I've escaped... I live another day! Haaa... Hahahaha!
Zombie Raymond thought with a silent laugh, hiding his arm... Or rather, the lack of it, freezing the wound shut. The gaping hole in his stomach oozed viscous fluid that whitened and crystallized into ice as he finally reached Tingen City, blending into the crowd and pulling his hood lower over his face.
The situation wasn't good. He was exhausted and on the verge of losing control, his expression randomly twisting into something crazed or panicked before he could suppress it. Worse, now that he'd left the wilderness behind, he needed to hide from the official Beyonders of the Churches.
He stepped inside the steam locomotive and looked around warily, his face bleak and drawn, madness slowly seeping into the corners of his eyes. But then he froze.
He turned around instantly, took a seat, leaned against the window, and pulled his hood lower as an alluring woman walked inside and took a seat across the wagon.
She smiled faintly as she toom out a cigarette, though she seemed to have no lighter. At that, every man in the vicinity rushed toward her, each one offering to light it. It felt as though she had enslaved their souls with a single glance, her gaze captivating, bewitching everyone it touched.
She was a charming young lady. Her tantalizing skin was pale as porcelain, making her electric blue eyes stand out, sharp and gleaming playfully as she smiled at the man who lit her cigarette. Her half-lidded eyes were sultry and enticing. Her lips were scarlet as blood as she licked them slowly, exhaling a languid trail of smoke that made her appear even more enchanting. Her long, lustrous black hair cascaded down her back like a waterfall of darkness, blunt bangs framing her round face, lending her an adorable yet flirtatious presence.
Demoness... Raymond felt chills crawl up his spine, cursing his luck. His spirituality had dropped to a dangerously low level. He was injured and exhausted. Sp facing a Demoness right now would be like walking willingly into death's arms.
However, she didn't seem to notice him. And even if she did, she appeared to be ignoring him entirely, both going their separate ways, which suited him perfectly.
I'm alive... That's all that matters. At the very least, I killed some of Maric's bastard subordinates. He exhaled slowly in relief, the tension bleeding from his shoulders.
Now... I need to return to headquarters without getting caught, and I'll be safe. Hail the Great Mother Tree of Desire, bless me with your almighty strength to return to your embrace peacefully, to continue praising your name...
.....
Maric exhaled a chilling vapor, the forest around him having turned into a white, icy hell. A severed arm hung from his grip, making him appear as much comical as he was terrifying, as if he'd dug up a grave and taken the arm to use it as a toy.
Sam walked out as well, staring at him bleakly. His expression was tight with barely restrained rage, his fists clenched and teeth gritted. His eyes burned with such concentrated hatred and malice that Maric even thought that he was on the verge of losing control.
He escaped... That fucking bastard escaped!
Sam spat with venom, his fist slamming into a tree and splinters of wood exploded outward as his knuckles split open and bled.
And that pain brought a moment of clarity to his enraged mind. He blinked, his murderous expression slowly crumbling, replaced by reluctance and sorrow.
Wait... Yuri!
He thought in panic and broke into a sprint, dashing back toward the lone tree, drenched in the blood of the one who had been his mentor, his friend, and the closest thing he had ever known to a father.
"Yuri! Yuri! No, no, no, no..." He dropped before him, his body trembling, not knowing what to do, shaking him desperately, as if wishing all of this were nothing but a bad dream.
Then he glanced at Amelia. Her head was down, lower lip bitten raw and bleeding, her eyes staring aimlessly at the ground. Her face was a reflection of guilt, regret, sadness, and bitterness, her eyes like a dark sky heavy with rain as tears streamed silently down her cheeks.
At that, Sam's expression went completely blank, looking back at Yuri with disbelief, unable to accept what was right in front of him.
He clasped his hands, lowered his head, and closed his eyes tightly, whispering with a desperation and fear he had never felt before.
Please, God... Please help me. I need your help more than I have ever needed it. You're the only one I can turn to right now. Please... I know I'm asking too much, but I beg of you... Father... Please don't take him...
"It's fine..." He heard a deep, hoarse voice, followed by a cough. Looking up, Sam saw Yuri smiling faintly, blood flowing from his mouth, sliding down his lips, then his chin and then his neck.
