Chapter 34
A room cloaked in darkness, lit only by dim lights scattered here and there.
Within Mephisto’s domain, a navy-haired demon wearing a monocle appeared and approached him.
“My lord, why have you not used the Cage yet? Don’t tell me the prey you brought isn’t your target?”
At this question from Jude—Mephisto’s butler and secretary—the sorcerer’s gaze sharpened like a finely honed blade.
“Don’t call the one who will be my wife ‘prey,’ Jude. And no, that won’t be happening. Roziana is the ‘bride.’”
He had known it at first sight.
Every fiber of his being—his power connected to the demon realm—resonated toward her.
She was exactly what he and the demon realm had been longing for.
The bride foretold nearly a thousand years ago, the one the previous Demon King, Beelzebub, had sought.
“Then why…?”
“You’re wondering why I haven’t taken her as my wife yet and become the true Demon King?”
“…Yes.”
That was a fair question.
He didn’t fully understand it himself.
From the moment he laid eyes on Roziana, he had felt an intense, visceral desire—lust and possessiveness. But there was something more.
A strange, ticklish feeling mixed in with it—something he’d never experienced before.
‘It’s the first time I’ve ever felt like this.’
Mephisto was consumed with curiosity about the identity of this unfamiliar emotion.
“Isn’t it strange? I don’t want to force anything she doesn’t want. So there’s no need to rush, Jude. Time is on our side.”
Now that she was in the demon realm, Roziana would slowly awaken to her true powers.
During their passage to the demon realm, he’d already sensed it—her small body contained a mana circle that exceeded the ninth level.
When they made contact, it felt like being struck by lightning—her mana pierced through him like a bolt of raw power. Mephisto felt as if he were being magnetically pulled into her.
‘It was almost a shame to arrive at the castle so quickly. I was desperate to hold on to her just a moment longer.’
Had Roziana not pulled away when she did, he might’ve lost all control and acted like a beast in heat.
‘Then again, maybe that would’ve been better.’
That thought made Mephisto smirk in amusement.
Never before had a living being stirred something so intense within him.
So there was no need to worry about putting her in the Cage to awaken her desires. They would inevitably crave and pursue one another.
‘Though maybe it’d be more fun to tame her without the Cage.’
The very idea excited him; his body grew warmer with anticipation.
As heat coursed through him, Jude’s next words brought him back to attention.
“That may not be wise. Someone in the Middle Realm has torn space and forcibly opened a gate to the demon realm.”
“…What?”
Mephisto’s eyes widened in disbelief.
“What did you say?”
“Someone from the Middle Realm has entered the demon realm—and is heading this way.”
Suddenly, Mephisto’s face brightened with pure delight.
He hadn’t expected it, but it was something he’d long been waiting for.
Opening the demon realm’s gates was only possible for those with immense magical power—usually the Demon King, demon lords, or rare beings like Mephisto himself, a powerful dark sorcerer.
Mephisto wore the grin of someone who had just received the best kind of news.
“Who is it?”
Jude conjured a black ripple in the air.
Through the crimson void, a masked figure in white appeared, sprinting with remarkable speed.
“…I can’t believe my eyes.”
So this is where he’d been hiding.
“No wonder. I’d suspected something ever since the remains were split and hidden.”
Mephisto narrowed his eyes and smiled coldly.
“You know this person?”
“Yes. We used to be quite close.”
Together with Edwin.
He remembered how Edwin, who later became the Tower Master, used to trail behind Tenebres like a shadow.
And how Edwin clung desperately to that birchwood box when the Mage Tower was half-destroyed.
‘What face will Edwin make when he finds out?’
Mephisto wondered.
‘That the Tenebres he longed for so deeply… is still alive?’
Wait a moment.
“So why did he fake his death?”
“Fake? He’s very much alive—wearing a mask, no less.”
“Exactly. A devious bastard.”
Mephisto’s voice dropped to a low rumble as he uttered the name with a spark in his eye.
“Tenebres.”
A name he hadn’t spoken in ages.
“Wait… That Tenebres?”
“Yes. You’ve heard the name, haven’t you?”
