Chapter 590: Heart To Heart Talk With Elsa[2]

Elsa didn’t know what to feel at that moment. Was it pity that her husband to be was dying, or shock that he had managed to kill Lazarus despite being in such a condition?

"How... How did you kill Lazarus like this?" she muttered, her gaze fixed on his face.

Damian smiled sheepishly and leaned his face against his balled fist, staring ahead with a thoughtful gleam in his eyes. He seemed almost amused by her curiosity.

"It’s a secret only my very close allies in Velmora know and they have all sworn to take it to the grave. Can you take that same path?" Damian asked casually.

Elsa’s gaze suddenly turned suspicious. She straightened in her seat, her previous concern giving way to caution as she studied him.

"We already had a public agreement to get married is it necessary to go this far just did a little secret?" she asked.

Although she understood that rulers had to protect their secrets, Damian’s request seemed excessive, especially considering that they were about to become husband and wife. She had expected him to trust her eventually, not demand another binding agreement before explaining himself.

Damian chuckled and shook his head. "My dear, a secret that helped me kill Duke Haborym, Duke Dantalion and Lazarus, all while still being considerably weaker than them is not small. It’s tied to my ambition so I protect it deadly," he said casually.

He waved his hand, and a scroll appeared before him. It unfurled in midair, revealing a series of terms and conditions written in intricate golden characters.

Damian pressed his palm lightly against its surface, and the document rolled forward before settling into Elsa’s hands. She began reading, initially with mild curiosity, but her expression gradually changed as she reached the more severe clauses.

"My tongue will be ripped in two and my heart will burst the moment I try to divulge it?" Elsa blurted out in shock. She raised her eyes from the scroll, her face filled with disbelief. "Don’t you think this is a little extreme?"

Damian shrugged indifferently. "If you will never divulge the secret, then signing the Faustian Bargain should be no problem for you."

Elsa stared at him for a moment with a deep frown. She wanted to argue that trust between spouses should not require such measures, but the expression on Damian’s face told her that this was one matter on which he would not compromise.

" It better be worth it," she said before pressing herself against the edge of the document, allowing fresh blood to splatter across its surface.

Brrr!

The scroll trembled violently as golden characters spread across the parchment, swallowing the blood into their intricate patterns. A burst of supernatural energy passed through the room, and the document caught fire, burning away into nothing within mere seconds.

Elsa raised her gaze toward Damian, preparing to ask what came next, but the words died on her lips. Darkness had covered the entire room. It spread across the walls, ceiling and floor, swallowing the golden furnishings and cutting off every trace of the palace beyond. Even the sunlight that had poured through the enormous window had vanished. ..he room no longer felt like a chamber within Gildreach Palace. It felt like a small space suspended in an endless void, isolated from everything that existed beyond it.

"It’s a domain skill from my Abyssal inheritance called Realm Zero. But this is the partial form of the domain though," Damian said casually, as if he had merely drawn the curtains.

Buzz!

Elsa sucked in a cold breath as her body shivered. She could feel the darkness pressing against her senses, but it was unlike any demonic power she had encountered before.

The darkness seemed to exist beyond the rules she understood, and the longer she tried to examine it, the more her instincts warned her to stop.

"W... what do you mean the abyssal inheritance?" she asked, struggling to organize her thoughts.

She could see its presence clearly, yet her mind refused to make sense of it.

"Lin Qui sacrificed himself to kill Majin and gain this inheritance for me in hopes I will defeat Sol," Damian said.

Buzz!

Elsa stood up abruptly, her face twisting with fear upon hearing that name. Sol was not simply another Prince. He was a Demon Emperor, a being whose power and authority stood above most of the Underworld’s inhabitans.. Even among the seven Sin Princes, his existence carried a weight that none dared challenge openly. To hear that Lin Qui had sacrificed himself to obtain an inheritance specifically intended to help Damian defeat Sol was enough to leave her shaken.

"Relax, with Realm Zero cutting us off from the universe. You can call God’s by their names and nothing will happen," Damian shrugged.

Elsa wanted to nod and sit down, but she was too dazed to move naturally. Her mind was struggling to process the revelations she had received in such a short time.

"I ... I don’t know what to say..." Elsa managed to mutter.

Damian rose to his feet and walked toward her. He reached out, placed a hand on her shoulder and gently guided her back into the seat. His touch was surprisingly careful for someone who had just demonstrated such terrifying power.

"Relax... You don’t have to understand everything all at once. All you need to know is my ultimate goal so that you don’t get in my way," Damian said with a small smile.

The words were delivered gently, but Elsa could feel the threat beneath them. Damian was not asking for her approval, nor was he inviting her to help him decide what to do. He was informing her of the direction he intended to take and making certain that she understood where she stood in relation to it.

Elsa slowly nodded, accepting that much, and only then did he release her shoulder and return to his seat.

Damian pulled out his cigar box, selected one stick and lit it. He took a deep drag before releasing a stream of purple smoke through his nose, watching it curl into the darkness before gradually dissolving. His expression became more serious as he settled into the sofa, the playful mood from their earlier conversation disappearing.

"I will accomplish Lin Qui’s goal of acquiring this fruit which is to kill Sol and saving the demon realm from extinction. However I will take it a bit further.." Damian said.

Elsa’s eyes shifted toward him. Despite her lingering shock, her intelligence was beginning to catch up with the implications of what he had told her.

"You plan to gather all the seven sins?" she asked.

Damian blinked with surprise. He hadn’t expected her to reach that conclusion so quickly. Almost everyone he had told about his ambition to gather all seven Sin inheritances had reacted with disbelief, confusion or outright alarm. Elsa, however, had arrived at the answer with a single question.

"You can see that far?" he asked.

Elsa nodded immediately. "If I were the one with the abyssal Inheritance the bus early into my life, I would do that as well. If not I just consider it a waste of opportunity."

Buzz!

A crimson eye opened on the ground, its enormous pupil spreading across the darkened floor until it seemed to occupy the entire room. Elsa startled so violently that she raised both legs and drew them onto the sofa, staring at the eye with genuine shock.

The presence emanating from it was even more disturbing than the darkness surrounding them. It felt as though something immense had turned its attention toward her, examining her from a distance that had nothing to do with physical space.

"This woman... I approve of," Abyss said, its voice reverberating through the room and making the darkness tremble.

Elsa could only stare at the crimson eye, her lips parting as she struggled to find a response.

"This is..." she mumbled.

Damian rolled his eyes. He had no intention of allowing Abyss to turn the conversation into another spectacle, especially when Elsa was already struggling to process everything he had revealed. He ignored the enormous eye and continued speaking as though its interruption had never happened.

"I plan to take it a bit further than that..." Damian said.

Elsa reluctantly returned her attention to him, though her gaze occasionally flickered toward the crimson eye beneath her.

"Further?" she muttered in shock.

Damian nodded firmly. The purple smoke from his cigar drifted around his head as his expression settled into one of absolute conviction.

"I plan to reach for the heavens as well and make their powers mine, becoming the sole God!"