Chapter 102 Spiral of lies and buried truths
ANGELICA'S POV
“If I don't know the truth, enlighten me. I would like to know what made the almighty demon king decide he wants to torture the Black Coven. I am sure it's not just about the heart,” I said.
It didn't make any sense at all. From the moment I saw that scene before me, I hadn't been able to get this question out of my head.
I had asked the witches, too, but the answers they gave me weren't satisfactory at all.
“I didn't know I would hear such a sarcastic tone against me ever again. Then again, I guess, it runs in the genes,” he commented.
He then pointed his finger at the large portrait on my left, and I looked at the woman depicted, with an elegant, vibrant glow emanating from her.
But why was her face hidden? I wondered.
I was about to turn to the demon king when he clicked his fingers, and the lady's face finally became visible.
I froze in my place before standing abruptly when I saw who it was.
I looked at the portrait again before pointing at it, then at the demon king…
How was this even possible?
"T-that…" I swallowed hard, wiping the sweat from my forehead before drinking the water on the table in a single go.
The portrait was a replica of me. It almost looked like it was my portrait.
“That's your mother." The demon king cleared my doubt that was probably written all over my face.
My mother? But how could it be? Alchemist told me that my mother was an angel and…
“My sister,” the demon king said.
I sat there looking at the man whose face turned ashen just after saying that.
“What exactly happened?” I asked, even though I knew I wasn't here to hear his side of the story or what prompted him to commit such a crime, why he was killing all the witches by draining their energy one by one, but I don't think I would've been able to live with it if I didn't know the truth.
“It's a long story, a thorn in my heart, the beginning of what has led to today. My sister fell in love with your father, James Black. They came to me to propose marriage. I didn't agree. He was a powerful mage who always acted against us demons,” the demon king started the story.
He told me how my father had then made a plan along with my mother to elope. The demon king's wife had been pregnant at that time.
Her due date was the same day my mother decided to elope with my father.
The demon king's wife saw my mother eloping with my father and decided to stop them.
My mother, afraid that if her sister-in-law told the demon king, they would never be able to marry, pushed the demon king's sister away to run.
Once she crossed the demon realm and entered the werewolf realm, she was sure the demon king wouldn't be able to do anything.
She hadn't expected the push to be so harsh that the demon king's wife tumbled down the stairs.
The wife was pronounced dead on the spot. They pulled out the baby in hopes that he would survive.
But the railing of the stairs had hurt the woman's abdomen, and it destroyed the boy's heart completely.
The delivered baby was dead.
The demon king lost his kid and his wife the same night, all because my mom was afraid the demon king wouldn't let her marry my father.
That night, the demon king wept like anything. The heavens cried with the man of hell. How was it that the person who was supposed to be an angel committed such a severe crime?
At that time, the demon king used the entire energy he could muster up to create an artificial system to keep pumping blood into the boy's body.
This way, he has been keeping the boy alive in a vegetative state for more than a century.
The reason he has been sucking the black coven witches is that he needs mana to keep his son in a vegetative state until he finds the right heart for the baby.
And the fact that he took the 99 kids was all a lie. The babies were born but didn't survive for more than a few minutes.
It was a curse incurred by the heavens that my mother was incurring for killing an unborn baby, who was supposed to be an angel, too.
Every time the demon king heard that the baby was dead, he would go to them in hopes that they would give him the heart, and it might work on his son.
But it didn't, and the blame for killing the baby always went on his name.
After all, James, my father, was too ashamed to tell the world of his wrongdoings, and now their selfish motives took two innocent lives.
They never revealed the truth because the incident would've been a black mark on the mother's name, too.
In fact, when my mother couldn't take the guilt, she asked my father to kill her if he wanted to keep his throne.
That was when my father decided that, if he wanted an heir, he would have to take help from another species. The werewolf war worked in his favor, and that was how he approached Marlyn by planning it all.
Once he was sure the baby would be born healthy, he killed my mother, and then he died in agony of being the reason behind such grave sins.
That was how I survived.
To say I was surprised by the events would be an understatement. So many lies, so many truths buried, and so much wrong blame, that it was hard to believe the truth anymore.
“How can I trust you? What if you are narrating your story for me to take pity on you?” I asked
The man nodded.
“Of course, you wouldn't believe me. So much like your mom, always doing, thinking, and seeing what you want to. Let me show you the truth,” he said.
He then stood, and I followed him to wherever he was taking me.
“Aren't you afraid I am taking you to kill you?” The demon king asked me, and I nodded.
“That could be a possibility. But you don't look like the man who is looking for another easy kill. When I look at you, I see a man who wants the world to see what he went through, for someone to tell his story and share his perspective, too. That you have a heart too, that beats for his son,” I said.
The man stopped walking suddenly.
I thought he would say something, but rather he started walking again.
After what felt like an eternity, we finally stopped before a large door.
He nodded at the guard, who looked at me peculiarly for obvious reasons.
I ignored the man's gaze and entered the room.
I saw what looked like an incubator cell in the center of the room.
The incubator cell's glass was attached to a large sphere on the side, which radiated energy.
The energy sphere looked exactly like the one I destroyed five days ago.
I looked at the demon king to see if he had any kind of change in reaction. When he didn't, I realized he probably didn't know I'd broken the energy source for his child. Because if he knew I was the one behind it, he wouldn't be attending to me so patiently.
“Can I watch closely?” I asked.
He looked at me skeptically before nodding.
I walked closer to the glass and looked at the child who was growing a bit unnaturally.
There was no doubt that all this technology and magic was nothing compared to the natural growth of a baby. To me, the boy looked so much in pain, even when he didn't have any soul, or did he?
“Can I know why you haven't killed me yet? I asked.
“Hmm?” He asked.
I swallowed hard.
“You wanted my heart, didn't you? Isn't that the sole thing you are after because your son is an angel? And I am the child of an angel, too. Besides, I look exactly like your sister, who gave you so much pain; the reason is good enough for you to kill me,” I said.
The demon king narrowed his brows.
“From your words, it sounds like you want me to kill you. You might be the daughter of an angel, the exact one I am looking for; your heart won't be compatible with my son's anymore. I need the heart of a baby below 6 years old. And for that, I am ready to wait until your fetus grows a heart,” the demon king said.
His words immediately brought tears to my eyes.
“So you are after my kid?” I asked.
He nodded his head.
“The exact reason I didn't come to see you yet. It's a debt that your mother owes me, the one that you carry now. I am not a good man, just patient,” the demon king said, and I hummed.
“In that case, I apologize too,” I whispered.
"Apologize? For what?” He asked.
“For this,” I said and placed my hand on the glass.
As soon as I did that, the glass around the boy melted, and the incubator cell lit up with fire.