“Hey—Your Majesty! Can you see this? The Demon King’s head is right here, Lott and the Saintess’ bodies are here too, the task you gave us has been perfectly completed so don’t forget your promise!”

Within the flawless crystal ball was reflected the scene inside the Demon King’s castle, where a blond man holding a longsword was dangling the Demon King’s head, and behind him stood two women with grave expressions, all of them members of the Hero’s party, yet now they had become the murderers of the Hero, the most disgraceful traitors among mankind.

Faced with their act of sacrificing their own for the so-called greater good, Emperor Gaius II of the Empire did not hesitate to praise them, clapping his hands in admiration of their achievements while also reiterating his promise.

“Mm, not bad, to prevent the Hero from reviving, remember to bring his head back, as for what I promised you, I will not be stingy in the slightest.”

The emperor felt he had made a deal that guaranteed profit with no loss, using nothing more than a magitech library, a ceasefire agreement with the elves and a duke’s title to turn every member of the Hero’s party against him, reducing Saintess Alicia and the Hero Lott into mere tools to defeat the Demon King.

After the Demon King’s death, the identities of the two would further expand the influence of the Holy Spirit Church, and an unprecedented rise in religious authority would be detrimental to his rule, as the emperor of the Empire he absolutely could not allow such a thing to happen.

Thus, he had the other three members of the Hero’s party ambush the Hero at his weakest moment, completely eliminating this hidden threat.

At this moment, on the other side of the crystal ball, the blond warrior had already cut off the Hero’s head in front of him, and only after confirming the Hero had not revived did the emperor let out a long breath, reclining comfortably into his cushioned chair as he burst into loud laughter.

“Ahahahaha!!! Next, as long as we capture the Hero’s child and offer them as a sacrifice, the Holy Spirit Church will never be my opponent, I will stand at the very top of the Empire forever ahaha!”

“Oh, how impressive,”

But just as the emperor was fantasizing about a bright future, a cold and eerie female voice reached his ears, followed by the door of his secret chamber being blasted open by an immense force.

As the dust settled, the emperor finally saw the intruder, a beautiful young girl with waist-length black hair wearing a thin black dress, under normal circumstances he would have marveled at her beauty surpassing even that of his empress, but at this very moment the terrifying smile on her face made every organ in his body tremble.

Her pupils, as if burning with golden flames, stared straight at him, containing neither killing intent nor emotion, which made the emperor step back in unease, preparing to press the button under his desk at any moment to summon the knights to rescue him.

At this moment, the emperor also noticed that the girl was holding a deeply sleeping baby in her arms, and it looked very familiar—wasn’t that the Hero’s child!

“Who are you? How could you possibly know about this place!! Even my close ministers don’t know about this secret chamber! Wait... that baby, could it be?”

Faced with the emperor’s questioning, the black-haired girl simply smiled slightly and introduced herself.

“My name is Xidis Byronvis... the Hero Lott’s... friend? As a friend, isn’t it only natural for me to take care of his child?”

At the mention of the name Lott, Xidis paused slightly, unsure whether her relationship with him could really be considered that of a friend.

After all... she was the complete opposite of that embodiment of justice known as the Hero, a great demon, her true identity being the second-ranked Throne Demon of the Abyss, a terrifying existence known as the Prince of Annihilation.

Five years ago, when Lott had just become the Hero and embarked on the journey to defeat the Demon King, in order to eliminate this threat in its cradle, the Demon King ordered his subordinates to dig up ancestral graves, using three hundred thousand human souls and the bodies of more than thirty Demon King seniors as sacrifices to conduct a massive summoning ritual, intending to summon a Throne Demon to assist.

At that time, Xidis, who had been lying in bed sleeping in the Abyss, saw such a huge opportunity and immediately kicked aside the colleague beside her who was about to take the job, snatching the order for herself.

And then? Then the summoners sent by the Demon King were suddenly cut down by the Hero and the Saintess, the summoning ritual was interrupted, yet by sheer bad luck it still dragged her down, and due to an unknown malfunction, the great Demon Prince was turned into a cute demon girl...

After such a humiliating incident, Lady Xidis had been fuming and ready to kill Lott, but those two troublesome fools were granted blessings by the Nine Holy Spirits all at once, and with that power they gave her a solid beating...

And to prevent Xidis from wreaking havoc upon the world, they directly used the power of the Holy Spirits to seal her soul foundation, turning her into a member of the Demon King subjugation party, carrying her along with them.

After that, she had tried to assassinate Lott many times, yet not only did she fail every time, she was even caught by that foolish couple, the Hero and the Saintess, and subjected to numerous ideological lectures! It was simply the greatest humiliation of her demon life!

Thinking of this, Xidis trembled with anger and silently took back what she had said earlier, she absolutely was not friends with that foolish couple!

Forget it, considering that Lott and the Saintess had treated her fairly well over the past five years, she decided not to fuss over it.

“Before Lott set out to defeat the Demon King, he entrusted me with taking care of his child, but not long ago... I felt the seal he placed on me being lifted, and at the same time a few reckless idiots broke into the residence trying to assassinate us, so I came to ask you what’s going on.”

Xidis’ smile grew colder, after all that hot-blooded idiot had said that only upon his death would the seal be lifted, and now it seemed that guy was truly dead.

“As for the location of your secret chamber... she told me.”

Xidis lightly raised her index finger, and a bloody female head floated before the emperor, only then did he realize that the head belonged to Empress Orina!

Under the girl’s control, the head’s mouth opened and closed, its behavior bizarre and absurd, as if it were greeting the emperor.

