The enemy soldiers and adventurers had either fled or died. Even the guards were gone. All that was left were the common people, and the metric tons of work New Grandera still needed to do to finish their conquest.

  I watched it all take place from atop the ramparts, and then turned around. A much more peaceful view greeted me… save for the piles upon piles of corpses being collected into pits. But beyond that was the blue forest of the Bottomless Oceanlake. The place where I spent the first years of being a demon, an imp! It was a wonderzone of wonderful memories.

  “I missed this place,” Moonwash said. She held my hand as we stared at the same scenery and relived the same memories.

  “Yeah. Me too.” I smiled and bumped my shoulder with hers.

  We sat down and just stayed here for a good while, as the people below us continued to toil. We talked, slowly and without rush, about the many fights we encountered here, the different kinds of materials we found, and how the place had helped us to advance in our own ways.

  Our reminiscing turned to all that time we spent, just in each other’s company. It was in the vicinity that Moonwash first confessed her love for me. This was where we had some of our very first dates. We’d learned to rely on each other and understand each other, in the isolation of this forest and beyond.

  I eventually stood and helped her up.

  “We should get a room.”

  ~~~

  “It’s good to get out of that city. I’m sure it’ll get better in time,” Baston said as we left the bloodstained battlefield behind and entered the uncomplicated world of the Bottomless Oceanlake.

  A hanging snake immediately pounced on me from a low branch, but I caught the creature, pierced a dagger through its skull, and handed the bloody remains to the beautiful Moonwash as a beautiful gift.

  Luine followed after us, taking one last glance at the waking city, before finally walking alongside me. “I was going to catch some enemy operatives still hiding, you know? But, I suppose this place is a unique experience we four share.”

  “Five! Six!” Elfrafim complained, as she suddenly appeared from the brush, as did the now Level 40 Astan. “Don’t forget us!”

  “Ah, yes. Meeting you near here was so lovely.”

  “Thanks!”

  “I meant it was terrible! Did you forget what happened? We fought!”

  “Ah, yeah. I won.” Elfrafim laughed, which only caused Luine to frown harder. She rounded on me for some reason, as I chuckled.

  “You got hurt too!”

  A faraway memory flashed. Of Elfrafim grabbing my horns. My smile almost disappeared, but it remained.

  “It’s in the past. Memorable first impressions are important. And we agreed to forget it.”

  “Well, which is it???”

  “Which is what? I don’t know what you’re talking about!” I laughed and skipped deeper into the wonderzone. I played with the creatures who were dangerous adversaries to me. Moonwash recognized a few things she never noticed before. Perhaps they were new creatures, wonderzones did spawn those sometimes. Of course, the very center of this wonderzone, the massive bottomless watery pit, had a multitude more new things to offer. Things often came up from below to disturb the environment. This changing ecosystem had never been as apparent as now, after decades without visiting the place.

  The coral reefs of before had certainly died. The way they were arranged was completely different from before, when I compared it with the images in my memory core. Some might even be entirely new species. Moonwash made hunting spears here and now to try and grab some of them. The seafood I fished were tasty and delicious. My girlfriend saved some to try and identify later.

  We talked for hours, about how much had changed, and how much had not. It turned out that most of us had brought drinks, so we drank along the coast, forever aware of the endless chasm right beside us. Some Level 80 octopus creature suddenly came up from the water, but I only managed to get several good chunks of its massive limbs before it swam away.

  I did not dare follow it into those magnificent depths.

  ~~~

  We eventually walked our way back. A sudden drizzle came, which was nothing special for a place like this. Sure enough, a glance up and I saw a flock of cloudbirds flying above us. One landed nearby, and I casually killed it with one swipe. Those birds in the sky swiftly descended and screeched as one. Their call was returned by a resounding roar.

  “ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!”

  I smiled as the nimboar came running. I once knew it as a marrong, before Moonwash actually managed to identify the creature. It was a massive gold-ranked animal that looked like a mix between a hippo and an elephant. It swung its tusks, and the water all around our environment formed into dense projectiles. The tusks were swung again, and now they shot for me with the force to pulverize trees!

  I smiled. I remembered when this attack was so dangerous. It would’ve been enough to endanger my life. Luine and Baston were there, and they had to face the beast while I and Moonwash so pathetically fled.

  But not today. I stood strong as fist-sized blobs of water impacted against me with the force of a thousand punches. My armor right now was only one of my extras, so it was decimated in time. The water projectiles then broke my skin and damaged the flesh inside. Blood was drawn, but all cuts swiftly closed. Blood magic flowed, and made my body tougher against the barrage. I stayed there and took it, until the nimboar grew impatient and charged.

