The Price of Power and a Shattered World

Wawalde fell silent for a moment, his gaze settling on the tree roots.

Sovenia approached him, her finger gently tapping the base of the small, trembling wings that had been on Wawalde’s shoulders.

“First, I’ll teach you to retract those small wings.”

“Close your eyes and clear your mind. First, feel them as if they were your own fingers.”

Wawalde complied, his eyelashes trembling noticeably.

“Now, pull the power back, like slowly retracting an outstretched hand. Don’t rush; take it one step at a time.”

The absurd, unsightly wings began to retract.

In less than three breaths, they vanished completely, leaving behind only two subtly raised shoulder blades, as though they had never existed.

‘This foolish dog truly has talent,’ Sovenia mused inwardly.

Wawalde opened his eyes.

“They’re gone?”

“Yes.”

Wawalde touched his face, then ran his hands over his entire body. The rag-like wings were nowhere to be found.

He asked again, “Really? Are there any other scars on my body?”

Sovenia observed Wawalde. Not even his previous burn scars remained on his face, and as for the scales, there wasn’t a trace.

“No, not even your burn scars are left.”

Under the blood-red sky, Wawalde smiled. “That’s wonderful! Thank you, Miss Sovenia; meeting you is truly my greatest fortune.”

‘Wawalde now possessed supreme demonic power, having become so formidable,’ Sovenia thought.

‘I had already told that Demon Queen b*tch not to build the Demon Lord’s Palace like a dungeon, as if it were meant to solve a hero’s power and emotional issues.’

‘Well, look at him now. Everything for the hero is resolved, except for the emotional issues. Though, perhaps even those could be fixed. He’ll go back and report his success to the king, and a princess will surely be offered in marriage.’

As Sovenia considered this, she also reflected on her own predicament as the esteemed First Heavenly King.

To be trapped in this female body for the rest of her life—she couldn’t help but sigh once more.

Wawalde asked cautiously, “Miss Sovenia?”

“Hm?”

“Is there truly no hope for me? My appearance is just like before—”

“No,” Sovenia interrupted him, her tone as flat as if stating the weather. “The corruption is irreversible; you can’t go back.”

Wawalde’s shoulders slumped.

She resettled onto the stone, looking at him. “If I’m not mistaken, you can no longer use your former holy power, can you?”

“…That’s right.”

“Yet you now possess power that can rival a Demon King,” she stated.

“What’s the cost?” Wawalde looked up, a crimson light flashing in his eyes. “What is the price?”

“The cost is transformation,” Sovenia said, pointing to the ridiculous small wings that had been on his back.

“You can consider your previous form as a transformed state. This means that if you don’t transform, you’ll still be weaker than before, as your holy power is lost, and only dark power remains.”

Wawalde’s face grew even more ashen. He lowered his gaze to his hands, lost in thought.

Sovenia observed the shifting expressions on his face, a cold sneer forming in her mind.

‘Such pathetic human values—could he truly not abandon them?’

‘Sovenia, for her part, hoped Wawalde would soon embrace the ‘power’ of his ascended form.’

‘If he were truly powerful, at least he wouldn’t suddenly go mad halfway through, insisting on carrying me out of the Demon Lord’s Palace while spouting vows.’

‘Even more unforgivable, he actually spanked my behind.’

‘Moreover, her words couldn’t be one-sided. For Sovenia, and as the saying goes, it’s impossible to deceive someone forever.’

‘One day, Wawalde would see through her lies and realize she was once Jimi the Cruel.’

‘Would she have to send her head flying again then? If he…’

‘Still, they might be able to talk it out. After all, she was an ancient demon, privy to much forbidden demonic knowledge.’

‘But then again, what was the point of tethering this foolish dog, of deceiving him?’

‘Undoubtedly, if one could leash a dog capable of sweeping through armies, then it was akin to the dog’s master sweeping through armies.’

‘But the question remained: what purpose did leading a foolish dog serve? This wasn’t the perilous Demon Lord’s Palace anymore.’

‘What was she going to do in the future?’

Sovenia stared at the distorted forest in the distance, an answer suddenly flashing through her mind.

