An Incident in the Depths of the Demon Realm
In the deepest reaches of the Demon Realm, seven fortresses stood, each radiating a distinct and ominous aura. Among them was one shrouded in a thick pink mist of demonic energy that hung in the air like fog. At the highest point of this fortress, inside a chamber adorned with lavish yet decadent decorations, a stunning beauty lay upon a grand bed. She wore only the barest scraps of fabric that barely preserved her modesty. With dazzling golden hair and even more brilliant golden eyes, she was none other than Lilith, the Archdemon of the Seven Sins and bearer of the sin of Lust.
She had always carried herself with an air of effortless composure, but now her expression was one of utter disbelief. She reached out a slender hand toward the empty air.
The thread has been severed.
The Curse of Carnal Desire planted in the Hero Candidate has vanished completely.
“My spell… it’s gone?” Lilith muttered in a trembling voice.
The thin thread that had been connected to her fingertips until just moments ago had snapped. That thread had been linked to the curse she had planted deep within the heart of Cassian, the Hero Candidate of the Eris Church. The sensation of the spell, which she had felt only a split second earlier, had evaporated like a lie.
“Lilith, what are you talking about?”
The shadows in the room twisted grotesquely, and a man clad in pitch-black armor stepped out from within them. His voice carried pure curiosity, but beneath it lurked a faint, unmistakable displeasure.
Lilith rose from the bed, brushing her golden hair back with an irritated swipe.
“The curse I placed on the Hero Candidate has disappeared without a trace. I put so much effort into it that even if that damned old Pope himself came to inspect it, he never would’ve found it… Who the hell did this?”
Unease and irritation flickered in Lilith’s golden eyes. Despite being a pathetic weakling, that so-called Hero Candidate had stubbornly resisted both demonic corruption and her curse. It had taken her over three full years to finally plant it properly. And now, that carefully crafted curse had vanished in an instant. Even for an Archdemon and a specialist in curses like herself, the situation was utterly baffling.
“Didn’t you just say it was erased? That means someone dispelled your curse,” the man pointed out coldly.
Lilith frowned. “…Yes, that’s right. But how? My power of lust and that bitch Eris’s power of love are like two sides of the same mirror. They’re so similar in nature that the Eris Church bastards should never have been able to analyze or distinguish this curse.”
Leaning back in her chair, Lilith tapped her fingers against the desk with rhythmic clicks as she muttered.
“Maybe they asked another church for help?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. There’s no way they’d hand their own Hero Candidate over to another church,” Lilith scoffed, immediately dismissing the idea.
“…Still, we should gather information just in case. Are there any other possibilities?”
The man gave a slight nod as if agreeing, then immediately asked about other options.
“I can’t say for certain, but there are about two possibilities.”
The first method that came to Lilith’s mind was simple: accurately analyzing and erasing the curse she had cast. But she quickly shook her head. Her curses were notoriously complex and arcane—so much so that even other Archdemons found them troublesome. The idea that some insignificant human could analyze and dispel it in such a short time was completely impossible. She immediately discarded the first hypothesis, deciding it wasn’t even worth voicing.
“Stop stalling and spit it out.”
“The first would be to put the body into a state of suspended animation and extract only the soul into the divine realm.”
“You mean a baptism. But isn’t that a privilege reserved solely for the Pope and the Saintess?”
“Exactly. Anyone else would be unable to withstand the weight of divinity. Their soul would burn away, leaving them a vegetable. So that leaves only one other possibility…”
Lilith’s fingers tapped against the desk faster and faster.
“Just kill him and it’s solved.”
“…Are you saying the Eris Church killed their own Hero Candidate with their own hands?”
“No, it’s a figure of speech. Obviously, if the host dies, the curse is released. There are some curses that persist even after death, but the one I placed on him was designed to require a living body.”
“What exactly are you trying to say?”
“I’m talking about the ‘state’ of death.”
“Get to the point. I have no interest in your petty little curses, so explain it in a way I can understand.”
The man in black growled in a low voice. Normally, Lilith would have snapped back and started a huge argument, but right now she was too deep in thought to bother.