  “Wrong move. I would’ve let you tire yourself out.”

  I shot my hands forward, and pushed. My palms met the nimboar’s face, and I slid back, but so did my adversary’s momentum slow. I began losing more ground, which only made sense as my opponent was so much larger, and I was more proficient in single explosive bursts of force.

  But I was still a demon capable of driving away a hero-rank queen.

  I flooded my muscles with more magic, and the nimboar widened its eyes in confusion as I began to match its momentum. My blood melted inside, and it was outright pushed back!

  The monster whimpered and ran away. But that was only a pleasant dream, for there was no way I would let my prey escape.

  I ran up to it, and easily caught up. I finally drew Devilcalibur as we stared at each other, still running side by side.

  I swung my weapon so fast, that my enemy never had the chance to react.

  Its head was outright bisected, and I stood there, staring at its rotting remains. A smile crept at the edges of my lips, and soon reached my ears. It felt outright cathartic to have slain the monster of my childhood with my own power. Mine alone.

  ~~~

  Through flesh and bone, trees blue and wet, I waded through them all in a trail of destruction. Entire flocks of cloudbirds fell from the sky by my gaze. I plunged my hands into a living nimboar, and shattered its spine from the inside. I exploded with hellfire, seeing just how far I could come to burning the wonderzone of water down.

  It was a celebration of violence. An embrace of madness! The true Resentment unleashed unto the world!

  It was… over.

  I took a deep, calming breath and sat down by my lonesome.

  A beating gland deep in my torso rumbled in annoyance, but I held firm.

  I’d upheld my end of the bargain.

  I had engaged in mindless slaughter to appease my Resentment. I never would’ve engaged in such acts of barbarism otherwise! How barbaric!

  “So, you satisfied?” I asked to lighten the mood.

  Clearly not. The me who was not me responded disdainfully.

  “Ah. Well, I guess you don’t want me to keep inviting you to these slaughter fests, then. A shame.”

  NO! Absolutely not! Wake me!

  I chuckled. “I know. I’m just messing with you.”

  Resentment raged, but my body held firm and unmoving. It made a different plea instead, without even pausing. The heart of the Bottomless Oceanlake. The very place that gave the wonderzone its name. I want to paint it red. Imagine it.

  No.

  That was stupid. I was strong. I was confident. I was not suicidal. Monsters reaching at least Level 160 lived there. They were at home in the water, where I was not. There was no telling how deep it actually went. I would not dive there until I’d managed to kill a dragon.

  I went to one of the place’s many other lakes instead, and spilled the blood of the many creatures within to dye the waters red, as a compromise.

  It was enough, and Resentment went back to sleep.

  ~~~

  “YOU!”

  “AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!”

  “MAKE ME DEMON NOW!”

  “URRRRRRAAAAAAHHHHHH!”

  “GURRRRRRRRRR!!!!”

  “IYYAAAAAAAAAAA!!!”

  “KILL YOURSELF!!!”

  “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!”

  “AAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGG!!!”

  Larah and Ragnar were put under the cursed devices. They raved and screamed profanities at me. But mostly they screamed incoherently.

  The curse was too much, and they were foaming at the mouth. Their bindings dug into their arms and drew blood. Their bloodshot eyes darted around, seeing nothing, but also seeing everything for the worst it could be.

  It was the full imp experience… except it wasn’t. This was pure untamed curse mana, the distilled form of all that was bad and evil. Menace mana was tame in comparison. Manageable. I just… didn’t have any lying around.

  “Switch it off.”

  Pandemonium complied and switched off the device. It gradually removed the bindings as my disciples calmed. They shivered, then looked at each other, a harrowed look in their teary eyes. I felt sympathy for their trauma, but this was exactly what I warned them about.

  I helped them both up, and Ragnar shakily asked, “Is… is that what it’s like for you?”

  “For me, yes,” I admitted. “An imp would only have menace mana though, not curse mana.”

  I explained the difference.

  “I think it’s good though,” I finished. “So that we can be absolutely sure. If you can take this, then you can take

  “Wait, that’s not fair!” Larah complained. “What if we just need to ease into it?”

