Risk It For The Biscuit!

"Angel's blood!" Ethan exclaimed, his eyes widening as he gazed at the crystallized droplet in his hand.

Riven snorted. 'You like it? I collected it from a powerful angel I slew in my previous life. Didn't want it to go to waste.'

Ethan blinked several times in surprise, his mind reeling with the implications. "You fought angels? Literally?"

'Of course.' Riven chuckled. 'Those arrogant pigeons are always so full of themselves. Someone had to bring them down a peg.'

Ethan's eye twitched slightly as he listened to the bizarre words of his partner. He couldn't help but wonder for moment, just what sort of power Riven had wielded before he had died. After all, there were very few individuals under the rank of demi god who dared to even test the wrath of the armies of the gods themselves.

Putting aside his thoughts, Ethan's gaze returned to the droplet, his thoughts racing. "So, this blood essence will fix my mana veins?"

'The boring way, yes.' Riven affirmed.'But where's the fun in that?"

Ethan's body stiffened a little once he heard that. "I don't like where this is going."

'Come on, don't play dumb. Since we share a body now, you should already know what I'm suggesting here' Riven replied eagerly.

Ethan sighed, anticipating what was coming. "You want me to use the assimilation skill, don't you?"

Ethan could almost imagine Riven's face breaking into a grin. 'By assimilating the angel's blood essence, you'll be able to completely reconstruct your body while using the poison as a catalyst. Not only that, you'll be able to change your race from a weak human to an angel!'

Ethan's eyes rolled. "You can't be serious."

'Think of the gains!'

An exasperated sigh left Ethan's lips. "Do you even hear yourself right now? This blood essence is ranked divine. In my current condition, what makes you think I have what it takes to even attempt something like this? I'll surely explode within minutes!"

'I get where you're coming from, believe me, I do.' Riven tried to reassure Ethan, who had started pacing anxiously around the room. 'But there really is no need to worry. I am pretty confident that as long as we use the venom of the Morsus Venator as a catalyst, everything will turn out fine...probably'

Ethan heaved a deep sigh and carefully weighed his options in his mind. On one hand, he could take the blood and cure himself, nothing more nothing less. On the other, he could try to directly assimilate with the blood essence, risking blowing up into bits and pieces from the sheer amount of energy that would accompany the process.

Ethan's skepticism was evident. Still, he had to admit that the gains he could get from this chance would be incredible. At a loss, he asked Pandora for his odds.

[Pandora: Calculating...]

[Pandora: Results! The odds of the host successfully absorbing the angelic blood essence is 56%]

Ethan winced. The response was a daunting 56%. "Soooo, not entirely impossible?"

[Pandora: Affirmative]

Riven's enthusiasm was undeterred. 'See? I told you it was possible!'

Ethan closed his eyes and scractched his head in defeat.

"Alright." said Ethan, his voice steeled with resolve. "Let's do this"

'Yes! Now that's what I'm talking about partner!' cheered Riven inside Ethan's head, almost making the poor boy change his answer. 'Just keep in mind that this might hurt a little. But trust me, the gains will be so much more worth it'

"You better be right.", Ethan grumbled before settling down and mentally preparing himself. "Go ahead, Pandora."

[Pandora: Understood.]

As soon as Ethan gave the go ahead, the droplet of angelic essence in his hand turned into a strand of golden of light and flew straight into his chest.

[Pandora: Beginning assimilation...]

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

Almost immediately, Ethan let out a howl of pain as his body writhed on the bed. Every cell inside his body was being smashed apart and reconstructed anew, sending waved of horrendous pain across his entire body.

It was a pain unlike anything he had ever felt before.

'Come on, Ethan! Hang in there!'

Riven offered some words of encouragement, trying to direct Ethan's attention away from the pain. The black haired boy curled himself into a fetal position and clenched his sides tightly, waiting for the agonizing pain to subside.

Suddenly, just as it seemed that Pandora had almost completed the process. An unexpected situation occured.

[Pandora: Error! A Death Curse has been detected in the venom of the beast, Morsus Venator. Cannot complete assimilation process!]

Seeing this notification, Riven's voice betrayed a trace of panic for the first time. "Do whatever you can to keep Ethan alive!"

[Pandora: Understood.]

[Pandora: Calculating possible solutions...]

[Pandora: Searching for alternative suitable angelic variant races...]

[Pandora: Search failed...]

[Pandora: Search failed...]

[Pandora: Search failed...]

[Pandora: Search failed...]

[Pandora: Search failed...]

[Pandora: Search failed...]

[Pandora: Search failed...]

[Pandora: Search failed...]

[Pandora: Conclusion, there are no available alternatives suitable for the host]

By now almost all the color had drained from Ethan's face, leaving him deathly pale. His heart rate had slowed to a snails pace and it look like it would stop beating any second now. However, just before that could happen a sudden warmth spread throughout Ethan's whole body.

From the depths of Ethan's soul, a little ball of golden flames burned intensely and norished the black haired boy with rich vitality. Riven had decided to activate his semi-divine flame to in order help Ethan. The reason he didn't use it earlier was because he thought it wasn't unnecessary for what he thought was going to be a straight forward process. Plus, in his current state it was very difficult to control such a powerful artifact efficiently. The black haired boy let out a blissful sigh, his complexion gradually becoming better much to Riven's relief.

'Come on, Pandora...' Riven muttered anxiously as he struggled to control the Embers of Elpis. 'Please...'

[Pandora: Solution. As there is no alternative angelic variants suitable for the host, attempting to create a unique variant...successful!]

[Pandora: The Death Curse and Morsus Venator venom are fully compatible with the unique angelic variant.

Using the Embers of Elpis as the catalyst, would you like to change the host's race from human to the unique angelic variant <Cursed Angel> ?

Yes / No? ]

'Yes!' Riven answered immediately, feeling his strength waning rapidly.

[Pandora: Understood. Initializing...]

VWOOOM!

A burst of dark energy suddenly poured out of Ethan's body, making the bed and the rest of his surroundings tremble slightly. As the darkness energy surged around Ethan's body, his hair grew even darker, resembling flickering shadows.

A string of system's notifications poured in, detailing Ethan's various gains:

[Pandora: Congratulations! Host has successfully attained the unique angelic variant race <Cursed Angel> ]

[Pandora: Due to racial configuration, the host's mana veins have been reconstructed successfully.

+50 MP]

[Pandora: Host's stats have increased accordingly.

+10 all stats]

[Pandora: Host has attained a new affinity.

+1 Nature Affinity]

[Pandora: Due to the presence of the soul <Riven Zephy>, host has awakened additional affinities.

+1 Darkness Affinity

+1 Darkness Affinity

+1 Spacial Affinity]

[Pandora: Due to–]

The system notifications continued raining down.

However after expending so much effort to control the Embers of Elpis, Riven's soul had long since retreated to the depths of Ethan's consciousness in order to rest and recover. Ethan was no better, and the young boy continued to sleep peacefully.

Completely unaware of the absolute windfall that he and his partner had just achieved.