I'm a baby.

A literal baby.

A HUMAN Fucking Baby!!!!!

I plunged into tears for the hundredth time since my reincarnation. My wails echoed across the light pink walls of my room and towards the rest of the gigantic house. And by gigantic, I meant in the sense that a lot of the architecture and the furniture were scaled as if they were meant for the use of giants.

Because they were.

Loud rumbling footsteps soon echoed down the hallway. The thick wooden door of my room was flung open, and in came my mother who was at least 2 meters tall. That alone was still very much believable, but my father ducked in right after her, and he stood at the full and proud height of three meters. I should have gotten used to it by now, but it was still a sight to behold.

Mahka, my mom, quickly came over to my reinforced crib. It was literally shining with magic, the temperature and airflow within kept at pristine conditions.

The blonde woman scooped me up into her arms and cooed at my face, rocking me like a baby.

Which I was. A baby.

Rallem, my father, peeked in from the side with a silent intensity. His calloused hand poked my cheek, and I giggled, catching the offending finger and chomping on it.

I could no longer remain sad, in the face of their love.

"There, there, Haell. There, there." My mom hugged me to her shoulder, patting me on the back until I burped. I was not yet proficient in Angelian, the main language of the Angelore Empire. But I had managed to pick up on my new name.

Haell. It could be pronounced as either 'Hail', 'Ha-Ell', or my favorite 'Hell'.

Most commonly, people used 'Ha-ell.'

They picked a good name. I was thankful.

My mom passed me to my dad, and I fit in his palm. He handled me so carefully, as I was rocked back and forth by a single hand. I laughed at the silly faces he made, and the tickles that he gave.

Fuck. I love them. I truly do. More than I ever did the parents that I had before.

I was brought to tears again, and my dad panicked, afraid that he had done something wrong. Mom crossed her arms jokingly for a second, just to make him nervous, before she reassured her husband and took me from his arms.

She held me lovingly and sang a sweet yet haunting lullaby. It brought out all the grief and regret from the past, but also my current happiness and eternal gratitude for the present.

The tears came out even harder, and I felt a bit sorry as my parents grew more and more worried. But I couldn't help it. It was their fault for being so great.

"Aha!" Mom exclaimed, struck by an idea, as if a lightbulb just went off in her head. She palmed me off to Dad, who looked warily between us two. For one precious second after the hand-off, I was quiet and searching. But then I burst into tears again, and my screams did not spare his ears.

Dad rocked me back and forth, while his eyes darted around, searching for something to calm me down. His funny faces did not work… aside from the single tiny chuckle that got mixed into my cries. So it did work a little. But it really shouldn’t! He had such severe features, that trying to make funny faces only made him scarier. The only reason why I laughed was because my sense of humor was equally fucked.

I also knew that he was trying, and that was all I needed.

My dad thought to pick up some toys from the bed while carefully balancing me in his other hand. He shook around a bell and then it floated, the echoing chimes leaving a distinct and fantastical impression on my ears. A soft breeze blew around the room.

I began to calm down, transfixed at the display of magic. And then my mom came back, to show me even more of it.

“Hey Haell!” She gave me a soft and reassuring smile, though I could still see the worry underneath. “It’s your favorite. Watch.”

I sniffed, staring at the loose soil in her palm. In her other hand was a wand, and she flourished the tool with a gusto, making weird baby noises at me that I didn't think were magical chants.

I mimicked them just in case.

“Aaga! Agu! Gugu!”

“Daaawwww…” My parents melted at the sight, and Mom nearly lost focus on the magic she was doing. She realized this just in time, and tried to play it off as part of the performance. “It’s time! It is time now!!

She gave me her best grin and swung her wand around the loose soil on her palm. The dirt she gestured at shifted, and something green poked out of it.

I gasped, despite having seen this many times before.

Magic.

My remaining sobs quickly gave way to giggles as I watched a stem grow rapidly. I clapped my tiny hands when leaves began to sprout. All signs of my earlier tantrum were gone by the time the vibrant flower bloomed, replaced instead by a contagious joy that had both my parents smiling at my cuteness.

Dad tucked me back into bed as I was still laughing and yelling in excitement. Mom handed me the flower that she had willed to bloom, and I accepted it with awe.

