Chapter 79: Beyond Twenty.

“So, do you have it?” I asked Elfrafim once we’d tucked ourselves away on a hidden branch. I couldn't bear to wait for the news any longer.“Yep!” She reached into her robe and produced from it a metallic jar aglow with enchantments.

“The blood is in here?” I asked, almost in awe. I didn’t know how much effect this’d actually have over my next evolution, but the blood of a hekaton still excited me. I was excited just for the mere fact of getting something that I wanted.

“Nope!” She smirked at my confused expression. “It’s in your heart.”

“...What?” I managed.

“It’s a joke!” She exclaimed, as if in exasperation. “Maybe it didn’t land…”

“Oh no no, I’m sure it was very funny,” I said. I couldn’t deny that I felt like being extra nice if my friend really had come through for me in this matter.

“Stop,” she chuckled. “You don’t have to baby me.” She tapped on the metal jar in my hands. “That which you seek lies inside. Now achieve metamorphosis, and leave behind your impish shell for new and exciting horizons of demonic origin.”

I took a step back. Those words said with her enchanting voice were just too inspiring.

“R-right. Well, let’s not wait any longer then. Let me show you to my home!”

“Yay! Hellfire and brimstone! My favorite!” She referenced the myths and legends of my previous life.

“That’s not hellfire and brimstone,” Elfrafim complained once we were at the massive front doors of my home. Luine had separated from us before we got off the tree wall earlier, and Astan had chosen to stay with her up there in the trees for the time being. “But it’s very big! I like it! Why can’t elves get that big!”

“It’s our house, not hell as it was understood back in my world. Although a fiery lair does sound very nice…”

“You should build one. That sounds awesome.” Elfrafim then glanced behind us, at the rest of the city just down the hill. “Your current one already looks so much better than theirs! Your whole family must love decorating!”

“We do like decorating…” I scratched at my helmeted head. “But that’s actually because of uh, inequality.”

“Ah.” She paused. “That makes sense. I’ve seen that before. From above! But they usually stick together, you know? Why’s yours here if you’re so… ?”

She phrased that last part as if she was almost unsure about the word, but not quite.

“Err. You know, I’m not entirely sure. It’s just always been like this. I guess my parents, and maybe even my grandfather were just more comfortable here. We get visitors sometimes too. Maybe the hustle and bustle of high society just isn’t for them. And neither is it for me so I’m thankful!”

“Ooh! High society! I get the problem, but they wear funny hats and drink tea right? That sounds fun!”

“I’m sure those are all very fun things,” I chuckled. “But they’re not the main point. At least… I don’t think so. The hats and teas are all an act.”

“And you don’t mean the fun theater kind?”

“I don’t mean the fun theatre kind.”

“Darn. The empire has been very interesting, but I’ve been thinking… this place sucks. You should come live with us instead,” Elfrafim said as we stepped into my old and current home. “Those are nice though!” She immediately noticed the trophies and paintings in the living room and started gushing over them.

Mom and Dad arrived soon, and they were more than happy to answer my elven friend’s questions. From where we even got the fang of a wyrm, to the paintings of great wars and battles that happened centuries before they were born

I watched on warmly as I shed all my stuffy armor, and the other concealments underneath.

I wore it all the time just a few months ago, but a scant few weeks back in civilization and I already wanted all this metal off. It wasn’t even the armor per se, but the fact that I had to hide. If I could at least have makeup that accentuated my features instead of hiding them, if I could wear my horns proudly, then I could stand within my stuffy cage for days on end.

My grandfather eventually stumbled out of his room and met Elfrafim. The two held each other’s gaze as my grandfather leaned his arm heavily against the wall.

“That’s one strong human!” Elfrafim eventually said. “Hello there! I’m Elfrafim!”

“Hello to you too. I am Golex!”

“Nice! Haell’s told me much about you!”

“Oh? I’d love to know what sort of tales she’s spun about me!”

“I know that you’re considered like some sort of hero here! She’s talked a lot about the many wars where you’ve fought. I’ve even heard, from other sources because you’re famous, that you’ve killed an elf in Angelore’s assault against the barrier range.”

It took a few moments for what Elfrafim said in that same cheerful voice to register in my mind. My parents tensed while I looked at my friend. She was calm at least, she still had a smile on my face, but while she wasn’t angry, she was no longer quite so happy either.

“I have,” Golex admitted. “It was a hard-fought battle.”

“I would guess so. She wouldn’t just die like that, not that we were ever close. She tamed these ectognaphones, you know? I got to play with sound magic a lot thanks to her. Her husband tried to keep the farm afloat after she died, and he did succeed, but the farm still had to be downscaled.”

