Chapter 158: Into The Belly of The Beast.

Doors. Doors, doors, doors! I brought up the subject to Pandemonium, and with one simple flex of its will, doors began to grow out of the frames that were already there. Windows followed, filling in the gaps and the holes that were left in the myriad walls. The material for all these new optional barriers were made from a variety of things, from bone to scales, metal and stone, membrane or flesh, and every manner of combination therein. The place looked even creepier now, but I decided that I quite liked the concept.“That’s… something,” Berry hedged.

“It looks way too creepy,” Angerly said honestly.

“I can live with it,” Granuel added. “Although I actually going to ask you if you’d mind if I made some facilities here.”

“I… would,” I admitted. “And you’ll also have to ask Pandemonium. But I’m not so fond of having people I don’t know prancing around here, so no, I don’t want you to make any facilities here.”

“Oh…” he trailed off, then shrugged. “Okay.”

“Would you mind changing the look?” Moonwash asked. “I want to have at least some be made of just some bone perhaps, smooth and a blank. I want to go ahead and decorate them later.”

“Hmmmm… What do you think?” I asked the courtyard around us, and the roof of so many buildings “It says it’s fine with it, but it might want to just eat and replace some things randomly. And that might be such a waste if you worked so hard on a piece.”

It was a good thing that Pandemonium did not feel pain like normal, for the cycle of creation and destruction was just a normal function of itself. I’d already broken so much of it without thought.

“I see. It could be a fun activity then. I won’t do anything major, but it would be nice to occasionally replace doors with brand new artworks.”

I thought about it some more. I had said I liked the aesthetic earlier, but really, I only like the idea behind it. Right now, the doors and windows looked nothing more than ill-thought-out amalgams of all these different materials, others creepier than the last, with some even having holes in awkward places. Additionally, some doors and windows were so crooked that I questioned if they could even be opened at all.

I understand, that this place was already unwelcoming for most people. Which was fine most of the time, because I them to stay away, but there were a fair few who I would like to invite inside from time to time. There was no need for the scenery to be even more hostile against them. That would, admittedly, affect their quality of life. And if I were being honest, perhaps my own as well.

“Pandemonium. Can you replace all the ones that we could see with what Moonwash asked?” The doors and windows rippled and shifted in response. Moonwash requested some more adjustments, and Pandemonium proved able to learn how to better follow her guidance. I then led them inside the left wing, and we watched as the doors and more infrequent windows began to change to Moonwash’s specifications. Since Pandemonium was offering, she also asked it to create some straight surfaces made out of stone, metal, chitin, and more. We found out that Pandemonium could actually also make glass, but they were incredibly imperfect and foggy things. It wasn’t as skilled at creating this material quite yet, but the walls promised to train just as I trained.

Eventually, we made our way out of the building, only to find the corridors suddenly made of pulsating flesh. Vile enzymes dripped from the ceiling, pools of liquid bubbled and frothed on the ground, and sprays of blood occasionally geysered out of the walls. We had been swallowed by a giant.

“W-what the fuck!?” Berry shrieked, so utterly confused.

“Holy shit,” Granuel mumbled.

“So that’s why I felt some shaking,” Angerly chuckled.

I laughed even harder. I rolled on the veiny floor as I clutched my belly. It was as if I’d made the funniest joke ever known. I imagined this was the effect humor would have on someone who had never known joy in their life.

“Alright, alright.” I took a deep breath. “You can… there’s no need to shift everything back. I do want you guys to feel welcome, so I’ll add a veneer of that outside. But further in would be the labyrinthine entrails of a giant.”

“I like it,” Moonwash was the first to say, despite how I’d baited her into working on the furnishings further to lure everyone deeper.

“I… won’t go here then,” Berry chimed next.

“It is a funny joke,” Angerly glanced at me. “Would you mind if I brought people along. Not too many. But I am dating someone new… I ”

I thought about it, for way too long. It must’ve been so hard to date, when she was way too busy trying to rescue me.

“You don’t have to–” she began in my silence, but was cut off.

“It’s fine.” Pandemonium would keep watch anyway. No one would surprise me inside my own home.

