“…A traitor?”

Luise’s trembling voice broke as her gaze fell on Shed’s limp, lifeless form. She knew how much he had given for Ideana, how many times he had thrown himself into the jaws of death, pouring out every ounce of his strength to protect this land. And now her father called him a traitor?

“That ungrateful Lupus saw the bodies and came at me, trying to kill me.”

Felix clicked his tongue in irritation, shooting Shed a sidelong glance laced with disdain. In that moment, Luise recalled what Shed had said—that he would go in search of his sworn brother, Pamen.

So that was it. Shed had set out to find Pamen… only to come upon a mountain of slaughtered Lupus.
A one-sided massacre. A merciless butchery.

He had been consumed by rage, his reason slipping as he seized his sword and charged at Felix—the master of House Ideana, the man behind the sl*ughter.

But his vengeance had failed.

“For a mere slave to dare rise against Ideana…It is both an insult and an act of treason against our house.”

To attempt to kill the lord of these lands was a crime worthy of death. Yet the massacre of the Lupus was no crime at all.

“You must feel betrayed as well, since you cared for him.”

Felix’s lips pressed into a firm line as he studied his daughter, struck mute with shock. Then, stepping back, he had the knights throw Shed’s limp body down before her.

“Will you carry out the execution?”

Felix’s voice rang with a chilling elegance.

Execution…?

Her head throbbed as she shook it violently. She could not accept it. She could not accept that her beloved father had done such a thing. That she herself bore such a monstrous power. That Shed… had come to hate Ideana.

Felix’s eyes hardened. Then, with a deliberate gesture, he drew his sword.

“If you will not carry out the execution, then I shall.”

The blade gleamed coldly as he raised it high above his head. Taking the life of a Lupus meant nothing to him.

Without hesitating for a moment, he brought the blade down towards Shed’s exposed neck.

Luise’s eyes widened in horror. Her heart plummeted.

“No—!”

In that instant, a surge of black light burst from her body and struck Felix’s descending sword. The sword flew from his grasp and he staggered back. For a moment, his eyes widened in shock, but then a smile spread across his lips.

“Yes. At last, you’ve awakened to your power!”

He looked at her with a face alight with joy.

In that instant, Luise realized she was shrouded in black energy. It felt familiar, natural, flowing from her as effortlessly as the movement of her own limbs.

“No… no, this isn’t—!”

Frantically, she forced the dark light back inside. Her head throbbed as though it might split apart. Nightmares bled into reality. Memories she had believed to be filled with happiness sank into the blood-soaked mire beneath her feet.

“You can summon it, and now you can hide it at will. It’s proof you’ve become truly complete.”

Felix spoke with a deep, reverent emotion, as if overcome by the weight of his own accomplishment.

“At last, I won’t need to rely on brainwashing spells.”

Until now, he had resorted to hypnosis, indoctrination and other controlling magics to manage Luise’s unstable condition. But after the final experiment, things were different.

He had sacrificed as many lives as there were in a city to make her whole. The endless wars and the Lupus driven into battle as mercenary slaves had all been for her.

And when he finally offered the Lupus themselves as a sacrifice, Luise reached perfection.

“The age of Ideana has arrived. Soon, this empire will fall into our hands.”

Felix clenched his fist as he whispered the words.

“We’ll take the head of House Chepbolden, and claim the empire for ourselves.”

His voice rang with a dreamer’s certainty.

‘Claim the empire…?’

“For generations, the Chepbolden line has monopolised the throne. Traditionally, the Elector Princes have chosen the emperor, but this right has long been merely a formality.”

In truth, the House of Ideana was the weakest electorate. Although its lands were fertile, they were located on the borders.

It was far from both Dynaemes Isle, where the Grand Temple stood, and the Imperial Domain.

Consequently, its influence in the capital was minimal and it was often overlooked.

“With your power, the central lands will fall easily. Even priests with holy power won’t stand a chance.”

Only then did Luise recall why her father had expelled the priests from Ideana. She had thought it was out of anger because they had failed to cure her illness.

But now…

“Then… my illness was…”

“A mere trial and error.”

Not an incurable disease—a mistake?

“It was never possible to be perfect from the start.”

Felix calmly explained her sickness. The torment she had endured was nothing more than a side effect
of infusing her with black magic.

“On the path to perfection, an imperfect state was inevitable. A necessary trial to seize a greater power.”

