Night in the Veridia region was never truly dark. The sky glowed with a painful, deep purple hue—the result of black magic pollution being continuously pumped out from the heart of the city. Beneath the looming shadow of the Bone Tower that had just risen from the ground, the atmosphere was suffocating. The stench of sulfur mixed with the lingering aroma of the Sauce of Lifelong Regret I had cooked earlier, creating an unsettling blend.
"Rian! Lila!"
Elena's voice thundered through the rumbling ruins of the kitchen. She emerged from behind a cracked stone pillar, looking like a war goddess stepping out of a blazing furnace. But the sight was far from beautiful. Slung over her shoulder was Lady Seraphina, limp and barely conscious. The princess's face was deathly pale, her lips tinged blue, and the red eye tattoo on her neck pulsed faintly—as if it were draining the last traces of life from her body.
"The ritual has passed the point of no return!" Elena shouted as she landed beside us. "Malphas no longer cares about porcelain cats or honesty. The fear energy from his panicking followers—triggered by your damn seasoning—has become the perfect catalyst to open the gate!"
Lila, her robe torn in several places, pointed at me with violently trembling hands. Her usually adorable lisp was gone, replaced by raw terror.
"Big Sis Elena! Don't come closer! Big Bro Lian… he… his pan has an eye! And it's staling! It smells wrong—his soul is changing!"
Elena stopped dead in her tracks. Dust fell from her silver armor as she stared at me. Her clear blue eyes shimmered with painful suspicion. She looked at the black pan in my hand—the cooking tool that had once been the butt of our jokes. Now it pulsed faintly like a living heart. Black vapor leaked from its surface, forming silhouettes of shadowy hands grasping at the air. And at the bottom of the pan, a large red eye had opened, staring at Elena with unimaginable hunger.
[System Warning!]
[Demon Lord Synchronization: 55%.]
[Your character is undergoing "Overwriting" by Ancient Demon Data.]
[Passive Skill "Lord's Pressure" Activated: Nearby living beings feel an urge to kneel—or to kill you.]
"Rian." Elena's voice dropped low—the tone she used when facing dragons or disaster-class monsters. "What happened in there? Tell me this is just another side effect of your ridiculous gacha seasoning."
"I… I don't know, Elena!" I screamed, trying to pry the pan from my hand, only to realize the handle had fused with my veins. "It feels like something is pulling me from the inside! My head hurts—I can't think!"
"Lies," Elena hissed. The tip of her greatsword slowly shifted—from pointing at our enemies to aiming straight at my heart.
"This aura… this dense darkness… it's the same as the monster that slaughtered my entire village ten years ago. I know it too well. You're not just some otherworldly cook, Rian. You are the 'Vessel' they've been waiting for. You are the apocalypse trigger hiding behind a harmless disguise."
Suddenly, the ground beneath us shook violently. The Bone Tower at the cult's center grew even taller, piercing the purple clouds. Malphas stood atop it, laughing madly. His magically amplified voice echoed across all of Veridia.
"Bring the Vessel to me! Sacrifice the Princess of Light and let true darkness be born tonight! Eliminate anyone who stands in the way—including that arrogant knight!"
In an instant, we were surrounded. Hundreds of black-robed cultists emerged from the shadows. But the most horrifying were the Abominations—three-meter-tall monstrosities made of stitched human muscle, rusted iron, and black magic. Their agonized groans tore at the soul.
"We're surrounded," Seraphina whispered weakly from Elena's shoulder. Tears streamed down Elena's armor.
"Elena… please, leave me. Take Rian and run. If he truly is the Vessel, the world cannot allow them to seize him. But… if he changes, you know what you must do."
Elena stood tall. Her broad back was tense, bearing the weight of the world itself. She faced the deadliest dilemma of her life: uphold her oath as a knight to protect Seraphina, fulfill her sacred duty to eradicate demonic seeds—me—or attempt the impossible and save us all.
"Lila," Elena ordered without turning. "Take Lady Seraphina. Run to the northern gate as far as you can. There's a spare carriage hidden beneath the old oak tree. Don't look back. No matter what happens."
"But Big Sis Elena—what about Big Bro Lian?!"
"GO, LILA! NOW!"