“Oh! Okay! Nice! Thanks!”

“Have you changed your mind on having people work here also?”

“Nope.” I looked at Granuel. “What the fuck do you even want to do? You do realize how hostile this place is, right? People would working here. Even know that.”

“Ah… yeah. I figured. But I, well, planned on giving them hazard pay. And with the concentration of cursed miasma, I figured we might be able to mass produce some really… unique things.”

“...The answer’s still no. But that’s the best pitch you can ever have for this, I’ll admit.” The implications were… complicated. What did it mean for the different objects that were just left here? They’d already brought cratefuls of stuff inside.

We really needed to take a closer look into what prolonged exposure might do to someone. At least my friends were still planning on going to sleep somewhere outside, in some inn I imagined. But Moonwash still planned to stay here for the foreseeable future.

“Bye guys!”

“See you tomorrow!”

“Stay safe, Haell!”

I waved them goodbye with a smile. My friends left right after dinner. But I and Moonwash weren’t done with our day yet. She wanted to get her room setup and my own before we went to sleep. I argued that I didn’t need anything fancy, and that I was more than used to it. I knew that she would’ve eventually agreed had I just pushed a bit harder, but she was very insistent about this in her own way, so I decided to just go along. What’s the worst that could happen?

So there we were, after I’d helped her with her unpack and then furnish her own room. We had gone to what was supposed to be my bedroom, and the spatially unstable environment was already giving me a massive headache. Moonwash poked her head around, her figure sometimes distorting in my vision, and even more through my dimensional scanner, but she never actually got hurt. So I just hurried along to what we had planned.

“Pandemonium. Can you open a tunnel here?” The ground opened into a deep jagged pit. “Perfect. Thank you. Now can you make it a lot deeper, and then add some stairs and a room at the end?” The ground shook. The pit began to widen. “Actually, wait, no. Scratch that. How about a slide? A big yawning pit, with a slide circling along its sides.” It took some doing, but Pandemonium eventually understood what I wanted. It created a big tube that burrowed deep into the earth, and then made a slide out of metal that looped along the sides. The pit was overall nearly half as wide as my supposed bedroom, and it led to a room that was a little larger than this spatial anomaly that I was in.

“Well. Time to try it then!” I laughed and jumped in. I landed on my back on the slide, and I felt the force of gravity carry me straight down. It was incredibly uncomfortable. My clothes were starting to tear. I was tough enough to withstand it, but the many imperfections in the metal were still an annoyance on my skin. But still, I toughed it out until I reached the end of the slide and then tumbled through the air until I crashed into the deeper ground below.

I flew back up and made my new suggestions with a smile.

“How about a water slide. But a blood slide!” A hole yawned open from the top of the slide, and out poured great quantities of blood. Way too much spilled to the side, so I had Pandemonium make adjustments until the great stream of blood flowed right down the curving length of the slide.

“WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!” I laughed. It still wasn’t the most comfortable ride, but it was certainly faster and a lot more fun. The slide then finally ended, and I came hurtling down along with a waterfall of blood. I landed on my ass and tail in a puddle of red, but that did nothing to dispel my good humor. Then I saw how the blood pooled in the large room. It wouldn’t be a small puddle for long. Already, more and more blood crashed down around me. That would not play well at all with the pillows and rugs and everything else that we planned to put down here.

This was evidently another dud.

“Pandemonium. Absorb it all.” The room around me grew fur and soaked all the red in… to somewhere, before becoming bare and empty once more. The slide too had lost all the blood on it before I flew back up there.

“I wanted to try,” Moonwash complained blandly, and the blood returned for one final round. She slid down without a shout, and then I had to fly her back up. My heart rate spiked at the contact, and the murderous urges returned in force, but I was able to hold myself back from ripping her apart in the air.

I took a moment to walk it off once we were back in the dizzying spatial room, before then coming back to Moonwash. “Okay. Let’s actually get this done, or the night will end and we never will.”

