The Damned Demon

As tension crackled in the air, poised on the brink of violent confrontation, the unexpected happened—the lid of the second coffin, silent until now, suddenly sprang open, disrupting the charged atmosphere.

A tall, muscular figure emerged slowly, embodying a calm authority that contrasted sharply with the room's preceding chaos.

Dressed simply in black pants and a white shirt with the top few buttons unbuttoned, his appearance marked a significant turn in the unfolding drama, yet his charming appearance, especially his radiant golden eyes, made everyone momentarily feel lost in those eyes.

Grace shook her head to collect her thoughts, but for a moment, why did he seem so familiar?

Emiko and Yui were dazed and felt their hearts thump upon remembering a certain face in their minds.

Rebecca, caught mid-preparation for her assault, unconsciously retracted her mana at the sight, her aggressive posture momentarily faltering.

Grace, on the other hand, greeted Asher with a respectful bow, her smile conveying both welcome and confidence, "Welcome back to Earth, Master," she announced while transforming back to her aged self.

Emiko and Yui also came out of their reverie and hurried to follow Grace's lead, bowing deeply before their Master.

They couldn't believe that their Master was now the Demon King, and they were literally only a few feet away from him.

If the world knew, almost all the Hunters in the world would be surrounding this building in a matter of minutes.

"Feels good to finally breathe some good air again," Asher mumbled, his voice a blend of relief and satisfaction.

Rebecca, unable to conceal her disdain for the situation, scoffed and rolled her eyes, her posture defiant even in the face of her so-called Master's presence.

Her arms crossed, she stood apart, a silent challenge to the hierarchy being reaffirmed before her.

Asher, noticing her resistance, addressed her with a voice as cold as the grave, "Is this how you greet your Master...slave?" His choice of words, deliberate and laden with an authority that brooked no defiance, cut through the air, leaving a silence in its wake.

"S-Slave?" Yui's reaction, a gasp of disbelief followed by a hasty attempt to cover her slip, mirrored Emiko's wide-eyed shock.

They found it hard to believe that this powerful and scary demoness was his slave. Was she his enemy or something?

Rebecca, her pride wounded and her position unenviably exposed, found herself caught in an internal struggle.

Grace's smug gaze only served to deepen the humiliation, a bitter reminder of how she was reduced to a pathetic state where even a lowly human was looking down on her.

Asher's query, "Are you deaf, or do you want to be punished again?" edged closer, his golden eyes drilling into her, resurrecting memories best forgotten, memories that stripped her of defiance and left her with submission as her only recourse.

With a grunt of frustration and anger, a sound that carried the weight of her defiance and her defeat, Rebecca allowed her knees to buckle.

Her figure of authority and power, now knelt in submission before Asher, her face a mask of humiliation and suppressed fury.

The heat of her embarrassment seemed to radiate off her in waves while her blood was shaking.

She couldn't help but wonder how long this bastard intended to prolong this demeaning spectacle, especially in front of these lowly humans.

Asher's chuckle broke the silence, a sound that carried both amusement and a hint of something darker.

He turned his attention to Grace, Emiko, and Yui, gesturing towards Rebecca as if she were a prize to be showcased, "Let me officially introduce to you all my brand new slave...Rebecca Drake," he announced.

Grace's reaction was one of gleeful curiosity, her eyes lighting up with intrigue, "Quite an interesting slave you brought here, Master. She must have been a tough nut to break," she remarked, her gaze fixed on Rebecca with mocking interest.

"This bitch..." she hissed under her breath, her eyes turbulent with a storm of emotions, yet she dared not lift her gaze from the floor.

Asher's laughter filled the hall once more, "Haha. Tough nut? For sure. But it's fun to break tough nuts like her," he proclaimed.

Yui's nervous inquiry broke through the charged atmosphere, her voice tinged with a mixture of fear and curiosity, "C-Can we know who...she is?" she asked, her head bowed, not daring to meet her Master's gaze directly while Emiko tugged at her elbow, silently asking why she would bother their Master with questions that were not their business.

Rebecca's heart sank at the question, dreading the potential revelation of her identity and the further loss of dignity it might entail.

Asher's response was light, almost casual, as he shared, "Oh, I didn't say that, huh. Well, she is the Princess Consort of my kingdom, married to my wife's uncle. I am sure if you go through our history books, the name Rebecca Drake would be quite prominent," he divulged.

