Reject Human. Become Demon. [Curse Mage Berserker]

“Whoa!”

“Who are you guys!?”

“Welcome, welcome!”

“What is she!?”

I landed in the middle of a colorful elven village with Moonwash on my arms. I smiled at them in genuine joy, for they truly did seem like nice people. The kind so easy to get along with. I was just too frantic and harried to engage with any of them at all the last time I visited. I’d been so rude, when they’d done nothing but be welcoming.

But now I had the opportunity to get to know them again. That didn’t have to be the end of my relationship with the elves. Sure, I’d made a terrible first impression, but so did Elfrafim when we first met, and we turned out to be the best of friends.

That and this was an entirely different elven village, around only the size of an actual village in ground area, if you only count the actual houses. They’d filled many plots of land with random installations. And this was all without counting how their homes extended well into the sky, resting along the mountain-tall trees.

“Hey!” I called. “I am Haell Zharignan, a demon west of the Impenetrable Barrier Range that I just penetrated. I have come to visit. Thank you for the warm welcome.”

“OH! Sounds familiar! I think I’ve heard about her!”

“Yeah! Elfrafim talked about her when she came by!”

“Right, yeah!”

“Hello Haell!”

“What’s a demon??”

I raised a brow, but then shrugged. It made sense that Elfrafim had returned to her homeland. It appeared that she knew some people in this village here.

“Hello,” Moonwash did only the bare minimum of a greeting, before immediately asking about one of the many sculptures around us. “What’s that pink elephant that’s riding a small pony?”

The elves did not mind the abrupt change in subject at all.

“Oh! That’s mine! The elephant is in pink because he’s seen a lot of bloodshed, but it’s now fading into something mellower and sweeter, after some help. That’s what the pony is! It’s us. And we carry him and his burdens so the blood may be washed away.”

“I see. That’s very clever. I’d like to learn more about how you guys do symbolism because I’ve seen from Elfrafim that it’s very different from what I’m used to.”

“Oh, of course, of course! Right this way!”

“This is a painting of Piercelf The Dragonslayer putting up a very good fight against Gaianess. She asked Handelfson to make that before she challenged the Nature Dragon. That idiot…”

“Look over here! I made this tree, but made of stone and metal!”

“Oh! This one? We don’t know who made it, but someone just bolted this fleeing man into the ground without anyone noticing! It’s so funny!”

“Hey, hey… I drew this for my mom yesterday. Is it good?”

“It’s not to my tastes, but I’m sure your parents appreciate it.” Well. That’s the best Moonwash can do.

“Oh…”

“Don’t worry, kid. Art is subjective, so what matters is that you think it’s good.” She took a closer look. “Next time, I’ll keep track of not spilling her, and these shadows are good, you need to emphasize it more.”

The elven boy thought about the advice, his face changing in expression too many times, before finally just accepting it. “Okay!”

“What’s that blue sun?” Moonwash turned around and asked about a different painting.

“Hmm? I inverted the heavens!” An elven man posed and flexed. “I made the sun blue and the sky golden white! Isn’t it cool!?”

“Yeah. It does look cool.”

“How did you make this?” She came across a very realistic-looking sculpture of an elf next. He was on the hunt. “It’s metal, but almost feels like skin.”

“Oh! It’s an alloy made using fantastreel and resin…” the woman explained the whole formula, which Moonwash took extensive notes of.

“Is this a trashcan?” My girlfriend then paused, about to throw away the bone of the chicken-ish legs we’d been eating that someone just handed to us earlier. “Why is it like that? Or is that art too?” The trashcan had the head of an elf, but only a triangle mustache for a face.

“It's definitely art. My brother made it! But that one's Adelf Helfler. A total villain! They’re all really bad elves, and sometimes not-elves. That's what the trashcans mean. Thankfully they're all dead."

“Elfstina isn’t dead though. She faked it!”

“I don’t think that’s true.”

"We killed them good!"

"Adelf actually killed himself."

"Well, yeah. But we kinda did it to him. My great great great great great great great great great grandmother was there!"

"Really, what was his deal?”

"All elves are elves. Why was he so obsessed with our skin?"

"It's so easy to change too! But that doesn't mean he can just force us all to do it!"

“Yeah, What the fuck!"

My girlfriend turned around and continued to tour everything they had on display. The elves were happy to explain all the art they had out on the streets. Even the ground underneath our hooves was worthy of examination, for it could be made of shining tiles one moment, and then be a massive carved piece of a bunny made of ice cream the next step.