"But... your injury..." Sam blurted out, leaning his head against Yuri's chest and closing his eyes. His grip tightened around the man's clothes as he clenched his jaw, a sense of helplessness and doom washing over his heart.
"We all die... It's nothing new." Yuri sighed, his eyes growing blurry and unfocused as a pale smile touched his lips. "When I first drank the potion, I knew the path I had chosen would be filled with madness and pain. However... it wasn't as bad as I thought. I'm thankful that at least I can say goodbye to you. That I can see you one more time."
"Shit... Fuck! Damnit! I'm... I'm..." Sam clamped his mouth shut, going completely still, his face turning expressionless.
He locked his feelings deep in his heart, burying them somewhere unreachable, afraid of even opening the door that led to a pain so vast and unimaginable that it might drive him mad.
He was used to physical pain. But emotional pain was different. He dreaded it so deeply that he had unconsciously refused to even acknowledge it as his own, terrified of what lay behind those gates.
Not even knowing the language to describe what he felt, nor having the face to express it which only made the wound in his heart deeper.
The confusion and disorientation tearing at his own soul brought a quieter, more devastating agony than any blade ever had.
At this moment, he wished more than anything for Yuri to simply be okay. And like rays of sunlight banishing darkness from the world, he begged his Lord to bestow His grace upon him, to dry the abyss in his own heart.
Yuri had been the first... Before him, Sam had never known anyone outside his siblings who believed he was enough, that his flaws, his recklessness, his bursts of excitement and joy, everything he was... that his existence wasn't a mistake.
Before meeting him, most days Sam had felt nothing. Numb and lifeless. Ashamed of his inability to form any genuine connection with anyone.
Everyone had told him to change, to become what they wanted him to be. Back then, he hadn't understood. Why should I change when I haven't even found out who I am? But Yuri...
"Sam... It's fine. You don't need to feel guilty." Yuri raised his trembling arm and ruffled his hair.
Then, He looked up at Maric, whose face was expressionless and cold, glancing at Yuri, then sighed and gave a firm nod.
Yuri's expression turned relieved as he held Sam's face gently, forcing him to look up. "Sam... I'm proud to be your mentor. I know that after my death, you will feel sad, enraged, confused, bitter, and bloodthirsty... But know this. Even if everything around you seems dark and filthy... take a look again. Because maybe you'll be the light that illuminates the dark." He took a slow, pained breath, his lungs screaming at him as he coughed blood. "So before I go... I want you to tell me something."
He forced out the words... Words he had wished to say from the very start.
"Who are you?"
Sam's golden eyes fell on him as he blinked. They widened, glowing with a pale luminosity that became the only source of light in the darkened forest, as a wry smile bloomed on his face and his lips parted to answer…
....
Devil Families are far from gentle and compassionate. They're vile, cruel, and disgusting, but that's as clear as a cloudless sky. There's no need to explain it.
But for a child no older than nine, it was all surreal and baffling. Is this the path I have to walk? A road filled with malice and depravity?
Standing beneath the starless void, on land barren and scorched, smoke rising from a bubbling, corrosive lake, a lone tree stood, blackened and rotting.
The boy could see the tree struggling to stay alive, barely standing tall without nutrients. It was a gift his siblings' mother had brought for him, sacrificed to her by devil worshipers.
Staring at it bleakly, he felt as though he could see a reflection of the Abyss on the reflectionless surface of the rotting bark.
So this is the path we walk... We poison ourselves for strength, because without strength we can't stand.
Unlike his older brother and sister, who were born as Prisoners, Sam was born as a Criminal. After all, they only shared a father, not a mother. Mikhail and Mila's mother was an Ancient Bane, and they'd inherited her excess Beyonder Characteristics, born as Wraiths from the very start.
It was her gift, a show of love which Sam was entirely unfamiliar with. Because Sam had inherited no additional Characteristics from either his mother or his father, entering the world as the lowest possible: a Sequence 9 Criminal.
In spite of that, Sam wasn't discouraged. He'd been told there was a reason behind every action. But being born the weakest was still humiliating, a quiet display of his parents' contempt, and thus Sam was seen as the black sheep of the family. The biggest failure of the Naboredisley line.
But none of that mattered to little Sam at this moment. He stood battered and injured, blood dripping from his nose after being beaten, staring at the tree and the corpse of a beautiful woman leaning against it.
