Please this old thing IÆm hardly fit to clean the stables Devick fluttered her lashes flush with possibilities Because this version of herself pampered and emphasized in all the right ways was a version of herself that could be a queen A version that could match a man called Randidly Ghosthound
A deep green gown almost the same color as Nether King Hungry EyeÆs irises hugged her torso and blossomed out into a cascading brilliance of embroidery and opulence past her waist One of the workers at the boutique had brushed her hair until it fell in soft ringlets around her face Each crimson strand glittered with tiny motes of gold The choker wrought by the Nether KingÆs hands for her sat around her pale neck a powerful accent piece that added a hint of seductive mystery to her figure
The two brass automatons moved back and forth around her to admire her from other angles As they used their precise hands to reposition her gown for perfection DevickÆs heart beat with a strange vulnerability
She looked at herself now and saw softness and warmth She had been dressed up to be a beauty queen not the fickle demon of the Hobfootie court not the bloodthirsty bearer of Malice the Needle Toothed Hare not a lieutenant in the armed forces that methodically hunted and slaughtered Nether patrols
Shoulda brought my fucking horse The man muttered his powerful image of adventure and possibilities enduring the assault from the otherÆs image
Scowling the Turtleline brought his other hand around and hammered the guard With it came a wave of salty water from his image forcing the hat wearing man back and soaking Devick to the skin All the fancy silk and embroidery now hung lank across her body making her resemble a day old pile of wash
At the very least that shock of cold woke her up She felt very far from the glittering facade she had briefly witnessed in the triptych mirror Far from the visage she had imagined totally imagined next to Nether King Hungry EyeÆs side
No matter what she was now she hated her current self enough to finally move A little at first but that hatred bubbled through her and forcibly subdued the panic and anxiety
When the anxiety refused to concede Devick simply smothered that useless emotion and tossed it into the dark corners of her heart
Devick kept trying to breathe but her chest cavity seemed smaller and smaller with each attempt Her lungs could barely inflate her heart could only flutter The hat wearing man twisted away and slammed a fist against the TurtlelineÆs shell but barely did any damage With a gesture a pillar of surging seawater exploded beneath the defender and sent him scrambling backward
DevickÆs hands trembled as she reached down and tore the bottom of her gown She started mid thigh tearing away the smooth silk and leaving a ragged emerald edge Part of the puffy chiffon underdress frothed out around her legs The sleeves so slender and elegant looking she ripped away entirely baring her arms to the shoulder She licked her lips looking at her pale skin
Panic and desperation had created giant red splotches across her limbs
And thatÆs fine What does it matter how I look Because in the end IÆm just Devick felt the tears she had thought were coming for so long began to build in the corners of her eyes Because IÆm just whatever DonÆt try and fucking label yourself just kill the assholes and figure the rest out later
Congratulations Your Grand Fate has begun to evolve Recalculating
Warning as your Grand Fate has achieved many Levels the results may be a degraded version
Hungry EyeÆs choker began to heat A half dozen more Turtlelines were loping across the broken land from Homewell DevickÆs eyes burned as her hatred found an outlet So what if she just spent her entire life playing at being someone she was not So what if she had no foundation for her wild imaginings Because right now Hungry Eye needed protection Her problems seemed petty by comparison
ThatÆs the problem isnÆt it How fucking petty I am Devick grimaced Following her instincts she reached into the air and grasped From the absence she pulled down a heavy obsidian mask It manifested uncomfortably warm to the touch Malice chittered with excitement as she shifted her existence infecting and strengthening herself through the Grand Fate Devick slid the strange mask into place across her face
The features were entirely blank except for two holes for eyes and a pre carved mouth eternally frowning From the top two corkscrew ears twisted out laying a little below horizontal From the chin two sharpened tusks jutted straight downward The Turtlelines whooped and manifested their various images They werenÆt overly powerful so it was easy to look past their details and just see enemies
And in front of her an enemy had earned only one sort of ending
She settled down feeling strangely boneless Her arms were limp hanging straight down She twisted her neck side to side rocking her frowning face back and forth Underneath the mask her tears came pouring out She ached She wanted too much but she had no idea how to grasp it
More than anything she wanted Hungry Eye to need her And as that core wish solidified her neck began to twist
At about halfway her head now horizontal Devick felt strange But a wild glee had risen in her heart the specter of that bloodthirsty monster that always existed beneath the surface This time she embraced it fully And her head kept twisting past the explicable In reality her spine should have snapped as she torqued her neck around But it seemed too easy her chin clicking around like the hand of a clock
The reversed perspective meant the maskÆs mouth leered out at the world ends turned up in mad gaiety In her heart Devick felt a wild joy surge through her Two demonic horns stuck straight up from her head Two strange whiskered curled sideways from her chin New eye holes appeared on the top of the mask revealing irises that seared crimson
Congratulations Your Grand Fate MaverickÆs Barbaric Imperative has evolved into the Grand Fate Malice Merry Consort of Perdition Levels will be maintained
Chapter 2308
Her eyes deep set in the obsidian mask began to smolder
Devick stepped eliminating the distance between the first charging individual and herself The heat and the wild elation of battle lifted her out of her own doubts into another place entirely She reached into the TurtlelineÆs chest and plucked out his heart splashing out a crescent of crimson across the ground as she removed it with a flourish
An individual worth killing is worth killing well
She raised the heart following the dark impulses that emerged in her chest wielding it as a ritual object She squeezed until grey and purple pulp oozed out between her fingers The ground exploded rust colored chains surging out of the ground and wrapping themselves around the approaching Turtlelines
Congratulations Your Skill Chains of Madness has evolved into Bitter Prayers of the Damned Skill Levels will be maintained
Congratulations Your Skill Bitter Prayers of the Damned has grown to Level 491
Movement whipped her burning gaze sideways but it was Hungry EyeÆs chosen minion capitalizing on the opportunities she had created With the same easy grace he displayed before he stored away the blocky weapon and leveled the ornate gun with his right hand He fired two shots generating fireworks in the torso and arm of two of the Turtlelines
Devick wondered if those Skills were why he had been chosen by Hungry Eye when she had to follow the Nether King around like a limping and unwanted puppy
Congratulations You have learned the Skill As Above Admires So Below Craves
Congratulations Your Skill As Above Admires so Below Craves has grown to Level 2
Congratulations Your Skill As Above Admires so Below Craves has grown to Level 56
Congratulations Your Skill As Above Admires so Below Craves has grown to Level 114
Devick ripped her gaze away before any more dark impulses could bubble to the surface The veins running through her body felt strange at some points her blood felt like ice leaving her numbed and sluggish but at others she felt molten metals bubbling along through her muscles But for all the strangeness she looked down at her limbs hands soaked in blood and legs soaked in mud and felt like herself