Incubus Ascension

Liam stepped out of the chocolate shop’s back door, the faint scent of cocoa still clinging to his apron like a fragile reminder of the quiet life he’d tried to carve out. The alley behind the shop should have been empty at this hour. Instead, steel rang against stone, and a customer—a portly merchant Liam recognized—lay sprawled in the mud, clutching a bleeding arm.

A knight in gleaming plate stood over him, a crimson feather fluttering arrogantly from his helmet. The man’s sword was still raised.

Liam’s stomach twisted. ’Not again. Not here.’ He had chosen this corner of the capital precisely because it was supposed to be beneath the notice of the highborn and their enforcers. One more day of selling sweets, one more day of the girls smiling without fear. That was all he’d asked.

He moved forward before his better judgment could stop him.

The knight’s head snapped toward him. Recognition flashed behind the visor. "You. Aren’t you the one that merchant C1 recommended? The exile playing shopkeeper?"

Liam’s blood ran cold. Before he could answer, the knight lunged.

Steel whistled. Liam barely twisted aside as the blade bit into the wall behind him, spraying chips of stone. His hand instinctively dropped to the hilt of his own sword.

"Stop!" A clear female voice cut through the alley from behind the knight.

The knight froze mid-swing, sword trembling. He turned. "Captain?"

Liam followed the knight’s gaze. The simple maid who had visited his shop earlier that morning now stood at the alley mouth, posture straight as a blade. Her plain dress suddenly looked like a poor disguise for the authority radiating from her.

She strode forward, voice sharp with disgust. "Such a disgrace to the Order. Bullying a civilian? And not just any civilian—the princess’s favorite shop owner."

Relief washed over Liam. ’Thank the gods. It’s over.’ He eased backward, ready to slip inside and bar the door.

A heavy hand clamped onto his shoulder, iron fingers digging deep.

Liam stiffened. The knight hadn’t released him. Even with his captain standing right there, the man’s grip only tightened. ’C1... what kind of trouble did you drag me into? This fool’s willing to throw away his future.’

The maid’s eyes narrowed dangerously. "Release him. Now."

Liam’s pulse hammered. No time for hesitation. His fingers found the hilt, and he whispered the activation under his breath. "Time Devil Mode."

The world slowed to a crawl. Colors sharpened. Every heartbeat became a thunderclap in his ears. He saw the maid lunging forward to intervene, but mercy had never kept him alive this long.

Liam’s sword cleared its sheath in a blur. Dark energy coiled along the edge. One clean cut.

The knight’s severed hand dropped to the cobblestones with a wet thud, still gripping Liam’s shoulder until the fingers finally slackened.

The maid’s eyes widened in shock.

Liam met her stare, breathing hard, voice low and rough. "Seems like you aren’t controlling your subordinates very well, Captain."

Silence fell, thick and dangerous.

Then a new voice drifted from the shadows deeper in the alley. "Looks who’s talking. An exile playing the role of bearer... and you even opened a chocolate shop?"

Leon stepped into the light, tall and scarred, holding a writhing vein of dark energy that pulsed like a living curse. His smile was cold.

Liam’s heart slammed against his ribs. His legs nearly buckled. ’He knows. He said it out loud—in front of the princess’s people.’ The fragile normalcy he had built shattered in an instant.

The maid’s aura erupted like a supernova, raw power flooding the alley. Her blade appeared at Liam’s eyes before he could blink.

He cursed and flooded himself with dark energy. The explosion of shadow roared outward, swallowing the entire block in writhing blackness. Screams rose from nearby streets as day turned to artificial night.

The princess, watching from a safer vantage, gasped. The maid attacked without hesitation.

Liam fought desperately. Every exchange left him bleeding. He was slower, weaker, outclassed. The only reason he still drew breath was the frantic layering of every skill he possessed—experience, timing, raw stubbornness. ’I can’t die here. The girls... the kids... they have nowhere else.’

Through the chaos he reached out with mental telepathy. ’Ast. Tell the girls to run. Hide. Our cover’s blown.’

As he backpedaled, trading blows, a passing gleam caught his eye. Pain lanced through his shoulder, the blade piercing clean to the bone. Liam gritted his teeth, a mad shout tearing from his throat. Only the iron will he had raised through blood and regret kept him conscious.

Leon moved in for another strike. Liam twisted away, refusing to give him the opening.

He was losing. Overwhelmed. Death crept closer with every heartbeat.

"Fuck it," Liam snarled.

He unleashed the full output of his dark energy and shoved a hundred pills down his throat in one motion. Power detonated from his chest in a supernova of shadow, swallowing an entire quarter of the capital and blotting out the sun.

The tide turned. Liam surged forward, sword leading. This time he held his ground. He overpowered the maid, landing cuts that drew blood and forced her back.

He glanced at Leon, voice thick with fury. "I didn’t forget you."

One brutal swing. Leon’s hand flew free.

Control was slipping. The massive output threatened to consume him.

Then the princess’s voice rang out, clear and commanding. "Stop!"

Liam hesitated, chest heaving, dark energy still boiling around him. "Why do you always assume that because I’m an exile I’m evil?"

She shook her head, eyes steady despite the surrounding madness. "You sell such delicious things like chocolate. You aren’t evil."

The words hit harder than any blade. For a moment Liam laughed—loud, raw, almost broken. A sound of disbelief and fragile hope.

A new voice cut through the chaos. Low, yet crystal clear even amid the roaring shadows.

"Your father sent me when he heard of the commotion."

She stepped forward in pure white armor, long white hair floating as if stirred by an unseen wind. Beautiful. Lethal.

Liam barely registered the swing.

His vision split.

Pain arrived a heartbeat later as his body realized it had been sliced cleanly in half.

’A true bearer,’ he thought, stunned. ’She ignored the dark energy completely... more lethal than anything holy.’

Before agony could fully drown him, he ripped open his system panel with frantic will.

**1 HP remaining.**

He cursed through the rising wave of pain. Time lapse and iron will were the only things keeping his mind intact. With every remaining point he bought every healing and regeneration skill available—sixty-eight of them—slamming them into activation at once, forcing them to fuse in a desperate cascade.

The final skill crystallized: **Healing Devil.**

Flesh stretched and knit in real time. His lower half reconnected to his torso with grotesque, miraculous speed. Both the princess and the white-haired bearer stared, eyes wide.

"Such a monster," the bearer hissed, raising her blade again.

The princess stepped between them. "The maid is in his direction now. You could hit her."

The bearer’s face hardened, but she held. Liam didn’t waste the opening. He poured everything left into flight, sprinting back through the alley the boy had once led him down, plunging into the sewer entrance.

His heart thundered as he ran, wounds still knitting, darkness trailing behind him like a tattered cloak. He reached the hidden dark room at last, boots splashing through foul water, and shoved the concealed door open.

His heart hammered to a stop.

Instead of the kids and the girls he had sworn to protect, someone else sat waiting in the shadows.