Eva, Toulif, Gent, and Jammie stand over the unconscious body of Tiffany Day.

  Even while Tiffany is asleep, her presence sends fear into everyone around her. She has instinctually manifested her aura while she is unconscious in order to heal her body.

  Toulif grits his teeth and raises his only hand left with murderous intent. His demonic transformation now reverted back after the skill had run its course. He swings downward at Tiffany’s neck only to be caught by Eva’s hand.

  I shockwave blasts outward from the impact. The force of Toulif’s swing was enough to easily kill Tiffany, but Eva caught it without issue. Toulif pulls back as he looks at his sister in shock.

  “What do you think you’re doing?! This demon, this thing! Needs to die!”

  Eva looks back at her brother. Her mask blocks her expression, but it reaches Toulif. “No.”

  Toulif is surprised by this. No? “What does that mean?”

  “It means, no. I will not let you kill Tiffany.”

  Toulif steps back. Is she really going to stop him? “What?! Don’t you realize that all of this!” He frantically gestures around at the destruction with his hand “Was all to kill this demon!”

  Eva raises her head defiantly, “Is she a demon?”

  Toulif scoffs, “Are you referring to that nonsense she spouted. Of course she is a demon! An Eldritch Horror! It’s all part of its disgusting scheme! It was pretending to be a human! You summoned this demon yourself!”

  Eva thinks back. Every interaction she had with Tiffany. She took note of every action. The way she talked, and the questions she had. She remembered her ‘true form.’ Something about it wasn’t right.

  It didn’t make sense. She had that terrifying form, but when she was summoned, Tiffany had already been transformed into a human. Why? If she was in hell, why did she disguise herself as a human?

  That wasn’t enough to convince Eva, but during Tiffany’s rant when she was about to be killed, something stood out to her.

  The vice captain didn’t summon a demon, but a human with a demonic soul-

  It almost made sense. If Tiffany was really a level 6 demon when summoned, she couldn’t possibly have a human form so perfect it could trick Summoner’s Insight. Still-

  “Jammie.”

  Toulif snaps his head between the healer and his sister. Jammie stands at attention. Eva continues “Check her vitals. You can confirm if she’s human, can’t you?”

  Jammie blinks for a moment, then nods. “I can.”

  Jammie starts to cast a green magic circle over Tiffany. Toulif simply shakes his head. “Even if she is a human. She is still a threat to the expedition!”

  Toulif grabs Jammie's shoulder and pushes him out of the way. He reaches for Tiffany's neck, only for Eva to grab his wrist. He snaps at her. “You forget your place, vice captain!”

  “No! You forget your place.” She leans in and whispers into his clipped ear with a certain spite. “Brother.”

  Toulif immediately stops at the uncomfortable truth. Yes, Toulif is the captain of this expedition. He technically outranks his sister within the cult. But Toulif is still less valued than his sister, as much as he tries to deny it. Eva’s position within the royal family is placed firmly above his own. As someone who has been ejected from the succession race, Toulif must answer to anyone with the potential to become the next emperor… or empress-

  Eva knows this fact. It’s the same fact that Toulif hates his sister for. Toulif has become completely expendable in the eyes of the Zeta Empire. He doesn’t even hold the title of prince anymore.

  Toulif slaps Eva’s hand away. “You-” He shakes his head, “Do what you want.” He then turns to leave in complete silence.

  Eva watches her brother slowly leave the group. She then breathes a shaken sigh of relief. Eva doesn’t know if she could have done that if they weren't wearing masks.

  She nods to Jammie “Do it.”

  Jammie nods back and turns to Tiffany on the ground. “Vitalis.”

  A green magic circle appears above Tiffany. Green wisps of magical power start to grow off the edges of her body. Her right eye is pulled open and a faint light shines out.

  Jammie furrows his brows “Huh.”

  Eva probes him for answers “What is it?”

  “It’s her mana pool. It's… I don’t know. It’s like it has been inverted and warped beyond recognition. I’ve never seen anything like it. Not in mortals anyway.”

  Eva frowns at that “So, she is a demon?”

  He shakes his head “Not necessarily, I’ve healed demons before. Their mana pools are like ours, save for Nav Imps, but her however… I’ve only seen pools of mana that have been inverted in such a way in monsters.”

  Gent interjects “What kind of monsters?”

  Jammie glances over at the crater left behind in the wake of the attack that destroyed the Fledgling Atrocity. He frowns “The abominations.”

  A silence grips the air around them as they take in this fact.

  Jammie glances back to the green magic circle floating above Tiffany and nods. “Other than that, she is completely human.” The circle vanishes and Tiffany’s glowing eye shuts.

  Eva eyes widen as she looks at their last healer “A- are you sure? What about her mana pool?”

  Jammie blinks, as if he wasn’t expecting the vice captain to be surprised “No, her pool of mana is weird, but her biology is definitely that of a human. Unless she is a demon with a human form that is completely perfect in every way, that is. But I find that unlikely at her level.”

  Eva doesn’t know how to respond. She had been basically given confirmation that she was right, just like that. Some part of her still wanted to believe that this person wasn’t mortal. Tiffany’s actions had been so erratic and deranged that the truth that she really is human is unnerving.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  Eva pauses and looks down at Tiffany’s unconscious body. A small rage takes hold of her as she grits her teeth.

  A human-

  ---

  “What are you?”

  “Uhhh…”

  I stare up at Eva as she stands over me. I’m at complete loss on what to say as my jaw opens and closes and nothing comes out. I decided to be stupid with a fake ass smile. “Fooled ya. Haha.”

  I can’t tell what she is feeling at all with Magical Aura Perception. I strain the skill and hope it levels so I can get something, anything to work off of. Since she is wearing a mask, I can’t gauge her reactions either.

