The carapace of a rare gold-ranked cursetacean melted. I and Moonwash suffered some meager retaliation from the dead flesh. I barely cared for it, any damage swiftly healed. I still made sure to extend my healing to my girlfriend, even if the effect of some unstructured corpse like this was bound to be limited.

  It was actually quite hard to get a hold of this Material here in New Grandera. It wasn’t outright illegal like in Edengar, but we just did not encounter cursetaceans all that often. Or rather, the Angel’s Demise as they were really called, had no quarrel with us, and thus stayed out of our affairs.

  The way I got this one was even weirder, however. I went near the shores of the continent to find some stragglers, which I did. After which, I found that a few of them were content to just allow me to take them wherever I wished. They never retaliated. This was definitely not normal, because while they usually did not attack non-Edengarians, they would still retaliate if you pushed your luck.

  I just put it out of my mind and continued forging.

  Molten metal of different sorts was mixed with liquified biologicals. An alloy was formed of herokane and carapace, hardened into ingots. I smashed and melded them together, shaping their outcome under the heat of our hellfire forge. Moonwash instructed me only for the general form, until she took over and allowed the heat to sear her flesh. All so she could continue to work her craft.

  I was right there behind her, healing and supporting.

  Finally, the armor made of vengeanite was finished. It was what we had named the alloy that we further refined with Steelballs. The active vengeful properties of the Angel’s Demise, but with the hardness of herokane. Both attributes were still made weaker by being diluted like this, but the armor really wasn’t all that weaker than my regular deathmetal.

  Besides…

  Mana began to seep out of my skin, and then weaved into the black-gray armor that covered me. It was full of spikes and other violent motifs, and now its ability to dole violence had grown even more. Far beyond the standard of the living gold-ranked Angel’s Demise, for my power too sought to enact vengeance all on its own.

  I felt a sudden suffocating shadow behind me, but when I turned around with a whole arsenal of hellflames and curses, the dragon that I felt was already gone.

  Why the fuck would there be a dragon under my house anyway? That’s stupid.

  ~~~

  “But where’s Eden?” I wondered as I bathed in the blood of my enemies and listened to their final burning screams. Projectiles arced over the air and fell towards me as a thousand soldiers delivered themselves to my blade. It was a sight I’d nearly forgotten, as the fear of me had grown in my enemies, but thanks to Eden giving them new hope and raising their morale, I got to enjoy their struggles for a little while longer.

  Still, the crucial queen of Edengar herself had never shown. This was the fifth battlefield I’d flipped right over its head over the past months, yet we still hadn’t come across her. And here I’d gotten myself so pumped up too!

  Give me back my hype! My excitement! You fucking coward!!

  Face me, Bitch Queen!! Stop running away!!!

  I took a deep breath, and just let it out slowly. Devilcalibur swung, and the wrathful shockwave slew dozens.

  I would not shy away from a fight if it came to me, but I decided not to force it.

  If she didn’t want to face me right this instant, then just as well.

  I had so many other tricks left to discover. I wasn’t her Level yet, but I was fast approaching. Whereas, Eden was nothing but a washed-up queen who’d grown stagnant. I’d heard as a kid that she was around Level 80, and that hadn’t changed. I could get so much stronger while she would only grow weaker.

  Dragging this conflict out would only benefit me, o Pitiful Queen.

  ~~~

  —Queen Eden PoV—

  That’s going to be a real big problem. I mused unhappily as I watched from the shadows. Haell slaughtered her way through one of my many armies, making liberal use of her magic. Those were enough soldiers to take out a city, maybe more given enough time and preparation. And yet they didn’t seem enough to even tire her out.

  Does she ever run out of magic?

  Can she just endlessly regenerate?

  Will she ever tire?

  Our fight had revealed no limits to that demon.

  Her curses and hellfire were a constant, and they never did run out no matter how long I waited. I suffered and bore through the excruciating pain, yet how could someone so young and inexperienced show the same indifference to all her wounds? She kept on fighting, no matter how many still open cuts remained on her body.

  How was she able to replace entire limbs anyway? Even I would be troubled by the amount of life mana necessary. Her new blood magic specialty shouldn’t be capable of it, that was just for regular healing.

  I recalled an irritating memory of how I did have her in custody before. I remembered the reports of her showing signs of being able to regenerate normally permanent wounds, but that whole process shouldn’t have been that fast!

  Her life was in my hands… I should have killed her when I had the chance!

  But alas! I was unaware of many things. I wanted to correct that mistake right now and cut off her head, but I’d already tried that. It was a complete ambush, and yet a gold-ranked brat reacted in time. Worse, she battled me on what might seem like equal footing. Another attempt would be too risky. Not when she had that brand new clearly cursed armor, likely prepared just for me.

  I needed more preparations of my own. To make sure she stayed dead the next time we clashed.

  Especially since I got that order.

  One that demanded I kill Haell. They especially wanted all the demons killed, when we only knew this one.

  Does Empress Shanayah know something…? If she did, then she never specified in her letter. Just unexplained anger for a species that should have never existed. Interesting.

