The chains never stop burning. Not even in sleep.
They lie beneath my skin, coiled like serpents, humming with ancient magic. Each heartbeat feeds them. Each breath tightens their grip.
The Binding Pact.
My leash. My cage.
My weapon.
The day after we crushed the border patrol, I was summoned again.
The throne room was colder than usual. I could tell something had changed.
The Demon King sat atop his jagged obsidian seat, one claw tapping the armrest in rhythm. Behind him, the Abyss-fire pulsed a dull red.
War was close.
I stepped forward, kneeling just enough to show respect, but not submission.
"You summoned me, Your Majesty."
He didn't speak right away.
Instead, he raised a hand, and the room emptied. No guards. No generals. No watchers.
Just him and me.
"The humans have noticed you", he said at last. "They know you're alive. And they fear you."
I didn't flinch. That was the goal.
"Let them".
His gaze pierced through me.
"They've placed a bounty. A high one. Enough to buy three kingdoms."
I let a cold smile touch my lips.
"Cheap. I'm worth at least five."
He didn't laugh. The Demon King never laughed.
Instead, he rose, and walked toward me.
I forced myself not to step back.
Even now, after all my victories, a part of me still feared him.
Not just because of his strength. But because of what he represented.
The reason I was still alive.
The reason I was still bound.
"Your binding", he said, eyes glowing faintly, "is changing."
My breath caught.
"Changing… how?"
"The pact was meant to break your will. But instead, you're bending it." He circled me like a lion. "It should have erased your thoughts. But your mind grows sharper."
He paused behind me.
"Tell me, Ayaka Rin. What do you want?"
The question cut deep.
Not what do you serve.
Not what do you fear.
But what do you want?
I turned to face him fully.
"I want revenge."
A pause.
Then, softer.
"And I want power. Enough to never be betrayed again."
The firelight reflected in his eyes. And for the first time, I saw something close to amusement.
"Good", he said. "Then you are truly one of us."
He stepped back, and shadows fell over his face.
"But power has a cost. You will need allies. Monsters worse than me."
He held out a scroll, sealed in black wax.
"Go to the Necropolis. Speak with Lady Sahria. She governs death itself."
The Necropolis was buried in a valley of bones. The air stank of decay and memory.
Ghosts whispered through the wind, some with no mouths, some with too many.
Lady Sahria was more spirit than flesh. Her dress flowed like ink. Her eyes saw too much.
"Ah", she murmured, when she saw me. "The mortal-turned-monster."
"Strategist", I corrected.
She smiled.
"Even better".
We walked among graves carved from crystal. Each tomb pulsed with magic, storing souls like books on a shelf.
"Why are you here?" she asked.
"To make a deal."
"Of course", she said, touching a tomb gently. "You humans love your bargains."
"No", I replied. "We love surviving."
She paused.
Then laughed.
"Very well. What do you want?"
"Your army. The dead ones. The silent ones. The ones who don't betray."
Her smile faded.
"And what do you offer?"
I opened the scroll. The Demon King's seal cracked, releasing a shadow that hovered in the air.
Her eyes widened.
"That… that is no ordinary pact."
"No", I said. "It's an invitation."
We made the deal in blood. As all demon bargains are.
She pricked my finger. I pricked hers.
Our blood sizzled when it touched.
And the chains inside me tightened again.
More power. More weight.
But I didn't flinch.
"I'll call when needed", she said. "And I will come. With my dead."
By the time I returned, the skies were red with storm-fire.
A messenger met me at the gates.
The human kingdoms had moved. A grand alliance. Five nations.
Marching toward the Demon Capital.
I stood on the cliff above the war camp, watching the torches gather like stars.
They thought I would break.
That I would run.
That the girl they betrayed wouldn't dare stand in their way.
But I wasn't the girl they buried in that battlefield.
I was something else now.
Something they made.
A strategist with demon blood and a dead woman's army.
A villainess with nothing left to lose.
And everything left to take.