The sky darkened, dusk settling in.
Seeing that Liyakade and her companions had fully recovered both body and magic, Darkness couldn’t stop cursing them internally.
Liyakade had been badly injured, yet she could recover quickly thanks to her bloodline.
And what about herself? Her physical body hadn’t even finished healing.
Darkness needed to eat other people’s shadows to restore her body quickly.
Eating the shadows of animals or monsters gave her very little power.
But during this period, the patrol and inspection within the Royal City had grown much stricter, leaving Darkness no chance to consume anyone’s shadow.
Once she ate someone’s shadow, their soul would vanish, but Darkness could also transform into that person’s shadow, taking on their appearance and projecting her own shadow into reality.
Right now, going against Liyakade and her group was undoubtedly a mistake.
Darkness ultimately decided to endure and wait until her wounds healed—when Liyakade and her companions let down their guard, she would strike a fatal blow.
Besides, they were going on vacation tomorrow.
Darkness didn’t believe Liyakade and the others would remain alert every day during their break.
She could hide within the shadows—they had no way to find her.
She was the one with the advantage.
She believed that one day, Liyakade and her group would let down the tension in their minds.
“Good evening, Director.”
“Mm, hello.”
Responding to the other students, Darkness slowly moved through the crowd toward the Academy’s Underground Chamber.
She descended the stairs to the Dungeon and walked deeper inside, until she reached the end—a rusted iron door marked with a black Seal Formation.
Reaching out with an aged, wrinkled hand, she touched the Formation, which glimmered faintly.
Then, Darkness gently pushed the door open and stepped inside the chamber.
Behind the iron door, the chamber was a world apart.
Unlike the rusted exterior, there wasn’t the slightest hint of decay inside.
Everything here was black.
Yet despite the darkness, one could see everything clearly.
Black Ebony Furniture was arranged throughout the room.
Black Luminous Black Plants hung from the walls, their leaves glowing with a faint, dark luminescence, making Darkness feel strangely comfortable.
Two or three pitch-black kittens leaped over.
Darkness crouched, stroking their heads.
This chamber was intentionally arranged by Darkness herself.
Lurking in the Human World was unbearably dull.
Here, she had no friends or family, nothing she knew.
So she decorated the room like a Demon City-State, hoping to feel a trace of home.
Ten years ago, guided by Prophecy, she came alone to the Kingdom, infiltrating the Royal City.
Back then, the security wasn’t as tight as it was now.
In order to find the emerging Light Element Magic User and help destroy the Kingdom after the Demon King’s revival, Darkness chose to hide within the Academy of the Royal City.
If a Light Element Magic User appeared within the Kingdom, once the upper echelons learned of it, they would certainly send them to the Royal Magic Academy to be taught.
Thus, Darkness devoured the shadow of the Grade Director and survived all these years as that person within the Academy.
At the same time, she searched within the Royal City for the poor and homeless with latent magic talent—those whose deaths would go unnoticed.
She used their souls and flesh as offerings for the Minotauros.
Of course, not only in the Royal City.
Darkness sometimes visited surrounding towns as well.
And sometimes, she went to the Dungeon and targeted Adventurers.
In the Dungeon, Adventurers being killed by monsters was nothing unusual.
Darkness didn’t even need to disguise herself.
As long as she left no survivors, her identity wouldn’t be exposed.
By collecting small offerings from various sources, she avoided attracting attention, yet accumulated considerable numbers.
But as the number of disappearances in the Royal City increased, the Kingdom could no longer ignore it.
Although the nobility already traded slaves and trampled on the poor, the rising number of missing people still put the Kingdom on alert.
Perhaps due to the impending Prophecy, the Kingdom’s guards steadily increased, reaching their peak recently.
This past year, Darkness no longer dared to seek out sacrifices.
However, the souls offered to the Minotauros over the past ten years had already greatly accelerated its revival.
Five years… no, four.
