Chapter 100: Awakening of a demon emperor
The gentle warmth of summer was suddenly replaced by an oppressive, suffocating heat. Shadows crept across the sky as the once-blue heavens darkened. The laughter of children that filled the air just moments ago faded away, replaced by a deep, eerie hum that vibrated through the earth itself.
Shin blinked.
The amusement park melted around him.
He expected to wake up in his bed, perhaps a bit shaken from a strange dream. But instead, he found himself standing alone in the middle of a crimson forest.
The trees towered above him, their bark raw, oozing sap like open wounds. A thick red fog slithered across the ground, curling around his legs like serpents.
And then... that voice.
A familiar language whispered in the distance—foreign, haunting, and impossible to understand, yet it stirred something deep inside him.
He turned and saw her.
She stood there in silence. Breathtakingly beautiful, ethereal, and undeniably dangerous.
Her eyes, slit like a serpent’s, gleamed with ancient knowledge. Her smile was slow and knowing, the kind that chilled the blood despite her beauty.
"You saved me. Expectedly..." she said, voice soft and silky, like velvet stretched over steel.
Shin didn’t flinch. His heart pounded furiously, but his feet stayed rooted to the blood-colored soil.