Mind Demon's Path of Domination

Mark walked along the Black River, hiding himself in shadows as he did. The Boss Demon and the Minotaur strolled on his side, watching around with wary gazes. They were his protectors, his body guards.

He looked at his Mind Stat.

[Mind: 901 (Tier 2) (High)]

Calm, he added ’99’ Soul Spheres into the attribute and took a deep breath. A cold, piercing aura travelled out his World Space and exploded inside his head, meshing into his flesh there. He breathed out a puff of stale air.

[Mind: 1000 (Tier 2) (Pinnacle)]

Mark looked at his remaining Soul Spheres.

[Soul Spheres: 901]

He focused on his Physique next.

[Physique: 301 (Tier 2) (Low)]

He invested ’699’ Soul Spheres directly onto his Physique and paused. An incredible amount of cold energy burst out of his World Space and completely filled him to the brim and as he felt a chill from head to toe, it suddenly subsided as it was absorbed by his body.

His size began to increase wildly and Mark clenched his palm.

The air burst like a bubble between his grip.

[Physique: 1000 (Tier 2) (Pinnacle)]

[Mind: 1000 (Tier 2) (Pinnacle)]

"This is such an exhilarating feeling," he said to no one in particular, then turned to look at the Black River. His reflection was a giant, not as big as the colossal ones but still big. Twelve meters, he roughly gouged. Any human kid would cry if they saw him.

He was too big to even interact with Yuri and Reol’ran. If they stood beside him, they would barely reach his knees. No, Yuri probably wouldn’t reach it either, considering how short she was. And if he entered another human world with this appearance, he could say goodbye to covertly conquering things.

Too big, my handsome figure looks monstrous instead.

"Are you sure we would reach the Demon City if I follow this Black River, Reol’ran?" he asked.

"Well, it is better than moving around in circles. And I am pretty sure you will reach it in some days if you follow the river. Why? Because there are no Upper Demons around, you have only seen Middle Demons as far as you walked, so the rest is an easy guess.

"All the Upper Demons must be in the City. Cities use Black Water a lot in my knowledge and would be built near the Black River. Of course, you might be going in the wrong direction but it is alright because you aren’t wasting time while traveling but doing actual research and training. And since you have reached Pinnacle in this TIer, I also plan to show you what you truly lack."

Mark grinned. True, now that he had reached the Pinnacle, he just had to remove his flaws and Evolve again. Right?

Of course, he knew his flaws were aplenty.

Just as he was walking, he stopped and turned to look at a small Demonling crouched under a tree. It was grey in color, faintly crab-like in shape, and an impure demon without any good Bloodline.

It could only perform Soul Devouring and no other demonic tricks.

Mark walked towards it and it stared up in absolute horror. Three Middle Demons were headed towards this lowly being—Mark, the Boss, and the Minotaur. It couldn’t do a thing, not even run away, as Mark captured it into his palm.

"You will be the one," Mark said, voice booming slightly.

He stood straight, hiding under trees that still looked way loftier than himself. He was tall by human standard, too tall, but by demon standard, he was just a small boy.

Delving his Soul Sense into his World Space, he gently wrapped it around Yuri, and then pulled her out into the real world. He was gentle with his movements, not wanting to hurt her. But he wouldn’t hurt her accidentally, she was not that weak.

She was an A-rank Hunter. Quite a strong one.

Pulling her up by her lab robes, he placed her on his shoulder.

Yuri looked at him with a weird expression.

"You are a bit bigger than even the Boss Demon, damnit," she said. Then, her hand touched his chin, wondering.

"You have color blindness, so you don’t see it. But my color changed! Isn’t it handsome?" He smirked.

Yuri cringed. "Mark, you are too big."

Having said that, she finally closed her eyes and then snapped it open. Having become a Hunter, her eyes looked more purple than black. Her senses were that much better for it, especially her eyesight, which was way better than a normal human.

Yuri looked around as Mark walked along slowly.

Blackened ground, a Black River, grey skies, and a sun that was burning high and mighty. She could hear the rustling of leaves here and there, Demons were all around. On the other hand, most of them were weaklings.

Yuri remembered the mega-dungeon.

"Reminds you of the mega-dungeon, right?" Mark asked.