Darkness believed the Minotauros would definitely revive within four years, leading the Demon Race’s resurgence.
A thousand years ago, during the wars between the Demon Race and other races, the demons held the advantage.
Humans and other Fantasy Races alike were suppressed.
However, just as the Demon Race was poised to unify the continent and become its masters, the Heaven Realm intervened.
They selected humanity and granted them the Light Element.
The Church was created to serve the Heaven Realm and receive its power.
Through this, humans converted their own elements into Light, countering much of the Demon Race.
Furthermore, beings with pure Light Element, angelic in nature, were born among humans, and the other races sounded the call for counterattack.
Thus, the Demon King of a thousand years ago fell, their conquered lands reclaimed, their strongest killed, and even the young but promising demons sealed away, cast into slumber.
Afterward, the races splintered further.
Korim was one of those who were sealed, though she awakened relatively early.
They fought among themselves in their tiny Magic Domain, in wretched strife.
And humans? They established dominance across the continent.
Apart from the Kingdom of Calderra, there were other human nations nearby.
The Kingdom of Calderra was among the strongest in the region and one of the closest to the Magic Domain.
Once the Minotauros revived, the Kingdom of Calderra would be the first to fall.
The Light Element Magic User also emerged here.
Darkness did not believe this was a coincidence, convinced the Heaven Realm’s intervention aimed to crush the Demon Race’s revival from the cradle.
Therefore, when Darkness saw Liyakade helping humans, she was filled with rage.
Their goal was to take revenge on humans and other Fantasy Races, to storm the Heaven Realm, and drag the Angels and Gods from their thrones.
And Liyakade?
As a Demon of a higher, purer bloodline than her own, she was mingling with humans and even involved with weapons created by the Heaven Realm to combat demons—laughing and acting affectionately.
The sight disgusted Darkness.
She was determined to kill Alice and, just as fiercely, to destroy Liyakade, the traitor of the Demon Race.
On the Black Ebony table, parchment was spread out, covered with records of magic research, guard positions, information on students and civilians—various details.
At the center of the chamber stood a round, silver altar.
This wasn’t a Minotauros Ritual Altar for blood sacrifice.
Blood rites had to be performed in the Magic Domain, before the Minotauros’s seal.
However… there was a way Darkness could perform the ritual here—using this silver altar.
A dark blue Crystal Ball shone with eerie light.
Darkness poured black magic into it, as if calling someone.
“Lumina, come out.”
No response came from the other side of the Crystal Ball.
Darkness frowned.
From the sensation of the magic, the connection to the Magic Domain should have been established—so why wasn’t there an answer?
“…Lumina? Where are you?”
“I’m coming, I’m coming…”
Suddenly, a large face appeared in the Crystal Ball.
She wiped sparkling drool from her lips, and a soft, lazy voice sounded from within.
“Ugh… I’m so sleepy. Darkness, you’re here again?”
“…Why are you so close?”
Darkness frowned at the face inside the Crystal Ball.
“Maybe because I fell asleep next to the Crystal Ball just now.”
As she spoke, Lumina yawned and moved away from the sphere.
Through the Crystal Ball, Darkness realized her own perspective was slanted.
“Can’t you put the Crystal Ball properly on a table or somewhere? Why throw it on the floor!?”
“…I forgot. Don’t be so fierce.”
Lumina adjusted the Crystal Ball, and a tall figure appeared in the sphere.
She had silver-gray shoulder-length hair, delicate features, wore a black-and-white knit dress, and a pointed wide-brimmed hat.
She was a natural-born witch, possessing mysterious power and Space Magic that wasn’t affected by the Light Element.
Witches also belonged to the Demon Race.
Their appearance was identical to humans, but they were born with great magic.
Though their potential for speed and strength wasn’t as high as humans, they enjoyed endless lifespans.
And Lumina?
She was a witch who had existed for a thousand years, the leader of the Demon Race’s Four Heavenly Kings, with a level as high as LV.80.
