Limits

Sitting on the edge of a stream, Verona sat in the lotus position and absorbed the ambient mana. Her new Demon Core was reset back to 1-star Magus level. Her body glowed a dim red before it stopped.

"Now let's test the limits of my body and magic." Verona said as she began to stretch.

Verona walked up to a tree, pulled her fist back, and punched the tree with all her physical might. The tree splintered off where she punched and was left with a gaping hole in the middle of the trunk.

"That fist, let's test my legs now." Verona said walking up to another tree.

She performed a roundhouse kick, whipping the air as she struck the tree's trunk. The trunk splintered in half as the tree fell.

"Well now I know two things, my bones are hard, my skin is durable, and my physical strength is pretty high." Verona said.

"Magic is next." Verona said as she created a crimson red magic circle in front of her.

She supplied the spell with less mana than when she blew up the horse. The tree turned red before combusting into red flames. She tried again but this time, supplying the magic circle with half her mana pool. Feeling this was going to be dangerous, she aimed at a more distant tree. The tree was struck with the bolt of red mana. The tree began sparking with red lightning and began turning yellow before exploding, causing a large shockwave.

"Shit! That's definitely going to be seen. Makes me want to use my entire mana pool..." Verona said before she began to flee.

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As our protagonist was 'fleeing' the scene, a group of hunters from a nearby village saw the explosion and went to go check it out.

"Are sure this is a good idea, Thomas?" A young man said with fear.

"Yes boy, it could bring us more food for the village if it was the aftermath of something." Thomas said.

Everyone in the hunting group agreed, they walked until they reached the location of the explosion. What they found was burnt grass, charred earth, and a black tree.

"This feels eerily demonic." The young man said.

"Are you sure boy? You feel mana the best out of us. Are you positive you feel a demonic presence?" Thomas said to the young man.

"Yes! It feels weak, but the mana feels strong? It's confusing." The young man said.

"Let's report this to the kni-" Before Thomas could finish his sentence he was a beheaded corpse.

The hunting group looked up and saw a lilac-skinned, smiling demon.

"Hello, boys!" Verona said as she jumped down and charged the group.

A man with a shortsword attempted to slash at Verona but was pierced through the heart by her hand.

"One." Verona said as she leaned to the left and dodged an arrow.

She then ducked dodging a swishing sword before she spun and punched the sword user in the gut. He spat up blood and was sent into a tree, he died on contact as his spine broke.

"Two, well actually three." Verona said before she dodged another swing and caught the man by his throat, slamming him into the earth breaking his neck.

"Four." Verona said as she caught the arrow flying at her, and does towards the archer.

A large man with a club tried to block her way but had his heart removed before he could realize. She jumped above the archer and performed an ax kick on his head, his skull made a sweet-sounding crunch as it broke.

"Six, only one left." Verona said looking at the young man.

"P-P-P-Please!! Don't kill me!!" The young man said as he was a mess of tears and snot.

Verona leaned forward and grabbed his chin.

"Don't worry honey, you won't die as long as you tell me the location of your village." Verona said hoping to piggyback on human nature.

"O-Okay! I-It's 10 miles that way!" The young man said as he pointed in the direction they came from.

"Thank you, honey, I'll even give you a quick death." Verona said smiling.

"You said you weren't going to kill me!!" The young man said yelling.

"Never trust in anyone." Verona said as she smaller his neck.

"I wonder what humans taste like, I will eat them just so they can fear me." Verona said as she grabbed the young man's body and sank her teeth into his arm.

She ripped out a chunk of skin, muscle, sinew, and fat. She chewed, swallowed, and let out a slight moan of happiness at the taste.

"This tastes so good! It's better than the high-class meat I used to receive in the castle!" Verona said as she went in for another bite.

She ended up eating the entire hunting party, the red gem shined brightly before it dimmed again.

"I feel as if the gem is almost full." Verona said as she was covered in blood.

"Let's go find that village full of delicacies!" Verona said as she ran with her full speed towards the village.

She arrived at the village 3 minutes later. She was the guards at the gate, she vanished in a plume of dust and reappeared in front of them taking their heads off. She took one of their swords and began to indiscriminately slaughter, she murdered old, young, women, children. She killed them all.

After double-checking the village with mana scans she found no one alive. She began to feast on the corpses, noting that women and children taste the best. An hour later and the village was devoid of life, the only remnant was the blood splattered on the houses and walls. The red gem on her head shined so brightly, that it lit up the darkening sky.

Verona felt as the gem presented her with evolution choices.

"Shadow stalker, Hellrazer, or Slaughter demon." Verona said her options pondering on which one to pick.

'Shadow stalker is more of an assassin shadow type, but has a weak defense.' Verona said excluding that option.

'Hellrazer is magic focused and they have very little physical strength, a definite no.' Verona thought.

'Slaughter demons are known for their love for murder. Apparently, they grow faster the more they kill and eat. The only downside is their ability only works on sentient beings.' Verona said.

'Not that I care, Slaughter demon I chose you!' Verona said not knowing the reference she just unconsciously made.

When she made her choice, the gem shined a bright red and encased her in a cocoon. The cocoon cracked and a white-haired woman with red-pink skin and lilac eyes that covered her sclera. Her horns went from black to purple as they pointed up from the temples of her head. Her bat wings grew larger and turned black. All of her teeth were sharpened to a point and her fingernails grew smaller put sharper.

"I feel amazing!" Verona said as she tested out her new form.

After about 30 minutes of playing around, she grinned murderously.

"This is going to be fun."