Reject Human. Become Demon. [Curse Mage Berserker]

“Aint that a sight,” I said as we flew among the lowest clouds, high above the mountains. We’d gone to a deeper area of the Impenetrable Barrier Range, where one of the largest harpy-dwarf duarchies reside. It was the Genoz Duarchy, with their diamond-jade-wing flags flying high and massive over several behemoth mountains. Harpy towers taller than any we’d ever seen rose from the mountainscapes amid unnaturally orderly forests, and I was sure the dwarven settlements below were just as impressive to look at. They likely built much of these harpy cities, after all! There was no way they’d neglect their own home.

Amid all these mountains of the Genoz Duarchy, one stood out along the very outskirts. It was a mountain that was actually a little smaller than the others that surrounded it, but there was no way it would be overlooked. For this mountain lacked forests or any sort of vegetation at all, but was instead made up of strange rock growths that almost looked like aimless abstract art. Of earth of different kinds; brown, black, or grey. It glimmered like a starry sky, for all the pieces of crystals and ore embedded into stone!

The harpies and the dwarves were hard at work, extracting all these renewable resources, and organizing them into carts.

One harpy approached us from a different direction, dressed in a colorful attire, but one clearly meant for either a guard or a scout.

“At rest, stranger. You are in the territory of the Genoz Duarchy. Might I ask who you are, and what business has brought you to our lands and skies?”

I straightened myself as I floated in the air with my girlfriend in my arms. “I am the Demon Queen Haell Zharignan. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“A queen, you say?” She paused, surprised. “And you came here alone, with just the two of you? Where is your court? Your guards?”

“Ah.” I made an awkward smile. “Demon Queen. It’s just a title I took for myself. In reality, I rule only a single city state.”

“I see,” she controlled her expression well. “I must admit that I found your introduction to be a bit misleading. But I understand that every polity has their own ways and customs. Can I ask for any proof of the identity that you claimed?”

“Yes. I got just the thing, actually!”

I produced a letter from my pack, and the harpy guard took it in her talons. She bent over in midair to get a proper look. “The seal of Harfet-Dargo. It looks genuine and authentic to me. I’d like to ask you to accompany me to our nearest forward office to get everything in order.”

“Sure thing,” I shrugged and allowed her to lead the way.

We landed on a largely deserted mountain, save for a few outposts that consisted of wooden towers, and some stone houses. The harpy guard, who was actually named Lyara, led us to the tower office crewed by mostly harpies, but with some dwarves who were there to help them with bookkeeping.

“You’re that demon who’s been giving Edengar a whole lot of trouble??” Lyara couldn’t help but exclaim once a professional harpy accountant had looked through my letter of introduction. “I’m sorry for my earlier outburst. I feel silly for not having realized sooner. You even introduced yourself as the Demon Queen. I wasn’t aware you ruled over a territory of your own. I thought you might have been a different demon, if you were one. I’ve never met your kind before.”

“Eh. It’s good to have a home base,” I answered. My friends really wanted it. And they convinced me of the unethicality of kicking everyone out. Society wasn’t so bad in small doses.

The rest of the letter was confirmed and processed in short order, and we were welcomed into the actual core mountains of the Genoz Duarchy. The Genoz dwarves especially wanted to meet Moonwash, as her reputation had reached even here. The letter apparently talked a lot more about her than it did me…

That’s good! She’s getting the recognition she deserves! Harfet-Dargo gets it right!

~~~

We explored Genoz, and found it to be a similar but much grander affair than Harfet-Dargo. The harpies were still very polite and noble-like, no matter their position. The dwarves worked in far more colorful cities and towns, creating ever more noise and smoke. More creative choices had to be made in order to dump all their pollutants. They apparently somehow rerouted it to the peak of other less inhabited mountains before, but now they’d actually come up with a very complicated method to condense the smoke and mix it into molten pools of metal that were then changed somehow because of the infusion.

Polunite was the most common of these metals. It was naturally poisonous, and possessed synergistic effects with other poisons. It passively polluted its surroundings, and could be dangerous to just leave out near the weakest of people.

How can someone own such a thing??? I gasped, aghast, hugging Devilcalibur close to protect it from these bad influence ingots!!

Moonwash didn’t care and dove right into making use of polunite. I learned alongside her as we toured the shielded underground facilities that created the substance. The dwarves were as forthright as ever, willing to share their knowledge with my girlfriend, as she shared her newest discoveries in turn.

I came across a herokane-rank dwarf in passing, which was weird. I ran across another one a mountain over, and it finally clicked just how much stronger the people of this place was, even compared to Harfet-Dargo which already outpaced my hometown quite heavily. It was a much older society, and parts of their history was told through the countless murals that adorned their every settlement, which eventually made a more complete picture.

We asked for permission to gain access to their local wonderzone, and we quite easily got it. They liked us and what we’d contributed enough to not even ask for a fee.

What did prove to be a problem, however, was the company we wanted to bring.