The emperor immediately showed a terrified expression, and upon seeing this the girl let out a pleasant laugh.

“Don’t be surprised, this is the Casas Soul Interrogation Technique, an advanced version of communicating with the dead, your empress was very gentle and very patient in explaining the entire plan.”

Including how he plotted to assassinate the Hero and the Saintess and how he planned to sacrifice the Hero’s child to the Abyss in exchange for immortality.

Seeing this, the emperor knew that if the conversation continued, he would meet the same fate as the empress, so he immediately pressed the button, and the entire secret chamber was filled with a sharp alarm.

But it was useless... the imperial guards who would normally arrive within half a minute did not appear even after the alarm stopped, the girl simply cast a soundproofing spell on the child before continuing to smile at him.

After a moment, she spoke with a smile.

“Don’t worry, no guards will come, whether knights or your children who were busy fighting over power, I’ve already killed them all.”

Xidis greatly enjoyed the screams of agony and begging when they cried for mercy, but time was tight and her task was urgent, she had no time to play with them so she killed them quickly and came to find His Majesty the Emperor.

And her purpose here was simple—to make the culprit who killed the Hero suffer a fate worse than death.

She could not understand why the emperor insisted on killing the Hero and the Saintess, after all that hot-blooded fool had only ever thought about how to save the world and how to let all the common people live better lives after it was saved.

And the Saintess had sworn to reform the church after defeating the Demon King, to make the priests who indulged in pleasure regain the virtues that had long been abandoned a thousand years ago.

By human standards, the two of them were flawless saints, worthy of being loved by all and even acknowledged as good people by her, a demon of the Abyss.

Yet such two people had died in the most disgraceful betrayal, which made Xidis feel a trace of anger.

Thus, the girl smiled as she approached the emperor step by step, and the once dignified king was like a domestic pig seeing a bear, clutching a pitch-black grimoire while retreating and shouting madly.

“Monster! Don’t come over, don’t come over!! Is there no other way... Tugeng... I will give you more souls, no matter how many you want, I can give them all to you! Answer my summons!!”

The emperor gritted his teeth, steeled his heart and opened the pitch-black grimoire in his hand, almost at the same time, an unimaginably powerful abyssal force surged out as devouring black mist, quickly enveloping the emperor.

The girl stopped in curiosity and watched, as the emperor wrapped in black mist let out a thunderous laugh, clutching the grimoire tightly as if declaring his victory.

“Ahaha! You’re finished, you’re finished, Tugeng has answered my plea, prepare to die... I don’t know who you are but what you’re about to face is the twenty-third ranked Throne Demon, the one known as the Duke of Mist!”

The Throne Demons of the Abyss were beings capable of rivaling gods, he refused to believe they couldn’t deal with the girl before him.

Soon, a withered old man riding a giant elk slowly emerged from the black mist, just as the emperor was about to plead with Tugeng to kill the girl, Tugeng unexpectedly stopped.

Then, Xidis waved at Tugeng and greeted him in a gentle and friendly tone.

“Oh my, Duke Tugeng, long time no see, I have a bit of a grudge with this human, could you please head back for now? If you need souls, I’ll make it up to you later.”

Crack crack crack... the emperor saw the arrogant great demon trembling, then shrinking back into the black mist like a scolded puppy, disappearing in no time.

Huh?

The emperor was still in shock when Xidis suddenly appeared in front of him, half of her face already swallowed by shadow, within which a sinister grin had appeared.

A long needle shot out from the shadows and pierced the emperor’s forehead, and before losing consciousness, Gaius II only heard the girl’s whisper.

“Since you want immortality, then how about... I will grant it to you.”

The next second, the emperor lost consciousness.

* * *

On this day, the radiant golden palace of the Loran Empire’s capital was consumed by flames, a gigantic demon over a hundred meters tall with crown-like horns fought fiercely against heroes throughout the royal capital, and for a time the prosperous imperial city was filled with wails.

Xidis carried the child out of the imperial capital, preparing to slip out of the royal city amidst the chaos, find a secluded place to live in seclusion and raise the child properly, she gently teased the baby’s cheek with her finger and smiled warmly.

“You little brat, you are really lucky, your parents treated me well these past five years, now that they’ve sacrificed themselves, I’ll be the one to raise you... but hehe don’t feel too lucky, I’ll make sure to raise you into a proper villain!”

The demon lady walked through the ruins of the palace, already planning countless parenting strategies in her mind, ensuring the child would grow up healthy while completely deviating from the Hero’s wishes, taking it as punishment for Lott sealing her for five years.

As she thought, she arrived at the palace gates, the mithril-made gates were already twisted and broken, clearly not something easy to open.

A nun holding a baby was kneeling before the mithril gate, continuously chanting the names of the Nine Holy Spirits, hoping for divine intervention, while the baby girl stared straight at the gate without crying.

Seeing this, Xidis smiled and stepped forward, pressing her index finger against the gate while leaning down to whisper to the nun.

“Praying to the Nine Holy Spirits is useless, only by struggling to survive yourself do you have a chance to live, but for weak humans like you, even giving it your all might not be enough.”

As she spoke, Xidis lightly touched the gate, and shadows surged like a tide to envelop the indestructible doors, when the shadows dissipated, the barrier that had seemed like an insurmountable chasm disappeared, leaving the nun standing there in a daze.

Xidis waved lightly at her, then carried the child and quickly left...

Three days later, news that the emperor had colluded with demons and slaughtered the palace spread across the entire empire, people heard that in that tragedy, only a nun and a baby girl escaped alive from the palace, everyone else including the Hero’s child had perished in the flames...