Chapter 65 - Taking Only So Much

In the one day that Aegis was broken away from Daichi, life in the dungeon had become increasingly hard.

Her skin had become immensely scarred, her whipping had increased ten fold since that day and all she could do now was cry.

"Glad to see you changed your face," Tai said in a taunt, "your old expression was beginning to get boring."

*crack!~*

"Argh!"

Since then, Tai was in charge of the torture activities. He specifically liked whipping and with his status as an upper level demon, he was able to deliver more injury.

The difference between upper and lower level demons were very similar to Pure and Variant Dragon Hosts. Kotsukuo's genes was what made an upper level demon, those with even a small trace of his DNA would be inherently stronger than other demons, lower level demons had their jade energy rather, corrupted by other genes being mixed in, making them weaker.

*Crack!~*

Tai took another swing, accurately striking Aegis in the stomach, ripping through her clothes and skin; small drops of blood could be seen trying to get out from where the mild cut was made.

Aegis was crying a flood, even though she was so strong-willed, her general immaturity combined with her tendency to over think due to her smarts, she would eventually begin to have negative thoughts which would affect her mental state. It was Daichi's words which kept her in check, keeping her mind in a place to stay sane; But now that he wasn't with her, it allowed her thoughts to run wild.

"Why can't they come save me now?" She muttered as she couldn't keep the words in her head. "Why me? Urusla… She caused this… URUSLA!" Her mutter changed to a shout at the last word, shocking Tai.

"What about the Empress?" he asked, genuinely confused.

But he received no answer, Aegis' anger was unmatched. No one had ever seen her like this, much less herself; She started to kick and thrash against her binds, screaming like a beast.

Tai watched from a safe distance, Aegis kept screaming and thrashing, her widened eyes began to take a change, only her left one to be specific. It began morphing until it looked exactly like a demon's, the demon blood in her veins has started to run wild from her anger.

Intriguing, it must be that the dragon isn't here to control her anymore, she's becoming a crazed demon. Tai thought.

*Snap!~*

"Graaaaah!" Aegis broke free of the jade chains which held her down.

She was now face to face with Tai, she seemed to be in a crazed state as her one demon eye peered at him, even her dragon mark glowed.

"Wait, she's a direct descendant of Lord Kotsukuo!" Tai said to himself fearfully out loud, "She's already a high level demon that can hold dragon force! I can't win!"

His voice seemed to have given crazed Aegis some idea of where to attack, she jumped from her position, her mouth had now began to froth as veins appeared in her skin. Tai had zero time to react when her fist caved his face in and shattered his glasses before shooting him across the room.

Before his momentum even died down, Aegis already appeared in front of him and pinned him to the ground with her foot, a clawed gauntlet materialized on her left hand from her activating the scarib attribute 'weaponise'. Her dragon mark glowed more fiercely as an unknown number of leaves began flying in through the small openings for ventilation in the dungeon.

These too, began condensing on her fingertips, forming claws made of leaves, she was ready to take the life of the man beneath her. Tai's ribs were shattered and Aegis' foot was deathly approaching his scarib.

With another crazed roar, she raised both her clawed hands to end her torturer's life, Tai shut his eyes as he couldn't escape his impending doom when something stopped Aegis' attack.

*Clap!~* *Clap!~* *Clap~*

The sound of slow clapping from one person echoed throughout the dungeon, both Tai and Aegis turned to the source of the sound which was the entrance of the dungeon, where a voluptuous silhouette could be seen still clapping.

"Very good my dear daughter! But we can't have you becoming a crazed demon now can we?" By voice, it was Urulsa, she stepped out of the shadows and showed off her figure in a tight purple dress.

"URUSLA!!" the crazed demon shouted before bolting towards the demon queen.

Urusla just smiled gently as she watched Aegis run towards her, traveling many metres in one step. To Tai, he couldn't even process what was happening, most likely due to him focusing on his own healing; But to Urusla, Aegis was going in slow motion.

"I should punish you."

When Aegis was in range, Urulsa already countered before she could even attack, using her height, she dug a knee into her daughter's abdomen which made her cough small drops of blood and also sending her flying slowly upwards. Urusla followed up her attack with a solid punch to the nose, shattering the bone and sending Aegis flying straight back to the wall like a broken kite.

"Guh!"

Aegis collided head first with the wall, her eyes widened in pain as the claws on both her hands disappeared. Her demon eye also went back to normal, as her eyes closed before slumping forward, unconscious.

"Good work, Tai!" Urusla was ecstatic, this was signs that Aegis was close to being eligible to become a host. She pranced over to Tai who was still on the floor healing slowly.

She gave him a sensual look before doing something quite bizzare; she made a a small blade of jade grow through her finger and stuck out her tongue, she then sliced in cleanly down the middle, causing a rush of blood to issue forth.

Urusla then held Tai's head and kissed him, sending her blood directly into his system, this was another innate skill demons possessed, 'Blood of Life', when a higher level demon shares it's blood with any other, it would provide a temporary boost in power, thereby increasing the regeneration rate and making the demon stronger until the blood was filtered out.

The effect took root immediately as Tai's shattered skull bones began reforming, the crater in his chest also began to heal as his ribs were repaired, his breathing became easy as his body was back in peak condition, even stronger, although it was only temporary.

"Keep up the good work!" Urusla gave a last word as her tongue healed and she pranced out happily.