Before the incident that put Brivaria on Zlithia in a semi-permanent fashion, she’d been an angelic templar. Sword, shield, sometimes bow, and a full set of armor had been her tools of the trade. Angelic artisans provided her with the tools to fulfill her purpose which she then wielded with pride and skill. Each piece of equipment and tool came with many enchantments and was forged from the finest materials the angelic host had access to.

  While she still had all of her personal skill and experience in battle to draw upon, she now lacked those powerful tools. Her shield was a half-dissolved mess of metal. Her armor had been shattered and broken. Her helmet had been the very first casualty of her extended stay in Zlithia. Only her sword remained but she had neither sword-focused skills that required it nor sword-empowering skills to make it competitive with other options.

  As a result of these things, Brivaria had to learn a new fighting style. She couldn’t rely on weapons, armor, or tools she didn’t have. She had to rely on the things she had right now and in her possession. What did she have right now—needles from that very first dungeon, a sling and some rounded stones that could only charitably be described as bullets, a handful of different weapons, and a bunch of other somewhat random things. In essence, Brivaria’s new fighting style was less avenging angel and more… random bullshit.

  The cultist she pushed back into the room was the first to experience the angel’s impressive arsenal. He raised his arms to block a punch or a claw strike or something. He didn’t expect a bowl of near boiling stew to be thrown in his face. It was a waste of perfectly good stew but the angel had to admit it was a devastatingly effective attack. She used the seconds of safety it bought her to shift her clothes into a black blouse with an open back and switch to her demon form. She jumped into the air, picked the man who looked least like he knew what was going on and dove at him.

  The ceiling was just tall enough for Brivaria to use her wings for extra high jumps which she made full use of as she leaped above two men to land on someone who was standing in the back with a confused look on his face. His expression became almost comical when he realized she was going past three other people toward him. He dodged but one of her claws caught him across the side leaving a bleeding wound.

  “Get her! Don’t let the prisoners escape!” shouted the man Brivaria assumed was the cult leader. That was a cult leader-y thing to say, she figured. Sadly he was too far back for her to get to. One man looked about to follow that order so she withdrew one of her dungeon needles, infused it with withering magic, and threw it at the man. It caught him in the side of the neck and he made gurgling sounds. Pulling the needle free was suddenly much more important than securing the captives.

  The man nearest Brivaria did that thing Keller had done where his head exploded and long necks began flowing out while his body swelled in size. It was bold to do it right next to the angel. She withdrew the black, assassin blade and relieved him of all six heads in a single swing. She had the foresight to activate Meridian Fang just before the attack and added his soul to her presence at a value of three.

  The next couple minutes became a fierce melee. The cultists transformed. Five gained either extra large but still humanoid bodies with rippling muscles. Three gained ape-like bodies similar to Keller. In both cases they were extremely strong and Brivaria tried not to take hits. She took one solid blow to a wing and the only reason the bones didn’t break was Demonic Hide giving her supernatural durability. Once again she was thankful for that skill.

  She threw more needles which managed to pierce even the muscled bodies of the transformed cultists. The dungeon enchantments seemed to be for straight flight, piercing, and pain. The last one was exciting since the people she hit screamed despite the relatively minor wounds the needles inflicted. She infused each one with withering power as she had the first. Withering meant their health was steadily draining and her Lingering Decay skill more than doubled the effect’s duration. Brivaria didn’t fancy her odds of staying alive versus 10 supernaturally strong cultists and one monster for very long. They were just too strong to defeat in a direct fight so she was forced to dance around hitting them with withering and decay to slowly turn the fight in her favor.

  She jabbed out at one man who stepped back to avoid what he thought was a claw strike only for the long angelic sword to appear in Brivaria’s hand and puncture his eye. It wasn’t a fatal wound but she infused more withering magic into the blade then dismissed it to fire two Withering Rays into his chest for good measure. Mr. Cult Leader was staying back while his minions battled the apparent demon and Brivaria didn’t like that. She leaped into the air, produced her slingshot, and a rock almost the size of the angel’s hand flew across the air to partially cave-in the leader’s face. Of course there was withering infused into the sling bullet as an extra bit of “screw that guy in particular.”

  Just a minute into the fight and Brivaria felt it was going well. Despite the many cultists in the room, she’d already killed three without taking any hits that were too serious. Withering was chipping away at the health of every foe present so the winged girl had the advantage of playing for time. With any luck the rest of her team would be here any minute. Overall, things were going a lot better than she expected. That ended the moment she felt two large legs slam down on her shoulders and a stinger drive itself squarely into her back.