~~~

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Grandpa said when I told him of the destination.

“But why?” I lamented. I was really looking forward to it too!

“Because I invaded their lands before. Edengar launched an incredibly ill-adviced incursion into their lands, remember?”

I opened my mouth to speak, but could only mutter, “Oh.”

It was a perfectly understandable reason. I could totally see why he would not be welcome there. But… I still didn’t want to give up. This was my last chance to at least have some adventures with my grandpa, who had inspired me with his stories of bloodshed and grandeur ever since I was child.

There must be a way. There has to.

~~~

“Absolutely not,” one of their harpy envoys rebutted when I brought it up. We were currently in one of their migration offices, which mostly took in harpies and dwarves from other lands. It was quite rare for them to have such an obviously rude outburst like that.

“Oh, come on,” I complained. “I promise he’s reformed. Or well, he’s definitely changed. He left Edengar and has even fought their armies sent after him! I’m his granddaughter, and I am the nightmare of Edengar!”

“We are aware of the damage you are causing to our enemies. We will not hold your relation to the adventurer Golex against you. But it would still be… too foolish to allow such a dangerous person who has once caused great death and destruction upon our nation to just enter and get past our defenses. He is capable of causing so many casualties in a short time, before we can intervene and subjugate him.”

Fuck. That was sensible. I hate it!

~~~

It wasn’t me, but Moonwash who found the opening to let Grandpa step foot into Genoz. She collaborated with increasingly powerful dwarves, until she reached the very fucking top of their chain of command.

The Creator Smith of the Genoz Duarchy. Someone beyond the dwarven rankings of steel, fantastreel, mythril, and herokane. A massive dwarven woman whose presence felt second only to the one dragon I’d met before.

Her name was Heartnail, and she stood on the same theoretical level as the archangels.

“This is good,” she examined Devilcalibur. It was the first thing she noticed when we first met.

“The quench is imperfect here,” she commented the next day while staring intently at the cursed armor I wore. Moonwash took half an hour to check it over before she agreed.

“Why not add a little bit of lidun sap to better bind the metals with the carapace?” she pondered a week later, and then immediately got to work.

Moonwash joined her, and they went on to collaborate over many project through the coming months. The dynamic… truly felt more like a teacher to a student between them, than that between two equals. It had been a long time since I’d seen Moonwash be so thoroughly outclassed with her crafting skills. Heartnail even took notice of how I helped with the forging process, and corrected my embarrassing amount of mistakes or inefficiencies.

My girlfriend finally took the opportunity to ask after we’d all been working together for quite a while. “Can her grandpa come here?”

“Her grandpa?” Heartnail looked at me. “Ah, that Golex character!” she very quickly realized. I’d found that Heartnail was a lot more involved in governing than Steelballs was back in Dargo. “That is a difficult favor to fulfill. He was instrumental in the Edengarian offensive into our lands.”

It was just an idea at first, but now I felt far more invested after actually putting in the effort to make it happen. So I swallowed my pride, and asked for the favor.

“Please.” My head throbbed from sheer indignation. I took a steadying breath, and then continued, “I just want to have one more adventure with my grandfather. I promise he won’t make trouble. And you can ask something of me as well. I… don’t really want to give out a blanket favor, but maybe there’s something you want done once I’m even stronger? We can make a deal now.”

