At this moment, Amber had many things in her mind, whether it was Mercoth telling her it was a bad idea before finally agreeing to help her and even readily offering himself to do most of the work, or the fact that she’d technically have to undress in order to undergo this procedure. However, all these warnings, or apprehensions truly paled to the anger and shame she felt during her Legacy Branch Advancement. Anger because of the open challenge and confidence the Servant of Chaos had displayed, and shame because…

  She gritted her teeth.

  She was actually rattled by the whole sight. It was the fact that the Servant of Chaos knew what Advancement she would peek, it was the fact that he could directly speak to her there, it was… everything about the whole situation. For some reason, her intuition constantly warned her about the upcoming battle, it was almost like?… Yes, it was almost like the fear she felt when she met Val’leri and Ax’thra; it was a fear borne from her senses and not a conscious thing.

  And it was because of that, that she felt somewhat indignated. Logically speaking, she wasn’t all that scared of the Servant of Chaos, in fact, if she was on the verge of death she could always activate Ishtar’s Journal in a desperate attempt to escape. But even though she logically understood all of this, her body still trembled which was frustrating and slightly humiliating.

  “I guess even after becoming a Primordial Human, I’m still just human in the end.” She clicked her tongue before she smiled. “Whatever, in the end this is also an opportunity to push my limits.”

  All things considered, this was quite the challenge considering she felt afraid, so seeing it from that angle was also pretty exciting.

  A sigh came from behind her. “Every time I meet people like you, all of you are just as insane. Last girl claimed that the higher level she became, the more complete and more like her she felt. At least, unlike the others, I think she’s still alive.”

  Amber turned, only to see Mercoth shaking his head in disapproval, behind him there was a pyramid made of what seemed extremely compacted dirt, which she took note of with a frown.

  “What is that?” Amber raised her brow.

  Mercoth shrugged. “I figured it’d be good to have a complete sightline of our surroundings in case the demon comes. Besides, we both know that if not for your ‘powers’ we’d be enemies right now, so I don’t want to hear you complaining.”

  Amber looked at him but ultimately said nothing, instead she made her way to the top of the pyramid like structure that was about as tell as a normal house. Right now, they were quite far from the fortress in case the Servant of Chaos showed up, and this ‘pyramid’ was the place where she’d experience the worst pain in her life ?— allegedly.

  Upon climbing, Amber took in the top platform of the structure, where a simple construct resembling the bed of a massage parlor lay, except it was too made out of dirt. To its side, there was a small lump that could presumably be used as a stool to sit on.

  Now behind her, Mercoth clapped his hands.

  “Alright, we should get started given you don’t want to waste time.”

  Amber blinked, glancing at the man. “You… want me to undress right here, seriously?”

  Mercoth glanced back at her, and raised his finger. “Well, first of all, I only said I could do the engraving on your bones, it doesn’t mean I’ll actually be butchering you or looking at your actual body. That will be on you.”

  Then he began to wag his finger.

  “Second of all, I’ll be staring at your bones, and let me tell you I’ve seen the bones of plenty of more beautiful women than you, so if you feel apprehensive about that just know I’ve seen better.”

  And then he pointed at her.

  “Third, according to the schematics you gave me, we can go by parts, so realistically speaking you’d only need to undress one body part at a time.”

  Amber gaped for a moment, she had never expected him to be so professional. Finally, after a moment, she recovered. Closing her eyes, she continued:

  “All you need to do is help prevent my curses from healing me, as far as revealing my bones I’ll do that myself.” She glanced at the dirt bed, before pointing at it. “So, do you just want me to lie there, while you engrave my bones?”

  “Pretty much.” Mercoth agreed.

  Amber nodded, and her hair shone for a moment as she adjusted the Inexorable Body Skill to have no pain feedback. Then, after taking a breath, she lied down, to be honest she thought the situation would be a lot more awkward for her, but turns out all her expectations had been wrong, which was great, but also slightly odd.