‘Ah, right, the World Book.’

She needed the World Book, that divine artifact capable of rewriting rules.

‘If she could obtain it, she would finally escape the fate of ‘unlucky draws.’

‘If she hadn’t suffered that wretched draw in Wawalde’s World Throne Chamber, the Demon Queen would have died long ago, and she wouldn’t have ended up in some unlucky body, forced to gather power from scratch.’

The World Book would allow her to control her own destiny, never again suffering the capricious whims of fate.

She turned to Wawalde, her voice still calm. “You killed the Demon Queen earlier. What about her World Book?”

Wawalde paused, seemingly struggling to recall.

“The book?” He frowned. “It seems… it shattered. I don’t really remember. The scene was too chaotic back then…”

Sovenia gasped.

“Shattered?”

“After the Demon Queen finally retracted some enslavement rules and cast a powerful prohibition, I lost all memory of the World Book.”

Sovenia probed her soul again, detecting no enslavement rules. She had initially thought the rules vanished because the Demon Queen was dead.

Now, it seemed the book itself had shattered.

She felt her chest tighten once more, that hollow sensation returning, as if a piece had been carved out of her.

She raised her hand, nearly slapping her thigh, but ultimately just clenched her fist.

“Do you realize how powerful the World Book is? It’s a divine artifact. Without it, the benefits of killing the Demon Queen are halved.”

Wawalde, however, was not as disheartened. He looked up at the distant horizon, a smile gracing his face.

Sovenia couldn’t comprehend it. What was so appealing about a multitude of scorched mountains in the distance, with twisted flesh still rooted upon them?

Wawalde said, “But the Demon Queen is dead. This means the demons’ offensive in the human realm will weaken. I’ve indirectly saved many people, at the very least.”

“You won’t receive any gratitude,” Sovenia said coldly. “Because you have fallen. You are now, in essence, a demon, and one of Demon King caliber at that.”

Wawalde fell silent.

“Moreover, you’ve only saved them for a short while,” she continued, pouring cold water on his hopes.

“A new Demon King will emerge, a new First Heavenly King will appear, and the demonic army will return. Even if they knew of your existence as a tragic hero, they wouldn’t thank you, as the impact of the Demon Queen’s death will take time to reach the front lines.”

“But everyone is saved,” Wawalde said softly. “Even if only for a moment.”

Sovenia stared at him. “You will become the next Jimi the Cruel.”

“No.” Wawalde shook his head, his voice firm. “I won’t become evil; I will resist this dark power.”

Sovenia sneered inwardly. As someone who had experienced it herself, she had considerable confidence in the “great dark power.”

‘Sovenia wondered if she was doing this out of a desire to drag someone else into the abyss with her, finding some solace in shared despair.’

‘Or perhaps it was simply to avoid having her head sent flying if her identity were exposed, hence the need to assimilate him.’

She continued to douse his hopes. “They won’t accept you. Your family, your friends, society as a whole—none of them will accept you. Because they’ll believe you’ve fallen and become a demon. And in truth, you are now a demon.”

Wawalde looked up, a stubborn light burning in his eyes. “No matter what, I will not become Jimi the Cruel.”

‘To be honest, in that moment, I understood him perfectly. That despair, that pain, that feeling of being consumed by darkness, that yearning for others to understand… I had experienced it all.’

‘But the disasters he later brought upon humans, elves, and the entire demon realm…’

Wawalde clenched his fist. “Those massacres, those wars, that suffering. I absolutely cannot become Jimi the Cruel.”

Sovenia’s sneer in her mind grew more pronounced.

‘You even mocked me as a monster before, saying I deserved it.’

“I’ve never seen anyone resist this kind of change,” she said, referring to how the corrupting power molded a person’s character.

“I’m luckier than him.” Wawalde looked up, his sapphire-blue eyes fixed on her. “I still have you.”

Sovenia’s heart was struck violently by something.

It was her heart, beating with sudden force.

She sharply turned her head away, refusing to look at him.

‘Damn this elven female body, damn these hormones, damn these emotional fluctuations.’

