The system's screen floated in the air of the Core Chamber, its blue words glowing with a cold, clinical light. Each term—painful, irreversible, corruption—weighed on the atmosphere, suffocating the excitement of their previous victory. Ari stared at the screen, his usual sarcastic smirk erased, replaced by a seriousness he rarely showed. At his side, Thalassa and Vespera watched him, their faces a mixture of hope for the power he might gain and a palpable fear for the price he would pay.
"Ari, you don't have to do this," Thalassa finally said. Her voice was soft, stripped of her authority as a Demon Queen and her excitement as a gamer; it was just the voice of Thalassa, the worried friend. "You're valuable just as you are. You're our pillar, our light. We'll find another way to protect you. We'll strengthen the dungeon, we'll level up faster..." The strategist in her was surrendering to the wife.
Vespera nodded vigorously and stepped closer to him. "I don't want you to suffer for us," she pleaded, her eyes full of genuine anguish. "The system says it clearly: the pain... and it's irreversible. What if... what if it changes you too much? What if you stop being you?"
Ari listened to their protests, their sincere concern. He looked away from the screen and at them: at the Demon Queen he had known since they were snot-nosed kids stealing apples; at the Succubus General whose loyalty and fierce heart had saved his life. He saw the fear in their eyes. Fear for him.
In that instant, his decision solidified.
He let out a long, dramatic sigh, a sound filled with a nobility so theatrical and utterly fake it deserved an award. He straightened up, throwing his shoulders back as if he carried the weight of the world on them.
"My dearest, worried wives," he began, his tone grave and deep. "A husband, a consort, a man... must do what he must for his family. I cannot be the partner to a Demon Queen of growing power and a Succubus General of limitless potential while being merely a Common Class." He pronounced the last two words as if they were blasphemy, a stain on the honor of his strange new home. "It's a matter of family pride. Of balance."
He raised his gaze to the fleshy ceiling of the cave, as if addressing an invisible deity. "Besides," he added with a hint of stubbornness, "I can't allow that humiliating 'weak link' title to remain on my character history forever. It's unacceptable."
He looked back at the screen, his face now a mask of resolution. "System," he said, his voice clear and firm. "Hit YES."
The moment he spoke the word, the screen flashed with a red light.
[Confirmation received. Initiating "Sacred Corruption" protocol. Subject is advised to prepare for extreme pain. May the gods, old and new, have mercy on your soul.]
The screen vanished. And then, all hell broke loose.
The dark energy from the Orb of Primordial Chaos, a latent presence until now, activated. A torrent of black and purple energy, visible and crackling, shot out from the orb and slammed into Ari's chest. At the same time, a brilliant golden light erupted from his own body—his innate holy power fighting violently to defend itself.
Ari dropped to the ground as if his strings had been cut. A gut-wrenching, inhuman scream tore from his throat as the two opposing energies waged war inside his body.
"ARI!" Thalassa and Vespera shouted in unison.
They rushed to his side, but an invisible barrier of chaotic energy—a violently crackling mixture of light and shadow—kept them at bay. They couldn't touch him.
"System, stop the process!" Thalassa yelled, her face twisted in panic. "He's in too much pain! Cancel the evolution!"
A new screen appeared before her, its text cold and impassive.
[Command denied. Class Evolution in progress. Interruption at this stage could result in the subject's instantaneous and total annihilation.]
"Damn you!" Thalassa roared, clenching her fists with a powerlessness that consumed her.
Vespera fell to her knees, tears streaming down her cheeks as she watched Ari's suffering in horror. "Oh, gods, oh, Light... what have we done?" she sobbed.
From their perspective, the scene was a nightmare. They watched Ari's body convulse on the floor. His skin glowed, alternating between a pure, sacred gold and a corrupt, dark purple. His veins stood out under his skin, shining with a sick light. The sound of his screams was constant, a sound of pure agony that seemed endless.
"His skin!" Vespera wailed. "It's... flickering! Oh, gods, he won't stop screaming!"
"Hang on, Ari!" Thalassa yelled, her voice breaking with desperation. "Damn it, hang on! Fight! Don't let it consume you!"
