Enochia’s new form had been nothing short of terrifyingly beautiful.
Her hair was probably the only somewhat similar part of her, still that molten-silver color she remembered. It framed a face that was unmistakably hers, yet sharper and more predatory. The girl she had been was still there, buried somewhere under the surface, but the being staring back from the glass shard was undeniably other.
She leaned closer to see her eyes, and froze as they were completely different.
Her right eye burned an unbroken, vivid crimson, a molten red so intense it looked sculpted from burning magma. Her left eye, however, was a stark, angelic white, one so pale and luminous it almost looked blind. In fact, she looked half-blind at a glance. Yet she could see perfectly through it, every detail clear as day, no blur, no distortion. Just… unsettling purity.
“Okay… creepy, but cool,” she muttered, tilting her head.
She straightened a little to get a better look at the rest of herself. She was noticeably taller. She had always been a perfect five-foot-seven, something she used to flex about because it was the “ideal cute-but-not-too-short height,” but now she stood at least five-foot-ten.
And somehow, very annoyingly, she looked more mature in other areas too—her breasts and hips had grown just enough to be impossible to ignore.
Her gaze dropped to her armor and instantly soured.
Because it was kinda weird.
It looked like a cursed fusion between a shredded gothic dress, thigh-high heeled boots and a decent heavy breastplate that protected her chest. BUT, her legs were without those plates of armor! It felt easy to move in though, and since it didn't show any skin, she honestly didn't care.
'It kinda sucks I get no bonuses from this... I legit don't even have it equipped, nor in the inventory. And since I have no DEF, the armor is really useless.'
But never mind that. What she struggled with, the one thing that twisted her gut, were the two horns atop her head.
She stared at them for a long time, expression flattening into something brittle.
She hated demons. Absolutely despised them.
Not because they were ugly, not because they were from Hell, not because they hated humans. She hated them for the same reason she hated murderers: they were senseless, destructive, genocidal creatures driven by the joy of killing.
And she thought she had known that if she became one, she wouldn’t hate herself for it.
So why… why did these horns bother her so much? Why did looking at them twist something deep and unpleasant in her stomach?
She raised her hand slowly, perhaps even more slowly than she intended, and hovered it near her right horn. Her fingers trembled faintly, and she didn’t understand why, which only made it worse. When she finally touched the horn, she felt a strange sensation, like touching it meant touching her nerves directly. The sensation crawled through her scalp and down her spine.
And then without thinking, she gripped it hard. Her pupils shrank to dots, her breathing slowed and her thoughts went foggy and distant, like she had fallen underwater.
Afterwards, she tugged.
Not enough to rip anything out, but enough to hurt. Enough to feel the jolt deep in her skull. She didn’t know why she was doing it, she only knew something in her wanted it gone, gone, gone GONE—
And then a window slammed directly into her field of vision.
[Stop immediately. Your current decision is unwise.]
Her mind snapped back so fast she jolted physically, stumbling a step backward, releasing the horn like it had burned her. A shaky exhale left her chest.
“Right—yeah. Okay. Sorry. That was… stupid,” she muttered, rubbing her forehead as if trying to erase the last five seconds. “Let’s not do that again.”
Before she could even finish grounding herself, the faint metallic rattle of a chain reached her ears.
Her chains… Something had disturbed them.
Her whole body went rigid. The haze in her mind evaporated instantly. She launched herself upward, climbing through the hole, landing on the ruined platform and she immediately realized her mistake.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
She forgot to check the map.
Her eyes darted across the church, and only seconds passed before she saw them. Five Imps of Wrath perched across benches. Crawling along walls. Clumped around the shattered bench.
Enochia closed her eyes for a very long second.
Then sighed.
“Alright. Head out of your ass, Enochia. Focus damn it!”
Two of the five imps froze the instant Enochia’s gaze locked onto them. Their eyes widened, and the shared realization that they had been spotted rippled through their twitchy limbs. Without even attempting subtlety, both launched toward her at once.
Enochia didn’t even bother to ready a stance. Instead, she simply blinked, exhaled, and let a slow smirk creep across her lips as she raised both arms outward like she was about to hug them.
Even the imps stuttered mid-flight for a fraction of a second, their instincts spiking in confusion because the motion made no sense at all coming from something they expected to fight back… Until the reason revealed itself.
Six chains erupted out of her arms, except they didn’t truly form so much as flicker into visibility. They had never left. Every chain curled across the church, draped over pillars, stretched across beams, coiled along pews was actually just an extended piece of one of these six, just extended to the maximum.
