Chapter 7: A grand power display

"Don't worry, I won't judge you for something out of your control. You sleep tight while I get you some food okay." Kuroka said with assurance.

Kurokiba was too tired and sick to even register what Kuroka said, she just drifted off to sleep.

.....

After leaving Kurokiba in her makeshift house in the forest, Kuroka quickly made her way towards a nearby town, she made sure to keep her presence to a minimum. At first she was hoping to find a stray devil, but she couldn't sense even one within her range. So she chose humans.

Since the sun was still shining most people were going about their day. This wasn't really favourable for Kuroka, she didn't want any eye witnesses for what she was about to do. She waited until sundown and only then did she act.

The city remained as bright as ever as people drunk themselves to oblivion, Kuroka crept into the dark alleys of the city and started looking for any prey she could find. It didn't take long at all, soon enough she found a group of three thugs who were mercilessly assaulting a girl and ignoring her pleas of mercy. Seeing as they didn't listen; Kuroka also didn't hesitate to place them all in an illusion before luring them on the outskirts of the city.

She made short work of killing them as cleanly as possible, and left the scene as quickly as possible, once she was far enough she directly teleported back into the forest and found Kurokiba still sleeping. Large beads of sweat dripped from her forehead as she took shallow and quick breaths.

She dropped the three bodies on the floor after using magic to make preserve them. She lightly shook Kurokiba, as the sickly girl drifted back into consciousness, she smiled at the worried nekomata.

''Where have you been?'' She asked in a tired voice.

''I got you food, you should eat as quickly as possible so that you get better.'' Kuroka said softly.

Kurokiba's cloudy eyes fully awakened at the talk of food, she looked in shock as a scent of delicious delicacies hit her nose and caused her to slowly lose her reasoning, no matter how hard she tried to stop herself; she failed miserably to do so. It was like fighting against the currents of a strong river.

Driven by hunger, all the unwillingness and reasoning left the little girl. Her sclera turned black and her pupils turned red as she got up with a burst of energy. Kuroka was pushed away by the girl's sudden movements, the next moment she heard the sound of meat being ripped apart behind her.

Looking at the Kurokiba, Kuroka was shocked. The little girl greedily ate the bodies and ripped them apart with her bear hands, the scene looked more like a vicious monster was feeding on its prey. No elegance or reservations. Kurokiba just tore through them like a wild beast.

Seeing this scene, Kuroka gagged a little, although she had killed her fair share , never had she seen such a display of brutality, the blood was splattered everywhere, a few appendages were strewn about all over the cave walls, and the smell of blood lingered all over the room.

Something suddenly sprouted from Kurokiba's back. Two black colored appendages appeared on her back, they had a mixture of red and purple veins running across their surfaces.

Kuroka retreated in surprise as those things swung around and smashed the cave walls and any other obstacle in the way. Kuroka stared with wide eyes at the rubble below her, without even realizing it, she was already moving the stones and looking for Kurokiba.

This was all in vain though, Kuroka saw those strange appendages appear once again and sweep away the heavy rocks easily, little Kurokiba rose up from the rubble. Her eyes shone eerily as she swayed towards Kuroka's direction.

Kuroka put her guard up seeing this, those strange tails gave her chills, they were unlike anything she's seen before and their strength was clearly nothing to scoff at.

Kurokiba approached her in a daze, Kuroka's instinct forced her to take action, she channelled her lighting magic and struck Kurokiba, it seemed to work as the little girl was hit directly and shocked out of consciousness.

...

As her vision went dark Kurokiba found herself in a strange place, it was a barren land full of strange weapons scattered about in every possible direction, there was also some armours, rings, necklaces, gauntlets and even gloves of all shapes and different materials.

A red moon hung high above a mountain peak and overlooked everything below, with a thought, Kurokiba found herself atop the mountain, there she found an altar. The altar had a strange grey orb that was floating peacefully and an outline of a book which seemed to be petrified into a rock. As she approached the orb, her instincts urged her to hold the orb. She held out her hand and touched the orb.

Nothing happened for the first few seconds, and then a pillar of light suddenly arose from the orb and engulfed the whole place, every object within the mindscape started shaking violently as if to react to this phenomenon.

On the outside a strange scene occurred, Kurokiba's body started glowing as her hair turned purplish black. Kuroka was shocked by this bright light and covered her eyes as a sudden pressure fell on her.

As for what was happening to Kurokiba right now, it could be described as her soul finally taking over her current body and started rebuilding it on a cellular level to better house her power, the body accepted these changes without issue.

All over the world people felt these strange tremors, in the underworld the current mahou all sweat dropped at a sudden surge of power, this was the same case for heaven and Earth, and even the dimensional gap. Every being on the planet who were sensitive to such things could sense the birth of a new powerful being. An aura of a monarch descended the world, it was pitifully weak, but it was there nonetheless.

Afterwards no spectacle took place, Kurokiba's body just emitted a faint light and stopped glowing after a few minutes.

Kuroka had long since passed out from the sheer pressure emitted by Kurokiba since she had taken the brunt of her power display.