Chương 82: [2.08] What the Puck?! (Part 2/3)

[In the meantime, you can change your appearance as you always have] That was true, Angelica always had Transfiguration. But at the same time, that sort of felt like a cop-out. Now that her initial shock and panic had subsided, and her request to revert had been rejected—probably rightfully so—she began to accept her situation. A normal Demon wouldn't be so bug-prejudiced like her, and if she refused to ever appear in her Puck form, that would only raise suspicion. The DGS was right, too. It wasn't for good.

She just had to Evolve again. And this time she'd be ready, with a rehearsed speech that professed her desires, even if that "tainted it" or whatever according to the voices. It was her life, so she should advocate for her own future. Knowing the systems of Hell so far, it probably wouldn't give her exactly what she wanted, and likely kept the window to speak short on purpose so they could limit the requests. But "not a bug" felt like an easy ask going forward.

Until then, she just had to suck it up and get used to her bug life, then work hard to move onto the next form if she remained discontent. And honestly… it wasn't all bad. She'd been pretty content and genuinely excited thus far, until the insectoid intrusion. Taking another look, her mask was actually pretty cool. Sleek and shiny. With its purple coloring and big, buggy, but slick eyes, it sort of made it look like a mask that an action hero would wear in the old cartoons she used to watch.

The eyes were basically like black visors, but there was a pink glow of her previous irises illuminating it from within. What really drew attention, though, and what screamed "bug," was the thing at the center of her face. She didn't have a proper nose or lips. In their place was sort of like a thin, conical beak a few inches long. Oh, wait, she knew the word for it: proboscis. That's what she had. It's what caused the gut reaction, because it instantly reminded her of a mosquito.

Not nearly as long or dangly, but any comparison to those bastards sucked greatly. Fitting, though, since they were practically the kings of Pestilence in her world. Out of curiosity, Gelic reached up and pressed against the proboscis. It bent way more than she was expecting, and when she released, it boinged back and forth like a spring doorstopper until it came to a rest, but sadly without the accompanying silly noise. So she tried moving it, and found the long point surprisingly wiggleable.

Looking in the rift mirror, she could actually be pretty emotive with it, which was nice, since the rest of her masked face was rigid. There were a few divots at the end. Nostrils, maybe? Since she was breathing, after all. It also looked like the illumination of her eyes could be slightly shifted and its brightness altered, adding to her ability to express herself. But there was another very buggy part of her new head: the horns. Gone were her big, cone-shaped, boney horns.

They had been replaced with two short ones at the top of her head. Both were very thin and bent outward at a sharp angle towards the tip, so she could only liken them to antennae. Maybe they'd help her sense Skills, but she got the feeling they were pretty much just decorative. There was something that wasn't very insect-like about her new appearance, however. Besides just the general humanoid shape, she also had very human hair.

It was flowing out of the back of her mask, down to a bit past where it felt like her shoulders should be, very similar to her real hair. In fact, the color was so spot on with her usual blonde, minus the pink paint-splotched tips toward the bottom, that she worried for a moment that it would be far too easy to peg when compared to her human form. But fortunately, the style was completely different.

Her usual hairdo had a lot more volume and bounce, whereas the Puck's hair was a lot straighter and more wiry, sort of how hers would look fresh out of the shower, minus the color distortion, so it was unlikely anyone would make the leap of logic and connect them. When Gelic turned her body to get a better look at her hair, she instead found something that had been hidden this whole time: wings. Well, she'd had wings before as an Imp, but those were basically just pointy cartilage that fruitlessly flapped.

These, however, were wings. There were four in total, broken into a top pair that started up by her shoulders, and a bottom pair that was rooted to her lower back. At rest, they laid flat and overlapped each other, making it look like she was wearing a long strip-like cape, similar to a scarf, just minus the bit that wrapped around her neck, and more curved. She focused on the wings and made them expand, stretching them out as far as they'd go to her sides. And wow, they were genuinely gorgeous.

The first thing that came to mind were those of a dragonfly, long and colorful while slightly opaque, making the expected orangish pink color feel mystical. Her second thought, though, was that they felt like the wings of a fairy. Yes, that was how she could delude herself. Gelic had not become a mere insect. No, she was instead a fairy in bug armor, obtained after many hard-won skirmishes against the critters during the war of the flower forest! Okay, her imagination may have gotten a bit away from her there.

But damn, if only she were a bit smaller, or Cherub were a bit bigger, then she could ride him into battle like a majestic mount. Angelica gave her wings a good flap, just to see how they felt. It was a pretty strong beat, making her feel a gust of air around her. So she let it continue, flapping them endlessly until she felt her feet rise off the ground. Holy frits, she was actually flying! Well… if it could really be called that.

More like she was hovering a few feet off the ground, and it was taking a good bit of effort to sustain the height. When she leant to one side, though, she zoomed in that direction, only partially against her will. So she went ahead and touched down, knowing it would need a lot more practice to be used effectively. At the very least, she didn't feel as woozy and terrible as when she tried to fly as a bird. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

[You have just engaged one of your new Skills. Does this mean you are ready to move forward?] Wow, hold on. Impatient, much? There was still a bit more with her wings she wanted to test. Specifically, the more she used them, the more they felt like proper appendages rather than accessories with only one trick. She focused specifically on the top left one.

