His eyes met mine without blinking. There was no malice in them—no fire, no smugness, no warmth either. Just a cold, quiet pressure, like standing at the base of a mountain right before it collapses. My breath caught. I hated how small I felt, how stupid I was for following Lilith here, and how badly I wanted to take a step back without looking like a coward.
Lilith, unbothered as always, stood at my side like we weren't standing in the depths of a sealed sanctum before a man behind so many containment wards they practically hummed with unease. The stone beneath us was old, cracked in places from either age or past incidents I didn't want to think about. She turned to me with a little smile, as if this was a tea party and not… whatever this was.
"His name's Kael," she said simply, tilting her head as though the name should mean something to me. It didn't.
The name meant nothing to me.
Lilith twirled a strand of her silver-pink hair, lips quirking. "Technically, he's family."
I almost choked. "Your family?" I took an instinctive half-step back. "Lilith, what does that mean? Why is he locked up down here, and why are we in here with him?"
She just waved her hands flippantly. "If I wanted to let him out, I'd have done it long ago. I only brought you here to introduce you, Master." She said the last word with a playful grin that didn't make me feel any better.
"Introduce me," I repeated flatly. "To your sealed family member…?"
Kael, or whatever his real name was, hadn't spoken a word yet. He just sat there, watching us with an unreadable face, as if none of this concerned him. There was something strangely polite about it. Not passive—just the silence of someone used to not being addressed for years at a time.
From the way she said it, I suspected this wasn't the first time she'd slipped past whoever was supposed to be guarding this place. She probably thought of it as a little family outing.
She strolled right up to him, the hem of her frilly black dress brushing the dust on the floor, and leaned close to whisper something I couldn't hear. Kael's gaze flicked to her, then to me, then back again. He gave a slow nod.
That couldn't be good.
Then, without a sound, he smoothly rose from his cross-legged position like a shadow standing upright, slow and deliberate. The wards sparked, flaring brighter as if in warning—or maybe in protest. I froze. Couldn't breathe. He stepped toward me, every inch he gained shrinking my already pitiful sense of confidence. I couldn't even look him in the face. His presence pressed down like thick fog—like the very air didn't want me here.
Then, to my utter confusion, he knelt. He bowed his head—not in mockery, not as a threat, but with a strange formality that made it somehow worse.
I stared down at him, blinking dumbly. He was massive up close. Horns, tail, pale skin—everything about him screamed danger. But his voice was calm and even, as though this were all perfectly normal.
"If you are Lady Lilith's Master, then by right, you are mine as well. I swear myself to your service."
I blinked, unsure if I'd misheard. My mouth opened, but no sound came out.
He went on, unbothered by my inability to speak. "She told me you saved her. If that is so, then I owe you a debt I cannot ignore."
Saved her? I stared at Lilith. She gave me a wink, like it was some sort of joke.
I hadn't saved her. At least, not that I remembered. She was the one who'd barged into my life, uninvited, and decided to follow me around like an overeager cat.
What was I supposed to say to that? "Thanks?" "Please don't kill me?" "Stop kneeling, you're making this worse?"
"I, uh…" My voice came out hoarse, like I'd swallowed sand. "You don't have to do that. I mean—you don't have to swear anything. I didn't ask for it."
Lilith cut in with a giggle before I could say another word. "He's bad at showing emotions, so you'll have to forgive him. He doesn't mean to be scary."
She patted his shoulder like a proud sibling introducing a favorite pet.
He raised his head at that, looking at me again with that same expressionless calm. "I will not harm you," he said, like it was a promise carved into stone.
"That's not really—" I stopped, rubbing my temples. "Not the only thing I'm worried about, actually."
I glanced behind me, back at the ruined entrance Lilith had cheerfully blasted open with zero hesitation. It still smoked a little. Great.
Kael spoke again before I could move. "There is no need to rush. The guards rarely come here. I do not require food or water, and the wards are self-sustaining. It is more convenient to leave me be."
