CHAPTER 38
“I didn’t realize my bride was so full of curiosity.”
As Mephisto uttered a dark, chilling warning, Roziana’s eyes were fixed on Asterios’s neck, caught tightly in Mephisto’s grip.
His face, now unmasked, was a bloody, ruined mess.
His clothes were tattered, and his body was dripping blood.
Unable to believe what she was seeing, Roziana screamed at Mephisto.
“What did you do!”
“I’m just doing what I must—to protect my bride. But tell me, what business brings my lady here?”
When his cold, piercing eyes turned toward Neor, she froze, trembling violently as pain shot through her.
“Ugh! Y-Your Highness, I… I was just—ah!”
“I told her to come! This isn’t Neor’s fault, so let her go. And let Asterios go too!”
“Asterios?”
Mephisto looked down at the bloodied face in his hand.
It was the face of “Tenebres.”
The young Tenebres who had lived during Mephisto’s own time, some 400 years ago.
Yet Roziana called him “Asterios.”
So, he really was living by her side in a younger form, huh?
That was enough to understand the situation.
And though his guess had been spot-on, Mephisto felt oddly twisted inside, rather than pleased.
“I have no intention of letting either of them go—unless, of course, my lady agrees to my terms.”
He suddenly wanted to push her, to rush her decision.
“You may not know this, but when someone tells me not to do something, I’m all the more tempted.”
He smirked slowly, raising his crimson lips in a grin.
Gulp.
Roziana’s throat bobbed in tension.
“What do you want?”
How far would she go?
Mephisto became curious—just how much did the man in his grasp mean to her?
She wouldn’t be foolish enough to walk straight into an obvious trap… would she?
Narrowing his dark eyes, Mephisto growled:
“Enter the cage, my lady.”
“What?”
As she processed his words, anger—rather than anxiety—began to rise on Roziana’s beautiful face.
“You’re more despicable than I thought.”
Her lovely violet eyes glinted with cold condemnation.
Mephisto lazily curved his lips into a smile.
“Ah… Such a thrilling compliment.”
Truth be told, he relished her words.
Her defiant gaze—it thrilled him beyond reason.
With a snap of his fingers, the space around them shifted.
Now they stood in a room where a massive golden cage stood gleaming.
A bridal chamber prepared for just the two of them.
Flinch.
Roziana visibly recoiled at the sight of the cage.
Yes, seeing it in person must be terrifying.
She could likely guess what would happen if she stepped inside.
Her gaze wavered uneasily, fixed on Tenebres’s limp body in Mephisto’s left hand.
Her feet remained rooted to the floor.
All of this satisfied Mephisto.
Yes, that’s how my lady should react.
She must have heard what the cage was for from Neor.
There’s no way she’d throw herself in just for Tenebres’s sake… right?
At last, Mephisto grinned in satisfaction.
And then—
Click.
She took a step toward the cage.
“…Ha!”
The ruler of the Demon Realm contorted his pale face in disbelief.
What’s Asterios doing here?
The moment she saw him, Roziana felt her heart plummet.
That’s Tenebres’s face.
Though blood covered his features, obscuring any large wounds, there was no way she wouldn’t recognize the man she loved.
His dark hair, like a void, his black lashes, his pale, handsome face…
Even the bloodied lips and high-bridged nose—everything matched.
It was the spitting image of Tenebres.
And the sight of his torn and mangled body filled her with rage.
Why did you come!
She wanted to scream at him to stop trying to protect her.
She never imagined he would follow her to the Demon Realm.
But how did he even get here?
One name flashed through her mind:
The one who could bend time and space.
Nox… it must’ve been Nox.
Thanks to Nox, Asterios had gotten here—but perhaps couldn’t overcome Mephisto.
Seeing him unconscious in Mephisto’s grip made her chest tighten.
Just as Mephisto said—perhaps nothing worked in the Demon Realm but raw power.
Even Asterios, whose strength she had felt before, now hung like a lifeless doll.
The shock shook her to the core.
Asterios… Who are you, really?
He had never actually said he was Tenebres.
It had only been her assumption—her deduction from past clues.
Especially from that moment when Nox had slipped and said “we.”
It confirmed it: Nox and Asterios were connected.
And Asterios must be Tenebres himself.
That certainty was what made her cry out his name—despite the fact that the man before her looked like a younger version of Tenebres from centuries ago, dressed in the very uniform of her former guard captain.
She was right—Mephisto’s black eyes flickered in response.
Still, Roziana tore her gaze away from Tenebres and looked directly at Mephisto.
Gracefully, one slender leg stepped into the cage.
“I’ll go in. Just let Asterios go.”
Ha!
A stunned scoff escaped Mephisto’s lips.
“I want to see you release him before I go in.”
This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. He had never planned to actually use the cage out of concern for her. Now that seemed laughably naïve.
“My lady, I never had the slightest intention of sharing what’s mine.”
“……And?”
“I especially don’t intend to lose it.”
“So?”
“In fact, I find it exhilarating to take what belongs to others.”
“What?”
“Seeing who you belong to only makes me want you more.”
“What are you even saying? Let Asterios go—now.”
“Very well.”
Mephisto threw the groaning body far across the room.
And at the exact moment Roziana stepped fully into the cage—
Clank.
The cage locked shut with a burst of light.
At the same time, a shout rang from a distance.
“Rozi, no!”
Roziana turned toward the voice.
At the bedroom door stood Asterios—completely unharmed.
He had grown into his adult form—now the spitting image of Tenebres.
There are two Asterios?!
Roziana’s violet eyes widened in shock.
“What the hell is going on!”
Damn it.
She cursed under her breath.
“I’ve been deceived.”
The one she fell for was just a puppet Mephisto had crafted.
The real Asterios now slowly summoned his aura.
A black whirlwind swirled around him.
“You were too late, Tenebres.”
Mephisto smiled lazily and snapped his fingers.
Fwoosh!
The space shifted again, and Asterios vanished from the doorway.
Cough!
Blood suddenly gushed from Mephisto’s lips.
Though the Demon Realm was well attuned to him, casting layered illusions of this magnitude came with a heavy price.
He had taken serious internal damage.
But it was worth it.
Because she was now trapped in the cage.
“Now that was fun.”
Roziana, staring at the changed room and locked door, turned to him and spat in fury:
“You filthy, cowardly bastard!”
“Still such a thrilling compliment.”
Wiping the blood from his mouth, Mephisto stepped toward the cage.
Roziana, now within it, could barely move.
Even holding on this long is impressive.
Her legs had already given out. She had collapsed to the floor.
Mephisto lifted her trembling chin, locking eyes with her.
“Now that I understand your heart, it’s time I treat you more seriously.”
He had no intention of letting Tenebres steal what was now in his grasp.
“This… No—!”
Just as Roziana tried to shout for him to let go, her body froze.
The cage!
An overwhelming force was draining every ounce of her strength and energy.
Her mind grew foggy, her consciousness swirled, as if being sucked into a void.
“Ugh!”
Pain like her skull was splitting exploded in her head.
Her body collapsed in an instant—and Mephisto caught her.
Then, in silence, he gently pressed a kiss to her cold forehead.