I held the gift close to me on clumsy fingers. With love and joy in my heart, I hugged my flower to sleep.

~~~

"Haell. Hey. Haell."

My eyes fluttered open, and I looked at my dad leaning over my crib. His large eyes stared right into my soul, still and unblinking.

"Come... …Dinner." I did not get some of what he said, but I understood the gist of it.

I pushed away his hand and fell back asleep.

"Uhh…" I heard him mutter. Dad poked at my cheek, but I ignored it. He poked some more, and it was hard to keep on sleeping, but I endured. My pride as a baby depended on it!

I finally broke when he started tickling my belly.

Okay, fine! I'm up I'm up! I giggled and smacked his fingers, which my dad found cute. He happily scooped me up with a single hand.

"WEEEEEEE!!!" I enjoyed the sensation of being lifted up and up, as if I were flying. I flapped my hands as if they were the wings of a bird. It was only made all the better by how tall my father was. He had no problems waving me around some more, just so I could have more fun.

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We strode out of my bedroom and towards the dining room. The ceiling was high, and the light-green walls were tastefully decorated with paintings and trophies. All relating to the adventures and battles that they’d experienced.

"Rallem! Haell!" My five meter tall grandfather greeted us from his equally gigantic seat once we arrived at the dining room. He had his own table all to himself. Not that the old man was unwilling to share, but even my parents who seemed so big, paled in comparison to his size.

Dad gave his own greetings, and they exchanged small talk, little of which I understood, but I gathered that it was mainly about me. Dad sat me down on my own special baby chair right after.

"WWEEEEEEEEEE!!!" I shouted my joy when I was picked up, chair and all, by my grandpa and then placed atop his table. I cheered and pointed at his wrinkly face obscured by his thick beard. He looked like a giant old pirate, scars and all.

"Buuh!" I slammed my hands on my tiny baby table.

Grandpa Golex laughed. "Got the spirit this one! Why, I remember…" He started talking about some of his childhood memories, of playing in the streets and getting into fights. He was from a land far away, and a time long past. The lands of the humans were small and barren, their enemies aplenty. From the naturally large ogres, to the kobolds that dreamt of becoming dragons.

My eyes wandered towards the open kitchen midway through the tale. A lot of the language was still too hard for me to parse, being not even a year old. My mom was currently chopping up an elephant-sized creature, while my dad hefted a ginormous pan fit to feed an entire village. We were having armozard tonight.

The wonderful smells soon reached my nose and I began to drool. My grandfather saw my interest and laughed.

"Eat, Haell! Eat big and grow strong!"

I cocked my head at him. Is that what it takes, to become as big as you?

Do I want to become as big as you?

“Awa! Guh! Muga!!”

Grandpa cooed at my feeble attempts to speak.

The meal arrived soon, while my grandfather was in the middle of another rant. He talked about how this continent was conquered, or maybe a third of it at best. From Arrival they sailed to Jurrasca, before finally making their way here to Grandera. A slaughter followed, and I could tell that my grandfather enjoyed the bloody combat from the vividness of the descriptions that I hardly understood. He was not quite as overjoyed with the many atrocities of the Angelore Empire, and he had many choice words about them, which was good. But he still worked for that same machine of despair regardless.

Oh well. He’s nice! I’m sure he has his reasons.

…Or rather, I’m sure it’s complicated. War is terrible, and I hope we never find ourselves on opposing sides.

The world suddenly lurched when Grandpa carried me back towards the ground, much to my delight. It really was like experiencing an amusement park ride. Being a baby was great, at least in this life.

The meal that followed was delicious, and I ate it as if my life depended on it. It was the taste of fantasy and of another world, a monster born at a higher level than most humans would ever achieve.

Strangely enough, it reminded me of the family I was born with back on Earth. They weren’t nearly as rich or capable as my parents here were, but they never held back on anything when we had guests. The only difference now was that I ate like a queen with every single meal. I hope I don’t become spoiled and out of touch because of this!

I decided that I preferred this world after all, no matter how I missed the friends that I left behind. Varyala had just as many problems as Earth, but here I actually had the means to fight back and resist.

I just had to go and get it.

~~~

_________________

Name: Haell Zharignan

Species: Human

—Mutations—

Human Heart: Level 1

Human Brain: Level 1

Human Skin: Level 1

Human Eyes: Level 1

Human Flesh / Human Bones / Enduring Musculature (synced) : (All) Level 1

Dextrous Hands: Level 1

Flutter Feet: Level 1

Adrenaline Gland: Level 1

_________________

My impossibly soft bed lured me to sleep the moment I laid down, but there was something else that kept me up at night.