I could never predict what might come next, for it was all very chaotic, as there was clearly no settlement planning at all. People just built whatever they wanted, case in point the slime pit that someone was just making right across from us!

“Hi!” the elven woman waved.

“Hello!” I waved back.

I love it! I decided. I loved everything about this place. Well, maybe not everything, like that painting that was just one shade of blue across the whole canvas… I really did not get the point! But that’s okay! I loved even that incomprehensible part of the village. I loved how all of this art and creativity was just freely out on the streets. I loved their overlapping voices, which might have been annoying, if not for their inherent melody.

Some elves genuinely sang high above the branches, and it was predictably the most beautiful thing I’d ever heard. Others yet danced along several raised stages, or created pits. They used a variety of different instruments I’d never seen before, one apparently outright unique, created by one individual elf. She immediately made arrangements to make the piano-guitar-drum-thingy-flute with Moonwash later the moment my girlfriend showed interest.

“Are you like this everyday?” I asked as an elven woman made for us pizza, just because I asked for something to eat.

“Hmm? Like what?” She and a few others asked.

“Oh, you know… This festive?”

“Festive?”

“Oooohhh! Festive’s good!”

“Yeah! It’s very fun!”

“We don’t always have a demon to escort around, but today’s about as special as any other otherwise, yeah.”

“I see. Nice.” I sat with Moonwash on some random bench to eat, only for it to suddenly be as soft and heavenly as a cloud!

Gah! Again!? What the fuck is this!? Can we move here???

“Hi, hello!” an elven man with a very dark aesthetic happily called out to us once I was halfway into our delicious meal.

“Me?” I confirmed between one juicy bite and the next. They’re fucking good cooks too! They’re just really good at whatever they do!! Once again, I wanna move here!!!

“Yes, you!” he sat right next to us and handed Moonwash a book. “There’s this book that I recently read, that I think you will love too!”

“Dalfula the Misunderstood Alf,” She read aloud the title of the work.

I leaned over her shoulder to also have a look.

With a gothic elf on the cover, and a synopsis on the back like normal, it appeared to be about Dalfula the totally not elf, but was instead a super dark and brooding species with a penchant for the darker arts like curses, and a love for sex and blood… possibly at the same time???

“Well, why not?” I laughed, and tossed it into my pack. “I’ll give it a try, but no promises whether I’ll like it or not.”

“You’ll love it, I promise!”

“Cool. Where do I return this to you? I don’t really know when I’ll finish it.” I remembered hearing from Elfrafim that elves often moved in and out of places. Plenty of them even just roughed it out in the woods, or created random huts in random trees. She’d even done it herself a couple of times, just for fun.

“Return? Why would you return it? It’s a gift!” He smiled broadly. “Actually, I should start making more copies. I’m running out!”

He took out a stack of papers and just started transcribing the book at a rapid pace.

I raised a brow. “You’re not the author, right? Can you just make copies of it?”

“Of course I can! I’m doing it right now!”

I blinked, and then chuckled. “That you are.”

I talked to Welfaren a bit more, as I began to understand that his same method was exactly how literature propagated throughout the Grandest Forest.

One elf would just write a story that they liked and thought was awesome. Someone else might like it and then make more copies, which they would then give to their friends, family, or just random strangers. A book’s popularity only exploded further from there, potentially reaching all corners of this half of the continent, if enough elves thought the tale was mad awesome!

…It admittedly still made me a little uncomfortable, getting everything for just free like this, especially coming from abject strangers. But one among their number–Elfernando–had already given back to me my lover and friend free of charge. I knew that their generosity was genuine. I would just have to be just as generous in turn.

