CHAPTER 30: A DEVIL IN MY SKIN

The air shimmered with burning red letters, their glow flickering across my weapons. Something was happening. Perhaps the system had finally decided to lend me a hand, realizing I’d never be able to retrieve those needles on my own.

I reached out, my finger trembling as I stretched it toward the light. The hesitation was brief; after all, there was nothing to fear from my own system, right?

My fingertip brushed against a soft surface, sinking halfway before a sharp sting shot through it, followed by a spreading warmth. Blood. The system had cut me open. I tried to pull back, but my finger wouldn’t move, held fast as if the air itself had turned solid around it.

The letters on the system screen slowly burst into a dance, the chaos making my head spin. Until it all settled into a circle, turning slowly like a lock where my finger was the key.

I pulled again, and this time the screen responded. Half of it slid open like a vault door. Inside stretched a void, dark and endless, like a fragment of the cosmos itself. A faint red glimmer shimmered within that darkness, catching my eye. Ten needle-thin shapes floated in the distance, suspended far beyond my reach.

"Are those... my needles?" I breathed out, disbelief coloring my voice. "But how am I supposed to reach them?"

They hovered so far away I could barely make them out. I tried willing them to come closer, focusing until sweat trickled down my temples, but nothing happened.

"You’ve got to be kidding me..." The words slipped out, heavy with irritation. All I wanted today was a moment of peace, yet this damn system chose to toy with me instead. "What do you want from me? At least tell me what to do!" My temples throbbed as veins tightened beneath the skin, anger and frustration pulsing in rhythm with my heartbeat.

"[I have detected your frustration, Host. Please ease your anger.]"

Out of nowhere, a robotic voice echoed in my head. It was familiar yet foreign, female, yet oddly human and gentle, like a mother soothing her child. That softness unsettled me. Where did such care come from?

"Who’s there?" I whispered, glancing around, but the forest remained silent. Only the rustle of trees and the breath of wind answered me.

"[Allow me to show you how to use your powers.]"

The voice ignored my question completely, and before the last syllable faded, dizziness washed over me. The world spun, twisting and folding until I felt myself being pulled somewhere else entirely.

When the motion stopped, I stood before the silhouette of a young woman. She looked like me, every feature mirrored, but her expression was empty, devoid of even a hint of emotion. On the back of each of her fingers hovered an acupuncture needle, perfectly still, barely a millimeter from touching her skin. The precision was flawless, a level of control I had never reached, even at my best.

"What’s going on here? Why do you look like me? Hello?" I waved at the figure, but her face stayed blank, unflinching. The silence pressed in, heavy and cold. When my patience snapped, I stepped forward to grab the needles myself, and that’s when everything went south.

She moved with the precision of a trained assassin, slipping to the side in one fluid motion, her body dropping low like a predator before spinning sharply on one leg. I barely registered the movement before pain exploded in my calf. The impact sent me weightless, the world tilting as her image blurred into darkness above. My back slammed into something solid, the surface as hard as stone, though nothing should have been there, and the breath burst from my lungs in a rough gasp.

"Shit. How dare you?" Anger washed over me. I shoved myself up from the ground and spun, but the double was gone. When I turned, she stood behind me, her back to me, perfectly still.

"Listen, you, give me back my needles and we can call it a day!"

The words barely left my lips before I froze. I tried to point at her, but my right arm refused to move. For a moment, I thought my mind had failed to send the signal until I saw three crimson needles glimmering faintly in the dimness, buried just beneath my skin. One in the wrist. Two along the fingers. They hadn’t even pierced deep, yet the entire arm hung lifeless at my side, as if it had been cut away from me entirely.

I didn’t know what I felt first: rage, fear, or disbelief. All of it tangled together in a single breath. My thoughts spiraled in panic, then vanished the instant she turned her head. Those eyes... my eyes, yet not mine. Crimson like burning glass, staring straight through me, cold and unblinking. For a heartbeat, I forgot to breathe. My heart didn’t whisper run, it screamed.

This creature wasn’t me. It wore my shape, my face, but there was nothing human behind it. This was a devil sculpted from stillness, perfection, and blood. And in that moment, I realized how beautiful true terror could be.

My left hand darted to tear the needles free, but the world betrayed me again. My knees folded, and the floor of darkness rushed up to meet me. I swear it was only a second, a single blink, but the numbness was already spreading. My body no longer obeyed.

Is that how I was meant to fight? The thought echoed, distant and fading. How terrifying, to be defeated before I even understood. Not a single wasted motion from her. And now my back is bare, my heart exposed.

One strike and I am nothing more than a corpse. The thought tightened my chest, raw and cold. There was truly nothing I could do except wait, stripped of agency and at somebody else’s mercy.

And then something else kindled inside me. My heart burned with a fierce, hungry wanting. I wanted to be that version of myself: silent, precise, a blade that ended a fight before it began. If I could master those needles, even Hera might one day kneel before me. If I learned the right nerve, a single needle could be a death sentence. The image lit me from within. My eyes flamed with desire, and in the next moment, strength rushed back into my limbs.

"[Get up, it is time for you to learn]"