  As she ruminated with her thoughts, she forced the Curse of Disintegration to dissolve her entire right leg. It took a few seconds, as some liquid resembling gold dripped out of the gaps on her armor, but it soon finished. The pain was non-existent, otherwise it would’ve been quite the experience.

  Then using, a Storage Ring she dismantled that part of the armor, to reveal her bones. They looked almost ivory color, with some deep orange lines that seemed to palpitate.

  Mercoth meanwhile, leaned over with great curiosity, examining them.

  “You know, if it makes you feel better, your bones are quite ugly. Those orange lines almost makes them seem as if they’re infected with something,” he chuckled.

  Amber stared at the old man for a moment, even though he was well-dressed and had a gentlemanly aura, right now, she wanted to punch him.

  “Just get on with it.” She sighed.

  Mercoth shook his head as he spoke with a hint of self-deprication. “To be honest, I never thought I’d be doing this again. And I also never thought your preparations for this boiled down to some instructions and the conduit and nothing else. You’re quite lucky, I have the tools for it, or who knows what would’ve happened to you.”

  She frowned listening to him.

  “What do you mean again? Also, I figured Frei could do a good job if she made some darkness tools; though I’ll admit at first I thought I could do it myself.”

  He chuckled. “Doing it yourself, huh? Quite the innovative self-torture method.”

  In spite of his comment, Amber would’ve still attempted it if not for his persuasive words earlier. But even then, it didn’t completely justify allowing Mercoth to take such an important role given he was a member of the Arcane Council. It was only because he was contractually bound and the fact that he was a well-educated mage as well as a Cursebearer, that Amber had decided she could trust him.

  Unlike before, her contracts actually worked to full effectiveness, meaning if he tried anything funny he’d pay for it dearly. And it was because of that fact, that Amber could feel at ease with this previous enemy doing this procedure on her.

  Mercoth continued: “As for your question, I was one of the lead directors on the council’s research on this topic. Hence all my warnings, but given you’re a stubborn fool I have no choice but to help you.”

  “I’m not forcing you to.” She frowned.

  Mercoth chuckled. “Of course not, I’m only doing this because I’m hoping you die from the pain, that way I’ll be free to go in my merry way,” he said in a joking manner, though it was clearly a truthful statement. “Anyway, I guess I’ll start. Luckily for you the conduit you prepared is of amazing quality, otherwise it’d be quite the waste of time to do all this.”

  Sitting down, he leaned over holding what looked like a handheld metal drill?, except way more magical. Finally, just as he was about to start, he blinked.

  “By the way, how come you don’t run away from the Servant of Chaos? You seem worried about it.”

  Amber paused. “That’s because?— agh!”

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  She? let out a high-pitched painful grunt as stabbing pain hit her.

  It was a sharp pain that was rapidly spreading through her leg, it was uncomfortable and pulsating, almost numbing. She could feel the drill digging into her bone, as it forcefully split it apart. Even though she had supposedly turned off pain reception, it still hurt just as she had been warned.

  But even though it was incredibly painful, she had been through worse.

  Gritting her teeth, she lifted her head and glared at Mercoth who was sitting on a mud stool, carving onto her leg bone with great focus.

  “Why didn’t you warn me beforehand?”

  Without glancing back at her, he smirked. “Generally speaking, inflicting pain upon someone when they don’t expect it makes it easier to get over it.”

  She frowned before suppressing a painful grunt as her knee was dug into.

  “I’m going to first do the main channels before engraving the runes, it should be faster,” he commented nonchalantly. “Also I mean what I said, usually when I’m outmatched I run away. Just like I attempted to do when I was fighting you.”

  “I don’t think it matters…” she spoke with difficulty. “Not when this demon seems truly hellbent on settling his debts with me…”

  Mercoth was silent for a few seconds as the pain traveled up her leg, before finally it stopped.

