Chapter 522: Chapter 519: Willpower

Syd’s hands gradually closed together, the bundle of ethereal, translucent strings that hung in the air pressed between them. Touching the strings of magic was like trying to touch a jet of air; she could feel them against her skin, but her fingers went right through if she pushed too hard. Slowly, carefully, Syd worked the bundle like a delicate piece of clay. She had no clue what shape she was trying to form with the strings, just that a shape needed to be made. Jadis let the ritual knowledge within her guide her movements, that part of her mind nearly blank as she simply acted rather than thought.

As the seconds ticked by, the strings became less ghostly and more substantial. They were still a product of magic, but they looked and felt more real as the individual strands wound together into something more like rope rather than just loosely bundled string. The ends, which faded into nothing after a few inches, gained an orderly appearance, as though Syd’s strange movements were sorting them into slots rather than just making a weird mess of magical lines in the air.

Syd let out a long exhalation of held breath as she pulled her hands away from the bundle. The shaping, her ritual told her, was complete. Not that her eyes could confirm the instinctive thought. Every time Syd tried to examine the Eldritch Sign, her eyes slid off the strange symbol. She knew it was a shape, and that it was there and real, but she couldn’t even begin to describe what it was. If she thought about it too hard, her head began to ache, which in a way reminded her of her many past interactions with D. The Eldritch Sign was a concept more than it was a physical thing. If it could be truly described, it would be lesser for it.

Taking one step back, Syd placed her left hand under the floating symbol and raised it upwards, lifting the Sign so that it was nearly touching the ceiling. Once it was in place, she carefully spoke a single word.

“…”

Jadis couldn’t hear what had come out of her Syd self’s mouth. She knew that she had spoken; Syd had felt the word formed on her tongue, and her Jay and Dys selves had heard the physical sound. But she had no idea what the word had been or even if it had been a true sound at all.

“Woah. That felt weird,” Syd said as she took a few steps away from now barely visible Eldritch Sign floating in the middle of room.

“I assume the ritual is done?” Aila asked as she walked over to stand beside Syd. “That was an unusual experience.”

“Ugh. I don’t like looking at that thing,” Sorcha complained as she came up next to Syd on her other side. “It makes the front of my brain tingle. It’s like—well, it’s sort of… fuck. What is that?”

“An Eldritch Sign,” Aila answered. When both Syd and Sorcha gave her a look, the redhead shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t really know. I’ve mostly been studying Arcane magic, not Eldritch. I only have some incidental information.”

Aila took a step forward and squinted at the sign, but only for a few seconds. Almost as though she couldn’t physically keep her focus on it for too long, she turned away, shaking her head.

“I can tell you that there are Arcane and Divine Signs, and that they are used in powerful rituals. I’ve only read a few things about those because usually only those past CLR one hundred get spells that utilize such signs. It’s rare to see a sign like this coming from someone of a lower level. Though admittedly not that much lower level.”

“A rare and poorly understood ritual magic…” Sorcha murmured. “And this lunk is using it to give us better sleep.”

“What can I say?” Syd grinned and opened her arms wide. “I’m gifted.”

“Okay gifted,” Sorcha said as she tossed a bundle of cloth at Syd’s chest. “Do us all the gift of putting on some clothes.”

“What, you don’t like seeing my incredible physique?”

Syd punctuated her question by shifting into an over-the-top sexy pose.

“Some of us like it a little too much,” Sorcha said flatly before pointing off to the side.

Following the line of the goblin’s green finger with her eyes, Syd spotted Kerr, Thea, and Alex all standing together and silently watching her display with various levels of desire in their wide eyes.

“Okay, fair point,” Syd chuckled as she slipped her shirt back on. “Break’s over, anyway. Time to get to work again.”

Work, in this case, referred to the analyzation of the new level options made available to the next person in their group. Going by the descending order they had previously established, that meant it was time to review their resident Demon and number one Jadis groupie: Alex.

Jay grinned as she pulled the three-eyed woman down into her lap as she retook her seat. Everyone was feeling refreshed after taking the brief respite from stat discussions and Alex was no exception. She didn’t need to eat, sleep, or use the bathroom, but she still grew weary of sitting in the same spot for a long time, just like anyone else. Being so heavily pregnant probably didn’t help much with comfort levels, either. Alex’s belly was looking more and more like an inflated beach ball, to the point that Jadis was getting worried she hadn’t metaphorically popped yet. No one really knew what to expect from a Demon giving birth to a Succubus, but just comparing Alex to other pregnant women, they figured she had to be close.

