Scarlet

I grit my teeth as I feel the Red Plague beginning to go out of control, devouring all of the demons around us and growing stronger and stronger. But thankfully the five Noble demons begin fighting against the Red Plague themselves as well, slowing its pace a bit and letting me draw some of it back into me.

Something strange happens when I draw as much Red Plague inside of myself as I can though.

Almost like… I’m growing stronger when I pull the blood in.

“Scarlet, there’s something I didn’t tell you until now that I think you should know,” Tar says, making me frown. “Father ordered me to keep it from you until you knew how to control the Red Plague, but the Red Plague is considered a part of your body. And it doesn’t just replicate when it devours the realities of other beings.” Tar hesitates a second as I continue pulling in the Red Plague until I’m at my limit and can’t hold any more. “The Red Plague’s own reality grows stronger as well.”

Wait. Huh?

I blink as I feel my control slackening ever so slightly in my surprise, only for me to regain my control over it in an instant.

Doesn’t that mean…

{Level X Being Devoured.} x102397

{Level XX Being Devoured.} x38702

{Level XXX Being Devoured.} x2890

{Congrats, you have leveled up to level 1036. Ten Free Points have been awarded to you and your stats have been updated.}

…

{Congrats, you have leveled up to level 1069. Ten Free Points have been awarded to you and your stats have been updated.}

Holy cow. That’s a lot.

This is just broken.

Do you seriously mean that…

“Yes, the Red Plague directly feeds on the life force and reality energy of other beings,” Tar declares. “And your body is entirely made up of the Red Plague in question.”

So I can level up without giving a shit about the System’s restrictions now.

Although it doesn’t seem to give me any SP for the kills I make using the Red Plague.

“Probably because you are devouring them, not killing them,” Tar comments. “So the System doesn’t get much if any of the life force they give off upon death.”

That’s just broken.

But at the same time, I can feel myself growing stronger at an incredibly rapid pace.

A wide, and probably a little crazy looking, grin stretches across my face. One showing all of my teeth, including my sharpened canines as I float upwards and spread my arms out.

The euphoric sensation continues filling me up as I feel the Red Plague growing stronger and stronger. But I also can’t help but question why I didn’t feel this before.

“It’s likely that the Red Plague needed to satiate itself before it could grow stronger,” Tar explains. “And it didn’t help that you kept having your mother erase it from existence, which made it a lot harder for the Red Plague to do that.”

True.

“More importantly,” Tar says as the Red Plague continues to grow beneath me, soon forming a large wave that simply engulfs the humans. “You might be able to nullify the curse within the day at this rate, if you keep leveling up as you are.”

You’re right.

So instead of controlling the Red Plague to come back to me, I have it devour the armies of mostly non-sapient demons below who have no idea what’s happening. Specifically avoiding killing as many sapient ones as possible since the war should be ending soon if my plan works out.

And it doesn't take long for the valley we’re in to turn into a damned lake of glowing red blood, all while the Class Vs who know about my skill rush to save any humans who are anywhere near my attack. Which I very much appreciate.

Then, the moment I reach level 1200, I try as hard as I can to pull all of the Red Plague back towards me. With little success.

But just moments later, Amelia and Damien – who were both fighting each other high above the frontlines – fly down and begin eliminating the lake of Red Plague alongside the five Noble demons, none of whom are attacking me anymore. And after the Red Plague is back down to a much more reasonable size, and I’m about to recall the rest of it, a certain undead ghoul appears in front of me with a crazy look in his pitch black eyes.

“Cure,” he says through gritted teeth with a damned near feral tone of voice.

My eyes widen at that, but I try to ignore him for the moment to deal with the Red Plague.

He just moves forward and grabs me by the throat, continuing, “Cure.”

“Just wait a moment!” I shout at him, my voice coming out clearly despite his hand on my throat.

He doesn’t wait. And I finally realize why when he pulls my face closer to his, revealing the red and black embers that are starting to leak out of his eyes faster and faster.

He’s losing it.

“Help clear out the Red Plague down there after this and I’ll cure you here and now,” I bluntly tell him, and he nods his head without hesitation.

So I close my eyes, focusing on the physical contact he has with my throat right now. Then I almost immediately find the connection I’m looking for.

The corruption flowing through his body.

I follow the connection into his body before finding the branch of the root and attempting to follow it to the source. But I soon find that I’m still too weak to do that.

What I’m not too weak to do though, is cut off the larger branch that connects to a large portion of the other branches it reaches out towards.

I grit my teeth, feeling blood beginning to fill my mouth. But I stop myself from coughing on Damien so as to not infect him by accident.

Then I push as hard as I possibly can to cut the branch.

An act that is immediately followed by a loud thunderclap echoing out all around us.

I open my eyes again in surprise before meeting Damien’s eyes.

Eyes that no longer have the pain and hunger from before in them, nor the embers.

I did it.