Asmodeus System: Stealing My Bully's Mother

​Inside the Throne Room of the Abyssal Palace Ruins.

Ethan Valen strode up the tiered platform constructed from thousands of skulls and black stones. He halted exactly one meter before the ruler’s long-ruined throne.

His crimson-glowing brown eyes stared intently at the object hovering above the throne.

A Black Horned Crown.

The artifact was forged from pitch-black matter. Two demonic horns curved sharply backward from its sides. It radiated a primordial dark energy so dense that the air around it appeared distorted.

Without a second of hesitation, Ethan reached out his right hand. His fingers brushed the surface of the ancient crown.

The exact moment Ethan’s fingertips touched it... the Horned Crown actually melted.

The solid object liquefied instantly, turning into a dimly glowing, blackish-red fluid. The dense liquid was alive. It moved wildly like a serpent, slithering up Ethan’s right arm, penetrating his pores, and seeping directly into his Sin Mana circuit.

”Ugh—!” Ethan gritted his jaw hard.

An impossibly insane pain scorched his chest for a few seconds. However, it wasn’t a torture that damaged his organs. It was a sensation like a flow of cold magma breaking in—widening, tearing, and compacting every inch of his mana veins.

Once the pain slowly subsided, Ethan pulled the collar of his black uniform shirt wide open.

On his left chest—right over his beating heart—a new tattoo had been permanently etched.

The tattoo was a miniature replica of the Horned Crown. Composed of sharp, pitch-black lines with incredibly elegant blood-red accents. The tattoo pulsed softly, in rhythm with the young man’s heartbeat.

A system chime echoed in his head, but this time its resonance felt vastly different.

[Integration of the Asmodeus Crown (Core Fragment) Successful.]

[Host’s Sin Mana Capacity has increased drastically. Current Status: Peak Rank B (Touching the Threshold of Rank A).]

”You know, My Master...” the voice of the Asmodeus System shattered the silence of his mind.

Her tone still retained its old signature—husky and incredibly provocative.

”That new tattoo on your chest... looks very, very sexy,” the System whispered. Her seductive tone couldn’t be hidden in the slightest.

Have you regained your memories? Ethan asked internally. His fingers gently traced the tattoo on his chest. Who are you, exactly?

A momentary silence.

”Only a small fraction of them,” the System answered slowly, sounding slightly melancholic. ”I am a fragment of the soul that has slumbered within that Crown all this time... Asmodeus isn’t just the name of a system, My Master. It is the title of the Absolute Ruler of Sin.”

The woman’s voice dropped into a whisper filled with reverence. ”And you... are its new, rightful heir.”

Ethan turned around. He left the now truly vacant throne and strode out, walking back down the obsidian highway.

Outside the black metal gates, the Abyssal Guardian—the eight-meter-tall monster forged of rotting demon flesh and black steel—was still prostrating with its forehead pressed submissively to the ground.

The purple magma veins across its giant body pulsed slowly. Its four yellow eyes didn’t even dare to look at the Demon Lord who had just emerged from the palace.

”Rise,” Ethan commanded absolutely.

The Rank S monster slowly got up. Its massive body trembled violently, enduring the pressure of Ethan’s Sin Mana, which was now infinitely denser and more terrifying than before.

”Guard this gate,” Ethan ordered. His eyes stared coldly at the ancient killing machine. ”Destroy without a trace... anyone who tries to descend to this place other than myself. You will remain frozen here until I summon you.”

The creature possessed no vocal cords to reply. It simply bowed its head once more in a gesture of absolute obedience.

The monster then walked backward with impossibly heavy steps, positioning itself right in front of the giant gates, locked its combat stance, and froze like a statue of an eternal guardian.

The bottom of this Dungeon was now officially Ethan Valen’s absolute Safe House. A fortress that not even the King of Valois could ever hope to breach.

Ethan focused his mana on the shadows around him.

[Abyssal Stride.]

His body melted perfectly into the darkness. Leaping back to the surface, piercing through the shadow in the sealed steel door’s crevice, and leaving the abyss of death far beneath his feet.

Several hours later. The Star Meditation Room, at the peak of the Main Tower.