Scarlet

It only takes a few minutes for me to reach my suite, and I immediately head towards my room afterwards before sitting on my bed.

So how do I ascend?

“I would recommend taking your magi-tech armor off and maybe wearing something you wouldn’t mind getting dirty,” Tar says, making my eyes narrow at that. “And not sitting on your bed.”

Okay…

I deactivate my magi-tech armor, leading to me sitting on my bed wearing a regular shirt, black and red jacket, and black pants. Then I get up and go to my closet to change. Only to pause as I remember the clean skill.

“Some things are too filthy to clean with the skill,” Tar suddenly says when he sees me turn around to go sit on the ground somewhere. So I once again turn around and continue heading to my closet.

Something I wouldn’t mind getting dirty… I don’t really have any swimsuits, so I guess I’ll just go with my old workout outfit from before I became a Guardian of a sports bra and shorts. Something I would only wear using my own personal workout equipment, and not a gym.

I quickly go to change before coming back to my room and pausing.

If I really am going to make something that dirty, then do I really want to do this in my room where I’ll be sleeping…?

With that thought in mind, I decide to go somewhere else to do this. To the bath which I almost never use thanks to the clean skill.

A rather large and wide open bath at that. Quite luxurious.

I lie down in it before asking out loud, “So how do I start the ascension process?”

Without Tar even getting the chance to answer me, the System’s voice suddenly registers in my head.

[You have completed all the requirements to reach Class II. Would you like to ascend?]

“Yes, I would,” I state out loud in response to the System.

[Confirmation received. Ascension to Class II will now begin.]

Then nothing happens.

I stare up at the ceiling from my spot awkwardly lying in my empty bath for a few seconds before I open my mouth to speak, only for a burning pain to suddenly flare up all throughout my entire body. And at the same time, I feel a very similar feeling but also quite different at the same time as when I first awakened as a half demon return to me. My vision suddenly begins to shift between a red tinted vision and regular vision over and over again, I feel my hearts begin beating faster and faster, and extreme pain radiates from my head, particularly in two different places. Behind and around my eyes, and around where my human ears are.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t help you this time,” I hear Tar’s voice through the fog of pain in my mind. “Not like I did the last time.”

The pain suddenly spikes, and I’m left screaming on the ground as I feel some sort of liquid leave the pores of my skin all over my entire body. And through the haze of pain, through the fading and reappearing red tint in my vision, I can see that the liquid is blood mixed with some sort of black substance.

“The black liquid are all of the impurities in your body that the ascension is removing, including the ones left behind by the burning of your human genes,” Tar’s voice echoes in my head, not helping with the pain at all. “I’ll stay quiet.”

Time passes, and the pain only grows worse and worse. But no matter how bad it gets, it’s as if it’s simply impossible for me to fall unconscious during this process. A damned cruel fact that is.

At some point the pain around my eyes begins to fade a little, but at the same time, a vicious pain surfaces around the very center of my torso, along with another one around my fingernails. And after a few seconds of this pain, I can begin to see black claws forcing their way out of my fingers, ripping my fingernails off in the process and making my screaming go up an octave.

Fortunately that part of the pain only lasts for the brief time my claws came in. And then the claws suddenly transform into regular fingernails again as if they had never appeared in the first place.

But the pain at my core continues burning at me for a while, meanwhile I can see a bright crimson light coming from my eyes reflecting off of the mirror in the bathroom.

Then all at once, the pain vanishes, leaving me slumping in the bath feeling half dead while covered in my own blood and according to Tar, impurities.

Without an ounce of hesitation, I immediately use pain diffusion to get rid of the lingering soreness and discomfort I’m feeling despite the pain being gone. Because at some point the skill started letting me remove other feelings aside from just pain. Like regular discomfort, and even stress.

Which comes in very handy right now.

Ascension complete.User is now Class II.