  Brivaria’s mind went blank and her body went slack as the infestor began living up to its name. Every cultist in the room had willingly submitted to having their mind and soul rewritten to better serve their new masters but that didn’t mean the infestor needed that willingness to do its work. The captives were meant to be forcibly enslaved to the will of the Between’s monsters. There was no reason that the same couldn’t be done to the strange but powerful demon now attacking their forces. That was what the cultist who led the transformed men and women thought.

  “Killed three of my people, did you? Or is it more? Adson, check the side room. If the prisoners escaped then we’ll just have to bring them back. Once this stray demon is reeducated then she’ll go recapture the people she helped free,” the leader declared with a malicious grin.

  The winged girl couldn’t move and, worse, she could tangibly feel the infestor filling her body with corrupt energy both at the physical and spiritual level. It was a surreal, nearly out-of-body experience to know and see one’s own identity being destroyed. However one small question was echoing in the back of her mind—why was she letting this happen?

  It was confusing at first but then she had an epiphany. She was the unholy demon of corruption and decay. Her corruption affinity was probably her strongest one since her very existence was anachronistic to the universe she was in. Almost her entire skill set was a perversion of the natural order of her entire race. So, again, why was she letting this happen?

  She decided to try something. She reached for the corrupted energy the eldritch beast was filling her with. Rather than try to push it away, she pulled. She stopped trying to fight it and instead tried to consume it. It was like that feeling she’d felt from Jeffrey Keller upon walking into his cell. The man’s soul had smelled delicious and had been an exhilarating experience when she took it from his dying body.

  The eldritch nightmare was just giving her all of this corruption for free. All she had to do was take it so that was what she did. The spider-like creature seemed to realize something was going horribly wrong when, instead of replacing what was inside the winged girl, it felt as though it were feeding her instead. It tried to pull away but it was too late. The connection was established and all of its corrupt essence was flowing into the angel-turned-demon. It was filling her and rejuvenating her. With each passing second, the beast from the Between withered and crumpled in on itself.

  Finally the horror fell to the ground and its legs twitched in the throes of death. The stinger came free of Brivaria’s flesh and the wound sealed itself with her healing magic. She swayed lightly as though buffeted by an unseen wind and her eyes flickered open. All of her pools had been refilled. Health, mana, and stamina were full. She felt something beyond those. She felt powerful, charged in a way that she had never felt until this moment. Black sparks danced between her claws and her whole body felt stronger. The blue spheres of her eyes glowed within the pools of darkness that surrounded them.

  The cultists weren’t given to ponder what was going on with the demon as the main doors of the room’s entrance shattered. The man the leader had called Adson was the unlucky fellow closest to the door and therefore the one who took the gigantic mace squarely in the chest. All the muscle and power of his transformation did him little good as the enormous mace collapsed his chest, swept him off his feet, and threw him over a dozen paces back. Brivaria’s team had arrived.

  Battling the demon had already been a chaotic mess and a losing battle for the cultists but fighting a full adventuring team backed by guardsmen was downright impossible. Kseniya’s yellow arrows struck men causing some to freeze in place while others fell to the ground like tipped statues. Nyx followed Giselle through the busted doors and leaped on the first man she saw. She’d put aside her shock for the moment and was now fighting seriously. Her claws drew blood.

  Even Trixie leaped through the doorway and her loud barking filled the room. The golden sunchaser didn’t use any fancy magic nor did she have any lethal attacks. She just bounced around shoving people. Of course, the ordinarily playful dog had such powerful paws that even a little shove from her sent people flying or rolling back along the floor.

  Not all of their foes had run toward the door. Only five of the living cultists had moved forward. Two plus the leader were near Brivaria. She didn’t move to strike them or draw any of her weapons. She simply raised a single claw and pointed it at one man. Withering Ray. The black lance struck the man and it had far, far more power than it should have. He convulsed and then his body began to disintegrate. Her claw pointed to the second man and another ray was fired. Another man died.

  The cult leader was suddenly alone and facing a winged demon who was a great deal more powerful than she’d been a minute earlier. Whatever the infestor had done or tried to do had gone horribly, terribly wrong. He didn’t see anger or rage on the demon’s face but something far worse. She smiled at him and her eyes were filled with dark glee and silent laughter. Looking into those azure spheres was far more terrifying than anything he’d seen in the Between.

