Chapter 193. Love and Obsession (8)

Evelyn wanted to kill. She needed to kill them. Words like authority and justification didn’t register in her brain, and her desire to kill and shred to pieces those who had set her house aflame and killed her family possessed her entire being. Yes, she would kill them now.

“…” But for reasons unbeknownst to her, her body refused to carry out her thoughts. Her gripping strength slowly weakened, and she took two steps back.

Clang! The sword slid from her grip.

“…My lady?” The lord’s expectant eyes twitched. Evelyn shook her head. She didn’t know why she was behaving this way. Strong loathing soared in her chest even at this moment, but there was this voice she had been hearing inside her head since she first met the lord; it told her that she mustn’t do what the lord told her to do and pulled her back. It rang louder than ever, and Evelyn felt a greater sense of danger from the lord than usual and resisted.

“Ah…” Evelyn looked at her family’s cold corpses. “Ah, ah…” Then she looked back at the villagers kneeling on the ground.

“Ahhhhhhhh!” She clutched her head with both hands and screamed. It was a desperate, sorrowful cry. ‘Why? How? For what? I’m sorry, dad and mom. How painful it must have been, my brothers and sisters! The lord? The villagers? Do I kill them? No? Why?’ Thoughts stirred and jumbled together inside her head, and emotions tumbled out of her without a place to go.

Quite a bit of time passed as she struggled with great inner turmoil, and Evelyn stopped moving. She was no longer shrieking, and her incomprehensible whimpering didn’t last long. Eventually, she pressed a hand to her mouth. Having been watching from afar, the lord sensed that something was going wrong, but by the time he realized it, Evelyn’s had already swallowed the item in her grasp.

Ever since her secret was revealed, Evelyn had been carrying with her a poisonous herb wherever she went. It was incredibly potent; even the snake’s venom that almost killed her younger sibling paled in comparison. Not knowing what to do and unable to accept this chaos, Evelyn had chosen death in the end—not anyone else’s, but hers.

Her view wavered as her body slipped to the ground, and everything seemed to blur together. The lord’s angry and shocked cry didn’t even sound like it belonged to a human. Then her surroundings turned dark. Thus ended the memory from her living days that had stayed with her for thousands of years.

* * *

“Human beings are truly foolish and filthy.” The lord at that time—Zepar’s voice rang. He sounded remorseful as he spoke. “I didn’t expect you to make such a decision at that time. Not in the slightest. I suppose that meant you couldn’t abandon humans in the end.” Zepar clicked his tongue and smiled. “But countless years have passed since then, and now, we are meeting once again. You as the Abyss’ witch, and me, a great demon.”

—…

“This is fate.”

Evelyn didn’t speak. Only the purple glows in her empty eye sockets shook.

“I’m sure it is God’s will for me to achieve what I had failed to do at that time.”

—Bullshit.

Evelyn finally spoke then.

—When are you going to cut your nonsense? Are you going to go on all night with that talk?

“Huh? I thought we could have some heart-to-heart conversation since we are meeting after such a long time.” Zepar seemed surprised by Evelyn’s response.

—We don’t have anything to talk about.

“Hm, how unexpected. Do you not care about the past? Well, I’m fine either way.” Zepar nodded and backed away a little. “Then let's fast forward to the present. Have you realized the reason you are here by now? Yes, it is as you think. I made a deal with the Abyss.”

This meant only one thing: there was a traitor among the Abyss. The faction could be divided largely into two powers: first, the two monarchs, and second, the six and the three who followed the king and queen respectively. There was no way the queen she followed had planned all this. Evelyn was certain this was the king’s faction’s doing; Huk Cheong-Ram was a prime suspect, for example.

“The reason why I handed them three great demons and dozens of important bases are of course my unwavering feelings for you,” Zepar said and paused to look around. “To be more precise…” He revealed his teeth in full view. Evelyn had only pretended to listen to Zepar as she tried to figure out a way to escape, but she snapped to attention when he said, “You have become a necessity to me…like that time.”