“No,” she slowly shook her head, and my teeth immediately clenched. “That won’t be necessary. I won’t tell a child to pay for her grandfather’s mistakes. There will be a price for him to pay, but it would be something he can surely accomplish if he’s still willing to dive into the Geonesis.”

~~~

“I never thought I’d come here again,” Grandpa said, more subdued than I ever remembered him being. “Not like this.”

Our party was currently making our way deeper into Genoz territory. The surrounding mountains already had a minor presence of them, of course, with a squad of tense harpies watching our every move above. I smiled and waved at them, but they only gave a curt nod as they remained exceedingly vigilant.

“Do you regret it?” Elfrafim asked casually. I shot her a mild glare, but she didn’t really pay it any mind. That’s for the best. “Fighting for some empire. All these nations warring against each other over the stupidest things. People telling you what to do and when!”

It was only the five of us today; Me, Moonwash, Elfrafim, Astan, and Grandpa. Arx was a notable absence, because he’d decided that he still didn’t want to be discovered. His people were already well past rock bottom, but even so, he didn’t wish to make it worse for them any sooner than he had to. He wasn’t even fully sure just yet, if he would participate in the Angel Hunt we had planned, despite all the training we’d already done.

Selfishly, I hoped he would come. Our plan would work so much better with his help. It’s what I would do; I didn’t think I could hold myself back. But Arx wasn’t me, and what he was looking for was salvation for the inhex, not some personal vendetta and catharsis.

“They were very stupid,” Grandpa nodded emphatically to Elfrafim’s assertion. “Me too, really. Maybe I was on the wrong side. I mean, I definitely was on the wrong side! But I know I would’ve fought anyway, no matter where I ended up. Conflicts are just… inevitable. People will always fight. It’s the same case for your elven lands, isn’t it?”

“Not this big!” Elfrafim gestured wide with her arms, and astan squawked above us. “It’s just individuals fighting it out, or small parties at worst.”

“Ah, but it’s a little bigger than that when you drove out the refugees who settled there.”

“Still not nearly as big as your wars! And we did welcome them, even helped them settle in. The Grandest Forest is free for all! But then they started making it less free! They stopped us from going where we want! They complained about every little thing! They gave random people funny hats and claimed that those funny hat people could just tell us what to do, and we had to listen!” Elfrafim huffed angrily, crossing her arms. “Well, they were wrong! They don’t have anything over us! We slapped them right down!!”

Elfrafim did slap a nearby tree, and it went toppling down from having a big chunk of its trunk blown off.

“Did that tree have a funny hat too?” I asked.

“Yes!” Elfrafim breathed. “Oh wait, no. It didn’t. It was just in the way.”

Our destination finally came into view shortly after, and we all stopped for a moment to appreciate it.

“I had to retreat last time, but today is different!” Elfrafim shouted at the weird mountain. “We’re making it to the center and hunting it dry!”

Grandpa laughed. “Same here! I had far too little time to explore it before, but I’m sure I could’ve taken all of it on!”

Astan squawked, and chose to alight on his armored shoulder.

We continued walking and soon left behind the wonderzone.

~~~

Heartnail greeted us personally, before we could step one foot into the Jilan Mountain. It was the first of their mountains that actually contained a full city or two.

“You made it.” She looked us over. “So this is your party. It’s a very powerful one.” Her gaze then landed on my grandpa, and she reminisced for a moment.

“You’re dying.”

My face creased into an ugly frown, but I knew she already had to pull some pretty hard strings to even allow Grandpa into Genoz territory. I steeled myself to not react any further.

“I got old. It’s normal,” Grandpa made conversation casually. “But you actually look younger than I last saw you! Congratulations on fully stepping into Level 160, Creator Smith Heartnail! We might have not survived at all had you been this strong before!”

“The angels were very hard to kill. They just kept on reforming, and I wasn’t going to leave Genoz unguarded to chase them halfway across the continent.” She looked square at me. “Remember that, Haell.”

“I do hope it comes useful one day,” I shrugged, nonchalant. I never told her about my plan to kill an angel!!

The pleasantries… if it could be called that, soon ended.

What followed was a heavily expedited tour, but still enough for Grandpa to see the harpy and dwarven settlements under more normal conditions. He mused about how it might be like to fly, and cheered when I gave it a go and flew with the harpies. He appreciated the dwellings of the dwarves, and all the art they had on display.

He smiled contentedly at the end of these few days, as he softly said, “This is what we tried to destroy.”

