As Alacria's blades prepared to cleave me into pieces, time seemed to slow down.

Am I really… going to die here?

There's no time to cast a spell. There's no time to even dodge or block.

Just a few months ago, I had been in a similar situation, staring death straight in the eyes. At the time, Xuan Kai had saved me from the fiery pits of hell. But this time… there was no helping me.

I was done for. This marked the end of my journey, my life.

I closed my eyes and accepted my fate.

"But do you truly?" a voice suddenly asked in my head. The voice… it sounded like my own, yet different in a way as well.

"What…?"

"Can you truly accept just dying like this?"

"…"

"You've only lived for 14 years. Your love hasn't even be requited yet, but here you are, ready to just give in?"

"I…"

"Can you truly accept that your life is coming to an end, before your very eyes?"

"I… I can't. But what can I do? There's no escaping this situation."

"What if I told you there was?"

"H-Huh?"

"If there was a way to escape this predicament… would you be willing to pay any price for it?"

"…"

"For your life. For your happiness. But most importantly… for your love. Are you willing to change, in order to obtain all that?"

"…!"

"Tell me, Feng Mian. Time is running out. Tick, tock. Tick, tock."

"I'm willing… I'm willing!"

I could not see the owner of the mysterious voice, but I could feel her smiling.

"Very well. My power… take it. Embrace your other self… and wield it. For when two halves meet and come together as a whole…"

A purple light enveloped me, blinding Alacria.

"… We are unstoppable."

In a blinding flashbang, I was brought back to reality, a brand new girl.

Purple marks now lined the edges of my face. Two black horns jutted out of my head, like that of a succubus. On the back of my waist, a long black tail emerged, with the tip being in the shape of a heart.

My original clothes had been replaced with a violet set of revealing armor, covering my whole body with the exception of my breasts. Instead of being completely covered, this tight armor set just barely hid the middle.

My hand, clad in purple armor and metal spikes as fingers, grabbed both of Alacria's knives. Without any hesitation, I crushed them with ease, turning them into nothing but two empty handles without blades.

The poor demon's eyes widened in shock as she quickly backed away, bewildered and confused.

Two large black wings sprouted out of my back as I zoomed towards Alacria at hypersonic speed, glowing purple eyes filled with killing intent and sadism as I licked my lips.

"N-No-!" she screamed, but I didn't even give her a chance.

I grabbed her throat and forced her body into the ground, dragging it along the floor as I flew.

I reached the end of the arena in an instant, and I let go of her throat at last. Her face was unrecognizable, completely mutilated.

Suddenly, my wings vanished, I snapped out of my killing rage, and looked down at myself.

"W-W-W-Wha…?!"

Realizing how revealing this armor was, I quickly covered up my chest and blushed in embarrassment, before rushing off the stage.

"Well! That was one hell of a show!" the announcer laughed. "But ultimately… the winner is… Miss Feng Mian!"

*****

(Xuan Kai's Perspective)

Hesitantly, Feng Mian opened the door to our room.

All of us collectively set our gazes on her, absolutely shocked at her change.

Then, her eyes landed on me, and blushed even harder than before.

"T-This isn't what it looks like!"

"Those horns, those wings from earlier, and your tail…" Xiang Peng murmured in thought. "Holy, you're a succubus!"

"W-W-What?! I never heard about that from my mother!" Feng Mian cried.

"How did you activate that power then…? It was incredible!" Yu An Yan asked excitedly.

"I don't know… right before she could cut me, I heard this voice in my head, telling me to accept her power… so I did…"

I gulped. Not because of how ridiculous this change was, but because of how… ahem, erotic Feng Mian looked right now. The metal parts of her armor were all gone, leaving only a tight purple skinsuit that highlighted all her perfect curves. Her blushing and trying to cover up her chest only made it cuter.

"Hey! What are you staring at!" she suddenly yelled, noticing my gaze. "You perve- huh?"

Suddenly, she clutched her head in pain, wobbling uncontrollably, on the verge of falling. I snapped out of my thoughts and quickly teleported behind her using Blink, catching her just in time before she fell.

