Aria's POV
"Do you want revenge?"
The demon's voice wraps around me like smoke. His crimson eyes burn into mine, and I can't look away even though every instinct screams at me to run.
But I can't run. I can barely breathe.
My ribs are broken. Blood pools beneath me on this black stone. Whatever this place is—wherever those chains dragged me—it's not Earth anymore. The air tastes like fire and metal.
"I..." My voice comes out as a broken wheeze. "I don't understand..."
The demon tilts his head, and his silver-white hair catches light that doesn't exist. "Simple question, little Nakamura. Those people just tried to murder you. Used you. Betrayed you." His smile sharpens. "Do you want to make them pay?"
Kenji's face flashes in my mind. The way he stepped on my hand like I was dirt. The way he laughed when I begged.
"I never loved you."
"Yes." The word rips out of me with more force than I knew I had left. "Yes. I want them to suffer."
The demon's smile becomes something beautiful and terrible. "Good answer."
He reaches down, and I flinch—but his touch is surprisingly gentle as he lifts my chin. Those burning eyes study my face like he's reading a book written on my skin.
"You're dying," he states it like a fact. "Minutes, maybe less. The ritual tore your soul apart when they stole your spirit contract." His finger traces the air above my chest, and I feel phantom pain where the angelic spirit was ripped out. "Normally, you'd be dead already."
"Then why..." I cough, and more blood comes up. "Why am I still...?"
"Because you're a Nakamura. Your bloodline is special." He stands, and I realize he's tall—impossibly tall—and those black chains move across his body like living snakes. "Do you know what your ancestors were famous for, little girl?"
I shake my head weakly. The Satos told me my parents were nobody. Ordinary people who died in an accident.
But Master Sato said they murdered them. That my real name is Nakamura.
None of it makes sense.
"Your bloodline didn't just contract spirits." The demon circles me slowly, and I feel like prey being examined. "They dominated them. Controlled them. Made even gods kneel." He stops in front of me again. "The Satos tried to use your blood to summon me as their slave. But your blood doesn't summon slaves. It summons equals."
"I don't... I'm not powerful..." My vision blurs. "I'm F-rank. The weakest—"
"You're F-rank because they MADE you weak." His voice cuts through my confusion like a knife. "Someone sealed your power. Locked it away so deep you never knew it existed." He crouches down again, and his face is inches from mine. "I can feel it inside you. All that potential, caged and screaming to get out."
Hope flutters in my chest, tiny and desperate. "Can you... can you unseal it?"
"I can do better than that." The demon's smile widens. "I can give you power that will make them all kneel. Make you strong enough to crush everyone who hurt you. Make you into something they'll fear for the rest of their pathetic lives."
It sounds too good to be true. "What's the price?"
He laughs, and it sounds like breaking glass and thunder. "Smart girl. Yes, there's always a price." He holds out his hand, and black chains materialize from nothing, wrapping around his fingers. "I want a contract. Your soul bound to mine. Your life tied to mine. Everything you are, everything you'll become—linked to me forever."
Forever.
The word echoes in my head.
"If I refuse?" I whisper.
"Then you die here in about ninety seconds, and I go back to sleep for another few centuries." He shrugs like it doesn't matter to him either way. "Your choice."
I stare at his outstretched hand. The chains writhe around it like they're alive and hungry.
This is insane. He's a demon. Demons are dangerous. Evil. Everything the academy taught us to fear.
But the academy also taught me I was worthless.
Kenji taught me I was nothing.
The Satos taught me I should be grateful to scrub their floors.
And all of them tried to KILL me.
"What's your name?" I ask suddenly.
The demon blinks, surprised. "My name?"
"If I'm binding my soul to you forever, I should know your name."
For the first time, something like respect flickers in those crimson eyes. "Azrael. Though most know me as the Demon King of Chains." He pauses. "And you? What name do you prefer? The lie they gave you, or the truth you don't remember?"
My throat tightens. "Aria. My name is Aria."
"Not Nakamura?"
