Asmodeus System: Stealing My Bully's Mother

​The majestic strains of waltz music from the Golden Hall echoed faintly, bleeding through the thick marble walls of the corridor. Inside, hundreds of nobles were dancing and raising their glasses to celebrate the Crown Prince.

​Yet, a mere dozen meters away from that splendor... in a dark alcove behind the giant statue of the academy’s founder, the Fire Queen was tearing down the last remnants of her dignity.

​Kaelia von Ashford knelt on the freezing stone floor.

​Her small silver tiara sat askew. Her maroon gown had slipped messily off her shoulders. The girl hugged Ethan Valen’s legs tightly, burying her face into his stomach as she sobbed uncontrollably.

​"It burns... My Master... please help me..." Kaelia babbled. Her breathing was ragged, her body shivering as violently as a dying person.

​Every time Prince Edward had touched her at the banquet, his pure Light affinity triggered a brutal, violently rejecting reaction from the Lust Brand implanted in her womb.

​For Kaelia’s body, which had now been calibrated by dark energy, the touch of holy light was no different from a glowing iron searing her internal organs.

​Watching a Duke’s heir crying and begging at his feet, Ethan smirked.

​He glanced down the corridor, ensuring no patrol knights were passing by. Then, he looked down and grabbed Kaelia’s red hair.

​"Craving my touch, Fire Queen?" Ethan whispered. He pulled the girl’s face, forcing her to look up.

​"Yes... ahh... only yours... not that Prince’s..." Kaelia sobbed. Her golden eyes were clouded by an intoxicating blend of lust and agony.

​Wasting no time, Ethan pressed his palm flat against Kaelia’s lower stomach, bypassing the layers of her gown entirely.

​WHOOSH!

​A surge of Rank B Sin Mana erupted from Ethan’s palm. The dense energy brutally infiltrated the girl’s womb chakra.

​An incredibly intoxicating, freezing sensation instantly flooded Kaelia’s mana circuit. Extinguishing the agonizing burn from Edward’s light magic in a matter of seconds.

​In its place, the demonic pheromones ignited Kaelia’s nerves with a wave of euphoria a thousand times more intense.

​"NGHHH...!"

​Kaelia nearly screamed out loud. But Ethan clamped his hand over her mouth with lightning speed.

​Kaelia’s eyes blew wide open. Her tears fell once more, though this time purely out of ecstasy. Her body arched rigidly like a drawn bow, and her fingers clutched Ethan’s coat until her knuckles turned white.

​The reality that they were engaging in this obscene act in an academy corridor—separated by a single wall from the hall where her future husband was mingling—delivered an insane shot of adrenaline.

​Kaelia’s sanity crumbled into nothingness. She had truly become an absolute slave to this dark energy.

​After a few minutes that felt like an eternity to Kaelia, Ethan slowly pulled his hand away.

​Kaelia slumped limply. She rested her head against Ethan’s knee, her breathing steady and her face radiating absolute satisfaction.

​The torture of pure light had vanished, replaced by an addiction taking deeper root at the very bottom of her soul.

​"Feeling better now, my servant?" Ethan asked casually. His fingers smoothed out Kaelia’s messy hair.

​"Y-yes, My Master... thank you..." Kaelia whispered faintly. She kissed the back of Ethan’s hand with profound gratitude.

​Ethan leaned back against the statue’s pedestal. His eyes assessed Kaelia. "You spent two hours at the table of honor with your prince. What did that arrogant bastard talk about?"

​Kaelia looked up. She tried to piece her logic back together as the Student Council President.

​"Prince Edward... he certainly looks like a man who only cares about his ego and women, My Master," Kaelia reported. Her voice still trembled slightly. "But behind that arrogant smile, he harbors severe political paranoia."

​Kaelia swallowed hard. "He doesn’t believe a word of your victory over Kurt Rosenberg."

​Ethan raised an eyebrow slightly. "Oh? He suspects me?"

​"Not in the sense that he suspects you of using demonic magic," Kaelia hurriedly clarified. "The Prince believes you are a secret pawn deliberately raised by the royal opposition faction to humiliate the Northern Faction. He detests any anomaly he can’t control within his territory."

​Kaelia took a soft breath, tightening her embrace around Ethan’s legs. "While we were dancing earlier... I overheard him whispering to his personal aide. The Prince has deployed the Palace Shadow Unit. The Light Guard intelligence."

​"Intelligence?" Ethan clicked his tongue. "Tch. They won’t find a single trace in this academy. Isolde has already wiped my records clean."

​"They aren’t investigating the academy, My Master," Kaelia countered. She looked up at Ethan with a worried expression. "The Prince deployed them to your hometown. To the Eastern Borderlands. To the Barony von Valen."

​THUMP!

​The air in the corridor abruptly stopped flowing.

​The room’s temperature plummeted drastically to an absurd degree, far surpassing the cold of pure ice magic.

​Kaelia, who was hugging Ethan’s legs, jerked backward. Her body shivered violently as she felt a massive, murderous pressure erupting from the young man before her.

​The arrogant smirk that always adorned Ethan’s face... vanished without a trace.

​His brown eyes refracted a crimson red so dense, so incredibly dark. It radiated pure wrath dragged straight from the depths of hell.

​Witnessing that instantaneous shift, Kaelia held her breath.

​In the time she had known Ethan, he was always calm. Always in absolute control, even when facing a Sovereign Mage or a Master Knight.

​Yet that single mention of a location... had just awakened something far, far more terrifying within him.

​"The Eastern... Borderlands?" Ethan whispered.

​His voice was impossibly soft, barely a wisp of wind. Yet its vibration was saturated with absolute killing intent.

