NOVEL NEXT Chapter 7 Part 8
A pain that echoed deep in my brain jolted me awake.
My vision was hazy, the scene before me blurred.
What… happened?
“Awake, are you?”
A voice rang out, snapping my dulled consciousness into clarity.
A dimly lit room.
The only sources of light were candles placed in the four corners.
A man stood before me.
It was too dark to make out his expression.
But I knew instantly—it was Ted.
The inverted pentagram pendant around his neck gleamed faintly.
Right… Ted had struck me unconscious.
The impact had wiped my memory clean, but now it all came rushing back.
Then this cramped space must be the basement.
“Ugh…”
A weak voice groaned nearby.
Mary and Jill.
The three of us lay huddled together in the center of the room.
“I can’t have you rummaging through my things without permission.”
“But why… I was sure you drank the tea…”
“Ah, thank you for the delicious tea. If it had been just a little stronger, it might’ve been dangerous for me.”
My sleeping tea only worked on those without magical resistance.
As a demon’s contractor, Ted was under its protection.
That was why the tea’s effects had dissipated almost instantly.
My magic had been too weak.
My own lack of skill had backfired at the worst possible moment.
I wanted to stand, but my body wouldn’t move properly.
My hands and feet were bound.
Of course. There was no way he’d let his prey escape at a time like this.
I was so shaken I hadn’t even realized something so obvious.
Ted knelt beside Jill and Mary, stroking them gently.
The candlelight cast a faint glow on his face.
His expression held an eerie kindness, a look of affection, almost like love.
“I had planned to be rougher with you, but thanks to you, things are much easier now.”
“What… are you going to do to us?”
“Come on, you know the answer better than anyone. That’s why you’ve been watching us so closely, isn’t it?”
Ted turned and lit a candle on the shelf at the back of the room.
A small flame flickered to life, illuminating something I had been desperately searching for.
An altar.
Then I noticed it—the markings covering the floor around us.
A summoning circle.
One I recognized.
A demon summoning sigil.
“Since when did you know?”
“From the beginning. You looked at me differently. I was surprised, really. I’d heard some witches could see the marks of a demon’s contract, but I never expected to meet one.”
“So from the start… you planned to offer me as a sacrifice?”
“Of course. Demons love witches, even an apprentice like you.”
“Then just take me! Why involve your family?!”
Ted’s voice turned hoarse as he murmured:
“Because I love them. That’s exactly why I have to offer them.”
“Demons test their followers’ devotion. The most precious thing must be sacrificed.”
“Why…? What drove you to this?”
“I’ve had enough.”
Ted’s hollow smile and vacant eyes bore into me.
“The packed morning trains, the cold stares at work, the incompetent boss, the juniors who always walked on eggshells around me. Everything—everything! Even my family’s support felt like it was tearing me apart from the inside.”
His gaze was unfocused, lost.
He was already enthralled by the demon.
He was no longer sane.
“I have to make them pay. Every single person who ever looked down on me, who humiliated me. And you—you’re going to be the foundation of my glorious new life.”
“For something so… petty?”
“Petty?! What do you know?! Do you have any idea how much humiliation I endured?! How many nights I cried myself to sleep?! What could a little girl like you possibly understand?!”
“But you still had your family!”
“Family?! They don’t help you! They just trap you, corner you, leave you no way out!”
Ted pulled something from his pocket, and it glinted in the dim light.
A fruit knife.
“This pathetic life ends today. With a demon’s power, I can make it happen.”
“Stop—!”
Before I could stop him, Ted drove the blade into his own hand.
A dull groan escaped his lips as his blood dripped onto the altar.
“Oh great Satan, grant me your omnipotent power! I offer you my beloved wife and daughter, along with this witch for your feast!”
And then—it happened.
All the flames in the room flickered and vanished in an instant.
My body convulsed.
No, this wasn’t a convulsion.
I was shaking.
Trembling with fear.
A horrifying presence filled the air.
Hatred, wrath, despair—all seethed through the room.
The overwhelming mass of magic crushed me, stealing my breath.
And then—it appeared.
I heard breathing.
A voice, eerie and resonant, whispering in my ear.
It was not human.
Satan had arrived.
The presence was otherworldly, as if it had crawled out of the abyss.
I instinctively turned my face away.
I knew—if I looked directly at it, my eyes would burn, and my mind would shatter.
It wasn’t a matter of winning or losing.
This was a force beyond us.
Like a storm that cannot be stopped, like a tsunami that must be fled from.
All we could do was cower, hide, and pray.
Disaster itself stood before me.
Satan reached out, fingers grazing my neck, then licked my cheek.
A demon’s kiss.
A sickening sensation crawled down my spine.
I nearly fainted from sheer terror.
But I couldn’t.
The searing pain of the sacrificial brand he carved into my skin kept me conscious.
Then, the floor beneath me turned black, swallowing my feet like a swamp.
I was being pulled under.
I knew it instinctively.
The darkness engulfed my legs, my torso, creeping up, devouring me whole.
Soon, it would take my face.
I was going to die.
There were still so many things I wanted to do.
So many people I wanted to talk to.
Hikari… Sophie… Fine… Carbuncle… the people of Lapis Town.
Faces flashed before my eyes.
…Master…
Then.
Someone grasped my hand.
Their grip was hot, overflowing with life itself.
A strong, unwavering hand pulled me up from the darkness.
It was my master.
“Satan, this is not your place.”
She faced it alone.
“You will not touch my daughter.”
And with a simple motion—
She banished Satan to the depths of Hell.