Chapter 115:The Old Urban Legend
The moment Lucifer returned to the military base, he barely had time to step through the gates.
Two soldiers were already waiting for him.
“Commander Duan wants to see you immediately.”
Lucifer sighed.
Lucifer: “Can't I get one peaceful evening after completing a mission?”
Neither soldier answered.
Lucifer glanced at them, then toward the commander's building.
Lucifer: “Fine. Lead the way.”
The doors to Commander Duan's office opened.
Lucifer walked inside expecting another lecture.
Instead, he immediately noticed her expression.
Duan wasn't angry.
She wasn't amused either.
She looked serious.
Lucifer stopped joking.
Lucifer: “What happened?”
Duan remained silent for a moment before speaking.
Duan: “Amaira is missing.”
Lucifer's eyes narrowed.
Lucifer: “Missing?”
Duan: “She was sent on a mission several days ago. Her squad stopped responding shortly afterward.”
Lucifer: “And the reconnaissance team?”
Duan: “We sent one.”
She paused.
Duan: “They disappeared too.”
The room became silent.
Lucifer slowly walked toward the desk.
Lucifer: “What mission was important enough to send Amaira without returning?”
Duan opened a file.
The name written across the cover immediately caught Lucifer's attention.
BLOODY MARY.
Lucifer: “...That's a name.”
Duan: “It's an urban legend.”
Lucifer: “Another one?”
Duan: “Not another one.”
She placed several reports on the desk.
Duan: “Something far worse.”
Lucifer picked up the first report.
The pages were filled with witness accounts.
A mansion.
A mirror.
A woman appearing behind anyone who called her name.
And people who entered the mansion...
never came back.
Lucifer: “How strong?”
Duan's expression hardened.
Duan: “Our estimates place Bloody Mary at least ten times stronger than La Llorona.”
Lucifer stopped turning the pages.
Lucifer: “Ten times?”
Duan: “She's not simply a ghost. She's an urban legend that has existed for generations. Every story told about her strengthens her existence.”
Lucifer: “So fear feeds her.”
Duan nodded.
Duan: “Exactly.”
Lucifer closed the file.
Lucifer: “And Amaira?”
Duan's eyes became colder.
Duan: “Alive.”
Lucifer looked at her.
Duan: “I know because of my eyes. I can sense the condition of those connected to me through soul energy.”
Her hands tightened.
Duan: “She's alive inside that mansion.”
Lucifer: “How bad?”
Duan didn't answer immediately.
Duan: “Her condition is deteriorating.”
Lucifer understood.
Lucifer: “She could die.”
Duan: “At any moment.”
For once, Lucifer didn't smile.
He simply picked up the file.
Lucifer: “Then this isn't a subjugation mission anymore.”
Duan: “No.”
Lucifer: “It's a rescue and subjugation mission.”
Duan: “And you're going alone.”
Lucifer looked toward the window.
For several seconds, he remained completely silent.
Then a faint smile appeared.
Lucifer: “Seems like just the kind of mission for me.”
Duan raised an eyebrow.
Lucifer: “I was getting bored killing weak ones.”
Duan smiled.
Duan: “I knew I could trust you.”
Lucifer turned toward the door.
Lucifer: “Don't mistake confidence for recklessness.”
Duan: “What's the difference?”
Lucifer opened the door.
Lucifer: “A reckless man doesn't know what he's walking into.”
He glanced back.
Lucifer: “I do.”
And then he left.
The mansion stood in the center of the city.
That was the first thing Lucifer found strange.
Most haunted places were hidden away in forests, abandoned villages, or forgotten ruins.
This one wasn't.
It stood among ordinary buildings.
People walked past it during the day.
Children passed its gates on their way home.
Merchants opened their shops across the street.
Yet nobody entered.
Nobody even approached the iron fence.
Because after sunset...
the entire street changed.
No light entered the mansion.
Not even moonlight.
People had tried destroying it.
Fire had been useless.
Explosives had failed.
Even powerful reapers who entered never returned.
And those who survived the first few minutes always came out...
different.
Some couldn't speak.
Some couldn't remember their names.
Others spent the rest of their lives staring at mirrors.
The mansion had become a place where fear gathered.
And fear was exactly what an urban legend needed.
Lucifer stood before the gates.
The sun had disappeared.
Night had arrived.
He looked at the mansion.
Lucifer: “So this is Bloody Mary's home.”
Chirin emerged beside him in her scythe form.
Chirin: “It feels wrong.”
Lucifer: “Good.”
Chirin: “Good?”
Lucifer pushed open the iron gate.
Lucifer: “If it felt normal, I'd be disappointed.”
The gate creaked.
Then slammed shut behind him.
Lucifer didn't turn around.
He stepped toward the mansion.
The front doors opened by themselves.
Lucifer stopped.
Lucifer: “Inviting.”
Chirin: “You know that's probably a trap.”
Lucifer: “Obviously.”
He entered anyway.
The door closed.
BOOM.
Darkness swallowed the hallway.
Lucifer's eyes adjusted.
The mansion was enormous.
Paint peeled from the walls.
Old portraits hung crookedly.
Every portrait showed the same woman.
Different ages.
Different clothes.
Different expressions.
But the same face.
Lucifer walked past them.
Then stopped.
One portrait had changed.
The woman in it was now looking directly at him.
Lucifer stared.
Lucifer: “Interesting.”
Chirin: “Don't tell me you're going to talk to the painting.”