Moonwash agreed with a nod, and then I slid down the slide atop a big slab of metal. It was a far more comfortable way of traversing these loops, and I was laughing again by the time I was tossed down into the ground. Several more objects followed, and I had to catch the crates that Moonwash pushed down the slide. An entire bed got stuck at one point, and I had to manually carry it down. It didn’t prove to be a problem, despite how massive the bed was, because of how much stronger I’d become.

The two of us then decorated my room together, and I was brought back to simpler times. Like when we built… the harvester home right at the bottom of our hill. Or when we made our first secret base in the middle of the isolated wilderness.

This was nice.

My room was done. It melded pastel colors with a ‘gothic’ style somehow, that also worked well with the normal dreary colors of Pandemonium’s walls. Even the sconces that Pandemonium lit up with hellfire worked well with the ambiance somehow, as did the soft blue-ish lighting of several bright lamp posts that Moonwash had installed.

I walked to a corner of the room, and finally took a good look at myself in the mirror now that I was alone. I looked good, amazing, , a far cry from how I’d been just a few days ago. I realized that I hadn’t actually seen what I looked like during that time, all chained up, beaten, and caked in dirt. Perhaps it was for the best that I hadn’t taken a gander at myself.

But now, I stood tall and proud. Very tall, in fact. The mirror was especially large to accommodate my increase in size. My improved musculature was apparent through my red flesh, though it still managed to undersell my strength. A powerful tail swung lazily behind me, its width larger than my arms, and its length nearly reaching the floor from the small of my back. Goat-like eyes shone with gleeful malice upon my face, hooves planted themselves powerfully on the ground, and horns curved and ridged perfectly as if crescent moons stabbed into my head.

I looked much the same as I once did, really. Only more refined now, in all the ways I wanted to be. Demonic, powerful, beautiful. A yellow pajama covered my form, and it stood out against the rest of my frame. The black Mark of The Beast stood out against its vibrant design in turn, letting the world know of who I was, no matter the circumstances. There was no escape, there was no turning back, there was no hiding, I would never be forgotten.

I was fine now. I should be fine. I had done what I wanted. I killed who I wished. I was left unblemished, my body healed and remade perfectly. So why did these scars still ache, when I could see not a single sign of them?

I shook my head, and went to sleep on the soft and luscious bed. It was good to have a permanent home again. Which was a weird thought to have, when this used to be my most formidable prison. But now, I only took pleasure and reveled in the fact that I had stolen and perverted what was once their own.

I woke up, my mind still feeling the painful echoes of fading dreams. I could dig them back out anytime if I were to consult my Memory Core. It was always a weird experience though, and weird wasn’t what I needed right now. So I just stared at the ceiling, or lack thereof. There was a massive hole right where it should be, leading to the massively long winding slide that connected to my room.

Shrugging, I got dressed for the day and then flew up. I winced when the spatial room beyond came into better view of my dimensional scanner, but I could not yet see it for the pit containing the slide had been entirely sealed off. That ceiling of stone above me then opened up once I had gotten close enough, which would be the floor of the freaky room above. I flew through that gaping maw, and then it closed again once the distance had been cleared.

Walking through the central building, I made my way near the front where we’d made for ourselves a dining hall. Nothing fancy had yet been established, so the large hall felt empty with only the single long table off-center in it, and the accompanying chairs. The rest of my friends had already arrived, and Moonwash was among them, though they were not in this room but the adjoining one. We’d also made a kitchen that didn’t rely on hellfire, but instead used the normal kind, like enchanted stoves and ovens. Hellfire honestly worked well enough for cooking far as I was concerned, but it a greater hazard for the chef. I didn’t think Pandemonium just heating up a slab produced the same kind of pain as raw hellfire though…

These new rooms didn’t actually have any special effects, unlike the different kinds that Pandemonium came pre-packaged with post-evolution, like the smithy or the ritual site. But there was really no sense in leaving all the unused rooms empty if I planned to make a home out of this place. I walked right into the kitchen and helped everyone else in preparing our breakfast feast.

I took a great bite of the fried chicken leg and just breathed in the aroma as I savored the taste. I’d eaten a fair bit since I was freed already, but it still felt so overwhelming in only the best way. No more of the colorless tasteless slop and the equally uninteresting maid that delivered it, or the also unimpressive butler that followed. They were… all dead now, while I lived. Truly. Fucking. Lived.