Her breast was now extremely revealed, her tits just barely being covered. It took everything I had not to get a nosebleed.

Groaning, I lifted her body up and brought her back to a chair, letting her sit down as I sat beside her.

"Mm… ngh…" she murmured from beside me.

My eyes widened as she wrapped her arms around my neck and shifted her body to straddle me. The other girls watching on dropped their jaws in shock, completely frozen in astonishment.

"… F-Feng Mian?"

"Mm… Xuan Kai… kiss…" she stuck out her tongue seductively and wrapped her legs around my body as well. Like a snake, she completely entangled her body around mine, not ever giving me a chance to escape.

I gritted my teeth as I tried to get her off, but to no avail. The softness of her body was making a certain part of my body turn rock solid in comparison, much to my chagrin.

"Feng Mian, the next fight is happening soon, stop messing aroun-"

"Mmn~" she cut my words short, pressing her lips against mine.

My eyes widened as I tried breaking free, but for some reason, my instincts as a healthy teenager caused my hands to move somewhere else instead — her sweet and ample bosom, of course.

Her tongue made her way into my mouth like a tentacle, slippery and wet. I could not resist.

"Mmmnf… unnf…" she moaned as we kissed deeper and hotter.

Caught in the moment, my hand slowly shifted to her plump ass and squeezed it.

"Ahn!" she yelped from the sudden pressure and tried breaking away, but I wasn't about to let her do that now.

I pushed her down onto the other chair and leaned in to continue kissing her, giving in to the temptation. Slowly, I reached for her clothes, preparing to take it off completely, but-

"Master!" Mei Gui suddenly yelled, snapping me out of it.

I quickly backed away, my saliva and hers both dripping out of my mouth.

"S-Sorry… I… uh, lost it there," I muttered, wiping my mouth.

Feng Mian fell unconscious, sleeping peacefully.

"… Xuan Kai," Yu An Yan said.

"W-What?"

"… Are you going to do that with the rest of us too, if we win?" she tilted her head and blushed, averting her gaze as she pressed her two index fingers together repeatedly.

"No," I denied immediately, closing my eyes.

"Ungh… but it's not fair like that…" Qing Yue pouted angrily, folding her arms.

"Listen, I don't know what happened with Feng Mian there, but it should have something to do with her succubus nature…" I sighed. "I don't know, I'm confused as well. For now, can we just forget that ever happened?"

"I don't know, that's going to be hard…" Xiang Peng smirked. "I'm a bit jealous too, y'know? You were kissing her so passionately there…"

"… Cut the bullshit. I'll explain everything to you guys when I find out the answers myself. Until then, just pretend that never happened."

"Fine, fine… everyone else agree on this?"

The girls all shrugged, signaling they were fine with whatever. I let out a sigh of relief.

"Miss Yu An Xue? You are up next," the IMF staff knocked our door and said, letting us know.

"…" she didn't respond and instead merely stood up, heading for the door. She had a look of determination and cold fury in her eyes, probably due to jealousy from earlier.

She walked out the door and closed it tight behind her.

"Who's her opponent again…?" Yu An Yan wondered, looking at the screen.

"Nya, wasn't it that Etherweal?" Amane asked, tilting her head.

"Oh, that troublesome one… right," Xiang Peng laughed. "This is going to be a tough fight for our icy beauty."

"Don't worry, my sister can pull it off," Yu An Yan smirked smugly. "Even if she gets pulled into the void, she'll still find a way to break out somehow. She always does."

"There's still a chance she can die, you know," Obsidia said coldly. "Best not to be so confident."

"Why do you always have to put a damper on things?" Yu An Yan said furiously. "And don't go cursing my sister!"

Obsidia opened her mouth to try and defend herself, but then closed it again.

Damn… just when she was finally starting to open up to us too.

"Nah, Obsidia's right," I said. "I don't think An Xue will, but there's still a possibility that cannot be ruled out."

"I know that… but… I just don't want to believe it, y'know?" Yu An Yan smiled sadly and glanced at the screen, where her sister just stepped onto the stage.

Good luck, An Xue.