Chapter 199: The first contact with a goddess.

The black flame began consuming Strax's body as he forcibly advanced to the Grandmaster Level.

His hazy mind was completely altered, and his body stopped functioning rationally. His mind was sent somewhere, but he couldn't even tell where it was...

It was just an immeasurable void.

"Where am I?" Strax questioned, looking into the distance, unable to understand what could have happened.

One moment he was fighting Kryssia, and the next, he had invaded this strange domain.

He wandered through the air, looking around for any sign of life or structure, but all he could hear was the infinite and immeasurable void of his own existence.

His instinct told him to fight, but against what?

The void seemed to speak to him. Not with words, but with the absence of them. A sense of insignificance began to creep over his being, and for the first time, he felt fear. Not the fear of losing to Kryssia, nor the fear of death. This was a deeper, more primal fear—the fear of disappearing, of being nothing, of abandoning his wives...

"Is this all that's left of me?" Strax muttered, his voice strangely distorted. He couldn't even recognize the sound of his own words.

Suddenly, something changed. A presence, subtle at first, like a light breeze in a place where there shouldn't be any wind.

A sound, an almost imperceptible hum, slowly grew in the back of his mind.

It wasn't something physical, but a sensation that enveloped his consciousness.

Something was watching.

"You've gone too far, child." The voice sounded like muffled thunder, but it came from within him. It was deep, almost demonic, carrying a gravity that made the void around Strax feel denser.

He spun in the empty space, searching for the source, but there was no one, only the immeasurable darkness.

"Who... who's there?" he asked, his voice trembling, still trying to remain firm.

"You dared to cross the line. And now you pay the price." The darkness began to move, as if it had a life of its own. A black energy, similar to the flames that consumed his body before he was cast into this place, started to ripple around him, distorting the reality around him.

Then, he saw something. A figure emerged from the shadows, tall and imposing. It had no face, just a silhouette wrapped in a cloak of pure darkness, but it was clearly a woman with an hourglass figure. The eyes, or what would have been the eyes, were pits of absolute void, much deeper than the surrounding environment.

Strax felt a chill run through his essence, as if he had encountered something ancient and relentless.

"You wanted power..." the figure's voice whispered, now closer, but there was no softness in its words. "...but power comes with a price."

Strax tried to speak, but his body wouldn't respond. Whatever this entity was, it was overpowering his very existence. He was vulnerable, something he had rarely felt before.

"I didn't ask for this," Strax finally managed to murmur, his voice weak, as if he were resisting a crushing weight.

"Didn't ask? Or did ask, but didn't know what you were invoking?" she teased, starting to circle around him, like a predator examining its prey.

Strax felt the pressure increase, as if every word from the entity was draining more of his energy, his identity.

"You opened the door, Strax. Or rather, the spirits opened it... Now, you find yourself trapped between what you were and what you tried to become, an empty shell of power."

"I need to go back," Strax mumbled, his focus starting to fade. "I... need to win..."

"What are you saying?" he questioned, trying to maintain his composure.

Persephone smiled, leaning in until her eyes were only inches from his, the light in her yellow eyes intensifying. "You already know. To achieve what you desire, you must pay the price."

"What price?"

She stepped back, laughing as if he were naive. "The price of power, of course. You want to defeat Kryssia, don't you?" She began pacing around the hall as if the space were her personal playground. "You desire enough power to crush your enemies, to control your own fate. That requires sacrifice, Strax."

"And what must I sacrifice?" The question escaped his lips before he could think better of it, but the answer was already weighing on his mind.

Persephone stopped pacing and turned to face him, her smile wider now. "Your humanity, of course. Or what's left of it."

Strax's blood ran cold. He had already lost so much—the battle with Kryssia had pushed him to his limits, and the void inside him was consuming what remained of his soul. And now, he faced a final choice. Sacrifice his essence to become something... more, something terrifyingly powerful but possibly unrecognizable.

"And if I refuse?" he challenged, knowing that refusing wasn't really an option.

Persephone's laughter echoed through the hall. "Refuse?" She moved closer to him again, her eyes gleaming. "You're already so far into this abyss, Strax. The question isn't whether you accept or not, but how long you can survive without fully surrendering."

A silence fell between them for a moment. Strax knew she was right. The black flame was already consuming him, and he felt himself losing more and more with every passing second.

"But..." she continued, her voice now softer, almost seductive, "if you accept, I can guarantee that not only will you defeat Kryssia, but you will also control the power you desire. You will be one of the few who walks between the living and the dead with complete dominion."

"And the price is my humanity?" Strax repeated, his voice low, his mind already calculating the implications.

"Yes," Persephone confirmed, her gaze both compassionate and ruthless. "But I can offer you something in return... something beyond raw power." She looked deeply into his eyes, as if she could see through every layer of his soul. "I can give you control. The black flame that's devouring you now can become your most powerful weapon."

Strax pondered for a moment, feeling the weight of the decision looming over him. Kryssia awaited him on the battlefield, an adversary he knew he could not defeat without surpassing the limits of his own being. And now, here he was, standing before a goddess, faced with an impossible choice.

But something about Persephone warned him. This wasn't an ordinary bargain, and he knew that any deal with a figure like her would have repercussions far beyond the mortal realm.

"Time is short, little boy," Persephone said with a smile. "Your body is still fighting against the woman outside, and she is not happy at all."

"What if I accept?" Strax finally asked, knowing that his soul was on the edge of the abyss.

Persephone smiled, leaning in again until her lips almost brushed against his ear. "If you accept, Strax..." she whispered, her voice smooth as the sweetest poison, "you will become something beyond what you ever imagined. You will be the bearer of the black flame. A lord of life and death. But know this..."

She pulled away, looking directly into his eyes, her smile wider than ever.

"There's no turning back."

'The System won't let something like this happen. Anyway, my lineage is of a dragon; the moment I lose my human side, only the dragon will prevail... and the Incubus... Fufufufu, what a foolish Goddess.' Strax thought.

"I accept."

The moment the words left his mouth, the black flame consuming him began to burn with new intensity, scorching not only his body but his soul.

[The Black Flame Ability from the Assimilation with the Infinite Dragon has been absorbed as a Unique Skill.]

[Fire Manipulation has evolved into Underworld Fire.]

[You have received the Blessing of Persephone, Queen of the Underworld.]

[You have lost your Humanity.]