She took a deep breath, striving to keep her voice calm. “What do you intend to do?”

“I will take you home,” Wawalde said. “Where is your home? I will bring you there.”

Sovenia froze.

‘Home?’

‘Did she have a home?’

She recalled vague, indistinct memories of her previous life on Earth. Strangely, ever since being trapped in this fragile female body, some memories of her past life had resurfaced.

She remembered her high school bedroom.

‘That home was too distant.’

‘What about the closest home?’

Sovenia stood up on the stone, gazing at the distant Demon Lord’s Palace.

‘Her home was there. Every day, she would wake up, train in the practice grounds, go out for some real combat, and Haelana would cook some dishes for them to eat at home.’

‘She only needed to deal with the Demon Queen’s perverse demands and occasionally lead the Blood Skull Legion to conquer demons, humans, or elves.’

‘If not for the Demon Queen’s enslavement rules, and if she herself were the Demon King, that would truly be her ideal life.’

‘Now, thanks to the ‘capricious’ fate, it was all gone.’

Sovenia said, “I have no home.”

Wawalde frowned. “But don’t you have parents and a younger brother? You said you needed Jimi’s skull to cure their illness…”

Sovenia turned her head, looking at him expressionlessly, and sighed.

“If I had known you were so foolish, I would’ve said I had ten younger brothers who needed an education.”

“It was fake after all?” Wawalde asked.

‘You also thought that lie was very fake, didn’t you?’ Sovenia mused.

‘Yes,’ she mentally supplied for him.

‘Then why did you keep going on about it, and even give me a token?’ she thought, a sneer forming.

‘But what if Miss Sovenia *was* telling the truth?’ she imagined Wawalde thinking.

Sovenia’s heart pounded violently again. ‘This accursed elven female body,’ she cursed inwardly.

She turned her head, looking towards the distant Demon Lord’s Palace.

‘Remember! I am forever the First Heavenly King, Jimi the Cruel, the blade of the human race—not some fragile elven maiden.’

“Can you not remember your home? Did you lose your memory?”

“My home is quite large; you can stay as long as you like once we reach the human realm. I’ll help you find your family.”

‘You’re so enthusiastic.’

Sovenia said, “Since you’re so enthusiastic, could you do me a favor?”

“Of course.”

“Do you see the stone beneath my feet?”

“I see it.”

“Could you pick it up and then smash it onto my head?”

“Miss Sovenia? The future is still long; there’s still hope.”

“Precisely because of that, I want to be free sooner.”

“I’m very sorry, but no.”

“Never mind.”

Sovenia jumped off the stone. “Right, there’s an important point about transformation. First, turn around.”

“Like this?”

“Turn your back to me.”

Wawalde turned his back to Sovenia.

She raised her hand high, and like a golf swing, she twisted her waist and body, delivering a fierce slap.

*Smack!*

A crisp sound echoed.

The tall Wawalde turned around, asking, “Miss Sovenia, what are you doing?”

“Stabilizing the results of your transformation.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

Sovenia said, her expression unchanged, “This is forbidden demonic knowledge; ordinary people wouldn’t know.”

Sovenia realized she was becoming increasingly adept at lying, though she couldn’t pinpoint when it had started.

Wawalde said, “I thought you were still bothered about me spanking your behind last time, and wanted revenge.”

“No, I don’t care at all. I’m not a child.”

“Oh, why are you drawing your sword?”

“To further stabilize your transformation effect.”

Sovenia held her sword with both hands. “Stick out your behind; I’ll strike your butt hard with the flat of the blade. The harder I hit, the better the effect.”

“I refuse. You’re definitely seeking revenge.”

“Sir Hero, you wouldn’t want others to discover you’re a demon, would you?”

Sovenia added, “Actually, I used this secret method before to stabilize Jimi the Cruel’s form.”

Wawalde fell silent for a moment.

He believed her. He truly believed her.

Sovenia almost burst out laughing, but her expression remained completely unchanged.

Wawalde said, “I’ll wait a while to see the transformation effect first.”

“Oh.”

Sovenia sheathed her sword. “If there are no problems, it means you have good talent.”