Lila sobbed uncontrollably, but she knew she had no choice. She grabbed Seraphina's hand, threw several smoke bombs to the ground, and vanished behind a white alchemical veil.
Now, in the midst of an advancing sea of enemies, only Elena and I remained.
"Why didn't you go with them?" I asked, my voice changing—growing heavier, echoing unnaturally.
"Because my duty is to slay demons." Elena turned fully toward me. Her eyes were filled with sorrow, but her hands did not shake.
"And right now, that demon is standing in front of me—holding a burnt pan and wearing my friend's face."
She lunged forward.
Not at the cultists—
but at me.
CLANG!!!
Her greatsword smashed into my pan. The collision created a shockwave that blasted dozens of cultists into the air. I hadn't activated any defensive magic—the pan moved on its own, blocking Elena's strike with terrifying force.
"Fight me, Rian!" Elena shouted. "Show me your true face! Stop hiding behind that stupid cook's mask!"
"I don't want to fight you!" I cried. "I just want to live a peaceful life!"
The Corruption Meter in the corner of my vision surged relentlessly.
60%… 65%…
[Choice Detected!]
[1. Embracing Darkness: Become a true Demon Lord. Your power will be enough to annihilate all of Veridia—but Elena will die by your hand.]
[2. Fatal Neutralization: Use "Fate Sweet Soy Sauce" on yourself. Absolute Honesty will force your true soul to 'lock' the demon data, but will cause permanent nerve damage and paralysis.]
I looked at Elena's face.
She was crying.
She was ready to kill me because she loved this world—and I realized that I would rather die as a loved human than live as a feared ruler.
My violently trembling hand reached into my jacket pocket and pulled out the small bottle of pitch-black liquid.
"Fate Sweet Soy Sauce," I murmured.
"What are you doing?!" Elena shouted, preparing her second strike.
"Elena," I said with the most sincere smile I could muster.
"Thank you for bringing me this far. If I really do change someday… make sure you're the one who adds the final seasoning to my death. Don't let anyone else do it."
I opened the bottle and drank it all in one gulp.
The taste was overwhelmingly sweet—so sweet it felt like acid flooding every nerve in my body. My brain screamed. Then, the black vapor pouring from the pan was forcibly sucked back into me. The red eye at the pan's base shrieked in a sound only I could hear before snapping shut, turning the pan into ordinary iron once more.
[Synchronization forcibly suppressed: 15%.]
[Status: Paralyzed (Total) – Duration: 20 Minutes.]
[Your true soul has retained control. Cost: Unimaginable pain.]
The world went dark.
I collapsed onto the cold ground. My black pan slipped free, clanging several times against the stone before falling silent. I couldn't move a finger—I couldn't even breathe properly. The sweetness turned into a burning bitterness in my throat.
Elena froze.
She lowered her sword, staring at me—now just a pitiful young man with black sauce staining the corner of his lips, trembling in agony without any power left. The darkness was gone, leaving behind the most miserable human in the world.
"You… are truly a reckless idiot," Elena whispered, her voice breaking.
"Capture them! Bring his head if you have to!" Malphas screamed in panic as he realized his source of power—me—had crippled himself.
Elena took a deep breath. She looked at the hundreds of advancing enemies. She looked at the tower beginning to crumble.
Without hesitation, she hoisted my stiff body onto her shoulder like a sack of grain and grabbed my pan with her other hand.
"Don't get any strange ideas," she muttered, even as tears continued to fall.
"I'm saving you because you still haven't paid compensation for damaging my armor yesterday. Stay alive, Rian. That's an order from your commander."
With a single sword swing that split the air itself, Elena carved a path through the encirclement. She ran at unbelievable speed, leaping over the city's collapsing walls.
As we flew through the air, my fading consciousness caught one last glimpse behind us. Malphas wasn't chasing us. He was busy picking something up from the floor of the lower hall…
My bottle of Explosive MSG.
He stared at it with intense curiosity—the "magic powder" that had made his followers cry earlier.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
A cataclysmic explosion shook all of Veridia. A blinding white light shot into the sky, collapsing part of the Bone Tower—not from holy magic, but because Malphas had tried to burn god-tier MSG with his own fire magic to "study" its power.
"Eh… bitter…" I muttered, before everything finally went black.
In the distance, Lila and Seraphina watched the explosion from their carriage.