​Within the silence of his mind, the memories he had kept tightly padlocked suddenly shattered his mental barriers.

​Barony von Valen. A lowest-caste noble family that had gone bankrupt and been utterly ruined. His father and mother had died long ago at the border, leaving behind a mountain of debt from greedy high nobles.

​Ethan didn’t care about his noble title. He didn’t give a damn about his family name.

​The only thing he cared about in this world—the sole reason he was willing to swallow his pride and endure the humiliation of being F-Caste trash for months just for the scholarship’s gold coins—was someone he had left behind.

​Elara Valen.

​His little sister.

​The image of a fourteen-year-old girl with pale brown hair and a pair of eyes that had lost their light flashed in Ethan’s mind.

​Elara suffered from Stagnant Mana Syndrome—a congenital mana circuit paralysis that made her body incredibly fragile and rendered her completely blind.

​Currently, Elara was being cared for in a Holy Sanatorium run by a secluded monastery in the Eastern Borderlands. The mana crystal medication required just to suppress the girl’s pain cost an exorbitant amount. Ethan was Elara’s sole protector and provider.

​To Ethan, Elara was his anchor to sanity. The final sacred boundary preventing him from becoming a completely heartless monster.

​And now... Prince Edward had sent intelligence forces there?

​If the palace’s Light Guard arrived at the Sanatorium, it would take them a mere five minutes to discover Elara’s existence. Five minutes... before Edward realized he could use his blind sister as a political hostage to control or destroy him.

​That was a red line no one was allowed to cross. Not even a God.

​[SYSTEM WARNING! Host’s Emotional Fluctuation has Reached Critical Levels!]

​[Forced Activation of Sin Mana detected. Risk of aura leakage: High.]

​Ethan closed his eyes. He took a tremendously deep breath, forcefully wrestling his chaotic mana circuit back into a state of calm.

​The air in the corridor slowly returned to normal, though Kaelia was still shaking with fear as she looked at him.

​"My Master... i-is there something in the Eastern Borderlands?" Kaelia asked timidly.

​Ethan opened his eyes. His gaze was once again as cold as eternal ice. He leaned down, grabbed Kaelia by both shoulders, and yanked the girl to her feet.

​"Kaelia, listen to my commands carefully," Ethan hissed. He stared straight through the Fire Queen’s golden eyes.

​"Go back to the hall. Put on your sweetest smile. Dance with him, seduce him if you must. Keep that damn prince in this academy for as long as possible. Do not let him receive any letters or reports from the outside tonight or tomorrow."

​Receiving an absolute command delivered in such a lethal tone, Kaelia’s subjugated soul responded instantly. The girl placed a hand firmly over her heart.

​"I-I understand, My Master! I will divert all of the Prince’s attention. Even if I have to swallow poison, I won’t let a single palace owl anywhere near him."

​"Good," Ethan stated coldly. "Now go."

​Kaelia immediately smoothed out her gown, reset her arrogant mask, and half-ran back toward the Golden Hall. Leaving Ethan alone in the corridor, which now felt infinitely darker.

​The moment Kaelia disappeared from sight, Ethan turned around. He walked briskly toward the exterior grounds of the Main Tower.

​His strides were no longer relaxed. There was a lethal urgency in every step. He didn’t have time. The palace’s Light Guard intelligence rode high-tier magical steeds; they might have already covered half the distance to the Eastern Borderlands.

​System, Ethan called out internally. His mental voice was as cold as a sword’s blade. Open the Asmodeus Shop.

​A blood-red holographic screen exploded across his retinas. This was the first time Ethan was using the points earned from his subjugations to purchase a utility ability, rather than raw power.

​[ASMODEUS SHOP (Rank B Unlocked)]

​Available Points: 1,250 Points (Isolde & Kaelia Subjugation + Alaric Drain)

​I need mobility. Something that can carry me across provinces tonight without triggering the capital’s radar, Ethan demanded of the system.

​The crimson screen scrolled rapidly, displaying rows of ancient skills before finally stopping on a single, absolute choice.

​[Item/Skill Found: Abyssal Stride]

​Type: Active Skill (High Sin Mana Consumption)

​Price: 1,000 Points

​Description: Manipulates shadows to bypass physical space (Short-Range Teleportation). At Rank B, the Host can traverse a distance of 50 kilometers in a single leap from shadow to shadow. Leaves behind no elemental mana trace.

​Risk: Consecutive usage will place an extreme burden on the Host’s physical circuit.

​"Buy it," Ethan commanded without a second of hesitation.

​[Transaction Successful. Abyssal Stride integrated into the Host’s circuit.]

​Ethan felt a searing sting spread through both his legs. Small black runes materialized, swirling around his ankles for a brief moment before vanishing beneath his skin.

​Ethan halted his steps right at the outermost boundary of the academy’s magical ward.

​Before him, an endless expanse of snow-covered pine forests stretched out, separating the Zenithar territory from the main highway leading to the Eastern Borderlands.

​The night wind blew through his messy brown hair. Ethan’s crimson eyes glared piercingly through the darkness, picturing the faces of the palace troops currently riding toward his sister’s Sanatorium.

​[Sin Concealment: Activated]

​Ethan’s entire presence was erased from the physical world.

​"You dare touch my anchor..." Ethan whispered to the freezing night wind. "...I will rip your lives out by the roots."

​SWOOSH!

​Ethan stepped into the shadow of the nearest pine tree.

​The very next second, his body melted entirely into the darkness, leaping tens of kilometers away in a single breath.

​The Demon Lord’s night of bloody hunting... had just begun.