  He transformed. He had to. His body grew three times its size to become so large that he was forced to use his newly enlarged forearms to support his weight. The leader knew this was the end of his humanity. There was no transforming back from this so he pushed his skills as far as they would go. His head exploded into a dozen new heads of different beasts. Bear, wolf, snake, chicken, and even a lamprey were among the many heads he grew. He saw through all of them. He looked down at the winged demon as he swelled in size to fill the very room they stood in. His many heads grinned viciously. He would offer this demon and all the others who dared interfere as tribute to his masters. He would stand upon their corpses as Ogramites swarmed the city and the great purge began.

  The winged demon smelled him not with her nose but with her other senses. Corruption wafted off the cult leader like the aroma of freshly baked bread or a perfect cut of meat being cooked on a grill. It was fitting that his new body so much better matched how black his soul had become. Somehow, it made the coming meal that much more appetizing.

  The men at the door were defeated quickly. The former house guards put up the most fight but the adventurers were pulling no punches. More importantly, Talver and his two guardsman friends had the tools and skills to subdue the cultists. Of the five cultists they’d fought, only the one had died and it was because she had fully transformed into one of those hydra-like abominations. Even the one Giselle had hit with her mace at the outset had lived though it was clear he’d come very close to dying between Giselle’s strike and whatever Brivaria’s magic had done to him.

  Kseniya was the first to take a long distance shot at the monster fighting Brivaria. Her deadly, green arrow sailed through the air and hit the monster transferring her Insidious Venom into the thing while everyone else ran to join the angel. That was when the lamia noticed something was off. Brivaria was fighting differently.

  The angel-turned-demon easily stepped around one of the large forearms, drove one of her claws into the meaty arm and sliced it from wrist to elbow. One of the heads sprang at her and she calmly stepped to the side, put a claw through its neck, and tore the head clean off. It made a couple more, half-hearted attacks and lost two more heads. The monstrosity that rightfully should have been a match for their whole team was shrinking back in fright as the winged girl steadily walked closer to it. The thing was terrified… of Brivaria.

  The former cult leader recoiled as it lost another head. Nothing he did worked. He shot her with bolts of energy and they did nothing. He tried to bite at her and she pulled his heads off with casual ease. Both of his arms were bleeding and he was dragging one on the ground leaving a bloody smear as he backpedaled. She just kept walking toward him and she never once stopped smiling.

  He couldn’t die here. His dreams of revenge and justice wouldn’t end like this. This demon was far stronger than any creature he’d ever encountered but she could be injured. She could be killed. His minions were dead and his plans were likely ruined but he’d kill this demon as his final act. He just needed one good strike. He feinted with one of his remaining heads and threw his lamprey-like maw at her. One good bite would end this.

  His hopes died as she caught the mouth filled with ringed teeth just in front of her face. The claws pierced the head from both sides and if he tried to pull it back then they’d tear through leaving the head shredded and useless. The demon didn’t rip the head off as she’d done with others. She did something far worse. He felt the tendrils of power reach out and sink into his soul as she brought her face closer to the maw of his trapped head.

  The cult leader, Phineas was his name, felt his very consciousness circling the proverbial drain as the demon tugged harder and harder on his very soul. He knew he’d truly lost when he felt something inside him give. He’d been a damned man from the beginning. He’d known it from the start and he’d chosen this path regardless but, still, he wanted his death to mean something, to achieve something, to change the world. Revenge, justice, retribution, satisfaction… all of Phineas’ hopes flickered and died in the blink of an eye. Everything that had been Phineas the cultist came to an end as the demon devoured his soul.

  You have reached level 46.

  Gained +1 Physique, +1 Endurance, +2 Arcane, +1 Spirit, +1 Awareness, +2 Presence.

  Gained one new skill selection.

  Name: Brivaria

  Race: A??????n????g???e?????l??????

  Class: Sronyan Valkyrie

  Level: 46

  Stats: Health 89/89, Mana 162/176, Stamina 106/119

  Attributes: Physique 74, Endurance 45, Arcane 84, Spirit 88, Awareness 45, Presence 93

  Active Skills: Current Control, Dark Caress, Energy Drain, Spiteful Aegis, Twisted Reflection, Wind Formation

  Passive Skills: Alternative Form, Corrupt Shapeshifting, Infernal Seed, Inventory, Lesser Flight, Lingering Decay, Natural Weapons, Rest, Traits (Angel)

  Magic: Light of Decay

  Affinity: Corruption, Decay, Unholy

  Unspent Skill Points: 1