He knew Rebecca stopped doing quests for a long time since she already reached the peak and she had a job at the Tower of Hell. And so humans of the present generation may not necessarily know or recognize her unless they learned about her in history classes.

Emiko and Yui's reaction was one of shock, their eyes wide as they processed the revelation.

The wife of the demon queen's uncle, a figure of royal stature, was reduced to a state of subjugation before them—it was a turn of events they had not anticipated.

Grace's interest deepened as she looked down at the kneeling figure of Rebecca, "Oh, I know her alright. After all, her sister and I still have some unfinished business, though I might probably have to jog her memory if ever I meet her. Demons like her easily forgets fleeting beings like us," she remarked, her eyes briefly flashing with a cold, dangerous light.

Rebecca frowned and wondered what this bitch had to do with her sister and how she was even alive to talk about it.

Her sister would never spare anyone she fought.

Asher's declaration cut through the atmosphere with the sharpness of a blade, "Well, her sister is the one who gave us these avatars, and who knows...she might end up as my slave too one day." His smile was a mix of amusement and daring, and a silent provocation for a certain someone.

Yui gasped again, wondering how powerful her Master must be to boldly talk about taking in powerful demonesses as slaves, while Emiko wondered what that demoness named Esther must have done to Grace and her Master for the two to talk about her like this.

"Never!" Rebecca's fierce outburst shattered the brief silence that followed and added, "Don't forget that she is the Lady of House Thorne and not part of your House. You can't mess with her like you are doing with me."

Asher's response was both probing and dismissive, gripping onto Rebecca's chin in a domineering way and craning her neck up, "Feeling protective of your elder sister? I wasn't expecting that from a rebellious one like you. Didn't your own House throw you out while your sister did nothing?" His words, sharp and incisive, sought to figure out the relationship between these two.

The more he knew about them, the easier it would be to manipulate them.

Rebecca's retort was filled with anger and resilience, "You know nothing nor do you need to know anything about us," She said while grimacing as he tugged her chin.

Her defiance, however, was met with Asher's indifference and a stark reminder of her new reality, "This is Earth and this is my cult. You will behave and do everything they say, especially Grace who is your leader as well."

"W-What? You cannot be serious. How can you tell me to take orders from a human, a Soulservant at that?" Rebecca asked vehemently since bending her back to a human's authority was the last thing she wanted to do, let alone a Soulservant.

Grace's response, dripping with sarcasm and disdain, highlighted the absurdity of Rebecca's outrage, "My, my, this woman is supposed to be of royal lineage? Even my late cat had better manners."

"You!" Rebecca hissed and was already so tempted to drain whatever vitality was left in the frail body of this bitch.

"Apologize to your leader, slave. I won't tolerate you disrespecting the members of my cult, including Emiko and Yui," Asher said as his gaze suddenly became heavy and cold and bore down on Rebecca.

"You...can't..." Rebecca's face reddened with ice-cold anger and frustration, wondering why this bastard was giving so much importance to these lowly Soulservants.

He warned, "You have 5 seconds before I make you apologize in a way you are not going to like," Asher said as he narrowed his gaze, making Rebecca swallow her saliva as she didn't even dare to imagine what humiliating thing he might make her do before them.

But by apologizing to Grace, she would be indirectly accepting her authority and admitting that she was superior to her.

She can't willingly destroy her dignity like that, but at the same time, would it be better or worse than having her dignity forcibly stripped?

Just as the tension in Rebecca's blood was about to reach sky-

high,

"Let it be, Master. An apology from someone like her would mean nothing, and she might feel hurt," Grace's smooth yet graceful voice echoed as she looked down at Rebecca, who felt relieved but felt equally angry as well since it seemed as if this lowly bitch still came up on top.

"Fine if that's what you want, Grace. But…" Asher gripped Rebecca's chin again as he looked down at her and added, "You will follow her orders, and if you refuse, you will pay for it, and even worse, punishment will await if you try to harm even a hair on any of them. These are my orders, and they are absolute."

"Ugh…" Rebecca grunted in indignation and grimaced as she felt the slave seal on her back, causing a burning sensation to spread across her back as if her body had already accepted to follow his orders.