I slowed down and stopped, my castle was visible a distance away.

As for the reason why I slowed and then stopped, was because I had the strange urge to act calm as I slowly walked into my castle. I don't know where this came from, but I decided to follow my feelings.

I could feel Soea's presence behind me.

Once we reached the center of the courtyard, I turned to Soea.

"Would you kindly give me the Soul Stone, please."

Even after the years in this world of constant combat and nasty people, I found myself still following the habits that had been ingrained in me when I was young, always remember to say 'please' and 'thank you'.

Soea smiled strangely as she held up the stone for a second before handing it to me.

She made sure that our hands touched as the stone was handed over, I could tell by the way that she deliberately changed her grip and smiled happily as her warm fingers brushed against mine.

In return, my touch lingered, as I gently ran my fingers down hers as I pulled my hand back.

I felt an odd, competitive urge.

Soea's smile widened as she flushed.

With a smile, I looked into the Soul Gem. I could sense the souls, see them merging and separating randomly. While this spell imprisoned the souls, it didn't imprison their Divinity Area, the most important part of the soul which contained the personality and stored memories that were rarely accessed, they had re-entered the Cycle of Reincarnation.

My mind wandered, running through the calculations and Runic permutations of the spell that I was planning on casting soon.

Pulling myself back to the present, I looked up and saw that Soea had been staring into my vacant eyes. She had the strange habit of wanting to meet my gaze.

"Is something wrong, My Lord?" She asked while tilting her head in curiosity, I could hear worry in her voice.

Hastily reassuring her, I explained that I was going to be experimenting with a spell.

This seemed to pique her interest.

I tried to make my smile look mysterious as I turned and started walking into the main corridor and towards the Throne Room.

The Thralls looked impressive as they stood guard at the gate and the entrance to the main hallway and before the Throne Room doors, their pitch-black armour, covered in spikes, looked rather intimidating. I had made sure to burn the bastard god Arre's symbol off them.

Secretly, I also thought that their snow-white, bloodless, skin and pitch-black eyes made them look like a Death Knight, made them look cool.

They may look impressive, but they had no free will, so they weren't the best soldiers unless specifically ordered around. But they could also be the best soldiers in a war, charging into combat without any fear of death and never disobeying an order, no matter how suicidal it was.

But, if there was a need, I could give them a form of free will by upgrading them to Higher Thralls. But there was no real point to doing this, not yet anyway.

Walking through the empty stone corridor, I listened to the strangely comforting rhythmic sound of Soea's footsteps. As she walked behind me, her footsteps sounded similar to the ticking of a clock, and was very relaxing.

While considering the experiment, I ignored the Thralls as I entered the Throne Room. Since Master had died, it had been a long time since I played with undocumented magic.

This spell would require a lot of magic power, much more than I could gather by myself.

However, this is where the Soul Stone comes in.

I walked over to my bed and Soea sat on hers.

"Soea, are you hungry?" I had to make sure that she was okay before I started the spell. Like most transformation spells, I knew that it was likely that I would be unconscious for a while, and Soea seemed to worry about me. She may not even eat while waiting for me to wake up, and I didn't want her to suffer.

I still had protective feelings for companions.

Even after all that I had gone through, I still found some of my Human weaknesses reappearing.

Soea looked at me and narrowed her eyes slightly, "Yes, My Lord. Are you offering to be my food?"

At the end of the sentence, her soft voice was almost a purr.

She hadn't responded like this before, it seems that she was getting braver, which I felt was a good thing. When people were overly subservient, it seemed wrong.

Soea looked worried when I took a little while to answer her.

"Sorry, My Lord," she looked down, her lower lip quivering, a tear forming in her eyes.

"No need to apologize. Come here," I signaled her.

She got up and walked over to me, she seemed strangely careful and tentative as she crawled slowly onto my bed, "My Lord's bed..." she whispered quietly to herself.

I found her reaction quite cute.

When she was within arm's reach, she paused, and I gently grabbed her shoulders and pulled her on top of me. Her soft body collapsed on top of mine.

Her chest on my stomach and her face on my chest.

Lowering my head, and using my arm which I had wrapped around her waist, I slid her body up mine. I kissed her.

Without word, we dismissed our clothing.

She let out a quiet gasp as she looked down at me, and I felt a surge of embarrassment, my face heated up.

