Chapter 254 — Devour

Excruciating pain assaulted Liora’s senses, pain that was both physical and mental at the same time.

Her body felt as if she had been thrown into a trembling volcano that was about to explode, and bathed in its blazing lava.

Similarly, her soul felt the pain of being torn apart, like countless tiny ants had drilled into her being and were biting on it, wanting to devour it whole.

Although Liora’s will had been strengthened many times before, she still found it quite difficult to recover.

Fortunately, she had already predicted that such a thing would occur based on the warnings from her bloodline memories.

Therefore, the power of Nothingness that she controlled to fall on her was very small, approximately the size of a speck of dust.

As her Myriad Devils Body was activated and operated on its own, this Nothingness began to dissolve.

Only half a second later, it had completely disappeared, though it was unknown if it had been absorbed or had just dispersed.

Liora did not immediately wake up. It took her a few minutes to react.

By the time she did, her forehead was drenched in sweat while the rest of her body was trembling violently, as if she was going through a seizure-like episode.

She remained speechless for a few moments, not knowing what she should say to break the silence.

That was until...

"Damn it! This World Devourer Method must be a trap!"

"Who could possibly practice this without going insane?", she couldn’t help but curse out loud, feeling that she had been tricked by her own race.

Liora had always prided herself on being firm in mind.

After several transformations and life and death experiences, she had long been able to withstand soul-tearing pain.

By now, she could ignore it entirely.

Yet even she, a freak of nature, had trouble practicing this technique. And this was because she had been cautious.

If she had overestimated herself or underestimated the danger involved and had used more of the power of Nothingness, then she would not be sitting here right now.

"Is there really a True Devil who can withstand such pain and practice this technique?"

"I don’t believe it.", Liora shook her head and answered her own rhetorical question.

Practicing the World Devourer Method required a relatively long exposure to the power of Nothingness, and the transformation would not happen instantly.

This was true for the first level, and was also true for the second and third levels.

In Liora’s opinion, if a True Devil were to practice this technique, they would go insane long before they ever reached the third level of the technique.

Becoming a Greater Devil was simply a dream, an illusion.

"Are all True Devil-level techniques this difficult to practice? Or is it related to the World Devourer bloodline?", Liora questioned.

She tended to believe that the latter was true.

But no matter what, the situation remained the same.

Practicing the World Devourer Method would plunge the user into a sea of unbearable pain, pain that would drive even the toughest of minds insane.

The logical conclusion would be for Liora to give up on practicing this technique and search for another one.

But when Liora checked herself and inspected her own state, she was unwilling to give up.

She could sense that her physical strength had improved, and the same held true for her demonic energy.

Most importantly, her control over Nothingness and the related abilities had been enhanced.

Although the improvement was very small, barely a tiny percentage in the bigger picture, it was still very impressive.

After all, Liora had only practiced for a couple of minutes.

Any amount of improvement was already significant, much less such a comprehensive one.

Knowing this, she gritted her teeth.

She decided to give it one more try, only planning to give up if she could no longer hold on.

Once she had made a decision, Liora would not mull over it.

Her mind connected with the Land of Nothingness with surprising decisiveness, and a few gray substances were led down, controlled to descend onto her skin.

The Nothingness that fell was barely a little more in quantity than last time.

Yet, Liora felt that the pain had increased many times over, as if the increase in pain scaled exponentially with the amount of Nothingness.

Still, she persevered.

Strengthening her will to the best of her ability, she withstood the impact and allowed the Nothingness to wash over her body.

However, this didn’t mean that she would remain silent while doing so.

"Who is the person who created this technique? If I ever find you, I will tear you and your whole family apart!"

Liora’s angry curses echoed in the room, and her words would have turned even the most foul-mouthed Devils red from embarrassment.

--

It was unknown how much time had passed.

Bathing in the power of Nothingness, Liora had neither the ability nor the will to keep track of time.

The continuous pain assaulted her senses, threatening to plunge her consciousness into darkness.

Fortunately, her firm mind played a significant role.

A tiny light would emerge from the depths of her soul every time she was about to break down, empowering her consciousness and keeping her awake.

After a certain point, Liora became numb, performing the actions mechanically, seemingly out of habit.

Until suddenly, her body shook.

A thin gray film formed around her skin and covered her completely for a split second before her body began turning illusory.

It seemed as if she existed in a higher dimension, having become completely immune to physical and targeted attacks.

A second later, though, she exited that state, and her body turned back to normal.

Of course, that was only its external appearance. As its owner, Liora knew better.

When her consciousness wandered in her physical body and soul and inspected them, she immediately noticed that they had both changed.

Tempered by the power of Nothingness that could drive everything to extinction, both of them had been enhanced, in scale as well as quality.

Moreover, Liora could keenly sense that her connection with the Land of Nothingness had grown even deeper, thus improving her control over its subordinate power.

The resistance she would face when manipulating the power of Nothingness had declined, indirectly raising the ceiling of her own combat power.

However, these were not the most important things.

"The first level of the World Devourer Method has been completed.", Liora whispered, and even she was slightly surprised by this rate of progress.

According to her estimation, reaching the first level of the World Devourer Method was bound to take a lot of time and effort.

Though she had not kept track of time, she knew very well that not much time had passed in reality.

Therefore, she was somewhat surprised.

"Is this the advantage of using the power of Nothingness to practice the World Devourer Method?"

"Suffering unbearable pain that would drive people insane in exchange for rapid progress...", she couldn’t help but think.

Soon, she shook her head and began conducting a deeper investigation into her body.

Immediately, she noticed another, more fundamental change.

Although it was less apparent than her overall improvement, it was still fairly noticeable when put under the microscope.

But to this, Liora was hardly surprised.

"Each technique has its own accompanying abilities."

"The World Devourer Method will grant the user a brand new ability every time they complete a level, for a total of three abilities.", Liora recalled, understanding that these changes were exactly the result of that.

"Devour...", she muttered the name of that ability as she digested the information in her mind.