I swept the staff from left to right, and the arc swept with it, chaining through the seven demons in the order I directed rather than the order the discharge would have chosen on its own.

In this way, I ensured that the lightning focused on their heads and not any part of their bodies, else it would take multiple casts to take them down, and I did not have the juice for that.

The first demon’s jaw cluster caught fire, and its head split open. I did not even have to direct the lightning at its weakness, because Surge had just supercharged it.

The second lurched as the arc found it and the tendrils on its face burst outward in small plumes of burning fluid, its forward limbs giving out simultaneously.

The third caught the arc across the back of its narrow head as I directed the discharge to hit from behind, the skull fractured along the spine, the creature collapsing forward onto its own remains.

The fourth took the arc through the joint where the second pair of limbs met the body, and the joint itself disintegrated, the limbs separating from the torso and falling in different directions, the creature trying to take a step on the remaining four limbs and failing, before going down.

The fifth and sixth were standing close enough to each other that the arc jumped between them before I had to redirect it. It hit the fifth’s jaw and carried through to the sixth’s in a single seamless bridge, and both of their heads seized simultaneously, the tendrils burning, the bodies convulsing in the same rhythm.

The seventh tried to turn away, and the arc followed it.

I swept my staff to track the retreating demon, and the discharge followed the motion, reaching out across the four meters that separated the seventh from the chain and finding the jaw cluster as the demon was mid-pivot.

The arc struck and the demon’s whole body lit from the inside, the iron-dark hide suddenly visible from within, the internal structure silhouetted for a fraction of a second before the creature collapsed into itself and the light went out.

The arc dissipated, and I lowered the staff.

I was breathing hard. My staff was hot, not dangerously but noticeably, the three charms warm to the touch.

Before I acquired an attunement skill, if I had unleashed so much power through my staff, it would have combusted, but now, it was almost as if my staff was stretching itself after a long nap and was eager to send more lightning strikes.

My Anima Depth had dropped to approximately fifty percent. I had spent thirty-five percent on that single chained cast, which at previous output levels would have been enough for a dozen Spark discharges, but I had killed seven demons in one sustained combined Arc Lightning cast.

I stood in the sudden quiet of the space ahead of me and looked at the seven bodies, the split skulls, the separated limbs, the burning tendrils, the dark fluid pooling across the cracked earth in amounts that did not belong on the surface of the world, and I counted them twice because I needed to believe what I was seeing.

Seven bodies, and seven streams of unknown power flowing into my body.

[Arc Lightning 30 → 35 (Acolyte)]

[Surge 38 → 41 (Acolyte)]

[Anima Depth 41 → 44 (Acolyte)]

[Marksman 22 → 28 (Initiate)]

[Demonology 15 → 22 (Initiate) — Rare — Unregistered]

[Concentration 35 → 37 (Acolyte)]

[Observation 33 → 35 (Acolyte)]

[Staff Resonance 9 → 12 (Initiate)Rare]

[Demon Slayer — progress toward evolution: Approaching First Earth Gate]

The last notification was new.

Demon Slayer was tracking the kills. I had slain eight demons in a single engagement, the first demon plus the seven that followed, had advanced the title toward its first evolution threshold, the system confirming that the growth clause was not theoretical but active, and that something was accumulating toward whatever the title became at its next tier.

So many mysterious events were happening around me that such drastic changes like this no longer drew too much of my attention; I just accepted them and moved on. After all, what was the worst that could happen?

Still, I was not careless. I read the notification and felt the weight of what it was telling me.

The title was keeping score. Every demon I killed from here would move it closer to whatever it was going to become.

I looked at the camp ahead of me. More demons were somewhere in the wreckage. I could hear them, the movement of things that did not move the way living things moved, and without Death-Touched, I did not know exactly where they were or how close they had come.

I had left my friends behind in the camp, and now the full weight of that decision haunted me, because I knew they were dead; however, I kept a faint hope in my chest that it was quick.

Commander Rel’s voice was cutting through the chaos somewhere to the north. The red light was still pulsing in the pyramid’s black face. The sky above was darkening toward the particular sick green of the full eruption.

I had fifty percent Anima Depth. Arc Lightning in my hands. Demon Slayer was equipped and silent, where Death-Touched would have been singing.

The morning was not going to end the same way it had ended before.

I stepped over the split remains of the first demon and walked forward into the camp, eyes open, ears open, and no sense but those to warn me what was coming.

It was time to understand what happened at the base of the pyramid, and why our mages had been killed off so easily.

Before I acquired Arc Lightning, these demons seemed invincible, but if I could kill eight of them and still have half of my strength left with me, then there was no reason why one spell from the Adepts would not kill every demon that was erupting from the earth.

I have tasted what it means to have a powerful offensive spell, and I remembered from my last few loops that the mages’ spells were sort of weak in comparison... what was happening?