It wasn't the simple, dusty space he'd expected.
It was lavish. Suspiciously so.
White marble shelves gleamed under the light, silver utensils lined up in perfect order, and the air was thick with the scent of rich spices — the kind one might find in a royal kitchen, not the home of a mad sorcerer.
Yet all that brilliance failed to distract him.
He began opening the cupboards one by one, eyes sharp and restless, until he finally found what he was looking for: water, a mop, and a small bag of salt.
He turned the bag over in his hands and murmured,
"You were a charlatan… so a little cleansing won't hurt. But honestly, I don't understand you. Why go this far? You should've drawn a line somewhere."
Letting out a slow breath, he returned to the room.
The smell of blood still lingered in the air, seeping into his senses like smoke. He approached the markings on the floor, tracing each curve with his eyes. Curiosity gnawed at him.
He reached out to touch the lines—
And without realizing it, a few crimson drops fell from his fingers onto the symbol.
He stepped back instinctively as the shape began to glow, faintly at first — then with a blinding intensity.
The blood had awakened it.
Moving quickly, Ren Yuan yanked the curtains shut, but the light still leaked through the cracks.
"This is insane," he whispered.
For a brief moment, he considered running — throwing himself out the window if he had to. Anything seemed safer than staying here.
But then the glow began to fade, slowly… until darkness reclaimed the room once more.
And just as he began to breathe again, a guttural voice broke the silence — hoarse and deep, as if rising from the depths of a well.
"You wretched fool… why did you wake me? Why would you do that?"
Ren Yuan's entire body trembled.
"Wh–who are you? I didn't do anything!"
Then, before his eyes, a shape took form — vaguely human, but wrong.
Four crimson eyes burned in the dark like smoldering coals, following him with unrelenting hatred. Long black hair spilled from its head in tangled waves, like twisted thorns radiating malice.
It had human arms — and only arms.
The rest of its body was something else entirely.
Massive wings folded around its form, feathers grinding against bone with a sickening, scraping sound.
Only its arms are human, Ren Yuan thought, frozen in horror. Everything else… isn't.
"…"
In a voice as rough as stones grinding inside a
deep well, the creature spoke,
"Pathetic human… what do you mean by that foolish question? You are the one who summoned me."
Ren Yuan shook his head violently, as if trying to throw the words out of his ears.
"No… I didn't!" His eyes darted toward the window, and he took a cautious step back.
It wasn't him—
it was the charlatan.
His breathing grew shallow and fast.
He wasn't thinking anymore—just instincts.
Run, or jump, anything to get away from this nightmare.
He whispered to himself, clinging to a desperate excuse,
"I didn't think it would work… that fraud actually did something right for once."
The creature drew closer, its four eyes unblinking, glowing with cold contempt.
"Pathetic fool," it spat the word like venom.
"You draed me here by force… perhaps you hit your head during the ritual, that would explain your confusion. Look at you—like a shattered "
Then it leaned down, a chilling smile curling across its face—a smile that stole the warmth from the air.
"I wonder… if I killed you now, what would I do with your corpse? Worthless… but I could always eat you alive."
The demon ranted with feverish hunger, its voice crawling up from the pit of hell, filling the room with the scent of scorched ashes.
Ren Yuan wanted to scream that he'd taste terrible—but no sound came out.
The creature grinned, revealing a row of jaed, black-stained teeth.
"You tried to summon me twice before… and failed, like the rest of your kind. Useless cripple. But this third time… you succeeded."
It laughed softly, a sound like nails being hammered into a coffin.
"How pathetic… to fail twice. Still, you should be grateful the fates allowed me to answer you, wretch."
Then it went still.
Its four eyes roamed over him—slowly, deliberately—peeling him apart with every glance.
Finally, it whispered, as if the thought had just crawled into its mind,
"But why is your soul… unstable? There's something different about you."
It took a step forward. Then another.
Until it was close enough for Ren Yuan to feel its scorching breath.
His eyes flicked toward its hands—
not hands, really.
The nails were long, thin, and sharp enough to gleam like blades beneath the dim light.
Not human, he thought, frozen where he stood, every nerve screaming.
Then came the roar—
so loud the walls themselves trembled.
"Now tell me… who are you really?"
