Mind Demon's Path of Domination

If he got hit without any Defensive Ability, he would surely burn to death.

And he didn\'t have any defensive demonic trick.

The Boss was not nearby to help, the Minotaur wouldn\'t reach him in time either.

Mark sighed.

I didn\'t want to use this…

Suddenly, his golden eyes grew absolutely calm. He spread out his arms wide as if embracing the lightning attack headed toward him. There was no fear in his heart, no doubt. Any attack, anything that came at him, let it.

He would take anything on!

Clown\'s Circus!

Just an inch away from his face, the amalgamation of lightning came to an abrupt halt. The falling leaves around him, the dust, the odors, the expressions—all came to a stop. Mark took a deep breath.

[27 seconds.]

Black wings spread out on his back and flap.

He flew to to stand behind the Lightning Snake, face calm.

[20 seconds.]

"I wonder what I should do with you," Mark said. Whenever he used Clown\'s Circus, everything, no matter how powerful it was, came to a halt. They became so still, it was as if he was staring at a painting.

Of course, that effect only stretched as far as his Soul Sense did.

His current Soul Sense could stretch to 901 meters, and that much space had come to a stop in time. Mark didn\'t like using this power, because anything with intelligence outside the domain of his attack would see the strangeness, and if someone too strong took interest, that would be trouble he couldn\'t handle.

And he could only use this ability once a day, and it only lasted for thirty seconds. It was his secret life-saving method.

He looked at the powerful Ultimate Demonic Art of the Lightning Snake next.

If that hit me, I\'d die.

It was not just two demonic tricks combined into one Art. It was five demonic tricks combined into one Art.

Can even normal defensive demonic tricks defend against this?

He felt that it was a no.

Reol\'ran, tell me.

No answer came.

Are you stopped too?

He had already broken the Snake\'s Defensive Magic Aura, might as well kill it. Not smiling, Mark put a hand against its slimy skin and closed his eyes.

Alchemic Shapeshifting!

The snake\'s body began to morph and change. Mark remembered everything that Yuri had taught him about human anatomy, everything about organs, bones, and blood. Everything. A human body was not an assortment of things, it was one whole system. If you remove one part of it or mess up one part, it no longer would be what it was.

Then, if he turned all of this snake\'s shape from inside out to be similar to that of a human…

What would happen then?

Would the snake become a human?

The snake\'s form began to visibly morph. Its huge physique shrank down to human size, its organs shifted their positions. Brain and stomach, they all became like that of a human. As far as he could, Mark made it resemble a human.

[10 seconds]

More human. It needed to be more human.

He had an incredibly clear memory of the human anatomy. Having Soul Sense increased one\'s memory by more than one could express—he probably had a photogenic memory. He could never forget anything he ever saw.

Be more human, snake.

A human body wasn\'t only its bones and skin, deep down, there was DNA. Genetics. He knew nothing about it but on the organ level, he made the snake a… human. As he came out of his daze and stared at it, there was no longer a snake before him. Instead, what was there was a human woman—surprising him, even its color had changed.

Alchemic Shapeshifting never did that.

Why? If I make it reach a certain level of similarity, does the Universe itself do the rest? Does the universe do the remaining work? Is this snake human now?

The woman had completely human features. She was the spitting image of what a woman was in his heart—not surprisingly, she had similarities to Reol\'ran, Dona, and Yuri. She was tall and pretty like Reol\'ran, pale-skinned. She was fit like Dona and cute like Yuri. She had fire-like blue hair, shimmering blue—snake-like—pupils, and a white sclera.

She was human. Nearly.

[6 Seconds.]

Should I kill her? Won\'t she attack me if she gets the chance?

[5 Seconds]

Would she survive even if I let her go?

He spread out his wings wide. He was curious, and he wanted to see if she would survive. But at the same time, he needed Soul Spheres.

Flap.

Flying through the sky, he reached another battlefield just some meters away from him. The huge Naga was being pushed down by the Boss Demon. Surprisingly, the Naga had already broken its Defensive Magic Aura and the Boss was dominating it.

