149: Chomper from the ground

Chomper from the ground

Bound in the room, Anastasia struggled to free her feet with the help of the thorns, which moved back and forth along the ropes. However, progress was slow. After a few hours, the door suddenly swung open, and in stepped the man who had previously ordered her to be thrown into the sea.  0

Wasn't he supposed to be imprisoned in the dungeon? Anastasia asked herself, noticing the thorn attempting to pry her free had moved away from her. 

"My, my my." The Vizier clicked his tongue at the thorns projected towards him. "In the beginning, I kept wondering why Dante avoided every other woman but you. Because, you see, archdemons don't have soulmates. It took me a while to realise that, unlike me, who never experienced birth, he was born as a lowly earthling, with his demonic self suppressed. And I finally figured it was your doing."

Unaware of the Vizier's true identity, she asked, "How did you escape from the dungeon? Where is Dante?" 

Anastasia saw Noor standing outside the room, watching her with a resentful glare. She then heard the man reply, 

"In Versailles, searching for you like a mad man." Magnus chuckled, seemingly enjoying the idea of Dante's plight. He removed his glasses from his face and said, "We have spent so much time together, yet you look at me as though I am a stranger, Anastasia. When all I wanted to do was become better acquainted with you, especially after what you did to me." He crushed the glasses into dust before their remnants dispersed onto the ground. 

Anastasia turned stunned and whispered, "You are the demon…"

Magnus used his fingers to sweep his side-parted hair backwards, and he offered her a maddening smile that was capable of unsettling anyone. "Looks like you finally figured out who I am." Looking around the room, where the thorns continued to thrive, he added, "You have built quite a fort here." 

When Magnus touched one of the thorns, his skin sizzled, as if he had touched molten lava. He laughed before questioning her, "You think you are safe in this? Think again, Anastasia." He turned to where Noor stood and ordered, "Bring Alrad here." 

Feeling worry and nervousness creeping under her skin, she asked, "Why am I here?" 

Magnus clapped his hands, his smile ever-constant, which appeared crazy in Anastasia's eyes. He said, "Now that you ask, the curse that you placed upon the three demons weakened me, even though I never set foot inside the coffin you designed for me. I have been waiting for Dante's arrival, but then I realised, I can make use of you too, along with him. You know, one stone, two birds. All I need is for you to be restored to your former power and strength."

"You mean my fae," Anastasia whispered, and Magnus affirmed with a nod. 

"You are smart; you grasp things quickly. When the Devil created the realm of the dead, he used pillars, each of them housing a crystal within." He then whispered, "I stole a few of them when I came here. He probably thinks it's Raylen who took them. You see, these crystals are special, and they can enable me to make a world of my own."

So what he wanted was to wield dominion over the world like the Devil did. It appeared that inhabitants of the dead realm were no different from those in the realm of the living—they were perpetually unsatisfied with their current status and forever aspired to ascend higher. She heard footsteps outside the room, and shortly after, her eyes fell upon the Eldest minister, whom she had previously seen in the Blackthorn Palace's royal court. 

"The greater the number of people Dante kills, the better for me," Magnus hummed with glee. 

"Dante is not a monster like you think him to be," Anastasia stated. With the truth now revealed, the situation had changed. "Why can't you just let him be? He has nothing to do wit—"

Magnus erupted in laughter, and he ordered the Elder minister, "Burn this down," with a serious glint in his eyes. 

Alrad positioned himself before the thorns and raised his hands. Anastasia exerted her will to compel the poisonous thorns to hold their ground, but before long, the stems and the vines caught fire, reducing them all to ashes upon the ground. 

"Foolish woman, did you truly believe your silly earthling tricks would work on us demons?" Magnus taunted her with a snide expression as he came to stand before her. "I am gathering the souls of the deceased. Don't you wish to see your sister?" 

Upon hearing this, Anastasia's face turned pale, leaving her stunned. This demon was deceiving her! There was no conceivable way her sister was within his grasp. She said, "She is in Heaven…"

"Are you absolutely certain?" Magnus asked, and Anastasia shot him a fierce glare. "She still screams, haunted by the wounds of being stabbed and abandoned. I overheard her lamenting about how you left her to die in the palace, how you made plans to run."

Anastasia clenched her teeth and strained against her bound hands, even though she was still no match for the archdemon. 

Magnus wanted to restore the fae to her former strength, so that it would unleash not only her power, but also help him resurrect his former ambitions of creating a new world. He extended his hand to grip her chin, prompting Anastasia to swiftly jerk her head away to evade his touch. He said, "Initially, I contemplated corrupting Dante by taking the path that would leave him without his soulmate, but it struck me yesterday that it would be a protracted route. Why wait when I can kill you after using you and hasten his descent into corruption? He will be a good ally." 

All these people were insane, Anastasia thought to herself.

