Roy pulled something from his pocket—a small red pill—and swallowed it with a desperate gulp.
The change was instant and horrifying. Roy's body convulsed, muscles bulging beneath his skin as he grew larger. His entire form expanded, skin flushing crimson as veins popped across his expanding frame.
'What the hell did he eat?' Arthur thought, intrigued but not concerned.
"You made me do this!" Roy roared, voice now deep and distorted. He grabbed the tree trunk piercing his chest and yanked it out with a wet, tearing sound. The gaping hole remained, but he seemed unfazed.
"I'll make you join me in hell!"
Roy charged, moving faster than his new bulk suggested possible. The ground cracked beneath each thunderous step.
Arthur sidestepped casually, creating a spatial distortion that sent Roy careening into another tree.
"Interesting," Arthur mused. "A transformation pill? It has demonic essence, too?"
Roy roared, spittle flying from lips that now featured elongated fangs. "You're dead! DEAD!"
"Not yet," Arthur replied, raising his hand again. Multiple trees uprooted themselves, hovering around them. "But you will be, again."
The floating trunks shot forward like missiles. Roy managed to punch through the first, splintering it, but the second caught him in the shoulder. The third plowed into his legs. The fourth smashed into his jaw.
Roy staggered but didn't fall. Blood poured from dozens of wounds, yet his crimson body continued to expand.
"You don't understand," Roy snarled through broken teeth. "This pill... final resort. Can't control it much longer."
Arthur noticed the change—Roy's eyes were losing focus, bestial rage replacing conscious thought.
"What happens when you lose control?" Arthur asked, genuinely curious.
Roy's laughter turned maniacal. "Everything dies. Everything burns." His skin began to crack, revealing molten veins beneath.
Arthur's eyes narrowed as a thought occurred to him.
'I want to see the full potential of this mysterious pill,' he decided, calculating his next move.
"Roy," Arthur said calmly, his voice deliberately cruel, "your mother will have a very slow, excruciating death."
The effect was immediate. Roy's monstrous eyes dilated, pupils shrinking to pinpricks as unbridled rage consumed whatever humanity remained. The veins across his crimson skin pulsed with molten energy, and his muscles swelled further, tearing what remained of his clothing.
"I'LL KILL YOU!" Roy roared, voice no longer recognizable as human.
He lunged forward with shocking speed, fist cratering the ground where Arthur stood a split-second earlier.
Arthur teleported ten feet away, observing with detachment. "Interesting. His Emotions trigger enhance the transformation."
Roy whirled, nostrils flaring as he tracked Arthur's scent. He charged again, this time moving in a zigzag pattern that tore furrows in the forest floor.
Arthur sidestepped the first blow, feeling the heat radiating from Roy's body as the fist passed inches from his face. The second punch came faster, almost connecting before Arthur created a small spatial distortion that sent the blow veering off course.
"Your speed and strength have increased approximately 200%," Arthur noted casually, as if taking research notes. "But your technique is sloppy, and you are not using your talent."
Roy bellowed in frustration, grabbing a massive boulder and hurling it like a baseball. Arthur flicked his wrist, splitting the space around it so the boulder disappeared and reappeared behind Roy, smashing into his back.
The impact would have killed a normal man instantly. Roy barely stumbled.
"Pain tolerance too," Arthur observed. "Impressive."
For thirty more seconds, they continued this deadly dance—Roy attacking with increasingly desperate fury, Arthur dodging with precision, testing the limits of the transformation.
Roy's attacks grew wilder, more reckless. He tore trees from the ground, shattered rocks with his bare hands, even bit chunks from his own arms in mindless rage.
Then, at precisely the one-minute mark, the change reversed itself. The crimson glow dimmed. Roy's muscles began to contract, his body shrinking back toward normal proportions.
"No," Roy gasped, voice returning to human. "Not yet—"
His legs buckled, and he collapsed to the forest floor. The last flickers of demonic energy faded from his eyes as they glazed over in death.
Arthur approached the corpse, nudging it with his foot to confirm.
[You have killed level 18 Roy.]
'The pill lasts for exactly one minute,' Arthur thought, studying the aftermath of their brief battle. 'Significant power boost, but the price is too heavy to pay.'
He crouched beside Roy's corpse, noticing a bulge in the bartender's pocket. Reaching in, he extracted a small leather pouch containing two more pills identical to the one Roy had taken—crimson capsules that seemed to pulse with an inner light.
'Demonic essence in pill form. Accessible to a mere bartender?' Arthur pocketed the pills, mind racing with implications. 'The demons' presence has somehow infiltrated Caldera? How deep does this go?'
He stood, surveying the devastation around him. Their sixty-second fight had transformed a half-acre of dense forest into a wasteland of splintered trees, cratered earth, and scorched vegetation. The raw power of that pill was undeniable—and terrifying.
The countdown in his mind continued its steady march.
The merge was approaching faster than anyone realized, and now he had confirmation that demons were actively recruiting humans, distributing power that came with a fatal cost.
"This changes things," Arthur muttered to himself.
There was only one way to get the information he needed. Arthur's hands hovered over Roy's mangled body, dark energy gathering between his fingers.
A swirling portal opened beneath Roy's corpse, consuming it completely. For several seconds, nothing happened—then the darkness pulsed and contracted.
Roy emerged from the void, his body restored to it's original state.
He knelt before Arthur without being commanded, head bowed in perfect submission.
[You have summoned the human 'Roy'. Would you like to rename him?]
"No," Arthur dismissed the prompt with a flick of his wrist. "Roy, look at me."
The bartender raised his head, meeting Arthur's gaze with his eyes that now held respect and reverence.
"Yes, Master." His voice was a dry whisper, neither fully alive nor completely dead.
"Who supplied you with the demonic pills?" Arthur demanded.