“So, how do you want to start?” Jay asked as she gently rubbed Alex’s belly with one hand. “It’s your turn to lead.”

“Status… Sheet…” Alex smiled over her shoulder at Jay as one of her monster hands reached for Aila’s journal.

“Here, I think I have everything set up already for you,” Aila said as she passed the book to the Demon. “Presuming you haven’t taken any levels yet either.”

Alex hadn’t, so the pre-outlined status sheet Aila had drawn proved to be perfectly accurate.

While Alex was only one level shy from Aila and Kerr’s huge gains, Jadis figured reviewing the paladin’s new options wouldn’t take as long as Aila or Thea’s turns had. She didn’t have a tertiary class to select from, just the two classes she’d had all along. There would be a good deal to review, with eleven levels gained in her primary and fifteen in her secondary, but that was no worse than anyone else so far in terms of skill slots to fill. Her primary class could even go quickly, since Alex was a Paladin just like Severina, and the more experienced Seraphim likely had some good advice for someone with the same sort of class. The part that Jadis figured probably would trip them up a bit was when it came time to review Alex’s secondary class. No one knew anything about Greater Demon classes, so they were all walking forward blind.

As everyone settled into their new spots back in the middle of the room, Alex began reading out the options her Paladin of Jadis class had made available for her to choose from. She had six slots to fill, which meant twelve options to review. Almost right away, Jadis saw that her prediction that Severina would have input on Alex’s options was proven true.

“I have that same passive skill,” the Seraphim commented. Sev had chosen to sit on Jay’s left, and as she spoke, she addressed Alex directly. “I imagine you will have similar offerings along the lines of Paladin’s Tenacity or Vibrance. They are solid choices for early level attribute gains.”

“Tenacity… And Ferocity…” Alex confirmed two more attribute boosting passive skills she had for selection.

“Tenacity is Fortitude and Resilience,” Jay said, as she was familiar with the name since she had a Tenacity passive of her own. “What’s Ferocity?”

“Strength and Agility,” Severina answered. “A useful combo.”

“They are good attribute increasers,” Aila said from where she was sitting on Jay’s right. “However, considering the other sorts of attribute boosts Alex tends to get, let’s set those aside, at least for now.”

Jadis nodded along to Aila’s words, in full agreement with her assumption. Alex was being offered a few basics, which was understandable; it seemed all of the classes, even powerful ones, were offered those sorts of base passives in case the individual felt they needed a boost in a particularly useful stat. However, Alex’s skills were similar to Jadis’ in that she was rarely hungry for attribute boosts. Other sorts of skills thus usually had greater value.

As Alex read out her remaining skill descriptions, Aila wrote them down for her record. As she went along, Jay could see over her shoulder that she was already marking a few as less important in the margins of her notes. One skill that Aila seemed to dismiss, however, Jadis took issue with.

“I think Alex should take the armor mastery skill,” Jay exclaimed as soon as Alex had finished reading off her last skill option.

“That’s hardly the most interesting skill to discuss,” Aila pointed out. “Besides which, Alex doesn’t like to wear clothing. The sneaking skill is far more in line with her natural skills.”

“Could have made a great sneak thief if you weren’t so righteous,” Kerr pointed at Alex from where she was lounging between Dys and Bridget. “Those tentacles don’t make much noise.”

“Exactly,” Jadis agreed. “Alex doesn’t need the help to be sneaky. She’s good at being quiet all on her own. What she does need is better defenses. No one messes with her, but that’s because she’s around me when she’s in public. What if she’s on her own and runs into someone like Commander Odilia? The only reason why that jackass didn’t attack was because Kerr, Sabina, Sorcha, and Eir were there.”

“And Cora, as well as a bunch of other witnesses,” Dys amended her other self’s statement. “Though who knows if just soldiers as witnesses would have been enough to stop her.”

“Armor Mastery will help Alex stay safe, even when we’re not around. I don’t think any of us can promise to always be there, so she needs ways to protect herself that don’t involve us.”

