At the same time, far away in the mansion in Waterfall Town, Elizabeth was leisurely enjoying a glass of red wine.
Suddenly, Elizabeth felt a change in Roy's mark, and she immediately frowned.
"Strange, is someone trying to steal him from me? I'm gonna see what's going on!"
As she spoke, Elizabeth snapped her fingers, and a projection screen popped up in front of her, showing Jennifer and Claire.
This was actually a projection screen showing things from Roy's point of view.
"So it's Lilith. What's her deal?"
Naturally, you couldn't see much just from Roy's perspective, so Elizabeth snapped her fingers again.
Instantly, Roy's body was engulfed in Hellfire, and a terrifying shockwave blasted out.
Lilith was immediately thrown back by the shockwave and slammed into the wall.
"Hmph! That'll teach you a lesson! But Roy looks kind of weird. What happened?"
After thinking for a moment, Elizabeth sighed.
"Ugh, I guess I'll go take a look! Honestly, the last thing I need is trouble!"
Elizabeth snapped her fingers for the third time, and another Elizabeth appeared in the room. This Elizabeth looked exactly like a twin.
"Guess I'll have to have you cover my classes for a few days."
The scene switched back to Roy's side. Lilith, who had crashed into the wall, was spitting up blood, and Claire next to her was totally freaked out.
Are magic rituals always this dangerous?
Actually, Hellfire wouldn't hurt Roy; Elizabeth was just using it to keep other people away from him.
Lilith, on the other hand, was in real trouble... Wait, she's using Jennifer's body right now, so it's Jennifer who's in more trouble.
\[Ding!\]
"Lilith, are you okay?!"
In his panic, Roy blurted out Lilith's real name.
After spitting out the blood, Lilith's face was a little pale, but it quickly regained color. That was Jennifer's witch talent kicking in, healing the physical damage she had taken really fast.
"Roy, why didn't you tell me you had already signed a contract with a major demon?"
Lilith looked pretty ticked off, like an angel investor who thought they'd found the next big thing (a company with the potential to be a leader in the industry), only to find out that one of the shareholders in this hot new company was some super-rich tycoon who already had a preferred investment deal.
Roy scratched his head. He did have Belial's mark on him, but he didn't realize that was also a kind of contract.
"Doesn't a contract usually need a signature or a drop of blood? I haven't done anything like that!"
Lilith looked at Roy's face and could tell he didn't know he had a contract, so she just had to chalk it up to bad luck.
"Those major demons always find ways to exploit loopholes to get you to sign a contract, like a fallen hair, accidentally spilled blood, or even... well, you know! As far as I know, only the King of Pride and the King of Sloth don't bother with those kinds of tricks. They're also the demons that demon witches like to make contracts with the most."
Hearing that, Roy's expression got weird.
You know what? You might actually be right!
Roy didn't know about Lucifer's reputation, but whether Belial played tricks totally depended on her mood.
Roy now suspected that Elizabeth had used his... you know... as proof of the contract back then before putting the mark on him.
Back then, Roy had wondered if there might be any problems with that mark, and now it looked like he was right.
"Lilith, did my ritual fail?"
Lilith nodded helplessly.
"Yeah, and it was a total bust. You should be able to feel the changes in your body."
He didn't really feel any changes in his body, but Roy could feel his mood getting inexplicably down and heavy.
Kind of like that feeling of PMS or going through a shedding phase.
Yeah, guys have those few days a month when they're just not feeling it.
Did a system notification just pop up?
Roy opened the system panel and sure enough, there was a new system message.
\[You have gained the special ability: The Grim Reaper's Gaze!\]
\[The Grim Reaper's Gaze: Because of your actions, the Grim Reaper will now pay special attention to you! This might be a bad thing, or it might be a good thing.\]
Just then, the Hellfire on Roy's body gradually disappeared, and Claire noticed that besides Belial's mark on Roy's chest, there was another black design.
"Roy, it looks like you have an eye design on your chest!"
Because his chest muscles were so big, Roy usually couldn't see what was on his chest, and it was Claire's reminder that made him realize.
"Is there a mirror?"
What woman doesn't carry a mirror? They might forget their wallet, but never their mirror.