—Need me…? Like that time..?

Evelyn simply parroted his words.

“Hm…?” Zepar tilted his head. “...Do you not know?” Then he asked again, “Do you really not know? I thought the past has become meaningless to you, but perhaps you simply haven’t figured it out yet?”

—What do you mean?

“You and I used to be humans when we were alive,” Zepar answered with visible surprise and repeated what he had said many times, “But after death, we are meeting as a witch and a great demon. Do you really not understand what that means?”

Evelyn contemplated. The process she underwent to become the Abyss’ witch was like this: When a human died, the three things remaining were their physical body, neok, and soul. The physical body rotted and disappeared when a person died, and their neok remained. Then the soul had three choices. They could go up to heaven and pay for their sins according to judgment, thus gaining a new opportunity, or they could keep their resentment and combine with their neok to wander the living realm. Lastly, they could descend to hell.

For Evelyn, the third happened, and she fell to hell after death. Rather than choosing it, she had been dragged down there. She couldn’t wash away the sin of ending her own life by whatever means, and she didn’t resist because of the guilt she felt about causing her family’s death. Thus, she let herself get dragged down and was trapped in the darkest pit: the Abyss.

This was what should’ve happened to Zepar. His soul should have been presented with one of the three choices, but none of them applied to him. That meant only one thing.

“I must tell you what happened after your death,” Zepard said. “Getting to the point…I also met my end not long after you ended your life.” Two months after Evelyn died, the Babylon Church sent an envoy to her residence. It wasn’t to find a witch that could cure people with mysterious powers, but to find a ‘saintess’ chosen by God. However, Evelyn was already dead by then.

“In the process of their search, the truth of the incident and my crimes came to light. Thus, I was killed by the church’s holy knights.”

—What?

“I was charged for slaughtering the saintess.”

The revelation shocked Evelyn into speechlessness.

“Yes, you weren’t just some witch.” Zepar smiled widely, liking her reaction. “You weren’t such a lowly being like that—you were actually a saintess who could save the world.”

During their time alive, humanity, led by the Babylon Church, had been warring against the Demon Empire. And since ancient times, there was one law that came into effect every time the world fell into danger: a hero appeared. Even the Demon Empire who aimed for the end of humanity was aware of this fact, and because of it, they were greatly troubled.

Once a hero appeared, there was a low chance of killing the hero; humanity always tried to protect the hero with all they had, and after the hero grew and progressed well enough, the hero would lead humanity to victory as they always did. Thus, the Demon Empire turned their target from the hero to the saintess. This was because the saintess was often the one who would spot and mark the hero. While a hero would be matched with a saintess, however, there wouldn’t be only one pair of them in the world. If they killed a saintess, there was a high possibility that a new pair of hero and saintess would arise. Thus, the Demon Empire made the decision to prevent the saintess from fulfilling her duties properly; and to do this, they made contact with several humans.

—You…!

Evelyn felt like someone had dropped a hammer onto her head.

“Fufu, there’s no point hiding it now. Yes, I was one of the humans who made a contract with a demon.”

𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

The lord of the estate Evelyn once lived in was a demon contractor. And upon making a contract, the demon immediately gave Zepar an order to corrupt the saintess to make her a witch and drag her to the dark side. Unfortunately, the plan failed in the end, and he met his end at the hands of the Babylon Church. When a demon contractor died, their corrupted soul was dragged to the Demon World.

There, Zepar went through an immeasurable time suffering as the lowest-ranking slave until he caught the eye of a greater demon who looked well upon his sense of greed. Thus, he was freed from his slave status, and Zepar used all his natural talents to rise in ranks. It was possible for him to reach great heights in the world of demons since power dominated everything.

Click-clack. It was then the bones in Evelyn’s body began to shake and clack against each other from the pure rage she felt. Yes, she had thought it was strange. Everything had fallen so perfectly into place as if someone had been pulling the strings behind the scenes, but it was a different story to have her suspicion confirmed.