Mark gently touched the Naga\'s scales.

Alchemic Shapeshifting.

There was no active defensive ability on the Naga, so as he watched, its body began turning into liquid. And soon enough, only a puddle of blood remained underneath the Boss.

[Killed a Pinnacle Middle Demon—Soul Sphere has been automatically absorbed into the host\'s Soul Space.]

[+ 1000]

Smile.

He stared at the snake-transformed woman.

[2 Seconds.]

A moving breeze blasted a leaf towards Mark\'s face.

The woman screamed as she stood straight up.

Mark\'s heart thumped as she stared at him from the ground, still crawling like a snake.

Survived?

As he watched, blood began to leak out of her nose and she held a palm against it.

The Lightning Snake coughed green blood.

Mark gritted his teeth softly.

Was this much knowledge of human anatomy not enough?

He waved his hand, flinging an orb of Black Water at the snake woman out of his World Space. She opened her mouth right in time to let it sink into her mouth. Suddenly, the woman began coughing blood once more, but this time, it was not green blood but red.

"She is becoming more human," Reol\'ran said. "The Black Water is removing all the flaws you left behind and perfecting her form."

Mark\'s eyes widened.

With his Soul Sense, he could see the flaws he left behind in her—which he hadn\'t seen earlier—being fixed. Her bones moved aside slightly, her organs shrank a bit more. Her skin became softer, blood began to move fast.

Heart thumped.

With her lightning blue eyes, she stared at him for a last time and before he did anything, jumped away into the Black Water near her. She vanished like lightning, using the last of her remaining Mindpower to use her movement ability.

The last thing Mark saw was her fading form into the Black River.

"She didn\'t lose any of her abilities," he said. "In fact, she changed into a different species. Neither human nor demon. A species I just created."

Mark felt his heart shake at the thought.

A species he just created.

His hands itched to go behind her, to catch up with her. Yet, he couldn\'t breathe in water, and underwater was not where he thrived. He didn\'t want to risk the unknown.

I can just try using this on other Demons now, some Demonling for starters.

He felt happy. That was worth more than some Soul Spheres.

Yuri was going to have a blast.

"Go back in," he said, tossing both the Minotaur and the Boss back into his World Space. He didn\'t know what weaknesses his method would have, he didn\'t want to use it on his own people. Not yet.

Not on himself either.

"Why do you think she changed her color when I changed her? Usually, the color didn\'t change when I used Alchemic Shapeshifting. If I used it on a red Demon, it should remain red. Right? It had always been like that…"

"You are using it on a deeper level," Reol\'ran said. "When you want to change a stick into a ball, you only think of its outward shape. Usually, you only change the surface level of things, but now, you changed it from its core. Everything except the things you can\'t see with the naked eye changed to align more with a human\'s than a demon\'s.

"You are no longer using Alchemic Shapeshifting on the surface level. You became better. But it could be better. You saw the flaws you left behind in the snake when the Black Water fixed it, right?"

"I did."

"Turn something human without a single flaw—then you won\'t need the Black Water either. And maybe, if you can even change the molecular level of these creatures, you can create living beings out of non-living beings."

"We truly think alike," Mark said with an incredibly wide smile.

If he could use Alchemic Shapeshifting on trees to give them all the organs and such that a human had, would trees change into Tree Man? Into another human? Wasn\'t he doing God\'s job?

I want to try it now.

"By the way," Reol\'ran said, a smile in her tone. "I think we will reach a Demon City if we follow this Black River. Do you want to?"

He smiled. "Let me experiment around for a while, then I\'ll go. Isn\'t it going to be full of people stronger than me? I don\'t want to go yet."

"Conflict and murder are not allowed inside Demon Cities, they can\'t hurt you there," she said. "You will be safer than you are here inside the city. If you keep your uniqueness hidden, no one will want to hurt you."

He hesitated. Deep down, he didn\'t want to interact with these demons who would be stronger than him. He liked to be the strongest person in any discussion. Well, not everything went the way he liked.

I will head there while experimenting with things as I go.