Alessia was the champion of a thousand battles. A Hero. She had seen things that would make even the toughest people lose their lunch or curl up in a ball and cry. She had done those things countless times as well. But she could not get out of her head the way this creature killed her friend. One moment she was following the creature, the next there was pink mist and a crater.

Her stomach churned and danced in her throat.

Panic was in her blood, burning and ravaging through her veins. Crawling along her nerves like lightning. Her breath was the opposite. It was a cold force that calmed the berserk. Each molecule of oxygen in her lungs seemed to take away the heat from her burning blood.

Breathe...

She hated this world that allowed Calamities to exist.

Electricity ran through her body, golden and white. Sparks flew off her form as she widened her stance. Ever since she was young, she had wielded the sword. The pinnacle of her achievements was the sword drawing style - Void Stance. [Emptiness is Form. Form is Emptiness.]

All her emotions disappeared into a furnace of nothingness and her senses sharpened. Her mind elevated beyond the default consciousness. It became a gestalt of observation, prophecy, magic and skill.

The sound of chirping birds filled the room as her center of gravity lowered.

She became a bolt of lightning the very moment her hand touched the hilt of her sword.

Lightning Strikes Twice. Explosions filled the air as Alessia launched forward, performing the profound techniques. She drew her sword, shrouded in lightning and struck the creature's skin twice with one homogenous, spinning maneuver. Her damage assessment skill did not trigger.

River Overcomes the Banks. Lightning gathered on the sword, deceptively extending its cutting range as she performed an overhead chop, striking one of the creature's limbs.

You have inflicted 72 damage.

It was working. How well though? The creature was level 2, last she knew. It shouldn't have a lot of health. If she could target the limbs... there was a chance.

But then reality set in. The creature had not even moved. It didn't try to dodge. It didn't try to fight back. As if Alessia did not even exist. What was it looking at? It was hard to tell. The creature had no eyes and no face on its black surface. Could it even see?

If the creature won't dodge...

Alessia traced her index finger along the sword's edge. In the wake of her finger, the lightning turned to black plasma. Her sword became shrouded in the corona of black flames, turning violet and orange at the edges of the billowing fluid-like energy. Within the core of that flame was a darkness that resembled the night sky, with glimmering sparks that resembled stars.

Though Alessia did not have an Amalgamated Domain, she had a weapon specifically designed to slaughter demons and punish fallen angels.

"Fate Severing Sword," Alessia announced. Her sword was like a fragment of oblivion, an object so heinous and sinister even the demons would look away in disgust. Its power came from the principle of extinction. All things must come to an end. All paths must separate. This sword could sever the threads of fate.

When Alessia launched forward, the creature did not move. As if inviting the attack. As if saying: "Come, give me your best shot."

Alessia's heart danced in her throat. It drummed inside her head. If her sword could touch Halas, it would destroy its wicked soul. Such was the decree of heaven. Spare the innocent, punish the wicked.

Her sword landed square against the creature's body and Alessia put everything she had into the blow. The sword overcame the impossibly tough outer shell of the creature's body and managed to wedge itself underneath the armor and deliver a strike.

You have inflicted 1 damage.

A symbol flashed on the creature's outer body. Blood-red on pitch black. [Amnesty].

"You are not a creature of Hell? You have been forgiven?" Alessia asked as her sword fell to the ground. Her soul had given up.

Contrary to what Alessia might believe, Halas was not feeling chivalric or gallant at all. With the threat gone, save for one human, it went to deciding which Calamity Perk to pick. It had figured out how to bring up the selection screen, but it was thousands of entries long.

It ran the list through an algorithm that selected a few candidates that could prove to be useful to it.

Every now and again, that silly human tried to impress Halas with that silly dance and acrobatics. Halas was not interested in it at all. Or impressed.

Quite frankly, she was annoying. Couldn't she tell that Halas was trying to make an important choice?

Mana Devourer

Devour mana for nourishment. If you have special abilities to create permanent objects, you can create temporary ones using your maximum mana, instead of materials. Power Adept

As a creature with profound magical powers, but no formal education in magic, you can instinctively enhance your abilities by spending mana to improve your attributes and skills far beyond the realm of mortal possibility.

Those two were extremely attractive to Halas. The first one was self-explanatory, but the second one suggested that Halas was not using its reactor properly. Considering what happened with the laser earlier, Halas was open to possibilities, however ridiculous they sounded. It was a fact that Halas's power output was far beyond what it believed it had.

You have selected the Calamity Perk: Mana Devourer.

[Emotion Matrix: Happy.]

It seemed like the most reasonable choice. Halas could create weapons from mana, temporarily, and power them with its reactor. This would cut down its evolution time considerably. Eventually, it would understand the full scope of its power output and be able to make use of the other perk, but for now, it needed long-range weapons.

It noticed the human was still standing there. Did she want something from it? She wasn't going to follow it, was she? Was the female even useful? She didn't seem like she was capable of much tribute.

Aah, she wanted a pat on the back for that thing she did before. Right.

"Good job," Halas boomed at her. It was in a good mood, so it didn't mind letting someone go today.

It turned towards the door at the opposite end of the chamber, as the female fell to her knees and howled in soul-crushed agony. She was praised by a monster that was given [Amnesty].