DEMON KING'S Love Redemption

Chapter 34

The Chimera's body detonated into millions of black particles that were instantly swept away by the wind. No remains were left, no blood spilled—it was as if the monster had never existed at all. The shockwave from the blast cleared the purple fog that had choked the hall.

Freya gasped, her breath suddenly returning in a rush. She inhaled deeply, as if breaking the surface of water after nearly drowning. she touched her cheek. It was smooth. The pain was gone.

She felt her body surge with an overwhelming torrent of mana, far exceeding any limit she had ever known.

"Vann...?" Freya looked up, her mind reeling.

Vann stood several paces away, his back turned to her. He was panting, his shoulders heaving with the weight of his breath. The oppressive, dark aura that had just been suffocating the air was gone, hidden once again beneath his blue cloak, which now hung in tatters.

"The monster... where is it?" Freya asked, her voice thin and trembling. She tried to stand, shocked by how light her limbs felt.

"It imploded due to dimensional instability," Vann replied without turning his head. His voice had regained that familiar, awkward youthful tone, yet it carried an exhaustion he couldn't quite mask. "Lady Freya, thank goodness you're safe. I thought... I thought we were done for."

Freya stared at Vann’s back, her suspicion reaching a breaking point. She remembered the moment before time froze—or had it really frozen? She recalled seeing Vann standing in the heart of the darkness with eyes that burned. She remembered a strange, incredible warmth against her cheek, the same warmth she felt whenever she ate the lamb Vann prepared.

"Don't lie to me, Vann," Freya said, her voice turning cold. She walked toward him, forcing the boy to face her. "I felt something. Something massive... and terrifyingly dark. And now, my wounds are gone. My mana is replenished. Don't you dare tell me this is just another 'miracle'."

Vann looked at her. His eyes were black again, though a faint crimson glint lingered in their deepest reaches. He saw Freya standing tall and firm, her bow once again radiating a golden light from the mana he had poured into her.

"If it wasn't a miracle, then let's just call it a loser's luck, Lady Freya," Vann answered, forcing a bitter smile.

Suddenly, the dimension around them began to disintegrate. The massive pillars of the hall started to topple into a bottomless void opening beneath the floor. Mordred hadn't been bluffing about bringing the whole place down.

"We have to go, now!" Kael shouted, having just regained consciousness and begun crawling toward them.

In the collapsing ceiling, an unstable exit portal flickered to life, triggered by the destruction of the dimension's core. It was their only escape before this place became their tomb.

Vann glanced at the portal, then back at Freya. He knew that the moment they stepped through, nothing would ever be the same. Freya had tasted his power, and Mordred had glimpsed his true self through the scrying crystals.

"Run for the gate, Freya! Go!" Vann shoved her toward the hovering portal.

"Vann, you're coming too!" Freya shouted, grabbing his hand.

"I'll be right behind you! I have to hold back the collapse so you can make it through!" Vann lied again. In truth, he needed to stay for a few more seconds to scrub his mana signature so the Royal Inquisition couldn't trace it back to him.

Freya searched his eyes, hunting for the truth. She saw a boy prepared to sacrifice himself, but she also saw a king commanding his subject. Fear and awe fought for dominance in her heart.

"If you aren't out of here in one minute," Freya threatened, tears blurring her vision, "I will come back and kill you myself, Vann! Do you hear me?!"

"I hear you, Lady Hero," Vann whispered.

Freya and Kael leapt into the portal, their forms consumed by the flickering blue light. The moment they vanished, Vann’s smile died. He turned to face the crumbling hall.

He raised his hand toward the sky. "Mordred... you wanted to see a demon? I'll show you a real one."

Vann unleashed the last of his energy in a single, cataclysmic wave—not aimed at any monster, but at wiping every trace of magic and data from the dimension. The entire God’s Seclusion Chamber erupted in pure darkness, erasing every shred of evidence of what had occurred.

Vann dove through the exit just a millisecond before everything ceased to exist.

He hit the academy grass with a heavy thud. The warm sunlight of Aethelgard touched his face, but to Vann, it felt like needles. He gasped for air, coughing up black blood which he quickly smeared into the dirt.

All around him, the academy was in total disarray. Professors were sprinting, students were screaming, and a medical team was already swarming Freya and Kael.

Vann tried to push himself up, but his body felt like lead. Wielding time authority and mana conversion had taxed his very soul. He saw Freya being crowded by healers, but her eyes were fixed on the spot where the portal had just detonated and sealed shut. The moment she spotted him, she shoved the medics aside and ran.

"Vann!"

But before she could reach him, a long shadow fell over him. Professor Mordred stood there, looking down at Vann with an unreadable expression—a cocktail of pure terror and deluded ambition.

"You made it back, Vann," Mordred said, his voice a low hiss intended only for him. "Or should I address you by the true name I saw carved into that river of blood?"

Vann looked up, his gaze icy. "You made a grave mistake, Professor. You tried to touch what belongs to me."

There, amidst the chaos and under a sun that should have promised peace, a cold war was declared. Freya reached Vann’s side and took his shoulder, but she went rigid when she felt the temperature of his skin—he was cold as a corpse, yet his heart thundered with the ferocity of a dragon.

"Vann... your hand..." Freya stared at his hand, which was trembling uncontrollably.

Up in the sky, unnoticed by anyone but Vann, a crimson crack snaked across the heavens—a sign that the world's seal had begun to fracture from his display of power. A voice, ancient and majestic, suddenly boomed within Vann’s mind, freezing the blood in his veins.

"It has been a long time... My Lord, the Destroyer."

Vann looked at Freya in sheer horror. Not because of the voice, but because he realized that by saving her, he had alerted the very Gods who had once conspired to murder them both.

The true mystery of Freya’s wounds was only just beginning, and Vann knew he could no longer hide behind his textbooks.