“I agree with Jadis completely, for what it is worth,” Eir chimed in from her new seat on Syd’s lap. “Alex does need protection. Varied and from multiple sources, if possible.”

“Ah!” Syd snapped her fingers. “Which reminds me. Alex, isn’t the whole reason why you don’t like to wear clothes come from the idea that they are useless? Because they don’t offer protection? Your new plate armor offers lots of defenses, so you can’t say it’s useless, right?”

“They are not… Useless…” Alex responded after a few moments of consideration. “I will wear armor… For battle…”

“Understood,” Aila nodded slowly after a second. “It’s probably for the best. Alex shouldn’t be seen as a skulker. It would create the impression that she’s hiding something, when she should be cultivating the opposite feeling in those who view her.”

With that agreement, Alex selected the armor skill made available to her, along with a progression passive that was the next step in an earlier skill.

The next skill Alex took was one that Aila and Eir were excited about, since it was something that had the potential to be highly useful in emergency circumstances.

“If one of us is low on our reserves, Alex can give us some of her own magic,” Eir smiled happily at the idea. “For me, that would equal many thousands of points of emergency healing.”

“She has a phenomenal rate of magic recovery thanks to her high Will attribute,” Aila hastily scribbled in her notes. “Alex would recover that same amount of magic in a little over 10 minutes, just going off of her base regeneration rate.”

“Not that you should be thinking of yourself as a reservoir,” Eir cautioned the Demon with an earnest look on her beautiful face. “That is a trap that many clerics fall into. You are more than just your value as a provider of healing. Or, in this case, magic.”

“I know…” Alex nodded at the oracle with an equal level of earnestness. “I am… Loved… Because I am… Sexy…”

There were a few smiles and giggles around the room, but from Jay, Alex’s statement drew a snort. Giving her demonic lover a light squeeze, she kissed the grinning Demon on her cheek.

“I love you for more than just your sexy, sexy body.”

“I know…” Alex said, then returned Jay’s kiss.

“You’re a good cook, too—ah!”

Jay’s yelp came from Alex sinking her teeth into her jawline. Not that she could break the skin, but it was still a firm bite.

“Joking, joking!” Jay laughed. “You don’t actually cook that well, anyway!”

As Alex continued to bite her and Jay continued to laugh and squeal, Dys drew everyone else’s attention to herself so that the debate could continue.

“Well, I think we’ve got four options eliminated. Those three attribute passives and the stealth skill. Any others that don’t seem worth the price of admission?”

“Does she really need two different healing spells?” Sorcha asked. “That mending one in particular is kind of weak. It takes ten minutes to fully heal one hundred health points.”

“Hm, but it has another effect,” Dys mused. “I think that makes it worth it.”

“Review them both again?” Severina asked as she directed her attention to Aila, overlooking the squirming forms of Jay and Alex.

“As I thought,” Severina said when Aila was done. “I have Paladin’s Flash Heal as well. In fact, I have the greater version at this point, but that is the base version I started with. I would certainly recommend that Alex take that skill. It has saved my life and the life of others many times.”

“No where near as efficient as Eir’s healing,” Aila noted, “but it’s a quick cast paladin spell. That’s to be expected.”

“Okay, yeah, that one makes sense,” Sorcha agreed. “But is the regeneration one worth it?”

“I think so,” Dys replied to the witch. “It takes longer, but it’s more efficient on magic cost by double the amount. If it’s applied to someone who isn’t actively dying that very second from a mortal wound, it’s a more useful spell. Plus, it makes the target’s pain go away. They’ll even feel good. If Alex spends a day in the temple district healing people to help improve her public image, then Mend the Broken is a better spell than Flash Heal.”

“Is Alex going to be doing that a lot?” Sorcha argued back. “She’s not exactly a temple priestess.”

“She might now that healing is an option,” Dys countered. “Eir goes to the temples to help heal those who need it all the time. Alex could go with her. I think it would be a good opportunity for her. What do you think, Alex?”

The biting and wrestling between the Demon and Jay had by that point devolved into a heated make out session. Sitting back up, Jay broke her passionate kiss with the mother of her first child and helped turn Alex around so that she was sitting more properly in her lap again. The movement served the dual purpose of giving Alex a second to think over Dys’ question as well as hide the large tent that had formed in Jay’s pants.

