Chapter 29: The Green Devil and the Devil Himself
The forest blurred around us, a streak of motion as I bounded from tree to tree—my robe catching the wind, hair flaring behind me like a black banner of war.
Leaves parted like curtains. Roots bent to let me pass. The beasts nearby had learned by now—there were predators, and then there was me.
And yet, despite the silence, my mind was anything but calm.
My thoughts wandered—unraveling into deeper currents.
The Raksha Forest.
The void bloodline… it's awakened further within me.
I could feel it pulsing under my skin, tugging at the corners of my soul like a locked door whispering secrets through the cracks.
So why hasn't Grem opened the gate to the Void Realm yet?
I could force it open.
I had control.
But that slippery green bastard… Grem—he understood the laws of the void better than any living thing. Even I couldn't predict what unweaving them without his cooperation might cost.
"Vivi," I spoke into the hollow of my soul.
"Yes, Master?" she replied, ever sweet, ever sharp.
"Have you captured that green creature as I instructed?"
A pause.
"I have him in my grasp," she replied, voice dipped in venom. "Shall I kill him? Slowly?"
I blinked.
Then chuckled.
"Ha… Grem, what did you do to provoke such a gentle tree?" I mused aloud. "Even vines hate you."
A moment passed.
Then, casually, I commanded, "Tell him this: if the Void Realm isn't open in the next second, I will personally feed him to the Gauntlet."
Suddenly, a shrill, desperate voice shrieked in my mind like a dying flute.
"MY LORD, DON'T KILL ME!!"
My eye twitched.
He can speak directly into my mind?!
A vein popped on my forehead.
"Bastard… you could do that all along?!"
He wailed again, voice strangled and squelching like someone being slowly crushed.
"Vivi's vines! This tree—she's not gentle! She's a sadist! What kind of devil flora did you plant in here?!"
I pinched the bridge of my nose, exasperated.
"Grem," I growled, "if the void gate isn't open in the next second, prepare your own eulogy."
WOOOOOMM.
The void split reality open midair—silently, elegantly.
"Tch. Shameless green devil," I muttered, shaking my head.
But deep inside, I smiled.
This life is going to be fun.
I had developed… a certain fondness for the bastard.
Meanwhile, Vera still lay quietly in my arms.
Or at least, she tried to appear quiet.
But her mind?
Not. Quiet. At. All.
She peeked at my face as we moved.
Stone.
Unfeeling.
Regal.
Power crackled beneath my skin like a storm chained behind glass.
"This guy… he's like a walking catastrophe wrapped in a prince's bones", she thought, heart hammering.
Her cheeks flushed.
"Why the hell does he have this devilish charm? His face is emotionless like ice, but somehow… somehow it makes it worse."
She glanced at my jawline.
Blushed harder.
"Which woman wouldn't fall for that face?!
FOCUS, VERA."
She mentally slapped herself.
"Get it together! He's a devil! A real devil! He flings people into death matches like it's breakfast!"
Just then—
CRACK—WUUUUHHM.
The void split the world open ahead of us like a flower blooming in reverse.
A yawning gate of darkness.
Swirling black.
Soundless.
Merciless.
"EHHHH?! W-WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!" Vera screamed internally as her eyes went wide.
But it was too late.
We were already passing through.
The air warped around us. Sound vanished. Space twisted like wet cloth being wrung out by godly hands.
And in one blink—
We were gone.
From the moment I stepped into the Void Space, the world changed.
It wasn't a place.
It was a memory.
A memory of a fallen era—a remnant of time devoured by silence and shadow. Before me, a solitary castle floated in the void, anchored on a jagged island of blackened stone. No sun. No stars. Just the endless expanse of dark—stretching forever in all directions, broken only by whispers that didn't come from mouths.
The wind here didn't howl. It remembered.
And it remembered me.
The very void bent gently toward my presence, as if in reverence. A pull not of gravity, but of worship. Void energy swirled around my feet like ancestral spirits, licking up my legs, soaking into my bones.
"Ahhh…" I exhaled in bliss, voice trailing into laughter. "This energy—it's looking for places where Æth doesn't flow. It's choosing me as its new home…"
I moved my head back .
"My marrow, a throne. My nerves, new veins."
I grinned, eyes flickering with ancient fire.
"Could this be… what the old bastard meant by primordial bones?"
Behind me, I dropped Vera lightly to her feet.
She stumbled once, then steadied—but her breath hitched.
Her wide eyes soaked in the scene before her—this strange, suspended kingdom lost in an infinite void. Her heart pounded. Her mind tried to make sense of it.
But there was no sense here.
Only awe.
"Where… where are we?!" she thought, mouth open but wordless. "This place… it's beautiful. But terrifying…"
Questions filled her—overwhelming, crashing—but she stayed silent.
She didn't know why.
She just couldn't speak.
"Don't look so surprised, Vera," I said, turning back and grabbing her hand.
She staggered forward, still dazed.
"Welcome to my Void Space."
Her hair lifted in the eternal wind, golden strands dancing as time itself seemed to slow. Every breath, every heartbeat, felt magnified—like the void wanted to hear her live.
Her thoughts raced, spinning into a whisper.
"Since the moment I met him… he's done nothing but shatter every truth I knew.
What… what else is he hiding?"
As we approached the hovering castle, the wind shifted—carrying a familiar sound.
Squabbling.
Of course.
To the right, just before the grand obsidian gate, a tall willow-like tree stood with flowing leaves like silk strands of emerald.
And hanging by the ankle from one of its uppermost branches—
A green creature kicked and flailed, his long ears twitching, his grotesque tongue flapping like a worm in distress.
"LET ME GO, YOU OVERGROWN VINE DEMON!" Grem screeched, spinning slowly in place. "When you wither, WHO will water you, huh?! WHO?!"
The branch jostled him harder.
"Unworthy rodent!" Vivi snapped, voice thick with disdain. "You treat this gracious being as meat—tch! Even your master would not dare such indecency!"
"I'm helping your master, you glorified twig! Let me DOWN!"
A vein popped on my forehead.
Vera blinked. "What… in all the heavens… am I watching?" she muttered aloud, finally regaining speech.
I sighed, stepping forward with the weariness of a parent breaking up two immortal toddlers.
"Vivi," I said flatly, "let him go."
"Yes! Let me—AAAHHHH—!"
Before he could finish, the branch released him.
Grem plummeted like a fat green comet and slammed face-first into the ground with a wet thud. For a moment, he didn't move.
Then he popped up, wobbling, ears flailing.
"I CURSE YOU, YOU BARKED-TOOTHED TREE DEMON!"
Vivi's branch drew back, ready to skewer him through the spleen.
"Master," Grem yelped, skittering behind me, pressing his lumpy body against my leg like a terrified rabbit. "Please—just once—let me prune this damn tree!"
"Vivi," I said, massaging my temple.
She huffed through the wind but retracted her branch with regal grace.
Grem peeked out from behind me, glaring.
"Just one snip," he mumbled. "One snip…"
I turned and slammed a fist into his skull.
Thwack.
He wobbled—ears flapping wildly—but, as always, not even a dent.
"GAHHH!" he screamed, clutching his head. "Evil master !"
I sighed again.
meanwhile, Vera stood back—eyes wide, caught between horrified amazement and the growing realization that this was her new life.
She left behind pain, suffering, the wolf…
And now she live among trees that fight and a goblin that doesn't die.
She glanced at me again.
I wasn't looking at her.
But she felt it anyway.
That pull.
That gravitational force of a man who made realms open and memories kneel.