  “Fair point,” I shrugged, summoning a visible mist of curse magic atop my palm. “I could try to simulate the mental effects of having menace mana inside you. It would be hard to control the dosage, though. I really have no clue how the amount of menace mana inside of an imp translates into how much magic I should use on a fountan and an ogre respectively. It would also inevitably feel a little different, because this is a straight-up invasion of your mind, whereas having the mana inside you do it feels more like it’s coming from within, and that’s a different struggle… Oh wait! I could just have Moonwash build something that gives the curse a menace identity–But no! I might as well just do it myself, then. The point of an enchantment is to only give it directionality so the mana is still mostly in its natural state when it reaches your head…” I mumbled some more until I dismissed the curse I’d been playing with in my hands, and instead summoned some blood in its place. “Enough of that! Let’s get you all healed up!

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  Having active mana inside one’s own body for a prolonged period of time could cause physical deformities, as the goblins had shown. It was one of the many reasons why it was such a bad idea. It was my demon flesh that spared me from most of those effects, although my potent healing played a role too, certainly.

  ~~~

  “Happy Birthday!” I and Moonwash shouted in unison as we handed a beautifully wrapped, if mildly writhing package, to Luine. She had just turned 98!

  “Thank you, girls!” she smiled happily. “I already have a bad feeling about this!”

  “I thought I did great on the wrapping,” Moonwash commented.

  “Oh, you absolutely did! It’s just… did you get me a pet? I don’t know if I have the time for that now…”

  “No, no. You’ll love it, I’m sure,” I claimed. “Open it up!”

  “Okay! AaaaahhH!?”

  She did open the package, and was startled when a severed green hand plopped out.

  “W…what?”

  “It’s a hand we made to replace the one that you lost.”

  “Oooooh. I see.” She picked it up off the floor and stared suspiciously.

  “Come on. It won’t bite.” My smile fell when the toothless mouth opened on its wrist. “Uh… it’s supposed to do that?”

  “Right.” Luine turned it over and began examining the enchantments.

  Moonwash stepped forward to explain everything.

  “The mouth is for feeding. It’s still a living thing. It needs sustenance. That ring I enchanted around the base is meant to lock in place at the stump of your arm, and then create a connection. I got the idea from Eden, back when she fought with Haell. It’s just a theory that we have, but we think she’s so strong because she enhances her nerves with magic.” And possibly her brain too. Not sure on that one, because she’s still so stupid! “It was enough to give me a better direction on the prototype. Trying to have it grow nerves was too complicated and a dead end for now. But the mind magic here can instead perform the same function of sending your nerve signals to the hand, and for it to send sensory sensations back to you.”

  Incidentally, we were pretty sure this thing had no Level nor Status. We weren’t sure if it had a soul.

  “Alright. I think I understood most of that,” Luine smiled. “Thank you, Moonwash. And Haell. I’m glad you went with this design, because I don’t think I would’ve wanted what I’m pretty sure is goblin flesh permanently attached to my arm.”

  “It does make use of a goblin seed, but it’s very controlled, and there aren’t much traces of curse mana in there.”

  “Much?”

  “There’s still some. It’s needed in the process. I’m sure the equivalent is present as passive mana in the very makeup of the material.”

  “Okay…”

  “Here, try it on.”

  Luine removed her hook, and Moonwash attached the living prosthetic to it. The enchanted ring locked, and then tendrils of mind magic came out of it to bridge the two separate bodies.

  Luine raised her new green hand up, and it twitched. She furrowed her brow, and it jerked violently. Our friend strained, until finally it closed into a fist!

  “Whew. That’s going to take some getting used to. But I do love it! Thank you so much! How do you take this thing off again?”

  “Like this,” Moonwash demonstrated, and the device came off. “It worked better in our test with Pandemonium, or Haell’s stump of an arm. I can create you a new one if you’d like. This time, I’ll customize it for your use completely.

  “Hmmm… I’ll see about doing that.” Luine poked the disembodied hand. “Why didn’t you ask me to come here for this to begin with?”

  “I was going to, but Haell said I shouldn’t.”

  Luine shot me a suspicious brow.

  I shrugged. “It’s never been done before. I didn’t know if it was even possible, and I didn’t want to get your hopes up for nothing, you know?”

  “Unusually thoughtful.”

  “Hey!”

  She chuckled. “It’s an understandable call though, really. I might have made the same one. Which is what makes it worrying. Maybe I need to reevaluate some things…”

  “Hey!!”

  Luine ignored my protestations and wrapped her new hand in cloth before placing it in her pack. “I’ll see if I can tame this one in the meantime. I don’t want to bother you or me for a custom one if I just need to get the hang of it.”

  “Eh? Why not get the best one you can? It’s your hand.”

  Luine locked her hook prosthetic over her hand again. “It’s fine. I won’t be using it all the time anyway.”

  “Wait, really? Why not?”

  Luine glanced at Moonwash, but then shrugged. “I don’t know how much I can trust a different living creature that I can’t even communicate with ever to be my hand, you know? It’s fine once in a while, and I really truly do appreciate it, but I’ve gotten very used to this, and I have an extensive selection of prosthetics for all kinds of different situations.” Luine drummed on her hook. “It’s fine, and it’s even neat sometimes. Of course, it would also be neat to have the option to have feeling hands again whenever I want to! It’s great. It’s really truly a wonderful invention. As Haell said, it’s never been done before. You could help so many people with these.”

  “I can try.” Moonwash hugged her. She knew that’s what her mother would’ve wanted her to use her power for.

  “We could try and get some actual life mana for a full limb replacement?” I suggested.

  Luine stared at me. “Haell. I don’t think you’re getting it. I said I’ve already got a system that works for me. And now, I even have the option to get the feeling of hands back, thanks to you two!”

  “It’s mostly Moonwash,” I admitted.

  “I’m sure you helped too,” she chucked. “But really, I’m fine. I’m good. I’m old. I don’t need to get used to having both hands again. Use that life mana for yourselves.”

  I frowned. “Okay. It’d… really be nice if you reached Level 80 and didn’t die so soon, though.” It sucked that even that wasn’t yet enough for eternal life. If only everyone could be like the elves.

  Luine glared. “Do you think I haven’t tried? Because I have. Everyone does. But it isn’t easy. Not just anyone can be like you. And it feels… incredibly condescending when you say that. You’ve already overtaken me in levels, and far surpassed every one of us in power.”

  “What!? No! I wasn’t trying to– I just wanted you to live, and now I’m the bad guy–” My head throbbed, but I managed to stop my outburst in time and swallow my pride. “No. No, you’re right. I really do just… want you guys to live.” Mom and Dad and Grandpa never got upset whenever I told them to hurry up and level… “I didn’t think of it that way. Sorry.”

  Luine sighed, and pulled me into a hug too. I remembered when I was smaller than her, but now there was no way her arms could not even wrap all the way around me. “It’s okay. You’ve always been an insensitive brat.”

  “HEY!!!”