Lucifer: “No.”
He continued walking.
Behind him...
the woman's head slowly turned.
A scream suddenly echoed through the hallway.
“HELP!”
Lucifer stopped.
Another scream.
“PLEASE!”
Then another.
“LUCIFER!”
His eyes narrowed.
That voice.
Amaira.
Lucifer turned toward the sound.
Chirin immediately spoke.
Chirin: “Wait.”
Lucifer: “I know.”
Chirin: “You heard it too?”
Lucifer: “Yes.”
Chirin: “Then why are you smiling?”
Lucifer looked into the darkness.
Lucifer: “Because she doesn't know my name.”
The scream came again.
“LUCIFER!”
Lucifer's expression became cold.
Lucifer: “It's an illusion.”
He continued walking.
The screams became louder.
Closer.
Until suddenly...
silence.
A door appeared at the end of the hallway.
Lucifer opened it.
Inside was his old mansion from the Murim world.
His old room.
His old bed.
His old life.
Everything looked exactly as he remembered.
Someone was sitting on the bed.
Chirin.
But the real Chirin was already beside him.
The fake Chirin looked toward him.
Fake Chirin: “You can stop now.”
Lucifer stared at her.
Fake Chirin: “You've suffered enough.”
Lucifer: “Have I?”
Fake Chirin: “You could stay here.”
She smiled.
Fake Chirin: “No wars. No enemies. No death.”
Lucifer walked toward her.
Then stopped.
Lucifer: “You're bad at lying.”
The illusion shattered.
The entire room disappeared.
Lucifer was standing in a corridor again.
Chirin stared at him.
Chirin: “How did you know?”
Lucifer: “The real Chirin would never ask me to stop.”
Chirin smiled.
Chirin: “Fair.”
The mansion changed again.
The corridor stretched.
And stretched.
And stretched.
Lucifer walked for several minutes.
Nothing.
No doors.
No windows.
No exit.
Then footsteps appeared behind him.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
Lucifer continued walking.
The footsteps followed.
He stopped.
They stopped.
He moved.
They moved.
Lucifer suddenly turned.
Nothing.
He activated his Demonic Eyes.
The world changed.
The walls became transparent.
The floor became filled with countless soul-energy traces.
The mansion wasn't empty.
It was filled with them.
Thousands.
Perhaps millions.
Souls were embedded inside the walls.
Watching.
Waiting.
Lucifer's expression didn't change.
Lucifer: “So that's how you do it.”
Chirin: “What?”
Lucifer touched the wall.
Lucifer: “The mansion isn't haunted.”
He looked deeper.
Lucifer: “The mansion itself is part of her.”
The walls suddenly trembled.
Every portrait turned toward him.
Every eye opened.
Every mouth smiled.
Then the entire mansion screamed.
Lucifer stood motionless.
Lucifer: “There you are.”
The floor disappeared beneath him.
He fell.
Not downward.
Sideways.
The mansion twisted around him.
Hallways became ceilings.
Stairs became walls.
Doors appeared in midair.
Lucifer landed inside a ballroom.
Hundreds of people stood around him.
All staring.
All silent.
Then every person slowly turned their head.
Their faces were missing.
Lucifer looked around.
Lucifer: “Another illusion.”
A woman stepped forward.
Then another.
Then hundreds.
They began walking toward him.
Lucifer summoned Chirin.
The scythe appeared in his hand.
Lucifer: “Let's make this quicker.”
He swung.
Cleave.
The ballroom split.
The illusion shattered.
But behind it...
was another room.
And another.
And another.
Every time Lucifer destroyed an illusion, the mansion created another.
Chirin: “She's trying to exhaust you.”
Lucifer: “I know.”
Chirin: “Then why keep destroying them?”
Lucifer stopped.
Lucifer: “I'm not.”
He closed his eyes.
The illusions continued moving around him.
Lucifer stood completely still.
His soul energy spread through the floor.
Through the walls.
Through the ceiling.
Lucifer: “I'm searching for the real one.”
His Demonic Eyes opened.
The entire mansion became a map of soul energy.
Thousands of false signals.
Hundreds of traps.
But one presence...
far below.
Massive.
Ancient.
Hungry.
Lucifer smiled.
Lucifer: “Found you.”
The mansion suddenly went silent.
Then a woman's voice whispered from somewhere nearby.
“Lucifer...”
He looked up.
A mirror appeared at the end of the hallway.
Its surface rippled like water.
A pale hand slowly emerged from it.
Then another.
Something began crawling through.
Lucifer tightened his grip on Chirin.
Lucifer: “Bloody Mary.”
The figure stopped.
A woman's face appeared inside the mirror.
Her eyes were completely black.
Her smile stretched unnaturally wide.
And behind Lucifer...
another mirror appeared.
Then another.
Then hundreds.
Every mirror showed the same woman.
Every Bloody Mary smiled.
And all of them spoke at once.
“Welcome home.”
Lucifer's eyes narrowed.
The mirrors shattered simultaneously.
And from the darkness behind him...
something grabbed his shoulder.
Lucifer slowly turned.
A woman's whisper touched his ear.
“Did you come for the girl?”
Lucifer's smile disappeared.
Lucifer: “Yes.”
The voice laughed.
“Then come and take her.”
The entire mansion shook.
The floor beneath Lucifer opened.
And this time...
he didn't fall into darkness.
He fell directly into Bloody Mary's domain.