Chapter 605: The Price of Transgression

The moment when Sophia turned her head, finally looking Axel's blue eyes directly in the eye, and seeing his tortured, mutilated, and nearly unrecognisable state.

An unfathomable amount of killing intent, filled with boundless intensity, oozed out from her, encompassing multiple kilometres of distance.

The bloodlust pressed down entirely on Mason Vex.

The Vex Patriarch's eyes widened in disbelief. "NO… you?? You shouldn't be this strong."

Yet, Sophia wasn't even looking at the man. Her eyes remained fixed on Axel.

The killing intent of the Valkyrie was so dense that the survival instincts of Mason flared like never before; the sheer immeasurable depth of Sophia's killing intent was something that he could not truly comprehend.

Even as a 5th-phase seeker, when he looked at the third-phase Valkyrie, his heart warned him not to fight, but to run.

The man involuntarily took a few steps back; the increasing pitch-black, corrosive darkness oozing from the Valkyrie, slowly covering the skies, was concerning, to say the least.

But Sophia, uncaring of Mason Vex, glided down until she stood a mere 2 feet from the chained Axel.

She looked at him gently, and Axel gazed into her red eyes, countless emotions dancing there. But neither spoke.

Until Sophia slowly took a few steps forward, her face inches from his. She softly reached out and grabbed Axel's bloody face and pulled him into a hug.

Axel's bloody head pressed against her chest.

Tears fell from the Demon's eyes, and Sophia said, "I'm sorry… for what you went through."

After a heavy pause, she added, "But you know what this is… and you know what you have to do…"

She continued, almost in a pleading tone, "Axel, you know I'm not real. So… please wake up…"

The tortured runecaster pulled back; his expression fell as he muttered in question, "What?? what nonsense… are…."

Before he could finish or process Sophia's words, she added one last time, her voice broken, "And I am sorry for what is about to happen."

And then the sense of intense Deja vu hit his mind once more, but this time it was not the same feeling of Deja vu from the endlessly repeating loop of his torture sessions, rather a recalling of something else, and he remembered….

Those were the exact words uttered by the last wisp of the Original Axel's soul, which vanished after he completed his revenge against the Dusker family. [Chapter 598]

SNAP!!!

And then, finally, Axel's eyes snapped open to the reality he had been blinded to…

The Demon was not pinned to a wall with countless Iron Nails; in fact, he had not a single injury.

His clothes were fresh and pristine; only his four limbs were bound tightly with ropes pulling him in four directions, as his body remained lifted a meter above the ground of the dark chamber.

And despite his seemingly unharmed state, he was naturally within the same dark torture chamber. His rune circuit and mana pathways remained destroyed. His Runic eyes were unusable.

His power as a seeker, for both aspects, was sealed shut to that of a 1st-phase seeker.

Clap!!!

Clap!!!

Clap!!!

Then loud, singular theatrical applause reverberated through the dark, damp chamber.

Followed by the mocking laughter of Mason Vex, standing right in front: "Hahhahahahahahah…"

Only the echoing sound of Axel's torturer's gleeful chuckle could be heard. The Demon looked towards his enemy, who put him through hell, with an almost shattered gaze.

Mason Vex said between his laughter, "I not only put the most powerful of the Anti-Rune Element inside of you, but rather there was also the strongest hallucinogen created by the Dark elves injected into your blood."

Mason grinned, "But what is most fascinating about that Hallucinogen is that it ignites the greatest, the brightest of hope in one's mind if they are in despair. Do you understand, demon?"

"And guess what, for you who call yourself the Demon of Despair, there is no greater poison than the unrealistic and blinding hope…"

Mason continued, almost in a mocking but grandiose tone, speaking of the names of the ones who came to save in his illusory, hope-filled false realities,

"Damien, Daniel, Alric, Lucien, Heinz, Lumina, Vyra and then even the Flame Lord Poison Lord…"

"Last but not least, the one possibility that you hoped for most…. Sophia Evercrest, the Valkyrie…."

The Vex powerhouse paused for a short moment, and then continued with a malevolent grin, "It was so satisfying watching you find bliss, you daydreaming that the Valkyrie had come to save you, as she was also the woman you loved."

"Ah…. you poor little worthless Demonic worm…. I almost feel sorry…." Mason Vex kept on hurling insults towards Axel mercilessly, finding boundless joy in his enemy's misery.