“I want… Both spells…” Alex eventually replied. “To help… To heal… And to use… On the new…”

“The new?”

Everyone stared at Alex, not sure what the last part of her sentence was referring to. Seeing that she hadn’t made herself understood, she tried again, speaking more clearly.

“The unborn… Demons…”

“Ah… oh!” Jay exclaimed. “You mean those eggs I captured from the Dead Head Matriach?”

“Yes…” Alex nodded once.

Jadis had grabbed the body of the Dead Head Matriarch in part because she wanted to make sure none of the eggs inside hatched and started attacking the soldiers, but more because she wanted to see if any of the Demons inside could be reasoned with. Of course, Alex served as the perfect example of the fact that Demons didn’t have to follow their god’s will. But there was also Oats to consider as well. She had been acting as an agent of Samleos for long enough to possess a cow, and possibly other creatures before the bovine beast, and yet she had been persuaded away from the path of death and destruction because of the pleasure of barley oats and baking. If she could be convinced, then it was certainly possible others could be won over as well.

Jadis wasn’t exactly trying to recreate what had happened between her and Alex, but she was hoping that if the unhatched Demons could be talked to when they did eventually come out of their shells, then maybe they wouldn’t be so willing to listen to their evil patron. Originally, she had just thought Alex would communicate with any new Demons that were born. But if Alex could also provide some positive reinforcement through soothing sensations, then why not? The skill sounded even more useful.

“I don’t think any have hatched yet,” Dys said. “Though I haven’t checked the chest we put them in since we got up this morning.”

“They are unhatched,” Severina explained. “The guards I put on those eggs are monitoring them and will alert us if any do hatch.”

After separating the eggs from the Matriarch’s remains, Jadis had placed the clutch of about thirty into a large chest she had borrowed from a half-destroyed building. Before they had left the battlefield, Jadis had entrusted the locked chest to some soldiers to guard. She’d somewhat lost track of the Demon eggs for a while there, but Severina had covered for her and had made sure that they were secured and accounted for.

“Well, if Alex is taking both of those healing spells, then that means there is only one open slot left for her primary class,” Aila noted. “I know we’ve been dancing around the obviously unusual skill, but we should talk about it now, I think.”

“Yeah, probably,” Jay agreed.

“I dunno, maybe we need a minute to come to terms with any possible religious implications?” Bridget mumbled more to herself than to the group at large.

“Just go for it,” Kerr waved at Alex. “It’s not getting any weirder.”

With a nod, Alex repeated the description of the most unusual skill she had available to her.

On the surface, Jadis’ Prayer was just a worse version of the skills that Eir and Jadis had. Convergence of the Progenitor and Faithful’s Prayer both regenerated more magic than Jadis’ Prayer did. That wasn’t the weird part, though. The thing that was throwing everyone for a loop was the fact that the skill referenced Jadis by name. Not just her name, but her last name. It even gave her an epithet, the Reborn, just so it was perfectly clear that the skill wasn’t referring to some other Jadis Ahlstrom who might be living somewhere else on Oros. It was more than a little unusual, to say the least.

“I’ve never heard of a class that has a skill that affects just one other person like that,” Bridget shook her head in wonderment. “Not by calling that person out by name.”

“Bonded classes do that,” Aila explained. “You can see it in my class, as well as Kerr and Thea’s classes. Though in those cases, Jadis is referred to as our bonded lover, not directly by name. The truly strange part is that Alex’s paladin class isn’t a bonded class. She shouldn’t have a skill that links her to another in the same way.”

“Yeah, but, she is a Paladin of Jadis,” Sabina piped up from where she was settled by Sorcha and Syd. “The class references Jadis by name, so I guess it makes sense that it has skills that revolve around Jadis? I mean, other paladins have skills and spells that have to do with the god or gods that they serve, right? So, this is just that, except it’s Jadis instead of Lyssandria or Svaroga.”

“Except my paladin skills and spells that refer to Valtar do not provide aid to Him,” Severina pressed against Sabina’s blithe explanation. “He empowers me, not the other way around.”

“Maybe you do?”

Sev hesitated, her mouth open, before turning to look up at Jay with a question in her cross-shaped eyes.

