Chapter 89

“The devil’s malice.”

Lloyd muttered softly, referring to the great power running through his body.

A sigh resembling smoke leaked from his lips.

“It is a power that transcends the limits of human beings. With this alone, I think I can rule the world, and I feel like I can be a god.”

Right? Lloyd asked sarcastically, and a sluggish smile spread across his lips.

“I kept pretending not to, and it seems that this power was so coveted.”

The pitiful eyes are directed towards the gutter rat.

It was an obvious provocation. If the gutter rat had the strength to hold the sword firmly and wield it, it was enough distance to pierce Lloyd’s heart.

Lloyd stood with his arms wide open. As Lloyd taunted him openly, the gutter rat grimaced and murmured grimly.

“Don’t regret it, you devil.”

The gutter rat crawled on the floor with its broken ribs.

With all his energy, he laid down on the magic circle shimmering in five colors and began to chant familiar spells. In the past four years, it was a forbidden magic that he used countless times to steal energy.

“Still, it’s difficult if you die because you’re the famous Grand Prince in name. I’ll let you live generously. If there’s no devil’s malice in you anyway, it’s just a shell.”

The gutter rat was well aware of what happened to the successive Grand Dukes who passed on the power of the devil to his descendants.

Yes, they all disappeared halfway through and died. No matter how tight Valentine’s secrets were, if their tail was long, it would be trampled on.

‘This bastard must be the same. If you take away the devil’s malice, you will live with a tainted body and go crazy for the rest of your life.’

Isn’t it funny?

If Lloyd acted arrogantly like that now, he’d go crazy anyway. It will be in his 30s or 40s, no matter how long he lived with the devil’s malice.

“But look. I’m not your Valentine.”

The gutter rat barely got up from the floor, and then let out a squeaky laugh.

“I have an immortal body that never dies even if you kill me. Besides, it’s already contaminated, so there’s no reason to go crazy.”

As for the gutter rat, he could be sure that he was the closest to the ‘evil’ among artificially created creatures. So, he was more confident than anyone else that he would harmonize well with the devil’s malice. He was confident that he wouldn’t be ruined like the Valentines.

“I don’t need to pass on the malice by giving birth to a child. Doesn’t it seem like it’s just power for me?”

So, in the end, he would only take the merits of malice and not all the disadvantages. The gutter rat intended to harbor the devil’s malice for the rest of his life. And he intended, as Lloyd said, to become a god and dominate over this world.

‘For that, I cooperated with the Emperor.’

The gutter rat opened his mouth to swear allegiance for the rest of his life as long as the Emperor helped. He was a foolish Emperor who was always ignorant of Valentine’s arrogance and trembled upon it, so he was able to get his consent right away.

Of course, he was going to kill the Emperor right away if he could only win the devil’s malice.

“Kukkuk, this works.”

At that moment, something inside Lloyd’s body began to bubble and bloom like a mist.

It was then that Aria learned for the first time that they could transfer the devil’s malice into another person’s body.

‘But if that’s the case, Lloyd must be…… !’

Assuming that contamination begins the moment Lloyd embraces the malice, there is a high probability that he will go crazy as soon as that power escapes. Or become a handful of ashes.

Aria almost stopped running to him.

Had Lloyd not smile as if to reassure her when their gaze met suddenly.

“As expected, the devil’s malice is like energy. That person was right!”

It is possible to steal it!

Absolute power to rule the world! The gutter rat got the power he had been longing for all his life, and burst into laughter as if he couldn’t be happier than this.

The endlessly wriggling black mass, the devil’s malice, the tip touched the gutter rat’s body.

‘Now just accept this!’

But the moment he opened his mouth wide as if tearing it apart and burst into laughter, the gutter rat melted helplessly.

“Huh……?”

His body collapsed.

It slipped and flowed.

‘This…… what?’

The gutter rat wanted to speak, but he could no longer carry on his words.

Because his mouth is gone.

He was unable to smell the blood vibrating everywhere.

Because his nose was gone.

No sound could be heard.

Because his ears are gone.

‘This is…… The devil’s malice?’

No, no.

The gutter rat thought as he disappeared from the inside and crumbled.

‘It’s like purifying me…….’

A movement that goes against the providence of the world and seems to erase the existence of a chimera that should not exist.

Eventually, he could no longer think. It wasn’t just the body.

Everything that made him up shattered to ashes and scattered and disappeared.

And there was nothing left in its place.

“No, crazy, nonsense…!”

The Emperor jumped up from his seat and let out a scream. It turned into ashes in an instant and evaporated? Then our plan?!

What will happen to him who was left alone?

‘The stench of the gutter rat has disappeared.’

