Chapter 219
“You know, sis. Honestly, I don’t hate you that much. Even though what you did this time is completely unforgivable… a part of me still wants to help you.”
“…I… I…”
“Sorry, but I won’t be listening to your opinion.”
Chris placed his hand on Yulian’s forehead.
“This might hurt a bit. It’s a method that requires digging into your soul.”
Fwoosh.
A curse was activated.
‘Cruel Nightmare.’
It was a curse that forced the victim to relive the most horrifying memory of their life.
In Yulian’s case, it was—of course—the memory of watching her loved ones being massacred.
“…P-please… don’t…”
Yulian stammered.
Even though she had endured the agony of having her soul torn apart, she couldn’t bear to witness her precious ones being slaughtered again.
But Chris didn’t stop.
On the contrary, he cast an even more merciless curse.
‘Pendulum of Nightmares.’
Like the swing of a never-ending pendulum, it was a curse that forced the victim to dream the same nightmare over and over again.
In short, Chris had placed a curse on Yulian that would endlessly repeat the nightmare of her loved ones dying.
“N-no…”
As Yulian’s consciousness sank into the nightmare, a black crescent sigil surfaced on Chris’s temple as he watched her.
It was the mark of a Half-Devil.
* * *
The village where Yulian—or rather, she—had once lived was a peaceful place.
It was small, but filled with a tranquil calm.
Hell arrived without warning.
The “devil” descended on a day when the sky was unusually clear.
That “devil,” Marquis Langham, conducted brutal human experimentation under the pretense of researching spirit arts, using her and everyone in the village.
No… looking back now, it wasn’t even proper experimentation.
It was just a horrific slaughter, orchestrated to make their deaths even more agonizing.
She too was left barely clinging to life, awaiting death in a wretched state, when a certain being appeared before her.
“What a pitiful child. Don’t you want revenge?”
It was the Demon King of Azure Flow.
The once-glorious Fairy Queen.
She took the Demon King of Azure Flow’s hand.
In exchange for the Demon King’s help, there was one condition.
“Offer up your soul and dye the Venomous Demonic House in blood.”
She accepted that condition.
If she could just have her revenge, she was willing to become a devil.
“But I was only being used.”
It was only after she had carried out her vengeance that she realized the truth.
From beginning to end, she had simply been a pawn to both the Demon King of Azure Flow and Marquis Langham.
‘It was all part of those devils’ plan from the very beginning.’
The horrific massacre committed by Marquis Langham.
The outstretched hand offered by the Demon King of Azure Flow.
All of it had been a scheme to use her.
A wave of vengeful rage surged up… but was soon smothered by a hollow emptiness.
‘I just want to let it go now.’
To begin with, she wasn’t someone suited for revenge.
That was simply the nature of her kind—the Elves.
A people who loved peace and the forest.
She had only endured this far by forcing herself to remember the image of her clan dying in agony.
But now that she had learned the truth—that she was nothing more than a puppet caught in their conspiracy—her spirit was completely broken.
‘I was never going to be able to take revenge anyway.’
Even Marquis Langham alone had been too much for her to handle.
And now she was supposed to go up against the Demon King of Azure Flow?
‘I just want to be free of this now.’
Yulian squeezed her eyes shut.
At that moment, a voice surfaced from deep within her heart.
—You haven’t accomplished anything. And yet you’re giving up already?
Words Christian had once said to her.
Yulian bit down hard on her lip.
When she opened her eyes again, she saw the same nightmare playing out once more.
Her clan being slaughtered mercilessly.
The Demon King of Azure Flow, extending her hand with a false air of sympathy to the grief-stricken Yulian.
That scene kept repeating again and again.
“Stop… stop…!!”
Yulian covered her eyes and shouted.
“Just stop already!!”
Drip.
Tears fell.
And then—a different voice spoke.
A voice that came from her own heart.
—You’re just trying to run away.
Within the unending hell of repeating nightmares, Yulian came face to face with her true feelings.
She didn’t want to give up.
She wanted to make the wretched devils who had thrown her into this abyss pay for what they had done.
But it was impossible.
More than anything, she had already offered her soul to a devil. Her soul now belonged to Gehenna, destined to suffer eternal torment.
‘There’s no way out.’
Yulian was lost in despair when—
A voice broke in, one she hadn’t expected.
“Want me to help you?”
“!!”
It was Chris!
Chris appeared within the world of nightmares.
“…Help me? What do you mean?”
“I’ll free you from the devil.”
“What nonsense… That’s impossible.”
Yulian shook her head.
A contract formed with a devil is absolute.
But then, Chris said something shocking.
“No, not necessarily. There’s a loophole worth exploiting.”
“A loophole…?”
“Yeah, there’s a viable method. Normally it’d be impossible… but as you know, I’m not exactly ordinary, right?”
Yulian looked at him, stunned.
Of course, she knew Chris was a genius.
But cancel a contract made with a devil? That should be unthinkable.
And yet—
“If it were a standard contract, it’d be hopeless. But luckily, yours has a gap I can get into.”
Chris snapped his fingers.
“Your contract with the devil—it's a dual contract, isn’t it? One that was brokered by the Demon King of Azure Flow.”
“!!”
That’s right.
Originally, Yulian didn’t qualify to form a contract with a devil of the 3rd Realm.
It had only been made possible because the Demon King of Azure Flow served as the intermediary.
And here was the crucial point:
‘The first party who made a contract with Yulian wasn’t the devil of the 3rd Realm—it was the Demon King of Azure Flow.’
It was a sequential contract chain: Yulian → Demon King of Azure Flow → Devil of the 3rd Realm.
