Reject Human. Become Demon. [Book 2 Finished!]

I laid on my back as I watched the sky be colored by the orange sunset. Grandpa did similarly, except he was currently being healed by those of us with the ability. Moonwash, Mom, Granuel, and even Pandemonium itself, which was why a river of floating blood flowed around him. I could also help, but… I was too fucking tired. That was fucking intense. And amazing.

I might've gone too hard on someone so elderly already.

Everyone I actually cared about in this city was here. Pandemonium had taken it upon itself to deposit Berry, Angerly, and Granuel where they could see the fight, right before the duel happened. There were a few sore butts because of it, but they were largely happy to be here to witness this historic event. Even Berry, who didn't actually like fighting all that much. Anyone could understand the sheer epicness of the battle that had just taken place.

Once Grandpa was fit enough again to walk, our entire procession proceeded to head towards the healing springs. My family clearly had their own visions of the place with a name like that, so they all did a double take once they saw the fleshy pods full of blood. Even Grandpa was boggled and unsure when one visibly pulsed and grew larger and larger to accommodate for his gigantic size.

"And this will heal me?" he clarified.

"Yes," I said with a straight face.

"And you're not joking?"

I looked him in the eyes far more clearly. "I'm not."

"Okay then," he laughed. "Always something new with you."

Grandpa stepped into the pod and its membrane cover stretched and then let him inside without spilling a single drop of blood. Our view of him blurred terribly, as the membrane was only half transparent, and the red blood that he was now submerged in covered his whole body in a tinge of red. Grandpa held his breath at first, but quickly realized that he was somehow able to breathe. The blood bubbled and frothed as the pod did its magic, and some air snuck in through that process which was what allowed the patient inside the breathe as the blood also actively and constantly flowed away from their nose and mouth. Grandpa's many injuries very visibly and quickly healed, surprising even the old hero by its efficacy. It was typically harder for someone to be healed the stronger they were, as their bodies were so much more complex, and there was so much more of it to heal. Add to that, that he was really fucking old and… deteriorating, and it was really impressive how effective the pod was at healing him.

He stayed for a minute longer, before finally stepping out. The membrane parted for him and only him, but he still ended up dripping blood unto the half-fleshy floor. His white hair and sturdy clothing were soaked in red, and he looked as if he'd just been part of a massacre far bigger than our short and simple duel.

"I feel great!" he exclaimed while looking like a completely unstable psychopath. "Better than I have in years. Decades."

That was the effect of having everything healed. I often felt that way thanks to my regen heart, and now the blood magic that I could use.

Unfortunately, it could not truly counter the effects of old age. The body was worn, and it would fall apart back to its previous normal very fast. But I was glad to give my awesome grandfather at least a small reprieve from the perils of the very long life he had lived.

"Yeah. It's great!" I agreed. "Use it as many times as you want."