"I don't know who that is yet." My voice shakes. "I only know who I am right now. And right now, I'm Aria. The girl they tried to throw away."
Azrael studies me for a long moment. Then he nods slowly. "Very well, Aria. Do we have a deal?"
I look at his outstretched hand one more time.
Behind me is death. Pain. Betrayal. A world where I was always less than nothing.
Ahead is unknown. Dangerous. Probably stupid.
But it's MINE.
I reach up with my broken, bloody hand and grab his.
"Deal."
The reaction is immediate and agonizing.
Chains explode from Azrael's body and wrap around me—burning, cutting, SEARING into my skin. They plunge into my chest right where my heart beats, and I scream as power floods through me like liquid fire.
It hurts worse than the ritual. Worse than having my spirit ripped out. Worse than anything I've ever felt.
But beneath the pain, something else rises.
RAGE.
Seventeen years of swallowed anger. Seventeen years of taking abuse and saying thank you. Seventeen years of being told I was worthless, useless, nothing.
It all comes pouring out in a wave of pure fury.
The chains dig deeper, and suddenly I'm not in the dark realm anymore. I'm inside my own head, watching memories play like a movie.
Except they're not MY memories.
I see a little girl with violet eyes—five years old, hiding under a bed while people scream. Fire everywhere. The smell of blood. A woman's voice: "Run, Aria! Don't let them find you!"
I see a man in dark robes—Master Sato, but younger—standing over bodies. "Find the girl. We need her alive."
I see myself being found. Crying. A needle stabbing into my neck. Pain. Then darkness.
Then waking up with no memories. No power. No idea who I really was.
They STOLE seventeen years from me.
The rage becomes a inferno.
"YES!" Azrael's voice booms in my head. "That's it! Let it out! All that buried power—TAKE IT BACK!"
Something inside my chest SHATTERS.
It feels like breaking through a wall I didn't know was there. Power floods through me—MY power, the strength that was always mine but locked away.
The chains pull back suddenly, and I gasp for air.
I'm still in the dark realm, but everything's different now. I can FEEL Azrael in my head—not controlling me, but present. Like he's standing right behind me even though he's in front of me.
The soul bond. We're connected.
"How do you feel?" Azrael asks, and there's something almost gentle in his voice.
I look down at my hands. The broken fingers are healed. The cuts are gone. Even my ribs feel fine.
But there's something else. Black marks wind around my wrists like tattoos—chains that match Azrael's, but smaller. And when I focus, I can feel power humming beneath my skin. Ready. Waiting.
"I feel..." I search for the right word. "Alive. For the first time ever, I feel ALIVE."
Azrael's smile is proud. "Good. Because now comes the fun part."
"What fun part?"
"Going back." His crimson eyes glow brighter. "They think you're dead, Aria. They think they won." He extends his hand again, but this time it's an invitation, not a deal. "Let's show them how wrong they are."
I take his hand and let him pull me to my feet.
"How do we get back?"
"The same way you came. Through the summoning circle." Azrael gestures, and a portal of swirling darkness opens in the air. "They opened a door they can't close. We're going to walk right through it."
My heart pounds. "They'll try to kill me again."
"Let them try." Azrael's voice drops to something deadly. "You're not the scared girl anymore. You're my contractor. And anyone who touches you will learn what it means to anger a Demon King."
The portal swirls wider, and I can see through it—the Old Shrine, the ritual circle, Kenji and the others still standing there.
Waiting to make sure I'm dead.
I look at Azrael one more time. "When we go through... will they see you?"
"Only if I want them to." His smile turns vicious. "But don't worry. They'll definitely FEEL me."
I take a deep breath and step toward the portal.
Behind me is death and weakness.
Ahead is revenge.
"Let's go make them pay," I say, and my voice doesn't shake anymore.
Azrael laughs—deep and pleased and terrifying.
"That's my girl."
We step through together, and the dark realm disappears as we're pulled back into reality. Back to the shrine where they tried to murder me.
Back to show them their worst mistake wasn't trying to kill me.
It was failing.