Zoe froze as the implication of the cultist’s frustratingly indirect language caught up to her at last. She glanced between him, the also-frozen paladin, and then finally, the still-untouched Demonic core vessel.


    Identify!


    [DEMON CORE]


    Rank A*


    An infernal ritual artifact of Demonic ascension. This core was created through the combination of an unconventional, alchemy-based vessel with a more standard, high-tier blood ritual. While this core is both expertly-crafted and exceptionally pure, the inherent nature of one of its co-creators gives it a powerful Disdain alignment.


    *Already an exceptionally rare and potent ritual artifact, not only does this core represent a singularly remarkable degree of craftsmanship and an unconventional design—but the unexpected intrusion—and subsequent failure—of a Hallowed Chosen during its formation has enhanced the infernal ritualist’s Disdain to produce a truly unique work of art.


    -Attributes-


    > Rank A Capacity


    > 97 Quality


    > Rank B Disdain Alignment


    > 4.8 Additional Alignment


    Demonic ascension demands an offering of Mind, Body, and Soul.


    This core’s binding may be witnessed in Blood.


    Zoe didn’t bother to sort through the bulk of all of that information. She didn’t glance at anything after the name until the bit at the very end. Huh. I guess he did finish. Glancing back to the paladin—or really his back—Zoe decided that he had probably realized the same thing. Fuck.


    The cultist looked like he had decided to make some kind of grand pronouncement. The paladin decided to drop the witty banter and just charge straight towards him. Or maybe it was towards the altar and the core? Zoe didn’t get much of a chance to figure that one out. She had decided to jump.


    The whole ‘time slowing down thing’ didn’t really happen, which was honestly fine, because Zoe actually wished the ground would go ahead and break her legs faster. Gravity was being frustratingly slow in getting her out of there—and it wasn’t actually like a game where she could try to direct her fall. She braced for impact.


    She missed.


    What? It took a good few seconds for Zoe to register that someone had punted something large and very explosive into the wall right about where she had been when she first dropped. The ear-ringing-loud blast had knocked her completely clear of the balcony, sending her tumbling down towards the base of the altar. The mostly good thing was that the bulk of the attack hadn’t hit her at all, so she was mostly fine—just a bit off course. The very bad thing was her new course.


    Zoe got to experience the unique sensation of having the wind knocked out of her and gasping at the same time. The net result was not accomplishing much of anything aside from sudden nausea and a disturbing, wet, crunching noise.


    The relief that she was somehow still alive was quickly overshadowed by indignation that she couldn’t manage to even gurgle. There was also a suspicious lack of pain. Zoe decided that she could probably diagnose herself with a broken spine, or whatever the actual term was.


    You have gained the Rank E skill: Surgeon’s Eye!


    Surgeon’s Eye has been added to secondary class: Bloody Devotee.


    You have leveled up! You are now level 2.


    +5 stat points.


    Eh…?—Well that’s nice. Zoe had absolutely no idea how she got both a random skill and her very first real level from breaking her back, but she wasn’t going to complain. The new skill in question confirmed that she had, in fact, screwed up her spine in the middle of her lower back. Or more accurately, the floor had when it slammed into her rather hard. Ah, so that’s why I got the skill, probably. Neat!


    Maybe she had been accumulating invisible experience, and gaining a new skill for one of her classes had pushed her over the edge. Not that the mechanics of it really mattered right now, given that the new skill also told her that she was basically dying.


    I’m not actually a surgeon. Not yet, at least. But I’m pretty sure that’s not good.


    Regeneration!


    …


    Surgeon’s Eye!


    Zoe didn’t bother to use rejuvenate this time. It wasn’t worth adding to her ever-increasing soul strain when regeneration would already be the far more effective option here. The latter kicked in without much issue, though Zoe couldn’t actually feel much of what it was doing in her lower body yet. She used her newest skill, surgeon’s eye, to check on that.


    Shit. Despite how surprisingly effective regeneration was, Zoe realized she wasn’t going to make it—even with her stupidly high investment in vitality.


    Vitality increased to 78!


    Fuck it, all in. Let’s min-max this shit. Not that it would really do anything. Still, Zoe had at least a couple of options here that she still had yet to explore. Eying both of them, Zoe went with the one that looked both simpler and more directly applicable first. Come on. Do something awesome. The impulse to hold her breath was overridden by already struggling to breathe. Come on…Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    Mending Touch!


    Zoe realized two important things about mending touch almost the very moment she first activated the skill. The first was that it was far, far more potent than even the already-powerful regeneration. The second was that it took a lot of effort and was also very hard to control.


    At least she could feel her legs again. Not sure that I’m actually happy about that. Her whole lower body had taken dramatically worse damage than most of the upper half. It turned out that the reason she hadn’t died immediately by cracking her skull was that half of her had been sort-of cushioned by a dead guy. Thanks buddy.


    But while Zoe had reconnected several of her important spinal bits and could almost half sit up, that was pretty much the extent of the improvement. I kind of think I might have somehow healed myself wrong. Magical paralysis cures and the ability to lean upwards and breathe may or may not be superseded by feeling way, way worse. The initial fall was pretty bad, sure—but Zoe hadn’t actually been bleeding much. Barely at all, relatively speaking. It was a bit strange then that she had apparently just lost nearly half of her blood.


    Where the fuck did it go?


    Zoe tried looking around the ground, but it wasn’t there either. They say to check where you last remember something being. But I remember it being, like, in my body. It definitely wasn’t there right now.


