[Wrath Heart has reached Level 25!]
[Demon Horns has reached Level 25!]
I was in paradise.
I laid down in a lush field of flowers, with my girlfriend’s armored thighs as my pillow. A soft light bathed my form, and with it a soothing feeling of rejuvenation. That battle had thoroughly exhausted me, and I wanted nothing more than to fall asleep in this rare and precious moment of peace.
But I couldn’t just do that. My secret had gotten out, and I needed to know the extent of the damage. I knew who the potential leaks were, people who I admittedly did not know well, and I had to take care of them to avoid any future problems.
I shot back up with a violent snarl on my face, my body creaking in pain from the sudden motion. From my mask, to my boots, to the new contacts that Moonwash had prepared just for this sort of occasion; I reapplied my disguise, including all the makeup that had come off.
“W-what was that?” one of the many crustecars that had come with us asked once I returned to their group with a healing light still trailing behind me. My limbs groaned in protest with every move.
“What do you mean?” I straightened my posture as I prepared to just sweep everything that happened under the rug. All my demonic features were hidden, and they could not prove anything.
Berry tensed, and she subtly slid closer to her people, as if to shield them from me. “Haell…”
“Berry…” I had to be honest, that stung a little. Did she really think I would just slaughter everyone here, kids and all? “It’s fine. I promise. Okay?”
“...Really?”
“Yes,” I answered, more forcefully than intended. “Yes.”
She stared at me for a long few moments, as if trying so hard to look into my soul, and decipher the meaning behind every minute twitch. Finally, she nodded in agreement and stepped aside.
“But those… that magic…” Lena said once face-to-face with me. “It felt much like that of the cursetaceans… but different. And that fire…”
“I’ve learned a lot from gramps,” I shrugged. “And I’ve also commandeered a lot… artifacts. But as you can see,” I gestured towards the rivers of blood spilling out of my armor, “I am far from ready yet, to make full use of them.”
“Oh.”
There was a beat of silence, and then Rob spoke up. “Thank you then, for making the sacrifice to protect us.”
“Yes, thank you,” Larry added, and the rest of the crustecars bowed their heads.
The centaurs nodded at me in gratitude, and I decided that I had sufficiently muddled their understanding of recent events. I was probably safe.
It was still a major risk, and part of me hated them for that. There was a very simple solution to just get rid of all the loose ends. But I knew that it was wrong, for they had done nothing against me. It wasn’t their fault my secret had to be revealed, unlike when a band of bandits had once attacked us on the road. I couldn’t justify to myself killing any of them, let alone every single one, so I made sure to practice restraint.
Fuck. I can see why Berry would be worried…
I collapsed again to receive further healing, to further sell my ruse, and to spend further time on Moonwash’s armored lap.
Three birds with one nap.
~~~
“Whoa,” the kids marveled at the absurd height of the tree wall as they walked alongside the wagon. We made the last leg of the journey, and had finally arrived back at Latarus.
The locals were certainly confused, and mildly disapproving, as we walked up the ramp towards the gate. Angerly and Berry were with the many crustecars that we had brought here, and they managed to keep things mostly civil.
We reached the gate, and immediately we were questioned as to our purpose here. Granuel and Therick explained our cover story which was that we wanted to create some sort of business, and I peeked my head out to basically shove my badge in their faces when they started to take way too fucking long arguing.
“Are you sure you’re the granddaughter of Golex? Show your face.”
“No,” I hissed at the guard. “I’m scarred and traumatized. You’ll hear from my grandpa if you force me to disgrace myself here.”
The thought managed to ease my annoyance just a little, as I couldn’t wait to tell my grandpa about all the things I’d said about him.
“What? That’s unreasonable–”
“Forget it,” an older guard told her. “The badge is real, and I recognize some of the people with her as having ties to the Zharignans.”
“Yes, but wouldn’t it be best to confirm…”
The older guard looked into my eyes, and I looked back at hers. “No. Some things are more trouble than they’re worth. Let them through.”
He made the call, and we made it onto the bridge that cut through the dangerous flora of the tree wall. We returned the greetings of some of the belfegors who recognized us, and I observed what little I could of their settlements to see that things hadn’t gotten visibly worse for them in the time I’d been away. The next set of gates let us through far more easily, and our entire entourage descended down the ramp and into the city proper.
“Wow.”
“There’s so many people.”
“Where are all the soldiers?”
“We’re going to be staying here?
“They have a normal wall too! Why is it so small?”
“Where are the crustecar districts?”
The crustecar children were amazed as they beheld what would be their new home. I glared at anyone who even so much as turned their nose up at the little crustecars who were only excited to be in my home city. But the kids already knew that they were hated, so they did not dare allow their sense of wonder to annoy the many passersby along the road. They weren’t even free to be curious, as all children should be.
It was actually so fucking sad and tragic, but this was their normal, and they managed to have fun anyway.
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“Alright! A hundred of those skewers please!” The human stall-owner’s eyes widened at my request, but she quickly just did the work once I flashed a few pieces of gold. The kids rejoiced once I handed them all the food, and so were the adults happy to have a good meal.
It was delicious.
~~~
The children were wobbling a bit once we finally reached the foot of my home. I had bought so much food along the way, that even their guardians and parents had come up to ask me if this was okay. I thought they meant on my wallet, to which the answer was ‘of course it is, I can buy whatever I want.’ But they actually meant it in the sense of the children’s health.
I had no problems gorging myself however many times I wanted, so I had forgotten that other people still had those sorts of concerns. Ooops.
I ate the rest of the food myself.
“Haell!” The door opened after I’d knocked, and I found my father standing right there. I gave him a hug, and we stayed like that for a while, until my Mom came out who I also hugged for just as long.