  At least there were those… Demon Aspires that Haell had taken under her wing, for when I kill her. They were aiming to become demons, or so I heard. I wished they would succeed sooner so I could be certain of the rumors. I had my spies approach them, but they’d proven incredibly hard to turn.

  What is Haell feeding them?

  I remembered that she had those incredibly crude but very powerful mental powers. Fear and chaos. She might have her own way to break and indoctrinate key assets. And even if she couldn’t do it herself, there’s nothing stopping her from chaining a shepherd in the basement of that manor she stole and… remodeled. She was absurdly resistant and even retaliant to mental intrusions herself, so she didn’t risk anything by working with a mind mage.

  Troublesome. How very troublesome.

  That’s what makes you worth having. But since you’ve made that impossible, then I’ll settle for prey worth hunting.

  I shook my head in sad disappointment. This is the thanks I get for sparing someone’s life. I really shouldn’t have been so nice.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  My army broke and ran amid my churning thoughts. I disappeared into the crowd as we dispersed over a larger and larger area. At least their presence served some purpose here, as cover for my eventual retreat.

  ~~~

  —Back to Haell PoV—

  My red hands were wet with blood. A bound monkey stared in terror. I did not let its muffled whines distract me from the illustrations my fingers were drawing across the white ground of the lab.

  An arm withering.

  Another arm withering.

  Endless connections.

  Finally, a name spoken.

  "Unravel My Arm. Unravel Yours."

  The magic responded to my will. The ritual circle faded as my left arm was lacerated and peeled.

  The monkey suffered far far worse. Its entire arm twisted and unraveled. Strands were pulled and snapped off like spaghetti. Bones set in weird growths and fell on the ground. Blood fountained and exploded in every direction.

  The monkey screamed in pain.

  I screamed my triumph.

  “It works! IT WORKS!”

  The theory was proven. I had achieved Self-Sacrificing Antipathy!

  It was my first successful use of the new branch of curse magic, and it was already so strong!

  “Do it again while I’m looking,” Moonwash immediately said after she’d come running. She wasn’t watching because I’d already failed at this so many times, and my girlfriend had things to do of her own. We were supposed to convene again later to discuss the day’s discoveries.

  My head snapped towards her with a gleeful smile.

  “Rituals! I knew the key was rituals! Something so complex and esoteric could not possibly be cast normally!”

  In other words, an effect that I could not achieve normally, but now done through a Ritual. Just like Moonwash.

  Maybe I was becoming a better ritualist of my own.

  ~~~

  Elfrafim ran across the mountain. Arx, Grandpa, and I gave chase. My inhex friend pounced, but Elfrafim sidestepped. My charge carried me forward, and my wooden sword came next!

  The elf was left with no direction left to flee but up. And there, Gramps brought down his own wooden greatsword. Elfrafim was forced to defend with only her enchanted staff, now smashed back to ground. Here, she found Arx’s wood covered mandibles and my greatsword already pincering her in.

  Elfrafim was hit and she went down.

  “That was great!” Grandpa bellowed, now leaning on his sword for support.

  “Yeah. You’re very nimble,” Arx praised. “I don’t think I could’ve ever caught you on my own.”

  “Ow!” Elfrafim instead complained as she got up and rubbed at several spots on her body. “You didn’t need to go that hard. You just had to tag me!”

  “Yeah Arx.” I nodded solemnly. “You need to watch yourself. Don’t be an arxhole!”

  “You were worse!!” Elfrafim snapped jokingly, and then started to tend to herself. “It’s really not fair that I’m always the target here! I’m being bullied! Golex, tell your granddaughter that’s bad and she should be the one getting hit instead!”

  “Snitches get stitches, Elfrafim!” I barked, and then gasped, aghast! “Bullying? I would never do that! I’m a demon who’ll never hurt a fly!”

  The three of them looked at each other.

  I proved my point by adding my blood magic healing to Elfrafim’s field of soothing flowers.

  “Ow. Stop poking me!” She complained! Rude! “Now I’m bleeding because of Haell!”

  “It’s not what it looks like!” I shrieked.

  Detective Grandpa looked lng and hard at the crime scene, before pointing at the true criminal!

  “It was you!”

  “Why is it me!?” Arx exclaimed.

  “I want to know too!” Elfrafim finished treating herself, and then alighted on the massive inhex’s head.

  “There are many reasons for crime,” I made a serious pose and expression. Someone booed for some reason. Must be the wind. It couldn’t have been the suspect, Arx. That’d be too bold. “Maybe you’re just feeling down today. It could be poverty, you are homeless. Some people just want to watch the world burn.”

  “There’s only one thing I want to see burning right now.” Arx loomed… and then tossed a bunch of fish all over us!!

  “Oh, eww!”

  “Yuck!”

  “Fun!”

  He fetched the firewood, and then we began to cook our meal together. The fish inevitably turned out different according to our own tastes, and then we swapped it all around.

  Grandpa swallowed a mouthful, and then spoke more seriously. “I think Elfrafim’s still slower than a weak angel. But she is more nimble and skilled, so the difficulty is not a bad comparison.”

