The Possessed Evil Woman Wreaks Havoc - Chapter 93

I continued examining the murals, still full of unanswered questions.

As the paths of the three gods diverged, the powers of their subordinates began to face limitations.

No demons were born with powers like justice or healing. Likewise, angels were no longer born with powers like lust or envy.

The beastkin were born with relatively few restrictions. However, the longer the Water God remained silent, the fewer beastkin with powers were born.

Hmm…

I paused as I observed the mural.

‘It really feels like I’m studying history.’

Not very fitting for someone like me, who is living history.

Clicking my tongue inwardly, I moved on to the next mural.

Tens of thousands—no, millions of years had passed before the invasion of demonic energy finally stopped.

Originally, gods experienced time differently from ordinary beings. But even for them, millions of years were brutal.

The Demon God had all but lost his mind, and the Water God sealed her lips and kept silent.

Only the Celestial God still appeared intact. Well, who knew what was going on inside.

Still, with the war over, I thought the situation might start to settle down…

Then the Water God chose to vanish of her own will.

‘Ah. Amon told me about this once.’

The critical reason the Demon God descended into madness.

After the Water God’s death, her power of Creation scattered across the Middle Realm.

And astonishingly, from that power, the human race was born.

An unintended final creation of the Water God.

The mural depicted the birth of humanity.

Perhaps because the original owner of the power had died, humans received a fragment of that Creation power.

That’s why they could bear children. Unlike demons or angels.

When the Demon God learned that humans possessed Creation power, he wanted to kill them all and steal it.

Seriously.

I clicked my tongue.

No matter how I thought about it, I couldn’t understand the Demon God’s logic.

To put it in Middle Realm terms…

‘He wants to kill the child left behind by his dead sibling just to take their inheritance?’

Even a demon would scoff at something that twisted.

Even if the Demon God was suffering from madness, the fact remained—he was a real piece of trash.

And after that…

Huh?

When I moved to the next mural, I froze.

All the previous murals had simply depicted the history I already knew. But starting from here, a completely new story unfolded.

A history I didn’t know, hadn’t seen.

The Demon God invades the Middle Realm with his subordinates. The humans plead for help from the Celestial Realm, which had once shown them favor, but receive no response.

As humanity faces extinction before the overwhelming power of the Demon Realm, the Celestial Realm finally breaks its silence and joins the war.

The Celestial God and his subordinates strike back at the Demon Realm.

The Demon God’s subordinates, resentful of the one-sided war he launched without consultation, betray him.

No matter how powerful the Demon God may be, he couldn’t stand alone. Ultimately, he was driven to the edge.

The final blow that ended the Demon God’s life came from the lord of Contract.

The figure’s gender was unidentifiable, but the inscription clearly identified them as the lord of Contract.

After defeating the Demon God, the lord of Contract died from expending all their power.

But I didn’t kill the Demon God. That was more of a deal than a judgment.

The Demon God is still alive. Just sealed away in slumber.

And I’m still alive, too.

That’s when a strong sense of unease crept in.

Could this be depicting the future?

The Demon God’s seal is gradually weakening.

Once he breaks free, he’ll surely head straight for the Middle Realm.

So this mural might be showing…

A future where I fight the Demon God and die?

But my demonic instincts told me that wasn’t the right answer.

And I know myself. There was a time I might have laid down my life to destroy the Demon God, but not anymore.

I’d probably just show up to the battlefield, pretend to fight, and call it a day.

No, more likely, the Demon God would come find me and kill me first.

Because I was the one who betrayed him, sided with the humans, and sealed him away.

Then what does this mural symbolize?

I couldn’t figure it out, but one thing was for sure.

“This is unsettling…”

I frowned. That mural was seriously bothering me. The final image in particular really got under my skin.

Should I just destroy this section entirely? Judging by the cracks in the paint here and there, it didn’t seem like this chapel was a particularly important heritage site to the humans anyway.

I raised my hand and looked around. No one was inside the chapel.

Still, someone I hadn’t sensed could be lurking somewhere, so I had to act as naturally as possible.

“Oops. My mistake.”

I swiftly slashed the wall with my nails imbued with magic.

Bang—!

Along with the paint, part of the wall crumbled.

Hmm. That seemed natural enough.

Even if there were witnesses, they’d just assume I accidentally damaged the mural.

After confirming the mural was destroyed, I smiled in satisfaction.

I turned around, ready to leave the chapel.

“What kind of mistake was that, exactly?”

The sudden voice behind me startled me.

It was Kayden.

To think there really had been someone I couldn’t sense.

I gave myself a rare bit of praise for having acted cautiously.

Then I immediately questioned it. If it were someone with as much experience as Nigel, maybe. But a human who’s only lived twenty years? And I didn’t notice his presence?

Just how skilled was Kayden?

I turned toward him.

“You…”

And the moment he fully entered my field of vision, my mouth dropped open in surprise.

It was the first time I’d seen him since recovering more of my magic after the Duke’s regret yesterday.

Back when Belial looked at Kayden’s soul and said something was strange, I brushed it off.

But now that I had recovered a considerable portion of my magic and could see his soul clearly—I knew something was wrong.

The words slipped out before I realized.

“Are you really human?”

That was how powerful the energy radiating from Kayden’s soul was.

The longer one lives, the more trials one endures, the stronger the soul becomes.

That’s why the souls of humans, who live relatively short and uneventful lives, are usually small and fragile.

“What a strange question. Of course I’m human.”

Kayden didn’t understand what I meant.

Well, I wasn’t entirely sure what I was saying either.

Sometimes, I came across people with unusually strong souls.

Humans who had lived incredibly long lives. Or those who had endured immense hardship.

But Kayden’s soul… was beyond even those.

A soul that had lived longer and suffered more than any human.

What am I even thinking?

Humans are only granted about a hundred years of life at most.

There’s no way that soul could’ve been formed naturally.

I still had a lot of questions, but I decided to move past it for now.

I glossed over the situation.

“I meant your presence. Humans usually make some noise when they move around, don’t they?”

“Ah. I startled you, didn’t I? My apologies, Saintess.”

“It’s not that I was startled—never mind. Anyway, what are you doing here?”

Kayden hesitated for a moment before answering, “The High Priest noticed your absence… and sent me.”

“To find me?”

“Not to find you. I was sent to ensure your safety. After what happened yesterday, you know.”

The fact that he was talking more than usual suggested the High Priest had given him specific orders.

‘Gabby mentioned that the High Priest seemed to suspect my true identity.’

So his orders were probably to keep an eye on me or look into anything suspicious.

That didn’t sit well with me. Though it didn’t seem like Kayden was acting on his own, it still wasn’t pleasant.

Before I knew it, my eyes began pinpointing his vital spots one by one.

Then I clenched my fist and steadied myself.

‘Get a grip. You need to improve Isabella’s reputation. A scoundrel can be salvaged—but not a murderer.’

Thankfully, Kayden didn’t seem to notice what I had just been thinking.

“You were admiring the mural here, I see.”

He turned his attention to the mural behind me.

“How much do you know about it?”

Since I was curious too, I asked him.

Kayden answered without hesitation, “This mural is known in the temple as the ‘Final Prophecy.’”

The moment Kayden said that, I turned my head and looked at the last scene of the mural again.

The lord of Contract slaying the Demon God and then dying.

A title like ‘Final Prophecy’…

…was especially aggravating.