Lilith quickly pulled a small mirror out of her pocket and handed it to Roy.
Sure enough, Roy saw a black eye design right in the middle of his chest, just like a tattoo.
(Rough sketch of the Grim Reaper's eye design)
This eye looked incredibly lifelike, giving off a strong feeling of unease.
Lilith stood up and looked at Roy.
"That's the Eye of the Grim Reaper. It's said that only people who are being watched by the Grim Reaper get that mark."
Judging by what she said, it seemed like Lilith had seen this mark before.
"Have you seen this mark on anyone else?"
Lilith nodded.
"Yeah, as far as I know, everyone who's ever gotten this mark has been a terrifying figure in history, like Gilgamesh."
It even involves Gilgamesh?
Then I gotta believe it!
"Does this mark of the Grim Reaper's Eye do anything?"
"I'm not really sure about that. There aren't many historical examples, so it's hard to say."
It was normal for Lilith not to know much about the Eye of the Grim Reaper. She was betrayed by her daughter a long time ago, which was after the Great Flood, around the end of the epic age, so she didn't know much about what happened in later times.
And Gilgamesh was the king of Uruk in the early epic age.
"Alright, I guess I'll just have to play it by ear."
Since things had already turned out this way, Roy could only stand up and put his clothes back on.
If all else failed, he'd just have to go to Elizabeth to solve this problem, just like with the mark of the King of Greed last time.
At worst, he'd have to sacrifice his looks again. Roy was kind of getting used to it.
"Little Roy, actually, I'm a bit curious. How did you end up making a contract with the King of Sloth? You know, the last person to make a contract with the King of Sloth was King Solomon."
As an ancient witch, there was no way Lilith wouldn't recognize that the mark on Roy was from Belial.
"I don't even know how it happened."
Roy just chuckled.
There were some things he could tell Jennifer, but not Lilith.
However, now that Jennifer knew, it was the same as Lilith knowing, so Roy just had to keep it from both of them.
Seeing Roy being evasive, Lilith knew he didn't want to talk about it. Lilith was a smart woman; she wouldn't pry.
Just then, there were light footsteps outside the door, like someone was walking over.
In the middle of the night, those footsteps could only be from a nurse doing rounds. After all, the commotion from Lilith being thrown back earlier was pretty loud, and someone in the next room might have been scared and complained.
Roy didn't have time to clean up the traces of the magic circle on the floor. He quickly put the raised bed back down, which would mostly cover the magic circle.
As for the candles, he just had to quickly blow them all out, kick them under the bed, and then have Claire lie back down.
The nurse doing rounds pushed open the door and glanced at the situation in the ward. Seeing Roy, Lilith, and Claire looking flustered and disheveled, she immediately looked a bit annoyed.
"The hospital is not a place for you to be throwing a party!"
The main thing was, they were having a party and didn't even invite her!
The nurse looked at Roy's face and the strong chest muscles you could see under his clothes, and she almost started drooling.
Roy felt that the nurse's gaze was a bit too intense, so he quickly apologized to her. A few nice words managed to get her to leave.
"Roy, I can't solve the problem with the Eye of the Grim Reaper. You'll just have to be careful."
Lilith sighed, and you could see a hint of sympathy in her eyes.
"It's okay, I'll figure something out. Claire, you rest for a bit. I'll take Jennifer out."
The two of them went to the parking lot.
"Lilith, I'm still counting on you to keep an eye on the witch school."
Speaking of which, Roy had been in New York for three days now. During those three days, he had actually been in contact with Madison the whole time, so he knew the general situation at the witch school.
At least Emma was having a really comfortable time. Madison, Zoe, and Maria all wanted to be her sister-in-law and were being super enthusiastic towards her.
It was just that the Supreme Witch Fiona had been popping up and disappearing mysteriously these past three days, which felt a little off.
"Are you gonna drive me to Boston?"
Lilith raised an eyebrow at Roy, her expression a little suggestive.
"Nah, it's this car that's gonna take you to Boston."
Lilith looked at the Chevrolet Camaro, and her eyes almost popped out of her head.
"Wait a minute, isn't this your car? How did it end up in New York?"
