"Refuse?"
The Black Saintess stared at "Ebner's" face for a few seconds, surprised that this viscount—whose reputation was notoriously poor—could actually resist her allure.
But then she curved her lips into a teasing smile and, while swinging one leg over to straddle "Ebner's" lap, slid a pale hand beneath his shirt…
"Lord Viscount, you don't have the right to refuse~"
As she spoke, she was about to bestow upon "Ebner" overwhelming ecstasy, enough to completely melt a person's will.
But just as she made her move, "Ebner," who had been allowing everything, sighed softly and said regretfully:
"Although I am also very curious about 'ecstasy'…
But… time's up."
"Time's up?!"
The Black Saintess—her long black hair flowing like ink—paused, frowning for the first time.
Immediately after, she watched the figure beneath her turn translucent—
And in an instant, it vanished.
"History Projection?!"
As someone who had lived since the fourth epoch—back when the three great Demoness families still coexisted—the Black Saintess was hardly inexperienced.
She recognized exactly what she'd just seen.
Not good. This might be bait!
Her heart tightened. She prepared to use Mirror Shuttling to escape immediately.
But the next second—her expression changed drastically.
Because the mirror world she created…
Had somehow fallen under Secrecy.
And more than that—
Faint, inexplicable white mist had begun permeating the mirror space.
From within the mist, a tall woman walked out—
High nose bridge, full lips, deep gray eyes, strikingly beautiful.
Leticia Tamara.
"You… weren't you destroyed?"
The Black Saintess' expression grew uglier.
Back when the Succubus Clan had followed the Night Emperor to besiege Leticia, she herself had participated.
She even adopted the title "Black Saintess" after defecting to Cheek, partly due to nostalgia for the past.
Leticia—Princess Vera—smiled.
"Oh… it's you, Medea.
You actually submitted to Cheek?
No wonder Mollica's Apocalypse Demoness characteristic was taken by him…
And afterward she was turned into a ship by Trensost…"
Her smile was gentle.
Her tone was glacial.
"That was His Majesty's command. I have always been loyal to the Night Emperor. I did not betray him."
The Black Saintess shook her head calmly.
Then she glanced at the mist around Leticia and frowned.
"You are no longer a Beyonder of any pathway…
Is that mist what gives you strength?
What exactly are you now?"
Leticia chuckled.
"It's normal that you don't know…
Because I am now a servant of the Unknown."
Before the echo of her voice faded—
The Black Saintess's body exploded—
Shattering into mirror-like fragments.
A moment later she reappeared, disheveled, her dress's buttons blown apart, revealing a smooth expanse of pale skin.
"To execute me outright without even speaking a word of power?"
As the liaison between the Demoness Sect and the Loen royal family, and once a subordinate of the Night Emperor, the Black Saintess was intimately familiar with the Arbiter and Black Emperor pathways.
What Leticia had just displayed was already comparable to a Hand of Order.
And the Hand of Order was the perfect counter to a Demoness—
Especially a Catastrophe Demoness who thrived on chaos and calamity.
*If I can't defeat Leticia alone, and someone else is covering this space with Secrecy…
Facing two angels at once—
I have zero chance of victory.*
Escape first.
Then settle accounts with that Viscount Bryan later.
With this thought, she didn't question why Leticia hadn't attacked again.
She revealed her Medusa-like mythical form, and from her eyes burst the Light of Years, tearing open the Secrecy barrier.
Before time more ancient than the ancient—
Not only "death," but even "secrecy" could not withstand the erosion of time.
Seize the opening—
She bolted through the crack with extreme speed, preparing to use mirror-jump to escape.
Still cautious, she noted that Leticia made no movement.
So in that final second, she glanced back—
And saw Leticia looking at her with unmistakable mockery.
Mockery?
The Black Saintess realized something was wrong—
But too late.
A soundless shriek rippled outward.
Her body shrank rapidly—
About to turn into a little chick—
Then the chick exploded.
The Black Saintess reappeared within the mirror world.
The Secrecy crack was almost sealed.
There's an ancient evil outside too!
Her heart turned cold.
But she quickly made a decision.
She drew out a strange, rusted, blood-stained crown and placed it on her head.
This was a sealed artifact formed from the Conqueror characteristic that the Demoness Sect and the Loen royals had exchanged using a Prince of Abolition characteristic.
Its negative effects were monstrous—
But its might was overwhelming.
It pierced almost all authorities—
And conquered everything ahead.
Thus:
Secrecy broke.
Curses broke.
Bindings broke.
Imprisonment broke.
The Black Saintess blasted out of the mirror world into the suburbs of Backlund.
But the crown's backlash crashed down instantly.
She suppressed it with great difficulty and was about to flee—
When she saw a familiar figure—
Viscount Ebner Bryan, smiling at her.
And beside him stood a hooded woman, dressed in an archaic robe, with black hair and black eyes—
Beautiful, but expressionlessly blank.
The moment the Black Saintess saw her—
The hooded woman looked back.
And the rusted crown…
vanished.
One centimeter at a time—
Erased from existence.
"You're—"
The Black Saintess's eyes widened in terror.
But she didn't even finish her sentence—
Because her entire existence began rewinding.
Everything she had done—
Except using the Conqueror crown—
Reversed rapidly.
And she was dragged back into the mirror world smothered by Secrecy.
"The Serpent of Fate's 'Restart'?!"
How many angels are laying an ambush for me?!
Facing Leticia Tamara's mocking gaze, the Black Saintess once again tasted the despair she used to inflict as a Demoness of Despair.
…
Meanwhile, in the suburbs—
The beautiful but slightly blank woman—
The Mother of the Sky—
Turned toward Ebner with a gentle smile.
"Drink the Cognizer potion now.
"With me beside you, your luck can temporarily return to normal."
(End of Chapter)