His siblings' mother had been more of a mother to Sam than his own. But seeing her lifeless body brought no emotion, only confusion. He didn't understand why she'd taken her own life.
"It's time to clean that up. It spoils the view." His mother spoke from the balcony, her cheek resting on her open palm, staring at Sam and the corpse with equal disdain.
It certainly does...
That was the only thought that crossed his confused mind. Yet even as Sam's mind drowned in uncertainty, one truth stood before him, as real and immovable as the Abyss in his heart.
So this is the poison... Madness, huh?
Two years later...
"Faster! Use your elbows more efficiently!" A hideous beast growled at the children as they fought imp-like creatures, ugly, small beasts that grinned darkly at everything.
Training was brutal and unforgiving. There was no respite, only never-ending pain that claimed more and more lives. It reminded Sam of something from a past life, a distant memory like smoke behind glass.
Ah, yes. Kodoku. He nodded to himself. And truly, we are like those poisonous insects, tearing each other apart. But from the carcasses of the countless fallen, those who overcome their weakness and rise will become Devils who shake the foundations of the world.
Sam stared at the children and imps bleakly. Each of them gave him wary looks. He wasn't angry, nor did he think it was unfair. Weaker devils always team up.
A few minutes later, Sam's body was drenched in blood. He stared at a corpse with melancholic eyes as servants collected the bodies and hurled them into the colossal crater behind the magnificent obsidian castle.
In that crater, tens of thousands of skeletons lay resting. The smell of rotting flesh permeated the air.
What did it matter? The boy hadn't been a devil, nor a Beyonder. He had been sacrificed to the Abyss, as devil worshipers sometimes did. The devils would raise those children, shape them and use them as livestock. Like a farm, raising them like pigs and sending them to their deaths, or selling them to other families when the time came.
Sam sighed, glancing at the bite mark on his arm, his face twisting into a brief grimace, but before he could move, a fist the size of his head slammed into his back.
His eyes widened. He gritted his teeth, shielded himself as best he could, and rolled across the stone. Blood spilled from his mouth as he coughed, his lungs screaming, his vision growing distorted and hazy.
"What did I tell you? Use the techniques I taught you... not whatever bestial methods you prefer." The hideous instructor roared with malice.
Sam stared at the starless sky, his face expressionless. How ironic... Aren't we all beasts?
Then he heard a voice, chilling and insidious, making his body go utterly still. An unnaturally cold dread gripping his heart. "What can you see?"
"I can't see... anything at all." He forced the words out, his eyes dimming, breathing growing unstable beneath the weight of growing horror. But he refused to show it. His face remained cold and impassive.
Mikhail stepped out with a chuckle, like anything reflective, even sweat could be considered a mirror. Then his sister followed with a soft giggle. Mila had pale skin, light blue eyes that seemed blurry with warmth, and lustrous blonde hair. She wore a wine-red dress, her features lovely and gentle as she picked Sam up, who was a few years younger than her, with a warm smile. "Don't be so clumsy, Sam."
I'm not... Sam thought with a small nod. I'm using martial arts from my previous life. It's far more efficient and adaptable. And because it's not a known fighting style here, the movements are more unpredictable, which gives me an advantage...
Upon noticing Mikhail and Mila, the hideous instructor lowered his head, his body shaking, eyes closing from dread and respect. "My Prince, my Princess... Apologies for not greeting you properly."
Mikhail glanced at the instructor, his head tilting slightly, eyes gleaming coldly as a pale smile appeared on his lips as he said softly:
"Break."
As the word left his mouth, the instructor stilled, his body turning motionless as his eyes and ears began to bleed, cracks spider-webbing from his pupils as his Island of Consciousness started to rupture, then shattered entirely. Mikhail had projected his voice directly into the man's mind, killing him with a single word.
Sam watched as the instructor's body slowly fell. He felt no particular emotion about it. Neither did the others, death was casual here, something servants managed like any other garbage. The body was picked up and hurled into the crater without any overdramatic loser shit.
Mikhail ruffled Sam's hair with a smile, crouching down to meet his eyes. Both of their eyes were reflectionless pools of darkness that seemed to swallow light. "Sam... What do you think about death?"