“I mean, maybe Valtar does get something out of you using spells with his name in them,” Jay continued the thought that had popped into her head. “Sure, the spell or skill or whatever doesn’t say so in the description, but maybe there’s a sort of hidden effect. By using a spell powered by Valtar, you’re spreading His influence. Doing good deeds in his name and all that. That’s something the gods want, right? Spreading their influence so that mortals worship them?”

“I… suppose that is accurate,” Severina replied slowly. “I do not see as how that would be considered as the same thing as providing you with a direct increase to your magic regeneration.”

“I’m not sure either,” Jay shrugged. “I just feel like the gods have to be getting something out of having mortals worship them, right? I mean, sure, having met Valtar, I can see him being the kind of guy who would do good and help others even if he doesn’t get anything in return. He’s that kind of man. God. Whatever. But what about D? Do any of you think the god of Chaos and Madness is helping his worshippers out of the kindness of his own heart? He’s getting something out of it. In my case, it’s entertainment. Maybe that’s true for the rest of his worshippers. Or maybe, there’s something else. I don’t know. I just wouldn’t be surprised if spells are more of a two-way street than we know.”

When Jay finished speaking, she noticed that everyone else in the room had fallen silent. Various looks of contemplation had crossed her lover’s faces, some of them more serious than others. Jadis quickly realized that her line of thought was likely something none of her girls had ever encountered before.

Back on Earth, Jadis had been an atheist, and thus saw no issue with questioning the will and intentions of deific figures, regardless of religious source. On Oros, everyone had definitive proof of the gods’ presence and thus had a lot more inborn respect for the holy beings that they owed their existences to. Jadis was sure that everyone else in the room, other than Alex, had been raised to believe that the gods were benevolent providers, asking nothing in return other than loyalty from their followers. That was quite possibly exactly the case; Jadis had no reason beyond her own upbringing to suspect otherwise. In fact, she had no evidence to indicate the gods gained anything from their worshippers at all.

And yet, the certainty that the gods wanted people to worship them felt like it had more meaning behind it.

Whatever the answer to her intrusive thought was, Jadis brushed the concern away. She wasn’t trying to start a religious debate, just give a plausible explanation for how Alex’s class and new skill worked. Taking a deep breath, she pushed on and hoped that her theological question would get glossed over for the time being. They still had a lot more to review when it came to Alex.

“It really doesn’t matter why it works the way it works,” Syd called out loud enough to break everyone out of their contemplations. “The point is that the skill does something amazing. Doubling Alex’s magic recovery speed seems small compared to three or five times the rate, but she has almost six hundred Will right now. With a magic pool of five hundred, that means if she uses this skill, she’ll recover her full pool in less than half an hour.”

“On top of that, it helps me,” Jay continued. “Not trying to be selfish here, but it’s a great way for you to support me without being directly on the battlefield, Alex. Even after you give birth, we’re still going to need to take care of our little Half-Demon baby. And if it’s a situation where I need to fight and you are staying back to watch over and protect our child, you could still offer some support to me via prayer. Doubling my Will regeneration would be super useful.”

“That is true,” Aila agreed, her mind reengaged with the discussion at hand. “Since only Alex would need to pray, you would be free to fight while receiving the benefits of the prayer skill.”

“Unusual though it is, I cannot deny the usefulness of the skill,” Severina agreed. “I don’t believe the other option truly compares. I would select that skill over the lash attack alternative.”

“Yes…” Alex agreed without hesitation. “It is… Done…”

“Good,” Jay kissed the top of Alex’s tentacled head. “Then we’re onto your Greater Demon class, yeah?”

They were, indeed. Which meant they were about to discuss a bunch of skills that had never been seen by anyone before, ever. Other than Greater Demons, of course, but those Demons weren’t sharing their secrets. Settling themselves in for what would possibly be some weird and disturbing descriptions, everyone prepared for Alex to begin. As soon as she did, it became immediately evident that Alex’s bonded class was going to spark far more discussion than her paladin class had.

“What the fuck is that!?” Kerr shot up from her reclined position. “A sixty-point attribute boost? For a level seven skill slot!? That’s so fucking unfair!”

“Yes, it is,” Aila frowned as she wrote in her journal. “It does explain why Greater Demons are so strong, though. If Alex serves as an appropriate example, they’re getting wildly overpowered boosts to their attributes.”

