Nick then began detailing the entire journey down to the 50th floor and the experience he had crossing the car park, explaining in detail the hard work he had constantly struggling to manage his aura. Paimon watched him with curious eyes, exclaiming at the small details of his story. Nick excitedly recounted how fast he had developed his ability to control his aura and Paimon encouraged his storytelling. Eventually, Nick wrapped up and was left expectantly awaiting Paimon’s thoughts.

“Hmm. Your aura controlling abilities are far above even some level six peoples.” Nick glowed at the compliment. “Though I’m not sure how replicable they are.” She trailed off.

Nick almost wanted to jump in and try and help her find a way to replicate what she wanted, but he knew that he had nothing. He wasn’t even sure how he’d managed to pull it off himself. He suspected it was to do with what had happened when he first met Reggie, but he had no way of properly explaining what he had felt during that moment. Nick bowed his head in shame.

“Is there anything I could do to help you?” He asked, desperation thick in his voice.

“Oh deary, you’re such a good boy aren’t you?” Paimon. “Well, there is one thing you could do for me…”

“Anything!” Nick called out, a little too eagerly.

Paimon grinned and Nick’s heartbeat sped up. “Well, Kimaris has been quite the bother to me over the years. He seems keen to bring you into his fold, do you think you could give him something for me?” She said with a sultry smile.

“Of course, I can.” Nick beamed.

Paimon then lent forward and started rustling through one of her drawers. Nick had to look away as a crimson blush spread across his face, the woman’s cleavage making his heart do backflips inside his chest. Paige giggled at his reaction and Nick awkwardly cleared his throat. Nick felt like it was a slightly immature reaction but he kept the act going. Paimon then found whatever it was she was looking for and pulled it out of the desk. She saw Nick’s averted gaze and laughed.

“Quite the little gentleman aren’t you? It’s okay, you can look as much as you want to. Just looking’s free.” She purred.

Nick felt her words wrapping around his ethereal space, corrupting his very aura. He didn’t fight back though, he didn’t do anything to disrupt the image that Paimon was completely in control here. Paimon then presented a small vial to Nick and he had to hold in an audible sigh. This was a little cliche, wasn’t it? Poisoning a rival, what was this? A period drama? Nick kept his face as captivated as he possibly could, which wasn’t too hard, Paimon truly was the most stunning woman he’d ever seen. That included all of the photoshopped women he’d spent years fawning over on the internet. Nick wasn’t sure if she was just that blessed by the gods or if she had some sort of skill that made her appearance better, though it could just be both.

“I’d like you to get this into one of Kimaris’s drinks for me, do you think you could manage that?”

Nick nodded his head and accepted the vial from Paimon, making a show to carefully place it into his magical bag. Nick then turned back to look at the woman and found her looking over him with appraising eyes, Nick shuddered, feeling rather exposed.

“So dear, let’s talk about the most important matter at hand. How did you manage to clear my dear Paige’s venom from your system?” A serious look settled across her face.

Nick made an effort to look like he was struggling not to speak. “I uh, I, well, when, I uh.”

In response, Paimon massively increased the pressure of her aura over Nick. Nick felt his mind almost slip away from him, for real this time. He wasn’t sure exactly what was happening but Paimon clearly expected that her aura would compel Nick to act a certain way and it wasn’t. Not that Nick was going to throw away the perfect opportunity that had been presented to him. He played along, leaving the thoughts of how it was all working for later, when he wasn’t standing before a woman he was definitely categorising as a demon.

Nick slumped his shoulders. “I worked out that the healing removed whatever Paige had done to me. So, when I first got back from the 50th floor I went to the Healer. I had a pretty bad face injury as well.”

Paimon stayed quiet for a moment, clearly thinking something over. “Did the Healer purposely act to free you from the venom?”

Nick didn’t have to lie. “No. She did warn me that you guys wouldn’t react positively though. I decided to run that risk.”

“You’re such a naughty boy.” Paimon said with a shake of her head.

She then got up and walked toward Nick. Nick’s heart was in his mouth, her heels brought her to just above Nick in height and as she casually crossed the room towards him Nick felt himself being to shake. She then gently cupped his cheek with a hand and looked deeply into his eyes. Nick felt his entire being get scoured, like every nook and cranny of his body was being pulled apart and searched. Nick was fucked, there was no way she didn’t find out whatever it was that was keeping his mind mostly unaffected by whatever she was doing to him. Nick felt himself weakening, his legs giving out from under him. Paimon acted quickly and brought her other hand to his cheek, holding him in place and she searched through him.

Nick’s vision started to darken and he felt a sweet liquid rise up through his throat and trickle out his mouth. Paimon moved her finger to wipe it and then brought the finger to her lips. Nick saw a deep red liquid coating her finger as she placed it in her mouth. She let out a soft moan that sent quivers across his body. She then dropped Nick to the floor and his body crumpled like a marionette with its strings cut.

“How divine. No wonder you wanted to keep this to yourself child.” Paimon moaned.

“I’m sorry Mistress.” Paige apologised.

Nick looked up at Paimon. So, she was a vampire huh? It made sense, though he wondered how she managed to look so healthy? Her skin wasn’t dark at all, but there was a healthy glow about it. Nick let out a soft sigh, his body was too weak to even move. He was stuck lying limply on the floor. He really needed to stop ending up in situations like this one. He hadn’t even gotten anything out of the two times thing had happened, only a feeling of physical and mental weakness. No one liked to be made entirely to feel powerless about their situation. Nick felt a wave of anger rise up inside him. Yeah. He was really sick of being made to feel powerless by everyone around him.

