Asmodeus System: Stealing My Bully's Mother

The night air at Baron Hadrick Drel’s estate froze. Thick mist swallowed the main gate area, carrying with it the fresh, metallic stench of blood from the border outpost that had just been leveled to the ground.

On the stone balcony, Baron Hadrick collapsed on his backside. The plump man was shaking uncontrollably. The prized decorative sword he took pride in slipped from his stiff fingers, clattering against the floor. A pair of eyes bulged out in horror, staring up at the night sky.

From behind the rolling waves of dense mist, Lilith’s true form slowly descended like a grim reaper. A dense black aura blazed, enveloping the Succubus’s pale body. The remnants of her maid dress were torn, dancing against gravity. Her pink hair, which had lengthened to her heels, fluttered wildly. Beneath the dim torchlight, the black claws on her fingers gleamed with bloodlust.

Her golden-red eyes glowed, locking onto the soul of anyone who dared to look at her.

The moment the tips of Lilith’s toes touched the blanket of snow in the middle of the courtyard, true terror was unleashed. Without making a single sound.

The noble soldiers realized there was no room to run. Driven by blind panic, several of them recklessly lunged forward. Spears and swords were swung.

”Hah...” Lilith let out a bored sigh. In her eyes, their movements were no different from the slow dance of deformed insects.

A spear shot forward with full force toward her chest. Lilith didn’t dodge. Her pale hand reached out casually, catching the wooden shaft in mid-air, then crushing it into specks of dust with a single fist.

A soldier leaped from a blind spot, intending to stab her ribs. Lilith moved like a shadow. With the grace of a dancer, she spun her body, caught the soldier’s arm, and twisted it with one violent snap.

CRACK!

”AAARRGHH!” A piercing scream broke out as the bone in the soldier’s arm shattered all the way to his shoulder socket.

The stench of fear wafting up was sweet to Lilith’s monstrous instincts. She wasn’t merely killing; she was celebrating this slaughter.

A young soldier who had lost his weapon crawled desperately across the reddening snow. Lilith strolled casually over, pressing her ice-cold palm against the man’s back.

Lilith curled a faint smile.

In a matter of seconds, the soldier’s life energy was completely drained dry. What remained was merely a husk of skin and bones freezing on top of the ice.

After dozens of corpses lay scattered in various horrifying poses, Lilith paused for a moment. She spread her arms in the middle of the sea of blood, savoring the symphony of death she had created, before strolling casually toward the main doors.

BOOM!

The double doors made of thick oak wood shattered to pieces with just a single push of her dark aura.

Lilith stepped inside like a long-awaited honored guest. The lavish marble interior and wooden carvings of the estate welcomed her with chaos. Servants ran frantically, bumping into one another as they sought an exit.

None of them made it far.

An old maid ran past her toward the back door. Without turning her head, Lilith’s black claws swung. Blood splattered, staining the expensive carpet as the maid tumbled down lifelessly.

Lilith’s steps halted in front of a massive portrait of the Drel family. She tilted her head, staring at the arrogant faces on the canvas, then formed a condescending smile.

Her demonic ears caught the sound of frantic footsteps from the upper floor.

”Shh! Hurry, Mirella! Take Lucas downstairs!” Baron Hadrick’s baritone voice trembled violently, accompanied by a woman’s stifled weeping.

Lilith didn’t chase after them. She allowed her prey to run, granting them an illusion of safety so their sense of despair would ripen perfectly when she went to collect them later.

In the depths of the damp, cramped basement, the horror reached its climax. The only illumination was a single candle flickering in the corner of the room.

Mirella huddled, hugging her son tightly. Her beautiful face was drenched in tears. Lucas, the ten-year-old boy, buried his face into his mother’s chest, his eyes severely swollen.

Near the wooden door, Hadrick Drel stood as pale as a corpse. He had stacked wooden crates and wine barrels as a makeshift barricade. His hands gripped his decorative sword, even though his knees were on the verge of collapsing. Cold sweat drenched his thin mustache.

From behind the door, the silence was shattered by the sound of footsteps.

Tap... Tap... Tap...

The rhythm was slow, light, and extraordinarily calm. Just like a black cat cornering a helpless mouse. Those steps stopped right behind the door.

A woman’s soft chuckle rang out. Melodious, yet bone-chilling. The entity outside seemed amused upon hearing Lucas’s sobs.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Three soft knocks echoed.

The air inside the room felt completely sucked dry. Those gentle knocks were far more horrifying than heavy pounding. Hadrick took a step back, his sword trembling violently.

A second after the third knock... the door exploded.

A surge of dark aura blew away the barricade of barrels and crates like a pile of paper. Wood splinters flew, opening a path for the harbinger of death.

Lilith stepped in through the dust. Her black mist made the room feel suffocating.

Mirella instantly spun her body, hiding Lucas behind her back. Making her slender body the final shield.

The Succubus didn’t attack right away. She walked over casually and squatted right in front of them. Her golden-red eyes stared at Lucas with a soft smile that felt utterly wrong and deeply terrifying.

The tip of Lilith’s pale finger reached out, caressing the boy’s chubby cheek.

”Don’t touch my son!” Mirella shrieked hysterically. She discarded all her fear, charging forward with bare hands.

A futile struggle.

Lilith raised her hand lazily, choked Mirella’s neck, and lifted the woman into the air with just one hand.

The process wasn’t instantaneous. Lilith deliberately slowed it down.