The moment she pulled, the entire network of metal awakened. The chains closest to her, those lying at her feet and trailing across the broken platform reacted instantly, thickening and solidifying, while the distant portions far across the church barely twitched.
She simply wasn’t strong enough yet to drag the remote ends across pillars or benches; the range was too great and her strength far too low. But she didn’t need the far ones. The ones near her surged forward with explosive force the moment her hands yanked back on the glowing links.
A shock rippled outward like a metal tide as one chain at her feet snapped into motion, racing across the short distance between her and the airborne imps, while another slightly farther back dragged itself forward a few inches before its momentum died from her physical limitation. Still, the nearest chain slammed upward in a sweeping arc, catching the imps mid-flight with brutal force. Both creatures collided into it, their bodies whipping sideways like kicked dolls before crashing across the stone floor.
[110 DMG dealt]
[110 DMG dealt]
The backlash nearly threw Enochia on her ass. Even controlling just the closest sections sent a violent shock up her arms, her muscles screaming in protest as the weight of those living metal coils tugged against her like she was trying to steer industrial machinery with bare hands. She clenched her teeth, legs bracing hard against the cracked platform as she forced the chains to still.
“God—DAMN these things are heavy!” she barked, breath sharp with effort, though there was a feral spark of satisfaction beneath the strain. “My build is not made for this bullshit!”
But annoyance aside, the result was good enough. Another two or three swings would finish those little things, but that meant she needed her chains back.
She inhaled sharply, lifted her hand like snapping her fingers, and whispered:
[Dispel]
Light washed through the church as all chains instantly dissolved. The disappearance was so sudden and total that it left the room feeling unnervingly empty.
But the imps interpreted it as weakness, or even some kind of limitation on her part.
All three remaining creatures puffed up like enraged ferrets as they readied themselves to pounce. And just as they did, a window appeared before Enochia’s eyes, unmistakably Roo’s handwriting.
─────────────────────────────
QUEST ACQUIRED: Defeat All Enemies
Category: Combat
Objective:
Eliminate all 6 hostile entities within the designated combat zone. This trial is region-bound: leaving the area, dying, or failing to kill all detected enemies will invalidate reward eligibility.
Progress: 0 / 6
Reward:
? 10kg Grade Five Materials
? 10 Souls
? 10,000 XP
─────────────────────────────
Her grin snapped wide enough to hurt her. “Oh THANK YOU, ROO—FINALLY! REAL LOOT!” she cheered, practically vibrating. “Back on Earth quests were like getting struck by lightning and now I’m just—just—BLESSED! BLESSED WITH DAILY QUESTS LIKE SOME MMO PROTAG—”
She never finished the thought because one imp launched straight at her from the blind spot near a broken bench and sank its entire mouthful of needle-teeth into her right arm. She gasped from the sheer audacity, and felt her health dip further.
[-50 HP]
HP: 1,171 / 1,250
Her head turned toward the tiny demon latched onto her. “…HEY. FUCKFACE.” Her voice vibrated with pure irritation. “That. Hurt.”
She spotted another imp mid-jump to her left and her reflex took over.
[Chains of Nebuchadnezzar]
Chains roared out of her arm, one, then two, then a third, slamming into the imp on her first, ripping it off her arm and flinging it through the air like a kicked can. All three chains then continued their movement in a wide, sweeping arc that collided with the second imp mid-flight, crushing it down into the stone with enough force to crack the floor.
[110 DMG dealt]
[110 DMG dealt]
[110 DMG dealt]
[+900 XP]
[110 DMG dealt]
[110 DMG dealt]
[110 DMG dealt]
[+1,400 XP]
[LEVEL UP!]
+2 Stat Points
+10 Souls
Enochia slowly inhaled, her expression flattening into something both irritated and excited.
“That’s two down,” she muttered, lips curling upwards as her eye blazed, “Alright you little gremlins… come on. Let’s dance.”
The last uninjured imp didn’t hesitate. No, the little idiot just launched itself head-first at her like a rabid baseball with teeth.
Enochia looked a bit confused before she simply lifted her hand, saying:
[Dispel]
[Chains of Nebuchadnezzar]
Her arm snapped forward and fingers pointed like she was flicking away lint, and three chains erupted, spearing toward the airborne demon.
[110 DMG dealt]
[110 DMG dealt]
[110 DMG dealt]
[+1,100 XP]
The imp didn’t so much fall as it stopped existing in the trajectory it chose, smashed sideways in three different directions at once before crumpling into ash. Enochia stared at its twitchless remains for a beat, her expression a blank. “Are you serious?”
“…Buddy,” she muttered flatly, “You saw what happened to the last two. That’s on you.”