“Sounds familiar,” Sorcha commented dryly as she eyed Syd.

“Svaroga’s hairy feet… Just—just keep going, squid butt,” Kerr motioned for Alex to continue. “Not mad at you, just questioning my life choices. I mean, fuck! What if cultists who worship Samleos and get classes dedicated to him get similar bonuses?”

“I hope not,” Severina frowned in consternation, “But that would explain why so many of them are more powerful than they have any right to be considering their levels.”

“Can’t be sure about cultists, but we’re definitely painting a picture when it comes to Greater Demons,” Jay shrugged. “Alex? What else have you got?”

“Interesting,” Dys leaned forward as she considered Alex’s other level seven skill option. “That one’s meant for Alex specifically, rather than Greater Demons in general.”

“Somewhat similar, really,” Bridget said thoughtfully. “That’s not much different in effect from getting thirty points in Fortitude and Resilience.”

“It’s a b—better skill,” Thea spoke up. “There are s—skills that overcome Fortitude and Resilience. This one, ah, w—wouldn’t be affected by those. The damage is reduced, ah, regardless of s—source.”

That was a good point. A reduction of thirty damage points wasn’t huge, but it was still useful, especially if it couldn’t be bypassed. Plus, the skill had “minor” in the title, which meant that progressively more powerful versions of the skill would show up if Alex took the skill early on. Looking at it that way, it was no contest.

“What else?” Jay prompted the Demon sitting on her lap.

The next level was a choice between two different kinds of natural attacks that focused on Alex’s body. One was for her large, monster arms and their sharp claws, while the other was for her tentacles. While Aila and Eir were inclined towards taking the earlier Tenacity passive instead, Severina and Bridget both argued that having a cheap but effective skill that Alex could use to empower her natural attacks was a useful addition to her arsenal. Especially since both skills relied on stamina instead of magic.

Alex agreed with the two warriors over the casters and ended up choosing the one that empowered her tentacles.

Moving onto the options given to her at level eleven, Alex surprised everyone with the first choice she read out loud.

“Shit. That’s a skill that comes from the blood bitch, isn’t it,” Syd whispered.

“Has to be,” Kerr agreed immediately. “She was all about blood, definitely a weird magic class that was empowered by blood and bleeding and all that shit.”

“So. A Greater Demon’s choice in vessel does more than just affect their shape,” Aila said as she looked at Alex speculatively. “I suspected as much, but I’m still a little surprised to see it offers actual copies of skills that the vessel previously possessed.”

Alex merely shrugged noncommittally in answer to Aila’s commentary. Jadis understood her meaning, as it was obvious to her, too. Alex had no more insight into the nature and possibilities of Greater Demons than anyone else. It wasn’t as though she had been taught what to expect by others of her own kind.

“What’s the other option?”

Alex read the other possibility out and revealed that it was another vestige of Eike, the murderous bandit Alex had killed defending Sabina, Sorcha, and Gunnar’s lives. Jadis agreed with Aila that it was no surprise that some skills had carried over, but she was glad that they were just extra options and not the entirety of Alex’s secondary class. Alex did not need a skill that allowed her to restore her health via being soaked in the blood of her enemies.

Alex had subsumed Eike’s body after putting an end to her deranged brand of insane menace, which was why she looked as human as she did. Jadis didn’t feel bad about that fact; Eike had been crazy with a capital C, and she had deserved to die thanks to her remorseless hatred for others. Still, Jadis sometimes wondered what would have happened if Alex had chosen a different vessel for her Greater Demon form, like an animal or perhaps even something inanimate like a rock. Would she still be attracted to the faithful Demon?

Jadis liked to think so, since ultimately it was Alex’s soul that she loved, not her body. Sex probably would have been a lot more awkward with a living rock, though.

“I will take… Blood of Thine Foes…”

“What, really?” Jay asked in surprise, her mind having been distracted for a few seconds. “You don’t want one of the attribute boosting passives instead? Or maybe there will be a better skill coming up?”

“No…” Alex shook her head. “The skill… Is strong…”

“She’s right,” Severina agreed without hesitation. “That passive offers a ten percent increase to all of the damage she does, with the only caveat being that she needs to dip her ‘weapons’ in blood first. After the first kill in most battles, she will have already met that criteria.”

