DEMON KING'S Love Redemption

Chapter 31

The violet-hued sky draping Aethelgard’s artificial realm suddenly shuddered violently, as if a massive mirror were being struck from the outside by an invisible sledgehammer. Obsidian fissures, spreading like spilled ink across a canvas, began to crawl rapidly from the horizon toward the zenith. The shrieking dissonance of reality tearing apart filled the air, a high-frequency drone that felt like it was squeezing the very thoughts from one’s skull.

Vann stood tall amidst the ruins of the Crystal Forest, which had begun to lose its physical form. The crystal leaves, once a deep black, flickered erratically—transforming into strings of corrupted magical code before finally disintegrating into digital dust. Before him, Freya remained paralyzed, her bow raised but her hands trembling uncontrollably. Beside her, Kael fell to his knees, his arrogant face now ashen and pale as cotton, while his blade of light flickered out until only a pathetic, weak glimmer remained.

"What... what is happening?" Kael’s voice cracked, a raw terror finally bleeding through the veneer of his noble title. "This isn't part of the trial! Why isn't the system pulling us out?!"

Vann offered no reply. His senses, which far exceeded human limits, caught a vibration far more terrifying than the crumbling scenery. The mana pressure in the area spiked a thousandfold in mere seconds. The sharp tang of ozone mingled with the stench of sulfur and decay—a scent he knew all too well from his past life as the ruler of hell.

"This dimension has been sabotaged," Vann murmured. His voice was low, sounding more like the predatory growl of a beast watching another hunter. "Someone has overlaid the coordinates of this artificial realm with a gateway to the Abyss. What we are seeing is no longer a simulation. It is a collision of realities."

"Vann!" Freya screamed, her voice cutting through the roar of the dimensional winds. "Look up!"

Vann glanced skyward. Above them, the black fissures erupted, disgorging a thick, dark purple fluid that rained down like acid. From within that liquid crawled creatures that had no place in any academy curriculum. Void Stalkers. Faceless abominations with a dozen elongated arms ending in curved talons, their bodies seemingly forged from dense, black smoke.

"Close your eyes, Freya!" Vann commanded instinctively, though he immediately bit his lip, realizing he had slipped back into his sovereign tone.

"Don't be ridiculous!" Freya snapped back, forcing her mana to surge despite the air feeling so heavy it was as if her lungs were being filled with molten lead. "Kael! Get up! If you want to stay alive, stop whining and help me set up a perimeter!"

Kael tried to stand, but his legs were like jelly. "It's impossible... those are disaster-rank monsters... we’re only second-year students..."

Suddenly, Professor Mordred’s laughter echoed from the fractured sky, distorted by severe magical interference. "Show me... the King hiding beneath the sheep’s skin. Will you let your beloved Hero be torn to shreds by the shadows, or will you finally rip off your own mask, Vann?"

Vann clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white. Mordred, you senile old fool, he thought, his mind boiling with fury. He realized then that this trial had been a trap from the very beginning, specifically designed to force his true power into the light.

The ground beneath their feet suddenly gave way. The Crystal Forest vanished entirely, replaced by a gargantuan hall that resembled the interior of a ruined ancient castle. The walls were adorned with reliefs depicting the war between humans and demons, and in the center sat a river of blood that had ceased to flow, frozen in time.

They were now in the deepest reach of the corrupted dimension—a place that should have been inaccessible without high-level royal clearance.

"The Inner Sanctum... The Chamber of God’s Exile," Freya whispered, her eyes widening at the colossal and terrifying architecture. "How could we have been thrown this far?"

"Because the laws of this dimension no longer exist," Vann said, stepping forward to stand in front of Freya and Kael. He felt the presence of the Demon Cultists who had appeared at the festival, now surrounding them from behind the massive pillars.

"Your Majesty..." the voice of the goat-masked man returned, emerging from the shadows of a pillar ahead of them. "Look at this place. Does it not remind you of home? This is where your essence was first forged before you descended into the human world."

The man waved his staff, and from the frozen river of blood, a monster emerged that made Kael scream hysterically. It was an Abyssal Chimera, a five-meter-tall beast with three heads: a black lion, a demonic goat, and a draconic serpent that continuously exhaled toxic vapors.

"Kill the boy, and bring the lady to the altar!" The goat-masked man commanded the Chimera.

The monster roared, a sound capable of shaking the very foundations of the building. It lunged with impossible speed, targeting Kael, who was closest.

"Kael! Get back!" Freya lost an arrow of light, but the attack merely bounced off the Chimera’s toughened hide like a pebble against a steel wall.

Kael froze, staring slack-jawed at the death hurtling toward him. Just as the Chimera’s massive claw was about to tear through Kael’s body, Vann moved.

He didn't run. He didn't chant a spell. Vann simply took a single short step forward—a movement that, to the human eye, appeared as if he had simply teleported.

Crash!

Vann caught the Chimera’s claw with a single hand. His bare hand.

The impact created a shockwave that swept away the ancient dust around them. Kael was blown backward by the air pressure, while Freya watched in awe, staring at Vann’s back. He looked so solid, so unyielding, as if he were a mountain that no storm could ever hope to move.

"Vann... you..." Freya’s voice caught in her throat.

Vann did not look back. His eyes, now beginning to glow with a faint, ominous red light, stared directly into the lion’s head of the Chimera. "You are nothing more than the scraps of artificial energy forced into life by this Cult. How dare you show your fangs to me?"