"It's alive! IT'S ALIVE!"

I shouted in the middle of a bloodstained clearing. It was a large circular space, artificially widened and flattened, and now painted upon with a bloody and sinister ritual. Moonwash had actually gotten Luine to go out and somehow obtain cursetacean parts to add to the recipe, mixing its powdered form with my blood among other things. The Angelore empire hated cursetaceans, and officially, even their remains were all disposed of in a big fuck you pile instead of being made use of.

In fairness, that was mostly what happened, and most of the ones actually available were because of criminals like Luine. Curses were still widely believed to be very dangerous.

Because they were. Not everyone could git gud like me.

"It’s not alive. Why are you shouting?" Moonwash asked from beside me. At the center of our formation was a glass basin filled with blood, a gnarled and dangerous-looking staff floating within. It was revealed from Moonwash's experimentation that curses were best left for offensive items. They weren't nearly as effective for defensive ones. But what would happen if an already elementally attuned staff were to be cursed? That was what we were here to find out.

"Because I'm happy," I answered.

"Oh. That's good. I'm happy too."

Baston, Luine, Elfrafim, and Astan were all spectating from the periphery and killing all creatures that dared to get close. It was nice to have their support, as even Astan showed interest in this ritual.

“Let’s begin,” Moonwash said and grabbed my hand. I connected to the ritual by my feet, and so did she. Drawn using my lifeblood were many illustrations of tornadoes and gales. It showed the staff in various states of creation, and in violent use thereafter.

We began to cast. It was a strange feeling of vastness, to feel the blood at our feet thrum with power. But it was bigger than that, the weight of the world was upon us, or perhaps the gaze of something more. Something fundamental, alien, and unknowable.

I built upon my mind my intention, and so did Moonwash. Just like the regular casting of magic, it required an image, only now we had to make sure it harmonized with the ritual we’d already built.

It was marginally difficult because of the requirement to align the thoughts of two separate beings, but we’d practiced with similar things a ton. I was very used to building an image, particularly those related to my own mana, and Moonwash was the one who drew most of the ritual, so her thoughts were already aligned very closely to it. She was, additionally, very good at magic if it took time and was channeled.

I opened my demonic eyes, and so did she. There was no need to glance at the other, no need for any signal nor confirmation. We were in sync.

“Hellbreeze Staff.”

We spoke in unison, and the word seemed to echo deeper into the forest than we intended. The air was pushed outward by our proclamation, and birds flew away from the trees they were perching on. The blood did not merely evaporate, but instead it floated off the ground and rushed towards the glass basin containing the staff.

The illustrations Moonwash made persisted during this move. As if it came to life, three-dimensional instead of two. Tornadoes of blood spun, and uncannily long red fingers strung wood together and bound apart a focus. Figurines of the staff swung, and mighty gales swept away armies, sapping away at all their morale. The air was sharp, it sliced through the air and toward flesh, the wound left behind festered.

All of these remained in motion all around us, and all we could was watch. But eventually they faded, evaporated, just as a ritual was wont to do. Except this time they left behind a curse that made the hair on my neck stand on end. The blood within the glass basin roiled as if in the middle of a storm as the energies infused within, and toward the staff in the center.

The world became tinged in black and red as I continued to watch. The Hellbreeze Staff drank of the accursed menace mana greedily, and then of the pool that it sat within. Until finally, all of the lifeblood was depleted, and the curse in the air was gone.

Only then did the heavy pressure pressing down on us abate.

“What the fuck was that!” Elfrafim’s stupidly beautiful voice reached us, just a moment before the blur of her form shot past both me and Moonwash. She pounced on the new Hellbreeze Staff before we, the creators of it, could even inspect the thing.

The elf woman was emptying her wand onto the cursed staff when my brain finally caught up and stared at her. Elfrafim did not allow us to get a word in as she casually shot out a blade of air towards the trees, somewhat visible as a dark mist in the air.

The blade impacted, it bit deep into several trunks. Not quite enough to come out the other side, but close, and certainly more than enough to make the trees topple down.

“This is so cool! It wants to get into my head!” she gushed, positively vibrating with the staff. She pointed it at us and then blew a gust of wind, slightly fogged in black.

Instantly, my muscles seized up, and I felt more vulnerable against the push of air. I straightened back up after a second, realizing that the effect was very similar to my intimidation aura, except perhaps much worse due to how much higher level Elfrafim was. It was only my brain being so specialized against mental effects that allowed me to shrug it off so easily.

Moonwash was not so lucky. Her body had seized up, chittering, shaking. I quickly rushed to her side and shook her.

“Hey, hey. You’re okay.” I turned to the elven woman. “Elfrafim, what the fuck!?”

She winced, and then appeared right next to us. She really was way too fucking fast. “Shit! I’m sorry!”

The staff that we made was dropped and long forgotten, replaced instead by wands of both nature and light. I laid Moonwash down and she was cradled by a literal bed of flowers. A soft and soothing light shone down upon her form.

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Gradually, she began to calm. The chittering stopped, and Moonwash looked at each of us in turn. By this point, Granuel, Luine, and Astan too had crowded around her, all of us worried sick.

“The experiment was a success,” Moonwash announced, as if nothing had happened. “That effect I just experienced is not normally a capability that wind magic can do by itself. Which means that the Hellbreeze Staff has been made stronger by the ritual, I would think,” she looked questioningly at Elfrafim, who nodded. She still felt bad.

“But that’s not all,” Moonwash continued, still prone on the soft grass. “We now know that rituals like this can make cursed weapons. And that doing so with a magic apparatus already tuned for one element can give the magic cast with it a different flavor. This one, in particular, brings to mind the Ominous Wind element of a certain bird.”

