Break their bones. Cut apart their flesh! They shall know fear, and flee at the re ntion of my na!
HAELL ZHARIGNAN!
I panted as I finished off the last barkbark. I was lucky enough to chance upon a swarm, the lot of them individually weak and susceptible to my eyes and aura of intimidation. It was soo much fun killing them, and it brought delight like no other when they began to scatter and flee. Hunting them like hide and go seek was sooo much fun!
The nace mana within churned at these actions. It delighted upon the carnage that I wrought.
I stopped, and the magic nigh instantly began to deflate, but I held onto it. I held on to the feeling, and I felt my mana respond once more.
But it was a re whimper. A sad goodbye. My nace mana grew weak and limp, dropping back down to normal levels.
I could technically just activate the mana inside of , with the specific intent to corrupt my own mind, and the magic would do so gleefully. But the goal was to be in control, to do it under my own terms. Only then could I safely take the shortcut.
…The shortcut also didn’t work nearly as well as the emotions being genuine or occurring more naturally. I didn’t know why that was the case; the nace mana inside of was technically always influencing in so way, but that was fine… sohow. It didn’t seem to affect the results negatively at all.
Magic was fucking weird.
I loved it.
I trained even harder.
~~~
I repeated the sa exercise, I wrought the sa carnage upon the forest. I’d had to range further and further away over the months, just because a lot of the animals, especially the weaker ones, began to avoid the area where I hunted.
My breaths ca out as satisfied rasps as I stood over the corpse of a Crushnake. It was a very big snake, a regenerator and a constrictor predator nearing level 20. It was very troubleso to fight because of how agile it could be, and its propensity to get close and up in my face. I had to resort back to the basics to drive it away, taking out the fire wand that I made sure to keep with and burning everything within proximity.
There was the problem of course, of the interference living and conscious souls have against magic, denying control over mana if it’s too close to an adversary. But my own presence interfered with that interference in turn, allowing my magic to not be rendered impotent if sothing was foolish enough to stick that close to myself.
Afterwards, it was only a matter of peppering the animal with nace bullets, and slashing at it over and over with my sword. Crucially, my nace magic sohow seed to interfere with the creature’s healing, allowing to quickly overco its regeneration and win.
“Great. I’m aweso.” I held on to my negative emotions. I allowed them to fester by themselves, and the mana within pulsed. I reviewed the previous battles in my mind, while also maintaining my focus on only the most nacing thoughts.
Switching elents to fire proved to be a hurdle. Even when wielding such a violent elent, I noticed how my emotions shifted a little, away from the nacing, and that interfered with the power I was building within the nace magic in my blood. Multi-casting proves to be truly complicated.
Another thing that required further training. I settled back into my twisted form of diation, aiming for the complete opposite state of peace.
~~~
Clink. Clank. Clink. Clank.
I listened to the consistent rhythm of Moonwash working the forge. She had gotten it set up near the entrance of our cavern for proper ventilation, with air enchantnts to dissipate the smoke and not announce for miles that there were people right here. There were no ready sources of animals with the elent nearby, so we had to make do with our reserves.
The enchantnts were actually turned off most of the ti, and Moonwash did most of her forging at night, to not have the smoke be so detectable. She was just knee-deep in a project today, hence the source of perfect background noise.
Now think of all the worst thoughts imaginable.
I ditated on my murderous desires, the envy that I sotis felt towards Moonwash beca included in that whole soup. I allowed it to flow through this ti, I considered how satisfying the looks on their faces would be if I betrayed everyone I’ve ever loved.
The nace mana responded to the state of my desires, I opened myself up to the magic and I shouted at it in turn. The mana flared up and continued to gather in strength, raising as high up as half of what I was capable of after long minutes of battle.
That was my current limit, and I was predictably unsatisfied with it. I pushed harder and harder, and I found my efforts rewarded my nace magic rose further in strength. 55%, 60%, more…
“Haell!”