Looking back up, she smiled gently, staring at my face, into my eyes. One hand raised and gently brushed my cheek, this time taking the initiative and pulling me in for another kiss.

Her other hand slid down my chest.

Down my abdomen.

Lower.

 

After an intense feeding session, or two, Soea's soft and sweaty body rested against me. She seemed as though she melted into a puddle, relaxed on top of me. She was humming quietly and very happily.

When she saw me looking at her, she smiled and lowered her head, beginning to slowly and gently lick the sweat off my face and chest.

Her tail was lashing incredibly enthusiastically.

"Full?" I gently placed a hand under her chin and raised her head, her damp eyes looked into mine for a second before she blushed a deep crimson.

She was acting strangely bashful.

"Yes! Ahem, yes, My Lord." She answered rather excitedly before fixing her tone into a purr. Her inhumanly long, and slightly pointed, tongue emerged from her mouth and licked my hand that I used to cup her chin.

She reached down with her free hand and began rubbing my chest.

"Good," I caught her hand, gently, and held it.

I saw a small flash of disappointment in her eyes as I stopped her, subtly, from beginning to feed for the third time.

She was like a starving person at a feast, I was actually worried that my energy was too great and she would hurt herself.

I could feel energy radiating out of her in waves.

The amount of energy she took, even to the point of almost overfeeding, was much less that I expected. Though, that could also be because my vitality was many times higher than that of a normal person, of even a Hero.

At the beginning, I was sure that I wouldn't do this, that I would give her Thralls to feed from.

But, my plans changed.

Thinking about strange things, I pulled myself back to the present and helped her up, standing up myself in the process.

When she stood up, she suddenly swayed and collapsed onto me.

"Sorry, My Lord. My head feels like it is going blank and my legs won't support me." She whispered to me, her eyes unfocused.

It seems that she had fed too much, which I explained to her as I helped her sit down, with a soft thump.

She looked up at me like an abandoned puppy, like this was my fault, which, it was. She was being more wilful than before.

Reaching down, I gently ran my fingers through her hair for a few seconds as she began to smile up at me cutely.

Dragging myself away from my adorable companion, I went and stood in the center of the room.

 

I had a lot of Sigils to paint, Runic Circles to construct, as well as Glyphic constructions.

All spells have a cost, especially high-level forbidden magic.

To explain a little more about magic... Sigils are magic symbols and words, usually created using mana, or can be drawn in blood. They were mainly used to lower the mana cost, or to extend the range of the spell. They were also used as stabilizers in Blood Magic, Soul Magic, or spells which enhanced another person's Mana.

Glyphs were similar to Sigils, but they were used as chains to blend and merge spells of different types.

Runes required a Magic Circle as a base, to which they are attached, they used equations and thoughtful construction. They were like the algebra and Calculus of Magic. Some of the basic Runes came with their own inbuilt Magic Circles upon generation, though the Mana cost of Runes were higher than other foundational Magic types.

Silent-Cast spells and Instant-Cast spells were weaker than Verbal Spells.

Verbal Spells, required long and complex chants. They supplemented the Mana of the caster by drawing it in from the surroundings using sonic and Arcane resonance with the surroundings. They generated predesigned Magic Circles, which were similar to Runic Magic Circles, though they were not quite as versatile though they could be cast much more quickly. No one knew what caused the Magic Circles to appear because of Mana and Arcane resonance through certain words and chants, though Mages believe that they are Command Words in some ancient Divine Language of pure Magic, used to generate and channel Mana.

Of course, in a lot of spells, any one of the types of Magic could be used. But there were some circumstances when they would have to be combined, or certain types couldn't be used at all.

This experiment would be a major undertaking, it would require the combination and compounding of many different spell types. The purpose of the spell was to fuse and transform two opposing forms of DNA, opposite in both type and alignment, using the assistance of hundreds or thousands of souls.

Combination and Transformation magic, especially the Transformation of contrasting species or alignments was highly taboo. They were one of the very few magics that would trigger a response from the Source of Magic, one of the only few things that could truly destroy a soul's Divinity Area, permanently erasing it and allowing it to never reincarnate again.

Luckily, the spell I was going to use was at the lower edge of level-twelve, so it wouldn't trigger the Source of Magic's response. So, my soul wouldn't be erased, and I also had the second defence of a Soul Skill, which is like armour for the soul.

