Ding.

Ding.

Ding.

It was music.

Or maybe it was mountains splitting apart, thunder roaring.

Great chunks of alchemical materials, smelted in enormous furnaces, were hammered by one towering giant after another. Giant hammers swung, steel tongs pressed down, and the materials were continuously shaped into precise components—so refined they absolutely did not match the two words “demonfolk.”

But these weren’t weapons or armor being built for the front-line battlefield that was still locked in a stalemate.

These components were produced, and then quickly delivered somewhere else.

It was a high platform that looked as if it had been cast from refined steel. Silver-white, unbelievably smooth, it rose straight up from beneath the earth like a mountain range—spectacular.

"￥&%%......"

Harsh, hard-to-understand chanting echoed through this space. Several high-ranking demonfolk—identical to humans in size and appearance—floated above the platform, extravagantly burning through enormous amounts of magic power as they embedded alchemical parts into this colossal structure one by one.

Countless lines of magic glimmered faintly across the platform, appearing and disappearing. But if some great mage with sufficiently profound magical attainment came here and observed carefully, they would discover that the operating rules of these patterns were completely different from modern magic.

Because these patterns didn’t look like something engraved onto the platform with magic-conducting materials.

They looked as if, from the very beginning, they had been one whole with the platform itself.

Looking up, everything felt vast... and exquisitely precise.

"So that’s the so-called royal bloodline?"

An looked at the few high-ranking demonfolk floating above the platform. When her gaze swept over the bracelets on their wrists—bracelets that radiated a certain rule-like aura—faint disdain flickered in her eyes.

"Heh. What royal bloodline? Just ignorant people spreading rumors."

Shenyi walked in front. Hearing that, he shook his head and chuckled.

"You should know best. The so-called royal bloodline is nothing more than people who have some degree of compatibility with those ancient relics. They’re special, so their status becomes noble, and then the ignorant pass the tale along until it becomes ‘royal blood.’"

"If we’re talking about a true king..."

Shenyi turned back.

"Among all demonfolk, there is only you."

"I’m not the king you people keep talking about. You’ve got the wrong person."

An’s face was expressionless.

"Heh heh... maybe not yet. Still just a little short. But it’s fine..."

Shenyi suddenly spread his arms, his tone carrying a hint of fervor.

"Look, my king... all of this—everything—has been prepared for you, for your return!!"

A massive mechanism carried the two of them up onto the platform. On the ground below, the demonfolk working like dense swarms of ants saw this and all knelt down in reverence, shouting toward An with fanatical passion:

"Welcome... Demon King’s return!"

"I’m not the Demon King!"

An retorted.

But the retort was far too weak.

One person’s voice, inside a tide like mountains and seas, was easily drowned. It couldn’t even stir a ripple.

At the same time, as she looked at those kneeling figures, a fierce disgust rose in An’s heart.

She didn’t know where the disgust came from. It was as if she simply found the sight of those demonfolk kneeling... utterly repulsive.

"Come. Maybe you haven’t remembered yet. Or maybe you have, and you’re playing dumb. But listening to them shout is worse than going to see it yourself."

Shenyi led An onward.

An didn’t want to look at these boring theatrics anymore, but with her current strength, she had no power to resist Shenyi at all.

Too many fragmented images flashed through her mind. She had no method to deal with the demonfolk’s First Grand Duke. So she could only follow him helplessly.

From the other side of the platform, they entered an underground space.

They had actually been underground the whole time, but this place should be considered the upper level of the underground.

Past a long stairway, with fewer and fewer demonfolk guards, what appeared before An was a pitch-black tunnel.

"No lights?"

"Of course there are."

Shenyi took out a battered old kerosene lantern.

A dim yellow light flickered, finally illuminating a small stretch of the tunnel’s path.

"That’s it?"

An frowned slightly.

A dignified Grand Duke like Shenyi was using something this old-fashioned for light?

Even if he couldn’t use magic, even if he didn’t know a basic light spell, borrowing a torch from those low-ranking demonfolk outside would be ten times brighter than this thing.

"This is enough."

Shenyi chuckled.

"Remember this: when we pass through, don’t speak. Don’t circulate any magic power or battle qi. Just follow me."

