It was sudden, very sudden.

One moment, his insides burned hot as if he had swallowed a lump of fire, writhing in agony, and the next, he found himself trapped in darkness.

Kahn retraced the last moments he remembered.

A seductive woman had lured him, and he had drunk the liquor she offered. Before long, something thick and clotted surged up from his gut. It was a mass of blood. At the same time, his lungs seared unbearably, and a fiery pain spread throughout his body.

‘You, you wench.’

He reached out to kill the woman who had poisoned him. He felt a savage satisfaction at the thought of tearing off her head, severing her limbs, and then feeding her torso to the beasts. But the only things he could see in his fading vision were not the woman, but several men.

It was only when he realized they were the demon hunters who had been tracking him recently that Kahn’s consciousness snapped. And then he opened his eyes to this space of darkness.

Kahn realized he was trapped here faster than he had expected. Furthermore, he also noticed that he was in the state of being ‘sealed,’ as those men had muttered in his last memory.

Sealed? How laughable.

As if I couldn’t get out.

He healed the wounds inflicted by the holy water with his dark magic and then struggled desperately to escape this place. But strangely, the more he exerted his power, the less he felt he was breaking free from this space, and instead, he felt more and more bound. Or was it just his imagination?

It felt as if something was sucking his dark magic away.

‘Hey.’

Kahn opened his mouth in the vast space. It was the first sound he had made in days since being trapped, so the end of his voice was rough and cracked.

‘Where is this place?’

He wanted anyone, anyone at all, to answer him. He was a demon who loved evil, but being trapped in such an unheard-of space was not to his liking. Not only did he dislike it, but he wanted to capture all those who had put him in this state and tear out their hearts without hesitation.

‘Hey!’

That anger grew stronger the longer he was trapped here.

Resentment gathered and gathered, making the primordial malice within him churn even more violently.

How much time had passed?

He didn’t know because he hadn’t bothered to count carefully. A day? A week? No, a month? Or more? How long had it been?

No matter how much he shouted, not even an echo resounded in the vast space. The silence devoured all traces of his cries.

Demons do not die. Nevertheless, Kahn had the absurd thought that perhaps he might die of loneliness. That was how long he had been imprisoned there in utter solitude. He had always found his subordinates who followed him around annoying, but for the first time, he missed their presence.

He let out a deep sigh.

He was hungry. Misery, misfortune, pitifulness. He desperately craved human wickedness. One day, he felt an intense urge to kill, to beat them all to a pulp, and another day, a lethargy washed over him, making him want to do nothing at all. His emotions fluctuated wildly, as if they weren’t his own.

One day, so long after he had last spoken that he couldn’t even remember when it was, Kahn suddenly thought.

Am I going to be trapped here forever?

Can’t I get out of here?

At that moment, Kahn felt a suffocating pressure for the first time in his life.

Was this pressure? It felt like emptiness, or boredom. Or perhaps ennui. All sorts of negative emotions seemed to rush in and consume him.

He had always been the one to imprison others, and experiencing it himself was a truly terrible and indescribable sensation. But he felt no guilt. Only rage welled up within him.

I want to get out. I want to get out. I want to get out of here. I will get out. I will get out. Let me out, please let me out. Let me go. Let me out. Let me out. Please let me out!

Painful pleas swirled around in his mouth, a thick, indigestible mass.

Only curses flowed out instead.

Then, the world he was trapped in shook.

Like someone grabbing a lifeline, he shouted out anything, but still, his voice reached no one. The world kept shaking. It swayed and twisted as if it would collapse or break. But the darkness still enveloped him.

The brief hope that had flickered in his heart soon vanished in vain. It was because the earthquake stopped, and the damn peace returned.

He didn’t know how many years he endured after that. Kahn did not die, but he was losing his vitality as if he were dead.

Then, after another eternity-like passage of time.

Suddenly, a sweet scent wafted from somewhere. Kahn’s red eyes, which had been submerged as if assimilated into the dark space, recognized it with uncanny accuracy and flashed brightly.

A honeyed scent.

A scent sufficient to intensely stimulate the hunger of Kahn, who had been starving for decades, or perhaps even longer. Along with the scent that sweetly filled his lungs, the sound of weeping began to be heard. A delicate, beautiful voice was mixed in with sorrowful tears.

‘I’m scared. I don’t like being hit either. I don’t like being in pain. I don’t want to be here.’

A desperate voice seeking a god. A being as unfortunate and despondent as could be.

This is an opportunity.

‘Such sorrowful weeping.’

His pretense of compassion was plausible, as if displaying the skill with which he had seduced and devoured humans countless times.

‘Who is making things so difficult for you?’

The delicate, beautiful voice stopped abruptly. Kahn’s heart rate gradually increased. Contrary to his usual leisurely nature, tension soared within him.

Soon, the delicate, beautiful voice replied.

‘If my mother dies, I’ll be all alone forever. Then Father, Father will......’

A lament of misfortune mixed with sorrow.

It took the bait. The mere fact that it had responded to his voice was enough to show promise. After a long time, a smile spread across Kahn’s lips.

His hunger was severely stimulated, and he instinctively licked his lips.

‘Come closer!’

In the space where he couldn’t see an inch ahead, a strange presence was felt. For the first time in the stifling void, the trace of another being had mingled.

‘Yes. To me, to where I am.’

Kahn’s voice grew increasingly urgent.

Finally, the end was in sight. A golden opportunity to escape this place.

‘Closer, come closer.’

Finally, the world that had been as dark as pitch suddenly brightened. In the scenery that had cleared as if the fog had lifted, he saw green eyes reminiscent of a lush forest.

‘Let’s make a deal, child!’

Kahn couldn’t take his eyes off the deep, clear emerald green eyes. The heart he thought had been worn away and eroded by accumulated evil deeds thumped.

He wanted to immediately and madly distort those clear eyes. His nature, which had been left alone, dying in solitude, began to awaken.

‘I am a god. I grant your wishes.’

Pretending to be a god to deceive humans was a trivial matter for a demon. Especially if that demon was their leader, the king......

‘Don’t you want to get out of here?’

The tragedy deeply ingrained in the child’s heart was truly abundant. It felt as if swallowing it whole would fill his empty hunger completely. Just looking at it made him feel full with unhappiness, and therefore, it was incomparably lovely.

Yes, exactly, enough to want to make it his bride.