I was in no danger in that aspect.

These spells were so taboo and hated that if anyone knew that I knew this spell, or even knew that it existed, even Demigods would hunt me to the ends of the Earth.

Well, the ends of this planet.

This prototype magic was composed of three Runic Magic Circles, which would both be linked and inlaid with specialized Sigils. One of the Circles would surround the Horn of the Demon King, the Source. One was for the Soul Stone, which was the catalyst. The final Circle was for the target, me.

Painting the Circles, using my blood, seemed to take forever. Anticipation nagged at me, hurrying me. But I had to focus, to concentrate so as to not slip up and make a mistake.

I had to redo the Catalyst Circle at least once because I thought of something which I had to add.

On a hunch, I added an outer ring of Runes and Glyphs, to make sure that the spell was shielded and hidden, so deities wouldn't notice it unless they were specifically looking for me and the magic.

Finally I was finished.

Looking up, I saw Soea watching me with fascination, her eyes were trying to trace the lines and complicated patterns of my spell. She was still laying on my bed, she hadn't moved since I began my Spell Work. I also noticed that her face was beet red, as though she was drunk, her limbs were still trembling slightly.

Somehow sensing my gaze, her head snapped up and her slightly unfocused eyes met mine.

"My Lord, are you beginning the spell now?" She quickly got to her feet, nearly tripping and stumbling slightly over to me.

As she stood unsteadily next to me, I reached out and grabbed her waist to steady her, it was an automatic response. She gasped and moved her hips closer to me, in what seemed like a subconscious response.

She blushed.

I coughed, rapidly releasing my grip.

Blushing myself, feeling my face burning, I muttered, "Sorry."

She smiled reassuringly in response.

As I let her go, I made sure to carefully cast a spell that siphoned a small amount of the excess energy from her as well as allowed her body to adapt.

After which, she could stand stably.

I must have been a good feed, even if I say so myself.

Finding myself smiling at her and spacing out a bit, I managed to pull my mind back to the task ahead. I looked back at the finished product of my magic, double and triple checking it, making sure that nothing stupid, like me exploding from badly channeled Mana, would happen.

This spell will require a lot of effort on my part, and if I accidentally screwed up in even one aspect of the compound and combination magic, I could be reduced to a puddle of sentient goo with no form.

However, I knew that no matter what happened, it wasn't enough to actually kill me.

I would regenerate if I exploded, and if I became goo, I would just use a different transformation spell when I recovered my Mana.

The whole time that I was drawing the magic on the ground, I had also covered my entire body in Runes, Glyphs and Sigils. Most of these magics worked in a similar way to batteries or capacitors.

Every couple of seconds, I saved and stored more Mana than the entire output of the Mage Guild in the Human Capital.

It was finally time to start the ritual.

 

Gesturing for Soea to back off a little bit, which she did by walking back to my bed and laying down with a contented look on her face, it seems like her own bed won't satisfy her anymore. Which I found slightly amusing and rather lovely.

 

After making sure that Soea was at a safe distance, I released my stored Mana and began the ritual.

 

The Magic Circles started glowing in sequence, the strongest glow originated from the Catalyzing Soul Stone, spreading rapidly outwards.

With a soft 'crack', the Soul Stone shattered, the imprisoned souls poured out in a thick white stream, having been condensed into a liquid form.

I watched the flow of the soul liquid. The liquid followed the lines of the Runes and split into smaller branches which pooled in the attached Sigil Chains, causing them to start glowing a brilliant crimson.

As the magic entered the Circle around the Horn of the Demon King, it disintegrated and unleashed a deep and inhuman growl. A voice seemed to howl a sentence in Elder Demonic, which is a language that I didn't have much knowledge of, but I memorized the words anyway, in case they were somehow important.

The Horn became a deep, onyx mist, which was contained completely and perfectly inside the first Circle. The mist smelt strongly of sulphur and aged blood.

Screams began to come from the liquefied souls as they started circling the first Circle, the Demonic howls were almost deafening.

Another branch of the liquefied souls solidified, shaping into chains, which wrapped around my body, binding me tightly to the ground.

Even with my enormous physical strength, I couldn't break these chains. They were reinforced with the power of thousands of souls.

The next part of the ritual is what worried me the most, it would be painful, the fusion of repulsing components.

