Rubellan thought he might really die this time.

When Juletan’s sharp claws pierced right up to his heart, a panoramic life review that humans supposedly witness only at death’s door flashed through his mind.

His past foolish actions passed by one by one. That day when he wished for immortality, that day when he wished for death.

He had wanted immortality to avoid becoming weak, but even after becoming strong, Rubellan was ultimately crumbling. He had always lived craving something, but nothing had ever been perfectly fulfilled.

Those days piled up one by one, and in the end, what he desperately wanted at this moment was time.

Just the brief time a human could live one lifetime.

Time to stay by Rael’s side just a little longer.

He had finally found someone who could fill him completely, yet he was about to die at Juletan’s hands. His arrogant past actions had ultimately created this result.

“Gah…”

A hollow breath escaped, whether it was mockery or a groan.

It was over.

It was really the end.

If even the slightest breeze blew now, his heart would be torn out.

Rubellan made his decision. If he was going to die anyway, he should at least clear away any threats to Rael before going. He brought his left arm to his frozen right arm.

Juletan thought Rubellan had overlapped both hands as a last desperate attempt to knock his hand away, but the action that followed was different from his expectation.

Rubellan was restraining Juletan so he couldn’t escape from him.

When Rubellan clung tightly to him when he should have been the first to flee, Juletan couldn’t hide his bewilderment.

“What kind of trick is this?”

He could feel Rubellan’s magical power churning unstably through their touching arms. Juletan’s expression hardened, and at the same time Rubellan smiled and said:

“Even if I can’t be your companion to the afterlife, I wanted to see you off to the entrance at least.”

“This bastard, don’t tell me…”

Juletan realized what Rubellan was trying to do.

Rubellan’s magical power was running wild. He was deliberately scrambling the magical power inside himself into chaos.

Enormous force began fragmenting and colliding with itself. Rubellan was turning his own body into an explosive. His actions were tantamount to s*icide.

“You’re not in your right mind.”

Juletan was troubled. At this rate, when the explosion happened, he would also get caught up and be blown to pieces.

Of course, since he had an immortal body, even if he exploded his body would regenerate, but in that state no one could guarantee how long it would take. Perhaps one year, or ten years, or if unlucky, it would take a hundred years for his body to barely regenerate.

Time didn’t matter however long it took anyway, but the biggest problem was Rubellan’s heart. If he self-destructed while holding his heart in a non-immortal body, it wouldn’t regenerate.

He had to steal it before that, but if by any chance he disappeared first due to the explosion, Rubellan’s power couldn’t transfer and would just scatter forever.

“Ha!”

Playing tricks until the very end.

“A bastard I don’t like until the end.”

Since Rubellan came into existence, he had never liked him even once, but if he had to pick the moment he was most angry, Juletan would say it was right now.

Even when he learned Rubellan had stronger power than himself, even when he took their father’s power, he had never been this anxious.

The moment of perfect victory was right before his eyes. Just a little, just a little more reach!

Whether he knew Juletan’s impatient heart or not, even at this moment Rubellan’s body was vigorously breaking down.

His body gradually heated up red and smoke began rising from his body. His frozen arm melted. But Rubellan was still holding onto Juletan in that same position.

Rubellan read Juletan’s momentary hesitation and said:

“The power you wanted so badly is right in front of you, so what are you hesitating for?”

“Crazy bastard.”

“Unlike me, you won’t even die anyway. You didn’t start this without at least that much resolve, did you?”

At the mockery mixed with ridicule, Juletan became impatient and pushed in all his strength to steal Rubellan’s heart before it exploded.

“Die! I said die!”

Juletan’s hand struggled desperately to grasp Rubellan’s heart, but Rubellan’s rampaging magical power created sparks and pushed him away. Cold sweat flowed from Juletan’s forehead.

Rubellan said to him in a low voice:

“You lost again this time too. In the end, you won’t get what you want.”

The next moment, suddenly a change occurred in Juletan.

“Ugh.”

The Thorn Crown on his head suddenly pierced through his skin.

“Ahhh…!”

Strength was draining from Juletan’s hand that had been digging into Rubellan’s flesh. Rubellan instantly noticed something was wrong with him.

“What kind of trick is this now?”

“Ahhh!”

Suddenly, behind Juletan who was roaring in agony, Bastian’s figure came into view.

In front of Bastian, covered in blood all over his body, lay the Tower Master who had become a cold corpse on the ground.

‘Don’t tell me…’

Strength left Rubellan’s hands, and Juletan fell away from him. He was too busy writhing in pain to notice Rubellan backing away.

“Ahhhhh!”

Juletan was suffering while gripping the Thorn Crown with both hands like he had seen before.

He clawed at the Thorn Crown until his hands bled. He tried to tear it off but it was useless.

Juletan realized something was wrong and desperately opened his eyes wide to look for the Tower Master. Then, discovering the Tower Master who had become a corpse stabbed with a dagger, he lamented.