“What the fuck was that yesterday, anyway?” Angerly eventually asked, once I finally slowed down and only had a few slices of steak in my mouth. It took quite a while, and I still had so much to eat because we had cooked enough to feed my only growing appetite, despite having now a method to counteract my need for food.

“Huh?” I puzzled. “Which one?”

“The big explosions.”

“The big explosions?”

“When you were running around the place really fast! It somehow made these weird explosions in the air! I saw it! It sounded like really deep whistling or maybe a warhorn. Boom, boom, boom! But more continuous. People were talking about it, you know? They’re worried. Shit’s already tense out there.”

“OH! . That… was a sonic boom, I believe. That’s what happens when you move faster than sound.”

“Than sound?”

“It’s more about the wind, I think. Hmmm. I’m no expert, and I’m not sure if things work exactly the same way here, but you know about air-resistance, right?” at their nods, I continued. “Well, when you reach like truly extreme speeds, so too does the air resistance get more extreme. It’s like… at some point, the air can’t move out of the way fast enough at all, and you’ll just have to smash through it like a wall. It’s the same principle behind why water feels harder the faster you hit it.”

“But it’s like… the whole phenomenon was like when we saw the angels before,” Berry added. “There were similar explosions whenever they moved. Or well, when they moved really fast.”

“Yep! That would be the same thing. They’re fast enough for that.” And now I was too.

“And now they think that an angel’s come to save them,” Granuel added, almost snarling. “The fools.”

“That they are,” I frowned. I did not appreciate being compared to those uptight bastards.

We continued our meal with some peaceful small talk in between for a long while longer. Finally, I decided to bring up some more serious and urgent topics as we had dessert.

“So. What were you saying yesterday about me gaining ownership over this manor?” I asked Granuel. “Any new developments?”

“They’re still not very pleased, and would like to talk to you. People are also very confused about what even happened. Why did the manor just randomly start burning? What the fuck was up with that thing in the sky? And why did it make everyone go mad?”

“Everyone’s confused,” Angerly added. “They just heard ‘Hell on Earth’, and then everything went to shit. Hell is just oblivion to them.”

“But not to me.” I didn’t know that my pronouncement reached that far… I didn’t think it reached beyond the underground prison at all.

“That’s right. You’re also famous enough for your voice to be recognizable, and your magic is distinctive, so people have largely figured it out.”

“Some of the leaders are at least in favor of just giving the place to you,” Granuel further elaborated. “They can’t do shit… with Pandemonium as it is, and they realize that even with the limited information they have. It only gets worse for them the more context they get. They also recognize that you provided the opening for a winner to finally be decided in this part of the war. And more than our leaders, the people, the common of New Grandera absolutely recognize it. Speaking of, are you fine to umm, at least go out again soon?”

I winced. “Not… not yet. But I would need to slowly get accustomed at some point. Otherwise, I might just start swinging one day at all the people out there.”

“That wouldn’t be good…” Berry chimed.

“Definitely not!” I laughed. Then I chewed over my next words. “I’ve actually been thinking. And this is just a suggestion. There are several problems with it. But can we just move out the entire city?”

“...Huh? What? What do you mean?” Granuel immediately peppered me with questions.

“Well, I meant that I want Pandemonium to stand alone, and for no one else to be around here. So maybe the city could be moved. Pay people off. Move their houses if you must, or rebuild it somewhere else. But I reluctant to do this, because has a very bad history where I come from. It could even be considered a genocide. But I don’t want to kill them!” The curse in my veins disagreed. “I just want them to move out. Doesn’t even have to be very far. But wouldn’t it be nice to just have the place to ourselves?”

“Haell…” Granuel first sounded sympathetic, then he massaged his forehead, sighed, and thought.

I ate more of my ice cream while he did.

“People live here,” Angerly was the first to say another word. “You can’t just rip them from their homes.”

“Yeah!” Berry agreed with a nervous fidget on her large chair. “Their lives are disrupted enough as it is. Please… have mercy.”

