"Why are you here?"
Hearing him, she curled her enticing red lips in playful amusement. "Fufu, you’ve exactly turned into the creature I wanted you to be. You’re ready to become a full-fledged devil."
Egon frowned. "What do you mean?"
She glanced at the unconscious Vienna, then back at Egon.
"Because of your extreme resentment toward your past life, you developed a strong devil seed inside you. So I thought it would be a waste to let you die. I sent you into this Journeyman realm to nurture that devil seed. And now I see the signs that it has matured very well inside your body. Once I send you to the Devil World, you will become a full-fledged devil."
Egon didn’t like the tone of it. None of it.
"Was he being played by her hand when he thought she was his savior?"
"I am not a devil. I don’t want to be a devil."
She laughed, touching her lips. "Fufu, you already are, my minion. Look at her. Look at all the people around you. All of their souls are bound by your chains. And yet you still deny it?"
Egon’s voice rose. "No, you’re wrong. I only did this to keep myself safe. To survive. I had no other options."
He looked a little unstable now.
She snickered with contempt. "Of course you had options. You just chose the easy way. Just like a true devil."
"But they love me. They said they will always be with me. They would never betray me," he uttered, clutching his head as if his world was crushing down.
"Ha ha ha, they love you? You’re so delusional," she mocked ruthlessly. "If you even break the chains binding them, you will see their true personalities. They never loved you, Egon Novos. No one loves you. A devil can never be truly loved. A devil always enslaves others for their amusement. Just like you."
"No. No. No. No." Egon rolled on the ground as if he had gone mad.
"I’M NOT A DEVIL! I DON’T WANT TO GO ANYWHERE," he hissed strongly, making the very room rumble.
She leaned close, her breath hot against his ear.
"Look at yourself, how pathetic! Vienna clings because your chains wrapped around her soul so tightly she can’t breathe without your permission. Noella kneels because you broke her pride and rebuilt it in your image. Barbara licks the floor because you turned shame into craving. And the slaves? They obey because freedom is a carrot you dangle just out of reach. Not one of them chose you freely. Not one."
Egon’s knees buckled. He caught himself on the cold floor, palms pressing hard enough to turn his knuckles white. Every word sliced deeper than the last.
He saw flashes of Vienna’s adoring gaze after he claimed her, Noella’s trembling surrender, Barbara’s eager tongue on the hardwood. He had told himself it was for his protection, survival, necessity.
But the goddess’s ruthless words broke every beliefs he had.
"Even In your old life on Earth, did anyone truly love you? Your parents died too soon to see what you became. Your friends drifted away when you stopped being useful. Your crush Aluna felt digusted when she looked at your old face.
You were always alone, Egon. Always reaching for something that never quite touched you. And now? You’ve simply dressed that loneliness in slavery and called it loyalty."
He clutched his head harder, nails digging into his scalp until blood trickled between his fingers.
Buzz!
The room seemed to darken as something dark, hungry inside him writhed and stretched, pressing against the confines of his ribs.
His heartbeat slowed to a deep, ominous thud.
Then, horns of shadow began to sprout from his temples, thin and curling. His eyes change colour from hazel to burning crimson.
He was changing.
He could feel it. The devil seed was blooming, and its roots sinking into every vein, every thought.
The part of him that had whispered justifications for years now roared. Why fight it? If no one ever loved him freely, why pretend otherwise? Better to rule. Better to own. Better to never be abandoned again.
The goddess watched just him with proud satisfaction. "Yes, yes. M there it is. Let it finish. Become what you were always meant to be."
"Ahhh!"
Egon’s body convulsed. Black veins crawled up his neck. His fingers lengthened into claws. The transformation accelerated, pain and power twisting together until he could no longer tell which was which.
But just them, two figures appeared at the edge of his vision quietly with gentle smiles.
They were faint, translucent, like memories given shape. His father stood tall despite the years that had bent him in life, broad shoulders squared, eyes steady. Beside him, his mother smiled the same soft, tired smile she used to give when he scraped his knees or cried over nightmares.
They looked exactly as they had the last morning he saw them alive, before the accident, before the rapid aging sickness, before the resentment that had festered into this moment.
His father spoke to him first, calm and deep, the same tone that used to read bedtime stories.
"You’re still our boy, Egon. Always have been."
His mother stepped closer. Her hand impossibly warm for a ghost brushed his cheek even though nothing physical touched him.
"You were never alone, sweetheart. Not then. Not now. We see you. We’ve always seen you."
Egon’s heart trembled. The black veins on his arms stuttered, and retreated an inch.
His father continued,
"You protected your sister when we couldn’t, My son. You survived when the world tried to break you. You built something from nothing. That’s not a devil’s work. That’s a man’s work. A Hero’s work."
His mother knelt beside him, voice gentle as summer wind.
"You made mistakes. You hurt people to keep yourself safe. But you can still choose differently. You don’t have to become the thing that hurt you. You can be brave. You can be kind. You can be the protector we always knew you would grow into."
Tears burned Egon’s eyes. The crimson in his irises flickered, dimming back toward hazel. The budding horns crumbled into ash. The claws retracted. The black tide inside him receded.
The are not gone, but pushed back, held at bay by something warmer, stronger.
The goddess hissed in fury. "No! You cannot reject it! The seed is mature! You belong to the abyss!"
Egon lifted his head, showing a terryfying calmness.
"I belong to no one."
The spectral figures of his parents smiled, then faded like mist under sunlight. But they were proud and loving.
Then a soft chime rang inside Egon’s mind, familiar yet different from any system notification he had received before.
[System Notice]
[New Main Skill Acquired: Heart of Balance]
[ Description: The rarest convergence of polarities. Allows the bearer to maintain equilibrium between Light and Darkness within themselves and others. Grants dual affinity: Holy Light and Abyssal Darkness, two of the most elusive elemental affinities in the Journeyman Realm. The bearer may now temper corruption, heal what was broken, destroy what must be destroyed, and most importantly choose freely without compulsion from either extreme.]
[ Passive Effect: Devil Seed permanently stabilized. ]
[ Warning: Balance is fragile. Every choice will tip the scale. Choose wisely ]
Egon exhaled long and slow. The room now felt lighter. The goddess of mischief was in rage that twisted her features into something monstrous before she vanished in a puff of black smoke.
Her final words: "We will meet again, Egon Novos."
Egon looked down at Vienna who was still unconscious, breathing softly.
For the first time, he saw her not as a possession, not as a tool, not as a chain.
He saw her as a person.
So will he break the Soul Binding even after knowing the painful consequences?