  “I never would’ve expected that a chosen one by the gods would be so straightforward. Why don’t you just as a Primordial Spirit for help instead?” he asked as he adjusted on his seat. “From what I know that demon is terrifyingly strong.”

  “It is strong…”

  She sucked in a deep breath as the member of the Arcane Council resumed his work on her tibia.

  “But I also won’t run away from a challenge, also do you think I can just willfully summon a god? You’re funny.” Amber smirked before her lips trembled from the pain.

  “That’s unfortunate, if it had been me meeting those primordials I would’ve gotten a way to contact them.”

  The conversation came to a stop as silence settled in, but for Amber it was anything but relaxing as she heard her own bone being scraped and worked on, all while experiencing constant pain feedback coming from it. Even though, it lasted a mere few minutes, to her it felt much longer than that as he finally stopped.

  “Alright, now I’ll start inserting the conduit you handed me and we’ll essentially be done with your right leg. Afterwards we can do your other leg, then your arms before moving to your entire torso.”

  Amber was about to nod when she felt a biting cold pain stab deep into her bone, it was akin to touching frozen metal with neverending coldness. First it made her tremble, then it slowly became tolerable as it engulfed her bone before finally it started to burn. And it didn’t stop there, as the wire of curses continued to be embedded into her, instead, the pain continued to spread, never to subside.

  During this time, Amber grunted and trembled, and if it weren’t for Mercoth telling her off for moving slightly, she would’ve even allowed herself to thrash a few times from the pain and the sheer uncomfortability of the process. In a sense, it wasn’t as painful as the engraving, but in another sense, it was a different kind of pain. And unlike the other pain, this one didn’t seem to be fading.

  It was a mere few minutes, but to her it felt much longer than that. When it was done, the member of the Arcane Council finally spoke.

  “And done with your leg entirely.” He nodded in satisfaction before glancing at her. “You took it much better than expected.”

  “Did you expect me to back out or something?” Amber grunted, sweat pouring down her forehead.

  “Well, yes considering it’ll only get worse from here,” he said simply. “After all, engraving the spine and ribs is much more painful than that.”

  Hearing that, a long sigh left her. Resummoning her armor, and reactivating her curses, she felt her flesh knit back together, but even after her leg was back to normal Amber couldn’t help but frown. After all, the biting cold pain didn’t seem to be going anywhere, in fact her entire leg was actively throbbing.

  She stared at her leg for a moment. “So, my entire body will feel just like this?”

  “Pretty much, and once we close the circuit the only way to get rid of it will be to undergo the procedure again and remove it manually.” Mercoth shrugged. “After all, once it’ll become part of your body so it won’t be damaged or anything given your regenerative abilities.”

  “On one hand that’s a good thing,” she said as she felt her leg throb. “On the other, it may be a bit of a curse.”

  Mercoth chuckled. “Heh, so now that you know this, are you sure you want to continue?”

  He gave her a meaningful glance, but Amber’s eyes simply narrowed in response.

  “Do I seem like the kind of person to just quit?”

  He shook his head. “Suit yourself then.”

  With that, the procedure continued with her other leg. This time, however, the pain was a lot more tolerable in her mind, and it was because of the memory in her mind.

  On the ground, a battered figure lay. A woman with orange eyes that were about to lose their light, her skull split open with half of her head missing. From her wounds, shimmering ichor constantly seeped out as it was gnawed at by black tendrils.

  And approaching her, was a lumbering demon; its head and lower body were reminiscent of a goat; it’s red large body rippling with strength. Similar to an impending doom, its shadow loomed over the figure as he chuckled, saying something before turning back to look at ‘her’.

  “...accepted your fate?”

  His mocking grin was seared into her memory, and it was because of that, that she couldn’t give up.