I opened my mouth to speak, but couldn’t find the right words.

It’s not your fault? It definitely was.

Don’t worry about it? He probably should.

It’s in the past? Well, he’s here now. And to be honest, I didn’t think he ever did that much to repent. He was just nice to me. It made him a good grandfather. But maybe he was never a good person.

“Yeah,” I just smiled. “You tried.”

~~~

It was time to delve the very dangers that we came here for. We descended amountainface that led into the Geonesis Wonderzone. Already the vegetation was growing thinner as isolated spires of stone spiked out of the ground, and grew some scattered pieces of crystal and ore. This phenomenon only grew more severe, the closer we got to the chaotic Geonesis Mountain of natural stone that were seemingly frozen at war with each other.

That did not stop outposts from cropping up at all, from the usual towers, to the massive warehouses used to store all these metals. Railcarts were built into the severely disturbed mountainface, to transport the enormous amount of materials extracted from both the earth and the dead. Countless embassies, towns, and even outright sort-of foreign cities were built into the surrounding mountains. Many Duarchies had a presence here, and had the right to mine and rear their talents in this environment, otherwise the wars for this wonderzone would have never ever stopped.

And yet my group still stood out, especially with my gigantic grandfather, as we passed by the many dwarves and harpies moving about. They were the miners, guards, scouts, logistics, and other personnel for this whole massive operation.

We encountered our first special wonderzone monster in the form of a burkoza. It was a boar-goat of sorts, adapted for jumping between nearby walls or platforms. The creature rushed through the uneven steep ground, jumping between stone and wood, ready to gore us with both horns and tusks!

Its steps were suddenly halted by Elfrafim’s staff smashing right apart its skull!

The burkoza never even saw it coming.

“I’ve passed through here before,” my elven friend was already picking some choice cuts of meat, “and these guys taste the best! You have to try it!”

She tossed it over to me, Moonwash produced a metal basket where I deposited it, and then I began grilling with hellfire. My girlfriend guided me through it, to ensure that each slice was cooked to perfection.

It was done by the time we reached the base of the mountain. Elfrafim’s recommendation proved phenomenal no matter which seasoning it was we tried!

“This is a lot better than the jerky we made from the beasts!” Grandpa complained happily.

Astan squawked and went back down to eat. And because we’d finally reached our destination.

The Geonesis Mountain loomed before us, with its fingers of stone reaching out to every part of the world. Harpies flew across the air, keeping an eye out and ready to kill any monster that emerged. Dwarves participated in the defense, but were otherwise more focused on actually mining the ore. They loaded them unto carts, which were then transported towards the nearby mountains through the temporary rocky roads they’d carved out of the wonderzone. Those required some very regular maintenance, because the periodic shifts of the wonderzone would very quickly ruin them.

We fought more monsters along our way up. From the golams that covered their soft fleshy humanoid bodies in whatever ore it wished, to the pristaki lizards that snuck around and flashbanged people. The golams were actually very slow, using up all their strength to merely move their bodies once they’d thoroughly covered themselves; but one in particular did survive multiple attacks from me. The monsters could be any level, but this one was gold-ranked like me, and covered in herokane, some of it the refined pieces of actual armor. Its flesh was crushed inside its own shell, before I fully broke through its many layers of armor.

The pristakis were naturally born at gold-ranked, and what they tested was our perception. The lithe sneaky lizards could change colors like a chameleon, and then suddenly flash with a potent mix of light and sound if it wished to escape. My spatial senses could catch them, and allow me to keep on fighting even with some of my other senses disoriented. Grandpa’s instincts were sharp enough, that he actually never got caught himself. Elfrafim proved most effective against the lizards, as she could hear them from afar, and snipe them before they could react.

Moonwash mostly just trailed behind us, though she did occasionally send out blasts of magic so her fundamentals didn’t grow too rusty. What she was more interested in was sorting our loot, and occasionally getting me to get her some big chunks of ores and crystal with the pickaxe she brought. The materials were handed over to some dwarves and harpies nearby, whom we already had a prior deal with.

The wonderzone was an overall exceedingly easy affair for the five of us so far. But this weird mountain that we saw on the surface was truly just the tip of the Geonesis wonderzone. We decided to move on from it early, and Astan flew away to hang out with the harpies while we delved deeper. He was… too weak, and ill-suited, for what was to come.