  I grimace as she tilts her head and sighs “A human with a demonic soul. That’s what you said right?”

  I blink as I slowly remember what I said after my fight with Toulif. I really thought I was about to die and kinda just started ranting. “Ahh. Yes, that is what I am. Not a demon.”

  I bite my lip and attempt to gauge her reaction again, only to still find vagueness. Eva says “How? How do you have true demonic essence?”

  I pause at that. How do I have the soul of a demon? I never really thought too hard about it. “I… Don’t know.” I give Eva a shrug.

  I finally found something through Eva’s soul. Unfortunately it’s contempt-

  “You don’t know.”

  I try to give her an apologetic look, “I don’t. I’ve always been like this I guess?”

  Eva hangs her head over me. “Was it something you were born with?”

  “Not sure. Ever since I was able to perceive my own aura, it’s color was black. I didn’t even know that meant my soul was demonic until I met a real demon for the first time.”

  Eva raises her head at that and her soul becomes unreadable once again. It’s starting to get annoying. I think I got used to being able to tell what others are feeling that not being able to see them is starting to become stressful.

  “I see. Then why did you say you were a demon?”

  I blink at her. This is an easy one! “Because it was funny!”

  Eva’s soul is immediately filled with confusion. Wait, was it a good idea to say that?

  “What?!”

  Uhhh… It’s too late now I guess, “Uhh yeah, If I’m remembering right. You begged me not to kill you and called me a demon. I thought that was funny at the time. Looking back on it now though-” I sucked air though gritted teeth “Not the most empathetic thing to do.”

  “That is-” she slowly starts to shake her head, “You’re insane.”

  “Not gonna deny that, I definitely got some screws loose. But look at it from my perspective! I got ripped away from my home to a dark cave surrounded by cultists. Forgive me for being a little sadistic?”

  Eva blinks through her mask loud enough for me to hear, “No!”

  I break into a grin and start chuckling. Eva quickly starts shaking her head in exasperation, “Why are you laughing?!”

  “Because I just realized how absolutely ridiculous this situation is!” I continue to laugh as she just stares at me. Eventually I come to a stop and look at her with an amused expression. Why was I nervous?

  My face turns into a frown. I decided to tell her my real feelings.

  “Do you remember what I looked like when you summoned me?”

  Eva's soul goes quiet, her rage slowly subsiding.

  “I think I was cute, don’t you think?”

  Eva takes a step back, “What are you trying to say?”

  I grin at her fear, so I tell her the truth-

  “My life was nice and easy, but you took that away from me. Pulled away to a far off land and deep beneath the earth. A terrible dungeon full of monsters that could easily kill me. I think I’ve broken every bone in my body multiple times, in the span of only three days. I lost my left eye, I almost lost my arm. I’ve almost died more times than I can count.”

  Eva starts to stammer “I didn’t-”

  I wasn’t finished, so I cut her off. “It was the most fun I’ve had in my entire life! I feel nothing but gratitude towards you, so thank you! Thank you so much for bringing me here! You saved me from living an empty life!”

  Eva stares at me, her soul is unreadable once again, but I don't care anymore. I never want to lie to her again. She saved my life after all.

  I grimace “I’m also sorry.”

  I start to lightly slap the back of my head into the ground “I’ve lied to you and hurt you. About being a demon,” I scoff at myself, “About being the daughter of the devil.”

  That was such a dumb thing to say-

  “So let me make it up to you!”

  I smile at her and she looks back at me. I don’t attempt to read her soul, I want to see what she says. Eva stands there in silence for a moment. I wait patiently for her response.

  Eva finally speaks “I see.”

  I gasp and slap my forehead in shock “I forgot!”

  Eva tilts her head at me “F- forgot what?”

  “The mushrooms! I got mushrooms! Did the mushrooms survive the fight with that monster?”

  I look over at Toulif to see him staring at me. Everyone is staring at me. Huh, were they watching me? Whatever, “Toulif, do you guys still have the mushrooms?”

  Toulif sighs the most exasperated sigh I’ve ever heard “No. We don’t have your mushrooms, we don't have anything. It was all destroyed and nothing could be recovered.”

  Eva throws her arms to her sides “What mushrooms?!”

  I sigh as I rub my temples “They were reanimating mushrooms. I got those mushrooms to repair your sanity.”

  Eva snaps back towards me. “Are you serious?”

  “Yep,” I grit my teeth. “And now they’re gone.”

  Oh man, that means my shirt is gone too. Ughhh. I look back at Eva. I look at her soul. I could probably try to see what she is feeling, but I decided against it. For some reason, that doesn’t feel right anymore.

  I scoff as Eva looks down at me. “Don’t worry, we can probably find some more-”

  ---

  Elsewhere-

  Deep within the dungeon, a massive cavern lies. Moonlight seeps in through the ravine embedded into the ceiling.

  A massive scorched battle-ground sits below. Thousands of rotting carcasses of decimated roaches litter the landscape. The black fires of war from an unrelenting intruder smolders from lingering spite.

  The moonlight illuminates the thousands of spores that blanket the fallen army.

  A broken empress sits alongside her failed progeny. The spores enter every crevice and crack the exoskeleton that they can find.

  Far away from this graveyard of roaches, at the center of this dungeon, sits a being that notices this coming storm. A dark and powerful being. A demonic abomination-

  It grins as it sees something that gives it an impossible glee and it flicks one of its many wrists.

  A soul, as Tiffany would call it, is ripped from purgatory and pulled back to the realm of mortals.

  A massive ball of green metallic flames appears within the Roach Empresses core. The hundreds of amputated limbs start pulling themselves together. The empress opens her eyes and finds a notification waiting-

  Welcome back / Reevaluating level…