"It does, but more savage. Filled with possibilities and... the unknown," she replied, a glow to her cute face. "Isn’t it?"

"Don’t even compare this place to the mega-dungeon, this place is unpredictable, chaotic. You can’t predict what might happen the next second. And believe me, A-rank Hunters and Middle Demons are nothing around here."

"Really?" she asked, even more intrigued.

Mark smiled.

Yuri looked around at the Minotaur and Boss and her expression became weird again. "They are like your personal guards. Lackeys... and people used to live in fear of them. Even I’ve had nightmares of them when I was younger."

"I have something more interesting to show you," he said, showing her a grey skinned demon in his hand. "Watch this."

Alchemic Shapeshifting!

As Yuri watched, her eyes widened in disbelief. The Demonling’s inhumane, crab-like hands turned into human fingers, its crab-like face turned into that of a human man, and its whole body, within the time it took to breathe around five times, turned into a human.

This time, Mark avoided as much flaws as he could.

The crab-like creature writhed, screaming in pain under his hold, and Mark finally realized—it must hurt like crazy. When he turned the Lightning Snake into a human, she had been under the influence of Clown’s Circus, so she didn’t scream.

This creature screamed and wailed.

Soon, it turned human.

No one would know the man in Mark’s hand was not human. Since the creature was male, Mark didn’t turn it into a woman, that felt lacking in taste to him.

"Watch how it coughs red blood instead of green," he said. "It is human now."

Green blood leaked out of its orifices and Mark frowned. It didn’t turn red.

He sighed and dripped a handful of Black Water into the creature’s mouth, which soon made its writhing stop. Green blood turned into red blood.

Mark looked at the creature coldly and threw it to the side. The human-shaped Demon, grey-skinned, and cautious looking, sprinted away from him with a frightened expression. It had never been so scared in its life. Traumatized.

It was just the size of a human boy. Mark had made it shorter.

He wondered, his Soul Sense following it with curiosity while Yuri stared at it with her eyes.

"It’s physical strength didn’t change," he said.

"It did change," Yuri said.

Mark frowned.

It was (9) before he changed it into a human, and still (9) now.

"What do you mean, it only has as much force as it did earlier, right?"

"Yes, it only has that much," she said, "But it is more condensed. Do you know what the sharpest thing in the normal world is?"

"Water, right?" Mark asked.

He had heard of it on Earth, the sharpest thing in the world was also the most unexpected—water.

"Yes, if you don’t count magical stuff, water is the sharpest of all things. But not regular water. When a high amount of water is pressurized and released through a nozzle, it can cut through rock. This is similar, earlier and now, it has the same amount of force, but now, the force is released much more strongly because that much power is condensed into a smaller body."

"I understand," Mark said, eyes bright.

So, if he reduced his size, his strength would increase instead of decrease?

Before the transformed creature reached far, it came across another Demonling and came to a halt. The Demonling seemed wary, and seeing them not attack each other, Mark grew impatient and used Heart Input.

He whispered into both of their minds.

Attack each other, eat each other’s souls.

The demons brawled and soon enough, being the stronger one, the human-turned Demon won it with incredible effort and a lot of wounds. It wheezed and cried like a baby would, and Mark couldn’t help but be amazed. It seemed more intelligent.

Yuri said from his shoulder, "Amusing, it’s eating the other demonling. It looks so different when a human shows such brutality."

"The creature is devouring the Soul of another Demonling," he said. "It’s growing stronger."

And it did grow stronger, becoming a Pinnacle Demonling.

Then, it howled at the sky, white teeth stained with green blood.

Mark used his Heart Input on the creature.

For a Demonling to become a Lower Demon, they only had to sense their Soul Space and to sense the Soul Space, they had to have an intense desire to grow stronger.

He whispered into the creature’s heart:

"I want to grow stronger. Stronger. Stronger. Not enough. Stronger."

As the creature felt that emotion deep in its heart, it began to sense something within it and right after, it began to evolve and become a Lower Demon. Mark and Yuri stared with bated breaths. What would happen to a humanified demon when it evolved?

If that showed no bad results, doesn’t it mean there were no issues using the same power on himself? He needed Yuri’s input on this.