Chapter 242

“!!”

Merchen scrambled to dodge, but it was too late.

Slash!

Lena’s claws raked across Merchen’s face, blood splattering.

Covering his face with his hands, Merchen stumbled backward.

“Ugh!! What the—?!”

“Ah, you see, the art of domination isn’t something only you can wield.”

The poison Lena had just been injected with was his own mental toxin: ‘Dark Domination.’

By harnessing the dark mage’s control and the nature of the deadly poison, he had hijacked Lena’s will.

“How foolish, challenging me with domination magic.”

Merchen gathered his strength.

“Let me show you why they call me the ‘Puppeteer of Sorrow.’”

As Merchen reached out, Lena’s body stiffened like stone.

His puppetry began to overwhelm Chris’s mental toxin.

But contrary to expectations, control didn’t immediately shift.

Chris’s mental toxin, shaped by the dark mage’s power, was no pushover.

Merchen’s pride took a hit, twisting his face into a demonic snarl.

“How dare you.”

Shhh.

Merchen’s hand darkened with ashen shadows, and Lena clutched her head, screaming in agony.

“Ahhhhh! Please, stop!!”

Her scream was like a nightmare made flesh.

Merchen’s technique worsened the trauma buried deep in her psyche, seizing control of her mind.

For Lena—already fractured by a past shock—this was a devastating blow.

At that moment, Chris moved.

“I won’t let this happen.”

Flash.

From Chris’s hand, a black magic pierced the mind.

Within the depths of her consciousness, he saw Lena.

Amidst the torn corpses of the fox tribe, Lena stood, dazed, drenched in blood.

This is Lena’s past.

She was a member of the fox tribe.

Though under the dark mage’s banner, she was a half-beast living peacefully with her kin, without any special power.

Her fate twisted by the mysterious mage.

The mysterious mage’s minions had captured her tribe, using them as test subjects.

They forcibly awakened ordinary foxes into nine-tailed foxes, turning them into vessels for demonic power.

Endless torturous experiments followed, culminating in a horrific choice.

To perform a forbidden ritual, she was forced to kill her own family.

Through that terrible magic, Lena was forcibly transformed into a nine-tailed fox, but her heart shattered completely.

She barely escaped the mysterious mage before becoming a full vessel, but the dark mage rejected her.

Instead, they cast her out as a sinner who had killed her own kin.

Later, she was captured again by the mysterious mage, but then met the hero’s party and joined them.

The scene in her subconscious was the trauma of killing her own tribe.

It’s your fault. You killed them all.

Voices shattered her spirit.

It was Merchen’s trickery.

Lena’s already broken heart sank even deeper.

Chris frowned and shouted at Merchen’s will.

“Shut up.”

“…What?”

Their wills clashed deep within her mind.

Normally, Chris would lose this battle.

But he raised his voice.

“Get out of my friend’s mind!”

“!!”

Snap!

Incredibly, Merchen’s will was pushed back.

If this were a simple contest of magic, Chris could never have repelled Merchen’s technique.

But now, Chris’s genuine care for Lena gave him the strength to break through.

His will was stronger than Merchen’s, who only sought to control her like a puppet.

“Take my hand.”

Lena looked up at Chris, dazed.

What could he say?

No words could heal her wounds.

Instead, Chris said simply,

“I’ll help you.”

In a past life, the dark chatterbox had died at the hands of Gerard, leader of the Blood Shadow Brigade—because of Chris.

If only Evan and Lanya had been there, they might have escaped together.

But when Chris was in danger, they sacrificed themselves to save him.

Now, it was his turn.

“Trust me.”

Did his sincerity reach her?

Hesitating, Lena finally reached out to Chris within her subconscious.

At that moment—

“Gahk!”

Merchen coughed up blood.

His puppetry over Lena was completely broken!

But the fight wasn’t over.

“You…! How dare you break my puppet! Prepare yourself.”

Merchen gathered his power.

A summoning circle appeared in the air, and the worst sight unfolded.

Dozens of puppets appeared.

Merchen’s Puppet Legion!

They were the execution puppets he had fought before.

What he had done with Lena was just a trivial trick—this was his true power.

One seven-star puppet, two six-star, five five-star, over ten four-star, and the rest two- to three-star.

A terrifying force that could easily overwhelm most knight orders.

And Merchen himself, a curse sorcerer, would join the battle at full strength.

It was a hopeless situation.

Merchen regained his composure and smiled chillingly.

“Kneel and lick my feet now, and I might show mercy. I’ll turn you into puppets with a little less pain.”

Chris’s reply was simple.

“Pfft.”

He spat, the saliva infused with dark magic flying toward Merchen’s face.

Merchen’s expression turned cold.

“Break their limbs and bring them before me.”

But just before the desperate battle began, Chris gave Lena an unexpected order.

“You need to get out of here.”

Lena glanced at Chris with vacant eyes, then vanished like the wind.