The way he said it was matter-of-fact, not bitter—but there was something in it that made me pause. A man locked away in a hidden cell, with only the occasional visit from Lilith and, apparently, the Emperor himself? It sounded like the world had forgotten him.
I opened my mouth to say something, then thought better of it.
Whatever sympathy I might've felt was immediately smothered by the very loud part of my brain reminding me who I was standing in front of. And that, whatever he might say now, this was still someone dangerous enough to require a prison sealed by living wards.
I swallowed hard and somehow forced my mouth to move. "What… are you?"
It came out quieter than I wanted—more breath than question—but it was the best I could manage under the circumstances. Kael didn't react. He didn't even blink. It was Lilith who answered, a soft hum rising from her throat like she'd been waiting for me to ask.
"Oh, that," she said with a cheerful lilt. "I've been meaning to tell you. I only found out recently myself." She clasped her hands behind her back, silver-pink twintails swaying as she leaned forward slightly. "Apparently, we're called Narelith."
The word sounded old. Weighty. It didn't ring any bells, but it settled in my chest like a stone all the same. Something about the way she said it made it feel… ancient. Wrong and beautiful at once.
"Narelith," I echoed, tasting the unfamiliar syllables like I might find something familiar buried inside them. "Never heard of it."
"Most haven't. We're pretty rare, even in the underrealms. And for the longest time, I didn't even know that was the name. I thought I was just… weird."
I blinked. "Underrealms?"
I'd heard of something like that before. The Underworld—where monsters supposedly came from. Every village kid knew that much. But this sounded different. Underrealm. Singular. Was that something else?
Lilith started to open her mouth, but Kael shifted slightly—barely more than the tilt of his head. "May I explain, Lady Lilith?"
She grinned and gave him a flourishing gesture like she was offering him the stage. "By all means."
Kael turned his gaze to me. "The Underrealm is a plane adjacent to this one. Beneath it, in a sense—but not bound by geography. More like a shadow layered under the skin of this world. That is where most of our kind originate. It is a realm shaped by raw mana and chaos. Many of the creatures you call monsters—ogres, goblins, giants, and the undead—hail from there."
My mouth pressed into a thin line at the word ogres. I didn't have fond memories of those.
Still, curiosity edged out discomfort. "What about direwolves? Or giant serpents? Do they come from there too?"
He shook his head. "No. Beasts such as those are native to this realm. They are born of nature, not magic. The Underrealm breeds monsters—not merely animals grown large, but creatures warped by energy, shaped with intent or malice."
"And devils?" I asked quietly.
"The most dominant force there," he said without hesitation. "Unlike other monsters, devils possess intelligence comparable to humans. They form kingdoms, societies. They make war and peace. Their nations span across much of the Underrealm, each vying for power. Some even reach beyond."
I swallowed. The idea of devils with governments and empires was somehow worse than just imagining them as ravenous beasts.
"So… it is the Underworld?" I asked, frowning slightly. "Just a different name?"
Kael nodded. "The term is similar. Underworld, Underrealm—it depends on the speaker. But yes. It is the same place."
"We Narelith," he added, "exist on the boundary. Not quite monster. Not quite devil. Our nature depends on what shapes us—and who we follow."
Lilith gave a soft laugh, like she found the idea amusing or maybe just too accurate.
Kael's voice settled into silence, and for a moment, no one spoke. I was still turning the word over in my head—Narelith—when something else Lilith had said caught up with me.
"Wait. Back up. You said you found out recently—after you evolved?" My brows drew together. "What do you mean by evolved?"
Lilith spun on one heel like a dancer showing off a new dress, her frilly black skirts swishing around her knees.
"Exactly what it sounds like!" she said proudly. "Our kind doesn't grow the way humans or demons do. We evolve. We change, adapt. When we absorb enough mana, our body reshapes itself, inside and out." She paused, as if savoring the moment. "It's much faster than most monsters. Much more elegant, too."
I stared. "You… absorbed mana?"
Lilith twirled once more, slower this time, as though letting invisible skirts fan out around her.
