By understanding the changes in my body through the Insightful Savant, I could isolate the 'Curses'.
Figure out what each of them did…
But 'knowing' wasn't the same as being able to do anything against them. I was at the mercy of them.
Even though I'd held back on using my toxins so I wouldn't kill them, they now contaminated me.
Making my body a mess.
The first and most obvious Curse on me was what I considered the 'Sensitive Fear'. It improved my senses- No, it overloaded my sensory organs… as if the limiter filtering external stimuli was broken.
Sensitive Fear already caused me a feeling of nausea. Making me able to feel my own blood flow.
But the three other Curses made things worse.
Even though I had the calmness of Insightful Savant, it didn't mean I was immune to pain.
Nor did it stop me from looking for a solution.
It only allowed me to 'calmly' be desperate and even more 'calmly' writhe in unimaginable pain.
Especially when the Curses of the First Human and Gaia's Child came together to double team me.
The 'Cold Apathy' put on me caused my body to be increasingly more vulnerable to even a touch of cold. Rather than weakening my body's resistance to cold, it amplified that and nullified external heat.
A strange extremity where only coldness could affect my body, and warmth being kept out.
It would've been a good Gift if it wasn't for the fact that icicles started to appear all over my body.
The only thing stopping the apathetic coldness from swallowing me whole… was the 'Hot Grudge'.
A flame that burnt my insides the angrier I got.
I decided to call them 'Cold Vulnerability' and 'Inflaming Magma' respectively, as the former only made me more vulnerable to the cold… while the latter was a fire that exclusive burnt physique.
Not turning me into a fire breathing dragon.
'Sensory Overlimit' was causing me to feel much more pain than the average person regarding them.
The only good thing was the last Curse's passive.
An overwhelming feeling of Deja Vu overcame me while repeating the same sensations or events.
A distant minded perspective similar to my ThIrd Person Point Of View. Smaller as a curse in a way.
It gave me enough perspective to realise what my current problems were: Which wasn't my senses.
Because of the Cold Vulnerability, my body was being frozen to the point of become ice itself.
There were a few options I could take, but the only one with the highest probability of working was…
…'balance'.
I needed to increase the hatred in my heart to use Inflaming Magma to fight it. Melt the ice coating.
But that required more rage.
To ignite burning flames of the hatred I'd once been freezing away. The immature side of me.
It was the side I'd cut out for my brother's sake.
A wave of sadness overcame me when thinking about the arguments we had because of my envy.
But I had no choice.
I'd calmly thought about the biggest miseries of my life. The things that kept me from being rational.
Firstly, I'd always HATED being accused by others.
Especially when I did nothing…
It made me think of the bastard who had caused me to become a demon by starting an apocalypse.
That bastard wanted to wipe out the Human Race on a whim? Was this also just a 'whim' to him?
The pain only fuel my feeling of indignation…
I was alone and abandoned. There wasn't even any way for me to escape the dark space full of stars.
Was there even any way outside in the first place?
Rather than hesitating and wasting time on whether things were possible, I chose to act first.
Nothing could've been done if I died…
Thus, I chose to be 'angry' to a certain extent, then kept my mind and heart from fluctuating too much.
I could feel each cell of my body warming up, but the counter to the cold wasn't really that perfect.
Especially to my nervous system.
I could feel both the burning of my organs and the freezing of my skin. My healthy look illusionary.
If it wasn't for my healing factor constantly repairing the damage, I would have died easily.
…But that wasn't enough.
I could only heat my body to a certain extent without the flame inside charring my organs.
After all, calling it a 'flame' wasn't an exaggeration.
There was a light from the centre of my chest, just next to my heart. My skin was starting to get burnt.
However, it STILL wasn't enough.
The endless cold of the void continued to freeze the flames. My body gradually being swallowed.
'I have to survive!' A cold chill literally ran down from my lips when my survival instincts activated.
My broken fingertips bloodied with the blue tint of frostbite dug into my arms. Unable to handle it.
