Ryder's vision blurred as he traveled through an endless dark space. His scream echoed as he was jolted by an invisible force for what seemed like forever before he eventually arrived at a destination. "This is not what I signed up for!" he shrieked, his voice distorting too fast before it could echo in the empty space. After he was told his soul would be teleported, he never expected it to be like this. He never thought everything would feel so real. As his body levitated in the air of a strange horizon to which he was jolted, he attempted to steady himself, but it wasn't so easy. His limbs' responses were frustratingly out of control–wobbly, unreliable, and with a mind of their own. The sensation he was feeling was unlike anything he had ever felt. His body no longer obeyed the laws of gravity like it did back in the world where his real body was. It was as if Isaac Newton had taken one look at this place and thrown his hands up in surrender, declaring, "You're on your own with t

"Ryder, the Dracogon just sent a message to you," Luxy suddenly spoke. The words hung in the air like an executioner's axe, ready to fall with a bombshell. Ryder, who had just calmed down from the panic of losing Luxy mere moments ago, felt his newly regained peace shatter like glass. It was as if someone had replaced his blood with icy water. He didn't know why, but he was feeling intimidated by the mention of the Dracogon. "Great," Ryder thought sarcastically. "Just when I thought this day couldn't get any more exciting. First, I get soul-teleported to hell's version of Wonderland you call the Astral Shadow Plain, then I bond with a devil rabbit." "Devil viper bunny," Luxy snapped, annoyed by how Ryder was seeing him as a rabbit, but Ryder completely ignored him and continued blabbering, his heart shattered. "...and now the local overlord wants a chat. Mom always said I'd go places." His hands trembled slightly, and he tried to disguise it by clenching them into fists. "Dracogo

After listening to Ryder's proposal on what they should do next, Luxy merged into Ryder once more. The process, unlike the last time, was both fascinating and unsettling to witness—Luxy's form becoming translucent, then ethereal, before turning into a foggy black smoke that swirled around Ryder, then the black mist gradually sank into Ryder's skin until Luxy was completely inside Ryder's soul. The sensation was unlike anything Ryder had ever experienced—like being filled with liquid sunlight, not one of thousands of degrees Celsius, but the soft sunbeam radiation on Terra. Ryder traced the outline of the tattoo with his fingertips, the roughness of his skin in the area where the tattoo was embedded. "So this is how it works," he murmured. The last time was painful. Maybe it was because it was not just merging, but also the contraction process as well. "You'll get used to it," Luxy's voice echoed in his mind, carrying a hint of pride. Jumping off from the tall mountain where he p

Despite how Ryder continuously repeated to Hollow that he was not interested in his words, Hollow still paid no attention.What Hollow was saying was quite interesting after all, so Ryder decided to listen.'So I am the only vessel that can hold in a demon monarch.'Ryder never knew much about how markings work until he got to this world.From the looks of things, it is very rare for a human to be able to contract a familiar from the demon plane. The demon monarch is even the hardest.More than the majority of the demon monarchs have never contracted a host. Every human they have ever marked never successfully cleared their trial.Seeing that the trial is always too hard for humans to handle, they decided to cancel the trials they put in store for the humans and made the contraction process straightforward and direct.Despite the brevity of the contraction process and the ease, there was still a decline in the human body and soul. It just was not strong enough to contain the beasts fr

Bang! The sound wasn't merely loud—it was catastrophic, affecting the landscape like the birth of a universe in reverse. The impact sent shockwaves everywhere across the plain, causing ripples that distorted everything. Trees that had somehow survived the initial overpowering presence now uprooted themselves and fled alongside the high air current and shockwaves. Bang! The second collision was even more violent than the first. Where the two monarchs met, the air itself seemed to solidify, in fact, crystallize before shattering into a million fragments that were strangely visible to the naked eye. The entire plain had ceased to function properly in the presence of such overwhelming power. Bang! Bang! One after the other, loud sounds, like explosions, resounded as Dracogon and Hollow clashed in different directions each time. The ground shook upon every attack, and Luxy and Ryder both braced themselves. It felt like the entire plain wouldn't be able to maintain its stiffness and