Chapter 1124: Entertain Me (Magic Castle Bonus)

Chapter 1124 – Entertain Me (Magic Castle Bonus)

The artifact flew into his palm like a guilty employee returning stolen office supplies. Lux closed his fingers around it and shoved it into his dimensional storage before the chamber could recognize the evidence.

He could not leave that behind.

Not a fingerprint. Not a relic. Not a Greed signature Kaelmor could sniff and smile over.

Then the demoness screamed.

No sound at first.

Only force.

Invisible power launched outward from her mouth in a violent ring, slamming through crystal, stone, seal, and silence. The coffin exploded beneath her, black crystal shattering into the air like frozen night. The five siphon crystals around it tore free from the floor one by one, ripping veins of red-gold light out of the marble and spinning across the chamber like giant broken teeth.

The chamber shook.

The door blasted open.

The royal seal cracked down the middle with a sound like a contract being torn by an angry god.

Lux and Cyrinne vanished through the Envy path at the exact moment the first wave hit.

For half a second, Lux saw a glimpse of what happened.

The demoness rising from the destroyed coffin, hair whipping around her, horns glowing with silver cracks, red eyes bright with lazy fury.

The crystals smashing into walls.

The chamber doors flying outward.

The shadows of guards turning.

Cyrinne’s face beside him, half-lit by green fire and disbelief.

Then the palace stretched away.

His consciousness snapped backward through flame, mirrors, darkness...

But the chamber remained behind.

And it was very much awake.

For one slow heartbeat after Lux and Cyrinne vanished, the demoness remained still amid the shattered coffin, red eyes fixed on the exact spot where their spirit-forms had been.

She knew.

The little Greed prince and his Envy accomplice had already snapped back to their real bodies, leaving only fading traces behind, dark-gold hunger, green-black trickery, and the lingering warmth of a kiss that had touched her through spirit rather than flesh.

Her lips curved. "Better," she murmured.

A shard of crystal floated past her cheek. She ignored it.

"Next time, give me something nicer than that kiss, Little Greed."

Her tongue brushed slowly over her lower lip, amused and faintly offended.

"That one was a bit boring."

A pause.

Then her smile deepened.

"But I suppose I cannot complain. I only kissed your spirit. Hardly enough to judge properly."

The chamber groaned around her, broken seals sparking at her feet.

She lifted her gaze toward the doorway.

The first guards arrived almost immediately.

The scream had not summoned them.

It had punched them in the soul and dragged them by the throat.

Armor clattered outside. Boots struck stone. Royal guards flooded the corridor, blades raised, alarm charms burning in their hands. Their clean formation lasted exactly two seconds before they saw the chamber.

The coffin was gone.

The crystals lay shattered or spinning, still vomiting unstable power into the air.

The royal seal on the door hung broken, sizzling.

And in the center of it all stood the demoness.

She had not bothered to cover herself properly beyond the shadow-silk still clinging to her body like smoke that loved her. Ancient markings glowed along her arms, collarbone, and thighs, pulsing in time with a heart that had apparently decided centuries of imprisonment counted as an inconvenience rather than trauma. Her long black hair floated around her, not falling, not obeying gravity, each strand edged with red light.

She looked beautiful.

Beautiful like a knife pulled from a king’s spine.

A guard stopped at the broken threshold.

His voice cracked despite training. "That thing is awake."

Another shouted, "Send a messenger to the king!"

The demoness turned her head slowly.

Her gaze settled on the first guard.

Starless red eyes narrowed.

"Thing?"

The word left her mouth softly.

Too softly.

The guards froze.

The chamber seemed to inhale around her.

She tilted her head, expression lazy, almost amused.

"You called me ’thing’?"

The guard took one step back.

Smart.

Too late, but smart.

The demoness looked around at the broken coffin, the shattered siphons, the royal seals, the guards carrying Kaelmor’s hidden marks. Memory settled over her face. Not confusion. Recognition. Rage waking beneath silk.

Then she smiled.

Oh, that smile.

Lux would have loved it.

From a financially safe distance.

Her fingers flexed once.

Ancient power curled around her like invisible claws.

"Right," she murmured. "I need a bit of exercise after I sleep."

The messenger guard turned to run.

The demoness lifted one hand.

The air folded.

The fleeing guard slammed sideways into the wall without anything touching him, armor crumpling with a metallic scream. The others surged forward, because training was powerful and survival instinct apparently had a delayed start.

She laughed.

Soft.

Low.

Almost sensual.

Then she moved.

Like a nightmare finally allowed to stretch.

The first blade came for her throat. She leaned aside by a finger’s width, caught the guard’s wrist, and whispered something into his helmet. His armor collapsed inward as if the space inside it had suddenly become too small for a body.

The second guard swung.

She stepped into him, palm against his chest, and sent him flying back through the broken door hard enough to take two others down.

The chamber erupted.

Guards shouted.

Alarm charms flared.

A horn blared somewhere outside.

Loud. ℯℯ𝘭.

Messy.

Uncontrolled.

Exactly what Kaelmor would hate.

The demoness stood amid the chaos, smiling brighter with every second.

"Come on," she purred. "I have been asleep for centuries."

Her eyes gleamed.

"Entertain me properly."

And beneath the ruined palace, while Kaelmor’s hidden guards scrambled, screamed, and tried desperately to turn a containment failure into a report that did not get them executed, the legendary demoness took her first step out of the broken coffin.

Free.

Angry.

Hungry.

And, thanks to one very reckless Greed prince, already owed a private meeting.

The first wave of reinforcement came in with the kind of confidence only trained men could have when their employer had not properly disclosed the risk category.

They saw a woman. Only a woman, not an ancient being.

That was their first mistake.