Spreading rumors to ostracize her family, manipulating the villagers… It was all Zepar’s doing. Upon realization, Evelyn twisted around with great desire to crush Zepar’s skull, the chains binding her wrists stretched to the limit.

—Zepar!

“Oh my, oh my.”

—It was youuuu!

“Calm yourself, Lady Evelyn.”

—I will kill you, you bastard! I will kill you at all costs!

“Unfortunately for you, there’s no way that’ll happen,” Zepar said carefreely like he was enjoying this moment. “If you are going to kill me in bed, of course, I will welcome that. I am looking forward to that, actually.”

Evelyn heaved at Zepar’s verbal harassment. Now that the truth had come to light, the resentment and pain she had forgotten were rising like a fog. She was willing to do anything to twist Zepar’s head off his body.

“…There’s something I omitted when telling you what happened.”

Clang! Clang! Clang! While leisurely enjoying the sight of Evelyn resisting the chains, he said, “The Sernitas have been quiet these days. Do you know why that is?”

—Ahhh! Die! Dieee!

“They’re building a celestial castle right now using a god as a medium. And this got me thinking—a way for me to save the Demon Empire that has gotten increasingly harder to maintain and rise as the main player of it all. While the Sernitas build a fortress above…” Zepar stretched out both arms. “I decided to build a fortress below the earth.”

Zepar wasn’t talking about a regular underground fortress, but one that resembled the celestial castle the Sernitas was building—a living and moving structure that could be a great weapon in and of itself. If only they could bring the idea into reality, they would have a secret weapon that could be moved anywhere.

However, it wasn’t simple to realize his vision. First of all, the Demon Empire lacked resources and materials compared to the Sernitas. This was why Zepar decided to gather neoks after much thought. Without differentiating between species, he gathered neoks of all the dead and poured them onto the ground within his territory. And with all the neoks seeping into the ground, the plot of land began to gain its own will; it became the land of death that tried to strengthen its territories like a water ghost, dragging its prey underground to claim them.

In this way, this land had become a monster of sorts, but the monster was beyond his control. The countless neoks were too large and burdensome for Zepar to recklessly manipulate, and there was no meaning to its existence if he couldn’t handle it. In the end, Zepar decided he needed a god like the Sernitas. He needed a core that could act as a medium to control these neoks. Unfortunately, he had no access to such a god.

While wondering what to do, Zepar remembered the existence of one particular soul: the one who was the object of fear and terror after death, but the object of reverence and holiness in her lifetime.

“Your soul was loved by all, including God Himself! You’ve received His blessing!”

She had a soul that no one could resist. It seemed only natural the stolen neoks would also be swayed by her. There was no guarantee it would work, but Zepar thought it was well worth a try.

—Shut up!

But of course, the idea came with its own set of problems. Evelyn’s soul would become the fortress’ core, and Zepar would have to make her listen to him to control it. She would need to accept him as the master and take his words as orders. Otherwise, his plan wouldn’t progress as he wished even if his experiment succeeded.

—You think I will do as you wish?

Evelyn asked angrily while gritting her teeth. Even if Zepar’s experiment succeeded, she had no intention of doing as he said. She would rather get torn up limb by limb and self-detonate in front of the Demon Empire.

“It’s certainly not going to be easy,” Zepar said, licking his lips. “Well, it would’ve been if you were a living person, but…” He put his hand on her now skeletal shoulder.

—Get your dirty hands off me!

Zepar’s power was dominating a person’s emotions through lust. Everyone he touched, whether they were men or women, became lustful and felt a deep sense of love for him. But his power only applied to a living person and had no effect on a dead being like Evelyn. Moreover, Zepar wanted the untainted soul of a saintess rather than that of a witch, and Evelyn’s soul had become corrupted beyond salvation after falling to hell, and ultimately, the Abyss.