It was until another foreign instinct erupted from my heart… did I find a path different from enduring.
My eyes found a line of survival.
Using the three Magic Formations that had long since recovered, I made my way to the giant snake.
The corpse that had been shed earlier.
I focused on my joints. Making sure they wouldn't give out yet… Not until I'd grabbed the tiny chance.
I plucked one of the frosty scales and opened up a route into the python's body. Digging like a leech.
Then sucked away at its blood like a mosquito.
This time, my fingertips dug into the body of the giant reptile. Nourishing myself and 'evolving'.
Ironically, eating its flesh made me more aware of that 'sensation'. The Inflaming Magma of my cells.
Burning cells were gaining cold resistance, but not enough to cancel out the chill seeping through me.
After all, they worked on different levels of reality.
Frost Resistance strengthened my body, while the Frost Vulnerability made the cold even colder…
…which was an amplification to the surroundings.
There was a harmony in that aspect. Like putting clothes on for cold weather in an arctic domain.
The only difference was that these 'clothes' were an override in my genome. A tweak in my DNA.
I'd started to understand that this shedded husk of that snake woman was a large portion of her body.
If it wasn't for the fact that straightforward confrontations had become my element, then she would've been able to swallow me whole. Maybe even go as far as to crush me using her long tail.
I sat inside the corpse in the fetal position. Like a young infant yet to have exited his mother's womb.
Taking deep breaths to drown in the red 'Essence' of the creature that had no similarity to my form.
Mixing snake DNA with my own wasn't easy…
It would've been more manageable if my goal was only sustenance, but what I wanted was a trait.
The physical ability to stand the cold without having to alter my genetic code too thoroughly.
After all, doing so could affect my brain and future physical development. Like changing my species.
I was a mammal, and I'd stick to being just that.
Finally, I started to see improvements in my condition. My body stoped deteriorating over time.
After all, physical development couldn't be quick.
Evolution was a test of aging in specific ways, then passing that altered genetic code to descendants.
Doing so would eventually change them on a bigger scale. It was so long as one had time.
Which was something I lacked…
I had no idea what Clarissa or my family were going through in the outside world. I was just helpless.
Never mind finding the exist, my body couldn't cope with existing in this environment for too long.
With the strange Curses inflicting my very being.
Unless I wanted to break down as soon as I left this snake husk, it was better to patiently wait here.
Let my body adapt and evolve completely.
Moreover, my now overloaded senses were telling me that there was an entity in motion just outside.
It stopped right next to the corpse… Waiting.
My heart constricted after sensing this unknown person that seemed to be looking for my body.
He stopped right outside the snake corpse.
Had he sensed me…?
If so, then for what reason did he stop?
Was he planning to kill me when I came out?
The sense of ever growing danger and hunger made me realise that time wasn't infinite.
There was only so much Blood Essence I could use to sustain myself, and only enough to evolve.
This feeling of crisis put my body and mind into overdrive. I had to give up something to gain more.
My tail, which was like a second reproductive organ of an Incubus, was the first thing to be sacrificed.
What I needed right now was a form that was specialised in battle. Even more that before.
The tail's base functions couldn't be completely erased, but I could harden and cover it with scales.
Making it a second weapon of mine.
I also made use of this evolutionary state and factored in the Curses. Making them my own.
Sacrificing my independence from them.
It was to the point that someone could likely destroy me if they managed to purge the Curses.
Thus, my body became weaker to the Holy Affinity.
Whether this trade would pay off would have to be seen in the future. My consciousness was waning.
I had to go into hibernation for a while…
Indignation filled my heart. A burning sensation that threatened to turn my body into toast.
The more I felt bad, the worse my state became.
I had no idea how the Hot Hatred curse 'Inflaming Magma', which was directly connected to my emotions, and this consistent spiritual state of Deja Vu would alter me. I could only make a big gamble.
Only then would I have the chance…
My consciousness started to fade, and the massive amounts of blood became a temporary home.
Forming a cocoon around me.