“Trying to save that nine-tailed fox before dying? This isn’t the time for such indulgence.”

“No, it’s not indulgence.”

Chris snapped his fingers.

“I’m more than enough to handle a corpse pervert like you alone. Now come at me.”

Merchen chuckled bitterly.

“First, I’ll sew your mouth shut. So you’ll never speak out of turn again.”

With a gesture, the puppets lunged.

Chris scattered an aura blade, freezing their movements, then stepped back into the room’s interior.

Bubble, bubble.

In the center of the ornate chamber, green poison swirled like molten magma.

It was the poison well—the original target.

“You talk big, but you’re nothing special. I’m starting to lose faith in you.”

Merchen led his puppet legion into the room.

“I’ll turn you into puppets before your beloved feelings cool.”

At her signal, the puppets surrounded Chris, cutting off any escape.

Yet Chris did something baffling again.

Still confident, he said,

“Let me ask you something. Do you know why I’m so sure I’ll win?”

“Obviously, it’s just bluster…”

“If you’d investigated me, you’d know I don’t bluff. I always make good on my words.”

Merchen fell silent.

Now that he thought about it, it was true.

Though mocked as a braggart, Chris always fulfilled his promises, no matter how impossible.

Suddenly, an inexplicable chill ran down Merchen’s spine.

No. No matter how talented Archduke Christian is, there’s no way against this overwhelming force.

He tried to deny the ominous feeling.

“Of course, with my current power alone, I can’t beat you. But you chose the worst battlefield.”

“…What?”

“Watch.”

Then, the unbelievable happened.

Flash.

A green light flickered like lightning.

The puppets surrounding Chris faltered, then collapsed to the floor.

“!!”

Smoke rose from their bodies, turning into blood as they melted away.

“Poison? Impossible.”

Merchen’s face twisted in disbelief.

“Ah, this isn’t ordinary poison.”

Green smoke curled around Chris.

Merchen’s eyes widened as he realized the source of the green aura.

“No way?”

“Yes.”

Chris gestured.

Flare.

From the floor—the poison well—green energy rose and flowed into Chris’s hand.

“How can you control the poison well?”

Merchen stammered.

She knew what the poison well was.

It wasn’t a power source that could be manipulated like this.

“I didn’t know either, but the poison well and dark mage magic have great compatibility. Maybe because they’re both ‘Three Wells.’ Of course, it’s only possible because I’m amazing.”

As he neared the poison well, Chris felt it.

He could control it as a dark mage.

Because he had obtained pure dark magic at 100%.

“Now you understand why I said I could win?”

Chris grinned at Merchen.

“Disgusting. Just disappear.”

Green energy poured from the poison well, flooding the area like a rising tide.

---

Merchen cast a defensive spell, but it was useless.

The poison essence—the pure source of power—was something that not even the highest-ranked seven-star mages could block.

Merchen and his puppet army melted away completely, leaving no trace behind.

It was the ignominious end of Merchen, the elder of the Demon King’s Castle, infamous for his cruelty.

‘That was lucky. If it weren’t for the poison essence, there’s no way I could have won.’

But there was a problem.

‘Where did Lena go?’

Chris frowned.

His mind poison, the “Dark Dominion,” had a weakness.

Its control weakened with distance, a limitation inherent to dark magic.

It seemed she had fled far away.

‘I can’t chase her.’

Chris shook his head.

‘We’ll meet again. She’s escaped the Demon King’s Castle, so she’s not in immediate danger.’

Though his control was lost, Lena was still infected by Chris’s mind poison.

He had a rough idea of the direction she’d gone, so they would cross paths again someday.

‘For now, I need to harvest the poison essence.’

Chris gazed at the undulating poison essence, flowing like molten lava.

The sheer strength of the poison was so intense that even from a distance, his skin felt like it was burning and melting.

‘Normally, the proper way would be to use the extreme poison mage’s secret technique.’

Extreme poison mages had a method to absorb the poison essence’s energy into their core.

‘You bring part of your body close to the poison essence, then slowly draw the energy into your core.’

Of course, you never touch the poison essence directly. No matter how high-ranking the poison mage, contact would cause your body to dissolve instantly.

Even just absorbing the energy was incredibly dangerous.

‘That’s why many who try give up halfway through the poison transformation. The success rate is only about 30%.’

The process of absorbing the poison essence to strengthen the core is called “poison transformation.”

Like dark mages who absorb the sacred darkness, it creates a perfect core for wielding poison magic.

But Chris had an unexpected thought.

‘I can’t settle for such a crude method.’

A surprising realization.

‘Because what I want isn’t just some poison transformation.’

Right.

He hadn’t gone through all this trouble just to strengthen a single poison spell.

For Chris, poison magic was merely a stepping stone to something greater.

‘I need to elevate the very essence of my existence through this poison essence.’

The extreme poison mages couldn’t even imagine what the poison essence truly was.

It wasn’t just a source to power up poison magic.