It was a harder instinct to suppress than I thought, having come from multiple very transactional societies across two entire lives. But I was nothing if not a master at keeping my emotions in check.

~~~

“Hey, you hear about the kelpie that appeared in the new swamp?”

My ears perked up as I picked up one specific conversation amid a sea of beautiful voices.

“Yeah, I did! I wanted to try my hand at capturing it myself, but Paratelf had already died trying…” One elf started crying, soon joined by many others.

“Oh no, he’s dead…?”

“Yeah…”

“May he rest in peace and find a worthy new life.” A large number of the elves fell into a rare moment of silence for a rare few seconds, and I stopped what I was doing to show respect with them.

“I wanna take on the kelpie too, but Elfuschia already refused when I asked her for help,” the spell was soon broken and a dozen different conversations continued.

“Entraqelf doesn’t feel like doing it either. I asked them.”

“Hmmm… I don’t know of anyone else, and it’s too dangerous to try without getting one of the ancient elves on our side.”

“Yeah…”

“I wish I was an ancient elf.”

“Don’t worry Drakelf! You’ll get there!”

“I will! But the kelpie is right there right now! I can’t grind to 160 that quickly! It’ll be long dead once I’m ready.”

“True, true.”

“Oh, OH! I’m close! I’m at 150!”

“You’ve been at one-fifty for centuries, Felfel.”

“Yeah, well, my elven ears leveled to 152 last decade! How’s that, huh!??”

“I’ll do it.” That was when I finally decided to walk into their conversation. “I’ll take on the kelpie.”

“OOOOoooooooooooooohhhhh!”

“Hi Haell!”

“Hello!”

“I’m so curious! How does a demon fight???”

“But aren’t you too weak?”

Count your lucky stars that I’m always in control. I gave the elven woman who said that a little glare as I explained.

“No. I’m able to contend with Mythical beings.” Or Mythical Rank. That was the more common way of referring to level 160 existences.

“Wow!”

“Amazing!”

“Really though? It’s super hard to believe.”

“Yeah! Quit bragging.”

My eye twitched, and I punched the sky. The sound of reality cracking roared across their ears.

“Whoa.”

“What the fuck?”

One of the elves I’d just been talking to glanced around, and then frowned at me. “Can you please not do that here? There are children around, and they’re not very high level, so the sound hurt some of their ears. And you scared a number of them.”

I narrowed my eyes, but looked around to confirm her words, and found that they were true. Some elven kids were amazed, of course, but a few of the closest ones were indeed in pain, while others yet had run or hid away. The many adults of the village now realized the same thing, and they looked at me with reproach, or even a little hostility. I reflexively returned the glare, before catching myself and… lowering my head, just a little.

“Shit. I’m sorry. That’s my bad.”

The spell broke, and the elves returned to being all smiles.

“Alright, forgiven!”

“Don’t do it again!”

“But wow, what was that!?”

“Is she really only Level 80?”

“Maybe she was using some sound magic? It has to be fake.”

“It’s not! I was looking! I saw it!”

“Me too!”

I turned back to the elves who were discussing a kelpie hunt earlier.

“So… You still open to hunting a kelpie with me?”

“Uh, sure!”

“That was awesome, Haell! Just, time and place!”

“Can you do that consistently, or was that like just some limited super massive power?”

“Consistently.” I punched the air again, but this time with a film of space that let me bypass the wind, resulting in no explosive sound like before.

“Ooooohhhh!!”

“What, what? It was just as fast, but no sonic boom???”

“This is… some sort of spatial distortion?”

“Why didn’t you just do this earlier, then!?”

“Wow!”

And so it was decided that I would hunt with them.

~~~

I arrived at the swamp with a veritable army of hundreds of elves in tow. They happily skipped across loose soil and roots as I took it all in. From the massive fallen trees creating entire habitats of their own, to the massive mushrooms that grew off their corpse. It was all submerged in the murky water, that was entirely made of thick mud in some places. It bubbled and frothed along many parts, sometimes seemingly without a source.

Spells flew into the swamp. The attacks were of a variety of strengths, but most commonly of the wind or nature elements. The elves who came with me ranged from Level forty to well into the hundreds. They brought their suprasoar or mooseract companions too, the former being those wind birds like Astan, while the latter were green-furred moose with extra flowery designs capable of wielding the nature element. They were both species that achieved full sapience at Level 40, and naturally, only those who’d reached that point were able to join this expedition.

“Frost-Wide-Spread.”

A Level 80 frog froze, along with a chunk of swamp, as Moonwash went through the hand signs. The elves were amazed, and they quickly crowded her to ask questions.

“Wow, wow! Amazing, Wow!”

“What was that!?”

“A ritual? But it was so fast!”

“It was already made! How is it still so strong?”

“Are you really Level 80 too???”

“Yes, I’m over Level 80. I call it my talisman magic. It works by creating ritual-like things on pieces of wood in advance, followed by a preserving process in resin…”

My girlfriend freely shared her knowledge, as was her right and her choice. I wondered how many of them would even master it, given that Elfrafim was never able to do it, and Elfernando was still struggling.

We continued deeper into the territory, until we finally found the kelpie, half-submerged yet still a very massive horse that would surely tower over the trees of my homeland. Its fur was brown-green and sickly looking, yet at the same time full of sick vitality. The monster naturally knew we were here, and promptly charged for an attack!

