Asmodeus System: Stealing My Bully's Mother

The taste of blood filling Ethan Valen’s mouth was far more bitter than ever before.

”Khuk...!”

He coughed violently. Thick crimson liquid splattered from his lips, staining the cold stone floor. Every breath he drew felt like jagged glass tearing through his chest. His ribs felt shattered, and the stench of charred flesh still wafted from his barely recognizable Academy uniform.

”Lick my boots, trash.”

The voice echoed down the deserted corridor.

”If you do a good job, maybe I’ll toss a few silver coins to your pathetic, dirt-poor family.”

Kurt stood a few paces away, wearing a look of pure contempt. His blond hair was perfectly styled, his uniform spotless, and the high-ranking noble crest on his chest gleamed arrogantly. The wooden sword in his grasp was still cloaked in the fading, bright orange glow of Fire Aura.

Bronze Knight.

At his young age, reaching that tier was more than enough to cement his status as one of the Academy’s elite.

However...

It wasn’t the physical pain from the beating that broke Ethan.

His gaze was locked on the stone floor, right beneath Kurt’s iron-clad boots.

There...

A signet ring engraved with an owl crest lay shattered in pieces.

The ancestral heirloom of the Baron Valen family.

His father’s final keepsake.

He still vividly remembered the day that ring was slipped onto his finger before he left for the capital.

”Bring honor to our family, Ethan.”

That hope...

Was now trampled into dust.

”Cat got your tongue?” Kurt sneered, grinding his heel into the broken ring once more. The metal crunched before shattering completely. ”Did a lowly Baron’s brat like you actually think you belonged in this Academy?”

He scoffed in disgust.

”Your magic is even more repulsive than pig shit.”

Ethan gritted his teeth so hard that blood seeped through them.

With the absolute last dregs of his strength, he forced his mana circuits to ignite.

Aroma Manipulation.

An innate magic that, since childhood, had brought him nothing but mockery.

Mana flowed sluggishly.

The air around Ethan shifted.

A moment later...

An overwhelmingly putrid stench flooded the corridor.

A vile mixture of sulfur, rotting corpses, and burnt flesh violently expanded outward, slamming straight into Kurt’s face.

”Ugh!”

Kurt instinctively recoiled, clamping a hand over his nose.

”Fuck! Even on death’s door, you still reek of garbage!”

His glare turned icy.

”In that case...”

”Just die!”

BAM!!

Fire Aura erupted from Kurt’s leg.

The merciless kick slammed squarely into Ethan’s stomach.

Ethan’s body was lifted off the ground before being launched backward.

CRASH!

His back smashed against the stone wall with a sickening crunch.

Spiderweb cracks spread across the stone surface.

His body then slumped lifelessly to the floor.

Darkness.

His consciousness faded away.

He didn’t know how much time had passed.

When Ethan finally opened his eyes, the corridor was empty.

No Kurt.

No lackeys.

Only dead silence.

And the agonizing pain coursing through his entire body.

Gasping for air, Ethan began to drag himself across the cold stone floor. Every movement left a long, gruesome trail of blood.

He didn’t head toward the infirmary.

Nor did he return to the dormitories.

Instead...

He dragged himself toward the Underground Training Dungeon.

The Academy had been built atop the ruins of an ancient labyrinth.

In one of its deepest, long-abandoned corners lay a massive chasm, sealed off by a rusted iron fence.

No one knew just how deep the abyss went.

The only thing everyone knew for certain was...

Those who fell down there never returned.

Ethan stopped in front of the fence.

His blood-soaked hands gripped the freezing iron bars.

Tears slowly cascaded down his face.

Mixing with the blood streaming down his cheeks.

I’m sorry, Father... Mother...

His chest felt impossibly tight.

He had failed.

He possessed zero talent for Aura.

His innate magic was nothing but a curse that drove everyone away.

Now, even his family ring—the sole memento of his parents’ hopes—had been destroyed right in front of his eyes.

There was no reason left to endure this.

There was no justice in this place.

Kurt’s mother was the Vice Principal.

An Archmage revered by the entire Academy.

Even if Ethan reported this...

No one would believe him.

The only thing waiting for him would be even crueler torment.

This world is rotten to the core...

And I’m too weak to change it.

Expending the very last ounce of his willpower, Ethan climbed the iron fence.

He stood at the edge of the abyss.

His gaze plunged into the bottomless darkness sprawling beneath him.

Without a shred of hesitation.

Without looking back.

He let his body lean forward.

And then...

He fell.

SWOOOOOSH—

The wind howled furiously in his ears.

His body plummeted endlessly through the dark.

It took so long...

As if the chasm truly had no bottom.

