Chapter 139: Come, Heart Demon Domain Serves
Empress of Eternal Night received Roger’s message, knowing he had taken control of Shady Veronica. She then teleported back to the Maple Spirit Moon Shadow Palace from the abyss, awaiting his arrival with the captive.
Mentor Tianming had fantasized countless times about breaking into the Empress of Eternal Night’s chambers. However, in her imagined scene, she led a grand army, breached the Empire’s elite guard, and from a commanding height, gazed down upon a trembling Shady, proclaiming to the world, “Veronica will always return.” Then, with a flick of her fingers, she would blow off the Empress’s head.
But reality was different. Shady, adorned with a magic-nullifying circlet crafted by the Arcane Society and personally supervised by the Empress of Eternal Night, stood in the Empress’s private chambers like an ordinary person, unable to wield any Magic Power.
The Empress of Eternal Night stood with her hands behind her back, looking down at Shady with disdain. Fate, indeed, was amusing. Both women were once princesses with no serious pursuits; now, one was a rebel leader, and the other was an Empress of unprecedented renown, their paths diverging drastically. One had won, the other lost, and their auras were worlds apart.
This wasn’t Shady’s first encounter with the Empress of Eternal Night. When Asiforte fell, Shady was protected by loyal guards as she retreated towards a secret passage. From a distance, she saw the young Empress charging at the forefront, her hand raised to blast apart the city walls. Despite being an enemy, Shady found her somewhat dashing.
This was the first time the Empress of Eternal Night had seen Veronica’s last royal descendant. She appraised Shady with a playful smile, examining her up and down. *She’s quite beautiful, and her figure is decent. Despite being defeated, her demeanor is surprisingly composed. But what’s most amusing is that stubborn expression of hers, unwilling to accept the reality of defeat. How interesting!*
Shady felt uncomfortable under the scrutiny, so she forced a poker face and said nonchalantly, “I was a move short. I concede. Give me a quick end.”
The Empress of Eternal Night pondered thoughtfully, “Aunt Shady, are you sure you were just a move short?”
Shady’s expression almost broke. *Who’s your aunt? Am I really that old?* Besides, what was the point of counting how many moves she lost by now that she had already lost? This venomous wretch of an Empress wasn’t just killing her, she was trying to crush her spirit! Fortunately, Shady’s state of mind had been honed by years of ups and downs. She said in a deep voice, “Stop with the nonsense! No matter what your plans are, I won’t cooperate. Don’t hold your breath!”
The Empress of Eternal Night feigned a look of regret, “Had you explained the Seven Gods’ schemes properly, I might have considered granting you a swift end.”
“Sorry, not only do I not know, but even if I did, I wouldn’t say a word.”
“It seems you hate the Empire quite a bit, even though we are all human… The Seven Gods are the common enemy of our World.”
Shady chuckled, but her eyes were filled with venom. “The enemies of the World are for Emperors like you to consider. I am merely a slave of a fallen kingdom, only remembering that you destroyed my life, burned the palace I grew up in, and killed my family…”
Roger, overhearing this near self-sabotaging statement, couldn’t help but show disgust. In the game, Mentor Tianming also rallied under the banner of “overthrowing the Empress’s tyrannical rule.” The Azurevine Empire was militaristic and exploitative. Seeing the suffering of the common folk, Players easily believed she represented justice. However, in this World, the Azurevine Empire had not yet committed those atrocities. On the contrary, the Empire had just conducted a grand trial of aristocrats, and the living standards of its subjects surpassed those in the Eternal Night World, with further improvements expected as national strength continued to rise. Shady, however, maintained intense hostility towards the Azurevine Empire, exhibiting the prejudice, conservatism, backwardness, and selfishness of a vengeful spirit. If truth be told, Shady had killed more Veronica people than the Empire… but a princess like her would not sympathize with the common people, nor would she consider ordinary citizens as lives taken. She only remembered the loss of her happy life and the demise of Veronica’s imperial glory. The so-called mentor was merely one of the Seven Gods’ pawns, using her hatred to set a trap. And Shady had instigated more people, including Players, to execute this trap, ultimately leading to the Empire’s downfall. Victory and defeat were matters of history written by the victors, completely unrelated to Shady’s true intentions, personality, or resolve. Fortunately, as an Eternal Night scholar, Roger had already noticed this in later game cycles. But witnessing his in-game goddess persona crumble, seeing such ugliness beneath a beautiful facade, was deeply unsettling. It was like offering pure feelings to a green tea bitch, only to discover that all the beauty and joy were false, deceitful, and unreal… At that moment, he just wanted to shout: “Rnm, development team, give me my money back!”
Because Roger had used the Shield of Illusory Dreams again in the battle, and had to withstand Shady’s high-level combat mage attacks, as well as his own area-of-effect spells, his Mental Power was severely depleted.
