Chapter 84 – The Breaking of the Shell.

The pain did not come like a sword strike or the impact of a heavy mace.

The pain came from the inside out, as if someone had cut open Diana's arteries and poured molten lead directly into the marrow of her bones.

When the Commander's consciousness was torn from the System's golden ocean and hurled back into her physical flesh, the sensation was like being burned alive in a hermetically sealed furnace.

Every bone in her human skeleton cracked, breaking into microfractures to be rebuilt with the mineral density of the abyss. Her lungs burned like living embers while the ordinary air of Earth was purged from her cells, replaced by the violent circulation of her 1,060 mana points.

On the sides of her head, right above her temples, the pain reached a lacerating peak.

Skin and muscle tissue tore with pulsing heat as two solid structures of bone and black crystal pushed outward through the flesh. Two slender, curved horns of pure obsidian, intersected by natural grooves of ancient gold, breached Diana's forehead, growing in an elegant backward arc through the black strands of her hair.

Diana tried to scream, but her throat was locked in a spasm of biological purification.

Her old human skin dried out, flaking away into fine gray dust that was consumed by the black flames wreathing her body, revealing beneath it a pale, cold, dense epidermis completely immune to the heat that had previously suffocated her.

Darkness overtook her senses once more, dragging her down into a deep sleep that lasted three full days.

***

In the real world, despair had seized the Bastion of Arcane Greed.

After Diana collapsed unconscious in the volcanic caldera right after the death of the Level 40 Dragon, Kael had carried her in his arms with the Volcanic Shield clearing a path, while Seraphina and Aurelia-Elysia maintained emergency barriers to cover the retreat back to the surface.

For seventy-two continuous hours, the master suite on the mansion's second floor had been the scene of a terrified vigil.

None of the squad's four members knew what was happening.

Diana lay on the king-size bed, wrapped in a cocoon of black-gold flames that repelled any healing spell. Aurelia-Elysia had tried to cast [Cellular Restoration] and [Area Heal] ten times in a row, but the priestess's mana ricocheted off the cocoon as if striking a wall of steel.

Rhea had not left the floor beside the bed for a single second.

The wolf girl had refused to eat or sleep. With her silver ears drooping in pure despair and her amber eyes red from crying in silence, Rhea held Diana's flaming hand with both trembling hands, replacing cool cloths that evaporated into smoke the instant they touched the Commander's skin.

Kael remained seated at the bedroom door in his heavy armor, head lowered, while Seraphina frantically flipped through hundreds of pages in House Vesperis's grimoire, trying to find any record of spontaneous metamorphoses in Sin Candidates.

“She will wake up...” Rhea whispered into the dark room, her voice hoarse and cracked from so much crying, pressing Diana's fingers against her chest. “Diana doesn't die... she promised we would reach the Fourth Circle together... she promised...”

***

On the morning of the fourth day, the cocoon of black flames receded.

The black-gold fire did not dissipate into the air. Instead, it was sucked directly into the pores of Diana's skin with a soft hiss.

The tearing burn in her bones ceased completely, giving way to a clear, deep, cold, and utterly overwhelming sensation of power and physical wholeness.

Diana slowly opened her eyes.

The first thing that changed was her perception of the world.

With her 74 Perception points now anchored in a body of demonic nobility, Diana did not merely see the room. She could see the mana currents flowing through the ceiling's wooden beams, hear the sound of water running through the basement pipes, and feel the rapid, anxious beat of Rhea's heart just inches from her hand.

Her irises were no longer simply dark: in the center of her deep black eyes, two thin rings of pure gold rotated slowly around pupils that were now sharp, predatory vertical slits.

Diana moved her right hand.

Her fingers were longer, elegant, ending in reinforced black nails like slender claws of polished obsidian.

She brought her hand to her forehead, touching the base of the two curved horns that sprouted near her temples. The texture was smooth like volcanic glass, cool to the touch, but pulsing with the pure mana of her 163 Intelligence.

Diana looked at the crystal mirror on the opposite wall of the room.

The slight, fragile, and mortal human girl who had died under a crane on Earth had ceased to exist.

In the glass reflection stood a young woman of aristocratic, intimidating beauty, with hair as black as night falling in perfect waves around horns of black gold, flawless porcelain skin, and a sovereign presence that made the air in the room vibrate with ancestral authority.

The racial metamorphosis was complete: Diana was now officially a Noble Archdemon of Greed.

***

The soft movement of Diana's hand on the bed broke Rhea's trance.

The wolf girl jerked her head up from the mattress with a start, her silver ears perking up in the air.

When her tear-filled amber eyes met Diana's dark eyes with golden rings, and saw the obsidian horns crowning the Commander's brow, Rhea froze for a millisecond of absolute shock.

But the shock lasted only a fraction of a second.

Rhea did not pull away. She felt no fear toward the new demonic appearance.

The wolf girl let out a loud, ragged, sobbing cry of pure relief, throwing herself onto her knees on the bed and wrapping her arms around Diana's neck with all the strength in her body, burying her tear-streaked face in the Commander's shoulder.

“DIANA! YOU'RE AWAKE! YOU'RE ALIVE!” Rhea cried copiously, her entire body trembling in spasms of relief, her tail wagging frantically against the blankets.

Kael leaped to his feet at the door, almost dropping his helmet to the floor. Aurelia-Elysia and Seraphina rushed into the room, hands over their mouths with tears of joy running down their faces upon seeing the Commander sitting up in bed.

“Commander Diana!” Kael said, his voice thick with emotion, his brown eyes glistening.

“We thought you were being consumed by the mana!” Aurelia wiped her face with her mantle, letting out an emotional laugh.

Seraphina adjusted her glasses with trembling fingers, staring at Diana's black-gold horns and Archdemon aura with scholarly reverence and pure relief: “Your soul... underwent a complete biological evolution...”

***

Diana wrapped her arms around Rhea's back, holding the wolf girl with the calm steadiness of her new physical constitution, feeling her friend's warmth and relieved tears soaking the collar of her shirt.

Diana looked at the four members of her team gathered around the bed, seeing the exhaustion of the three-day vigil etched on each of their faces.

The Commander spoke for the first time since collapsing.

Her voice was no longer merely that of a young human girl. There was a velvety, deep, melodic, and noble resonance in it that vibrated directly within the chests of those listening:

“I am here,” Diana said softly, caressing Rhea's silver hair with the tips of her obsidian claws. “I didn't die. I merely got rid of the weak shell that was limiting me.”

Diana raised her golden eyes to Kael, Aurelia-Elysia, and Seraphina, with a calm, sovereign, and invincible smile lighting up her face:

“The vessel is ready. The Arcane Greed Faction now has a true demonic leader in command. And no one in this Hell will be able to stop us.”

Rhea buried her face in Diana's chest, laughing through tears with her ears pressed against the Commander's skin, while Kael, Aurelia, and Seraphina smiled with their chests swollen with pride.

The balance of 375 Silver Coins (37.5 Gold Coins) remained untouched in the vault. Level 38 was consolidated. Human weakness had been buried forever.