  ~~~

  [Curse Heart has reached Level 60!]

  46 years old, and finally crossing through Level 60. I was happy with how my leveling had sped up more as I put more effort into it. I was halfway to the next evolution already.

  “Hey,” Arx greeted me as I continued to look across the massive unending mountain range all around me.

  “Hey,” I greeted back as he took a seat next to me by the peak. “What’s up?”

  “Nothing much, it’s just…”

  He hesitated. The silence stretched, and I raised a very obvious brow, which I then set on fire, but he still remained tight-lipped. Not that inhexes actually had lips.

  “Well…….?” I pressed. “If you don’t want to talk about it, then you don’t have to…” Even though I’m super curious now!

  “You’re super curious now, aren’t you?”

  “You overestimate yourself.” I huffed.

  Arx chuckled, a fading noise replaced by another foreboding silence.

  “You claim to have once been a human, but somehow evolved into a demon, right?”

  I narrowed my eyes. “It’s the truth, yes.” And then I smiled. “Although you could say I’ve always been a demon in spirit.”

  “Wait, really? Did you have some soul thing?”

  “Errr… Not exactly. I meant, this felt right for me from the start. I felt that way even in my past life. But hey, who knows if that’s what my soul is about! It’s a mystery.”

  Souls were still an enigma to me, even when I’d once managed to feel the echoes of its power.

  “Ah.” Arx shifted. He changed the subject when he spoke next. “I don’t think it’d be possible to rescue Iz. They’ll just kill her at the first sign of trouble. Her prison has been continuously fortified for centuries.”

  “Probably all true,” I did not mince words. The inhex queen was probably already dead. Not in the literal sense! And I didn’t wish to think of fate or whatever bullshit. But the security around her had been refined for years. That might also mean it had decayed and fallen apart by that time, but I was still plenty sure that any attempt to rescue her that got even close to succeeding would just result in her death. That was the whole attitude of the empire. The inhex were useful tools, and one they’d rather not fall into the hands of the enemy. Of the inhex themselves.

  Having one point of failure was really… inconvenient.

  “It won’t stop me from trying,” Arx asserted.

