The moment the athame released its power, the statues trembled as though meeting something truly unexpected. Cate did not stop as she continued with her slash. The size of the leg did not matter as the athame simply cut through everything. Even though the leg was cut, the statue did not fall since the remaining part of the leg was still large enough to be a base for it to stand on.
Cate had thought that something like this could happen since the athame was too sharp. She moved her athame hundreds of times in one minute, and when she was done, the leg exploded into pieces of rock that flew in all directions. The statue tumbled down, and this gave Cate more opportunities to cut down the thing. She did not waste these opportunities. When she finally stopped, the statue was completely gone, with only the rocks left on the ground.
Cate stood in place for a second and looked over the remains of the statue. She saw the flow of magic through the rocks and followed it to a central position in the remains. This was the core that had given life to the statue. It was a green marble the size of a human head. Cate moved faster than the wind and stabbed her athame into the core before the statue could reassemble itself. She understood that if this core was not destroyed, the statue would never die in the true sense of the word.
Boom! The core exploded the moment it was stabbed. Cate was sent flying through the air like a punctured balloon. The force from the explosion swept over the land. No one was spared from this devastation. Fortunately, Mary, Albrecht, and Jordan were far away from the epicenter.
Cate woke up a few minutes later and found that Mary had led the others to victory over their statue. Mary was kneeling next to her, her eyes glistening with tears. The Mage Born lay next to Cate with his eyes closed. Jordan and Albrecht stood some distance away, looking at everything with indifference. Cate could have sworn that these two hoped that she would not wake up. Mary hugged Cate the moment she woke up and began sobbing.
The Mage Born needed a few more hours before he could wake up, and this was after Mary used healing potions on him and Cate cast healing spells on him. The Mage Born was tough, but he was still human. The abnormal one in this place was Cate. She had been blown up with her left hand completely removed, and yet she was now perfectly fine. Her hand had grown back before she even woke up, let alone everything else. No healing potion or spell was needed for this. This was all because of the transformations she was going through after she used the Original Sin spell.
For the first time since she used the spell, Cate finally felt hunger. She had been vomiting up all the food she ate since the transformation began, but she had never felt hungry in all this time. Right now, she felt like she could eat an entire cow on her own. The hunger was so intense that Cate began having dizzy spells. The way she saw the world was being warped by this hunger, and even her thoughts were no longer about anything other than food. Since this was the case, she suggested that they camp outside the pyramid for the night and rest before entering this clearly dangerous place. Since she was the team leader, no one objected.
Mary had brought supplies for the entire team, and she dealt with the cooking. The food smelled very nice, and everyone looked at it with anticipation, but the hungriest person present did not. Cate felt like throwing up when she smelled the food. It was some kind of meat, but it held no interest for her stomach.
Cate had hidden her hunger very well, just as she had not answered any questions about how she had healed herself faster than even the vampires, who were eternal. The food was soon ready, and everyone ate. Cate forced herself to eat just enough not to look suspicious. When the time for sleep came, Cate offered to be the first lookout. No one found this suspicious. A few hours into the night, Cate threw up all the food she had eaten. She cleaned herself and began looking around for something to sate her hunger. Her breathing became ragged, and the world became blurry. She began pacing around the camp. This went on for a few minutes before she could no longer take it.
"I must eat," she said to herself before she cast a spell over the camp. This was a sleep spell, a powerful one that would make sure that everyone remained asleep no matter what.
After her transformation began, Cate did not take long to realize that she was changing into something inhuman. She also came to understand that normal food was no longer an option for her. She did not want to accept one of the major changes in her life, and that was the fact that she craved to feast on human flesh. These urges had been there for days now, but they were manageable, and she hoped that they would stay that way. After she was injured and forced to heal herself, her system was strained, and she now felt hunger. It was as if her body needed human flesh to function at such a high level as she was.
Cate moved into the tent set up by the vampire, Albrecht. Since she had to feed, Cate chose the person she liked the least. There were two of them, but Jordan was a little likable. Albrecht had not gone to sleep until Cate cast her sleeping spell. This was to be expected since he was a vampire. He did not need to sleep at all. Albrecht was now slumped over the chair where he had been reading a book about sorcerers. "Know your enemies," Cate thought.
She could no longer hold herself back at this moment. She jumped onto the vampire and bit into his arm. She tore off a large chunk of flesh as blood spewed everywhere. She chewed a few times, and she felt as though she was in heaven. The taste was so good that Cate wondered how she had gone so long without having a taste of this delicacy. She swallowed and took another bite at the same time. The tent was soon filled with sounds of chewing and swallowing.