~~~

“That’s going to come alive and swallow us,” I joked as we stood in front of the large hole that led inside the Geonesis mountain. It was one of many that dotted the whole mountainface, as I’d seen a lot of monsters coming and going from them. Just standing here, I immediately got attacked by a giocondra that came slithering out. I killed the very thick-scaled constrictor snake by chopping it up into many separate pieces.

“I thought you were going to let it swallow you!” Elfrafim complained.

“I meant this tunnel!” I gestured. “It kinda looks like a maw with all its weird protrusions.”

She opened her mouth wide, and then rummaged around her teeth. “You’re right!”

We stepped inside. I immediately felt aware of the squeeze of our surroundings. The tunnel was extremely unevenly shaped, filled with dips and divots, boulders and stalagmites. Every surface was filled with the ever-present ores and crystals, more so than the outside. Moonwash picked out the most valuable ones like Herokane, which she made my massive grandpa carry on his pack. It was some good progress to paying off what he owed, as a massive amount of raw Materials was the main condition Heartnail put for allowing him to come to her lands in the first place.

We didn’t get much of a chance to mine in peace, as the monsters were even thicker here. They easily noticed our attempts to mine. From carnivorous worms that roamed in swarms, to the same kind of hunter badger I once saw following that massive nokotush worm. The pristakis had an even stronger presence here, as they could be hiding behind every rock and surface we could find.

It was no trouble, as we wanted their flesh and bone and everything else anyway. I killed them and chopped them up and extracted their organs until we couldn’t carry any more.

We handed most of our loot over to the harpies outside, as most of these things were common anyway. We’d decided to think about keeping more once we actually found something rare and valuable.

~~~

We went deeper. There were many side tunnels here, but not all of us could enter them due to how big we could be. Elfrafim scouted ahead, and led us to the most interesting caverns. From ones that were a small ecosystem of their own, with mushrooms and moss, a lake and everything; to the smaller caves that were full of the more docile golams. They were very profitable to hunt, as they’d basically done half the mining for us already.

It grew progressively darker as we went, and I lit a torch with the blood red glow of hellfire. Only Elfrafim could see clearly, due to the sheer Level of her eyes. Grandpa technically should’ve been able to do the same… but age had taken its toll. I and Moonwash could still somewhat see even with literal zero light, but there was no point trying to tough it out. We wanted the monsters to come to us anyway.

And come they did.

We encountered a few dwarf-harpy teams on our way down, but we didn’t do much more than exchange a couple of greetings. Except for that one instance where they’d gotten caught in the webs of the theridares. Those were spiders adept at making hidden webs in dark places like this, and they were also known for ensnaring their prey with nets and pulling them in once they were close enough.

The black webs weren’t particularly vulnerable to flame, but so what? It just meant I had to burn hotter. They were still organic in nature, so my hellfire cleared them all and then sent the steel to mythril-rank creatures screeching once I’d caught them in my own personal hell.

“Thank you.”

“Yes, thank you!”

They bowed in gratitude to me, and then looked at my grandfather.

The party hesitated, until one dwarf among them bowed.

“Thank you.”

And then the rest followed.

“Thank you, Golex.”

~~~

We went back topside again to dump our loot, before making our way back down. There was no useful map to be found, as the maze of tunnels here could shift quite frequently, through the minor quakes like we were experiencing right now, or the regular activity of the monsters here.

“I think this is far enough,” Grandpa commented as he killed another one of the karibats. They were venomous sharp-fanged bats commonly found here, and he grimaced as he looked at the small drops of blood left on his arm. “Getting injured by monsters like this… I swear I was stronger in my youth!”

“I believe you, Gramps,” I said casually, sincerely. I examined the vast cavern, and then found a smaller cave to the side.

I entered it alone and waved goodbye.

Moonwash collapsed the tunnel and sealed me inside.

“ACCCKKK!! THE BETRAYAL!!” I joked, but my girlfriend took it way too seriously and immediately used her earth magic to poke her head in.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes. It was a joke. Carry on.”

“I see. Don’t scare me like that.”

I scratched my head. “Yeah… We’re in the middle of a wonderzone. I’m getting lax. That’s my bad.”

