Void Domain, Book 04 полностью

Do not be squeamish, servant.

The hairs on her neck stood on end. She could feel him roll his eyes.

Demons do not die when they are killed. They merely spend some time in the abyss of the Void.

“That’s not–What do you expect me to do about him?” Shalise did not bother hiding her irritation. “If I could have done something about him, I would have before I smeared your blood all over myself.”

Foolish servant. You were admiring my muscles–

I was not, she thought to herself.

Use them.

“And how am I suppos–”

Shalise blinked.

There was a tickling on her stomach.

Turning away from the indigo demon, Shalise opened her shirt and looked down.

And promptly gagged.

Cords of worms beneath her skin writhed around her body. The worms spread out, reaching down her legs, up her shoulders, and down her arms.

The only thing keeping her from all out panic was the lack of pain. There was just an almost pleasant tickle.

Like a cloth being tightened with a stick, the worms squeezed her. It lasted for only a few short moments before they stopped moving.

Shalise gasped as she glanced at herself.

While the more physically demanding nights in Professor Kines’ class had kept her in shape, she hadn’t spent much time actually building strength.

Her fingers ran over her new abs. Abs! A six-pack even. Genoa would be jealous.

Both her arms and legs were similarly beefed up.

She felt like she could lift a truck without breaking a sweat.

But… it was wrong.

Hmph. Pathetic.

“What did you do?”

Be more in tune with your inner demon next time, servant.

Shalise could feel him grinning at his little pun. She was too grossed out to care.

There was a brief mental sigh from Prax. It will have to do.

Her body looked normal. Normal for a bodybuilder, at least. Touching her new abs even felt normal.

But it didn’t feel normal. The worms were still there. Every little movement she made, she could feel them pretending to be muscles.

Disgusting.

All at once, the worms started pulling back. Her fingertips returned to their normal definition, followed by her wrists and arms.

Cease this foolishness, servant, Prax shouted in her head. Dispatch the incubus before dismissing my gift.

Startled by his voice, Shalise allowed the worms to return to their places.

At least she could get rid of it.

“I don’t know how to fight,” Shalise eventually said. She ran her tongue around the inside of her mouth. Her jaw, her cheeks, her face, and her tongue all felt infested.

Do not fight then, he said. Reach out and grip his skull. Pull him into the barrier and hold him there until he disappears.

Taking a deep breath, Shalise clenched her worm-infested hands into a fist. “I can do this,” she mumbled as she turned towards the indigo demon. Resigned, she walked up to the barrier with her eyes staring at the floor.

She stopped just at the edge and looked up.

He licked his lips.

Shalise wrinkled her face in disgust.

Fool, Prax laughed. Grab him and end this.

At a speed that surprised Shalise, her arms reached out of the barrier.

The demon’s eyes and mouth widened in apparent shock.

He didn’t have time to react. Following Prax’s instructions, Shalise used her full weight to pull him into the barrier.

The sizzling and the screaming started at the same time.

Shalise closed her eyes.

She wished she could close her ears.

Claws raked against her hands, but whatever the worms were doing, they managed to keep her from feeling too hurt.

It took several agonizing minutes, but eventually the screams cut off and the clawing ceased. A minute later and Shalise fell backwards, landing on her butt, as the demon slipped out of her grip.

Opening her eyes, Shalise caught the tail end of a portal closing. One just like the portal that had opened beneath the imp that Professor Baxter had killed at her seminar.

Shalise got up to her feet and just stared. There was no evidence of the indigo demon except for a few splatters of blood. The blood blended in with the black tiles and was only noticeable thanks to the angle of the ambient light.

And, Shalise noted with a glance at her own hands, it might not be his blood.

The backs of her hands up to her wrists looked like they had been put through a meat grinder. Red blood dripped off her hands, pooling on the floor in front of her.

Though they wouldn’t look like that for long. She could see the muscles and skin knitting back together in real-time. Strands of flesh jumped across gaps, pulling the flesh back to its normal position.

Her stomach churned. Shalise knelt over and heaved.