"It's how I ended up like this, you know," she said. "I evolved. Our kind changes fast. Too fast, sometimes. We take in mana like breath, and it shapes us—makes us stronger, sharper. And the aura you feel from us?" She flashed a smile. "Side-effect. Or maybe a bonus."
I swallowed, the weight of Kael's presence still clinging to the back of my neck.
I narrowed my eyes. "How do you not know what species you are?"
Lilith shrugged, casually brushing silver-pink hair behind one pointed ear.
"Most of us don't live long enough to find out. Our base forms are… fragile. Small. I was practically a cyclops bat when we met." She gave a small snort. "Tiny wings, one big eye, more teeth than sense. Easy prey for anything bigger than a squirrel."
That memory tugged at something distant in my head—a faint, strange night, the smell of moss and damp bark, and something trembling in a trap near the village's edge. I remembered herbs. A shallow cut. Blood.
"You…" I said slowly. "That was you? The thing caught in that wire snare behind Old Nara's hut?"
Her eyes lit up. "I knew you'd remember eventually."
"You bit me."
"I was feral. And scared." She tilted her head and smirked. "Also, I was trying to mark you."
"Huh?"
"Not romantically," she laughed. "It's instinctual. Our kind doesn't survive long alone. When we find something safe, we hold on. Some of us cling to animals. I clung to you."
I felt my face pale. "So… wait. Are you saying that back then…?"
She nodded. "That night, when you helped me… I think you spoke to me. You said something like 'I'll keep you safe, alright? Just stop bleeding on me.'" Her eyes sparkled with mischief. "You meant it."
"That's all it takes? Just saying that?"
"It's not a ritual," she said. "Taming magic—real taming—is about will. Agreement. I was desperate, and you meant it. I accepted it. You offered safety, even if you didn't know what you were doing. I agreed to it. That was enough."
I stared at her, dumbfounded. "So that was a contract?"
"A familiar bond," she corrected. "Very weak at first. You barely had any mana, and I had even less. But it was real. That's why I could find you again, later. That bond never broke."
My knees felt unsteady. "You're telling me you've been following me because of something I said when I was thirteen and stealing herbs from my neighbor's window garden."
"I was wounded," she said with a smile that wasn't teasing. "And you helped me. You didn't even know what I was, but you still did it. I went through a lot after that… but I always remembered. And I never forgot the way back."
She looked at me again, and for a second I didn't see the impish grin or the glint of danger. Just something old. Something that had been carried quietly for a long time.
Kael hadn't moved. Neither had I.
"I'm not bound to you because you're powerful," Lilith said, stepping closer. "I'm bound to you because you were kind. That's something even monsters remember."
She was right. Of course she was. About the contract thing, I mean—not about me being kind, or special, or whatever else she liked to say with that smug little grin.
I stood there, shoulders tensed, mind racing to catch up. One minute I'd been chasing after Lilith to stop her from getting into more trouble, and now I was apparently in conversation with a sealed monster who had just sworn himself to me.
Honestly, after everything lately, I was almost getting used to it.
I risked another glance at him. He was still kneeling, motionless, but his eyes met mine the moment I looked up. There was something oddly attentive about it, like he was waiting for a command.
That thought alone made my stomach twist.
"…What does this mean, exactly?" I asked finally, my voice uneven. "You pledging loyalty like that—does that mean you're… contracted to me too?"
Lilith burst out laughing—not a cruel laugh, more like someone trying not to choke on their own amusement. "Oh, Master. No, no, no. Not even close." She waved a hand as if batting away the thought. "Your mana's far too low for that."
I bristled, slightly. "Gee, thanks."
"It's not an insult," she said brightly. "It's just true. Kael's mana is leagues beyond yours. If you tried to form a contract with him in your current state, you'd be the familiar, not the master."
I blinked. "That's a thing?"
"Power determines hierarchy," she said, rolling her eyes like it was common knowledge. "And I doubt you'd want Kael as your master, would you?"
Kael nodded solemnly. "It is true. A contract must be balanced. My mana would overwhelm yours."
I winced. Yours. Still weird hearing that from someone who looked like he could crush a mountain by blinking.
