Chapter 3026: Repaying Generosity With Ingratitude

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

Location: Myriad Realms, Void

’You guys can come out now,’ I mentally commanded as I retrieved a mirror scale from my dimensional storage.

Almost immediately, five figures emerged before me. The moment they materialized, they instinctively spread out, their eyes sweeping across the Void with practiced vigilance, ready to react to any threat.

I couldn’t blame them. One of their own trusted clients had betrayed them.

Granted, they knew too much. While they weren’t aware of the Half-Blood experiments jointly conducted by the Snow Elves and the Froslings, they had still witnessed enough to get on the list of the Snow Elven Empire that had no intention of letting even a single outsider who knew what had transpired in the Gelid Alps leave here alive.

My gaze swept over the five mercenaries before I frowned. Mirror Devil immediately understood the reason for my frown. Without waiting for me to ask, he released Maworm from his Reflection Dimension.

A colossal worm covered in thorn-like scales burst into the Void between us. The instant Maworm regained its freedom, it lunged at the robed devil mercenary with undisguised fury.

Apparently, while confined inside the Reflection Dimension, the robed devil had attempted to subdue it and failed horribly, invoking Maworm’s murderous rage. The remaining mercenaries hurriedly stepped in, trying to keep the enraged Maworm and the battered robed devil apart.

It had nearly killed the robed devil. The only reason he survived was because Mirror Devil had threatened to eject Maworm from the Reflection Dimension if it didn’t stop. And since I asked it to wait in the dimension, it chose to swallow its rage momentarily.

Now that it was finally out, it wanted to settle the accounts between them.

Just as Maworm was about to engulf the robed devil in its black mist before swallowing him whole, I calmly ordered it to stand down.

I hadn’t gone through all that trouble to save all five of them only to let one die now. After all, the only one I truly needed at that moment was Mirror Devil.

Maworm halted mere inches from the robed devil’s face. It opened its massive mouth and let out a deafening screech that echoed through the silent Void, baring rows of jagged teeth before reluctantly backing down.

Its enormous body rapidly shrank until it was only a fraction of its previous size. It then slithered over to me, coiling tightly around my waist and chest before resting its head on my shoulder.

Despite appearing docile, its gaze never left the mercenary team. Every muscle in its body remained taut, ready to lunge at the slightest hint of hostility.

I shifted my gaze toward the mercenary team and activated Mirror Heart, the Ultimate Ice Rune I had forged from the Ice Rule meaning Speculum and the ability If You See Me, I See You.

The rune allowed me to perceive myself through the heart of those looking at me.

Not merely their vision... But their genuine perception of me. As a result, I knew exactly what each of them was feeling. Fear, awe, disbelief, and beneath it all... reverence. It wasn’t because I had saved their lives.

No.

What truly shook them was the fact that I had revived and subdued an extinct primordial creature like Maworm, then had somehow walked away alive after the detonation of the Hundred Frost Domain.

To them, I was no longer merely a powerful curse master. I had become something far more terrifying.

There was more.

Through Mirror Heart, I could clearly sense that the other four mercenaries were furious with the robed devil. They had repeatedly warned him not to provoke Maworm while they were trapped inside Mirror Devil’s Reflection Dimension, yet he had ignored every one of them and foolishly attempted to subdue the primordial creature himself.

Now, they blamed him for getting everyone in more trouble with me when they were already neck deep in trouble having accepted a contract to kill me.

As for the robed devil... He desperately wanted to fall to his knees and beg for forgiveness. Unfortunately for him, his body refused to obey. His legs had gone completely numb, while every muscle remained rigid with fear. He could only stand there, trembling uncontrollably as cold sweat drenched his robes.

Among the five of them, he feared me the most. Unlike the others, he had personally experienced the true horror of Maworm after trying to tame it inside the Reflection Dimension. Every attempt had ended the same way, with him barely escaping death. Had Mirror Devil not intervened by threatening to eject Maworm from the Reflection Dimension, the primordial beast would have devoured him long ago.

That experience had fundamentally changed him. If merely confronting Maworm had left him so utterly powerless... Then what kind of monster was the being who had not only resurrected an extinct primordial creature, but had completely subdued it?

The answer terrified him.

That fear only deepened after witnessing me emerge from the detonation of the Hundred Frost Domain completely unharmed, without so much as a scratch to show for it. Combined with the eerie silence of the Void and my unnervingly calm demeanor, the entire catastrophe felt unreal. As though the apocalyptic explosion that had annihilated everything in its path had never happened at all. And that frightened him more than the explosion itself.

As my gaze swept across the five of them, not a single devil dared meet my eyes. The suffocating silence lingered until the jackfruit-skinned devil finally mustered enough courage to step forward. He lowered his head respectfully and cupped his fists.

’Your Highness, please forgive our rudeness earlier. It was only business. I hope you won’t take it personally. Even though we’re vagabonds, our word is everything. We never intended to offend Your Highness—’

’Consider the Insatiable Jar Relic as payment for that offense,’ I interrupted him indifferently. ’But the matter of trying to repay my generosity with ingratitude by attempting to subdue my pet... I cannot let that slide...’

I deliberately let my words trail off. At the same time, I activated Mirror Heart once more. This time, instead of merely observing their perception of me, I focused the rune on amplifying it. Every emotion they associated with me — every trace of fear, every ounce of awe, every flicker of reverence.

Like sunlight passing through a flawless crystal of ice, the mirror heart rune not only helped me perceive the emotions they directed toward me but would allow me actively diffuse or concentrate them.

At my will, just as a carefully shaped piece of ice could focus scattered sunlight into a beam hot enough to ignite tinder, Mirror Heart focused their emotions for me within their hearts into overwhelming certainties. What had been fleeting thoughts became inescapable convictions.

Their fear converged into terror, awe condensed into reverence, and guilt sharpened into unbearable remorse.

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