I nodded, my own mind switching back to business. My sword had confirmed the possibility of additional effects, like being able to cut better somehow, or even just leaving some curse energy that exacerbates the damage around the wounded area. But what this trial run confirmed was that magic cast with a cursed staff would have some curse-like effects by itself, in addition to perhaps just being straight-up stronger, or even just more destructive.

The implications of this discovery were staggering, and I found myself excited to craft more, even if I knew that the brunt of the work was still up to Moonwash. I wasn’t actually that interested in learning more about forging and crafting things, other than ritual-making, but it was admittedly fun participating in them like this, and then seeing the result unfold.

~~~

[Menace Heart has reached Level 20!]

[Demon Bones / Demon Flesh / Demonic Musculature has reached Level 20!]

Over half a year came and went, the flow of time continued to be unrelenting. Many more of my Mutations had reached Level 20, and even my Blood and Regen Heart were closing in at 17 and 16 respectively.

It was time to confront the one Mutation that was giving me so much trouble. The mana within myself had grown to be truly distinct from the regular menace magic that I had initially received. That identity had become engraved onto my very heart, affecting every drop of mana produced therein, despite nothing new appearing in my Status Screen.

Now I was relying on this new magic of mine, to pull me through my hyperdemon gland without irreparably damaging myself.

“Ready when you are, Haell!” Elfrafim smiled, and then twirled her staff.

I took a deep breath, braced my sword, and hesitated.

“The Mutation might not even work anymore,” I made small talk to buy some time to settle my nerves. “You’re not a master of life magic right? Can’t outright regrow lost limbs?”

She cocked her head and leaned against her gilded green staff.

“Wow. I’m happy you have such faith in me.” She deadpanned.

I groaned. “That’s not what I mean. Just, what if, you know? I don’t know…”

“Nah,” she denied it. “It’s true that I could have mocked it up. But I didn’t. Your hyperdemon gland would be grayed out in your status bar if the Mutation is inactive. It’s the same thing that happens if you manually mutate something with biomancy, and then it doesn’t work anymore with the System.”

“...Wait. What? You can do that?”

“Sure can.”

I thought about it. “Huh. That’s neat… What do you mean by manually mutating something?”

She got off her staff and began twirling it gracefully again. “You can get stronger arms, make yourself larger, give your eyes all sorts of effects if you get a biomancer to work on them. But then whatever Mutations were once active on them would cease to be. Your power will now be limited by the skills of the biomancer. And they can only make at best… Mutations equivalent to half their level. Less, usually.” She pointed her staff toward me. “But your path is not like that. It relies only on your innate self and your own efforts. So come, and break all the limits previously known to mortalkind.”

My breath hitched in my throat, the trepidation was replaced with a bubbling excitement. I did exactly as Elfrafim suggested, and I brought forth the scariest thing to ever be buried in my depths.

That’s what she said.

I couldn’t help myself.

~~~

There she is I will ravage her flesh and rend her bone Elfrafim you won’t escape me this time I will capture you kill you extract the meat like a fillet in blender you will drown in your own blood and guts and no one will ever come I will kill you all that you are all that you love break you into a thousand pieces and feed you to the wolves until you are only shit shit shit on the ground to be trampled stamped I will crush you under my hooves and your bones will crunch and I will pull out your spine die die die again again again be buried lonely suffocate forever no rest only suffer suffer suff–

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

I charged against my enemy and poured my power into one swing. She deflected it, but I was ready with another and then another, but the next one never arrived as I was hit in the guts with a staff and sent flying. I crashed into a tree. Blood trickled out of my mouth. I did not forgive this humiliation nor the many other ones before. All that frustration was released in a growl. The fury of my eyes bore down on her, my aura suffocated her small and tiny body. But it did not work. She just kept on smirking that infuriating smirk, so I charged and swung, but I missed again. I spun around, I chased my prey, my menace magic was at its strongest, but few ever managed to reach her through the winds and the tempest that surrounded her. It was maddening. Infuriating. Just like last time, I was reduced to a toothless whelp.

But it wasn’t like last time.

I bit off my gloves in one hand and slammed my palm against my blade. My right hand was cut and blood began to freely flow from the wound. I hurriedly started to draw with it, telling the world of the single message I wished to convey. And that was to kill this woman. To kill kill killl and kill! End her! Finish her existence! Be buried 6 feet under! Never breathe for another day! JUST DIE!

“KILL ENEMY!!!”

The words rumbled out of my mouth and the world responded. The drawings I drew on the ground sputtered, and then a dark mist shot out of them, pouncing towards my hated opponent. She spun her staff and blew much of it away, but not all. She jumped at the last second, evaded, scattering more of my attack to the winds.

“RRAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!”

Another scream tore at my throat the moment I saw my attack fail. I flailed again at her, but it was to no avail like before. Every strike was parried, nothing I ever did mattered, I was going insane.

SO LET’S JUST END IT ALL!

Resolved to take my opponent down with me, I activated all of the mana inside of my body and it… rebelled? What?

Kill destroy and rip apart the opponent but if die then I can destroy no longer!

“No! Obey me!” I snarled, and my infuriating bitch on an enemy just laughed. I lunged at her again, I pushed myself to the point of breaking my body, and even there my mana disobeyed. It wished not for me to go too far in destroying myself, only just enough!

“FUCK YOU! I’M YOUR MASTER NOT YOU MY MASTER AAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!” I took my frustrations out on this stupid elf, but it was to no avail as she still trivialized all my attempts. The menace mana inside myself still stubbornly refused to heed my will, and I was forced to listen to its own primal desires… forcefully reminding me of things that I shouldn’t forget.

It was right. There was a future. I would kill and destroy so many more. Even this motherfucker would be nothing to me once I have grown even stronger.

“Fuck you die tommorow.”

I willingly went to sleep.