Felix spoke with gentle warmth, as though now that his long-sought wish had been fulfilled, her past suffering could be left behind as nothing more than a memory, as though all she had endured had simply been unavoidable mistakes.

Luise’s pale lips trembled violently.

‘A necessary trial?’
‘All of it—every ounce of pain I bore?’
‘The days when my body was too weak to step outside…’
‘The nights I spent trapped in endless nightmares…’
‘The agony that tore me apart until I screamed, begging for it to end…’

In her mind, memories of her father’s kindness, her suffocating nightmares, and the horrifying reality before her now all blurred together.

“Y-you’re lying… aren’t you, Father?”

Her eyes grew red with tears. She wanted to deny it. If this wasn’t a dream, then let reality be the lie. He couldn’t have been this cruel to her.

But Felix Ideana parted his lips, calm and steady.

“For the glory of great Ideana.”

His voice was filled with conviction, as though anything could be justified for such a cause.

“Luise, do you not also wish for our family’s glory?”

He believed that as his daughter, as one who bore the Ideana blood, she would understand.

But the daughter he trusted shook her head.

“This… none of this can be forgiven.”

So many lives, all for nothing but that so-called glory? It was wrong. It was unforgivable.

“Luise.”

At the faint crease of his brow, Luise snatched up the sword he had dropped.

“…This ends here, Father.”

She held the blade to his throat. She didn’t know how to undo what had already happened. But one thing she did know was that she had to stop what was yet to come.

Startled by her resolve, Felix’s eyes widened. Then he chuckled softly.

The blade in her hand quivered weakly. He knew that Luise Ideana could never kill her father.

He had been her only family, her warm protector since childhood, and the centre of her world when she was unable to step outside her home.

This was why she had stopped short of striking him down with her black magic just moments ago, deflecting his blade instead of wounding him.

“Luise, you need not hold a sword. You yourself are a weapon more radiant than any blade.”

He gestured for her to lower it.

A tear slid down her reddened eyes, falling onto her cheek. And then, slowly she turned the tip of the sword toward her own chest.

“Stop this, Father.”

Luise spoke through trembling lips. As he had expected, she could not bring herself to kill her father. Despite her rage and shock, she could not erase the years of love and warmth they had shared.

So instead, she turned the blade on herself. If Felix truly cherished her — even if only as the successful vessel of ancient sorcery — then surely he would not allow her to die.

Her guess must have been right. A flicker of dismay crossed Felix’s face. But the next moment, his features softened once more, returning to the same gentle, composed expression he had always shown her.

“Luise. Didn’t I tell you? You have become the strongest human alive.”

A benevolent smile curved his lips. At that very moment, he placed his hand over hers on the hilt of the blade. His warmth seeped into her trembling fingers.

Thr*st!

The sound of steel piercing deep.

For an instant, Luise could not comprehend what had happened.

“Khff—!”

Before she could make sense of it, blood burst from her lips. When she looked down at her chest, she saw the sword that had been driven straight through her heart.

‘F-Father…?’

Her head trembled as she looked up again. There he was, wearing the same calm expression.

Suddenly, it was as if all her severed nerves had been bound together again, and she was consumed by an agonising pain unlike anything she had ever experienced.

“Khff—!”

She coughed up more blood and collapsed onto the floor. Her lungs were filling with blood and she was suffocating. She could not scream. Her blood-slick lips parted soundlessly, issuing only the strangled rasp of a dying beast.

Her body writhed in agony that she could not endure. With each throb of her heart, the cold steel in her chest tightened, causing her vision to flicker in and out.

Droplets of blood and saliva fell from her lips. Yet Felix stood motionless, watching his daughter writhe and die on the ground.

At last, he pressed his foot into her trembling body, and with one merciless pull, he ripped the sword free from her chest.

The pain was as if her soul were being torn apart. Her body convulsed and jerked off the floor.

“Ghkkk—!”

The knights turned away, unable to bear witnessing the girl writhing in her own blood.

Scarlet spread across the floor. Luise was trapped in endless torment. She felt no anger, sorrow or despair; only the crushing, unrelenting pain of her wounded body.

She could no longer see. She could no longer hear. She could no longer feel.

In her world, there was nothing but the sensation of her heart being pierced and her bones breaking.

Her flesh tore and her blood poured forth.

It was then that Luise Ideana realised that she had become a demon herself.