…This is getting suspicious. I could sense a hint of deception, but nothing should be capable of enduring the flas past a certain point
The flas can be manifested from literally anything. There must be at least one energy used that this creature is susceptible to… And even then, she should have reached the point where divine flas should have been in intervention
The self-proclaid ‘Judge’ was starting to grow a little bit anxious. Had its fool-proof judgent t its match? The thought was deeply worrying. It was the entire source of why it had been worshipped as a deity of vengeance and retribution. If its tool to enact punishnt was proven faulty, what would this an for its right to godhood?
It was still but a re, earth-bound idol! Such an event, before it could even pretend to the right to ascend to the divine realm, would be sure to leave it stuck here for many more centuries to co!
No, this is not possible, I could see, I could tell… This woman-beast does not even have that high a fire resistance. But then… How does she still live? I trapped her whole, neither her soul, spirit or anything else was able to escape my attention…
The supposedly divine monster circled the pure black do, its ability had manifested into existence. Within, at this very mont, Mara Nebulo, a fiend the likes of which it had rarely seen, should be burning to death most agonisingly.
It had created this punishnt, so it knew well that by now, she should be done for and the do should have disappeared… In fact, it should have disappeared a long ti ago already!
Mmh…? What is happening?
There was a crack in the do.
I knew I should have gotten myself human worshippers! I am lacking divine energy to maintain my punishnt!
The abomination growled with ire, unwilling to expend every drop of divine energy it had worked hard to acquire. It decided to cancel the punishnt right now. If this steel sinner insisted on not dying, then it–The Judge, who would eventually rise as a proper deity alongside Nesis, then it would just need to solve this problem using its own hands!
With a swipe of one of its many hands, The Judge cancelled the punishnt, causing the do and flas within it to vanish altogether, revealing the sinner hidden within.
What is this…?!
___
“I–I–I–I–I AM HEEEEEEERE!”
Oh my, my voice sounds awful right now! Sounds like I'm drowning whilst choking with a knife through my throat.
But I don’t actually have much ti to question the massacre that is my voice. I instantly lunge at the self-proclaid god, and frankly, it is quite disgraceful for a divine being to be so scared of … I can feel its fear pouring into .
Snakey-Bear-Arm Boy is positively scared out of its wits. If I had to guess, it’s because its divine repertoire is limited to just the punishnt thingy. Not that I actually care, this vile thing isn’t going to just let walk away, with its spiel about being an adjudicator, representing justice and whatever nonsense. There isn’t a snowball's chance in hell that it will allow a ‘sinner’ to get away, and the room is blocked off anyway.
So whether devil, god, or whatever else, I have to murder it right now.
Without hesitation, I lunge forward, tackling directly into the serpentine abomination as the ugly thing cried out in pain, trashing its body against the walls and ceilings in a hurry to get off, but alas–That will not happen, as much as it may try to peel off by using its abundance of hands, all that is accomplished is self-harm.
I felt so tiny and weak in front of you before, but how the tables have turned!
“S–C-CCC–R–E–A-M! L E T M E H E A R Y O U B E G”
It hisses and roars, losing all of its earlier stature and almost noble presence. At the end of a day, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. A feral beast, even with a divine power, remains a lowly beast nonetheless.
The ability to speak ant nothing as to its true level of intelligence. Once push cos to shove, it imdiately falls back on its instincts rather than logical reasoning.
It is as simple as that! I am just INHERENTLY superior to this thing to begin with.
It does not have the ans to deal with now that it has expended its punishnt and that I have acquired this new form…
Now, my system panel bore a new entry. That of my different shapes.
Currently, there are only two.
Base Form - Most balanced, equipped with the ans to properly use tools, a humanoid form, a strong fra, and full access to the array of upgrades
Molten Steel Form - Acquired from pushing the ‘Fla Resistance’ upgrade to the advanced stage, as well as enduring a seemingly hopeless trial by fire
This form granted heightened resistance to various damage types, in particular, to fire and physical damage. When assuming this form, the majority of the steel making up your body will lt and beco malleable, allowing you to manipulate your body in much more flexible ways
If you co across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from . Please report it.
You can also project a stream of molten steel from your searing maw
Upon assuming this form, the physical and non-physical will ld into one
The size of this form can be enhanced by spending consud steel at the mont of the transformation
For the inauguration of this new ability of mine, I didn’t hesitate to spend so steel when I transford, allowing to ram into the bear-faced serpent and actually wrestle it into submission through my sheer weight.
It was important to note that the few parts of that did not lt and instead took on an incandescent shine as they were heated to incredible degrees were my arms, maw, and head.