The Empress of Eternal Night couldn’t hear Roger’s inner thoughts, but she could infer from the changes in his expression that his understanding of Shady had deepened by a layer, and his disgust had increased by several more. The so-called “witty Empress” intentionally orchestrated this conversation. Although Roger had “sold” Shady to her, as a woman, she harbored suspicions and worries about Roger and Shady’s past relationship. In her view, it was an insidious, malicious elder exploiting her man’s youthful ignorance, leaving behind fond memories. Memories were always beautiful, and men always cherished their “white moonlight” and “vermilion cinnabar.” The Empress of Eternal Night didn’t want to end up as “mosquito blood.” Given Roger’s strong sense of justice and sympathy for the common people, the Empress of Eternal Night believed that provoking Shady into a self-exploding confession would be enough to shatter any lingering connection between them. Although she couldn’t guess the specifics of their relationship, the current outcome indicated that the Empress of Eternal Night’s objective had been achieved. After all, Shady in this timeline had no connection with Roger; he was merely a target in her bet agreement. Therefore, Shady cared not one bit about his impression of her. Of course, if the actual Players cared, Shady wouldn’t have minded either. *Just pawns. If this one doesn’t want to complete the mission, we’ll find another.* The image she had in mind was .jpg. Thus, in the end, this covert battle for affection was a complete victory for the Empress of Eternal Night. Of course, a certain straight man was still lost in memories and unaware of the wicked woman’s well-intentioned scheme. In a way, this victory yielded no extra gains?
The Empress of Eternal Night never gave losers a second chance. After extracting Shady’s last ounce of value and confirming that her disposal would not elicit Roger’s disapproval, she directly summoned the Eris Demon Worm.
“How is Afu not dead? And how has it grown so much?” Shady recognized it as the Eris Demon Worm she had used to betray the Empress of Eternal Night. Normally, due to the species’ inherent power, the Eris Demon Worm’s growth rate was extremely slow. Over several hundred years, half a centimeter of growth would be remarkable. Yet, this one, appearing behind the Empress of Eternal Night, was twice the size it was when Shady held it. Its eyes flickered with hostility, it had clearly recognized Shady. Its semi-transparent body spontaneously generated peculiar, eerie demonic patterns, its antennae waved guardedly, and its body coiled in a combat stance. It seemed its encounter after being captured by Shady had not been pleasant.
“Because mages really enjoy spending time surfing inside its belly,” Roger explained. But to Shady, it sounded like a riddle. *What do you mean by surfing? Why would mages willingly dive into their Heart Demon Domain?*
But the Empress was clearly drawn to another observation. She poked the Eris Demon Worm with her finger, calling out with a smile, “Afu? Afu?” So, this little bug had a name. The Eris Demon Worm turned its body and looked at her with resignation, indicating with its actions that it disliked the name.
The Empress of Eternal Night, understanding, nodded, “Alright, I’ll call you Afu from now on too.”
*Chirr—* The Eris Demon Worm rubbed its wings, emitting an angry and sharp screech. *I said I don’t like it, can’t you understand bug language?* But it didn’t dare vent its anger at the Empress of Eternal Night. It turned its gaze towards Shady and, in its extreme rage, directly sucked her into its Heart Demon Domain.
Its original Heart Demon Domain had been transformed into a mage camp by the Empress of Eternal Night. However, because it constantly absorbed the active and abundant emotions of mages, Afu’s strength grew rapidly. Not only had the mage camp expanded, but there was also some surplus space, allowing for the creation of a new Heart Demon Domain. It had even learned to utilize the projections of those mages, making the Heart Demon Domain more realistic than before.
Using the Heart Demon Domain to probe for intelligence known to Mentor Tianming and Gou Sheng had been a plan long agreed upon by the Empress of Eternal Night and Roger. It was their only option. Conventional methods would likely never elicit Shady’s cooperation. A resolute avenger like her would probably not yield to ordinary punishments, magic, or torture. Fortunately, they had the Eris Demon Worm that Shady herself had provided. *If you won’t speak, it’s fine; the Heart Demon Domain will reveal your memories. We’ll look and dig for treasures ourselves. Perhaps we’ll even uncover important information that Shady saw but dismissed.* There was no need to worry about the authenticity of the information or whether she was being misled. After all, this was the Eris Demon Worm’s unique Skill, from which even the Empress of Eternal Night could not be exempt. Now, Afu’s strength had multiplied, while Shady’s was far inferior to the Empress of Eternal Night’s. Even with the protection of the God of Knowledge, with their strengths in opposition, the possibility of Shady being immune to the Heart Demon Domain was infinitesimally close to zero. Especially when Afu was enraged, the Heart Demon Domain’s effects were amplified. Subjective Skills fluctuated significantly with emotions and states. As a result, despite Shady’s thorough preparations, she had no room to resist and was drawn into the Heart Demon Domain. Afu had no eyelids, but it remained motionless on the Empress of Eternal Night’s shoulder, clearly exerting its full power on Shady.
