Liquidation: From Big Boss to Bloody Demon Sauce Chapter 33: Chapter 33: Ether Pupil Stage

Read chapter 33 of Liquidation: From Big Boss to Bloody Demon Sauce by Magic on NovelPedia.

Just when I truly thought that I had absolutely no more fight left in my ledger, something fundamental changed. A sudden, massive wave of warmth washed over my scattered droplets. It was a blinding spark, violently piercing through the suffocating darkness of the acid. A new, massive power surged into my core. It was raw, unrefined, and entirely undiluted. It rapidly smothered the excruciating pain that had been tormenting my scattered cells. Suddenly, I could feel my physical form gaining rapid stability. It surged back together, the gravitational pull of my new mass rapid and entirely unstoppable. I was violently expanding outwards. Frantic, but highly focused, I clung onto the massive surge of capital, feeling the raw energy pulse forcefully through my entire being. In that singular, blinding instant, my perception shifted. A feeling told me I had officially entered the Ether Pupil stage, whatever that meant. I saw myself not as a puddle, but as a rapidly expanding, highly dense form, gaining kinetic momentum at an exponential, terrifying speed. Whatever raw mass I had lost to the unknown creatures' attacks had been aggressively replaced with significantly more energy than I had started the fight with. I hadn't just survived; I had executed a hostile takeover of their assets. When my vision cleared and I regained absolute administrative control of my body, I found myself standing in the center of the ruined chamber. The hideous rock creatures were nowhere to be seen. Grimora stood a few feet away, surrounded by a heavy, glowing pink protective magic circle. Her leather clothes were torn and smoking in a few places from the acid, but she was otherwise physically intact. Grimjaw was crouched low beside her, snarling at the empty shadows. She was staring up at me. Or rather, she was staring at the huge, imposing form that I now took up. My overall mass and physical size had increased multiple times over. I realized with a sudden start that the massive power I had felt surging into my core was coming directly from those creatures. I had aggressively absorbed their raw Ether. Their power seemed to actively boost my own physical form, fulfilling my internal cosmic law's need to endlessly expand. “How…” Grimora began, her voice a shaky, reverent whisper. She slowly lowered her magic shield. “It’s incredible…” Before I could even attempt to reply to her praise, a great, crushing squeeze started to aggressively press against my gelatinous form from all sides. I braced myself, feeling like there should have been immense pain, but it was more like my form was actively trying to violently compact its own code. It was optimizing. That made logical sense, or with enough time and acquisitions, I would eventually grow to the massive size of the dragon, depending on my biological limits. As the intense squeezing sensation finally ended, I felt a massive, fundamental structural change. Instead of the usual, formless puddle of slime I had been trapped as, I now possessed somewhat of a proper, bipedal shape. Grimora's shocked, heavy gasps echoed loudly around the quiet cavern as my red and white form seemed to rapidly solidify into a large, highly dense humanoid shape. The glistening, wet mass took on a much more opaque, muscular tone. My previously nonexistent, fluid limbs actively shaped themselves into actual, highly defined arms and powerful legs. While this new avatar was much, much larger than my old human body, and the surface was still more smooth than anatomically defined, it was definitely a massive step in the right direction. I had legs. I had hands. "What happened…? How did you do that?" Grimora stuttered, her voice heavily filled with absolute disbelief and profound awe. "How is this kind of rapid evolution even possible?" Through our established connection, I could clearly feel the massive waves of shock and confusion rolling off of her, completely cracking the previously composed, professional demeanor she tried to carry. "Ther