But Axel did not seem to hear his words; his gaze fell to the black marble floor, and in that moment, Axel Nomrad—the Absolute Runecaster—the Demon of Despair realised that…

No one was coming to save him.

Not his mighty Grandfather,

Not some mysterious powerhouse,

Not his family,

Not his friends,

Nor the women he loved and breathed for….

No luck would grace him.

No miracle would befall him.

No mighty force like the Prime Nexus would rescue him.

So, his mind broke, and he began to laugh… for the insanity of absolute despair had already taken hold of him.

"hahhah"

"Ahahahahhahah"

"heh,… hehh ahahahahahhshs"

Tears of blood crawled out of his eyes, sliding down his cheeks. Tears and laughter ran down his pale face.

Then whispers echoed in his ears, voiced by Prime Nexus….

[Your Will has broken]

[Your Demonic Psyche has been corroded and torn]

[You have been encroached completely by the Sin of Eternal Despair]

[You have experienced the true depth of despair]

[Your Soul Sanctum has been heavily damaged due to your broken mind]

[Your foundation as a Seeker has become unstable…]

[You have regressed to become an initial-3rd-phase Seeker]

But Axel had already lost his mind; he neither heard the words nor cared. He only laughed like the madman he had degraded to.

Seeing that the Runecaster had lost his mind, Mason stopped talking; the grin on his face had become unnaturally wide, for he had managed to break the mind of the monster that murdered his two sons and countless family members.

He blissfully took in the sight of his enemies' overflowing madness that ruined the Demon.

Perhaps no human in history could boast of making a true Demon lose his sanity.

Mason shook his head and said, "Well, since you have already lost your mind, I will give you half an hour of rest; maybe your mind heals by that time, and I hope it does. So that I can come back in half an hour to continue your mental torture, Axel Nomrad."

Creak!!!

Shut!!

As Mason left, only the maddened Axel remained tied by his four limbs, but his laughter and bloody black tears did not stop.

His haunting, insane laughter continued to echo through the Dark Chamber, with no sign of stopping.

In fact, his laughter steadily rose in pitch as the minutes passed, turning into a guttural, inhuman screeching echo.

But in the end, even his laughter stopped… almost as if he didn't even have enough energy for that.

Huff

Huffff

Hah huf…

Axel breathed in and out loudly, out of breath, his face a twisted mixture of tears, blood and snot.

Slowly, Axel pulled his head up, arching his neck and looking towards one corner of the room, and he said, almost in an exhausted tone,

"It was you, wasn't it? You did all this…"

"You made me like this…"

"You manipulated the events to turn out exactly at this point…"

"YOU MANIPULATED MY FATE…"

There was no one to answer, only his own broken voice reverberating through the Dark room.

Eventually, a dark figure walked out of the chamber's shadows, as if they'd been there from the very start. The Dark figure morphed into Sophia's exact visage, except her face was visible, as if a dark veil covered the entity's face.

She spoke, her voice also the same as that of Sophia's, her tone almost soulless, "Yes… I did…"

"Why????" asked Axel, his tone bitter and desperate.

The entity responded, "I think you already know why; you walked down the path of a forbidden power that should not be touched, the Demonic powers of Eternal Sin that should not be used."

"You messed with the timeline, interfered in every single scenario. With everyone's lives."

"You are an Anomaly that should not exist."

"You were supposed to be a mere worthless Extra to the story, but you wanted to be a main character."

"You are the Extra who wanted to become the Demon King…"

"Deluding yourself into thinking that you are some predestined saviour in the guise of Evil, deluding yourself for a destiny that was never yours…"

"And you wanted to have someone who does not belong to you, someone who was beyond your reach…"

She paused for a moment, but then continued once more in a heavy tone,

"You are nothing but a parasite latching onto Sophia, and the only reason you exist in this world is that the Valkyrie took pity on you, sacrificing a part of her potential and suffering for more than 100,000 years, over countless reincarnations, just to bring a trash like you here, into this continent."

The Entity's voice turned inhumane and dark. "In fact, that was your greatest fault: trying to derail the destiny of Sophia Evercrest, because unlike you, she is destined for a greater purpose beyond your comprehension."

"While you… were meant to die a rotting death…."

She took a step closer and stated in a chilling tone,

"Sophia is special… far more special than what you can ever hope to be…"

"As such, for your countless transgressions, you must pay the appropriate price… Tyler Cross."