My eyes narrowed. At first, I was offended, but I swallowed that reaction and took a deep breath. “Like I said, it’s just a fucking idea. I haven’t decided yet. And I want to pay them off. They can start a new life. I don’t think they want to live right next to a cursed mansion anyway. Or their greatest enemy. You guys said it yourself. They’re fucking cheering for the angels! They’re against me! Against us! Am I supposed to have those assholes in my backyardfrontyard!?”

“We can’t pay for that,” Granuel finally latched onto something.

“Huh?”

“I mean, to just move everyone out and pay for all their land and belongings? Of a city like this? It would take a lot of money. And you don’t have that cash. don’t have that cash. All of us combined don’t have that cash. We’re rich, Haell, but not nearly to that extent.”

“Oh.” My mind worked at incredible speeds. “What if I offer them my services? I’ll fight their wars.”

“Enough to buy here?”

“I’ve always been paid well,” I shrugged. “In ways beyond money too. I was already incredibly effective against armies But don’t forget that I have just evolved. Who knows how much more of a nightmare I would be against entire battalions of troops.”

“...Maybe you’re right. But… can I be honest about this, Haell?”

“Of course,” I replied a little sadly. “Why wouldn’t you be?”

“I don’t know… I just thought you might get mad.”

I sighed. “Well, I am still more unstable than normal. But it doesn’t mean anything. And I’ll try to limit my overreactions as much as possible. You don’t… you don’t have to fear me, Granuel, okay? I’m really trying to get back to normal.”

“I know, Haell. So I’ll really just tell you… I don’t like this plan. People live here. The place would need to rebuild, but it has potential. And New Grandera wouldn’t want an entire city to just be taken out. I…” He searched for words, but knew deep down that they had already been found. “I don’t think I’d want to be part of a plan like this. It just… it feels really really bad. Even if the people out there are still drowning in the sloppy propaganda of Edengar and the Angelore Empire. It’s always been how New Grandera does things. We integrate people. We don’t just erase their culture. They are free to choose where they live here. We don’t toss them out to wherever is convenient…”

Angerly looked me in the eyes and added, “They look up to you, Haell. Not the people… of this place we just conquered. But the soldiers, and the common people of this nation as a whole. You them to put you on this pedestal and praise your name. So what message do you think it will send, if you just send people on a mass exodus because you don’t like them?”

I was glaring at her now. I was still silent in contemplation. My body tensed, and I had to open and close my hands to release some of that tension. My tail fidgeted and whipped at the ground. They were my friends. I would not hurt them. They were my friends! I WOULD NOT HURT THEM!

I would not be like Therick.

I would certainly not harm them over a disagreement. They were free to do so. They . Maybe they had a point. I was starting to think that they did. I had ideas to make it more… , but people could be attached to a place. I would fucking know, given how I cried when our old secret base had to be burnt down. Why was I not just leaving right now, when I could create some random shack anywhere that I wanted? Anywhere without people living in it. It was because of Pandemonium! I to stay in Pandemonium. And I bet that plenty of the people out there who I still had not deigned to meet felt similarly about their own homes. Even if their houses were not literally alive like my own.

“Fine,” I decided. “I won’t force anyone to leave. But Granuel, can you offer the option to people anyway? To just leave? I’d rather have people who actually want to be here as my neighbors. And I want a buffer. I… incinerated a ring of houses around Pandemonium during that whole ritual. Let nothing be rebuilt there. Fence it off. Wall it if you must. And tell them they’re responsible for their own protection. That would be New Grandera’s responsibility now. Pandemonium is a lot more defensible, hence why I wanted nothing to defend around it. Actually, can you go see if we can declare Pandemonium to be a completely independent territory? That would be great.”

My friends took a moment to process all that.

“O-okay,” Granuel finally said.

I nodded, then addressed everyone. “...Thank you. For being honest. I know how scary I must be now.”

Berry shook herself. “No, no. We trust you, Haell. I know you won’t hurt us.”

“Does that change what I said?”

“Well…”

“It doesn’t,” I snorted and left the hall. “I’m going out for a walk. In the air. So it’s actually a