In front of her, Darkness was powerless.
“I need to transmit this batch of offerings now. Activate the altar quickly.”
“Ah, more offerings? Come to think of it, you haven’t sent any in a while. I thought you’d given up.”
“Give up!? Impossible! Until Calderra is destroyed and I avenge myself on humanity, I’ll never rest! Have you forgotten our humiliation?”
Darkness glared at Lumina, rage boiling at her indifferent words.
She roared through the Crystal Ball.
“…You’re all like this.”
“Hehe, with your strength, why don’t you work harder for the Demon Race’s revival? Why do you just lie around in the Magic Domain? Why? With your help, the Minotauros would revive even faster!”
Darkness accused Lumina, frustrated that the leader of the Four Heavenly Kings was so unmotivated.
With her LV.80 strength and Space Magic, Lumina could dominate the continent.
Even if the Heaven Realm sent Angels, she could fight.
But Lumina refused to leave the Demon King Castle.
“But I already helped.”
Lumina scratched her messy silver hair, looking aggrieved.
“I even built you a Space Altar. Isn’t that enough?”
Indeed, the silver altar in the chamber was not for Minotauros’s blood sacrifice.
It was a Space Altar constructed by Lumina for transmitting offerings.
Of course, Lumina hadn’t left the Magic Domain.
She directed Darkness in building the altar’s structure here and spent months from the Magic Domain using spatial power to lock onto the altar’s coordinates and activate it.
This method didn’t require Lumina to come in person, but the altar was unstable, usable only once every six months.
This was the source of Darkness’s deep dissatisfaction with Lumina.
As a witch with Space Magic, Lumina could stroll into the Royal City openly, indistinguishable from humans in appearance and aura—apart from being immortal.
She could have built a more perfect altar herself, but she insisted on staying in the Magic Domain, remotely assembling an unstable one.
“Besides, once you send the offerings, I have to go feed the Minotauros myself. That’s already a lot of work. I just don’t want to leave the Magic Domain.”
In Liyakade’s memory, Lumina was fanatically loyal to the Demon King—defending the Demon King Castle to the end.
Even when Alice and the others tore through the Magic Domain and slaughtered the other two Demon Kings, Lumina remained at the Demon King Castle, never stepping outside.
But in truth… Lumina was neither loyal nor steadfast—she was just a shut-in witch.
She happened to live in the Demon King Castle, before the Demon King’s Throne.
To meet the Demon King, one had to get past her.
So she had no choice but to stay put.
“Enough!”
Darkness no longer wished to listen to Lumina’s excuses.
To her, Lumina was a degenerate, a lazy witch without ideals.
Even though she was the leader of the Four Heavenly Kings, Lumina wasn’t angered by Darkness’s insults.
She showed no dignity or pride of a strong being, which only deepened Darkness’s disappointment.
“Let’s start. I don’t want to see you any longer!”
“Alright, alright.”
Darkness’s shadow stretched, and blood dripped from it onto the silver altar, slowly pooling into a circular vortex.
The souls of Eric and Irina Zi were crushed and poured into it by Darkness.
On the other side of the Crystal Ball, Lumina picked up a wooden staff lying on the floor and began chanting softly.
Within the blood-colored vortex, a silvery hue gradually emerged.
Under its pull, the red vortex faded, finally disappearing entirely from the altar.
“Got it, got it. I’ll go feed the Minotauros now.”
“Get lost!”
Darkness cut off the connection, glaring at Lumina’s nonchalant demeanor.
Rage surged within her.
With such power, she had no sense of honor or shame.
So what if she was her superior?
So what if she was stronger?
Even if she cursed and told Lumina to get lost, the next time she contacted her with the Crystal Ball, Lumina would still act as if nothing had happened.
That attitude only made Darkness more furious.
“Damn it! Why—why can’t you care even a little?! Are you really willing to accept the history of our humiliation!?”