“That… that useless! Ahhh!”

The Thorn Crown began writhing like it was alive.

Rubellan and Bastian watched Juletan’s appearance like watching a moth burning in fire.

“What happened?”

Rubellan asked Bastian. Though it was quite a distance, his voice filled with magical power was vividly transmitted to Bastian’s ears.

Bastian was relieved. At least Juletan was proving that the choice he made wasn’t wrong. Bastian didn’t answer, but Rubellan knew he had killed the Tower Master.

“Is it because the contractor died?”

For just thinking that and moving on, Juletan’s condition seemed a bit excessive. There was no such immediate suffering just because a contract with a human couldn’t be kept. At most there would just be restrictions on power.

Rubellan hurriedly calmed the magical power in his body. Since he had been on the verge of his heart exploding if he had provoked it just a little more, the magical power wasn’t easily controlled.

‘If I had been just a little later…’

His heart would have exploded and he would have met death.

Just moments ago he had been prepared for death, but as soon as hope for survival arose, his survival instinct surged. Every cell in Rubellan’s body was instinctively suppressing magical power to survive. He had already suffered major damage with his body breaking down though.

“Ahhh! Huh, ugh!”

And Juletan’s condition got progressively worse.

The Thorn Crown that had been wrapped around his head gradually grew strangely. Yes, the expression ‘growing’ was exactly right. The Thorn Crown was extending stems from his head and crawling down Juletan’s neck and shoulders.

Though Juletan desperately tried to tear it off, eventually even his hands became entangled in the thorn stems and he couldn’t move.

“Release me! Ahhh! Release this!”

Not knowing who he was pleading to, Juletan screamed and wailed.

Meanwhile the thorn vines swallowed his hands and crawled down his waist to bind even his legs.

“Release this! Ahhhhh!”

The vines crawled down to the dirt of the ground where he was rolling. The thorn vines that took root in the earth gradually changed into larger and sturdier stems.

“Is it eating magical power?”

It couldn’t be seen as a simple plant. The power that neutralized even Juletan’s strength and bound him was magical power.

And ironically, the magical power the vines used was Juletan’s own. The Thorn Crown was using Juletan as a host, sucking his magical power and multiplying.

The thorn vines vigorously extended their stems. The thin stems swelled to the thickness of an adult man’s forearm, no, now to the thickness of a sturdy man’s thigh. Juletan’s body was already hidden by the vines to the point where even his form could no longer be seen.

“Gah… grr…!”

In the blink of an eye, the thorn vines had transformed like a single tree. It also resembled a chrysalis in the process of metamorphosis.

Bastian, watching that scene, murmured:

“A curse…”

He was certain that was the ‘curse’ that had appeared in ancient texts.

「When the curse’s seed manifests, the demon loses the power of the Thorn Crown.」

The Thorn Crown grew vigorously, not just controlling the demon but sealing him. The existence of the seed he had been curious about all along was none other than the Thorn Crown itself.

The ancient mad mage Hatus had worried about the demon that would still be alive after his own death, and ultimately created a device that would seal the demon when his heart stopped.

There had been no need to search for something like a seed from the beginning. The answer had truly been contained in one small dagger that would destroy evil.

“Is it the curse of a holy relic?”

Rubellan instinctively felt that Juletan was in real crisis.

The thorn vines were using Juletan’s power to imprison him. That meant unless Juletan’s power completely disappeared, the vines wouldn’t release him either.

Rubellan thought about whether Juletan’s power could disappear.

He belonged to the Archdemons among demons. Since he had an immortal body he couldn’t die, and his power sprang from his very existence so that power couldn’t disappear either.

“Indeed…”

Juletan was being devoured by his own excessive greed and self-destructing.

The vines had already perfectly bound Juletan’s body. He was no different from being sealed. And that too in a perfect prison created by his own power that he had so pursued, one he could never escape from.

“Death would be a blessing instead.”

How long would Juletan spend in a form that was neither dead nor alive?

“This can’t be… No… No!”

Crack—

The writhing thorn vines hardened like solid stone. That was the end. Juletan’s final scream, now invisible, lingered in their ears.

Was Juletan still screaming in agony inside there?

Just imagining for a moment the vast time he would have to endure made Rubellan dizzy.

“Ugh…”

This wasn’t the time to worry about someone like Juletan. When his rampaging magical power irregularly stirred his heart, Rubellan’s body staggered.

His vision blurred. Dehydration set in like all moisture had drained from his body. But Rubellan gathered his dizzy mind and approached Rael.

Thud, thud.

His steps had no strength at all. But Rubellan had to check.

“Rael…”

Whether she was safe.

When Rubellan reached Rael, he collapsed with a thud. His hand fumblingly moved toward Rael’s limp hand.

Touch.

His hand, still hot from the fever that hadn’t cooled, covered Rael’s hand. At the same time his vision flickered.