“Ugh…”

In a dark room, Buford had been wandering through the haunting illusions that had been plaguing him for the past few days.

Even recovering from the strain of experiencing that purification power was difficult enough, but the symptoms of his heart had worsened due to drinking her blood.

It wasn’t the first time he had absorbed the blood and flesh of spirits and fairies.

Yet his body strangely reacted intensely.

It felt as if his body was shrinking while his heart grew abnormally larger, its presence becoming immense.

Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!

It felt like his brain shook from the forceful pounding of his heart.

“Uh… Ugh… Urgh!”

Unable to bear his suffering, Buford’s Damon hid him away in a hiding place and secretly returned to Akan.

She poured all the medicine provided by Lirik and tried to restore his condition with the dark magic she knew, but it was insufficient.

A stronger remedy was needed.

‘If I use the Black Gate to travel alone, I can come back quickly. It may strain my body, but… if I miss this timing, he might die. Damn it, I can’t let him die after all the effort I’ve put in.’

It would take at least a week, or at most ten days.

Meanwhile, her arrogant lover remained lost in the illusions, unable to eat or sleep properly.

-Buford, my sweetheart.

‘…Go away, please don’t follow me!’

-Buford! Buford! Stop, don’t run away! Let’s play together! I’m you, you know!

‘I don’t want to. You’re not me. You’re… not me!’

Buford covered his ears and tightly shut his eyes, thrashing about in his struggle.

Yet the overwhelming illusions continued to cling to his entire body.

The sound of bones rattling and the sensation of grasping and shaking his clothes felt so real that it sent shivers down his spine.

-Just once. Just look at us once.

A skeletal jaw, with only bones remaining, creaked and rattled, producing eerie sounds.

Yet even in the midst of that, he could hear a familiar voice, driving him to the brink of madness.

Buford ran away, over and over again.

His consciousness, flailing on the bed, had unknowingly been sucked into the dark and sticky subconscious realm.

He ran through a place where nothing could be seen, neither in front nor behind.

He ran at full speed, but the skeletal figure and young Buford kept closely behind him.

‘I’m sick of this.’

Running until his lungs felt like they would burst, he screamed, Aaaah!

Buford revealed an angry face and yelled as if in a fit.

‘What the hell do you want from me?’

The two shadows chasing him came to a halt.

The scenery changed behind them as they stared silently at him.

‘This is…’

Buford furrowed his brow at the disorienting sight.

* * *

The young queen with fiery red hair stood at a distance, next to her young son who writhed in agony.

The queen, with otherworldly features and unfocused eyes, alternated between looking at her own hands and the suffering child, gasping for breath.

Tears that seemed like they would no longer come streamed down her reddened, swollen eyes.

In response to the sight of her tearless weeping, young Buford weakly asked, “Mother… why are you crying?”

“This life is too burdensome… And my child, you are so pitiful and helpless.”

Compared to the massive bed, young Buford’s body appeared small and insignificant, buried within it like dust.

With a pale face and a thin, emaciated body, young Buford smiled at his mother.

“When I get better… let’s go on an outing together, Mother. Under the sun, where flowers bloom and the wind blows on the hill…”

“…”

“I want to eat something delicious with you. Something very sweet and incredibly tasty.”

“…”

She, with an expressionless face, finally buried her face in her hands.

Huuhhh, the sound of crying echoed heavily in the dark room.

“Why are you crying like that? Mother… I’m fine…”

“It’s because I made you unhappy. I, I… turned you into a monster. It’s all my fault, my dear. I should have been the only one unhappy… just me…!”

After sobbing for a while, the queen abruptly stood up.

A sinister gleam appeared in her watery, softened eyes, drenched in tears.“Where are you going? Please… stay by my side, Mother. Uh, uhuh! Haah….”

Young Buford reached out his small hand, clutching his racing heart from within.

But the queen had already closed the door and left.

The scene changed once again.

The place the despairing queen rushed to was in front of Lirik.

With a bored expression on her face, she reached out her hand towards him.

“Give me… give me medicine.”

“What kind of medicine are you referring to, Your Majesty?”

“Our sins are too great. Most of it is my fault, so I will take responsibility. But I don’t think I can bear it growing any further. So… give me the medicine. Before Buford’s suffering becomes even worse.”

Her words changed Lirik’s expression.

He seemed lost in thought for a moment, then clicked his tongue and licked his lips.

“So… you’re saying that you would kill the prince, whom you barely managed to save, again?”

“That heart was never the prince’s to begin with. Can’t you kill me and transplant my heart to the prince? I’m willing to do anything with my body, so give that heart back to the fairies.”

“Oh, my, my.”

Lirik, who had been licking his lips, circled around the queen.

From that moment, his tone towards the queen changed.

“Are you trying to attach this ordinary human body to the prince’s body with demon blood and a fairy’s heart? Perhaps… you have an excessive sense of self-importance, Your Majesty.”

“What did you say! You…!”

“The prince is not going to die. You gave birth to him, but I saved him with my own hands. I cannot let you do as you please.”

When Lirik raised his hand high as the queen did, he grabbed a sharp pair of scissors that had been haphazardly scattered on the desk and precisely plunged it towards her heart.

Thunk!

“Ah…!”

Fresh red blood gushed out like a fountain.

As the splattering droplets hit his face, Lirik laughed.

“Why are you becoming so weak, Your Majesty? You shouldn’t be like this.”

Thunk, thunk!

Lirik mercilessly stabbed the chest of the wide-eyed queen several more times.

Every time, red blood splattered, but he didn’t care.

