DEMON KING'S Love Redemption

Chapter 32

Vann squeezed the monster’s claw. The sound of shattering bone echoed, followed by a harrowing roar of agony from the Chimera. Vann raised his arm, and with physical strength that defied logic, he swung the multi-ton beast and slammed it into a stone pillar, shattering it into pieces.

"Excellent, Your Majesty! Show us more!" the demon worshippers shouted, their applause filled with fanatical fervor.

However, the fractured dimension began to react to the mana leaking from Vann. The hall’s ceiling began to crumble, and dimensional rifts tore open everywhere, vacuuming up anything nearby.

"Vann! We have to get out of here! This place is going to collapse!" Freya ran to him, grabbing the sleeve of his robe. "Stop fighting and find us a way out!"

Vann turned toward Freya. For a fleeting moment, she saw a face etched with a profound, soul-deep sorrow. "The exit has been sealed from the outside, Freya. Mordred intended for one of us to never leave this place alive."

"What do you mean?"

Vann pointed toward the ceiling. There, a massive, blood-red magic circle was siphoning the dimension’s remaining energy to fuel a mass-destruction blast. Mordred intended to erase all evidence of this sabotage by obliterating the entire dimension and everyone within it.

"He wants to kill us all to cover his tracks?" Kael began to laugh hysterically, his pride utterly broken. "We’re going to die... the Hero and the fake Demon King are both going to die here..."

"I won't allow it," Vann said, his voice firm and absolute.

Vann pulled his arm from Freya's grasp. He strode toward the center of the hall, where the concentration of energy was at its peak. He knew exactly what had to be done. To stabilize this fracturing dimension and force the exit gate open, he would have to draw upon pure dark mana—the kind of power that would strip away his mask and reveal his true identity right in front of Freya.

If I do this, she'll know. She'll hate me. She'll see me as the monster who slaughtered her family in those visions of hers, Vann thought bitterly.

However, he stole a glance at Freya. She was already preparing her bow, even though she knew her attacks were futile. She hadn't given up. She was still fighting for all of them.

I would rather be hated by you while you still draw breath than be loved by you while you lie in a casket, Vann resolved.

Vann raised both hands to his sides. Suddenly, the entire room fell deathly silent. The light from Kael's sword vanished completely. Even the magical torches lining the walls flickered out. A pure, dense, and freezing darkness began to spill from Vann’s body like a flood bursting through a broken dam.

"Vann... what are you doing?" Freya backed away, gripped by a terror unlike anything she had ever felt. This darkness... It wasn't ordinary. It felt sentient, like the cold embrace of a cruel king who was mourning a great loss.

"Stay right there, Freya. Do not come closer, no matter what happens," Vann whispered.

Vann’s black hair began to drift upward, lifted by the overwhelming pressure of his mana. Beneath his feet, a massive and incredibly complex ancient magic circle took shape, radiating a blinding, deep purple light. A symbol of a single closed eye—the sigil of the true Demon King Vann—manifested at the center of the array.

The demon worshipers immediately fell to their knees in a mass of prostration, weeping with ecstatic joy. "THE ASCENSION! THE SOVEREIGN HAS RETURNED!"

Vann ignored them. His focus was locked on one thing: propping up the sky of this dimension so it wouldn't collapse onto Freya. He forced his mana into the dimensional cracks, stitching reality back together with threads of shadow.

Cracks echoed through the hall.

Vann’s teenage vessel began to groan, unable to contain the sheer weight of his true soul. Blood began to trickle from his ears and nose, but he did not stop.

"Stop it, Vann! You'll die!" Freya tried to run toward him, but she was halted by a soft yet impenetrable wall of black energy. "How do you have this power?! Who are you, really?!"

Vann turned his head slightly, offering one last smile—a smile filled with a deep, aching longing. "My name is Vann. And I am the man who will ensure you have a future, Freya... even if that future doesn't include me."

In that exact moment, the Abyssal Chimera that had been knocked aside earlier lunged back onto its feet. Sensing that Vann was funneling all his mana into the ceiling, the monster charged at full speed. It didn't go for Vann; it went for Freya, who was caught off guard, her eyes fixed solely on Vann.

"FREYA!" Vann screamed.

But Vann was in the middle of stabilizing the dimension. If he let go now, the entire realm would detonate and kill everyone. If he didn't let go, the Chimera would tear Freya apart.

Time seemed to crawl to a halt. Vann had to choose. The dimension, or Freya.

In that critical heartbeat, Freya’s eyes widened as the monster loomed over her, its venomous fangs inches from her throat. Her mana was spent; her bow clattered to the floor. She could only close her eyes and wait for the end she thought was inevitable.

However, the sound that followed wasn't the tearing of flesh. It was the soft, sharp sound of a finger snap that echoed through the entire dimension.

Snap.

Instantly, the Chimera froze in mid-air. It wasn't just the monster—the floating dust, the falling debris, even Kael’s breathing stopped. Time within the hall had been frozen solid by the absolute authority of the Demon King.

Vann stood in the heart of the darkness, his eyes glowing a solid, malevolent red. He no longer looked like an academy student. He looked like a god of death walking among mortals. He walked slowly toward Freya, who was frozen in a pose of pure terror, and gently brushed her cheek with a trembling hand.

"Forgive me, Freya," Vann whispered into the frozen silence. "I have to break my promise to be a good man."

Vann turned toward the Chimera and the worshipers. With a single wave of his hand, the surrounding darkness coalesced into thousands of black blades hovering in the air.

"You wish to see my power?" Vann asked the silent world. "Then behold... and perish."

Vann snapped his fingers once more, and the darkness swallowed the entire hall in a silent explosion that would change everything forever.