My Status Screen. It was the game-like interface floating right in front of my face. This hologram-esque thing was something that only I could see, and everyone had one similar to it, but never the exact same. It was something I knew I could pull up and dismiss at any time, but hadn’t been quite successful in doing so until a few days ago. The descriptions were still beyond me, but I felt that I was close to being able to view them.

This was apparently called the Self Scriptures in the Empire, which made me want to fucking puke, but thankfully my grandfather let it slip that it was actually called by a different name before these so-called angels arrived. It was simply referred to as ‘The Status’.

Nice going Grandpa! Reveal ALL secrets!

I fell right asleep and dreamt of the apex monsters that were killed to give me a bed this soft.

~~~

I’m awake! I am awakening!!

I woke up the next morning, just in time to watch the sunrise from the window. I yawned loudly and contemplated crying to call for my parents, but I decided against it. I wasn’t going to be a little shit, and I had just remembered what I was doing last night.

I was checking out my status screen.

Name: Haell Zharignan

I brought it up again with a single flex of my will, and I paused at the name. Lucyfer was no more… and I had to accept that.

I didn’t regret how I died. If anything I was happy to find out that I did have it in me to make that sort of sacrifice. I never took myself for the type.

Lucyfer was actually a name that I came up with myself. I knew that I could change it back to that if I wanted, even if the Status never acknowledged it. But the point was that I didn’t intend to change the name given to me by my mom and dad, not this time. Haell Zharignan sounded real fucking cool, it was given to me by people that I actually liked, and I did not wish to cling to a symbol of the past. I had to move forward.

No matter how bad the timing of my death was, no matter how it happened just when my dreams came true, which I barely ever got to live out. I just had to fulfill those dreams even harder.

Species: Human

I began to cry. Right after that cool speech I made to myself, and that resolute declaration, I broke down into tears. But could I be blamed for feeling this way and getting emotional? I would never see my friends again! All the work that I had put into becoming a demon had become undone! I was a literal baby, and that was not helping matters!

I allowed my emotions to flow through me, I cried and sobbed but I took care to not be too loud and wake everyone up.

And once that was done, and I had finally calmed down, I distracted myself with all the new things that I loved about my new reality.

The status. The magic. The impossible game-like system that governed the world!

These things filled me with more hope than anything I ever encountered back on Earth. I truly did love this new magical realm far more than I ever did my home world. It was just really bad timing when I was taken.

So I reached out for it. Not for the past that made me sad, but for the future and the potential that filled me with excitement to no end. I had already seen a small part of it, of what was possible, in the short time that I’d been here. From how impossibly nimble my mother was, to how she could use literal magic. My dad was 3 meters tall, and my grandfather was almost TWICE that height!

Clearly, this world ran on an entirely different kind of logic than my own. What was previously impossible may now be mundane. The laws of physics have been tossed right out the window, replaced by actual fantasy. Reality could be bent to the whims of magic and Status! So how could there ever be any limits!?

I strained against my blankets. An adorable growl escaped my chomping mouth. I raised my hands towards the roof of my bedroom and began to chant.

“Gates of Hell!”

“Pandemonium!”

“Sin of Pride!”

“Gacha Roll!”

“Abra Cadaver!”

It did not work. I only felt embarrassed. I slurred every syllable and every word in the way that babies did. I could not bend reality to my whims.

There were limits that I did not yet understand. The magic of this world was very clearly not omnipotent, not even for me. I should have known that already, but I just fell and spiraled into my own hype. It’s a bad habit that remains unbroken across two lives…

However! Things were still different than before. More fantastical. My Status Window told of my species, so who was to say that it could not be changed? The few times I'd gone outside, I'd already seen sapients who were not quite human. Some weren't even humanoid!

And then there were my body parts. The Mutations available in my Status, each with a Level attached. Either through usage, by pushing past my limits, or through some other method, I would be able to raise those levels and strengthen my body to a supernatural degree. And given that the entire section was literally called 'Mutations'... it would be pretty fucking dumb if I could not mutate them. Change them. Achieve the demonic form I’d always craved!

Not just in appearance, not just in vibes, but in power.

I will achieve my dream in a way even more complete than before.

A demon, with the power of one.

A demon, able to use actual magic.

A demon, that could make her own way.

A demon, that was in every sense of the word, Free.