SYSTEM ANNIHILATION.
The words slammed into my consciousness with the force of a physical blow.
My heart, which had been steady and cold throughout murder, sabotage, and intrigue, hammered against my ribs. The Nexus Codex wasn't just my cheat code. It wasn't just my system. It was the entire foundation of my second chance, the bedrock of my revenge. Losing it wasn't just a setback; it was the end of the game.
The choice wasn't a choice. It was an ultimatum.
The demonic energy from the slumbering Imp and the quasi-divine, corrective energy of the Codex were like oil and water, fire and ice. They could not co-exist. The Shadow Lord's contract, a pact made by my ancestor, was a foreign piece of code that was about to crash my entire operating system.
I had come down here to claim a servant.
Now, I had to eat a demon.
My hesitation lasted only for a heartbeat. My survival, my ascent, my vengeance—they were paramount. The Imp was a tool. The Codex was my very being.
"System," I thought, my voice a blade of ice in my own mind. "Explain the 'Devour' process. Now."
...THE [ABYSSAL SHADOW DEVOURING ART] ALLOWS THE HOST TO CONSUME AND ASSIMILATE SOURCES OF POWER. THE IMP IS A CONCENTRATED MASS OF NETHERWORLD ENERGY AND SOUL-ESSENCE.
...TO DEVOUR IT, YOU MUST INITIATE THE AWAKENING RITE, THEN OVERPOWER ITS WILL AND CONSUME ITS CORE BEFORE IT CAN FULLY MATERIALIZE IN THE MORTAL REALM.
...WARNING: THE PROCESS WILL BE EXTREMELY PAINFUL. FAILURE WILL RESULT IN YOUR SOUL BEING DEVOURED INSTEAD.
Of course it would. No risk, no reward.
I looked at the Imp statue. The crimson glow in its chest was getting brighter, pulsing in time with my own heartbeat. My blood was waking it up, feeding it. I had to continue the rite to make it vulnerable, a half-formed state between stone and flesh.
I took a deep breath and pressed my bleeding palm firmly against its head, channeling my Qi to force the blood out faster. A torrent of my life essence poured into the statue.
The crimson light exploded.
CRACK.
Cracks spiderwebbed across the obsidian surface of the statue. The dust and cobwebs of centuries were blasted away by a wave of palpable, soul-chilling energy. The air in the cistern grew heavy, thick with the pressure of a higher realm.
The statue's stone eyelids ground open, revealing two points of burning, intelligent malice.
A voice, ancient and raspy, echoed not in the air, but directly inside my skull. It was a voice of gravel, shadows, and endless hunger.
[Who… dares… awaken me? A child of the bloodline? You reek of… something else. Something clean. Something wrong.]
The stone shell of the statue began to flake away, revealing a glistening, sinewy form beneath. It was a grotesque creature, wiry and thin, with leathery wings and long, needle-like claws. Its eyes burned into me, filled with a predatory cunning.
"I am your new master," I said, my voice cold and steady, betraying none of the internal chaos.
The Imp let out a dry, rattling laugh in my mind. [Master? Hah! You are a snack. A morsel to break my long fast. Your blood is potent, child, but your soul is fragile. I will devour you, and then I will find the other one. The female. She has the mark of the Master's true chosen.]
So it could sense Lyra's connection to Lin Feng. It confirmed everything.
The Imp's form became more solid, its claws flexing. It was almost fully materialized. It was time.
"Not going to happen, pet," I snarled.
I activated the Abyssal Shadow Devouring Art.
The world went gray. A swirling vortex of shadow erupted from my body, centered on my chest. It was a terrifying, instinctual power I had never fully unleashed. My own soul felt like it was being stretched, warped into the shape of a hungry maw.
The Imp recoiled, its burning eyes widening in genuine shock and something akin to fear.
[What is this?! That art… it is forbidden! Heretical! That is not the Master's power!]
"It's mine," I roared, and lunged forward.
I plunged my hands into the Imp's half-materialized chest. It was like shoving my arms through solid ice and burning tar at the same time. A soul-rending agony shot up my arms, but I gritted my teeth against it.
The Imp shrieked, a psychic scream of pure pain and rage that hammered against my mind. [You dare?! Insolent whelp! I will feast upon your memories!]
I felt its will invade my own, a tide of demonic filth trying to overwhelm me. But my will had been forged in the crucible of a twenty-five-year-long nightmare. It was a shard of obsidian, honed by hatred and obsession.
My vortex of shadow flared, and I began to pull.
I felt the Imp's core, a burning coal of Netherworld energy and stolen souls. My Devouring Art latched onto it, and the feast began.
It was agony. It felt like I was drinking liquid fire while being electrocuted. The Imp's essence was a chaotic storm of malice, hunger, and alien thoughts. It fought back, trying to corrupt and consume me from the inside out.
My vision blurred. My body convulsed. Blood poured from my nose and ears.
[WARNING! HOST'S SPIRITUAL INTEGRITY IS AT 78%!]
[...65%!]
[...51%!]
The Imp's physical form began to dissolve, turning into streams of dark red and black energy that were being siphoned directly into my body. Its psychic screams weakened, turning from rage to disbelief, and finally to terror.
[No! The Master will not forget this! You are marked! Marked!]
Those were its last words. With a final, violent wrench, I ripped its core free and absorbed it completely.
Silence.
The chamber was empty. The statue was gone. I stood alone on the stone island, trembling, covered in my own blood, my body feeling like it had been torn apart and stitched back together.
But I was alive. And I felt… powerful. A new, dark energy, a connection to something ancient and abyssal, now hummed within my soul.
The system's notifications, no longer a chaotic purple but a triumphant, brilliant gold, filled my vision.
[SYSTEM ERROR RESOLVED.]
['Soul-Devouring Imp' has been successfully devoured and assimilated.]
[The Abyssal Shadow Devouring Art has leveled up.]
[Host has assimilated the Imp's core authority over Netherworld Energy.]
[NEW SKILL OBTAINED: Netherworld Beckoning (Basic) - Allows you to temporarily open micro-fissures to the Netherworld to summon low-tier demonic entities or draw upon Nether-Aether. Cost: Lifeforce.]
[NEW SKILL OBTAINED: Imp's Shadow-Step - A short-range teleportation skill utilizing Nether-realm physics.]
[The 'Ravencrest-Shadow Lord' contract has been forcibly severed. The Nexus Codex is now the sole authority.]
I took a deep, shuddering breath. I had done it. I had turned a system-ending crisis into a massive power-up.
But the final notification was the real prize. It was the answer to a question I hadn't even thought to ask, a twist that redefined my entire relationship with my sister and her chosen "hero."
[ANALYSIS OF SEVERED CONTRACT COMPLETE.]
[The Shadow Lord's primary objective was to use the Ravencrest bloodline to nurture a vessel for the protagonist, Lin Feng.]
[REASON: The Protagonist, Lin Feng, is not a 'hero' chosen by the Heavenly Dao.]
[He is a 'World-Breaker' entity. An anomaly unknowingly seeded by the Netherworld to destabilize and consume this realm from within.]
[Your sister, Lyra Ravencrest, did not make a deal with a demon to support a hero. She made a deal to support the world's hidden cancer.]