After just watching me greet my parents for a few minutes, I ushered my friends and our many guests into my home. There was enough space for everyone, because the building was built for giants.
“This is my house,” I told the kids. “Don’t break anything, but feel free to look at shit and run around.”
“Okay!”
“Look at that painting!”
“That’s a big nose!”
“Whoooaaaa. What’s that!”
“A bone. Duh.”
“Why’d they just leave it out there?”
“It doesn’t look like they did anything with it.”
“Do they just display their leftovers when they eat?”
“Weird.”
“Fun though! I like it!”
“Yeah! I’ll display everything I eat once I have my own house!”
“Eww. At least clean it.”
I chuckled at their antics, and then rushed ahead. I made it to the living room, and found Grandpa there almost dozing off as he stared off into the window.
“Grandpa!”
“Oh! Haell! You’re back!”
“Yeah!” I gave him a quick hug, which was awkward with how he was an actual literal giant. I then jumped to a nearby couch and lamented how I still had to be in my armor.
“So, how was your first official quest?”
“It was shit!”
I told him everything that happened during that journey and back, and he agreed.
“That’s indeed a big pile of it.”
“Yep. Steaming and stinky.”
We shared another laugh. We had remained largely undisturbed as we caught up, as my friends and family were considerate enough to leave us to talk and led everyone else someplace else. Some of the crustecars would be staying here tonight, others at the orphanage, and others yet at the warehouse. Granuel would get some apartments or a compound settled for them tomorrow, as well as some business they could use to support themselves, under our names, and with just a small cut of the profits to eventually repay what we’d spent. I’d contribute some cash too.
“Oh right. I told them of your teachings about how the military shouldn’t oppress the inhex, or the crustecars, or anyone really. Oh and they can’t fucking order me around, I do what I want. All the Hero Golex things. Which I know, because that very hero is my gramps, and he taught me all those things! Very cool.”
Grandpa bellowed a laugh, slapping his thigh. “Exactly, exactly! Those are indeed my teachings! Good of you to know them. Even the ones I never told you about!”
“I know! I’m just that diligent of a grandaughter! You need to be able to read all the signs!”
“Good, good! I’ll make sure that everyone knows how closely and precisely you followed my instructions!”
“Amazing!”
~~~
_________________
Name: Haell Zharignan
Species: Demon
—Mutations—
Wrath Heart: Level 25
Demon Brain: Level 23
Demon Skin: Level 23
Evil Eyes: Level 21
Demon Flesh / Demon Bones / Demonic Musculature(synced) : (All) Level 22
Demon Arms: Level 23
Demon Hooves: Level 23
Hyperdemon Gland: Level 20
Demon Horns: Level 25
Mana-infused Blood: Level 24
Regen Heart: Level 24
Demon Wings: Level 21
Infernal Heart: Level 19
Memory Core: Level 17
Extradimensional Demon Blood Storage: Level 14
—Soul Feats—
Reincarnator
Progenitor
Imp Progenitor
Progenitor II
Demon Progenitor
Demon Harbinger
_________________
Moonwash was playing with the kids down the hill as I sat in the shade of a tree, and the crustecar children laughed as the the water dragon she had made splashed onto them. I smiled and brought up my status screen in this one quiet moment, to reminisce about all the gains I’d made on this previous trip.
It was honestly enormous. Levels were supposed to come slower the stronger a Mutation became, especially after every milestone, to the point that it just stalled until someone died. This varied from person to person of course, but I must be setting some sort of record here. My leveling speed was actually faster now than what it was before my evolution. That’s absurd!
Of course, some Mutations had remained utterly unmoving because of how I had to essentially nerf myself and refrain from using many of my advantages for most of the trip, but even their leveling speed would not look out of place for the common person. It was normal to go months without a level-up, and I too had experienced that in my childhood.
I could only conclude that the more of a demon I became, the faster I was able to accrue even more power. The timing made sense, and I was close to evolving my infernal heart already. That was exciting!
That was my current working theory anyway, and Moonwash said it might be true, so it must be.
~~~
“Ah…” I sighed contentedly as I laid down on the bed with Moonwash. It was just the two of us, and I really needed a break after all the craziness that went down. We were only supposed to go on a simple quest to learn about wagons and how to run a caravan, so how did we end up butting heads with so many soldiers, participating in entire wars, and meeting a whole fucking angel!? It was absurd! I was genuinely so fucking stressed!
My girlfriend snuggled closer to me, just as tired and naked as I was. Here I was a demon, so clearly a demon, and there was no one to judge me for it. I did not need to hide.
“Are you also stressed?” I asked.
“A little bit. It does get to me, everything that’s happening here. I love our friends, but sometimes I miss when we were just alone in some isolated forest. Luine and Baston were there too of course, but they’re nice. Things were so much simpler.”
“Yeah. I get that. I really do. I’m tempted to just fuck off to the elves or something. I think I’ll fit right in.”
“I think so too. If all of them are like Elfrafim, then that would be very fun.”
“Oh yeah…” I chuckled, reminded of our friend who had still not returned. How did she enjoy exploring this place that much? It was shit, and I knew Elfrafim agreed! “She really made the worst first impression, but now she’s one of our dearest friends.”
“I had a good first impression of her.”
“Well, I didn’t,” I pouted. “She grabbed my horns.”
“Oh yeah. That happened. My first impression is worse now.”
“That’s not how it works Moonwash! It’s first impression! You can’t change it retroactively!”
“I just did.”
“Grrrrrrrr…” I gnashed my teeth and pulled Moonwash into a tiger hug atop me. “Fine. Goodnight. I’m sleeping like this.”
“Okay. Sleep tight.”
I allowed the peace to take me, while it lasted.