Totally, without a trace.

Aria also opened her mouth, and she couldn’t accept the situation for a while. But she jumped out and ran quickly to Lloyd’s side.

– Lloyd!

Aria, with tears in her eyes, reached her hand towards him.

She blamed herself for being hesitant to hold his hand so far, swinging his hand away and avoiding him.

If you’re alive, if you’re by my side, that’s all…….

“Ah.”

But this time, Lloyd pushed Aria away.

She wasn’t even pushed out in the first place. He reflexively stretched out his hand, but she just went and bumped into it.

On the contrary, Lloyd himself was very surprised.

“I haven’t been able to fully capture my strength yet…”

However, there was nothing like fog protruding from Lloyd’s body as he said that. He looked down at his palm, clenched his fists until his tendons bulged out and repeated it out.

And he said in a suppressed voice, without giving Aria his gaze.

“…It’s getting back. I think I’ll have to stay and have a more honest conversation with the Emperor.”

Honest conversation.

The Emperor’s body, who had been stunned by those words, trembled greatly. He coughed in vain as if he had never howled at the gutter rat when he got up, shaking in his spot.

“You have cleared the hordes of evil that have invaded the Imperial Palace! You have made a remarkable achievement! Today’s work will be rewarded by myself soon… Gasp!”

The sword, which had been actively used before, was hung under the Emperor’s neck. As if it had been that color from the beginning, it was dyed very bright red.

“What, what is this! It’s treason!”

“It would have been more convenient if it was like this earlier.”

Lloyd mumbled and knocked down every single knight with his sword, stunned them.

Again, as Aria expected, it was an honest sword conversation.

“What do you think, Your Majesty? The world almost came to an end due to the cooperation between Your Majesty and the gutter rat.”

“Huuuhh, uhk! Save, save me!”

“I saved the world unintentionally again. As Your Majesty said, I guess it’s the fate of a hero I’m born with.”

It seemed that every breath he breathed was filled with pessimistic energy.

Lloyd held the sword to the Emperor’s neck, but he seemed unimpressed. He had neither anger nor revenge for the betrayal.

He just looked very tired.

With eyes as empty as the Lloyds that Aria had seen in her past life.

‘Ah.’

This is the future she wanted to change so much.

Of course, the future and the situation were completely different, but Aria’s heart was moved by the fact that he had those eyes.

‘It was going well.’

Actually, she was going to make sure it worked out no matter what.

Aria didn’t take her eyes off the Emperor who had brought the incident to this point. The cold gaze pierced like an arrow.

“Let’s listen to the conditions slowly.”

Lloyd turned his head to look back at Aria.

She didn’t say anything. However, she sends a gaze that seems to suggest that it would be better to retreat for the sake of mental and physical health.

She wondered if he was trying to torture the Emperor, though.

Aria had no choice but to back away by nodding her head.

***

“Ah, the Valentine’s carriage over there…”

A black carriage engraved with the crest of a black hawk symbolizing Valentine.

Veronica looked out of the carriage and muttered sadly.

Then the cardinal, who was looking at the documents next to her, asked a question as if puzzled.

“Why are you looking for Valentine, Saint?”

“They have been taking care of Brother Gabriel for several years. Still, if we meet at the Imperial Palace, I’d like to meet and talk with him at least once.”

Why don’t we stay one more day and then go.

Veronica muttered as if she was sorry. Then the cardinal smiled and said as if passing by.

“I can’t help it. Something like that happened in the Imperial Palace.”

Something like that? Veronica, who had not yet heard the news, asked again and tilted her head.

“It is said that the gutter rat has invaded the Imperial Palace. After coveting Valentine’s power.”

“Oh my, that’s…”

The cardinal relayed the rumors that had now spread throughout the imperial palace. In fact, it was a rumor that exactly matched the actual situation, except that the Emperor had cooperated with the gutter rat to take part in it.

He said while clicking his tongue.

“It’s funny. Do they think the body of a blasphemous chimera that completely defies the will of God can receive divine power…”

“Divine power?”

Divine power over the devil’s malice?

Veronica had no choice but to ask that.

Then the cardinal, who had been confiding in her unconsciously, stiffened. He had made a mistake, and then he quickly shook his head.

“No, nothing.”

So the conversation was cut off.

‘Divine power?’

But Veronica never listened to the words the cardinal had inadvertently spat out.

She decided to engrave it in her head once.

‘More than that.’

Chimera. A living being that can live by taking in all kinds of energy and blood and changing the body. Although the gutter rat seems to have failed. The attempt itself wasn’t bad.

‘In the meantime, it seemed like I was going to get the hang of it.’

Now, she knows for sure.

What should she do next?