It took a little bit of strain, like trying to reactivate an atrophied muscle, but she eventually got it to move differently, the wing folding like flexible paper. With a bit more exertion, Gelic got the translucent appendage to bend down over her shoulder, then flapped it back and forth, almost like she was waving it. Dang, this thing can actually move really smoothly.

She wanted to see how much, so she had the wing fully wrap around her extended arm like a ribbon, then repeated the action with the remaining three wings and limbs. Then when everything was covered, she pulled them taught, essentially hogtieing herself, making her torso flop to the ground. Pretty damn strong, too! After getting back up, she had the wings wrap around herself like a swaddle, honestly making her feel really cozy. Yeah, they were pretty nice, indeed.

And since they were so versatile, they could essentially serve as replacement hands, making up for the lack of mobility from her new claws. That could work very well indeed. Also… Angelica had always kind of wanted to go to a convention in cosplay, but had never worked up the nerve. Could she recreate the wings in her human form for the best and most realistic fairy cosplay the world had ever seen?! Something to test another time. Okay… she had to admit that overall, she was coming around to her new form.

If she was forced to be a bug, this was definitely about as good of a bug as she could be. But there was still one aspect she sorely missed, something that she hadn't realized she resonated with so much about being an Imp until after it was gone. I wish I was still a ball… [You can still turn into a ball. Your previous form was taken into account] Wait, really?! She had to try it. And now that it had been said, the intuitive knowledge of how to do so sort of hit her at once.

Gelic crouched down, hunching over as she tucked her arms and head down between her legs. The pieces of her carapace all sort of clicked together, lining up perfectly, though not quite latching, to make a smooth spherical form with her wings curved around like wrapping paper. Yes… she had become ball! Except… sigh… While she had assumed the appropriate shape, things just weren't the same. Where was the squishiness, the bounciness, the round, rotund, pudgy feeling?

The way it was designed, she could still kick off with her legs for oomph and then roll around decently, which she tried, but it just felt underwhelming, limp and rigid. She was physically a ball, but not a ball in spirit. Clearly, the DGS did not understand what made the form so amazing. Maybe it was something she could amend with the next Evolution. That had been a little bit of disappointment over what she'd begrudgingly call a decent success.

So now she was prepared to go through what all was new and improved, which would hopefully move things on the up again. Okay, DGS, I'm ready to hear all the messages.

[We will begin with the Worth and Attunement improvements gained purely from Evolution] [Might has improved from Blunt to Untempered] [Vigor has improved from Brittle to Pliable] [Lucidity has improved from Blurred to Clear] [Malice has improved from Uncommitted to Acquiesced] [Competence, Creativity notably increased] [Pestilence Attunement has been forcibly increased from Intertwined to Symbiotic] Oh, wow, those were a lot of upgrades at once.

There was no surprise that Competence and Creativity hadn't jumped a tier just from Evolving, since they were pretty high already. More interestingly, Beguilement and Obstinance were nowhere to be found. But that also wasn't entirely unexpected. For Beguilement, if anyone was actually attracted to her Puck form, she would judge them harshly for it, and be wary of their gaze. It was also mostly missing the "cute" aspect of the puffball.

Definitely not hideous or grotesque, especially on the scale of bugs, but it also wasn't a form someone would want to run up to and squeeze. Maybe her mask would look cute on a kid wearing it? But that was as far as she could stretch the justification. There was maybe a "coolness" aspect to the bug armor, but apparently not enough to move the beguiling needle. And for Obstinance, well, she'd basically just let the system walk all over her and do what it wanted for her Evolution, hadn't she?

No fight was put up, though she definitely would have if it was known to be an option. This was rather prevalent in the fact that she had been forced up a tier of Pestilence, which alone negated any Obstinance or voice in her future. That was also sort of par for the course with the Attunement. Angelica had never chosen the pestilent path, and likely never would have if given the option. It had been forced upon her. But besides the initial panic with Poison Chef, she never really regretted the Attunement.

She found it hard to believe that it was considered weaker than other Attunements. The healing she'd gotten from Poison Eater had already saved her a bunch, and Toxic Imbuement had sure scuffed that Malignant up real good. Maybe the majority of other Demons preferred more tangible, direct power. Stuff like Inferno, Glacial, and Destruction, rather than dedicating themselves to tricks and long-plays. Heck, Angelica would, of course, rather focus herself almost entirely on Fabrication, if survival wasn't an issue.

But power was definitely important, and she was likely in the minority. Though there were ones like Gawk who just seemed to love life and were happy to exist, so maybe it was a more social stigma of Hell that Might was more important than the other Worths. Regardless, Pestilence had basically picked her, so it was what she had to work with. That wouldn't mean she may not try to stray from it more for future Evolutions.

At the same time, maybe it was her budding Malice, but she was admittedly a bit excited to see what new venomous toys she had to play with. Alright, I'm ready to move on. I guess next up would be the Skills, right?