During all these events, I hadn't stopped the long and complex chant that was required for the spell, I couldn't stop as the magic syllables shaped themselves and used me as a vessel.

Having completed a circuit through all three Magic Circles, the remaining Soul Liquid gathered together and surrounded the thick Demonic mist. It formed a thin white bubble, compressing the mist inside it until it liquefied as well.

Here comes the painful and complex part.

The white and black bubble floated up and over until it was directly above me, then it changed into a funnel, as the chains which were wrapped around my head forced my mouth open.

From this point onwards, I had absolutely no input and was at the mercy of my spell, this is also the part when errors would start to appear if I had missed even the smallest thing.

With a strange noise, the darkness ran down the funnel and into my mouth. It filled my throat, the taste of sulphur combined with rot was almost indescribable.

The liquid was boiling hot, I felt like I was swallowing the fires of the Abyss itself.

Instinctively, I tried to close my mouth.

Luckily the chains prevented me from doing this, which was the reason I had built this function into the spell. I had to put in failsafes so that I would have to finish the ritual in its entirety, I didn't have the luxury of dropping out part way.

With the burning feeling moving from my throat into my stomach and enveloping my entire body, I felt the physical changes beginning.

My shoulder-blades started to make creaking and cracking noises, my skin distended upwards and outwards, cause waves of agony to wash through me.

I felt my muscles spasming, contracting spasmodically as the pain surged and ebbed.

While this was happening, my skull started making cracking noises and bulging on my forehead, as strange lumps squirmed and formed. The lumps pressed against my skin, splitting it. Blood sprayed outwards and ran down my face, turning my vision red, I barely managed to force my eyes closed.

My soul seemed to float out of my body, it was as though I were looking at myself from a higher vantage point. With horrible sounds, huge, jointed, black bones erupted from my distorted shoulder-blades, bones like those in the wings of birds.

They were a strange stygian black that seemed to absorb the light around me.

Without any warning, the nerves in my back and spinal cord split and started multiplying, waves of agony washed through me, and I heard a strange noise.

It seemed that I had started screaming, though from my vantage point above my body, I was partially separated from the pain, I could feel it all yet my mind also managed to function.

Soea was curled up and trembling, staring at me and crying, she began to whimper "My Lord..." over and over again quietly.

The split and multiplied nerves moved and squirmed beneath my cracked and mostly destroyed skin, moving along my muscles and newly generated wing bones.

Once they had reached the correct length and position, the base of the new nerve cluster joined with my spinal cord and nervous system, the drilled through the Myelin Sheath and merged with it.

Blood vessels, musculature, and skin began to emerge on my wing bones.

Then, there was an even more intense pain, like someone stabbing needles into every millimetre of my new wings, testing the extent of my new nerves. Feathers grew out of the new skin, starting small, but rapidly growing.

My new wings were like those of a raven, pitch-black and surprisingly fluffy.

Without meaning to, my hands clenched, digging deep trenches into the stone floor.

I was no longer even able to make a noise.

I was scaring my minion, which made me feel guilty, made me wish that there was some way that I could reassure her.

The burning, acidic, feeling generated by the dark Demonic mist began to increase exponentially as it ate through, and then regenerated, bonding with my bones and organs.

My latent Hero genetics, which had been deactivated by Arre, began to rapidly reactivate by themselves. They were fighting to stop my body from being dissolved from the inside, to stop me dying a horrible and rather messy death.

A Hero may look like an ordinary Human, but their body was designed to house a large amount of Magic Power, have highly increased physical abilities, hold a lot of Divine Power, and have an active Soul Skill in the background.

My genetics reactivating gave me a massive rush of Magic Power, I felt like Fire was burning me, while Ice was freezing me, the Divine and Diabolic waged war inside me.

The souls inside the white liquid were forced to merge with the Demonic mist.

As this continued, my pain finally stopped, but my consciousness was becoming foggy. Instinctively, I tried to fight it. When I stopped moving and the Magic war had become completely confined within my body, Soea ran over.

She grabbed me, holding me to her chest and holding me as though she never wanted to let me go.

Everything went dark as my strange, almost third-person point of view rushed back into my body. I felt no pain, only surges of fiery heat and abyssal cold alternately surging through me.

My consciousness faded, the last thing I felt was the warmth of Soea holding me tightly.