Chapter 52: Baptism Beneath Blood-Tide and BoneLucifer McKenzie's mangled frame ricocheted across the scorched obsidian sand, bouncing thrice before crumpling like a discarded marionette. The air hissed with tension, tasting of brine and black powder.“Special Lesson... fucker hits like a comet without a goddamn muscle,” he thought, the words echoing through his pain-drenched skull like a mantra etched in molten steel.The training laced with the Death Skill had clawed deep grooves into his psyche, chipping away weakness and reinforcing his mental fortitude with every soul-rending second. His tolerance for agony now bordered on lunacy. Thanks to that hellish conditioning, he managed to suppress the searing pain coursing through his nerves and forced his hazy gaze toward his monstrous opponent.From the corner of his vision, he spotted the foot—a grotesque slab of decaying bone and sinew—plummeting toward his skull like a guillotine

Chapter 54: Elegy of a Tyrant’s VeinsPeter clenched his bloodied jaw, molars grinding like stone beneath pressure, and fixed a defiant glare at the Queen whose gaze threatened to shatter what little resolve remained in his broken body."I—won’t."His scream cracked the air like splintering bone—because his bones did, in fact, snap and groan beneath invisible pressure, a crushing weight that twisted his limbs in pain. Yet even as his muscles screamed for relief, he did not yield.The suffocating magical pressure dissipated suddenly like steam from a broken seal. Before him, Clara Williams—the once-mighty sovereign of the Mermaid Nation—stared not as a monarch, but as a haunted woman.Deep within the marbled silver of her eyes, dread and agony coiled like serpents. Her gaze settled on the crimson rivers trailing from Peter’s fractured arms, her expression still carved in cold marble.Then, the great double doors of the audience sa

Chapter 56: A Covenant Sealed in Agony and AshLucifer McKenzie neither nodded nor shook his head. He offered no response to Lucia’s desperate plea, not even a flicker of interest. Instead, the son of the Underworld monarch raised his porcelain teacup and took a slow, deliberate sip, savoring the bitter warmth as though her presence were no more pressing than a whisper lost in the wind.Lucia clenched her fists, her nails piercing her palms. She barely restrained the violent urge to tear out his throat."What must I do?" she asked again, voice low but rigid with tension.This time, Lucifer deigned to answer.“Save the dethroned tyrant,” he murmured. His voice was devoid of emotion, as if he were merely commenting on the weather.Then, with the cold finality of a divine judgment, he added, “If you succeed in that task, I will sever the Death Mark entwined upon both your soul and Peter’s.”Her breath caught in her thr

Chapter 58: The Unwritten Veil of the Ocean Queen’s Past“…what in all the layers of damnation?”Lucifer McKenzie’s voice cracked like dry timber, shattered and brittle. His brows knit together in raw disbelief, as though the very structure of reality had turned to fog.Clara Williams—once titled the Tyrant Sovereign of the Oceanic Dominion, now just a fractured woman draped in sorrow—exhaled deeply, as if breathing out ghosts.“My sister…” Her voice trembled like tides beneath a blood moon. “She existed only in secrecy, hidden like a cursed relic beneath the palace walls. No citizen, no courtier, not even the winds that whispered through the underwater courts knew she drew breath.”Lucifer blinked, absorbing her words like punches to the gut.“She was… my replica. A shadow of me, created for one role and one role alone—to step into my shoes should I fall to a dagger or poison,” Clara continued. “Mermaid royalty has a legacy

Chapter 60: The Queen Who Burns and the Craving for Cold FleshNo matter how many times Bernice Williams clawed at her own mind, trying to deny what her very eyes bore witness to, the truth settled over her like ash after a firestorm.Lucifer McKenzie was dead.The moment Lucia, her treacherous aunt, transferred the cursed brand onto him—an infernal hex that siphoned vitality like a starving leech—his life was snuffed out. And her tyrant mother, Clara Williams, did not hesitate to mete out punishment upon her own blood for the insurrection they dared to ignite.Time crept onward like a wounded beast.Hours bled into hours.Eventually, Bernice’s sobs dwindled into silence. Her body, once shaking with grief, turned to stone. She clung tightly to her mother—no, the fallen Sovereign of the Island of the Azure Tide—as though trying to anchor her collapsing world.“I fucking hate it…” Bernice whispered, her voice like a cracke