A bluish energy flowed from Mirella’s pores, siphoned into the Succubus’s palm. Mirella’s fair skin faded to gray. Her blue-green eyes caved in, her lips dried out, her body shriveling horrifically like a flower scorched by fire.

”Mother... MOTHER!!” Lucas screamed with all his might, weeping with a heartbreak that tore at the soul.

Hadrick fell to his knees. Thud! The man could only watch his wife’s death with tears streaming down silently. His body was completely paralyzed by the dominant demonic aura.

The moment Mirella turned into a dry husk, Lilith released her grip. The corpse fell with a thud onto the floor.

Lilith stood up, turning her head toward Lucas. The smile on her lips radiated the false gentleness of a mother reuniting with her lost child.

”N-no...” Hadrick muttered hoarsely.

The boy’s death didn’t take long. And that sight completely destroyed what was left of Hadrick’s sanity.

The plump man wet himself right where he knelt, losing all of his noble dignity. Driven by the last fragment of his sanity, Hadrick gripped his sword with both hands and swung it with his remaining strength toward Lilith’s leg.

Lilith didn’t dodge. She merely lowered her left hand, pinching the steel blade between two pale fingers. The sword stopped dead in its tracks as if hitting a wall of solid steel.

Without fading her smile, Lilith swung her leg.

BAM!

The kick, coated in dark aura, landed squarely on Hadrick’s chest. His body flew back, slamming into the stone wall accompanied by the sickening crunch of breaking ribs.

Absolute silence blanketed the basement once more.

Hadrick slumped to the floor. The look in his eyes was now completely vacant.

”He... hehe...” The sound of his hoarse laugh slowly turned into a hollow smile. His sanity had been completely shattered. He merely sat among the dried corpses of his wife and son, babbling incoherently, trapped in the hell of his own mind.

Lilith stepped closer to the figure who had lost his soul. She leaned down, bringing her face so low that her pale lips nearly touched Hadrick’s ear.

Hadrick’s laughter and babbling ceased instantly as an ice-cold breath brushed against his neck.

”Listen very closely...” Lilith whispered softly, melodiously, and venomously. ”The land of Valen that you’ve looked down on all this time now has a new, untouchable master. And tonight... is merely the beginning of the price you pay for your arrogance.”

After planting that final poison into Hadrick’s decaying brain, Lilith stood up straight. She smoothed her pink hair, turned around, and walked out without intending to look back ever again.

Night crept closer to dawn.

Inside the master bedroom of the Valen estate, darkness still reigned. It was illuminated only by the light of a small candle flickering from the wind passing through a window left open on purpose.

Ethan Valen sat silently in an armchair. His eyes were closed casually beneath his black shirt, as if he was enjoying the rhythm of the falling snow outside.

A subtle movement glided inside.

Lilith slithered through the shadows like a ghost. The Succubus’s pale body was now entirely unclothed, her frayed dress having been completely destroyed during the fight.

She stepped closer to the chair where Ethan sat, then bent her body slightly. A faint smile graced her lips as she called out in a soft voice deliberately laced with a seductive tone.

”Master Ethan...”

Ethan’s dark brown eyes slowly opened. His gaze traveled up Lilith’s body from head to toe. However, there wasn’t a single change in his expression.

Lilith froze for a moment.

She had seen humans lose control far too many times just from a single look from her. Yet Ethan stared at her like someone observing a foreign object on a desk.

”Truly uninteresting...” she muttered with a mockingly disappointed tone.

Lilith then slowly let her body drop, as if all her strength had been drained away. With lazy movements, she crawled closer to Ethan’s feet before finally resting both of her arms upon his thighs and looking up with a piteous face.

”I worked really hard tonight, Master...” she whined. ”At the very least, don’t I deserve a small reward?”

Ethan merely stared at her without expression.

A few seconds passed before he finally let out a short sigh.

”Report first.”

Lilith blinked.

The seductive act she had prepared so carefully hadn’t even managed to make the man budge in the slightest.

”Well...” She lifted her body while curling an amused smile. ”Alright. The southern outpost is no more. The soldiers on guard are all dead, and Baron Drel’s family will no longer be a problem.”

Ethan, who had initially been leaning back casually, slowly raised his gaze.

”What about Baron Drel?”

Lilith tilted her head, then smiled as if she had just remembered something funny.

”Who knows. Killing him felt too quick.” She shrugged lightly. ”So I let him live a little longer. Now he can only stare blankly and babble to himself. It seems his mind can no longer distinguish between reality and delusion after I killed his wife and child in front of him.”

The room suddenly felt much quieter.

Ethan’s gaze, which had been calm all this time, slowly shifted. Not by much—just a slight narrowing of his eyes, enough to show that he was starting to lose his patience.

Lilith noticed it. But instead of backing off, the corners of her lips curled up slightly.

”I ordered you to kill anyone who resisted.” Ethan’s voice remained low and flat.

Lilith stared at him for a few moments before answering.

”I did.”

That answer sounded so light that it almost came off as a child’s defense for feeling they had completed their task correctly.

Ethan didn’t reply right away. He simply stared at Lilith.

Second after second passed.

No threat was spoken. No shift in his tone of voice. Yet it was precisely that calm that slowly erased the playfulness from Lilith’s face.

Her smile was still there, but no longer as wide as before.

”Do not play games with my orders, Lilith.”

Ethan’s tone remained calm.

Too calm.

Lilith held his gaze for a few seconds, then slowly looked away. Her fingers, which had been resting casually at her side, moved slightly before coming to a complete stop.

”...Understood, Master.”