Ethan slowly closed his eyes.

He waited.

Waited for death to embrace him.

But...

Death never came.

THUD!!

His body slammed into something incredibly hard.

There was definitely pain, but...

No bones were shattered.

Gasping for breath, Ethan pried his eyes open.

”Khuk...!”

He coughed up another mouthful of blood.

Yet, the sight before him made his breath hitch.

He wasn’t at the rocky bottom of a ravine.

He was lying on top of an ancient obsidian altar.

Its surface was carved with intricate, primordial runes.

Faintly glowing moss illuminated the subterranean chamber with an eerie, sickly green hue.

Ethan’s blood slowly pooled from his body.

Drop by drop.

Seeping straight into the grooves of the runic carvings.

Thump.

Ethan’s heart beat once.

Then again.

The pounding grew heavier.

Suddenly—

Every single rune on the altar flared to life simultaneously.

VWOOOM!!

A blood-red light engulfed the entire chamber.

Crimson-black mist manifested from every direction, enshrouding the altar like a living entity slowly waking from a slumber.

Then...

A voice rang out.

Not from the front.

Not from behind.

But directly inside his head.

A woman’s voice.

Soft.

Husky.

Yet carrying a chilling aura that made the hairs on the back of Ethan’s neck stand on end.

”What a beautiful desire, Ethan Valen...”

The whisper sounded so intimate, so close.

As if a pair of invisible lips were breathing right against his ear.

”Do you wish to be destroyed...”

”Or do you wish to take control?”

Ethan’s eyes went wide.

”W-Who are you?”

”Am I... dead?”

”Is this... hell?”

The voice chuckled softly.

”Hell?”

”No, my darling.”

”You have merely awakened me from a very, very long slumber.”

Instantly, a crimson holographic panel flickered into existence before Ethan’s eyes.

Its interface was translucent.

Adorned with dark ornaments that pulsed rhythmically, much like a living, beating heart.

[Conditions Met: Blood of Absolute Despair Detected.]

[Asmodeus System Activated.]

[Inheriting the Core of the Demon Lord of Lust and Corruption.]

A wave of searing energy suddenly surged through Ethan’s body.

”AARGH!!”

The mana that had always flowed so weakly within him erupted violently.

It felt as if his mana circuits were being pulverized.

And then...

Reconstructed.

Larger.

Stronger.

Deeper.

The agonizing pain of his broken ribs gradually ebbed away.

The wounds marring his body began to knit back together at an impossible speed.

The interface shifted once more.

[Synchronization Complete.]

[Basic Mana Successfully Converted into Sin Mana.]

[Host Status Updated.]

[Rank F → Rank E.]

”What...”

”What just happened to me?”

Ethan stared down at his hands.

His uniform was still in tatters.

His body was still caked in dried blood.

But the power coursing through his veins felt entirely different.

Denser.

Wilder.

More alive.

”I am the Asmodeus System.”

The woman’s voice echoed once again.

”That pathetic aroma magic of yours...”

”...serves as the perfect vessel for my power.”

”You will no longer merely manipulate scents.”

”You will manipulate desires.”

”Submission.”

”And sin.”

A new panel materialized.

[Innate Skill Acquired: Eye of Desire]

Effect: Allows the Host to view the target’s status, hidden desires, and mental vulnerability percentage.

The next panel popped up without delay.

[Innate Skill Acquired: Incubus Mark]

Effect: Implants a seal on female targets. Gradually lowers their mental defense and absorbs a portion of their mana and strength to empower the Host.

Ethan read every single word without blinking.

Slowly...

The despair that had suffocated his chest vanished.

His desire for death simply dissipated.

Replaced by something far, far colder.

He tilted his head up.

Gazing upward into the blinding darkness of the chasm he had fallen from.

Kurt’s face flashed across his mind once more.

That mocking sneer.

The look he had when he crushed his father’s ring.

Ethan slowly rose to his feet.

The corners of his lips curled up.

Forming a thin, wicked smile that had never once graced his face in his entire life.

Behind his brown pupils...

A crimson light slowly ignited.

”Take control...”

Ethan murmured softly.

Sin Mana flowed warmly at his fingertips.

”A brilliant choice.”

The System’s voice sounded deeply satisfied.

”Then...”

”Who shall be our first toy?”

Ethan’s smile deepened.

In the entire Academy...

There was one thing Kurt was most proud of.

Something far more precious to him than his own life.

The very source of his arrogance.

His ultimate shield.

And the very reason why absolutely no one dared to touch him.

Ethan lifted his chin.

His gaze turned freezing cold.

”Vice Principal Isolde.”

His voice was barely a whisper.

”...We’re going to take his mother.”