"But," he continued, lifting his gaze without rising, "I do not doubt that one day, your mana will surpass the threshold required. When that day comes, I will gladly form the contract properly. Until then…"
He bowed his head lower, hands at his sides. "I ask for your patience, and your forgiveness for being unable to aid you more directly. In this state, I cannot leave."
"N-No—don't apologize," I stammered, waving my hands. "It's not like… I mean, you're the one locked up here. You don't need to say sorry for that."
My eyes drifted back to the ward-etched floor, the cracked stone, the faint glow that whispered of old magic and long-ago desperation. "Why are you even down here?"
He lifted his head—just barely—as if to let me know he heard, but the rest of him didn't move. Like statues had more emotions than whatever was running through his veins.
"I was once a commander in the Demon Lord's army," he said, voice flat and unshaken.
The temperature dropped. Or maybe it didn't. Maybe it was just my brain reacting, trying to shrink away from what I'd just heard. My heel shifted back without permission, and I could feel my pulse scrambling to make a run for it.
"I was defeated in battle by a lone man," Kael continued, like it was just another part of the story. "Soon after, the Demon Lord fell. I was spared and sealed here instead."
The words sank in slowly, like mud around my ankles. Not just a monster. A commander. Defeated by a lone man—and spared. That meant something.
There weren't many people walking around who could pull that off.
In fact, I could only think of one.
I turned slightly, catching Lilith in my peripheral. She didn't look shocked. If anything, she looked... calm. Thoughtful. Like this wasn't news to her.
"You knew?" I asked, not quite trusting my own voice.
She met my eyes, blinking slowly. "I figured it out a while ago," she admitted, brushing a stray lock of hair from her face. "It's not that unusual. Our kind has always been used—especially by Demon Lords. I read about it in the palace archives. Some Narelith served the last Demon Lords… even the ones before them. We're rare, and when we do show up, our potential makes us tempting—easy to shape, easy to control."
I gave her a sideways glance. "Wait. That's what you've been sneaking off to the library for? Reading?"
She smiled proudly. "Surprised I can?"
"A little," I muttered.
"I'm full of surprises." She stuck her tongue out before softening her voice. "But Kael's not evil. He was part of that army, yes, but he holds no hatred toward humans. He believes he lost fairly. And unlike most humans, he's not a sore loser."
Ouch.
I tried not to flinch, but the jab found its mark anyway. Lilith wasn't even looking at me when she said it, which somehow made it worse.
Kael raised his eyes. "It is true," he said simply. "I fought. I was defeated. I do not resent it."
He didn't say it with pride or sorrow. Just a quiet acceptance, like he was telling me the weather forecast or stating the color of the sky.
And the more I looked at him—this massive, terrifying figure kneeling in what was basically a glowing magic prison—the more I felt that strange pull of guilt twist in my gut. I'd panicked when he spoke, but not because he was evil. Just because the name Demon Lord still rattled around in my head like a warning bell.
And now, here he was. Bowing like I was important. Like I was someone.
And I wasn't. Not really. Just some idiot village girl who'd bandaged a wounded bat-creature in the woods and somehow ended up dragging a bunch of strange people behind her like a parade of cursed strays.
Lilith hadn't ever shown hatred for Arden—not once. No snarling, no snide remarks. And if he was the one who beat Kael... and she still walked around smiling and making dumb jokes, then maybe I could believe her when she said she wasn't after revenge.
She glanced at me again, more serious this time. "If you're worried I'll do something stupid because of what happened to Kael, don't. I'm not the type to waste time chasing revenge. I'm just glad he was spared."
I let out a breath I hadn't noticed I'd been holding.
Everything was spinning faster than I could keep up with. Cults. Contracts. Familiar bonds I didn't remember agreeing to. And now... former generals kneeling in glowing circles, waiting for me to decide what happened next.
I looked at Kael. At Lilith. At the glow beneath my feet, still whispering a warning I didn't quite understand.
Maybe I wasn't the one in charge here. Not yet. But they'd chosen me—and that meant something, too.