  “And you have my support when you do,” I responded, with the same reassurance I’d given a thousand times.

  I empathized with the inhex plight. It would be a massive blow to Angelore, and that alone was enough reason for me. They deserved to suffer and have all their well-laid plans ruined. There would be nothing but ruins once I was done with them.

  “If… if the plan fails…” Arx began, and I leaned forward at the long pause. I knew he had another plan. I could not fathom what it was. How could he possibly even try to break through this situation? He’d kept me in suspense for too long!

  Years! YEARS!

  “I want to evolve into an inhex king and take Queen Iz’s place!!” he finally shouted!

  “HELL YEAH!” I pumped my fist high. “What do you mean, exactly?”

  “Well… she’s the only one who can make more eggs. So if I can become an inhex king, then I can fill that role even if she dies. Our species can survive!”

  “Oooooooooooooh!!! Wait, but you’ll be the inhex king. Can an inhex king lay eggs?”

  “I… hope so? I don’t actually know that I’ll become an inhex king. I’m not even entirely sure that Queen Iz’s species is actually different than just being ‘inhex.’ Maybe she just has an extra organ and/or Mutation. But a different species is my best guess. She looks similar but still different from any other inhex, by the few accounts I’ve heard. I know there are creatures that can evolve into higher forms of their species in the wild. The angels can do it too and become those abominable archangels. So… why not us? Why not me?”

  “I first evolved from a human to an imp, then an imp to a demon. And then I evolved one more time.”

  “OH SHIT! See!? You can do it too!!”

  I smiled. “Yes, I can. Your plan looks sound to me. But… are you really fine with laying eggs? And doing that for an entire species?” I shuddered just from imagining it. This was not the kind of hell I wanted!

  “Of course,” and yet Arx answered with conviction.

  “Huh,” was all I could say. “I just thought you’d hate that kind of thing. Which… I admittedly assumed because you’re a guy. But hell, I would hate it. But hey, if you’re fine with it, or if you like it, then that’s perfectly fine too!”

  Arx stared at me for a long moment, then snorted. “Ah, that’s what you meant. I forget, you guys think of gender differently. But you do know that we do not have your genitals, right? Or at all. We have no inherent sex. So I guess–”

  “YOU HAVE NO GENITALS!?” I suddenly shouted.

  He stared at me, and I blinked.

  “You didn’t know?”

  “How would I know! Do I look like some kind of pervert searching for bits!”

  “Yes.”

  “Alright! Those are fighting words! It is time we settle this once and for all!!!”

  “No.”

  I stood and took a ridiculous stance. Arx played along, and we circled around each other.

  I glowered at him and spat, “Ert the Inhex had sex with a lot of fae! It doesn’t make any sense!”

  “That’s a book, dumbass! Fae aren’t real! They made it up!”

  “But… but why would they lie?” I lamented.

  He patted my back with his front claws. I was almost bowled over, but I stood strong.

  “So you were looking at inhex bits!”

  “I DIDN’T KNOW IT WAS GONNA GO THERE! An inhex in a romance!? Never seen that before! And I haven’t heard mention of fae in a long time! It was interesting, okay!?”

  Arx covered himself with all his limbs.

  “YOU HAVE NOTHING TO COVER! YOU JUST ADMITTED YOU HAVE NOTHING TO COVER!!!”

  I shrieked and chased after him. We ran across several mountains and bowled over many trees, before we finally decided to stop.

  “Anyway,” Arx said. “I’m perfectly fine with it. And even if I wasn't, I’ll lay a million eggs if that’s what it takes to save my people.”

  The laughter died out of my throat.

  “I understand.” I knew I would not be willing to do the same. “Let me help you, then. Let us. I mean, I would still have to ask Moonwash… but you know her too. I doubt she’d pass on a project as big as this.”

  Arx smiled with his mandibles. “Thank you.”

  I nodded. “It’s just… I know why you’re doing it, and I’m not going to argue that you shouldn’t. But I do feel like I still have to tell you that this is going to kill you. Probably. Most likely. A change in species is fucking dangerous. Argh! Why does everyone I know want to do the same thing!?” I glared at him, but smirked. “Why is this kettle so black?”

  “I’m prepared. To change my species to the same as our Queen Iz, I mean. I don’t want to become a kettle.”

  I laughed and fell on my back.

  “Yes. Yesss. Arx, the Mighty Egg-Laying Kettle.”

  A slice of life after slicing life! It’s peaceful. For a definition of peaceful. Maybe.

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