Sam tilted his head. Despite knowing this was his second life, his mind was still immature and adrift. His previous life's memories were so faint and blurry they might as well have been illusions, fragments of catastrophe, destruction, and the unfathomable malice of mankind. He had been the child born of endless war. In this life, and in the last.
"I don't know... It just is. It's as natural as birth, I think." He answered with a lost look.
Mikhail laughed, leaning his head gently against Sam's. "Perhaps... But what would you feel if I died? If I got hurt?"
Sam blinked, pursing his lips as he looked away. "I think... I'd be sad."
"And I'm sad when I see you hurt. Whoever hurts you will die for it." Mikhail's expression softened as he lifted Sam, wiping blood from his cheek with his sleeve. "Don't be confused by the instructor's death, the price of hitting you was death. And don't be confused when I protect you. I'm your big brother. It's my job. Okay?"
Sam nodded, a faint smile of joy involuntarily finding a home on his face as Mila kissed his cheek. "Don't be so gloomy, Sam. Let's go now."
She laughed and ran ahead, her laughter melodious and light, like the chirping of a nightingale.
"Where are we going?"
"We'll be sent on a mission soon, so Mila wanted to play with you before we leave."
Mikhail grinned, leaping forward and landing on the castle wall before launching his body toward a small garden, which looked more like a landscape of horrors than anything remotely peaceful and beautiful like garden is supposed to be, carnivorous and wicked flowers filling every corner of it. But they were used to it.
As they arrived, servants bowed and stepped back, giving them space.
That's right, Sam was a Prince, like his brother and sister. But he didn't enjoy the privileges that came with that title, and neither did his siblings. If anything, they faced more scorn because of it. Envy and malice were as natural to devils as breathing.
Playing with his siblings, Sam felt disheartened, reluctance settle over him, knowing it would end soon. That eventually he would be forced back to cleaning demonic horses' shit, training until his body gave out, or simply get beaten up.
Another year passed just like that. Sam's siblings hadn't returned, they were still on the mission. As for Sam, he was in Paimon's library, at least the sections he had access to, studying demonic creatures. Then he pulled out another book, filled with methods for killing Beyonders from the Bard and Warrior pathways, direct counters to devils. After a few hours, he finished studying and returned the books to their shelves.
"Samael... It's time to train." A dignified voice spoke from behind. It was the butler, dressed in a neat suit. His eyes were crimson, his ferocious fangs elegant despite their creepiness, and his nails replaced by claws.
Sam followed him as they walked through the grand halls, swallowed by chilling, slithering shadows as they descended underground. The air was damp and biting as Sam looked around.
"Do you know what this is?" He heard his mother's voice. She was a beautiful woman in a scarlet dress, her pale skin like that of a corpse, her eyes sharing the same blood-red color as her dress, her hair tied in a ponytail. Though she was mutated like the others, her ears were pointed like an elf's, her ribcage bore two extra pairs, her teeth were bestial fangs, and butterfly-like wings adorned her back.
I can't say I do... Sam shook his head, not understanding what was happening. Am I about to get beaten up again? Or clean the stalls? Hmm... I've come to love horses, so I don't mind taking care of them, though.
"It's your new, special training hall." She spoke with a look of disgust, shaking her head. Then an invisible force slammed against Sam's body, blasting him into the darkness, hard enough to make him scream in pain, but not fatal enough to kill him.
Sam tumbled down the stairs, sharp pain piercing his abdomen and back as he crashed onto the stone floor. He gasped, air leaving his lungs as he coughed.
"Survive... or die." That was the only thing he heard from his mother before she closed the gates and left him alone in the tenebrous darkness, filled with beasts.
Sam looked around, swallowing as sweat poured from his forehead. He was afraid. He was nervous, But... He could never give up. Gritting his teeth, he stared into the abyss, and the abyss stared back at him.
In the next moment, a fierce battle erupted.
A few hours later, Sam lay in a pool of blood, bodies of slain abominations surrounding him as he clenched his teeth, one hand pressed to his stomach, his eyes wide, teeth chattering from fear and cold.
Endure it! Endure it! Endure it!
For what... he thought bleakly. There's no point in me being alive, huh?
Sam didn't know how much time passed. At some point, he couldn't tell the difference between day and night. Finally, the dark gates of the underground training hall opened once again, light from torches spilling into the darkness like a waterfall.
