Chapter 135 - Chapter 132: Episode 130 - Succession
Yena rushed to the house of that thuggish succubus, hoping to find Seon-ah. What she found left her frozen in shock and terror.
Inside, Sophia was sprawled on the sofa, muttering to herself.
Something was wrong with her mother.
One eye was bloodshot red, veins bulging on her neck and forehead. She trembled violently, like she was having a seizure.
But despite all that, her eyes fixed on Yena with a desperate hunger.
There was something pathetic about the way she craved... something.
It was obvious at a glance that something was deeply wrong with Sophia.
Yena couldn't make sense of what she was seeing. Whether curiosity or fear drove her, she finally asked.
"What... what happened?"
She needed Sophia's power to save her father. With her advanced magic control, tracking Seon-ah's magical signature would be simple.
But the woman in front of her seemed to be losing her mind.
"Soon... not much time... My mind is being eaten away..."
Her words trailed off, fragmented, as she spoke with a trembling voice.
"Not much time? Your mind being consumed?"
Yena felt a cold dread at the sight of Sophia's instability.
It felt like Sophia might vanish at any moment.
"How do we stop it? What do I have to do?"
Yena's urgency was obvious; she'd already dropped all formal speech.
Sophia staggered closer to Yena.
"A vessel... for my soul... I need you... Please... No... don't..."
Yena was stunned.
Last time they spoke, Sophia had refused Yena's offer of her body, saying she'd given up on succession. Now she was asking for a vessel again.
But then she'd shake her head and mutter "no" over and over, as if fighting herself.
Yena panicked. She couldn't do this without Sophia.
She had no idea what had happened to her father. She needed Sophia's help.
"Then... if you just need a body... take mine. Find appa. Please, I'm begging you..."
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Yena was willing to disappear if it meant saving her father.
She'd always known that her life was only ever meant to be short without him.
She regretted not being able to stay with him longer, but that regret meant nothing compared to his life.
That was what Seon-ah was to her.
He was her teacher, her father, her friend.
The moment he'd sacrificed himself for her.
She remembered the humiliations he'd suffered just to get her through that gate.
She thought of Seon-ah, reduced to a child, his mind shattered. That memory sealed her resolve.
It was finally her turn to sacrifice for him. He'd done it for her so many times in the Demon World.
That was her choice.
"No... no... let's do it..."
Sophia fought herself, but the pain of her mind crumbling was too much. In the end, she gave in and accepted Yena's body.
"What do I need to do?"
"First... the ritual circle... for the succession..."
Sophia channeled her magic and shoved the sofa, carpet, and debris into a corner.
Then she cast a blue glow across the floor, shaping a complex magic circle of interlocking runes.
Two circles.
A large circle appeared under Yena, and a smaller one under Sophia.
"I'm sorry, Yena... I'll bring Seon-ah back myself..."
It was the first time Sophia had ever apologized to her.
She wanted to say she was sorry for everything, but Yena barely seemed to hear it.
"If you bring appa back... I can forgive everything. So make sure you find him."
But tears streamed down her face anyway. She would never see her father again.
She knew these hot tears would be her last.
As the ritual began, the blue light in the circles pulsed brighter.
Yena looked at the magic circle, her heart pounding, then squeezed her eyes shut.
Min-ah's body, which had been standing slumped, crumpled to the floor.
The blue light faded.
And Yena, who had closed her eyes tight, opened them.
.
.
.
It had been so long.
Since that nightmare began.
I watched as my body, controlled by another, slaughtered demons like they were worthless maggots.
And then she raped and molested my own son, Seon-ah.
It was agony.
Raping the child I'd given birth to, with my own hands.
Raping Seon-ah, the son I had with Hyeon-tae, the man who gave me a second chance at life.
That horrible feeling kept coming back.
Even though I didn't want it, my body would say things that hurt Seon-ah. And whenever he was in pain, she would use me to savage his cock.
Even after enduring that horror and passing out, Seon-ah would still call for me, crying "omma."
Every time he begged for me while she did those things right in front of me, I felt my heart shatter.
But at some point, he stopped calling for me. He started calling for the thing controlling my body.
Her name was Sophia.