“The reason it’s so hard to detect the curse I engraved on him is because I mixed it with his life force. Even if someone found the curse, there would be no human way to remove it. Touch it wrong and his life would be snuffed out.”
“I told you to explain it so I can understand…”
“Shut up and listen! Don’t interrupt!” Lilith slammed her fist on the desk with a loud bang.
“Tsk, fine. Since you probably wouldn’t understand even if I explained it properly, I’ll make it simple. You make the body believe it has reached the state of death, then forcefully pour holy power into it. That would inevitably release the curse.”
“How is that any different from just killing him?”
“Ugh, this is why ignorant swordsmen are the worst. I’ll give you an easy example. First, you beat the shit out of him until he’s on the verge of death. Then you forcibly shove holy power into his half-dead body.”
“That’s ridiculous. No matter how strong a Hero Candidate’s body is, there’s no way he could survive something like that without becoming a complete wreck.”
The man fell silent for a moment after hearing Lilith’s example, then replied in a dumbfounded tone.
“That’s why I said it doesn’t make sense, you tin-can bastard.”
Lilith spoke with a hint of irritation.
“I understand. So it’s certain that if he dies, the curse is lifted?”
“Yes.”
“Then we can’t rule out the possibility that he’s dead. It’s unfortunate that your plan has been ruined, but if the Hero Candidate is dead, it’s not exactly bad news for us either.”
Having said his piece, the man melted back into the thick darkness just as he had appeared.
“…Tsk. That annoying prick who only acts tough because he trusts his master.”
Lilith clicked her tongue as she stared at the spot where the man had vanished.
Her plan had been to plant a curse on the Hero Candidate, corrupt the Eris Church from within, and use it as a Trojan horse to destroy the Holy Empire. It was the scheme she had come up with after capturing the reckless Hero Candidate who had dared to step into the middle zone of the Demon Realm. She had invested quite a bit of effort, yet it had all crumbled in an instant for reasons she couldn’t even identify. Rage boiled up inside her, but the curse was already gone and the piece on the board had slipped from her grasp. There was no point in obsessing over it now. It was time to prepare the next move.
“Selenia.”
After shaking off her lingering attachment, Lilith quietly called out the name into the empty air. Black smoke swirled, and a woman appeared.
With ash-gray hair, cold black eyes, and wearing black priestess robes, the woman sat down facing Lilith on her lap with a seductive smile.
“Judging by that terrifying expression, I take it things didn’t go as planned?”
She whispered teasingly, tickling Lilith’s neck.
“My curse has been dispelled.”
“Hmm? Really? There shouldn’t be any human capable of breaking your curse.”
“Exactly. Do you think the Eris Church does something brutal during the Hero verification process? Like half-killing the candidate or something?”
At Lilith’s words, Selenia burst into laughter. “Ahaha, no way. The Hero Candidate is an important figure both symbolically and in terms of military strength. Even if they’re a bit arrogant, they’re treated like precious treasures. That goes for the other churches too, not just Eris.”
“Yeah, I suppose so.”
Lilith rubbed her temple and let out a sigh.
“Are you disappointed? You put a lot of work into that curse, didn’t you?”
“Still, the plan hasn’t completely fallen apart yet. I engraved a curse on the Saintess’s body as well.”
The Saintess of Eris, who rampaged through the Demon Realm like a wild filly. The curse she had planted on her—switching out her demonic beasts one after another—should still be lurking inside her body, waiting for the right moment.
“But since the curse on the Hero Candidate has disappeared, the one on the Saintess won’t activate either. An arrow that isn’t nocked to the bowstring can’t fly on its own.”
“Hehe, what a shame. So what will you do now?”
At Selenia’s question, Lilith lightly tapped the crystal orb on the desk with her finger. An image immediately began to play.
Inside the orb, Beatrice appeared clearly—spear in hand, mercilessly slaughtering demonic beasts.
“Oh my, is this the current Saintess? A Saintess who fights on the front lines? What a spirited child.”
“Yes, that’s her. Honestly, it does feel like a waste to hand her over to that pathetic black-haired idiot. Don’t you think?”
Lilith licked her lips with a wicked smile.
