Chapter 193: An Old Friend (9)

What? Become friends?

Isaac’s sudden suggestion made me pause.

What exactly does he mean?

Isaac had come here to uncover my true name and then use a sealing spell against me, only to end up being sealed himself. I had expected to swiftly handle the situation and then continue on my journey, but now, he was talking to me like this out of nowhere.

What am I supposed to do with that?

I stayed silent for a moment.

Isaac kept talking.

"You wouldn’t have come all this way if there wasn’t something you wanted. Tell me. You must have worries, right? Don’t keep them bottled up. Confide in me—I’ll help you with anything. Okay?"

Of course, I had no intention of cooperating. I wasn’t going to be fooled again. It had worked out last time, but I hadn’t even realized he was manipulating me, leading me to reveal the tomb’s location, planting the Seal of Malphas in the Purson's dungeons, and everywhere else. If Naneow Tropin hadn’t been there, my last life would have ended much sooner.

I answered firmly.

"No."

"What?"

"I’m not falling for any more of your tricks, you con artist."

There was a flicker of confusion in his voice.

"What? Do you really... know me?"

"It sounds like you’ve scammed your way around quite a bit, judging by how shocked you are."

A laugh rose in my throat. Isaac could never be trusted. He might have had incredible abilities, but I wasn’t going to waste time picking out which of his words were true and which were lies. A wild card like this was safest locked away for good. I wasn’t going to let myself be played by him again.

No more dancing in the palm of his hand.

"You tried to possess me the second we met, and now you want to be friends?"

"That was... I’m sorry! I only meant to stay in you for a moment, then find another vessel."

"You mean kill me first, right?"

"..."

Isaac fell silent for a moment, as if he couldn’t find the words. Something else came to mind.

"If you want to prove your cooperation, try this first."

"What do you want?"

I walked slowly behind Isaac’s sarcophagus, standing in front of a bare stone wall.

"

There’s a secret passage here, isn’t there?"

"You—!"

With everything I had, I unleashed a blast of flame-imbued Sword Energy at the wall. Perhaps because I knew exactly where to aim, the hidden entrance appeared with a low rumble, just as it had before.

"

Not this one. The real secret passage."

"How do you know even that?"

I strode forward confidently.

"Who are you really? Whose orders are you following? The Demon King of Deception? No, he wouldn’t have the leisure for something like this..."

Boom!

I stepped through the thick fog swirling at the entrance without hesitation. The mist parted for me, just as it had before.

"Good grief... Look at you, barging right through other people’s barriers like they’re nothing."

I passed the line of black-gold crows and found myself bathed in a bright, almost blinding light. Above a massive stone door, white-hot liquid coursed down like molten silver.

"What do you expect me to do?"

Isaac asked.

"Open it. Didn’t you say you wanted to cooperate?"

"You crazy... I can’t open this."

"Why not? It’s your hidden passage, isn’t it?"

Isaac answered unexpectedly calmly.

"I need to recover at least thirty percent of my power before I can break the seal. While I’m possessing you like this, I couldn’t even dream of it."

A shiver traveled up from my toes to my spine.

If he regained even a portion of his original strength, Isaac could really open this door?

The female duke, who had killed Marquis Leandro, had failed to break down this very door. Isaac claimed he could do it with just thirty percent of his strength.

"So you need thirty percent of your power to break the seal on the door?"

"Exactly."

"And without that... could someone brute-force it open with pure strength alone?"

"Why would anyone do something so insane?"

"Let’s say I wanted to try."

"Then I’d need to recover at least seventy percent of my power. Why even ask me that?"

Isaac Bel'Homec had once ruled over the twelve cities of the southern lands centuries ago.

Just how powerful had he truly been?

The power he had forged in his lifetime was still with me even now, lingering in my bones.

𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

If he regained his strength, there was a good chance I would keep that power even if he died again. It was a force that might even surpass the female duke who led the ghosts.

As I wondered whether I should cooperate after all, I posed another question.

"What’s inside that door, anyway?"

Isaac answered quietly, his tone as heavy as the seal itself.

"The Demon Realm.

"

***

What? The Demon Realm?

Staring at the flowing liquid gemstones, I quietly asked,

"If you open that door... does that mean the Demon Kings will descend upon this world?"

The implications were clear. The Demon Kings’ arrival was supposed to happen ten years from now. Yet, Isaac was suggesting that if he simply regained his strength, he could open this passage to the Demon Realm immediately.

"Not exactly. For that kind of power to pour in from the Demon Realm... you’d need far more sacrifices, spread across the entire continent."

Sacrifices meant starting wars to feed blood and screams to the abyss.

"Even if you open the door now, only lesser demons would be able to slip through."

"Lesser demons?"

"Ones who wouldn’t even get close to the Palace of Hell. At most, if you forced it, you’d get a handful of second-class demons from the servant corps.

"Behemoth... Melchom... Dagon... You mean creatures like that?"