The spells of many elves hit it, but plenty more went completely wide, for they could hardly see the beast and its surging speed. The sheer number of projectiles still took their toll, but sure enough, the kelpie shrugged it off and healed itself, for it was a regenerator like me! Our enemy threatened to so quickly overwhelm our ranks as all life around it very quickly succumbed and died. From vines, to fish, to mushrooms; everything rotted in a very familiar scene as the kelpie unleashed its decay magic!

Stupiud thing. A mere shadow of my curses. Everything it could do, my curses could do as well. Decay was just a little easier on the psyche, especially as this monster too had a repository to isolate its own mana, the pathetic thing. Decay was only an element for the weak and the weak-willed. Those who could not brave the same hells I have!

The monster barreled right through the barrage of the elves, but was finally forced to a stop once I met its charge and unleashed a massive attack of my own!

The Confluence of Curse!

I leapt up and smashed Atrocity across its head! The monster reared back and neighed as its skull was cracked, and its face began to melt! Green miasma then pressed on my body and caused me to cough out vile black blood, but I stepped on thin air, and immediately regained some distance as I healed. The kelpie turned around and started galloping away through the marshy terrain.

I gave chase. Space compressed mud and soil. I stepped on water and even the dimensional fabric itself. Moonwash had made these new hoofshoes for me, taking advantage of another spatial concept she had touched upon that I was only beginning to understand.

I started to catch up, but only slowly. I melted my blood, bent space to my will, and even opened my wings, but even that was only barely enough for me to keep up in this terrain. We soon left the swamplands, where I finally found my chance!

THERE!

I shot forward and raised Atrocity high. My eyes widened, when I found my opponent's hooves already right in front of my face. I twisted myself around, stepped on the fabric of this dimension, and glitched out of the way. The kelpie’s hindkick still reached me, and my tail twisted me around for one final time to bring Atrocity up to meet the attack!

BOOM!

All that, and I still found myself violently flung away! I rolled and bounced and got buried six feet under the ground. I only finally came to a stop after tearing through a whole trunk and a hundred layers of this place’s massive entangled root system.

I groaned and got up, vomiting blood and feeling like my organs would come next. Maybe they already did, pulped as they were.

“Fuck. My armor’s ruined.” Moonwash’s masterpiece, the Void Maiden.

~~~

I breathed in relief when the Void Maiden proved easy enough to repair and remake, especially with the help of JuicyCherry Village’s elves. They were very interested in the creation process of the Void Maiden themselves. I and Moonwash had a lot of fun spending time with them, until it was finally time to give that kelpie the revenge match it wanted!

The monster immediately ran away at the first sight of me, and actually managed to lose my tail!

I blinked, alone, staring blankly at the trampled swamp that surrounded me. Mud bubbled nearby and splashed me with its grime. A frog croaked nonchalantly, and it was set on fire with my glare.

I groaned, for the kelpie had escaped me again!

~~~

I don’t know if I like this plan. I frowned as I approached the kelpie again. The damned beast kept on running away from me every single time. But I couldn’t let it go now, I was already invested! Moonwash and the elven army that supported us felt the same way!

I made sure I was in the right position, and then dashed right for my target. The kelpie swiftly reacted, soon sprinting out of the swamp. I chased it over dead trees, and even under the dirty water, making sure that we were still going in the right direction. The monster had escaped me by the time we left its home swamp, but I kept going towards the promised land!

“Nature-Root-Restraints.”

Moonwash rapidly uttered the words from afar, and the talisman ritual echoed in my head like a gong. I finally found the kelpie, now swarmed by a thousand roots and vines. The restraints were quickly failing, snapping off and rotting away under the kelpie’s power. The tree that Moonwash was on collapsed under its hefty weight as the base was entirely decimated. My girlfriend jumped off it, as did the many other elves previously participating in the plan to delay the beast.

Good. She’s safe.

They hardly managed to keep the monster in check for a few seconds, but that was enough. It was an eternity in battle, especially for living myths such as us.

I caught up, and found the kelpie’s hooves barreling right towards me. The same fucking trick, I snarled and glitched out of the way! I made sure to rake Atrocity through the monster’s hindlegs along the way!

I arrived under the creature, and swiftly sliced through all hooves many times over. Decay magic pressed on me, but hellfire burned even miasma to ashes, while space magic protected me from all sides. That was certainly not enough to completely defeat my opponent’s magical barrage, my elements were just not right for it, but I dodged, sliced, tanked, and fucking healed the rest. I would not let my prey escape again!