And those who gathered bore witness to their biggest mistake.
One who had shed his skin and burned away every weakness. Given birth once again by the incandescent inferno of ambition, leaving behind his truest self, like the reflection of his own beating heart.
He sat atop corpses, eating the flesh of the abominable horrors and humans. His eyes were crazed and intense, starvation driving him to the brink of madness. His body was riddled with small scars. He swallowed a piece of raw meat, wiped his mouth, and spat the fat onto the floor.
He didn't like it.
At first, all he'd had to fight were weak beasts. Then he'd been forced to kill other human children. And now he feasted upon their flesh.
"He's alive..." One of them muttered in disbelief, jaw hanging open in shock.
Sam looked up, his dark eyes bleak and indifferent, and continued eating. He resembled a mindless beast far more than a sentient creature.
A few days later...
Sam stared at his own reflection in the blade, his eyes deep and half-lidded, feeling hollow and lost as he stood near the tree where his siblings' mother had killed herself.
His siblings weren't in the castle, they'd left to gather sealed artifacts, Beyonder Characteristics, and materials. That's why he'd spent who knew how many days in that shithole. If they were here... Mikhail and Mila would never have allowed this.
He sighed softly, his hunched posture relaxed and unmoving as his thoughts drifted toward his siblings once again.
At this moment, it felt like something had simply broken inside him. Something so vital and fundamental that living without it felt wrong in a way he had no words for.
"Are you going to kill yourself like her?" A soft, feminine voice came from behind, filled with childlike wonder.
Looking back, Sam saw a beautiful woman sitting on the rooftop. She had a lovely, round face, her figure well-defined and elegant. Her long, slender legs were crossed, silver hair swaying gently in the air, her cold, icy blue eyes piercing him as she giggled.
Sam stared at the tree, his face expressionless and hollow as he muttered under his breath, voice lazy and unbothered. "Hell no. What would be the point?"
Then he turned around, a malicious smile splitting his face, saturated with madness, his eyes crazed and burning with unimaginable intensity. "Besides... it'd be a shame going out without turning this shithole into a real hell."
Paimon blinked, genuine bewilderment flashing in her eyes before she threw her head back and laughed like a lunatic. "Oh my~ I look forward to that."
Her scarlet lips curled up. Wings made from liquid darkness spread wide as she rested her chin on her palm. "I wonder what you will do now?"
Sam looked down. He was used to darkness and had adapted to it entirely, his gaze could now pierce it with ease, but while he knew light from hellfire and torches, he had never once felt the warmth of the sun. "Hmm... Paimon, don't you wonder how it feels? Basking in the light of the sun?"
Paimon's eyes widened but she quickly composed herself, a thoughtful look crossing her lovely face as she hummed, and then a book materialized in her palm and was hurled toward Sam, who caught it with a frown. "What's this?"
"My research." Paimon replied with a shrug, leaning back. "The libraries don't carry my real work, just cheap copies. These are the basics: ritualistic magic, demonic spells, and potion formulas up to Sequence 7."
"And why would you give it to me?" He furrowed his brow, suspicious of her intentions.
"It's a gift. The basics are all I'll give you, the rest you'll have to develop on your own. I expect great things from you, Samael." She giggled, hiding her smile behind a fan.
Then her eyes gleamed with anticipation. She leaned forward, asking the question she'd held back for some time. "Your brother became the Devil of Ruination, fearsome and great. Your sister, the Devil of Heresy, is equally harrowing and insidious. And I can't help but feel intrigued..." Her cold eyes sharpened with curiosity. "What kind of devil will you become?"
Sam went still, his head down and lost in thought.
Then he looked up. He straightened his hunched posture and stood tall, staring out at the lightless, endless horizon of the Abyss. A power-hungry, deranged smile twisted his face as he glanced back with his usual laid-back manner.
"I've always been...
...
The memory faded away like a dust in the wind.
And as the entirety of his life passed through his mind, Sam couldn't help but feel melancholic.
Then he looked up at Yuri.
His lips involuntarily curled into a serene smile, his expression softening, yet his eyes burned with an ambition and hunger so intense, so ferocious, that they looked like the orbs of blazing golden flames that seemed to consume everything.
"A devil chasing an endless horizon."
[End Of Volume I: Devil Of Endless Horizon]