“I will say to the prince… that the queen went insane and took her own life. She went so crazy that she cut out her own heart. Haha, a crazy prince with a crazy mother. We will become such a magnificent royal family.”

Hahaha!

The queen couldn’t close her eyes until her death.

All that remained was remorse.

Darkness, like a liquid, flowed heavily over the scene of that day.

* * *

Buford woke up from his sleep.

His head felt heavy, and his heart continued to beat roughly, as if in rebellion.

The remnants of the dream he had just seen blurred his vision.

Then the auditory hallucination returned.

-Baby, my baby… Come with me. Let’s go with mother.

The skeletal queen reached out, grasping his shoulder.

Is this a ghost? An obsession? Regret?

Why on earth do you torment me even after your death?

-…Stop suffering and come with me. Okay?

Young Buford clung to him, whimpering.

Buford sat up in bed and stared at the past specter hanging from the bedpost.

At some point, he began to hate the queen.

Why did he feel that way?

When he recalled the dream, he thought it might have been Lirik’s trickery as well.

But…

“Now that I know the truth, can anything change?”

Buford laughed, his face contorted, and kicked away the things hanging from his feet.

Tears streamed down his sunken eyes, but there was no warmth in the tears.

Too much had happened.

Yes, he had already experienced too much and had no intention of stopping.

How much time had passed like that?

As Buford stared blankly into the void, it tore apart, and Damon, who had departed to Akan, returned.

“Buford! Are you feeling better now?”

“What about the medicine…?”

Buford swallowed the black liquid of Lirik, handed to him by Damon, in one gulp.

As the liquid, which felt like it would burn his throat, passed through, his body regained vigor, and the twist in his heart lessened.

Clang!

Throwing away the empty bottle he had finished, Buford stood up abruptly and muttered.

“Now that we’ve come this far… Should we go even crazier?”

“Buford, if you push yourself right after taking the medicine…”

“Damon.”

“…”

“Do we really have a tomorrow?”

“…What are you saying, Buford?”

He tore open the wound on his palm, that was already split from the tormenting, with laughter.

“I mean we can’t stop here.”

Through his hand, the dark red blood flowed, and one by one, chimeras started to emerge.

“Since it’s come to this… We have to go even crazier, even if it’s just a little.”

I can’t be the only one unhappy.

* * *

“Hehehe.”

Laughter burst out uncontrollably, even though it was muffled.

He heard that many countries that were once held on a leash by him in Rojas had escaped, but such news couldn’t ruin Lirik’s mood.

I’ve been waiting for this moment for so long.

For over 30 years, he had lived dreaming only of this day.

Like a wretched little dog, wandering the back alleys while continuing his great research, this was finally the moment when his achievements would shine.

Everyone pointed fingers at him, ridiculed him, and even in the unyielding hatred of Rojas, they went as far as to cut off his limbs.

Yet he revived resiliently and even reconstructed his severed limbs.

And now, he had come all the way to the point of devouring the very nation that had tried to kill him, without recognizing this great being.

“If I’m not a god, then who am I?”

He praised himself with an excited heart.

An exhilarating satisfaction surged through his entire being.

“…Finally, finally!”

Lirik’s mouth, as he leaped into the underground of the Sanctum with his long legs, split wide open.

While Lirik was filled with joy and ecstasy, the attendants following behind him paled in shock.

And their minds, just like Lirik, whispered the same words.

‘Finally…’

Although they were the same words, the emotions they implied were starkly different.

Fear.

It was the moment when the schemes of this hellish palace were revealed to the world.

Can the Empire really… stop this hell?

Or will this hell continue to expand and grow?

While Lirik laughed with excitement, unable to contain himself, there was a trembling in the hands and feet of those chasing after him.

Finally, Lirik stopped in front of the door to the underground chamber of the palace.

With a triumphant expression, he firmly grasped the handle of the tightly closed door and opened it wide.

“Finally…! It’s time for all of you to shine!”

The massive underground that had been meticulously created over a long period of time.

Thousands of chimeras that filled the dark depths.

Kyahahaha!

Lirik burst into laughter with an uncontrollable excitement on his face.

Beside him, Belgian, a demon who had appeared unnoticed at some point, watched beyond the door, licking his lips.

[I never thought… that this day would actually come.]

“Yes. This day… This day has finally arrived!”

Unable to contain his excitement, Lirik stomped his foot.

Finally unable to resist, he drew his sword and inflicted a long wound on his palm.

As the blood gushed out from his palm, the name of the demon Belgian appeared as a black tattoo on Lirik’s forearm.

“Now, Belgian, it’s your turn as well…!”

At Lirik’s urging, Belgian’s eyes also gleamed.

He discarded the human Emperor’s disguise he had been wearing.

The Emperor’s mouth opened wide, and black smoke rose.

The appearance of the demon with the horns of a bull, the tongue of a snake, and grotesque claws twisted like a snail emerged clearly into the air.

[I, Belgian, shall proceed with the contract with a human.]

Once again, the figure that resembled a shadow turned into black smoke, covering thousands of chimera legions.

And then, the eyes of the bound chimeras flashed open.

-Kieeek!

-Kyak, kyakyak, kyak!

Chimeras, now imbued with black life, began to move.

The heavens and earth trembled, and the roots of the palace shook.

Lirik hurriedly stepped outside and watched in ecstasy as the 10,000-strong chimera legion, which had been sleeping in the underground of this colossal Akan Palace, emerged.

“…Beautiful. Truly beautiful.”

It was the perfect time for the demons and chimeras to be active.

At the border between night and day, during the crimson time like blood, Lirik summoned the chimeras.

Under the palace adorned with a beautiful sunset, black monsters overflowed and spilled out.