“My loyal subject Roger, would you like to watch together?”
“Of course.” Roger nodded matter-of-factly. This might involve plot points from later data packs or even subsequent games. Now, with the possibility of uncovering them early, he was naturally curious about the answers. What kind of World had the creators devised? Why did it increasingly feel unsettling? As the saying goes, “Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will win a hundred battles.” If he didn’t even know the enemy’s true objective, he couldn’t possibly devise countermeasures. Moreover, this was his own suggestion, and he had captured the material himself. Naturally, he wouldn’t miss the live broadcast. “Good.” The Empress of Eternal Night smiled and snapped her fingers, bringing Roger with her into the Heart Demon Domain.
…
…
Bright sunshine, a bustling city, magnificent city walls, a majestic palace, knights clad in golden armor… This was the peaceful Asiforte, before it turned into a city of white bones.
“Same old trick, construct the most beautiful scene first, then tear it apart with your own hands.” Roger recognized the stage of development immediately. The Empress of Eternal Night let out a stiff “Mm.” She had endured such torment for several rounds. Although with Roger’s help, she hadn’t been left with heart demons but had instead broken through her obsessions, the process was not pleasant.
Now, there was a third spectator. Old Joseph, clad in a pure white, floor-length dress, revealing his muscular “shoulders,” was leisurely enjoying Shady’s dream of her past as a grand princess. His inner monologue was, *”You’ve joined too.”* It was similar to the psychological state of those pricked by Empress Rong Mo’s silver needles. *We caused trouble together, why did you get away? Impossible, impossible! Let’s languish together in prison!*
Roger knew that Old Joseph had been transformed by the Empress of Eternal Night into a random boss in the Endless Tower, a nightmare for those mages brave enough to climb and challenge themselves, tormenting them to no end with ceaseless tricks. He hadn’t expected him to adapt so well to cross-dressing… Old Joseph seemed to sense Roger’s amusement, turned, gave him a flirtatious wink, and whistled, “Lord Dio, if you have time, could you help me design some stylish outfits too~”
“This… it’s sheer… vacuum!” Roger, knowing Old Joseph was joking, still felt a wave of nausea. In terms of giving up, this legendary High Priest was truly a model worker now!
At this point, the golden age of the Veronica Dynasty ended, and the grand princess witnessed the Empress of Eternal Night leading her troops to conquer the city. Roger and Old Joseph instinctively looked at the Empress of Eternal Night, who was Shady’s nightmare! Look how scared the child is.
“You are good people?” the Empress of Eternal Night asked playfully. After the city was conquered, Afu’s designed ending was that Shady failed to escape. Roger, leading the Night Guard, captured her in advance and rewarded her as a plaything to the surrendering Veronica nobles. And the first noble to bully her had Old Joseph’s face. But all three became awkward. Turns out no one could escape; they were all super villains in Shady’s heart. *This Empire, all of them are evil, they all must die!*
The Heart Demon Domain doesn’t perfectly replicate real memories; it distorts and refracts things intensely. Whatever the target fears, all of it can be thrown in at once to increase the concentration of stimulation. Clearly, Shady was lost in the beauty and didn’t realize that the subsequent darkness was fabricated, losing herself in the pain.
Simultaneously, deeper memories and subconscious thoughts were also captured by the Eris Demon Worm. Subsequently, the construction of new Heart Demon Worlds changed the scenery seen by the three spectators. In this Heart Demon World, Shady also did not escape, sinking deeper into it. However, unfortunately, even after five layers of Heart Demon Worlds, no useful information related to the Seven Gods was found.
“So troublesome, do we have to wait until she completely breaks down to sift through the ocean of bottom-level memories like finding a needle in a haystack?” the Empress of Eternal Night complained irritably.
“If she’s not up to it, we’ll have to break through Old Joseph,” Roger shifted his approach, looking at the core believer beside him who was actually no less qualified than Shady, but far more senior. Old Joseph immediately looked horrified, “The Goddess of War isn’t capable, she’s very weak, she knows nothing, so I know even less…” *Who in their right mind wants to be subjected to torture in a Heart Demon Domain, especially with an audience critiquing? Isn’t that the same as social death?*
“Wait, this time it’s the Chasm of Myriad Worlds, the Divine Kingdom of the God of Knowledge!” Old Joseph suddenly exclaimed in surprise. *Sister Shady, be more helpful. If you give me a clue, I won’t have to suffer!*
