I stepped out of the Ravena Mansion's front doors, the cool air hitting my face as I glanced back one last time.
Lothair walked ahead, her steps steady on the gravel path.
She then paused a few meters out and raised her hand.
A small rift tore open in the air, no bigger than a window, shimmering with faint purple light.
Lothair reached inside without a second thought and drew out a rolled scroll, sealed with a dark wax stamp.
She tucked it under her arm and turned to me.
"We are heading to a friend's place," she said, her voice calm as always. "She has worked out a method to turn you into a demon—or something close enough to it. Just you and me for this visit, however. Surreal and Anatuya will be in charge of handling our places when we're absent."
I nodded, but the question had been building since yesterday.
"You still have not explained what Eisheth the Cosmic Savant has to do with any of this, or the exact reason why do I need to become a demon at all.""
Lothair's eyes met mine for a beat, shining a smile, "I will cover that once we arrive."
I'm not comfortable in the slightest.
I looked over my shoulder again.
Anatuya's wave turned into a playful salute, and even Surreal lifted her hand just a fraction—enough to count as a goodbye.
I turned back as Lothair unrolled the scroll slightly, her fingers tracing a line along its edge.
Energy pulsed from her palm, a thick, oily glow that looked like Demonic Essence.
"Ah, this will be your first time with Teleportation Scroll," Lothair stated with an amused expression.
The ground beneath us lit up with a wide magic circle, lines etching themselves into the stone. Another circle hung in the air five meters above, spinning slowly.
It happened in a blink. The world folded around us, and I stumbled forward, my stomach twisting from the sudden shift.
When I caught my balance, we stood in a new place entirely.
Ruins stretched out under a gray sky, broken pillars leaning like forgotten teeth.
Skulls and bones dotted the cold, smooth granite floor—some cracked, others staring up with empty sockets.
Scary wind scavenging through the cracks, carrying a faint chill that sank into my bones.
A figure waited at the far end of the open space, tall and still as a statue. She wore a ragged cloak over clothes that mixed style with exposure—tight fabric hugging her curves, leaving strips of pale bluish skin bare along her arms and midriff.
Long white hair fell straight to her waist, framing a face with gleaming blue eyes set against dark sclera. Stitches ran along the edges of her mouth, pulling her lips into a perpetual half-smile that made her beauty feel sharp, like a warning.
It hit me then—all the demons I had met since Lothair pulled me here were women, each one striking and beautiful in her own way.
Even Anatuya, despite being a raging pervert, fit the pattern.
I shook off the thought as Lothair stepped forward.
"This is Hayja the Ravenous Reaper," she said, gesturing to the woman. "The friend I mentioned. She will handle your demonization."
I swallowed and forced a steady voice. No point fighting the current—I had no power to push back yet.
"I am Mesmer Valentine. Nice to meet you."
Hayja tilted her head, one hand rising to caress her chin.
"A surname," she murmured, her voice deep and guttural, echoing like it came from a cave. "That marks you as noble by the demonic standard."
The words she created despite being freed of malicious intent, they rolled over me, heavy and oppressive, like standing before death itself.
I gripped the edge of my dress to keep my hands from shaking.
Lothair glanced at me and placed a light hand on my shoulder. "She does not bite—no need to worry."
Hayja's expression stayed expressionless, showing less than Surreal's blank stare, but without the odd eccentricity that made Surreal feel like an unpredictable force of nature.
She nodded once, as if reading my tension. "The intimidation you feel comes from my Demonic Essence. It bleeds out more than I intended."
I straightened up, meeting her eyes despite the weight in my chest. "What does that mean, exactly?"
Lothair answered before Hayja could, "Demonic Essence takes different forms and traits based on how a demon gathers and processes it inside their heart—or whatever organ serves that role in their body.
"Hayja's method builds a violent strain, the kind suited for killing and weaving complex spells meant to be used in a grand scale. It pushes outward on instinct, overwhelming anything alive nearby. That is why she feels so... pressing, even by just talking like normal."
Hayja crossed her arms, the stitches on her mouth shifting slightly as she spoke. "The side effect of my essence processing—it seeks to dominate those around me without my say. I apologize for the discomfort. It is not aimed at you."
I waved it off, though my pulse still raced. "No need. I am fine."
Hayja turned to Lothair, her blue eyes steady yet somehow impatient. "Is it all right to explain the demonization process to her now?"
Lothair nodded once. "Tell her what she needs to know."
Hayja stepped closer, her cloak brushing the granite. "I have set up a magic circle to reshape your body. It will adjust your body to hold and work with Demonic Essence, turning you into a Demon—or close to one.