Which meant—
‘If the contract between Yulian and the Demon King of Azure Flow is nullified, all other linked contracts become void.’
The devil of the 3rd Realm was an unreachable, supreme being—but the Demon King of Azure Flow was different.
Even if she was a 9-star Transcendent, she was still a mortal.
Which meant she could be touched.
‘If I bind Yulian’s soul to myself, I can sever her contract with the Demon King of Azure Flow. With Gehenna’s loopholes, it’s entirely possible.’
Having organized his thoughts, Chris looked directly at Yulian.
“I, Christian, ask you now—if I promise to fulfill your revenge, will you offer your soul to me?”
“!!”
Yulian swallowed hard.
“You’ll… help me get revenge?”
“That’s right.”
Chris nodded.
“I’ll bring death to everyone involved in your clan’s massacre. Marquis Langham… and the Demon King of Azure Flow as well.”
Yulian’s eyes trembled.
“There’s no way… something like that is possible…”
“Why do you assume it’s impossible?”
Chris curled the corner of his mouth into a faint smile.
“You’ve seen the miracles I’ve pulled off so far, haven’t you? Taking down Marquis Langham is obvious. And within a year, I’ll personally behead the Demon King of Azure Flow.”
To be honest, this wasn’t entirely for Yulian’s sake.
Chris was already planning to conquer the Southern Magus Nation within the year.
And in that process, he intended to either subjugate or eliminate all obstacles—including the Demon King of Azure Flow.
“So, you get one chance. Decide. Will you offer me your soul?”
Yulian swallowed hard.
“…I’ll… offer you my soul.”
“Good. Tell me your true name.”
He wasn’t asking for Yulian, but for her soul’s True Name.
Yulian hesitated before answering.
“…Rear.”
“Alright, Rear. Then offer your blood to me.”
Yulian—no, Rear—drew blood from her wrist.
This place wasn’t the physical world, but her mental realm.
Still, it didn’t matter.
What mattered was the act of submission from the heart—a ritual of surrender.
Zzzzt…
As the contract began, something astonishing happened.
A twisted tree-shaped sigil appeared on the back of Yulian’s neck—and began to fade.
In its place, a new mark began to take form:
The black crescent sigil of Chris.
The symbol of the Demon King of Azure Flow vanished, and Chris’s mark took its place.
It meant only one thing:
Chris was intercepting the soul contract originally made with the Demon King of Azure Flow.
At that moment, a deep voice suddenly rang out.
[Cease. I will tolerate no more of this.]
It was the voice of the Demon King of Azure Flow!
She had used her authority as a contracting party to forcibly intervene in Yulian’s consciousness—even from an immense distance.
[That girl’s soul belongs to me and the One Above.]
Chris let out a dry laugh.
“Shut your mouth.”
[…What?]
“I’m telling you not to spout nonsense—especially from someone whose contract was false from the start.”
But Chris didn’t stop there.
“A so-called Demon King pulling off such a cheap, fraudulent contract… You should be ashamed.
Then again, no wonder you got kicked off your throne as the Fairy Queen.”
The air began to whip with fury—as if the Demon King of Azure Flow was enraged by the insult.
But Chris only sneered with disdain.
He had no intention of showing respect to something that resembled a devil like her.
‘What, you mad? What’re you gonna do about it?’
Even for a Demon King, harming him in this faraway mental realm was beyond her power.
But then the Demon King let out a mocking laugh.
[Foolish brat. You really have no idea what you’ve done, do you?]
“……”
[To seize a soul contract made by another without due cause… Do you not understand that you’ve violated the law of causality itself?]
As she said this, an unknown energy began to manifest around Chris.
It wasn’t Magia or Mana—it was something entirely different.
It was clearer, purer—
The fundamental force of the world itself.
‘Causality!’
Just as the Demon King of Azure Flow had warned, a restriction of causality had activated.
However, it was strange—difficult to understand.
Normally, stealing someone else’s soul contract wouldn’t trigger a visible backlash from the law of causality.
Sure, it was technically a violation, but in the grand scheme of the world, it was considered a trivial offense.
Even if a backlash did occur, it would typically amount to nothing more than a minor inconvenience.
But now—
‘The Demon King of Azure Flow manipulated causality itself.’
After all, she was a 9-star Transcendent.
She had the power to interfere with the very foundation of the world: causality.
And not just interfere—she could reshape it, weaponize it at will.
In other words, something like this:
If there was a causality backlash that would ordinarily result in general misfortune over a long period,
she could compress all that misfortune into a single moment and sharpen it to a lethal point.
For example, instead of a vague series of unlucky events, all that bad luck could strike in one instant… as a deadly misfortune directly threatening one’s life.
The same thing was now happening to Chris.
Ordinarily, the backlash he would receive for intercepting another’s soul contract would be no more than a minor wound to his soul.
Something recoverable over time.
But the Demon King of Azure Flow had interfered with that outcome—she reforged the backlash itself.
She compressed it, refined it, and turned it into a piercing spear of causality—a strike aimed straight at his soul’s core.
Only a 9-star Transcendent could pull off such a miracle.
[I shall pierce your soul’s core.]
A grim declaration.
The sharpened blade of causality came rushing toward Chris’s soul like a divine spear.
If it struck, Chris would suffer a catastrophic blow to his very soul.
But then—something completely unexpected happened.
Fwoosh!
The spear of causality… halted just before it reached him!
[!!]
The Demon King of Azure Flow's surprise was palpable.
Chris smirked.
“You seem to be under a misunderstanding. I’ve broken no law of causality.”
The corner of his lips curled up even more.
“It seems Her Majesty has forgotten the laws of Gehenna.”