“It’s fine.” She closed the hole again.

“Oh noo…” I whispered silently, snickering.

My surroundings then shifted, as I found myself back in Pandemonium.

What followed was a complicated couple of hours, as I had to find Arx in some random mountain, hang out for a while until my teleport came back on, and then I had to bring him to Pandemonium like that without anyone seeing, after which I had to wait for another while before I could bring him back with me to Geonesis!

At least I got to give my friend a long overdue tour of my home!

“Wow,” he looked on in wonder, his leg digging into the soft and comfortable and wet flesh of the floor. “It’s very… you.”

“Isn’t it just?” I skipped happily and Arx followed. Pandemonium did have some more normal tunnels along the way, which I was sure he was very disappointed about. I didn’t want to bring him to the surface, as I and the rest of my team had decided that it was for the best if Arx’s existence was a complete and total surprise when we finally come to take the life of an angel. The best kind of surprise!

“This… is a lot of things.” He truly marveled once we reached Moonwash’s lab. If we were talking about the underground of Pandemonium, then this was the place to go! “You said this is the underground of your house, right?”

“Yep!” I confirmed happily as I showed him the ritual supplies, explained what they did, and gave detailed descriptions of the dashing battles I fought to get them. “Pandemonium is a manor, actually. And it’s a lot bigger here underground, than it is on the surface!”

The shelves shook from the compliment, and spilled a few bottles.

“Oh shit! Arx, what did you do???”

“What!? I didn’t do anything!”

I cackled. “I kid. It’ll be fine. I’m sure it’s nothing important.”

“Uhh… is it nothing important?”

“Doesn’t matter. It’s not like the glass actually broke. We don’t use stuff that brittle here.”

“Oh yeah. You’re right. Hey, why is that one bubbling?”

“Hm? OH SHIT!” I grabbed the bottle, and then frantically looked for where to toss it, but we were surrounded by important supplies on all sides!

The floor screamed, and I shoved my hand into that mouth. The lips closed around my arm, and the explosion happened inside.

“Whew.” I pulled my hand back out, with the small patches of peeled skin already healed.

“That was stupid.”

“You’re stupid.”

We berated each other like that until we reached the next attraction, from empty rooms used for rituals, to Moonwash’s various ‘pets’ used for experiments.

“Actually, they’re not pets,” I amended. “It sounds too sinister, when I call these caged monsters pets.”

“I mean, it is sinister. That’s honest.”

“No, no. They’re more… lab rats?”

“They’re not rats. Except for the ones that are rats.”

“You know what I mean!”

“I don’t.”

“It’s a thing from my world. The animals we usually use for experiments are some kind of rats or mice.”

“Ah, so those are the pets you torture.”

“They’re not pets!”

We moved on from those displays, and toured more of Moonwash’s labs. I showed him our hellfire forge, and then the other special rooms of Pandemonium. From the healing pods, to the creepiest ritual hall. He loved the more mundane settings, of our library, the kitchens, plain living rooms, and more. We had some farms setup, where Pandemonium had created huge enclosures for the kinds of creatures we liked to hunt or have a stable supply of, like the horned rabbid with its illusion magic. Arx saw the eyes that covered the roofs, constantly watching, though not the ones on the outside of the walls as there would be too much risk of exposure.

It was Pandemonium who kept an eye out to make sure we didn’t encounter anyone during the tour. Not Berry, the Demon Aspires, nor my parents.

I didn’t even get to say hi… but that was fine. I literally lived with them. We could hang out whenever I wanted.

Finally, we arrived back at the teleportation room filled with my same Mark of The Beast, just as my teleportation powers had come off cooldown.

“Sorry for being annoying…” Arx said before I initiated the teleport. “It’s just…”

“Hey, I get it.” I tapped him on the carapace and smiled. None of the actual annoyance I felt was real. “You know that.”

“Yeah…” he smiled with his mandibles. “I’d love to come back. Maybe when everyone’s here.”

“Anytime.”

The teleportation took hold, and we soon found ourselves back… in some random cramped cave.

“Ow,” Arx said. It was a tight fit for him. And he was also way too big to not be damaged by the teleport.

My friend began to dig himself out, and easily surfaced to where the rest of our party was.