The many pods bubbled their agreement.

~~~

I watched as Moonwash repaired my armor after that disastrous battle. I had provided her with more monster materials, and Granuel took care of the metals. He was already beginning to set up new businesses here after he had not been able to properly manage the many branches of the Angelslayer brand for the past year. And it was all because he had come in person to rescue me, along with spending way too much in the hiring of mercenaries and adventurers.

I really really should stop thinking about how they fucking failed. If anything, I was sure they contributed to my success. All that attention, diverted away from me through the months. My opposition grew more sloppy as the pressure and stress mounted. Maybe someone would've realized that the whole manor was about to blow had they just any more leeway. Maybe I wouldn't have been able to evolve quite so peacefully, if they hadn't been perfectly positioned to invade the moment I had made my move.

The sound of a hammer brought me back to reality. Moonwash cast poison magic on a potion, before pouring it onto a mixture of bone shards and mythril pieces. The potion was a sort of weak acid, but mixed with adhesives and then altered to be a bonding agent made specifically for the materials we'd gathered.

She turned to ask something of me, but I was already moving. I grabbed the bowl, and then poured the contents inside a container basically built into the furnace. The extremely hot hellfire burned me, but someone had to do it. This was even hotter and more painful than my normal flames, which made it unbearable even for Moonwash.

I stirred the mixture. After a quick break, I plunged my hand inside and swirled it around in the proper rhythm I'd practiced thousands of times. My skin began to burn, and even I had to grimace from the sheer intensity of it all, but I quickly pulled back before I could contaminate the created material with too many of my own bits.

My hand healed, and then I did the exact same process again. Blood magic made my resistant flesh even tougher, and I used some hellfire magic to have the flames flow a little away from my hands. Pandemonium came in with the great assist, because the forge was still a part of its 'body'. But my job remained incredibly painful and difficult, despite my own resistances. This was the experience I was putting my enemies through.

Good.

Let them fear.

The room suddenly shook. It shuddered.

"It's not you who should fear, Pandemonium!" I joked, though I knew what it was really saying. Moonwash didn't, so she looked around searchingly until her gaze turned back to my own. I finished up this batch and broke off the container which would quickly deteriorate after. The mixture was poured into a mold, whereby it would harden into a proper ingot.

Only then, did I finally speak to explain.

"There's a guard waiting very nervously outside Pandemonium and shouting my name."

"I see."

She went back to smithing.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"I gotta take this," I said.

"Oh. Do you want me to go with you?"

"Nah. Can't be that important."

I left her alone and exited the left wing. I saw the poor woman waiting nervously outside the gates as I jogged. The gates creaked open before I was in sight of her, and she startled. I asked the centaur person to come in, but she doggedly refused and shook her head. There were still attempted break-ins to my manor to this day, and though the sacrifice of the stupid and the brash, Pandemonium had really put the fear of me into the populace.

"Uhhh…. Ummm… A lizekto… Arnold! It's right there…"

"...Ah! Moonwash's pet poison maker."

I nodded and looked behind her, to where she was nervously pointing. I didn't see anything.

"Ummm… It's outside the walls." She glanced at the imposing boundary of Pandemonium. "The city walls…"

"I see," I nodded and then fetched Moonwash. We walked through the streets with still plenty of angry eyes pointed towards us, but we'd learned not to think much of it. My girlfriend was also very hated for the things she did and the poison she spread, but she just wasn't as visible as I always was. I had no intention to hide myself for their sakes, however. They could suffer the consequences if they ever dared to attack.

Finally, we made it out of the city through a massive set of gates. Outside, a bunch of soldiers stood so tense I thought they might suffer a stroke at any moment. Right in front of them was a level 40 monster shaped like a salamander and about the size of a wolf. It wore a simple colorful vest to indicate that it wasn't a normal monster, and I thought it looked very cute.

Moonwash walked to it and said, "Come, Arnold. Follow."

The gold-ranked lizekto calmly complied, and this time we walked through streets with everyone taking a much wider berth of all of us.

I was insulted that they didn't react the same to me. Maybe I had been too kind. They should know I was not to be messed with. Before someone did anything we would all regret.

~~~

Pandemonium's courtyard remained empty because any tree planted within very quickly withered and died. But I was beginning to think that this was just fine as I ran around the large open space, taking several laps as I attempted to understand, and more importantly apply, different kinds of curses to my body at once.

It was a difficult ask. I could enhance my body with wrath while giving a sword the anti-healing properties of menace, but applying both to the same purpose of moving faster had proven impossible so far. And maybe that was just it. It was impossible. Perhaps curse magic was about limitless variety, but not meant to combine different concepts to enhance one's body.

It was an answer only the late dragon Crusifix might know.

I turned my attention to a different area, then. I made the hellfireball ritual, but with an added directionality. It still took a minute to complete before a powerful projectile could be shot, but I was getting better and faster. My mother came by, and she asked what I was doing. I explained, and she was very interested. Mom… honestly did not have much to contribute, but I enjoyed bouncing ideas with her anyway. From the shortest rituals she'd ever made, to how she'd once kept going despite having an arrow lodge itself on her wrist. Fiya(Granuel's mom) had quickly grabbed the wound to halt the bleeding and prevent any of it from spilling into the ritual.