The devil continued in a voice that gnawed at the mind, like an insect burrowing into the skull:
"Lie to me… and I'll tear you apart. Deceive me… and you'll lose your head. There is no bond between us… therefore nothing stops me from killing you right now."
Ren Yuan tried to answer, but the words stuck in his throat. He barely forced out a faint sound, "What… do you mean exactly? Say it clearly… so I can respond."
The creature laughed, a heavy, mocking sound that seemed to cool the air around them suddenly. "Before… your soul was warped — a floating heap of wreckage in the void. Now… there is something else. Something new… but unfinished. Fragile. Not trash like before… You are unstable… as if you might flee this body at any moment. If you had summoned me a week later… I wouldn't have noticed the difference."
It drew closer, its shadow nearly swallowing Ren Yuan whole. "Don't be stupid… tell me the truth, before I decide whether you'll breathe another minute."
Then it lowered its voice to a viscous whisper, like poison. "What I mean… is that you may not belong to this world. You did something forbidden… far worse than merely summoning a high-ranking demon like me."
Ren Yuan bowed his head slightly, as if the confession slipped from his lips without resistance, and said in an oddly calm voice, "That's true… so? What will you do? Kill me?"
A small part of him wished death would send him back home. But that thought shattered the moment his mind began to pick up the threads again.
He raised his eyes, forcing a deliberate composure. "I wasn't the one who performed the ritual… so forget all of that. No bond, no blood, no curse… we'll both leave without losses."
The devil stared at him with a look mixing pity and contempt, as if seeing a worthless lost creature. Its deep voice crept into Ren Yuan's ear, slow and heavy, as though draing chains. "Do you think freedom exists in this world? Fool… even the gods are shackled."
It leaned forward, its eyes kindling with a low, steady fire — embers waiting for breath. "The contract will be forged… perhaps the air above will smell fresher than the rot down here."
Ren Yuan had not performed the rites… and he did not want them now. Still, he remained where he was, trembling, taut as a string. His voice came out hoarse, barely audible: "But I… I don't want this."
The devil laughed — a mad laugh laced with scorn. "But… the trash wanted it." Ghhh When the contract was sealed, Ren Yuan had never imagined it would be so terrifyingly easy — no fire, no screams. Just a heavy presence settling inside his soul, as if something had slipped in and taken root there forever.
When Ren Yuan was asked to state his terms, he did not think like a human. He did not ask for freedom, or power, or even immortality. Instead he spoke strange, inconsistent conditions — as if he were not pleading for survival but naming the chains he wanted to bind another with.
Colton's smile widened, teeth bared. He let the words drip with meaning.
"So… you desire that sort of thing? Perhaps you're better than the trash after all."
Ren Yuan forced a thin, nervous laugh — it sounded involuntary.
"But I… I have his body."
Colton sat across from him. His red eyes pierced through the planes of Ren Yuan's face straight into his soul. His voice mixed mockery with threat.
"Call me… Colton. That is all you need to know for now. I can wear whatever face you want… I will be your shadow even in church — though don't go there too often, it annoys me. I will be where you are. But sometimes… there will be hunting."
Ren Yuan shivered as cold crept back into his limbs. "Hunting?"
Colton raised one brow; the smile on his face warped slowly into something more vicious. He said, cutting the air, "Hunting humans."
Then he laughed — a high, unhinged sound, as if ripped from the depths of a lightless abyss.
Ren Yuan said in a hollow tone, "You want to make me a criminal."
Silence stretched for a few seconds before Colton breathed slowly and said, "Colton… I don't even remember my own name, so I can't tell you who I am."
Colton did not seem to care. He paced the room like a man in his own house, sank onto the bed, and began to rummage through things with eyes that flashed like knives.
Ren Yuan moved about the room, trying to restore order as if straightening the objects around him might reorder the chaos in his head. The pain in his skull still beat like a slow, heavy drum.
Colton approached in silent steps, a grotesque smile folding the contempt and tainted pity into his features. He bent closer.
"Let me fix this broken e…"
He reached out and touched Ren Yuan's head with an oddly tender motion that did not suit him. Ren Yuan didn't understand what Colton did exactly, but the pain dulled as if someone had turned off a scream lodged in his skull. Silence held for a few heartbeats… then he looked up at the demon.