Paimon, Paige, Reggie, and even Abby. These goddamn assholes and their plans. Even worse, their strength to back up their damn plans! Nick was going to get strong enough to make them all feel powerless, yeah, he’d show them. He’d show them all! Nick’s face cracked into a slight smile. It was silly, but he needed to keep his spirits up somehow. While it wasn’t quite the hero’s journey and definitely sounded more like a villainous arc, it was goofy enough to keep him positive. As positive a man lying weakly on the carpeted floor of a demon’s office could be.

Paimon must have noticed his smile and she strode over to him. Nick weakly looked up at her. Wow, she had rather long legs, pretty damn nice legs as well. Wait, if she moved towards him just a little bit more he’d be able to see… Drat. She stopped just far enough away that he couldn’t get a peek of the promised land. Nick sighed, he couldn’t even get a little win, could he? Paimon laughed.

“So close yet so far. Did you enjoy that Nick?” She purred.

Nick didn’t actually, but his dumb smile from planning his own B-rated villain arc must have portrayed that he did. He had no reason to correct her assumption though, not that he even could. He was far too weak to even let out a croak. Paimon got down onto her knees and brought her lips right next to his ear.

“We could do plenty more, all far more intense than that. Come visit me alone. I’ll make sure to save plenty of free time for you.” She purred. “Now sleep, dear.”

Nick felt his body slow down, his eyelids grew heavy and began to close. His body was definitely trying its best to obey her command. Nick’s mind stayed perfectly active though, he let his eyes close but stayed as aware as he possibly could. As his eyes finally shut he jolted in surprise.

Level up!

Brawler Skill 6: Intolerable Weakness

Level 1 -> Level 2!

Level 2 -> Level 3!

Skill Evolution!

Level 3 -> Level 4!

Level 4 -> Level 5!

Holy shit. Well, that explained what was going on with him being less affected by whatever Paimon was doing. An evolution? So skills could evolve just like classes could, but he didn’t get a choice in what it evolved into? That was interesting, he wondered why nobody had told him about it. Five whole levels though? That felt insane, he’d barely managed to even progress his other skills. Why did this skill level so fast while the others didn’t? He had to be missing some sort of detail. He didn’t even use the active skill but it had levelled up four times, in response to whatever Paimon had been doing to him. He thought back to when his Map skill had levelled up. It hadn’t really been him using the skill or doing anything special with it. It had levelled up after he found the new 3D map function, hadn’t it? Or had the skill levelled up first?

Did the skills level up without his actual input? It was external factors that levelled them up? No, because he was still progressing them by actually using them wasn’t he? So you could level them up through use, it was just slow. Then there were these external factors that could rapidly level up the skills. How well was this understood? Surely everyone here had worked this out by now, maybe even discovered the certain conditions for certain skills. Nick really needed someone he could openly talk about this stuff with. He was just a constant bundle of questions at this point. Where was his convenient fairy companion that could helpfully explain everything he came across to him?

Nick then realised that Paimon was speaking to Paige and tried to tune in.

“-Not sure what, but he’s gotten some form of resistance against influence and charisma skills. Do your best to work out what it is. Keep him as pumped full of venom as you can manage. If it proves ineffective, send him back to me and I’ll use my own skills on him.” Paimon spoke in a cold voice that Nick almost didn’t recognise.

“Yes Mistress.” Paige replied.

“This is all proving far too much like hard work. I wish Dante would just let me kill the little shit.” Paimon sighed. “At least his blood is delicious, I might ask you to send him over just for that.”

“Simply give the word Mistress. His head will be yours.” Paige spoke in her own cold tone. Though this wasn’t as unexpected from her, Nick still had to suppress a shiver.

“No no child. He will live. Dante has had plans for him ever since that damned vision.” Nick could hear tiredness in Paimon’s voice. “I’ll wake him up now. Get him out of here. Let him be distracted with the silly task I gave him.”

Nick then heard footsteps towards him, a hand pulled his mouth open and placed something on his tongue. Nick felt it quickly dissolve and before he could freak out his taste buds were flooded with a delightful sweetness. His body suddenly felt energised, his muscles back under his control.

“Wake up Nick.” Paimon purred into his ear.

Nick started up and quickly got up to his feet. Paimon was merely inches away from him and her presence was intoxicating. He wanted to reach out and grab her. Every fibre wanted to do rather indecent things with her. Nick did his best to quell the demands his body was making, though he definitely would love to make his face deeply acquainted with the stone pillars of the wall. Then Paimon suddenly pulled Nick into an embrace, suffocating him with her chest. Nick panicked and almost tried to hit the woman, before realising that if he could barely make Paige budge at the best of times then whatever he tried would be a fruitless endeavour.

Nick desperately searched his mind for literally anything to focus on other than the perfectly soft flesh that was pressing into his face. Paimon’s arms were tightly wrapped around him, not letting him move away. He was then assaulted by her heavenly scent. He didn’t realise that a smell alone could make him feel so completely head over heels. This was the most pleasurable hell he’d ever experienced. Paimon then whispered into his ear.

“You’ll do what I asked, right?”

Nick moaned in reply, his body having waves of pleasure pulse through it. Why the hell did a hug feel this damn good? Paimon then released him with a laugh.

“Oh yes, I most definitely want to spend some more time with your dear. You’re simply adorable.”

Nick's face must have been at least as red as a nuclear launch button, his ears had never felt so warm. He turned to Paige. “Please open the door.” He mumbled.

As soon as Paige did, he bolted. He ran right to the staircase and swan dived down it. As he watched the hard stone floor quickly approaching his face Nick sighed. He could always trust the floor to catch him and keep him clear-minded. The floor was a true pal.

Then Nick crashed into the floor with a sickening crunch. He was fairly sure he’d broken his neck. The last thing he processed before his vision went black was a very loud sigh from Paige.