“I’m back!” He exclaimed.

“Woo!”

“Welcome back!”

“Hello.”

~~~

“Man,” Grandpa reminisced, “we’ve been through a lot of fights while you were gone.”

“Yeah yeah!” Elfrafim nodded repeatedly.

“There was this Level 160 monster we encountered, but we showed it who’s boss.” I flexed an arm.

“Whoa, really?” Arx asked.

“It’s true,” Moonwash confirmed blandly.

“We even met this dragon of the… love element!” Grandpa improvised. “And we turned it into hate!”

Arx looked at the rest of us blankly. “You’re messing with me.”

“YES!” I cackled, and we continued travelling.

“Wait,” Elfrafim warned a few tunnels and fights later. It was good to have Arx here, as he could also carry a pretty big load.

“Oh, is it another dragon?” he snarked.

“No, I’m serious. Detour.”

“Eh, why?”

“You’re trying to hide, remember?”

Arx paused for a second. I thought he looked a little bit sad. “Ah, you’re right. Let’s go.”

We were long gone by the time the delving party Elfrafim detected arrived.

~~~

A brilliant light shone along the blood red darkness of the tunnel around us. The hellfire on Moonwash’s torch should’ve turned back to the normal orange of fire by now, but I kept replacing it because I liked the vibe.

We all swallowed our quips, and nodded at each other. I put out the torch, while Moonwash produced a necklace with only a mild glow. It was enough for the both of us, with the worst eyes here, to see properly.

We moved forward, and found exactly the kind of monster I wished to see.

Hideous. Ugly. Outright disgusting. The anglerfrog was a lumpy warty creature with the face of a frog, except without the eyes. It had the bearing of a heavy quadruped, with a stupid sort of antenna that extended from its head. At the end of that protrusion was a very bright lightsource that easily drew the eye.

“RIbBiiT.” The monster croaked as if vomiting, and searing light instantly flashed towards us. It burned my eyes and rendered me blind, and I heard similar expletives from my allies. I healed myself and healed them too, but even the tougher and more resistant of us had their vision hampered by the bright ‘lantern’ that continued to shine.

The ugly monster had leapt for us during our moment of distraction, but Grandpa was able to intercept the leap. He buckled heavily from the force, but the hero of the past wasn’t alone. Arx counter-leapt and crashed right into the angler frog. It croaked as it was tossed halfway across the medium sized cavern, wherein Arx laid into it with his frontal claws. Elfrafim then caught up and started clubbing it to death with her staff. The light shining from the monster’s antenna began to heal its many wounds. Arx had to retreat eventually, as the monster’s goop sprayed out of its wounds, carrying both acid and poison. I shot him another heal just before my Resentment throbbed through my mind.

“AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRHHHHH!!!” I screamed. What was I, a pirate!?

I charged. My steps were deafening in this enclosed space. Devilcalibur smashed right into the base of its hanging antenna-lantern lure, and ripped it off its ugly face!

“You stupid thing!!” Why the fuck would you have your magical focus hanging on such a thin string! Now your magic was entirely cut off!

“Earth Drill.”

Moonwash’s ritual finished, from the patch of wall she’d flattened. An earthen drill emerged from it as the surrounding stone collapsed, and then it shot right into the anglerfrog!!

It ribbited in pain as it was tossed into a wall by the force. Light shone from inside its body as the earthen construct shattered, but the light element just worked better when cast from outside. Grandpa caught up, and then began hacking into the dying frog. I did the same, but the monster’s shrieks of agony were silenced too soon as it succumbed to its wounds.

“You stupid disgusting shit! You’re supposed to be defense-focused! You can’t even do that right!!”

“Haell. Don’t ruin my Materials.”

“Ah, yes hun.” I put the pouty Resentment to sleep.

“Hun?” Elfrafim asked.

“It’s the curse,” I reflexively claimed.

“That’s a very weird curse.” Arx smirked with his mandibles. “The Lovey Dovey Curse. So scary.”

“I like it,” Moonwash said.

My mind worked for a few seconds, until I just shrugged. “It just came out in the moment, but sure! Why not, hun!!!”

