The Demon Lord Is An Angel
Chapter 88: Demonic Evolution

Chapter 88: Demonic Evolution

Kir awoke from a dreamless pain.

He opened his eyes to darkness, the gray of the stone towers, and the hint of stars.

He was laying on his side. His whole body felt heavy. Sore. Like he’d spent an entire day running with weights strapped to every part of him, especially his tail, which he could feel sluggishly scraping the ground.

He didn’t want to move, but he knew he had to.

Inside he felt a familiar heat, but oddly, no pain from the constant assault of excessive mana. Just everything else.

Searching his memory, he recalled what he had done.

What he and Stella had been up against at the portal to the next room in the dungeon.

Wait... Stella!

Kir forced himself up all at once, calling out her name, "Stella!", and was surprised when his voice boomed, lower and more growly than it had been before.

"Watch the tail, boss!" Stella’s voice called out from the side.

Kir turned, surprised to see his tail was covered in bony spikes. Standing nearby was a demon that looked like Stella, but very, very different.

"Stella, is that you?" Kir rumbled.

"Of course it’s me," Stella said, her voice more mature-sounding than it had been.

Looking down at his hands, he saw that his fingers were massive, with even thicker claws that seemed to extend into the first knuckle. Flexing the knuckle pushed out his claws to about ten centimeters. He unflexed them and took in Stella.

"You’re, uh, taller." It was as if someone had taken the Stella he knew and stretched her.

Indeed, Stella had grown taller. More lanky than her previous form but still quite curvy, she now had arms so long the hands reached past her knee, and feet that seemed prehensile. Her tail seemed to have gained a similar trait, judging by how it curled more delicately than before. The wings on her back were the same, and she was busty and just a little plump, but far skinnier than she had been. Her once-black hair streaked with red was now white, and her skin had gone from red to pinkish purple.

"What happened to us?" Kir asked.

"What happened is, we evolved!" Stella said, excitement in her voice. "I mean, I evolved for sure, but it looks like you got a war-form. Here, let me show you!" she walked away, and Kir noticed for the first time that there was a bunch of artifacts gathered in a small circle at the edge of their platform.

Remembering the grotesque, Kir turned until he saw the platform it had been on.

Atop remained only piles of ashes and the portal, difficult to see without the tentacles that had fed from it, like a black darker than the perpetual night sky.

As Stella started buffing a metal shield with her forearm, Kir looked down, inspecting himself.

His chest was like two paving slabs, and every muscle on his torso was emphasized to such a degree that he had to bend to see more of his legs.

The wound on his leg was gone, but his legs, and every part of his sides and arms, were now covered in thick, leathery, scaly hide. His skin had turned red as blood but was a lighter and more skin-like on his palms and in places that weren’t as visible as the rest, like the bottom of his tail. At his elbows and knees were bony protrusions that offered pain for anyone they were used on.

His uniform pants had altered themselves to conform to his new shape, but there just wasn’t enough material to produce anything but shorts that hugged his ass and barely fit the definition of the word.

Seeming proud of herself, Stella approached with the shield she’d buffed.

"I think you were out for days, so after a while I got bored," she said as she handed him the normal-sized shield of barely-reflective metal.

"How long was a while?" Kir asked.

"Hmm... maybe the first day? Things don’t seem to change here."

"Oh. Good." Kir had been concerned that Stella might have irradiated herself going to the site too early. She seemed fine, and she still had all her hair. More, in fact.

The shield fit in his hand like a large dinner plate. Just how massive was he now?

Looking at his own reflection, Kir saw that his horns now swept around his head. They had more protrusions and resembled something like a very spiky crown.

His teeth were the size of fingers, still flattish for the middle four but fanged and sharp everywhere else. His face was likewise reshaped, still recognizably him, but now with bony ridges along his cheeks, eyebrows, forehead, and jawline.

His once-fiery red hair was now a mane that stretched down to his back, held in place by the bottom of his crown of horns.

He was into his new look. But he knew that to most people, he looked like a monster...