When put that way, Jadis had to admit it was a very useful combat skill. Maybe not against a grundwyrm or Demons of a similar nature that didn’t have bodies that could bleed, but against most others, it was a strong skill. Disliking the source was no good reason to disregard the power it offered.

The next two skills that Alex read aloud offered greater insight into the sorts of abilities that Greater Demons received, while also highlighting the difference between them and Alex as an individual.

“A skill that is dependent on the mindset of the target, and one that is dependent on the mindset of the user. There are a few similar skills and spells I have read about that are of a similar nature. They were all Divine classes as well, so the pattern is maintained. I wonder how many other Demons, greater or otherwise, are empowered by the fear they elicit in the mortals they seek to slay.”

“There is a paladin in my order who has a skill much like Heart of Love, only it works on followers of Valtar,” Severina added to Aila’s commentary. “Uncommon, but not unheard of. The ratio among Demons may be similar.”

“Impossible to confirm, at least currently,” Aila sighed. “We can’t exactly do a survey.”

Between the two skills, it was patently obvious which one Alex would take, so there wasn’t even a discussion about her choice. Just a lively conversation concerning the nature of emotion and intention-based skills, which were an odd category that engendered a lot of debate among those scholars who studied classes and skills. Once Alex had confirmed her choice, Heart of Love, she moved on to the next couple of skills, which turned out to be two more vestiges of her vessel’s original class.

One of the two was a mastery skill that increased the damage Alex would be able to do with scythe weapons. Considering Alex didn’t use scythes and had no intention of starting to, it was an easy skill to skip. The other option, though, was a spell that Jadis had personally been on the receiving end of.

“That would be a decent choice for you, Alex,” Bridget pointed out before anyone else spoke up. “Having a ranged option for attack is a good idea. Gives you more versatility on the battlefield. And that one’s extra good because it’s a spell. You wouldn’t even have to carry daggers or darts around to toss at an enemy.”

“You don’t carry any ranged options,” Syd pointed out with a poke to the orc’s shoulder.

“No, I don’t,” she agreed readily. “Because I’m hoping I’ll get a spell like that one. If I start using throwing axes or something like that, I’m more likely to get skills related to them than a ranged spell, so I’m trying to guide my class development by ignoring what’s normally a good option for any warrior.”

“Which reminds me,” Kerr said as she poked Dys in the same way Syd had prodded Bridget. “You need some fucking ranged attacks. Noll made you look like a chump on the airship last night.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Dys sighed. “Fair enough.”

“Interesting that the flight speed is tied to Agility,” Aila mused as she brushed her pen against the tip of her nose. “Yet the power comes from Divine. That disturbed woman must have had a very unusual class.”

“Well, it’s another good reason for Alex to improve her Agility stat,” Jay said as she stroked her demonic lover’s belly and felt the child inside give a little kick. Smiling, she held her hand in place to feel another kick before continuing. “I agree with Bridget. It’s a good skill to take, especially if you’re taking that other blood skill anyway.”

Alex had no argument against their advice, and thus slotted Rings of Blood into her choices for final approval.

The next two skills were very different from each other, and the first was obviously better than the second. The first was a straight stat boost, an extra thirty points to two more of Alex’s stats. The second, however, was a passive skill with a uniquely lewd aspect to it.

“The ability to rearrange your attribute boost is rather convenient,” Eir smiled at Alex. “It also has quite an… enticing requirement.”

“Sweet…” Alex murmured before using her long blue tongue to lick the side of Jay’s face.

“Sometimes I feel like I could have opened up some kind of dessert bar…” Syd chuckled. “For adults only.”

“Still possible!” Kerr grinned. “Oats bakes the cakes, you glaze them!”

It was another no-brainer choice. After everyone was done either laughing or groaning at Kerr’s joke, Alex announced that she would be taking the Catalyst skill. She wasn’t yet sure where she would put the extra fifty points, but it was likely going to be in Dexterity to start. That was her current lowest stat and was also the one she had the least use for. When she performed the accession ritual with Jadis, that was where her CLR would go, which wasn’t ideal. However, if she put fifty points into Dexterity, the ritual should instead increase her Fortitude, which was next lowest. Then again, with all of her free attribute points still unassigned, the possibilities were still open.