    In combination with using way too much magic with zero prior experience, Zoe was feeling more than a little lightheaded.


    Unable to keep herself upright any longer, Zoe collapsed back onto her corpse-pillow. I think I’m still dying? The main difference was that now she was in more pain. Nice. But what was the deal with mending touch? The skill had just—it just cut off after less than three seconds. Even thinking of activating it again sent shivers of pain stabbing through Zoe’s whole body. But surgeon’s eye had activated afterwards—the increased soul strain was tiny in comparison. Could it have—did it consume my blood?


    It was the only coherent explanation Zoe could think of. She couldn’t test it like that again, though. It had already almost killed her without even taking the damage from her fall into account. However, that didn’t mean she didn’t have another way to test it.


    Struggling to roll herself over, Zoe shoved her hand deep into the dead body underneath her. The gaping hole in the middle of it that a paladin had already created helped quite a lot with that part.


    Mending Touch!


    Zoe didn’t know if that sort of—internal contact made a difference compared to just placing her hand on the outside skin. It felt right, though, so she didn’t question it. She didn’t question it when the corpse mummified itself in real-time before her, either. Not mostly, at least.


    Then it was gone. Damn. It had helped, there was no doubt about it. Zoe didn’t feel better, but she did feel healthier, sort of. The problem was that it hadn’t even lasted as long as consuming her own blood, and yet there had been more of it. What? Maybe it was because he was already dead. Whatever. It served its purpose. Zoe didn’t actually see any other bodies nearby—but she didn’t actually need the bodies. She needed the blood. If only these people had been murderous cultists performing a sacrificial blood ritual…


    So Zoe began to crawl.


    Mending Touch has leveled up! Mending Touch is now level 2.


    Yes! Zoe would take the win, especially if the recognition for using the skill made it better at saving her life.


    The base of the stairs leading up to the altar were still absolutely coated in blood. Sure, a lot of it had gotten all sticky and congealed, but the mending touch didn’t seem to have an issue with hungrily vacuuming it up. The only downside was that it didn’t start pulling in the whole puddle like Zoe had hoped. She was going to have to climb.


    Oh well. It wasn’t so bad when surmounting every step became easier than the last. By the time she made it to the top, Zoe was almost completely healed. She still felt like utter shit though. It seemed that physically restoring her body from a near fatal fall still left her feeling worn out and just plain gross. At least she could stand up.


    Wait, shit. Zoe had been so preoccupied with trying to not die that she had completely forgotten that the cult leader—and maybe paladin—were still alive too. She realized this rather critical fact when the cultist stopped whatever it was he was doing on the other side of the altar to look at her.


    It wasn’t a very wide altar.


    Shit!


    The guy had a knife, which could have been pretty concerning. It wasn’t though, not really. This was because he seemed to be about to slit his own palm with it, not attack her. It might have also been because he had just overpowered a magical warrior knight person, who had just overpowered six magical cult people, each of whom could probably have overpowered Zoe.


    It was also getting a little awkward, and Zoe started to hope he would get on with doing whatever he had been intending to do with his little knife. Instead, he glanced down at the altar, then back up to Zoe. Then he shrugged and started to cut himself.


    He disappeared in a thunderous crash of sound and multicolored light. The impact came from above and behind Zoe, likely coming quite close to decapitating her and sending her obnoxiously long hair into a straw-colored whirlwind.


    Zoe blinked. Getting the hair back out of her eyes didn’t actually do much to help her follow the chaos unfolding between the two high-level opponents. It was all so big and bright and fast that she couldn’t make sense of most of it. It looked like the cultist was the stronger one, though. Zoe could tell because he was keeping his feet firmly on the ground, and he wasn’t the one getting repeatedly smacked into walls, the ground, and even the lofty ceiling at one point.


    At least they were both occupied again. It was a great time to book it and get her ass out of here, especially now that she was all healed up. The problem was that it seemed like there was only one way out from this ground level. It was a problem because the final showdown between paladin and cultist was starting to literally tear up the tiles between her and it. The result of this was Zoe just standing around looking worried and confused.


    Should she hide again? She doubted she could figure out a way to climb back up to the balcony exit. There had to be something she could use. But aside from corpses, what was there—


    Oh. Zoe looked at the Demon core. It was just kind of sitting there right in front of her. It didn’t actually look like much more than a lumpy dark blob enshrouding an eerie crimson light. You know—well it’s not technically S-Tier, it’s A, but… Well, Zoe had already thought that she might have found her cheat power when she first identified it ages ago.


    Zoe decided to just grab it.


    The altar was definitely not big by any stretch, but it was big enough that she had to lean against the edge to snatch the thing. She tried to at least, and of course the system decided to ruin things. Fuck you! It had gone so far as to completely freeze her in place, forcing her to acknowledge its message.


    The Inheritor’s Altar recognizes your blood.


    A ritual is already in progress.


    An unclaimed Demon core accepts your blood.


    Do you wish to assume an Infernal nature, Scion?


    Oh shit, sorry, never mind, thanks system! Zoe calmed herself. The message was pretty straightforward, if more than a little vague. Not that it changed anything. It was just asking for confirmation that she wanted to claim it for the whole ‘demonic ascension’ thing. Zoe didn’t know anything about the specifics, but it was probably a really big deal. Did she want to just jump into something like that? Was it really worth it?


    Zoe looked at the core again.


    Yeah.