He looked like his father, when the Devil of Heresy had taken on his warform.

Turning his head, he saw the seals were still in his ears - which had grown pointier and longer - but he noticed that one of them was now hollow, its core missing.

"Stella, one of my seals is gone..." Kir said.

"I have it right here, boss!" Stella reached into her pocket. Like the previous seal, this one had separated into tiny, circular plates. "The patterns are fascinating. And so small! Who knew magic circles worked like that?"

Kir lifted an eyebrow. "Okay, who are you and what have you done with Stella?"

"What are you talking about, Kir?" she asked.

"Stella barely knew anything about magic. She didn’t care to know," Kir pointed out.

"Ah, that is likely an effect of my evolution. At first I was very troubled, but then I realized this was an opportunity! See, a normal path for an imp is to become one of the many varieties of lesser drudes, assuming they’re violent or suffer enough abuse."

She cleared her throat. "Most imps go that way, and I can tell you more about that later, but suffice it to say an imp who has been nurtured in a less violent life will typically become one of the lesser forms of a gnosinian... Which I appear to be. Half of. The other half is, ah, still a succubus, for which I am most grateful! Gnosinians feed on learning, and it’s likely I picked up more than a little of that energy from our mutual environment, but I still prefer the old-fashioned way." She raised and lowered her eyebrows suggestively.

Kir blinked in surprise. Was she coming onto him?

"Okay, you’re definitely Stella," Kir said. "Only now you’ve got a sexy nerd thing going."

"It warms my heart to hear you still find me attractive! These limbs had me concerned, though I am glad I got to keep my wings. Most first evolutions don’t get to keep their wings, but I like to imagine having had my first time saved the succubus half of me, even if that half has been de-emphasized somewhat," Stella finished.

Kir reached down and gently touched Stella on the head. Three of his fingers were as wide as her skull. His sense of scale was way off now.

"Speaking of wings... did you happen to retain yours? It would be a shame to leave some of the things I found here," Stella gestured at the circle of junk. Kir noted that Kangetsu was amongst the pile.

"Let me check," Kir said.

Concentrating on the magic circle tattooed into his back, Kir felt a popping sensation as what erupted from the dimensional space was not two wings, but four.

They were absolutely massive. Sweeping them forward a bit, Kir saw that the feathers were still red, but the top of his wings had a bony, blade-like set of ridges protecting them.

"Oh Heaven, those are wings from... Hmm, the war form of some angelic house... I don’t know which one," Stella looked in awe.

Kir had felt a surge of gathering magic as he’d deployed his wings. "I wonder if..." Kir flapped harder, once, and was a little surprised when he lifted off the ground. Flying hurt more than just standing though, and so after confirming he could indeed lift off, he settled back down.

He felt a little of the hot knife feeling return to his insides, but when he stowed his wings the feeling faded.

He told Stella about what he’d felt and she thought pensively. "Ah! Angels’ wings absorb mana efficiently. That’s why demons say ’Go for the wings!’ when it comes to combat."

"At least my mana intake seems balanced now," Kir said.

"I have been holding off, reducing activity to resist our environment," Stella said. "Fortunately I found a few things to gain nourishment by learning, but I really could use your help..."

She licked her lips.

"Is that even safe? I mean, I could accidentally crush you," Kir said.

"Is anything safe down here?" Stella asked as she approached, tilting a bit to show off her cleavage. Now that she looked more mature, it was easier for Kir to feel aroused by her presence. Their bond also seemed a lot stronger after they evolved together, and he felt less able to resist.

Kir swallowed. "Alright..." he said. "It’ll definitely improve our, ah, odds... What do you, um, need me to do?"

"No need to be bashful," Stella teased. "All I need you to do is stand there..."

As she passed below the arc of his chest and out of sight, Kir felt as she began to stroke his inner thighs with her long fingers.

"Heheh, I don’t even need to bend," she said, sounding a lot more like her old self as she hummed her delight.

Then their second time began.

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