“Good.”

~~~

Elfrafim came across another Level 80 monster, but it was one far more troublesome than the last. It was a charaptor, which was a fat stocky raptor that could use earth magic.

We were underground. Surrounded on all sides by earth.

“I vote we don’t go,” Arx immediately said.

“Bah! We can take it,” Grandpa boasted.

“Yeah, yeah!” Elfrafim cheered.

“BLOOD!!!” I roared.

“That’s a hero-rank magical focus,” Moonwash said. “I want it. Although, I do have one for the earth element already.” That was thanks to the endrasen I killed. And the one Arx killed, which we bought from him. “It’s not essential, but I still want to get the charaptor if possible. I can make another staff with it. The endrasen’s focus is built more heavily for one specific use of earth magic, whereas the charaptor should have a normal one from all that I can tell. I might have some use for its other parts too.”

“Democracy sucks,” Arx muttered once we began to plan.

~~~

I stood before the charaptor. It was staying in this tunnel that was particularly wide, but was only twice as spacious as the monster’s bulk. We had thought over this highly intelligent and sophisticated plan very thoroughly, which I initiated by myself.

“CHAAARGEE!!!” I screamed. I dashed right for my enemy. The charaptor woke up to Devilcaliubur having taken a chunk out of its torso. It roared, and I felt the earth magic suffocating my surroundings, so I immediately turned with my tail and ran the fuck away!

An earthquake chased after me. Spikes fell from the ceiling, and maws tried to drag me into the floor. I could not trust any surface, so I began to fly with all my might. I managed to escape its range just before the next turn came up, and I booked it again on hoof. The charaptor followed me, until I reached the largest open cavern we could find. The usual abstraction of the earth in this place had been cleared out and flattened by us. And in the center of all that, was an intricately beautiful ritual circle.

The charaptor did not enter, aware of the abnormal intensity of the greater magic. Unfortunately for the monster, the choice was not up to it. Elfrafim came rushing from behind the large creature, and blasted it into the large cavern.

“Icicle Age.”

Moonwash’s voice echoed, nigh ethereal. A whole mass of icicles then slammed into the disoriented charaptor. They pierced through and dug in, but so little blood flowed as the droplets froze over its skin. The monster screamed a fading shout, as its body grew stiff and pained from the frost spreading across its bloodstream. It was still tough enough to snap the icicles off and shake the cavern with its magic, but that was when the rest of us rushed in to finish the job.

Arx slammed into it in an explosion of violence. Grandpa expertly whaled into the monster’s most vulnerable parts with his greatsword. Elfrafim and I joined last, tenderizing flesh if not outright carving it off. Its death throes sent painful blasts of stones and spikes, boulders and more crashing into us, but its magic was limited by Moonwash contesting its control over the surrounding earth. Her regular magic wasn’t a match for the monster, but it was enough to let us survive its final struggle.

~~~

“Whoa,” Arx looked around at the bright and shining space, swiveling his head.

“It’s so preeettyyy…!” Elfrafim was mesmerized by the gleaming crystals and metal within.

“I’m glad I got to see this. I’m glad it was with you lot.” A single tear rolled down Grandpa’s face as he looked at the city-sized cavern filled not with exposed ores and crystal veins, but exactly their cleaned and refined versions. “The army I brought before would not have been able to take me here. No… That’s not it. Maybe we would have eventually, if Eden or those angels helped me. But they were far more interested in subjugating those good harpies and dwarves. People who were willing to allow me this one adventure here after I’ve already attacked them before…”

I clapped the massive man on the back, before I walked past him. I stood right at the very edge of the tunnel opening we’d finally found to the heart of the Geonesis Wonderzone. This place was definitely far below that single mountain we could see on the surface.

The tunnel ended halfway up the massive cavern that rivaled Genoz’s dwarven capital Zalganin in size. It made for a fantastic view of the shimmering crystals and metal that truly covered every surface. I watched the magnificent landscape, and sure enough, I soon spotted a massive beetle-millipede monster get ambushed and killed by a bat that suddenly dropped from the ceiling. I could swear it was just a normal crystal, and not a bat. The power of that thing must’ve been on the same level as the archangels I’d never met, or of Heartnail who had stepped into that realm.

The natural world truly remained the same no matter where I went.

“It’s beautiful.”

“It is.” Moonwash held my hand. “I want it all.”

I began cackling right at the very edge.