Right above Cely
Two figures stood facing each other on a beautiful green field filled with silver and blue flowers that shone and glimmered mystically in the summer sun.
One figure was a tall and lean man standing at about 1.8 meters. Two lean black horns, about 20 centimeters tall, extended from his forehead upward and slightly back. Blood-red runes pattern the horns and the rest of the man's body, shining in an eerie light.
His skin was slightly toned and even though his build was lean and slightly feminine, if observed closely, one could see the tightness of his skin, hinting towards his terrifying physical strength.
His eyes were an eerie blood red, that seemed to melt and interchange with gold, and his sclera was a deep black, like an endlessly dark abyss.
His hair was a smooth black that interchanged with a crimson red.
He wore a beautiful black robe extending to his ankles filled with red dragon-scale patterns. The robe fluttered slightly in the wind, revealing two demonic swords concealed underneath. But even though they seemed demonic, they also seemed divine as well.
He seemed calm as he looked at the woman across him with an indifferent gaze.
The other figure, the woman, had the life aura of a newborn, but she was older. She had a mature appearance and it made her seem like she was in her late twenties.
She had beautiful golden blonde hair that shimmered in the sun with slightly pointed yet delicate ears pointing out of it. Her hair reached down slightly below her shoulders and fluttered in the wind.
Weirdly enough though, it fluttered exactly opposite of the man's robe.
Her face was hidden beneath a white mask that seemed to be made out of a seemingly indestructible, marble-like material. The mask had two vertical lines extending for a few centimeters across the position of her eyes.
Her body was donned in tight-fitting light armor adorned with a light green nature pattern, just like the rest of her marble white clothes.
Behind her, a long robe with a hood fastened around her neck fluttered, seeming like a cape.
A beautifully lean rapier with black rose patterns was hanging sheathed on the left side of her waist.
"You haven't changed a bit have you, Lucifer?", the woman asked with a charming and indifferent voice.
"Not much, no.", Lucifer answered shortly standing still.
In between the two, while they were standing there, spacetime and void seemed to be twisting endlessly like they were being kneaded.
"Have you broken free of the shackles trying to bind you or were you devoured by them?", Lucifer asked indifferently.
"I don't know what you are talking about, demon.", she answered beneath the mask, her voice getting cold near the end.
"It seems to be the latter.", Lucifer said, releasing a sigh at the end, slight melancholy being visible in his eyes after that.
"Are you saying I am not myself?", the woman asked, her voice becoming like an iceberg.
"So even the Great Hero Maria can't withstand the corruption of that existence. Sigh. I am truly sorry to not have been able to rescue you back then.", he said his eyes being filled with sadness and regret before they became firm. "So, to amend for these sins, I will free you today."
As he said those words, his aura rose, slowly becoming Divine.
"Hehe. YOU, want to free me?", Maria asked, her aura rising at a far faster pace, quickly suppressing Lucifer. "You don't have the ability!"
A sinister gleam escaped the mask as the aura of a High-Tier 9 expert was completely released. (Also called high God Realm)
Lucifer raised his brows looking at the scene, being slightly surprised. "I seem to have underestimated you. Your potential seems to be very close to a True Hero. But you are not the only one to underestimate the other.", he spoke, the runes on his body suddenly shining in a terrifying intensity before dimming and disappearing in slight amounts.
In an instant, Lucifer Realm rose from mid-Tier 9 to mid-Tier 10.
It was exaggerated.
"You have broken the seal!", she screamed, fear evident even through her mask.
Lucifer opened his eyes. He had broken the seal, but it was only the outer layer. "Enough talking.", he spoke in a cold voice, as his body seemed to fuse into spacetime teleported, and instantly appeared in front of Maria.
Before she could react, intense pain assaulted her and she released a mind-numbing scream.
Her Core was instantly pierced and her cultivation shattered without resistance. her aura instantly evaporated, as she spat out a mouthful of deep gold-red blood.
Without any resistance she fell to the ground, creating a deep pit. Even though her cultivation was shattered, her body was still a Divine Body with about ten thousand times the density of a normal human body, which leads to an impact equivalent to the explosion of five Kilograms of TNT.
The pit was lined with silvery-white, string-like material, and about half the pit was covered with something that seemed like mercury.
Lucifer was surprised to see what had lined the walls of the pit and before he could react, the string-like material seemed to have come to life, as it rushed toward the body of Maria, who was still conscious and alive in the pit.
The white strings pierced slightly into Maria's skin from multiple angles, before acting like drills, as it kept digging further and further into her flesh. As it dug through her flesh, it branched out into multiple equally wide strings.
From around two thousand ends that pierced her body, it had already branched into millions of strings, deeply routing itself into her body.
As Maria felt this, she screamed miserably, her eyes bloodshot as she flailed weekly trying to pull off the material, but it was far too late. In desperation, she turned to look at Lucifer with her bloodshot eyes but saw that he wasn't looking at her, but more at what was attacking her, fear and terror filled her heart.
"AAAAAAAAAAARRRRGHHH!!!!", she screamed desperately as the material was slowly devouring her flesh, which felt like the areas it ate were burned with Flames Of Tribulation. The pain was unimaginable.
As Maria was screaming miserably in pain, Lucifer looked at the material with interest, before he suddenly realized something. And as he looked closer deep shock was visible in his eyes. 'A soul? No, not any soul!', he thought before his surprise quickly changed to fear, as he instantly teleported away for reasons unknown.
As time went on, Maria's screaming slowly grew weaker, before the silvery-white strings completely wrapped her into a cocoon, she fell completely silent.
Soon enough, the cocoon receded inward, revealing the figure previously devoured. The only difference was that the previously worn clothes were replaced by a simple white, hooded robe adorned with complicated silver patterns and her hair had turned a silvery-white.
Even though the wind was blowing, the robe didn't budge and seemed to stick to the figure's skin.
Time slowly went by and after an hour the figure opened its eyes, a blood-red light escaping the holes of the mask. As the figure looked down, she picked up the sword that lay on the ground but was unable to do so.
Sighing, the sword seemed to have disappeared without a trace.
Shortly after the figure sat down and looked at the sky with a trace of happiness. "Finally a human body.", Cely said with happiness.
She had just stopped cultivating, having stabilized her cultivation at the Third Stage of the Qi Gathering Realm, when a good chunk of her body was obliterated by Maria who fell to the ground.
Angered, she rushed toward whatever had done so, wanting to devour it. And, she succeeded with what felt like ease. Not only that, but she also managed to refine a human body using the attacker's body as a template.
On top of all of this, she also absorbed the vitality in the body of the figure and managed to break through multiple Life Walls, reaching her current limit. This meant that she could evolve her bloodline when she went to sleep soon.
Lastly, she also obtained the storage ring, which was almost empty, except for what seems to be a rapier technique and a rapier that seems to be of a terrifying tier, as she is currently unable to even lift it.
Overall, although unlucky, she had obtained a lot of gains.
After thinking for a short moment, Cely tried to return to her true form and found it easily doable, as her body melted into the floor with the storage ring stored in her soul.
After slowly getting back into an optimal state again. She willed the Life Energy in her body to refine her bloodline, and as this was happening, a comfortable feeling spread throughout her entire being.
What would she become?