The process seemed to last an eternity. Every second was torture for them, forced to be powerless spectators to the torment of the man they had decided to change their lives for. They watched his body arch backward, his muscles tensing to the breaking point, then relaxing, only for a new wave of pain to jolt him again.
Finally, after what felt like hours, the intensity of the energy began to wane. Ari's screams turned into choked whimpers and then ragged gasps. The torrent of energy from the Orb stopped. The golden light from his body flickered one last time and went out.
Silence. An absolute silence, broken only by Vespera's sobs and Thalassa's ragged breathing.
Ari lay motionless on the ground, face down. Smoke, a strange mixture that smelled of burnt incense and the ionized air that follows a lightning strike, rose from his body.
"Ari?" Thalassa whispered, approaching cautiously now that the energy barrier had dissipated.
He stirred. Slowly, with visible effort, he pushed himself onto his hands and knees. Then, he staggered to his feet. He felt... different. The pain was gone, replaced by a strange sense of... completeness. And an exhaustion so profound he felt he could sleep for a century.
He touched his body, patting his arms, his chest, his face. He was expecting changes. More defined muscles, perhaps. Paler skin. An aura of power. He turned to them, his expression confused. "Well?"
Thalassa and Vespera stared at him. And blinked.
Vespera was the first to speak. "You... you look..."
"Yes?" Ari encouraged her, expectant.
"...exactly the same," she finished.
The hope on Ari's face vanished. He scrambled to pick up a polished templar shield from the floor—one Vespera sometimes used as a mirror—and looked at himself.
The disappointment he felt was cosmic in scale.
"That's it?" he asked, his voice filled with indignant disbelief as he stared at his reflection. "All that pain? All those screams that probably cost me my vocal cords for a week? For... this?"
He flexed, examining his arms. "No new muscles! I still have the arms of a cleric who lifts more wine jugs than weights!"
He touched his head, desperately searching for any protrusions. "No horns! Not even small, elegant ones like Thalassa's!"
He looked at his hands, opening and closing his fingers. "Not even sharp, black claws! I still have the nails of a man who bites them out of boredom!"
He turned to them, his face a mask of pure, absolute betrayal. "I'm outraged! I was hoping to be an imposing, eight-foot-tall Demon Lord! I wanted a sculpted figure without doing a single squat! I wanted an ethereal beauty and an intimidating aura of power that would make villagers kneel as I passed! And all I got was a monumental headache and this!"
He pointed to the back of his right hand. There, where nothing had been before, was now a small, almost invisible tattoo, as if drawn in pale gray ink: a perfect circle, bisected by a wavy line, one half white, the other black.
Just then, a new screen appeared before him with a silent fanfare.
[Class Evolution Complete!] [Congratulations, Consort. You have survived the Unholy Baptism.]
Name: Ari Class: Cleric of Twilight (Hybrid Class - Rare) Level: 2
New Class Skills Unlocked:
· [Sermon of Doubt (Active)]: Channels hybrid energy into your voice, instilling doubt and confusion in low-intellect enemies in an area. May cause targets to hesitate, flee, or attack each other.
· [Aegis of Dusk (Active)]: Evolution of [Sacred Aegis]. The shield of light and shadow now absorbs a small percentage of an attacker's mana and willpower, recharging the user.
· [Shadow Light (Passive)]: Allows the user to imbue their healing and blessing spells with shadow energy. This drastically increases effectiveness on dark or demonic beings and can be used offensively to inflict slow, corrosive damage to holy or living enemies.
Ari read the description of his new, complex skills with a mixture of genuine interest and deep, deep annoyance.
Thalassa approached, trying to comfort him, though a playful smile tugged at her lips. "You don't look different, Ari, but... your power... I can feel it through the bond. It's much denser. More... complex. It's not just Light, it's not just Darkness. It's both."
Ari sighed, utterly defeated, and let the shield drop to the floor. "Great," he muttered bitterly. "So now I'm a rare priest instead of a common one. And I still don't have the abs I wanted. This system is a rip-off."