As the potion went down, Angel felt a chill spread from her throat to her stomach, then plunge deep into her soul.
It was nothing like the burning heat or the lick of external flames she had felt when advancing to the Demoness of Affliction. This pain felt as though her very soul were freezing.
She felt her long, pale-gold hair twist into finger-thick braids that fused into strange, smooth tendrils, each tipped with a single eye. They seemed to have lives of their own.
Through those extra eyes, Angel saw Klein approaching step by step behind her, his face grave and a trace of fear in his eyes. He had resumed Gehrman's appearance and wore clothes that did not quite fit. He held The Travels of Grosell, ready, it seemed, to raise it as a shield at any moment.
She saw the headless messenger Reinette Tinekerr floating in the sky. One of Reinette's blond heads had just shielded her from a blow. Now eight crimson eyes watched her, while four beautiful but pale faces remained expressionless.
She saw the Queen Anne's Revenge free itself from where it had run aground. Its bow turned translucent as it gradually swallowed the Red Haired Woman, whose deck was wrecked and whose masts had snapped. At the rail, black-haired, golden-eyed Anne stared toward her, right hand slightly raised as golden light welled in her palm.
They're all worried about me... Angel felt a little reassured. She began to examine herself from this unusual perspective and was surprised to find that, as in her previous advancements, patterns like strokes of oil paint had appeared across her skin. Her open eyes had turned black, covering both pupils and whites.
But unlike before, she sensed that this change was not a loss of control. It was