Colton wore a long black robe that clung to his form as if the darkness itself had been spun into cloth. His great wings folded around him like a hellish curtain, and at his waist hung a metal pendant that flashed red, like a heartbeat that did not belong to a human.
Ren Yuan stared in astonishment, and a strange thought crossed his mind: He looks magnificent… are those their formal clothes? I want one.
He swallowed a small laugh, wondering silently how long before he lost his mind completely.
He said, half in sarcasm though he didn't know whether he was joking or confessing, "This is the first time I've seen a demon sign a contract. Colton… don't you ever think twice? You look like you're selling yourself."
Colton stopped fidgeting and turned slowly toward him. His look held a lethal mix of disgust and indifference; his words spat like poison.
"Me?"
He gave a short laugh. "Why not ask the trash who owned the body? He called me twice! He was slimy… annoying… I finally agreed — not because I liked him, but for one reason: the new soul in the body."
Then he turned his back, voice fractured with a sick kind of longing,
"And because I wanted to wander a little… to see how this world has become."
He fell silent for a moment, then added with a cracked smile,
"Sometimes, even demons need amusement…"
At night, time crawled unbearably slow for Ren Yuan.
Meanwhile, Colton had gone to the kitchen, rummaging around the house.
Ren Yuan wanted to do the same — to distract himself somehow — but anxiety pinned him down, and he couldn't make sense of any of it.
He hued himself, sitting in the corner of the bed like someone trying to hide from something only he could see.
He didn't know where anything was anymore.
He didn't even know who he was, or why he was here.
He was just a distorted existence — without identity, without a clear past.
The only thing he truly possessed… were his own memories, memories that did not belong to this body, not the remnants of that suicidal man.
But if he wasn't him… then who was he?
Ren Yuan wondered silently.
He tried to close his eyes, but the night refused to end.
Everything around him seemed suspended between one moment and the next, flowing at a pace beyond comprehension.
He fell asleep without knowing how much time had passed; time itself had become an endless void.
When he finally opened his eyes again, his head throbbed with a suffocating pain — but his memories began to slowly unravel.
Those memories were more terrifying than mere fragments…
They were his memories — the memories of the man whose body he now inhabited.
Nothing but the remnants of a past that wasn't his, carved into his mind against his will — like a scar that would never fade
Ren Yuan's voice trembled, a whisper breaking through the dark "Those are… the trash's memories."
When Colton returned, Ren Yuan smiled with a touch of pride.
He rose slowly, eyes locking onto Colton's with quiet confidence.
"From now on," he said, his voice low but steady, "you may call me Kayden."
Colton stopped mid-step. One eyebrow arched sharply as his gaze lingered on Ren Yuan — or rather, on the man who wasn't quite Ren Yuan anymore. His tone was quiet, almost amused, when he finally spoke:
"Kayden, huh? … Seems the trash has started to smell a little different."
⸻
Ren Yuan awoke early — around four in the morning.
The night still clung stubbornly to the city, and the air was heavy with silence. Only the faint whistle of cold wind winding through the alleys disturbed the stillness.
He opened his eyes slowly. Within him, two currents of consciousness intertwined — his own, and those belonging to the body he now inhabited. Kayden's memories had fused with his, and it felt as though his soul stared at the world through two separate windows at once.
Worse still… he was no longer alone.
Bound to him was a demon — an entity tied to his existence by a contract carved with meticulous, cryptic clauses, like invisible chains coiling around both their fates.
Before sleeping the night before, he had ordered Colton to clean everything — to erase every trace of what had happened, as if the ritual, the light, the chaos, had never existed at all.
Now, as dawn crept into the sky, Ren Yuan moved quietly toward the balcony.
He pulled out a wooden chair and sat down, watching the dark horizon fade beneath the pale threads of morning light.
Then, in a calm voice, he called for Colton to join him.
Colton hesitated, standing motionless for a long moment as though weighing the command itself. But in the end, he complied — sitting silently, his presence quiet but sharp, like a knife resting on a table.
It was Kayden — or rather, Ren Yuan in Kayden's form — who broke the silence first.
"How can you tell when a soul is unstable?"