Chapter 211: Second Possible Destiny

The darkness slowly receded, and a cacophony of screams and clashing metal flooded Elias’s ears, jolting him out of his confusion as he found himself standing in the middle of a burning city.

Flames consumed the buildings around him, casting an ominous glow over the streets while smoke billowed into the sky. People screamed in terror as they fled through the narrow roads, and the relentless clash of weapons echoed between the buildings, mingling with the cries of those who could no longer escape.

Then, a familiar and strangely nostalgic narration echoed inside his head.

[In a forgotten time-space, the Child of Divine fell, and the demons rose once again.]

"No... no... w-why?" a girl cried, clutching the body of a woman dressed in a white dalmatic embroidered with the golden sun, the mark of priesthood in the Sun Church.

Elias’s eyes widened as he recognized the girl and the woman.

This was Natasha’s past, the day her foster mother sacrificed herself to save her, but it appeared that, in this time-space, she had failed to do so.

"What is the point of crying now?" a man asked from behind her in a deep voice.

Elias turned toward him, his eyes sharpening as he recognized the black-clad assassin from the Night Shade. However, he remained where he stood, knowing that this was a simulation and that he could do nothing to change it.

The assassin crouched beside Natasha and studied her tear-streaked face before muttering, "If you had come with us instead of uselessly running away, she would not have died."

Natasha’s body trembled as she clutched the lifeless woman more tightly, but the assassin continued without showing the slightest trace of sympathy.

"If you had wanted her to live, you would have discussed things with us the instant I asked you to, but you did not because you... you are far too selfish."

Natasha’s tears gradually stopped, and her expression darkened as her unfocused eyes stared ahead. His words wormed their way into her mind, twisting her grief into something far more sinister as she struggled to comprehend what he was saying.

"Is it not strange?" the man mumbled, tilting his head as he examined her. "You cry for the very people who took everything from you..."

Natasha didn’t react, nor did she answer him, because she could no longer understand what she was supposed to feel. Her parents were dead, the woman who had raised her had disappeared before her eyes, and now even the city she had called home was burning around her.

"Stand up," the assassin ordered.

Having lost any sense of what she should do, Natasha slowly released the body she had been holding and rose to her feet, following him as he began walking deeper into the city.

The streets were littered with corpses, with men and women lying beside the bodies of children and the elderly, yet the assassin walked past them without even glancing down. He showed no guilt or hesitation, as though the lives scattered across the bloodstained streets meant nothing to him.

For Natasha, however, every corpse seemed to tear another piece from her already shattered mind, and her steps grew increasingly unsteady as she followed the man through the devastation.

"You know, we humans have the capability to become anything... even demons," the assassin remarked casually. "Grief, anger, and hatred can turn our hearts demonic, and that is what we pursue. What you are pursuing now, whether you realize it or not."

They eventually reached the center of the city, where the destruction was even worse, and countless bodies lay scattered across the square.

Natasha’s face, already drained of color, turned even paler as she stared at the sight before her, and a trembling question escaped her lips.

"W-Why?"

The assassin turned toward her, and without the slightest hesitation, he answered as cruelly as he had slaughtered the people around them.

"Do you even have to ask? All of this happened because you chose to run away instead of fulfilling your destiny as the true ruler of this world."

The words struck Natasha like a blade, and everything she had been struggling to suppress erupted at once.

Grief, guilt, anger, hatred, hopelessness, helplessness, and fear surged through her until she could no longer distinguish one emotion from another. Her legs gave way beneath her, and she collapsed onto the ground, screaming and sobbing as incoherent words spilled from her trembling lips.

Elias watched her helplessly, his expression growing increasingly dreadful.

He wanted to reach her, to pull her away from the assassin and tell her that none of this was her fault, but his body remained frozen as the scene continued unfolding before him.

Then, one of the several assassins concealed within the surrounding shadows stepped forward, carrying a strange dagger made of dark metal.

The black-clad man took the weapon from him and forced it into Natasha’s trembling hands before leaning closer to whisper into her ear.

"Look before you. That man is one of the many who have hurt you... and now, in your hand, is the key to paying him back."

The assassin who had carried the dagger then knelt before Natasha, exposing his neck as though he were offering her an opportunity to take revenge.

For a while, Natasha stared at him without moving, her vacant eyes reflecting nothing but the devastation surrounding her. Then, slowly, her gaze shifted toward the dark dagger in her hands, and her trembling fingers tightened around its hilt.

For a moment, everything fell silent.

Then Natasha stumbled to her feet and stepped toward the kneeling man, her hands trembling as she glared at him with hateful eyes before driving the dagger into his body.

The blade pierced his flesh as though it were nothing more than paper, but before Elias could make sense of what he was witnessing, something strange happened.

Ominous purple smoke emerged from the dagger’s tip and crawled along its dark blade, gradually reaching Natasha’s fingers before flowing into her body.

The moment the smoke entered her, Natasha’s golden eyes widened, and she screamed at the top of her lungs as an unbearable sensation of burning erupted throughout her body.

She collapsed onto the ground and thrashed violently, clawing at herself as though she could tear away whatever had entered her. However, the agony only intensified, and a silver light began burning beneath her skin, spreading across her body until grotesque burn marks appeared on her arms, neck, and face.

"Ahhhhhhh!"

Her screams echoed throughout the square as the silver light continued devouring her from within, and Elias stood frozen, his hands trembling as he watched the girl suffer.

Gradually, Natasha’s screams weakened, not because the agony had subsided, but because she was losing the ability to produce any sound at all. Her mouth continued opening as she struggled to scream, yet nothing came out, leaving only the sight of her trembling body to reveal the torment she endured.

The black-clad man stepped closer and firmly tightened his grip around the dagger, preventing her from letting go.

Then he turned toward the other assassins and snapped, "What the fuck are you all standing there for?"

One by one, the remaining assassins stepped forward, and the man forced Natasha to stab them with the dark dagger, making her take their lives and consume the Demonic Energy within their bodies.

Each time the dagger pierced another assassin, the ominous energy flowed into Natasha, and each time she absorbed it, her body underwent another painful transformation.

Elias watched the entire scene with an expression of absolute horror, his hands trembling so violently that he could barely keep them still. He had suspected that the Sun Church’s ritual might have been sabotaged, but now he was sure of it.

They hadn’t merely crippled her. They had deliberately tried to turn her into a monster.

Once the last assassin had fallen, Natasha’s transformation finally came to an end, leaving her appearance drastically different.

Her hair had turned deep purple, her golden eyes had become blood-red, her skin was now unnaturally pale, and a small horn formed entirely from purple energy protruded from the left side of her forehead.

[Image]

She had been forcibly awakened and transformed into a demon.

The black-clad man stepped back to admire the result, but before he could speak, Natasha slowly raised her head and fixed her blood-red eyes upon him.

"I will kill you!" she screamed, her voice tearing through the silence.

Elias’s eyes widened as he stared at her in disbelief.

’S-She spoke...’