  Amber gritted her teeth through the legs and the arms, before finally reaching what was the torso. At the start of the procedure she would’ve felt awkward, but now she simply repeated the process of melting away the skin and allowing her bones to be seen; of course, she couldn’t exactly remove most of her organs, lest her life would actually be at risk without healing, so unfortunately the sight was rather… gross.

  Surrounding her, there was shimmering blood and her seemingly pulsating innards, if it weren’t for Mercoth’s questioning about whether she was human upon seeing some of her organs, the atmosphere would’ve been closer to that of a butcher house.

  But thankfully aside from a few painted grunts and sharp breaths, the ribcage was done almost to its completion without any trouble. Though at this point, Amber had a horrible headache from the constant pain from all her extremities, but at least it was close to done, most of the bad experience had already passed.

  Or so she thought.

  Now laying face down, she glanced over at Mercoth who wore a solemn expression. After a moment, he spoke:

  “Alright, all that’s left is your spine. Which is the most painful part, may I add.”

  Amber frowned, watching him lean over with the drill, it was almost suspenseful which made her scowl.

  “Just get it over with?— AAAGH!”

  And she screamed. She screamed for the first time, and she even briefly lost control of Inexorable Manipulation, causing Mercoth to step in. Even though it had been a simple incision with the magical drill, it took her a moment to process.

  “How can it be that bad…?” She breathed out.

  “It just is, but if you keep moving like that, I won’t be able to finish,” Mercoth let out a rather tired sigh. “Especially because controlling your curses is, incredibly difficult.”

  Hearing that, Amber bit her lip for a moment, but as she thought about the vision she saw, and about the danger she felt as well as the future she wished for, all her doubts vanished in an instant.

  She hadn’t lived to her full potential yet.

  And even if that potential entailed some suffering, she could always remove the runes from her bones in the future.

  Wouldn’t it be a shame to not see where her limits lied? To shy away from what she could’ve been just because of some terrible pain?

  Unlike Earth, it wouldn’t be a permanent and debilitating pain that she would have to live with for the rest of her life, compared to for example ruining her back in that plain and boring world. This was Vir, and because it was Vir, she could push limits she had never thought about, and more importantly, experiment with things so long as they wouldn’t kill her.

  And what wouldn’t kill her, would only serve to make her stronger.

  Amber’s eyes narrowed as she made her decision.

  “Continue.”

  Mercoth raised his brow at her resolute voice, but ultimately said nothing as he leaned over once more and truly began.

  For the next few minutes, Amber experienced hell. She screamed until her voice became hoarse, she felt pain until her very spirit became numb, but she didn’t falter, she didn’t move around, nor fail to control her curses, instead she simply endured it.

  Until, it finished.

  Mercoth hadn’t even said it was done, but Amber felt a change to her whole being as she realized one of her Essence Skills had evolved.

  God’s Physique had became God’s Divine Constitution.

  And with it a myriad of strength bonuses came as her injury began to heal.

  Amber smiled as she donned her armor back on, and re-enabled the pain-feedback from Inexorable Body.

  “Now, I just have to check what changed, and I’ll be ready.”

  And just as she was about to do that, she sensed a presence manifesting not too far away.

  Amber’s hairs stood on end as she teleported to the other end of the platform, glancing in the direction of the presence where a black void was manifesting. It was an inky black swirling darkness that was expanding, growing quickly in size. In less a second, it expanded to twice her own size, and continued slightly past that as it finally stopped.

  And from within it a very familiar demon stepped out.

  “Well, well, well, looks like you made use of your time quite wisely, Amber… Unfortunately, it has run out.” He smirked. “Are you ready to accept your fate?”

  It was none other than the Servant of Chaos. Mercoth who was next to her, paled.

  “It’s over Level 400… how?”

  Following his words, Amber’s Appraisal seemed to update, and it was as she thought.

  The most difficult fight she’d ever have to face was now here.

  [Servant of Chaos. Lvl. 411]

  Running, feeling afraid or even trying to postpone it was pointless.

  Her time of death had arrived, for better or for worse.