"The process stays painless for the most part. You might notice a heightened sense of desire afterward—that is just the intrinsic pull of demon nature coming through. And there could be changes to your appearance, though that is not guaranteed. It depends on how your body takes the shift."
I took a breath, the words sinking in heavy.
Everything felt too big, too fast, now that it was about me and my future.
"Will this awaken my Ego too? Like how demons get theirs right at birth…?"
Hayja considered me for a moment, her voice steady as she replied.
"There is a strong chance, yes. If luck runs against you and it does not happen right away, you will still awaken one much sooner as a demon than you ever would have as a human. The Essence speeds those things along, and it is merely the nature of Demon to grasp upon their own Ego as quickly as possible."
Lothair cut in smoothly, her gaze sharp on me. "I can tell you have been dying to hear the full reason behind this. Why push you into demonhood at all."
I met her eyes, my jaw tight.
"You are right. My humanity is not something I should give up lightly, and I really don't want my demonization to be merely for a trivial reason."
Lothair raised her hand again, and another small portal ripped open beside her.
She reached in and pulled out a dagger—its blade long and curved, etched with patterns that pulsed like pink veins under skin.
She held it out for me to see, the handle wrapped in dark leather.
"This is Eisheth the Cosmic Savant's inheritance," she said. "One of many she left when she was alive. She prepared tools like this one to forge her own successor, in case death took her first. Which it did."
And to use the dagger or activate the inheritance, I need to have some level of compatibility with Demonic Essence, huh.
I eyed the dagger, caution twisting in my gut alongside the overwhelm.
A wry smile pulled at my lips anyway. "So you want me to step into that role? As her successor?"
Lothair's smile matched mine, soft but sure. "Yes."
I stared at her, disbelief flaring hot.
"Why me? Why push this on someone you barely know?"
She tilted her head, the portal closing with a faint snap behind her. "Eisheth was... eccentric, to put it mildly. Her methods, and her possible trials for a successor—they will carry a strangeness I have no interest in facing myself. Whatever tribulations she baked into this path, I would rather not walk them."
I crossed my arms, piecing it together quickly.
"But you still want what she left behind. The power that she had as the Cosmic Savant. That is why you picked me—put me under you as a stand-in successor. I handle the weird parts, and you get the benefits without the mess as you can still order me around as long as I haven't paid my debt to you."
Lothair's eyes lit with approval. "Sharp as ever, Mesmer. You see right through it!"
I pressed on, summing it up blunt. "So I am just a test subject for you!"
She nodded, her praise light but genuine. "Exactly. And a clever one at that!"
I threw my hands up, voice rising sharp.
"That does not make me feel any better! Stop praising me like it fixes this!"
Regardless of the intent, the demonization held upsides for me too, if I looked past the shock.
A real shot at awakening my Ego—right away, or at least faster than back on Earth, where it might never come.
Not only that, I will also be granted access to Demonic Essence itself, something the scientists in Athera tore their hair out trying to crack.
Demonic Essence stayed elusive by nature, hard to detect or pin down unless someone unleashed it outright in a spell or when enhancing one's own Ego, and that is through visible signs like oily shimmer and plasma formation.
Just like back then, I had felt Hayja's as raw power, oppressive and thick, without clocking it for what it was until now—maybe unless I was a fellow Demon.
And if the processing method shaped its traits that much, I could aim for something subtle—quiet enough to slip past Heroes unnoticed if I ever made it home.
A version that hid in plain sight among humans.
Hayja cleared her throat softly, drawing my eyes to the altar ahead.
It rose from the ruins' center, a flat slab of the same granite, carved top to bottom with overlapping magic circles that glowed faintly under the gray light. "This way, for your demonization."
I followed them over, my shoes crunching on scattered bones.
The center circle pulsed warmer as I stepped onto it, the lines under my feet dancing against my soles. I stood there, heart picking up, and glanced between them.
"You said this stays completely painless, right? No catches or anything you haven't mentioned yet?"
Hayja paused, her stitched mouth pressing thin as she thought. "Ah, right, I should clarify—it is not entirely without pain. The reshaping is brute force on a living body. I did not factor that in fully when I set it up. So, maybe it will feel really painful now that I think about it!"
I opened my mouth to push back, but the circles flared bright.
I'm fucked.
Energy rushed up from the ground, coiling tight around me.
Then it hit—sharp pain slicing through every inch of my being, like needles under my skin and fire in my veins.
"GYAAAAAAAA-"
I screamed to the top of my lungs.