Antanas watched the tremor in Pranay's eyes, sensing that his heart had already begun to sway.
A light beyond words flickered in Pranay's pupils—an unexpected grace bestowed by fate, meeting him for the very first time across his long, weary years.
"Pranay, look at me. What you fear isn't dying, but accomplishing nothing. You fear dying without worth, repeating failure, and drifting along in a perpetual daze. When you stepped forward to explain your thoughts to me for your sister's sake, you were very brave, weren't you?"
The Poet of Great Love continued to comfort him.
"The other demons only misunderstood you because they didn't know you. But I believe what my own eyes see. They never communicated with you so earnestly, which is why they never realized you were right and they were wrong."
Those profound words and that gaze seemed to tell Pranay that one day, everyone would pass away and journey to the place where they truly belonged.
They also seemed to ask him: *You have always been in agony, always suffering, haven't you? Tell me what you desire, what you wish to become. I will make it come true for you, so speak your heart to me.*
"..."
Pranay gazed at the new King, unable to speak for a long time.
Perhaps it was a momentary impulse, making him feel unlike himself, driving him to shatter the principles he had lived by for centuries.
He did not know whether he was about to make a grave error in judgment.
Yet he felt that since he had already been so terribly wrong in the past, why couldn't he take a gamble and trust his intuition just this once?
The gods had never favored a single living being.
Only living beings could love living beings.
And only living beings could save the souls of living beings.
Here was the perfect Demon King he had yearned for all along. If he missed this chance, there would never be another.
"I will go with you."
Breath misted from Pranay's lips as he rose from the cold stone platform. Then he knelt on one knee before the Poet of Great Love and quietly waited.
He was waiting for the new King to forge Herrom Prison's contract with him.
"No need. I do not need your loyalty, much less your life. I came here simply to return your freedom, not to place another lock upon you."
The Poet of Great Love gently took hold of Pranay's arms, helping him up, and looked at him with a warm smile.
"...Thank you."
Pranay lowered his eyes. The price asked of him was so light that he could scarcely bear it, leaving him with no choice but to repay her with absolute devotion.
"..."
Not far away, the corner of Antanas's eye twitched at the sight.
*Stop farming his favorability. This is practically mind control already.*
Antanas desperately wanted to say those words to the new King.
She had just watched the new King subdue Sinora on the fifth basement floor, and now, in a matter of minutes, she had turned Pranay into a fervent believer. Antanas shuddered to imagine what the new King might turn the humans above into if given a chance to preach in Herrom.
And so it went.
The Poet of Great Love patted Pranay on the back and led him down from the stone platform like an old friend reunited after years apart.
"Though there is one thing I'm curious about. Pranay, why do you believe two general-tier combatants are the entry ticket to this imperial dispute?" the Poet of Great Love asked, tilting her head in confusion.
In truth, Lanqi agreed with almost all of Pranay's insights. The only point where their judgments diverged significantly was right here.
"Let me explain! It's like this: not long ago, Pranay caught a glimpse of the Protos Empire's northern border..."
Antanas raised her hand and stepped forward beside the Poet of Great Love, recounting everything Pranay had told them earlier.
When Antanas finally finished reciting his words like a parrot...
"..."
The black-haired, green-eyed Poet of Great Love gave Pranay a strange look.
"Forgive me, King. Even now, I am still afraid. The closer I draw to the truth, the more uneasy I become," Pranay said, meeting the new King's eyes.
His innate magic always brought him one step closer to the truth—to those futures he constantly pondered, yet feared.
He meant no offense; he simply wanted to know whether the new King, upon learning this fact, would still insist on remaining in the Protos Empire, or if she would adapt her strategy.
Regardless of what the new King chose, he would follow her to the very end.
"..."
Neither Antanas nor Sinora understood why the new King wore such an expression, and for a moment, the new King offered no answers to dispel Pranay's doubts.
They had expected the King to look grave, or perhaps remain entirely calm and unruffled. Instead, the King appeared thoroughly bewildered, as if question marks were raining down over her head.
"Sigh."
The Poet of Great Love shook her head with a sigh.
She produced a deck of magic cards, riffling through them in a rapid blur before Pranay's eyes like someone shuffling cards.
"Pranay, did you see a card?" the Poet of Great Love asked, looking into his eyes.
"I did."
Pranay nodded.
Cards of every color had flickered past, but one orange card had shown its tier and artwork with exceptional clarity.
"Did you memorize a card?" the Poet of Great Love asked as she shuffled the deck in her hands.
"I did," Pranay replied.
"Is the card you memorized here?"
The Poet of Great Love spread the deck open like a folding fan and asked him again.
"No."
Pranay shook his head.
That glaringly conspicuous magic card had vanished without a trace.
The Poet of Great Love smiled at him.
"That's because you were looking too closely..."
The Poet of Great Love's voice echoed in Pranay's ears like an angelic whisper.
"The closer you look—the less of the truth you will see."
The Poet of Great Love flung the deck backward with a wave of her hand. Among the cloud of translucent magic cards scattering through the air, only the final orange card hidden among them stood out brilliantly, shattering in mid-air.
Its distinctive texture made it appear both illusory and ethereal, the flowing patterns on its face pulsing like a living heartbeat, hovering on the boundary between physical and immaterial.
The magic card flared with blinding radiance.
As its power was released, its entwined spirals unraveled and converged into a massive vortex.
The runic radiance around the Frost Prison was distorted, drawn in, and even torn apart by the vortex.
Once the vortex stabilized, a rift tore open at its center, revealing its true form—a colossal wolf, with crimson runes resembling spacetime faults rippling across its deep, pitch-black body.
The red patterns adorning its frame carried the primordial might of world creation, each line pulsing and breathing as though tethered to another dimension.
"...!!!"
Pranay's eyes flew wide, his pupils trembling as he stared at the giant wolf.
That day... on the northern snowfield, he had seen a mysterious man summon this very wolf, bringing everything to an end in a towering blaze of white fire!
This wolf alone was something he could never mistake. Why was it here?
"Relax, it's an ally," the Poet of Great Love said, patting Pranay on the shoulder with a grin.
That hadn't been magic just now, merely a sleight-of-hand trick to conceal the [Nuclear Fusion Wolf].
Pranay's eyes could see through magic, but they could not see through a parlor trick like that.
"Just who are you..."
For the first time, Pranay felt that his own eyes might not be entirely reliable. Yet he could not tear his gaze away.
He was utterly captivated by this enigmatic new King.
His past experience and his innate magic could both be mistaken; only the intuition burning in his heart proved irresistible.
"We'll talk later. There are things I will discuss in detail with the three of you once we're out of here. For now, all we need to do is leave this prison as quickly as possible," the Poet of Great Love answered casually.
Nearby.
"..."
Antanas felt that Pranay had completely fallen under her spell.
She shook her head.
The new King truly was a deeply sinful demoness.
Still, why did the new King mention letting them see her true form later...
Was that grey-haired, blue-eyed appearance from before not real enough?
Chapter 449