"And if I don’t listen?"

"Then that’s unfortunate."

Shenyi lifted the lantern, driving off a little of the shadow at the tunnel entrance.

"In a moment, I’ll have to start piecing your body together first."

"..."

An followed Shenyi into the tunnel.

She didn’t want to obey that old man’s orders, but after entering the tunnel, she quieted down without realizing it.

Because within that darkness, it seemed as if countless gazes were staring at her, radiating a bone-chilling, terrifying coldness... as if the moment she made the slightest reckless move, she would be torn to pieces by the owners of those gazes.

Yet whenever the lantern’s light swept past, there was nothing at all in this not-very-wide tunnel.

Another ancient relic’s effect?

An frowned.

This kind of ancient relic did not seem to have appeared in any of the images in her mind.

"Alright. We’re here."

Light returned.

Shenyi put away the lantern and stepped aside.

Hearing Shenyi’s words, An instinctively lifted her head and looked.

And then... she froze.

She saw countless statues—lifelike to an extreme, as if carved by the most top-tier artist, depicting the twisted ugliness of people right before death with chilling clarity, as though they might come alive in the next moment, only to die again in terror.

And when her gaze passed over those statues, An finally saw...

A thorny throne of obsidian.

And on that throne, a skeleton seated upright, draped in a feathered robe.

"This is..."

The skeleton’s eye sockets were profound, like black holes, yet An seemed to feel it watching her. At the same time, a powerful sense of affinity surged from the skeleton, so strong that An actually felt an impulse for her soul to leave her body and fuse with that skeleton.

"She... who is she?"

That eerie impulse made An tremble. She retreated, wanting to run.

"I... who am I, really..."

There were many things An wanted to deny.

She was not demonfolk.

She had nothing to do with demonfolk.

She was only a small personal maid who wanted to serve Young Master and spend the rest of her life with him.

Her greatest hobby was cleaning. She was passionate about exterminating certain pests.

Other than that... there was nothing, and she asked for nothing.

But the moment that skeleton on the throne appeared before her eyes, she realized she no longer even had the ability to deceive herself.

"So your awakening truly hasn’t reached this level yet?"

Shenyi sighed.

She already had the qualification to control Myriad-Age Cycle to that extent, yet her memories were still this incomplete. It really was hard to understand.

But it didn’t matter.

"Still don’t understand?"

Shenyi stared at the skeleton and spoke slowly.

"She is you. You are her, Miss An... no, using that human name now is truly a blasphe—"

"Shut up!"

An cut Shenyi off sharply.

"What do you mean I’m her? I have my own parents... even if they’re dead now, I know clearly how I was born, how I grew up, how I grew up together with Young Master until I became the An I am now! I can’t possibly have anything to do with a skeleton!"

An’s posture was still straight, her movements still standard and elegant, but the hands folded over her lower abdomen were clenched together so tightly they trembled slightly.

Again and again and again and again, she rummaged through those chaotic, complicated memories in her mind, trying to find words to refute Shenyi.

But the more she searched... the more powerless she became to refute him...

Because if she wasn’t connected to this...

Then how was she supposed to explain all these inexplicable memories?

"Back then... a thousand years ago."

Shenyi didn’t argue with her. He began speaking as if recounting something long-buried.

"Among us... there was a leader. She was our king. She was our ruler. We followed her, and we kept moving forward."

"At that time, our circumstances were somewhat similar to what they are now. We were oppressed by those above the tower. It was our king who led us—only because of her did we have the courage to resist all of it."

"Everything had been good. Dreamlike, beautiful. Under the king’s guidance, we gradually moved toward true freedom."

Shenyi paused.

"But when that upheaval happened, everything changed."

"Heaven and earth overturned, the seas ran backward, civilization collapsed... It was a catastrophe that still makes my heart quake to this day. And in that catastrophe... she, the king... died."

Shenyi turned and looked at An. In those weathered, muddy eyes was so much sorrow, like a child who’d had everything stolen away.

"I didn’t even know how she died. I didn’t know who killed her. But when I came back to myself... she was already fallen right in front of me." 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

"She died."

"Died so ordinarily. Without a sound."