While the disruption of her plan was irritating, a new spark of interest had ignited instead. How beautiful would it be to see this radiant symbol of divinity writhing in despair? For a woman like this, it might be worth preparing a stage worthy of her myself.
“How should I break her? Does she have a man she loves? Or perhaps a woman she cherishes?”
Lilith’s golden eyes gleamed ominously as she stared at Beatrice inside the crystal.
The true pleasure Lilith sought was not limited to the flesh.
“If this bitch were forced to feel pleasure from the touch of someone she absolutely doesn’t want… instead of the arms of the person she values more than her own life…”
Just imagining it sent a thrilling heat racing from her toes upward.
The gaze of someone desperately seeking salvation while teetering between shame and ecstasy in front of the person they love. And that precious person, powerless to do anything, forced to watch helplessly. The perfect tragedy.
“Tears flowing from eyes that have lost their proud light, now filled with a mixture of pleasure and despair as they look at their beloved. If I could lick those tears… they would be sweeter than any nectar. Don’t you agree?”
“As expected, you really do have a terrible personality.”
It was truly a depraved taste. Selenia shook her head.
“First, I need to confirm whether the curse I engraved on her body is still intact. Unlike spells, there’s no way to check a curse without looking at it directly.”
Of course, there was no way the curse had been dispelled. Unless she had undergone a baptism, the current Saintess was far too young to endure such a ritual. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to make sure.
With that thought, Lilith looked at Selenia.
“Hmm? Are you thinking of assigning that role to me?”
“Yes. Thanks to that damned holy barrier, it’s difficult for me to go in person. But you should be able to, right?”
“Oh my, what if I end up swallowing that child whole? The curse you engraved on the Saintess’s body is the same ‘Curse of Carnal Desire’ you once cast on me, correct?”
“That’s right.”
“And I know exactly how to handle that curse, don’t I?”
Seeing Selenia’s strange smile, Lilith frowned deeply.
The Curse of Carnal Desire. If it activated, even the most noble Saintess would lose her mind and become a panting bitch in heat, finding her only joy in life by crying out beneath that puppet of a Hero. Moreover, judging by the way she proudly wore those vulgar scraps of cloth, she had clearly rolled around with countless bodies already. Instead of resisting the curse, she would be consumed even more easily and miserably.
Well, it didn’t matter. If the body had already been touched by others, what did it matter if Selenia played with it a little?
“Do as you wish. I won’t complain if you just toy with her a bit.”
“Hehe, really? Corrupting something noble is always so exciting.”
Who was calling whom depraved? Lilith shook her head as she looked into Selenia’s eyes, which glittered with madness.
I simply enjoy the emotion a person displays when the one they value more than life itself is held in the arms of someone they absolutely don’t want, writhing in unwanted pleasure as they fall apart. The shame the victim feels, and the lover’s helpless despair as they watch their destruction. Isn’t that the sweetest, purest pleasure of all?
“Anyway, do a good job. I’ll be looking forward to it.”
“Hehe, understood.”
Selenia smiled seductively and was about to stand when Lilith suddenly grabbed her wrist with surprising strength and shoved her down onto the soft bed.
“Oh my…”
Lilith immediately climbed on top of Selenia and looked down at her. Deep desire swirled in her golden eyes.
“You come into my bedroom and think you can just leave?”
“Hehe, of course not. Please spoil me thoroughly all day today. Ah…!”
Before she could finish speaking, Lilith’s lips sank into Selenia’s neck. Selenia smiled in ecstasy and wrapped her arms around Lilith’s neck. The two women’s bodies entwined.
Soon, Lilith’s bedroom was filled with secretive, burning heat.
And at that same moment, inside the Saintess’s quarters at the Eris Church.
“……?”
The night I had beaten Cassian to a pulp, I was about to happily crawl into bed when a sudden unpleasant feeling made me tilt my head.
My spine felt strangely cold, and my ears were itching. According to the wisdom of my ancestors, this definitely meant someone was talking shit about me. Or planning to beat me up.
“Which bastard is it? Is it Leonid?”
There was no way to check. Well, I could just go beat up the holy knights one by one later and the culprit would reveal themselves, right?
I grinned, pulled the blanket close, and closed my eyes.