As such, my two purple dots could still be seen amidst the white shine that my body now emitted, but most importantly, I could ruthlessly punch and claw at my enemy whilst I wrapped my molten body around it.
My prey was proving resilient, but the snakey judge had no way to get rid of . All attempts at tearing off have resulted in burns that could probably be qualified as fourth-degree burns, though I don’t really know what the difference is between each degree in this case.
I extended my neck to bite down upon its spine, my bite causing flesh to ignite as I puked molten steel directly into the wound, making the monster thrash even harder, but the only one getting hurt from hitting the walls was itself.
I quickly took out its eyes and seeped into its maw, scorching him from the inside out… The dead flesh that arose from the burns was directly consud by my body. I was eating that bastard alive.
The agony could have been extended for far longer, but I took very little pleasure in hearing a mindless beast cry out in pain. It just lacked sothing that people had, a certain quality that turned mundane cries to a pleasant sonority…
My molten steel coated the inside of its trachea and lungs, wrapping around and crushing its heart, as more seeped into its brain. Even then, the serpent proved resilient and resisted its fate.
Ultimately, however, there was no way for a false god to survive this.
“I–I–I–IF YOU’RE A G O D, TH E N WHA T AM I? F O O L W I T H D E L U S I O N S O F G R A N D E U R”
With sick crunches, I swallowed its entire body into mine, leaving nothing but within the underground chamber.
The molten steel gathered and lded into, visibly cooling down, coalescing into my base form.
Well… That was a worthy trip, don’t you agree, Nara?
You nearly died, again
Perhaps, but I absolutely couldn’t have expected that the statue would randomly co to life, right? You know, I feel that ever since I got myself squashed like a lemon, I have been running into far more odd coincidences and unexpected stuff.
Any idea why that is?
I know why, but I will definitely be smitten if I tell you
Smitten by who?
By THE System, or in more understandable terms, the equivalent of a mother to
Is that so? Am I the chosen one or sothing? No thanks, I would rather do my own thing… Anyway, since you can’t talk about it, would you mind explaining so things about my new form?
What do you want to know?
Most of it seed to be explained, but what is the significance of the ‘physical’ and ‘non-physical’ lding together? Does it have to do with the earlier stuff telling that my soul was lting?
Precisely, the ‘Molten Steel’ form is a bit more complicated than steel heating up to a great amount
Everything about you lts into a single substance, your soul, mind, spirit, inner energies, physical body, et cetera
It all fuses into a single monolith, naly, the molten steel itself. It sounds complicated, but ultimately, it is a further defence and resistance bonus
I’ll admit, I don’t see how a bunch of stuff fusing has to do with taking less damage from getting hit… I assud that the fact that I was basically liquid was why I gained physical resistance, and the fire resistance was pretty damned obvious.
It might seem overly complicated, but basically, the steel takes on the properties of everything at once, so theoretically, a physical strike also deals damage to your soul and the like. This sounds like a downside, but in truth, it is the opposite
Although you technically expose yourself to more severe forms of damage, the fact is that when you are struck by a blade, the overall damage will still be reduced because it also strikes many things that it is not supposed to affect
As you can expect, trying to punch soone's soul without the proper qualifications does not work
So, in essence, you force your attackers to fight things that they don’t know how to fight, making every attack far less effective
The sa is true if you are targeted by a soul attack or whatever else
To inflict sizable damage upon you in the ‘Molten Steel’ form, one either needs extre firepower or the ability to strike absolutely everything that makes up your body at once… Of course, there are exceptions, as there always are
So basically, this form is more about defence than offence, despite kicking ass?
Basically, yes
Damn, that’s pretty sweet.
I felt quite upbeat about my new power, which seed like a real evolution compared to the actual evolution I had gone through. I called on the nearest of my cute assistants, which turned out to be Elowen.
“H–How long has it be–been?”
The punishnt had gone on for a while, but I had beco a bit blind to the passage of ti, which was both a blessing and a curse. I could do anything for any length of ti without realising just how much ti I was spending, but it also ant that I could easily get a bit lost.
And at the mont, being in the midst of forging myself into a piece of folklore, I needed to be careful not to go unnoticed for too long, lest it hurt my rise to fa.
“One…Month…”
“Exa–xactly one month?”
“Yes…”
That’s not as bad as I thought. It had felt a whole lot longer whilst I was being burned alive.
After I managed to clear the way out of the fallen rocks, I began walking back to my nearby cabin with Elowen, and apparently, even the tomboy wanted to hold my hand whilst telling about the people they had scared and tornted during my absence.
“The…Elders…And…Chiefs…Have…Remained…Obedient…”
That’s good to hear. I guess I’ll go and give them a visit soon.
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