Though he had doubted Tenebres was truly dead, his presence had vanished so completely that even Mephisto had started to wonder.
“Of course. He was legendary centuries ago. Even after the Dragon God cast him down, he chose to become human. I remember clearly—though I was still a lowly imp then—how much chaos that caused in the demon realm.”
For demons, the idea of renouncing godhood to become human was incomprehensible.
“Of course. Demons crave divinity—they lust to become gods.”
Becoming stronger, darker, more evil—that was their nature and destiny.
“Exactly. For someone to give all that up… He must have gone mad.”
To Mephisto, Tenebres was also the one who had paved his way to kingship.
He was the one who ultimately ended Beelzebub.
It was widely believed that four witches had sealed the former Demon King using their lives to fuel a powerful spell.
But in truth, it wasn’t the witches who destroyed him.
It was Tenebres.
Only a being of darkness could completely annihilate another of pure darkness.
“So why return now, after killing the previous Demon King? And why at this moment?”
The timing was too perfect to be coincidence.
Mephisto’s grin slowly faded.
“If he wanted the Demon King’s throne, he wouldn’t have waited until now.”
He must be here for her—for Roziana, the one Mephisto had brought to the demon realm.
With a sharp glare, Mephisto’s black eyes locked onto the image of the masked man in the air.
“What shall we do?”
Jude asked, and Mephisto smacked his lips with a grin.
“Maybe he was stronger than me back then… but not anymore.”
It felt like a riddle he’d finally solved.
Now he understood.
Why Tenebres had split his soul, hidden himself, and stayed close to Roziana all this time.
“Send the doll. Lure him into the trap.”
At Mephisto’s command, Jude’s eyes gleamed knowingly behind his monocle.
“Yes, my lord. At once.”
With that, the butler vanished without a trace.
Meanwhile…
As Asterios Tenebres arrived in the demon realm, he immediately sensed his body changing.
‘I’m returning to my original form.’
He had expected this.
In the demon realm, all powers except magic weaken. After all, it is the realm that creates demons and monsters.
His inner magic resonated with the realm itself, boiling over like a roaring beast.
Though part of his power remained with Edwin in the Mage Tower, Asterios was originally the God of Darkness, a dragon deity.
‘Unfortunately, I won’t be able to use my full power.’
Even if his dragon mana boiled with fury, his physical vessel was still incomplete.
‘Rescuing Roziana from the demon realm… won’t be easy.’
He knew this.
He also knew his long-hidden identity would be exposed.
But he had no other choice.
‘Finding her is the top priority.’
Rip, crack.
As his body grew, the fabric of his clothes tore, and cracks began forming on the white mask covering his face.
[Master,] came a whisper from Nox, hidden nearby.
[They’ve noticed our presence.]
“Of course they have.”
Asterios’s voice had changed too—deep and echoing, like a rumble in a cavern. Nox flinched at the sound.
Even Nox, now within the demon realm, could feel Asterios’s transformation.
[…Your voice has returned to its original state.]
His voice—like the rest of him—had reverted to that of 500 years ago.
“I came prepared.”
Hearing it, Nox was reminded of the first time he met Tenebres.
A night when an enormous dragon, darker than the night itself, had folded its great black wings and descended from the sky.
To Nox—a demon—it had felt like being swallowed by reverence and fear.
That overwhelming power had seized not just his body, but his mind.
This was the real Tenebres—the stuff of legend.
“Live. And accept my deal.”
A voice that rumbled through space and mind alike.
Nox had understood then what people meant by the voice of a god.
Cold, irresistible, freezing, and seductive—it could overpower and enthrall anything.
[I have a bad feeling. We should be cautious.]
Nox’s warning made Asterios narrow his eyes as another crack spread across his mask.
“Are we near the Demon King’s castle yet?”
Mephisto wouldn’t place the Cage just anywhere. It had to be in the deepest, safest place in the demon realm. Roziana would be there. And only demons could instinctively sense the Demon King’s castle.
[Almost there.]
Nox being a demon had its uses.
As they ran, a thick illusionary mist scattered in their wake.
Far in the distance, a massive red fortress began to reveal itself—emerging from the shadows.