Sure enough, the coward tried to run away, but I easily kept up and chopped off an entire leg! Its hooves tried to individually kick at me, but Atrocity smashed them off each time. I zig-zagged around, I flew, I ran through ground and air! Atrocity reaped a bountiful harvest, bringing my enemy close to death over and over, as its regeneration desperately tried to hold it together.

Its face fell off several times as the skull cracked and brain leaked out, yet still I had to chase this monster across a massive range of forest. Moonwash and the elves returned, to whittle down and butcher this beast before me. Parts flew off and regrew, entire hooves and legs included, until I finally caught my opponent with most of its mobility sealed.

I rose and then crashed back down like a meteor, nearly decapitating it entirely. Its flesh struggled to knit itself together, so pumped full of anti-healing. I collapsed this dimension across one fine point, to deliver the dimensional slash that finally ended the mythical kelpie’s struggle.

Its head rolled, and the cheers began.

“WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!”

“YEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

“THAT WAS SO COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

“FUCK YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Possibly this world’s strongest army jumped and celebrated, and I was right there with them, screaming the loudest!

~~~

I scooped more wine from the community barrel and handed Moonwash back her mug.

“Thank you,” she said, as I sat beside her and enjoyed the festive night.

Elves sang and danced, although that was just how they normally acted. But they still amped it up for tonight, for we had taken down and brought home the corpse of a mythical kelpie. Everyone got at least a slice of its meat, just as I dipped mine in sauce and savored the flavor. Many parts of it remained so fresh and juicy, despite all the curses I pumped into the thing, perhaps because of its all-powerful regenerative abilities.

“That was great!”

“Hey! Hello!”

“What’chu guys doin’?”

A bunch of elves approached us, the same ones we worked with for the kelpie subjugation quest.

“Enjoying a quiet moment,” I answered. “Your people’s hospitality has been great.”

“Hehe! You too!” They sat beside us. “Not everyone adapts to life here quite as fast as you!”

I shrugged. “We have elven friends. We know the deal.”

“Yeah! You’re totally our friends too!”

We continued to chat as we watched the magic lightshows the elves below showed off. I talked about that previous battle as they once again gushed about how strong I was for my level. Some were still skeptical if I was disguising my Level somehow, which did admittedly grow annoying, so I just ignored those remarks. It was just impossible to prove!

Well, maybe not completely impossible. But I’m not willing to let them try to Identify me.

Moonwash talked about the kelpie, especially its many other inedible parts. There were so many possibilities for it, so my girlfriend was already hard at work deciding on so many new joint projects. Most of the kelpie’s corpse was understood to be ours for the most part, but the other elves also expected to get something from it, and none of this was discussed beforehand!

At least most of them are happy to take the meat and share it with friends.

There was really no need to overthink it. Moonwash just needed to pick out what she wanted. If someone else wanted the same part, then they would discuss it, but it would be resolved just fine between them, especially with the whole community around us.

They weren’t here to fuck us over. I needed to stop approaching every interaction like I’m making a deal with any merchant.

“We’re having an orgy later!” one elf suddenly announced, and I looked up, blinking at the magical fireworks. The night wore on, and the festivities only seemed to ramp up. “You guys wanna come?”

“Hmm?” I hesitated, unsure at first if he was asking me. Deja-vu, I’d been asked this same question so many times in the past. But alas, this was a new life. “Nah. We’re monogamous.”

“OOooooooohhhh.”

“You’re doing that thing!”

“Nice!”

“Good for you… I think?”

“I don’t get it, but I hope you’re happy!”

“It makes sense. They’re not from here.”

“Hey! Don’t be racist! People outside can be cool too!”

“Now you’re the one being racist, Elford.”

“GAH!”

The sub-Level-80 elven woman who was the most excited to battle earlier just shook her head at her companions, “Sorry about them. But tell us if you change your mind, okay? You’re both very cool! And hot! Hot and cool!”

“Sure. I’ll keep you updated,” I chuckled.

The very attractive elves with the beautiful voices soon left, jumping from branch to branch in their colorful outfits.

I glanced back at Moonwash, and couldn’t help but ask, “Just to confirm. You are still set on monogamy, right?”

“Yes. I definitely won’t change my mind right after you just proposed last month.”

“Right,” I winced, and then laughed. “Let’s borrow the most fun room they have, then! See what they got!”

“Okay. They gave me some toys earlier that I’ve been dying to try out.”