Thus, Zepar had two issues to resolve: he had to purify Evelyn’s soul, and he had to make her obey him. Even if Zepar could deal with the first issue, fulfilling the second requirement would be no easy task. After all, Evelyn’s strong character as both a witch and a saintess was nothing to underestimate. But with a stroke of pure luck, Zepar came upon a solution.

“Would you take a look at this?” Zepar flicked his finger expectantly. There was a small vibration, and the ground split into two. From between the gap emerged a large, angular ice block. Evelyn’s mind became blank when she saw the human locked inside.

—No way…

—How could that be…

It was no one other than herself from her living days.

“Magic is a truly mysterious thing,” Zepar hummed. Even after Evelyn’s death, Zepar couldn’t give up his lingering feelings for her. Thus, he took her corpse, hid it in an area where only he knew, and made every effort to maintain it with the intention of reviving her with the power of a demon. Thus, he banged his fist on the floor when he realized that her soul was no longer in the human realm, but elsewhere. It hadn’t occurred to him that he would be reaping the benefit sometime in the far future.

“While I’ve preserved your body with a magic container, who would've guessed your body would remain intact even a thousand years later?” It didn’t make sense. Even Zepar hadn’t expected or entertained the outcome; he had thought there was no way Evelyn’s body would still be as it was, and it shouldn’t have been left in the same spot.

Ultimately, it was a miracle caused by Chi-Woo’s failed die roll. Not knowing that, Zepar considered it luck from the heavens, and by securing Evelyn’s physical body from her living days, he could easily solve the problem that had caused him a lot of trouble. The neok remained with the body, and now, he had caught the soul.

“I will separate you from what is restraining you.” In other words, he would separate Evelyn’s soul from the Abyss that was strongly tied to her. “And of course, I will erase the impurity inside you. And when your soul is purified, I will send it to where your body and neok are.” If he successfully separated her soul from impurities, he would succeed in purifying her. Then he could just stand back and watch as things followed their natural progression. Although neok wasn’t attracted to the soul and body, the soul and body were attracted to the neok. And thus, her soul would go to her neok. That wouldn’t change even though Evelyn had died once.

“Then I will resurrect you.” There were many methods to revive a person, such as necromancy, so that wouldn’t pose a problem. The important part was to revive her after Evelyn’s soul returned to where her body and neok were.

“After that, we will share everything that has happened to us in our separation and spend our days in bliss…” Zepar’s lips curled upward in glee. “Then you will swear subordination to me and become the core of the Demon Empire’s underground fortress.” Zepar was basically saying that he would use her whichever way he pleased.

—You think everything will go according to your plan?

“Ah, you don’t have to worry about that,” Zepar responded without care while Evelyn yelled sharply. As soon as Evelyn was resurrected into a human body, everything would be a piece of cake for him. She might be able to resist in some way with the soul of a saintess, but he was a great demon now. Making a mere human obey him was as easy as snapping his fingers.

“The infamous Astarte from the Demon World had made the same claim, but look at her now.” Zepar didn’t doubt his future success as he had succeeded in making even a great demon his subordinate. While smirking, Zepar placed his hand on her face. “Oh my—I’m already worried that I will enjoy my nights with you so much that I won't be able to focus on my work…Kughh!”

Zepar’s shoulder curled outward as he laughed his heart out.

—Ah…

Evelyn felt a sense of despair deeper than any time before. For some reason, she had a foreboding feeling that things would happen as Zepar said; but if they did, she would have to live forever as a slave to her nemesis, who had ruined not only her life, but her family and the villagers. She would have to undergo humiliation and shame that would make the thousands of years of pain she had endured after her death seem like child’s play. And that couldn’t happen. It mustn’t. Evelyn prayed and prayed inside her mind.

‘Please…! Anyone, please…’

She desperately prayed for someone to save her.

* * *

Plop! Meanwhile, Chi-Woo fell and landed hard on his bottom. Scowling, he looked around.

‘Where am I…?’