Chapter 524: The Return That Wasn’t as Expected

Ferti’nier, Mo Na and the Grimoire of the Dead engaged in a short exchange. Upon learning of Mo Ke’s situation, Mo Na broke down in tears, face stained with worry.

“Weep… Mama…” She cried her heart out in earnest. Even a devil king like Ferti’nier couldn’t help but feel bad for the little girl. However, there wasn’t much she could do at this point. Not only did she have to deal with Mo Ke who was hiding somewhere in the abyss of his soul, she still had to help hold the fort down while he was gone. At times, she wondered to herself, perhaps she had gone overboard with her little prank this time?

She wanted Mo Ke to learn once and for all that humans and devils weren’t meant to co-exist together. To be exact, she just wanted him to know how wide the gap was between him and Nicole.

However, she ended up overplaying her cards, and Mo Ke ended up in the abyss of his soul…

She genuinely did not expect this outcome. Previously, no matter how much she fooled around, Mo Ke mostly brushed off her mischief, leading her to believe that she was a rather sturdy playmate.

Unfortunately, she had completely forgotten why he even ran away from home in the first place. Why he was so dead set on returning to the Western Human Realms even after turning into a devil. It was all for Nicole, no one else. Although, to be fair, Mo Ke himself probably could not distinguish if he was actually in love with Nicole, or just simply using her as a crutch. His journey from the Blood Sea had been fraught with danger. Barring some sort of plot armor or cheat, he needed a reason to justify his struggles, whether real or not.

Yet the severe degree to which he relied on her only made it that much more devastating when she hurt him. Now that his very reason for living had turned on him, how was he to live?

It was a difficult question to answer. But until he found a way, it could be said that his turn at the driver seat was over; it was now Ferti’nier’s turn to have some fun. While it was true that she would eventually grow sick of this as well… At least till the day Mo Ke was willing to step out of his shell, this body would be hers to control. At the end of the day, however, this body was still Mo Ke’s. His body might not be rejecting her soul much while he himself was hiding, but this wasn’t a permanent arrangement.

Some solutions did exist to remedy this, but one had to first understand what the spirit in a tool actually was. The Grimoire of the Dead belonged to the Demigod-tier. As a magical tool of that tier, the spirit within could communicate with Ferti’nier and Mo Na. Strictly speaking, Ferti’nier could be considered a spirit of a tool as well. The Chaos Crystal was a Demigod-tier magical tool, and Ferti’nier was its spirit. The crystal itself was a dimensional tool; that was how it could safely transport Mo Ke into Purgatory.

As an inevitable side effect of this journey, it started melding with Mo Ke’s spirit. Fortunately for him, Ferti’nier promptly separated Mo Ke from the crystal at that crucial stage, resulting in his eventual successful reincarnation. In exchange, she became the spirit of the tool, while the Chaos Crystal became her new jail, formed out of a powerful Demigod-tier tool!

She could have just allowed Mo Ke to become the spirit while she reincarnated herself in Purgatory, but she would have had various considerations to take care of in that case. Besides, her agreement with Yi Yi would have ultimately resulted in her getting reincarnated anyway.

(TL: I edited this portion heavily since the raw text was kind of incoherent. Original chapter title was basically: Another Shoddy Chapter.)

In truth, there were two ways to avoid the tragic fate of being jailed which she could attempt. One was to break the bindings of the Demigod-tier magical tool, then reincarnate from being a spirit of the tool. A difficult method; one that required very steep conditions. Yet the other method would probably be even worse… That was to evolve that Demigod-tier magical tool into an actual god-level magical tool, a Deity-tier magical tool… Spirits residing in such tools had the ability to reconstruct their own body…

Now that the Grimoire of the Dead was done conversing with them and was back in her body, Ferti’nier reached out to comfort the little girl. She had always liked the girl, because she reminded her so much of herself. She was like a daughter to Ferti’nier -even though she had never had a boyfriend. Back in her heyday, this female Devil King was a lofty figure who easily stepped on any male suitor she encountered. None of them interested her, and with her awful personality, really, there weren’t any who she would truly love anyway. Barring herself, of course.

Since she found herself stuck in Mo Ke’s body, her life had been that of an observer, almost like a player guiding the characters in a game. Even if Mo Ke was an actual sentient being, she treated him like you would a favourite character in an RPG. Naturally, being her favourite character’s daughter also meant that Mo Na had her favour. It also helped that Mo Na was adorable and as delightfully black-hearted as her.

While the two black-hearted she-devils continued hugging, Jeerah just so happened to return from the direction of the city’s gates. The first thing she saw was the sight of this father… mother and her daughter hugging.

“Master?” Even if she could only see the back of Ferti’nier from where she was standing, she could feel the trembling in her soul right now. Yet when the person she thought was her master turned around, she shook to her very core. Her legs began to go soft as an urge to prostrate herself took over her.

“Oh? Is that Jeerah? It’s been a while, little girl.” She smiled while giving Jeerah a mischievous look. “Now about that soul of yours…”

“Yes… Master… whatever you desire…” Jeerah muttered, her otherwise sparkling eyes clouded over as if she was in a trance. She slowly knelt before Ferti’nier and shuffled herself before Ferti’nier, bringing her forehead within easy reach.

“Such a good child.” Ferti’nier gently reached out with her right hand and pulled out a shard of Jeerah’s soul from her forehead. It was a soul pact, one between a master and her slave, to be exact.

“Huh… what’s going on… my soul…”

The moment the pact was signed, Jeerah automatically broke free from Ferti’nier’s psychic control. She felt her soul weaken, as if it wasn’t whole any longer… In fact, it actually was missing a piece!

“All right, all right. Don’t mind the small details.” Ferti’nier casually waved her hand then patted her on her head. “Just go take a nap, everything will be fine after a sleep.”

“Oh… ok…” Jeerah answered woodenly and left, having fallen to her psychic control once more.

Mo Na watched the entire scene unfold with shock in her eyes. Jeerah had always been at odds with her since the beginning. After all, Jeerah secretly harbored thoughts of being Mo Na’s step mother, the abusive kind as well…