On The Other Side: I Quit Being Human

"Take me with you." Luxia, the 6'1" tall Spirit Forest, looks up at me hopefully.

"Excuse me?" I ask in English.

"I am sorry I don't speak any indigenous language."

"That was not—well, forget it." I shake my head helplessly. "What do you mean by taking you with me?"

"Ah, I guess I should've explained myself first before saying that." Luxia smiles in embarrassment. Clearing her throat afterwards, she turns to her heart. "Before I got corrupted, it used to be inside me."

"It's your heart, after all," I remark.

"Yes... Was that supposed to be a sarcastic remark?"

"Nah, carry on."

Nodding her head, Luxia continues, "When I saw those humans cut my sister down, I was actually still pretty much myself. I went to confront them fairly calmly even though I was boiling inside..."

Luxia tells me about how she actually didn't feel her anger would do something to the issue at that time. She proposed the humans to leave the place, while she was trying to save her sister's life.

She knew at that time, however, her sister could no longer be saved, so she just wanted to pardon the human and grieve for the inevitable death of her sister ... Just like what any kind Forest Spirit would also do in that kind of situation.

"Let us extract both of these cocky Spirits' hearts to make a potion... As soon as I heard those words coming out of their mouth, my vision immediately went dark."

Like humans however, Forest Spirits also have a limit to their patience. Her heart got corrupted a second after the idiotic bastards declared their intention to take her sister's most precious possession.

The heart of a Forest Spirit is, after all, the reason why Forest Spirits don't vanish after they die. It contains the essence of the world, and it is the only way for Forest Spirits to be "reborn."

Unlike any other creatures that can reproduce, the only way to maintain Forest Spirit population is to leave their heart alone after they die.

Forest Spirits are born from the world, and it takes the world hundreds of years just to give birth to one. That is a very slow "production rate," and therefore Forest Spirits are highly valuable.

The only reason why they can last this long is because their heart, after they die, will revive them in their baby form. The cycle will continue for countless of times, until the heart is destroyed by some idiot.

This is their reason why Luxia wasn't that mad at the humans until they said those stupidly ignorant words. Taking her sister's heart away, after all, is the same as killing her for good.

"By the time I regained my consciousness, I was already in this room, bound to the cursed body of a creature named Earth Eater." Luxia caresses the trunk containing her heart. "This trunk used to be me, before I ripped this corrupted heart out of my chest."

"How could you survive without having your heart inside you?"

Luxia stops caressing the trunk at my question, and turns to me afterwards. Staring at me silently with her forlorn eyes, she opens her mouth half a minute later.

"My sister sacrificed herself for me..." Luxia puts her hand on her chest. "The heart beating inside me is the heart of the person who I have come to call sister."

It turns out, by the time Luxia woke up in this room, she didn't only find herself corrupted but also her sister that had been trying to make her regain her consciousness for tens of years.

She had been holding her sister's heart for all this time, so by turning into an Earth Eater, she had indirectly provided protection to her sister, who had been in the process of rebirth.

Luxia's sister managed to be reborn, and had been looking at Luxia's heart slowly corroding Luxia's consciousness for years, before she eventually managed to wake Luxia up.

"When I saw my sister's face, I was so glad she had mature enough to remember the time we had spent together in the past." Luxia smiles softly. "I thought I could finally go peacefully at that time, but my sister thought differently."

Unwilling to see her sister go away like that, Luxia's sister proposed Luxia to replace her corrupted heart with hers. Luxia, of course, vehemently refused it, but her sister didn't have any of it.

"She immediately plucked her heart out after saying, 'Let us live this life together this time,' and I couldn't do anything about it. She put her heart in my hand, and I could only take it as I wail mournfully."

That day she watched her sister died for the second time. It might be close to a hundred years for Luxia's sister, who had regained her memory of her previous life, but for Luxia, it was just a blink of an eye.

It left her broken, but because of that, she could still live right after she ripped her corrupted heart out. She wanted to burst in rage, however she didn't want to also corrupt her sister's heart.

She could only weep silently as she held her sister's slowly withering body, but unfortunately for her, her trials didn't only stop there.

"When I wanted to come out, so I could live a peaceful life with my sister's heart beating inside me, I found that I couldn't. I am bound with this cursed body as long as my corrupted heart is not destroyed."

Luxia silently cries—as I see her tear drops to the ground, a plant immediately sprouts out. Some of her teardrops also fall on her dress, and that makes me wonder if the vegetation there came from her tears.

The story of the two Forest Spirits that became sworn sisters became even sadder when I consider that to be the case. I mean, it's even extremely rare for blood-related sisters to go that far.

"I don't hold anymore grudge to the humans who have killed my sister—they are probably already dead anyway—but I can't let anymore humans harm Forest Spirits. I have to get out of this place."

"Is that your request?" I quirk my eyebrow as I take Rexorem out of my Spatial Storage. "I can destroy your heart easily."

"Eh? No no no." Luxia shakes her head vigorously. "That would be a real waste for you to just destroy it, and a huge disadvantage for me. There is a reason why I want you to take me with you."

I tilt my head, and put Rexorem on my shoulder. "You want me to take your heart with me?" Luxia nods her head. "Destroying your corrupted heart is the same as freeing you from this place, isn't it?"

"It is, but as I say, it'll be a waste to just destroy it. I will lose roughly three fourth of my power, and you will gain nothing if you do that."

"What will I get if I take it?"

"An extra supply of Mana that is triple as much as the Mana inside your Mana Pool, a better control over Mana, and a high Affinity towards Earth."

After snorting lightly in amusement, I immediately put my palm on top of Luxia's corrupted heart. This is my silver lining in the cloud I have crashed into, so I can't let this go to waste.

"How should I take it out?" I ask after pulling it out to no avail.

"... You like power so much, don't you?"

"Well, who doesn't?"

"Fair enough." Luxia shrugs then puts her palm on top of my hand. "Don't resist my Mana."

"Oh, you have a soft skin."

I am slightly surprised by how different Luxia's Mana feels upon entering my body—it feels lighter than my heavy and chaotic Demonic Mana—but I am too interested in her soft skin to be fascinated by her Mana.

'Just how can it look so bark-like, yet so soft... Oh shit, her Mana is burning my heart now!'

As soon as I feel the invasive energy heating up my heart, I turn to Luxia with a frown. I ponder about taking off my mask just so I can show her how displeased I am, but she already knows it even without me doing that.

"I am binding my corrupted heart with yours. It will sting a bit, but you will be fine."

"Am I not going to be corrupted that way?"

"You wouldn't be called a Demon if you weren't corrupted in the first place."

"Touché."

"I don't speak any indigenous language."

Shrugging lightly, I say, "Well, I don't speak French either... Oh, it's not an indigenous language by the way."

Luxia looks at me in wonder, but decides to shake her head eventually. "Anyway, do you know what you will have to do after taking me with you?"

"I thought taking your heart with me was all I have to do," I remark dryly.

"Well, you know how my heart binds me to this place."

"Fair enough." I nod my head in understanding. "What should I do from now on with you then?"

"Hunt every human who has forcefully established a contract with a Forest Spirit down."

I snort in amusement at the unexpected answer, and I can't help myself from smirking in glee. Killing humans, after all, is what I am going to do for the rest of my life.