The Demon King, the ruler of the Demon World, was the one controlling my body.
And she was the one who raped Seon-ah with my body.
At first, I felt nothing but hate.
I wanted to vomit seeing her use my hands to rape my own son.
I wanted to scream at her: how much more did Seon-ah have to suffer?
And when my body got pregnant with Seon-ah's child, the pain was unbearable.
I had betrayed Hyeon-tae.
And I had carried a child conceived from raping Seon-ah until he nearly died. That was agony.
After Yena was born, Seon-ah started calling this body Sophia.
He looked at the Demon King inside me with eyes full of love.
That's when I realized.
That Seon-ah didn't need his omma anymore...
That he needed her, the thing inside me, more than me...
So I stopped fighting to get my body back.
But when I saw her treat Seon-ah cruelly again, the rage came back.
When she handed Seon-ah over to that succubus at the lord's mansion, the anger grew.
And when Seon-ah regressed to a child, my anger was about to explode.
Then that day, when Seon-ah came back to himself in that house.
Seeing my son's face twisted in anger for the first time, I snapped.
All the rage I'd held back turned on Sophia. After that, I don't remember much.
All I wanted was for her to feel even a fraction of what I felt. Nothing else mattered.
I just wanted to destroy her.
I didn't care if my body was destroyed, if my mind burned to ash.
I just wanted to destroy the one who tortured my son.
I wanted to erase the monster that made him suffer.
And now, waking from that nightmare.
Min-ah saw a familiar room.
She'd lived in this house for over twenty years. She knew it better than anything.
Even in shambles, the layout was exactly the same.
On the floor were black scorch marks, like a fire.
A pattern shaped like a magic circle.
And from somewhere, a pained moan.
Who could that be...
Min-ah opened the bedroom door and saw a horrifying sight.
Yu-rin and the two succubi from the Lord's castle.
All three were tied to chairs, gagged, struggling.
They clearly had been tied here for a long time.
Min-ah pulled the gag from Yu-rin's mouth.
She didn't know how Yu-rin, who should have paid for letting her escape through the gate, ended up here. But she was the only one who could tell Min-ah what was going on.
"What the hell happened?"
The moment the gag came off, Yu-rin spat out a stream of curses.
"Fuck... just kill me... please... Whatever you're doing... just put me out of my misery..."
From her words, it seemed that Min-ah's body had tortured Yu-rin horribly.
But there were no marks on her.
"I can't take that fucking tingly thing anymore... just fucking kill me..."
Frothing at the mouth, Yu-rin kept begging to be killed.
"What kind of torture leaves no marks but makes her like this? She said tingly... electric shock?"
But there were no torture tools.
"Yu-rin, it's me, Auntie Min-ah."
She didn't feel gentle, but she forced a soft tone to convince Yu-rin.
She needed Yu-rin to know she was different from the thing that had been using her body.
"Au... Auntie? You're just faking again, aren't you? Just kill me, you crazy bitch!"
"No use... she's not listening."
So she removed the gag from the succubus next to her and shook her awake.
She had striking golden hair, tanned skin, and ram-like horns.
This was definitely the succubus Yu-rin had brought on the expedition.
She looked similar to the succubus beside her but younger. Min-ah was sure of it.
Her eyes fluttered open, unfocused, staring at nothing.
"Wake up. Tell me what happened."
"So... Sophia-nim... I'm sorry... please..."
"I'm not Sophia. I'm Min-ah. Answer me: what happened to Seon-ah? And Sophia?"
"I don't know... At some point, Sophia-nim locked us up and tortured us one by one..."
So Sophia had turned this place into a torture chamber.
There were no obvious marks, but both of them said they'd been tortured, so it must be true.
Min-ah's fury at Sophia flared.
The room she'd used was Seon-ah's old room.
She couldn't help feeling Sophia had been thinking of Seon-ah the whole time.
"She's utterly insane. If Seon-ah ends up with her... it'll be a disaster."
Min-ah was convinced Sophia had lost her mind.
Her only hope was that Seon-ah would never fall into Sophia's hands.
All she could think about was finding Yena and Seon-ah.
She had to protect them from Sophia.