  “Why don’t they wear some wind armor? They’d be faster,” Elfrafim pointed her fish at me. “Are they an idiot like her?”

  “Don’t give them ideas,” Arx retorted.

  “I do have armor. I even have a wind one Moonwash made. But it’s too brittle and would just need to be replaced, when the materials required are already so rare. I like my new vengeanite one better.” I was wearing it right now! “The deathmetal was too plain in function, I’ll admit. Something I can actually readily replace was just the better choice, when I already went through different suits so quickly. That and the white texture turning more and more red the more I kill was so cool.”

  “It is! Probably in the top 5 best effects I’ve seen!” Grandpa nodded seriously.

  “Just five?” I raised a brow.

  “It’s in the top 5. Who knows which rank.”

  “First, obviously.” I harrumphed.

  “So, are we ready then?” Arx then asked.

  “Yes!” Grandpa boasted. “I cannot wait to taste angel blood!”

  I looked at the massive man for a long second.

  “Nah. Angels aren’t just fast, they also hit really really hard. So I think we still have a bunch of training left to do. The angels are pathetic, but it’s best not to underestimate them.”

  “That’s convenient,” Arx looked at Devilcalibur warily.

  I chuckled. “Yes. But not just that.” I looked at the horizon, blocked by the tall and numerous mountains of the Impenetrable Barrier Range. “There are wonderzones here we can explore. There’s this one, maybe two, that I did plan to delve myself, but you guys can come too.” It would be fun. Unexpectedly, I did find a few more friends who can still keep up with me.

  “Oh! It’s been a while!” Elfrafim twirled. “I want to go! I want to go!”

  “It’s been a long time for me too,” Grandpa said, uncharacteristically solemn. Then his face split back into that familiar broad grin. “Let’s go! I’m excited to see another one after a whole decade!”

  ~~~

  One of my friends had reached gold rank.

  It wasn’t any of them, who I had known since I was child.

  It was Marcus of the Demon Aspires!

  “How’d you rush ahead of us?” Larah complained with a big smile.

  “Congratulations!” Ragnar bellowed.

  “Good on you for reaching gold-rank!” And not dying on me so soon. I plunged my hand into Pandemonium’s walls, and brought out the booze.

  “It’s just the Human Heart,” Marcus clarified, though he was smiling the brightest out of all of us. “Who knows if it’ll last.”

  “Bah! Don’t worry about it!” I blurted out, then realized I was being wholly irresponsible for saying so. “Well, anything can happen. But keep at it! Do your best!”

  Basically everyone who got one Mutation into Level 40, could eventually bring all their other Mutation up to that standard too, if they tried just a little. The same went for any threshold reached. It was why no crustecar ever got stuck below level 10, because their carapace naturally started at that level. Discounting cases where they outright lost parts of their bodies, of course. Thankfully, their crustecar hands Mutation continued to level up so long as at least one of those three arms remained. That was generally the case for all limbs that had very similar copies.

  “Don’t need you to tell me that,” Marcus clinked his glass with mine, and we spent the entire day hanging out.

  We played a few different board games. I took them down to Moonwash’s lab to run around and look at all the cool shit. She joined us at some point, as did my parents. We gallivanted across my city, looking for books to buy, and watching all the plays and street performances. We had dinner at a fancy restaurant, and I ordered a cake for Marcus, while Moonwash hurriedly shaped some wax into the number 42. It was still a damn work of art.

  Marcus talked about his more current exploits as we ate, speaking about how happy he was right now with life. My friend had somehow become the vice-captain of the guard of my city, after only a few years in the service. That did give me more confidence over my people’s safety here. At least there was someone I could really trust rising through the ranks.

  The day somehow ended with Marcus sparring with us to test out his newly evolved heart. I allowed my friend to tire himself out as I continuously pressured him while he shot his arrows.

  I finished the fight with one punch, instead of bringing out my hellfire. He wasn't aiming to become a demon any longer, and it was his birthday. No need to cause undue pain.

  This chapter is weirdly short. (Though it did get longer since I wrote this note. Removed one part to exchange it with a longer interaction ahahahaha.) I wrote the skeleton of it, thinking that it’d balloon out like normal, but it didn’t. The Eden part required so many revisions because I just couldn’t seem to get her personality down. And uh, sorry if no constant rematches! I did want to make the fight(s) with Eden more special than that. I wasn’t expecting her to be this big of a… rival of sorts. But goddammit, I so so loved the one fight I’ve written with her! I genuinely still think it’s the best fight I’ve written so far. I’m uh, honestly a bit nervous, about how I’d top that. But nothing for it but to do my best!

  I did still need to establish that Eden was hitting targets though, because it makes no sense for Edengar to continue just doing nothing when they’ve lost so many chunks already and haven’t found a breakthrough.

  Also. I wasn’t sure at first how the whole dynamic of Haell’s current lineup of hard-hitting allies should be. Until I realized that they’re all idiots!

  Except for one.

  I’m of course talking about Haell who is the cool and serious kind of demon.

  Please consider supporting me over on and read up to chapter 225 today, well past the ending of this volume!