"But I refused to accept it, and all demonfolk refused to accept it!"

"Demonfolk cannot lose their king!"

Shenyi’s tone grew heavier, like blades resonating.

"So after that, I used every method I could to revive her. Fortunately, even though she died, she didn’t completely die. The magic of that era was an extremely terrifying thing. I used a magic tool... no, in today’s terms, I used an ancient relic, and in an instant I sealed her body away."

"But my revival plan still failed, because one mistake of mine let a part of her consciousness... or rather, her soul, escape from the body that had been sealed."

"That part of her soul even somehow broke free of the spatial turbulence that locked down the whole Abyss sky, and wandered reincarnating through the human world."

"The most recent time, she became an ordinary little girl in a small mountain village on the empire’s border."

"So... do you understand now?"

In Shenyi’s muddy pupils, An’s forced composure was reflected clearly as he enunciated each word.

"You are that part of the soul. You... are the Demon King’s half-body!"

"..."

An’s body swayed, as if she might fall at any moment.

She # Nоvеlight # had always demanded strictness from herself. She rarely lost her composure like this.

But no matter how strong her will was, no matter how much she had already guessed at this outcome—hearing it with her own ears still made her waver.

Demon King.

To a small personal maid, what an unimaginably distant word.

If Duke Campbell had known this back then, he would have strangled her to death immediately in that little village that no longer existed.

"So, do you understand now? Of course, it doesn’t matter if you don’t. Once I return you to the king’s body, you will understand everything in the end."

Shenyi said it calmly.

"Heh..."

An forced a cold smile.

"You think I’ll just do what you want that easily?"

If she was the so-called half-body, then her will could also exert enough influence on that result.

"You will."

Shenyi was that certain.

"Why?"

"Because only like this can you obtain power. Only like this can you save..."

Shenyi tilted his head, thinking.

"What was the name of that Lion King’s son who likes pretending to be a woman again? Oh, right—Muen Campbe—"

Boom!

Countless steel roars exploded!

A gigantic blade, like a monster’s claw, instantly pressed up beside Shenyi’s body, ready to tear him to pieces at any time.

The poised An seemed to turn into a monster as well—face twisted, viciously glaring at Shenyi.

"You—are—not—allowed—to—touch—Young Master!!"

"...How frightening."

Shenyi patted his clothes as if he hadn’t even seen those razor-sharp blades, smiling kindly.

"I never expected that this time’s you would have such a soft spot."

"Then if, on this matter, I want to go against your will... what should I do?"

What should he do?

If Young Master died.

If he died...

Just imagining that scene made a terrifying desire for destruction rise in An’s mind, swelling higher and higher, as if it wanted toᅟto rip everything apart.

"I’ll kill you."

"And then?"

"I’ll slaughter all demonfolk."

"And then?"

"And... if Young Master dies."

An paused, then said each word with absolute firmness.

"Then this world has no reason to exist."

Everything about her existed around Young Master.

Young Master was her world.

Just like those insane things she had done for Young Master in the past.

If Young Master died... then her madness would descend upon the whole world in ten thousand and a hundred million times its former magnitude.

This wasn’t a threat.

Maybe, in some parallel world that didn’t exist, it had already happened.

"Destroy the world...?"

Shenyi rolled those words around in his mouth.

They were too vast. He understood what kind of terrifying power it took to destroy the world. Even for him—the demonfolk’s First Grand Duke—it was something he didn’t dare even imagine.

But...

"Hahahaha..."

He laughed.

"What..."

Even An froze at his laughter.

"Good. Good... destroy the world... isn’t that wonderful?"

Shenyi stretched out a hand, as if he wanted to grasp the world he spoke of destroying in his palm.

"Isn’t that wonderful? My king—back then, you were so kind. You were so gentle to this world."

"But... but... that gentle, kind you still received unfair treatment from this world. You still met an ending you never should have had. Since that’s the case... since that’s the case..."

On that aged face, the kindly expression vanished bit by bit, replaced by utter savagery.

As if stained with blood.

"Then let the world be destroyed."

"If, after you awaken again, this is still my king’s will... then I, Shenyi, will become the first soul offered to your blade!"