The urge to protect herself from the demon surged within her, and a second later, a circle adorned with inscribed words and intricate intersecting lines expanded outward from the centre of her chair. A luminous white light emanated from it, inflicting damage on the demon standing before her. When she opened her eyes, she saw Magnus's skin beginning to dissolve. 

However, instead of looking angry, he appeared pleased as he remarked, "I told you, you are an earthling." With a snap of his fingers, a larger circle formed around the one she had conjured, this one black and emitting fumes. 

The creepers slithered their way back inside, the vines now resembling moving serpents. But as poisonous as the vines were, they inflicted minimal harm upon the archdemon. All the vines were incinerated by the Elder minister named Alrad. 

"Sire!" Another Elder minister rushed into the room and reported, "One of the underlings has sighted Dante heading in this direction."

"That's quicker than we expected," Alrad frowned, as they weren't expecting Dante to arrive for at least another two days. 

Magnus's laughter gave way to a sneer. "Seems like the preparations to activate the tower should be done by now. Go tell Mornach to start the process. It should only take four to five hours for him to arrive."

"What about the spirit source?" Alrad asked with evident concern, his gaze shifting to Anastasia. 

Anastasia realised that the objective in these demons' eyes was to kill her. She heard Magnus say, 

"Then it's time for an intensive crash course so that we can extract the utmost from her," and he threw something in Anastasia's direction. 

For a second, Anastasia was still, until a piercing scream erupted from her as invisible wires attempted to burrow into her body, as if coiled around her, intent on cutting her. 

"Wouldn't using a dagger be a simpler way to end her?" Noor inquired, her desire to finish Anastasia evident. 

Magnus glared at the lowly earthling before he turned back to look at Anastasia and said, "Killing her would be like killing a golden goose. The demonic wires will bring forth her power."

Anastasia had never felt anything like this before, and it surpassed even the lashes she had received from Niyasa. The unrelenting agony was rendering her senses almost numb. Having never had a guide to help her discover her forest fae lineage, her experiences had been limited to playing with flowers and watching them blossom in her hands. 

The demons diminished the abilities she thought she could currently employ. 

The people in the room departed, leaving her alone while they went to inspect the towers and ascertain Dante's whereabouts. From a distance, she heard the Elder minister say, "We will have her transferred to the tower once she's ready. Stand guard here."

After several minutes passed, Anastasia's throat grew parched, and no sound escaped her lips. 

Think, Anna, think. If not the vines, there should be spells, but where could she find them when she couldn't recall a single word of them?! Amidst the persisting panic, she tried to calm herself. 

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'Papa!' Anastasia remembered jumping into her father's arms. 'Papa!' the young voice cried out, tinged with distress. 

'What's the matter, Anna? What has brought you to tears?' Her father scooped her up in his arms, gently wiping the tears from her cheek. 

Young Anastasia brought her hands forward, cupped together with gaps between her fingers. She shifted one of her hands to reveal a butterfly struggling to fly. Her father looked at her and asked, 

'What happened to this one? Did you find it on the ground?' 

The little girl wore an expression of guilt, her gaze fixed on the butterfly with a slightly detached wing. In a small voice, she confessed, 'I didn't see it… I swear. I was walking and didn't see it. Is it going to die?'

'Oh, honey. It wasn't your fault,' her father reassured her as he sat down on their back door stairs, placing her on his lap. He continued, 'Its wing is broken, but… if you want, you can heal it.'

'I can?' The little one looked up at her father with big, brown eyes. 

Her father suggested, 'Here, why don't you gently pat the butterfly's wing so that it knows you care and wish from the bottom of your beautiful heart that it gets better?'

The little girl caressed the injured butterfly, her heart aching for its plight, and she whispered, 'I hope you can fly again. I hope you don't die.' Soon, the broken wing reattached to the butterfly's body, enabling it to flap its wings and take flight from her palm.

What if… What if there was never a spell? Anastasia asked herself. 

Locked inside the room with guards standing outside, she looked down at the invisible wires that had etched deep marks on her body, tracing lines of blood. Focusing her entire concentration, she willed the invisible lines to vanish, and in the blink of an eye, so did the ropes that bound her to the chair. 

She just freed her hands when a distant explosion reached her ears. At this rate, Magnus would transform the living realm into a desolate wasteland, Anastasia said to herself. She shifted her gaze to the ground, and in response, plants began to sprout. Another creeper, stronger than before, snaked its way towards the door, scaling it effortlessly as it reached the top. 

Knock! Knock! 

Four guards stood outside the door, and upon hearing the knock, one of them opened it. However, when the man set foot inside the room, he noticed the woman still seated in the chair before he sensed something moving in his peripheral vision.

As the guard turned, his eyes widened and his voice caught in his throat at the sight of a huge plant with a head and mouth lined with sharp shark-like teeth. Before a word could leave his mouth, the plant opened its mouth wide and lunged, swallowing the guard whole within its venomous maw. 

"Holy plant…" Anastasia muttered, seeing the guard disappear in the plant's mouth. 

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