I knew the servant corps well enough. The greatest of them all had served Baal while crawling in the deepest pits. However, I had once been part of that legion too. I knew their names and faces.

"As expected, you already know."

Isaac continued calmly,

"Regardless, I can’t open it now. If you want it open, help me regain my strength. We’ll help each other live together."

A door leading to the Demon Realm...

The idea of what might happen if that door were to open piqued my curiosity, despite my experiences. I had expected Isaac to seal himself again soon enough, but this was far more unsettling. I had no idea how he might retaliate next.

"What are you thinking so hard about? If you’ve got worries, share them with me. That’s what you’re here for, right? Hey?"

"..."

"Are you just going to stand here? Move—go wherever you want."

He let me have control of my body for the moment. For now, I needed to stay far away from Rubia. If he learned about her, she’d be an immediate vulnerability. I forced my steps to stay casual, passing the crow statues and the silent golems.

At the end of the underground corridor, the steward stood waiting with a nervous expression.

"It’s over," I said.

"Over... as in, they’re freed?" the steward asked.

"Yes. The lord will be fine now."

"P-please excuse me for a moment!"

The steward bolted down the corridor to check on the lord’s condition. I strolled out slowly, asking Isaac a question as I went.

"

Why did you torment the Chandler family?"

"Who tormented whom? I am the master of the Golden Dawn and the high priest of the king’s tabernacle. You should be grateful I connected them to that power."

The Golden Dawn. That phrase sparked a memory of something he’d said before.

"The Golden Dawn?"

"Oh? You don’t know? If you don’t, just leave it at that."

A surge of stubbornness rose in me. I wanted to rattle him.

"Isaac."

"What is it?"

"Don’t you want to know what happened to your followers?"

Isaac stiffened. Even after failing to possess me and discovering the circuits carved into my bones, he had never shown this kind of cold tension.

"

You remember the name Joshua, don’t you?"

My skeleton locked up instantly. Isaac was instinctively trying to assert control again. Strangely, though, he didn’t ask me anything.

He simply murmured to himself.

"They’re... all dead? Destroyed...?"

I hadn’t said a word.

Did he somehow read my thoughts with some forbidden magic?

He fell completely silent, his mind clearly racing.

"Thank you! Thank you so much!" The steward returned, his face radiant with relief, bowing over and over. "The lord himself is on his way to see you."

"He doesn’t need to."

I turned to see the lord arriving, looking healthier and stronger than he had been before.

"Envoy! How may we serve you? Whatever command you give—please, let us serve!"

"Not right now."

"Not... now?"

"Yes. I’ll tell you later."

"Please, let us repay you in any way you see fit!"

I could sense the desperate hope in his voice—he was terrified I might demand something unreasonable. Using him would come later. For now, Isaac still wasn’t fully sealed. I couldn’t mention Rubia to the lord yet. I needed time to regain total control of myself.

Isaac, what are you doing in there?

His silence was starting to make me uneasy.

At that moment, my legs moved on their own.

Click!

My jaws

moved without my consent. "Hey, lord."

"This bastard—he said he’d cooperate!"

I was losing control again. Whenever he focused, I had no choice but to let it happen.

"Yes! What is it?" the lord answered.

The steward and the lord leaned forward expectantly.

What is he going to do?

Last time, he had demanded everything—control of the inner forge, unlimited access to A-rank weapons, anything he could get.

This time, I said words I never would have imagined. "I’m going out for a bit."

"Shall we guide you?" the lord offered.

"I won’t be long," I replied.

"Yes! Understood!"

"What the hell are you doing?"

Isaac’s tone was unsettlingly calm.

"False envoy... there’s somewhere you really don’t want to go, isn’t there?"

What?

Isaac started walking with deliberate steps, each one echoing through the silent halls.

"Keep whispering in your heart. Inside the castle? Outside?"

He murmured constantly in my mind as he moved. He walked through the inner gates and then, without even bothering to use the stairs, he leaped down from the walls to the outside, where Rubia was.

"Outside, then."

A cold, crawling dread coiled around my heart.

What is he doing?

My skeleton moved quickly, slipping through the streets outside the castle walls. I could feel tiny tremors in my bones, and I tried to fight them.

"No."

"Left? Right? Left, then."

Can he really read my mind?

A chill spread up my spine. I didn’t want to believe it, but he seemed to be able to read my mind.

"This is insane..."

"This way, then. Sprint."

It felt like some ghost had possessed me. The harder I resisted, the faster he moved—each step more precise and more direct.

"Here we are."

We arrived in an instant. I turned my skull and saw the place immediately.

"This can’t be..."

It was the Crowded Cactus, the inn where I had left Rubia behind. I heard the creak of a window opening and saw a woman’s bright smile appear.

"

Ah

! You’re back!"

Rubia beamed at me from the window, then vanished from sight. I heard her footsteps thundering down the stairs, her excitement echoing in the stairwell. A chill sank deep into my gut.