It was a very fun afternoon.

~~~

I faced my dad in a spar. We had done this so much when I was a kid, and I lost everytime. I still remembered that, I couldn't forget, and those memories came with a surge of anger and humiliation that I knew wasn't genuine. I felt grateful and thankful for all those times, but now it was time to reach the very obvious end of that journey. I could've done it sooner, honestly, but I had just chosen not to as I left my hometown.

I charged. Almost gently, I swept his wooden sword to the side. It was wrenched right out of his hands. He stumbled, thrown out of balance. And then my wooden blade was right up his throat in an instant, and I saw only a proud and happy expression on his face upon his defeat.

"You did it, Haell. I have nothing left to teach you."

"Yeah," I smiled back. But that wasn't entirely true.

I had a glaring lack of competent sparring partners here. Grandpa was too old, Mom was a mage at heart, and Moonwash was significantly worse at martial combat than even her. Everyone else was too weak to even consider, and I didn't want to invite someone from outside. Dad was my only choice, and like always, he was only happy to help me for my own sake.

The following battles we had were a lot more equal than my first victory over him. I refrained from magically enhancing my body in any way, and found that my dad still had a slight edge on me in pure skill. I was a little taller than him now, and my sheer power pushed him back, but he was able to hold on and occasionally even regain some momentum.

I eventually broke his guard and claimed victory, before restarting our spars once more.

It remained that my dad could not beat me, even with a physique that was technically closer to his own. My tail gave me a maneuverability I didn't use to have, and my rapid nervous system allowed me to react significantly faster than he ever could. I had many more advantages packed in, such as my greater spatial awareness and the Mark of The Beast that constantly and passively supplied me with more power. I focused on that for a moment, and felt the flow of energy that went in and out of me. It was an exchange that was a little more efficient while I was here in Pandemonium's heartlands. It hardly waned with distance, however, and it occurred to me, that it was a power that nearly disregarded distance, much like teleportation was meant to do.

My awareness continued to expand. I felt, just a little, of the wind before it caressed my skin. The ground underneath my hooves, Pandemonium itself, a small buzzing thing received color. It was mainly just my dimensional scanner talking, but I felt that there was something more. This was kind of like the state I experienced during my last evolution, where I felt everything around me. The version I was using now was far far weaker, to the point that it was almost insulting to call it the same thing. But it was here… maybe. If I wasn't just imagining things.

"That does sound great," Dad said, after I explained to him what I just figured out.

"Yeah. Now again!" I grabbed my practice sword, and he shook his head ruefully as he got up after one last bite of his chips.

Grandpa later sat himself nearby, and began giving coaching me through my training.

"You oxer-extended there!"

"You could've gotten a bit more force if you had your feet further apart."

"No, not like that. Further! TOO MUCH!"

"Oh wait, I was wrong about leaning further forward. Your balance is just so different, and you have that big tail."

"Spin! You can spin faster! I know!"

"Damn! This milkshake is really delicious! I can see why you chose her, Haell!"

"Follow up! Follow up! No need to try to stop! FOLLOW UP!"

"You're compensating for your flaws with your fast reactions. But still so much wasted movement!"

"Use your body! SHOVE!"

"Oh yeah… You got hooves. Try stepping on them! Crush their toes!"

My eye twitched. I was getting annoyed. I did not like listening to orders. I fucking beat him! He had no fucking business telling me off like this!

But, I understood the importance of his coaching. My forever turbulent emotional state was making it harder than it should be, but I had to show some humility here. Yes, I won, but I completely lost in swordsmanship. That much was blatantly obvious. It sucked, and it made me gnash my teeth in frustration, but it was the fucking truth.

I followed his next set of instructions with gratitude. I was so so lucky to be born in a family like this. So supportive, which was what mattered. But I had to admit that it had been a great boon to me as well, that they were so competent. I couldn't have become what I was now without their help.

"G! You've made it the Letter G! It's my favorite!"

"Can you be fucking serious!!!" I untangled my body from the position Gramps told me to take and shook a fist at him.

It was a great joke and I laughed.