A voice distracted from my training, and I snapped my head toward it in annoyance. My nace mana deflated a mont after, along with all negative thoughts, as I saw my mom standing right there, carrying an oversized pack.
“Mommy!” I shouted, ramming into her belly. She caught in a hug, before raising an eyebrow in mild surprise.
“Mommy?”
“Ah! N-nothing. I was just surprised!”
She laughed and patted on the head, brushing against my horns. “It’s okay, Haell. You can call that if you want.”
“...Nah. I'm good.”
“Whatever you say,” she giggled.
Dad ca down to the cavern a mont after her, and I also gave him a big crushing hug. I had missed them so much, and I was so happy to et them again, which ant that it was the perfect ti for to practice more of my nace magic.
They have supplies. We need them. I’ll steal them…!
…Wait a second. Those supplies were for us. So there’s no need to steal anything…
I needed another angle to tackle this from.
They have co all the way here. They must tired. Weary from their journey. Now is my ti to strike and kill them! I nearly gagged just thinking that, but I pushed on. They will not see it coming! Not when it’s from their beloved daughter. They will let their guard down! They will offer their lives up for to kill!
“Haell?” Dad said. “What’s wrong?”
“Oh, nothing much.” I flashed a rictus grin and squeezed hard upon my emotions, keeping them nacing. “I’m just thinking about the literal worst things ever!”
“What…? Why?”
I explained to them both about my recent training and my magic.
“That sounds difficult. Are you sure this is fine Haell? You can go ho, you know? You don’t have to fight…” Dad spoke a lot more than normal, clearly worried for .
“Oh, I’m perfectly fine! No need to worry about !”
“We can stay with you,” Mom interjected, “You said that we’re helping, right? Making you happy, which you then have to resist?”
“Ah. Yeah. It’d be nice if you could stay for a while, but… I think you might… disapprove of so of my training thods.”
“What thods?” Dad asked.
I told them about how hard I pushed myself, the injuries and the pain.
“Haell!” Dad raised his voice, sothing he did very rarely. “Why?” He glared at Luine, “Is soone forcing you to do this?”
“No! No, not at all! It’s my decision!”
“But why…?”
“Because…” there are threats after ? The world is dangerous? I must beco strong? Only through power can freedom be found? “Because I’m a demon.”
“I… That’s not a reason.”
“It is to . It ans sothing to . More than just a species. It’s my dream.”
Dad sagged on his seat. The place had really livened up in the past months. The cavern was turned into essentially one big hall, with a few rooms at the back for privacy. The ceiling was still that of a cave, except the stalactites had been polished and cleaned, decorated with various strings, rocks, jewels, and other things, so of which glowed in the dark. We could see the forge, the kitchen, the dining hall, and more from the living area we were in. The space flowed beautifully from one thing to the next with little in the way of partitions.
“You dream, huh…?” Dad finally said. “Alright. Just promise… not even to stay safe, you won’t. But promise to stay alive.”
“Of course!” I grinned, trying to be as reassuring as could be. I eased up on stoking my nace mana. “I don't want to die either. I don’t want to die ever. Not if I can help it.”
Dad nodded. He just had to content himself with that. And a hug, of course. A big hug!
“You know, Haell,” Mom spoke up next. “I can take it! Even if you lose all your limbs and suffer a million pains, as long as you remain alive and willing, I can stay here and support you!”
I smiled. “Yeah, I know Mom. But I have to leave the nest at so point. Just visit , and I’ll also visit the uh, nest again once I’m able!”
“Ah, I tried!” she raised her arms in the air. “But I was rejected! How sad!”
“What? No! I don’t an it that way!”
“My child… my daughter… she’s at her rebellious phase!”
“I’m actually much older ntally, co on!”
“Waaaahhhhh!!!” She actually cried. “She doesn’t need her parents anymore. She tosses her mom into the streets!”
“Mom, no!” I shook her arm and she swayed with the motion. We were both laughing at the end, and my nace mana peaked, in harmony with my joy.
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