77 Dark Side

Maria turned slowly to see a man she still clearly remembered, but this time she didn't try to attack him recklessly, she just stood there and observed him.

"Am I that handsome that you can't take your eyes off me?"

After all she had been through, and the current state of her faith, Maria didn't care much about the previous remark he had made about the God. She was just happy to be able to speak to someone.

"You are not too bad, but still far from perfect."

"Ohh, your attitude changed quite a bit, I was already expecting your attack." Lucien was genuinely surprised. Even he didn't predict this kind of change, but he liked her better this way. The previous uptight noble lady, was a bit too much for his palate.

"So have you though about my offer?" Lucien carelessly smiled at her, as if her decision wouldn't affect him at all and he was just making conversation.

"I can't betray my God for some stranger." Maria was reasonable this time, she didn't even lash and just kindly refused.

'Got you.' Lucien was very happy about the progress of the conversation.

"Why?"

This question struck Maria deep, she realized that this was a question she never asked herself. Why did she believe pray for this God.

"To me it seems you don't need the potential a blessing would give you, you already have enough to reach Rank 4 or 5. What does this God give you in return for your unwavering faith?"

Maria still didn't respond, but waves of shock were crashing in her mind. These questions were something she never considered once. From birth till now, she was brought up and educated to believe in the God with no questions asked.

"Even when you pray so hard, nothing changes. I will ask a third and last question, and then if you can't make up your mind, I'll leave and you will never see me again. Where was that God of yours when you lost your sister?"

If Maria thought for one second with a clear mind, she would realize that only the royals knew about the death of her sister, and the circle was so small that figuring out the identity of the person in front would be a piece of cake. But her mind was anything but clear right now.

That final question was the straw that broke the camel's back. She couldn't stop thinking about it.

'Indeed, why didn't God help my sister when she was dying, when she was even more devout to him than me. I see it now... even if I die, I won't hear any response to my prayers. So then why should I waste my time with such a useless God?'

"So what are is your deal, what do you want to offer me?"

"Heheh, I can only offer you one thing. Take it or leave it."

"What is it?"

"Revenge." Saying this word, Lucien stretched his hand out with his palm facing upwards, as if waiting for her to put her hand on top of his.

Maria stood on the spot stupefied, the man in front of her offered her revenge on God. She was not sure if he was joking or if he was completely insane.

It took her a minute to come back to herself and look at the outstretched hand. Smiling slightly, she reached out and put her hand on top of his.

The moment the hands touched, the stone that represented her faith finally received it's final blow and crumbled away, turning into dust. The moment that happened two things that shouldn't have happened at all, happened at the same time.

One of them was an incredible rare event that occurred once or twice since the fall of the Void Empire. A Practitioner having their Path change into another.

The Light Particles that surrounded Maria, started darkening the moment her faith crumbled. This wouldn't happen normally even if a heir didn't manage to finish the test, because even if their faith crumbled, they still didn't dare betray their God and switch camps. Perhaps being near Lucien and his intense Darkness also helped.

Slowly her control over the Light Path weakened, while her control over the Darkness increased. Soon instead of a holy aura and shining spots around her, there were mists of Darkness and a hint of an evil aura. Her clothes corroded as she wanted them and revealed quite a bit more skin that before. The drastic change of Paths definitely tilted her personality towards the evil side.

Almost simultaneously as her Path started changing, Lucien was changed into his Devil State forcefully and that illusionary dust that represented her faith shot inside his body.

-Devil State: 95% Complete-

-Devil State: 97% Compete-

-Devil State: 99% Complete-

-Devil State: 100% Complete-

-Change detected-

The Abyssal Darkness that was covering his body like a mist, condensed into three different parts with one going over his body into a thin film that seemed incredibly sturdy, another one formed 2 horns on his head and the final one changing into the shape of wings and settling on his back.

The only thing that was visible from outside the armor were his eyes.

The air chilled down to the point of freezing over.

-Devil State evolved to Devil-

-Devil: All Existence cannot provide information of such rarity for free-

Lucien immediately canceled his transformation, and surprisingly her was faster than Maria.

He waited silently for a moment for her to finish her transformation and her was quite surprised by her action of corroding part of her clothes.

"I knew you were hot, but this is just unexpected, why were you hiding such a body?"

Lucien joked a little bit, but remained cold on the inside. After all no matter how much he joked with her, she was still just a pawn.

Looking down at herself, Maria knew what he meant, even if she didn't pay as much attention she knew the difference between her and others, her rack was enormous, waist that seemed like it would break at any moment, and a pair long legs holding up all her glory. Combined with her beautiful face, she was the dream if every man on the continent.

Normally it was all hidden below the robe, but not she corroded it to above her knees and other parts above to still keep it nice to the eye but much more alluring.

"Anyway we can talk later, we have to leave, now. Getting caught with a royal that turned heretic is pretty much a death sentence for both of us."