With all her other selections made, the final open slot had to be filled. It came from level nineteen in her Bonded Alex class, which Jadis knew historically meant a powerful option would be on display. Considering the rest of Alex’s class, she readied herself for something ridiculously strong. That said, once Alex read the two options out loud, Jadis found that she had not been as prepared as she had thought she was.

“Gods…”

“I… well, fuck.”

“That is—hm. Shit. I guess that explains a lot about why some Greater Demons are so hard to kill.”

“Hard to kill is right,” Bridget looked between Syd and Alex. “Ten thousand temporary health points. Ten thousand points. That’s just… Ten thousand points!”

“If other Demons have similar skills,” Severina frowned in thought, “which isn’t guaranteed mind you, it does provide an explanation as to why there are Greater Demons that take far, far more damage than their defenses would appear to allow for. They simply have thousands of extra points of health that must be burned away before any true damage can be done to them.”

“Like Vinea,” Kerr murmured. “That bitch took thousands and thousands of points worth of damage and didn’t even flinch.”

“That could also be why some aren’t as tough,” Dys added her own thoughts. “If they recently crossed the threshold, all those temp points would go away, since they’d be converted to one hundred permanent points.”

“The conversion is better for long term growth,” Aila said, her eyes back onto her notebook as she wrote and spoke at the same time. “Considering Demons have no known natural end to their lifespan, a Demon with this skill could add thousands of health points to their maximum yearly. However, the temporary points are better for the short term. At least, they are for the Blood Fiend version. The Unbroken Will version doesn’t provide temporary health points.”

That was a rather significant difference between the two versions of what was basically the same skill. The reason for the disparity wasn’t certain, but Jadis guessed it had to do with the nature of the growth. Blood Fiend was reliant on taking the lives of others, or at the least, harming them. It was a skill that existed for the purpose of destruction, and the fuel it used highlighted that fact. It was no wonder that aspect of the Greater Demon epithet melded well with Eike’s terrible blood magic. They were both designed for death.

The temporary health points Blood Fiend offered were a reward for choosing an inherently evil skill. Sure, Jadis was certain they could come up with a way to get Alex buckets of blood without killing anyone. They could use cows or other animals to get the needed drams and then heal the cows, so the animals wouldn’t even suffer any permanent harm. That didn’t change the fact that it was still a purposefully destructive skill that would only lead to more skills like it. It was a harbinger of what was to come, what kind of Greater Demon Alex would be, if she chose Blood Fiend.

Greater Demon of the Unbroken Will was the objectively harder choice. It offered no temporary health points, but it also caused no harm to anyone, not even its user. The spell would still give the same long-term rewards; it just wouldn’t help Alex along with the easy cushion of a disposable shield. It was a purposefully willful break from the path of wanton destruction. The Unbroken Will was no parasite, draining the life of others for its own benefit. A Greater Demon of Unbroken Will stood on its own.

“I suppose you could take both skills,” Aila contemplated the possibility loudly enough that the whole room could hear. “You would get the benefits of both, doubling the amount of maximum health points you could gain every year. That would be more than ten thousand points. We’d have to find blood, though. Considering the quantity needed, that would be seven or eight humans’ worth, which is a lot. But a single cow would cover that amount easily enough—”

“No…”

Alex cut Aila off, causing the redhead to look up at the three-eyed Demon. Their gazes met for an instant before Alex turned to look up at Jay. In that moment, she could see that her lover had already had the same thought as her when it came to the true difference between the skill and the spell. When Alex spoke again, it was with absolute conviction.

“I will take… Greater Demon of the Unbroken Will… I will not… Be a Fiend…”

Aila looked like she was going to argue the point, however, once she looked into Jay’s eyes, she shut her mouth and made a small nod.

“Understood. This is your class, your choice. I have no doubt you’ve made the right one.”

Aila’s words reflected what Jadis felt to be true. Unbroken Will was the right choice. As much as Jadis would have loved for her little Demon to have thousands of temporary health points to protect herself with, she didn’t want that protection to come at the cost of Alex’s soul.

“Alright then. All of your skill slots have been assigned,” Aila said as she reexamined the page of her journal that had Alex’s status sheet on it. “Now. Where are you putting your free attribute points…”

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