Jennifer still felt a little bad about this because she knew that the used yellow Chevrolet Camaro meant a lot to Roy, and she had lost it while she was in control.
"It drove itself over here. This time, it can take you to Boston."
"Drove itself? Is it some kind of alchemical device with its own consciousness?"
Lilith was half right. Bumblebee did have its own consciousness, but it was a silicon-based lifeform from the science side, not an alchemical device.
As an ancient witch who hadn't had a modern education, Lilith definitely wouldn't understand that, but all she needed to know was that Bumblebee would take her to the apartment Roy was renting in Boston.
After getting in the car and driving for a bit, Lilith immediately looked exhausted and switched back to Jennifer.
"Lilith, why didn't you tell Roy that you were hurt?"
It turned out that the energy blast Elizabeth released earlier had not only hurt Jennifer's physical body but had also caused some damage to Lilith's soul.
"Absolutely not! I just felt the King of Sloth's gaze sweep over Roy. She definitely noticed me. I can't show any signs of weakness!"
Unfortunately, Lilith's efforts were completely wasted. Elizabeth had known about her existence for a long time, and what she said in the car was heard by Bumblebee, so Roy would definitely find out later.
Jennifer was a bit quiet. She had some vague guesses in her mind, but since Roy didn't want to tell Lilith, she wouldn't either.
However, Lilith still picked up on Jennifer's thoughts.
"Jennifer, do you know something?"
"No, I don't know anything."
With her increasing power, Jennifer was now able to resist Lilith's mind probing.
"Alright, you two really have a good thing going on. If you don't want to talk about it, fine. Jennifer, I need to sleep for a while to get my strength back. Call me if there's an emergency."
"Okay."
Bumblebee sped quickly down the highway. At this time, it started to drizzle.
Rewind to a few hours earlier.
Boston, in Emma's dorm room at the Robichaux's Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies.
The newly formed Apocalypse Club was having a team-building activity in this dorm room.
The reason they chose this dorm room was that Maria and Carrie were both members of the Apocalypse Club, and Emma could be considered an unofficial member.
Having their get-together here was the safest option and wouldn't bother the other young witches.
Emma: When did I become an unofficial member?
"Ugh, I'm so bored! I really wanna go out and find Roy!"
Because of the previous nightclub incident, Principal Cordelia had started cracking down on sneaking out at night, which meant Madison had been stuck at school for the past few days.
Madison, with her personality, wanted to be with Roy all the time, but now she could only be all worked up in front of Zoe and the others.
Maria nudged Madison.
"Keep your voice down, Emma will hear you!"
Emma was sitting on her bed reading a book at that moment. She was eagerly soaking up the knowledge at the witch school.
The education at the witch school was actually pretty laid-back, typical American style. Whether or not the students learned anything was totally up to them.
So most of the witches who graduated only learned a little bit of witchcraft and had to rely on their own witch talents after graduation.
But in today's world, there weren't witch hunts like in the past, and you couldn't really get rich off of witchcraft, so these witches eventually had to integrate into society, get married, and have kids. So, there wasn't really any need to become a super powerful witch.
At least, that's probably what Fiona thought, which is why she let her daughter Cordelia adopt a happy-go-lucky approach to education.
But Emma didn't see it that way. She wanted to learn powerful witchcraft to heal her father, who had become a vegetable, and also to atone for herself, so she studied really hard.
"It's okay, you guys can say whatever you want. My brother Roy was really popular back home. A lot of girls had a crush on him."
Emma had long gotten used to that.
Not to mention Jennifer and Niddy, and Nancy, who was also good friends with them, was the same way.
Bored, Madison thought about lighting up a cigarette to relax, but as soon as she took it out, Maria snatched it away.
"Gimme one too!"
Zoe quickly stopped the two of them.
"Are you guys crazy? The smell of smoke will bring Cordelia down here!"
"Then what do you suggest we do? Just sit here and do nothing until bedtime? We asked you guys to figure out a way to get Roy into the school, but you couldn't come up with anything!"
Zoe just rolled her eyes.
"You really have one thing on your mind! We're already trying to figure something out, aren't we?"
Just then, Carrie, who hadn't said anything the whole time, suddenly raised her hand.
"If we're really bored, how about we play with a Ouija board?"
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