on top of that, her entire body suddenly hurt just a hair-bit less, and she had slightly more energy, what she would need to get home. Because, honestly, she had been starting to fear that it was impossible otherwise. Angelica didn’t know how or why this had happened to her, but she was pretty sure she knew the culprit.
“I’m home, Cherub.” She let out a great sigh of relief with those words, like her existence could finally unclench. And her cat came eagerly to greet her, meowing incessantly because she had dared to be late with his dinner. It warmed her heart a bit to watch him munch away at the overpriced cat food, blissfully unaware of the struggles she’d gone through to get it. She was happy that the animal let her pet him now, denied of such delights earlier with the dog. Though her pet did seem a bit more wary of it than usual, not leaning into her hand.
Angelica then went and picked up the book that was still lying open on the floor. She flipped it closed and stared deeply at the unknown words on the cover. For whatever reason, her mind ached when she looked at the scribbles, annoyed at itself, like she should know what they said.
[Passive Skill: Tongues Lv.1 unlocked]
[Lucidity increased]
Like magic, Angelica could suddenly read the title. Well, not all of it, just the last two words. The script on the cover wasn’t gone, nor was it really replaced. Rather, the letters she knew were overlaid. “Demon Summoning.”
So she’d been right all along. The whole book had been about summoning Demons. And that’s what she’d done somehow. Except… she’d summoned herself? But she wasn’t a Demon, surely. There was nothing demonic about her. Something weird must have gone wrong, but she didn’t have the strength at present to figure out what.
The “Summoner” flipped through the pages briefly, confirming that a few more words had been translated. Not most, barely every tenth or twentieth word, actually. Trying to decipher anything was going to be an unrivaled headache. But the fact that it was possible was good enough for now. “Alright book. I’m letting you off this time. Tomorrow, though, we’re going to have a proper sit-down.”
Angelica set the book aside, over on her desk gently since now she actually cared what would happen to it. She then grabbed Cherub and hopped into bed, forcing him to snuggle with her as she quickly drifted off to sleep.