“I see. was indeed an unfortunate loss for your community then. But such is war. That is what it means to take to the battlefield. We struggle, as is our birthright. I was the one who lived that time, and she was the one who died. But I honor her spirit, just as I wish to be honored when it is finally time for me to be the one to die.”

Elfrafim held his gaze for a long moment. The two people whose powers were still immeasurable to me took each other’s measure.

“True enough. Conflict happens everywhere. In nature, in the grandest forest, and in the lands beyond. Such is life, sometimes.” She clapped both hands, a radiant smile blooming across her face once more. “With that out of the way, let’s talk about our favorite Haell!”

“There are others!?”

I received no reply.

What followed was a month-long planning and preparation session. I wanted to immediately go and evolve, but I soon found myself sucked into the process just as they were. I worked with Moonwash and Elfrafim to design a new ritual, Granuel worked with my parents and Luine to obtain more of the materials that we need, and everyone else was present to give their support when needed. Admittedly, they mostly just gave inane suggestions meant for laughs, such as depictions of the piss hunters hunting for piss, or sculptures of me blushing so hard all of my skin had turned red.

Despite all the jokes, there were some genuine gems in that stinking pile of rocks. Like showing how I’d grown so far and how I wished to grow in the future, or having an interdimensional voyeur watching over the entire procedure from on high. My favorite was when Therick suggested drawing myself as a winged form falling from the heavens, yet I remained unbroken. They were truly listening to the stories of my past life that I was willing to share. I should speak about the deeper parts of myself more, instead of only telling inane but impersonal stories.

The month passed by so fast, and soon I was finally ready to evolve again. I sat in the middle of a massive ritual circle, a week before my twenty-first birthday. Everyone was here, from the Piss Hunters, to The Harvesters, Elfrafim, and Astan. Grandpa… Didn’t quite fit in the stairs leading down, but I knew that he was sending love and support my way from where he was above.

It was time. It was finally time. Another moment of truth. Another chance to ascend further.

“It’s ready.” Both Elfrafim and Moonswash finished the final touches on the massive illustration that depicted me in my impish form superimposed against the demon I wished to become. That was only one part of the ritual, for the entire basement floor was filled with ritualistic drawings. The intertwining ritual even reached into the ceiling with the depiction in the ceiling of a single angry eye of light staring down at me as I stared back. There were spots of nature, spots of water, and all of the other healing elements we could find. Interspersed throughout the space and within the ritual were all the ingredients that I wanted to use for my evolution. The place was dimly lit with torches, and the ritual was surrounded by a broken ring of flames meant to represent hellfire. The flames weren’t even supposed to be a ritual ingredient, but meaning and… like that could have an effect.

But most of all, there was blood, or what looked like it. What we created was a ritual ink of the blood element, to harness the healing it could provide, and my blood empty of menace mana used as an ingredient. In the absence of life magic, this was the element of our choice to enhance this ritual. We didn’t have a major element for biomancy, aside from nature that do that for plants. But I was hoping that wasn’t exactly necessary, since people could enhance their Mutations any ritual at all. I didn’t want to risk using curse-aligned magics yet, because while that do biomancy… it was definitely

“Rite of Demonic Ascension!”

The three of us chorused at the same time.

[Would you like to evolve the following Mutat—

The ritual responded, the world twisted, and the constant pressure that I felt upon my being reached a new crescendo. It crashed into me, it merged, it tore, it remade.

I was only a voice and I had to

“AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

I reached out and grabbed hold of that which touched my soul. It squeezed my hand back with a fervor that matched my own. The pain remained, it’d always be there, but just like how I conquered my instincts and my power, it was nothing I could not bear.

I was ready to understand.

A spike of incomprehension followed as I tried to comprehend. It was not pain, but a soothing call to oblivion. A plea to truly melt into the collective will of reality. To be as I was in this moment, a part of the fabric, with all the walls broken down and every distinction torn apart. To take this change, and experience it forever.

I managed to actually read my options this time, and I was sure they were all very interesting, but I could only spare the to remember them, not to comprehend.

That was fine. There was only one choice for me. The same that it’s always been.

“YEEEESSSS!!!”

I hissed out a jubilant scream as the expected rush of ecstasy came. The part of the world that was I shifted in form. The wings that were left unabsorbed merged into my body, and we melted into a cocoon of unknowability as I achieved that which lay beyond my dreams. For the whole to become more, to see what lay beyond the horizon. It was a joy like no other, it was a pleasure that I wanted to last forever. I loved even the darkness that settled deeper into my core, for it only brought me

But I knew that it was not to be. I did not allow myself to become lost in it. I only appreciated this one eternal moment for what it was, for as long as it may last.

Soon, all too soon, my view of reality returned. I saw the friends that I knew were there, waiting for me. The people that I loved had shared in this moment, in support and in hope.

I looked at their faces which were a mix of different emotions or lack thereof, and I felt nothing but