Episode-1030
Chapter : 2059
Lloyd waited. His heart hammered against his ribs, a frantic rhythm in the quiet dark. He was weak. He felt hollowed out, lighter, as if a heavy coat had been taken off his shoulders, but along with the weight, his warmth was gone too. He shivered, the cold of the underworld finally seeping into his bones.
He watched the face of the Black Star-Diamond statue.
Slowly, agonizingly slowly, the eyelids opened.
Lloyd held his breath. He was terrified of what he would see. He was afraid he would see the dead, empty blue lights of the machine spirit he had created before. He was afraid he would see a monster.
But when the eyes opened, they weren't blue. They weren't glowing.
They were brown.
They were warm, dark, human brown. They were wet with tears. They blinked, confused and unfocused, looking around the terrifying void of the cavern.
The eyes focused on Lloyd.
The black statue moved. It wasn't the jerky, robotic movement of a construct. It was the clumsy, stumbling movement of a person waking up from a long coma. She took a step forward, her legs shaking. Her hands came up to her face, touching the cold, hard surface of her new skin.
She looked down at her hands. They were black and sparkling, hard as the toughest material in the universe. She didn't scream. She just looked confused.
Then, her gaze fell on something held in her left hand.
It was the silver hairpin. The cheap, simple trinket Lloyd had bought for her in the market months ago. The item she had died holding. The metal was bent and tarnished, but it was there.
Her fingers curled around it. The familiar feel of the metal seemed to anchor her.
She looked back at Lloyd. Her face crumpled. It wasn't a look of tactical assessment. It wasn't a look of robotic query. It was the look of a girl who had just had a nightmare.
"Master?" she whispered.
Her voice was raspy, unused, but it was hers. It had the soft, musical lilt that Lloyd remembered. It wasn't the monotone of the System. It was Jasmin.
Lloyd let out a breath that was half-laugh, half-sob. "Yeah. It's me."
Jasmin stumbled forward and fell to her knees in front of him. She didn't seem to notice that she was made of diamond or that they were in hell. She just saw him.
"I had the weirdest dream," she said, her voice trembling. "I dreamt... I dreamt I was a window. And then I broke. And then it was dark for a very long time. But then... I heard you."
She reached out and touched Lloyd’s face. Her hand was cold and hard, like stone, but her touch was incredibly gentle. She was careful not to scratch him.
"You were calling me," she said, a smile breaking through her tears. It was the same smile—cheerful, soft-hearted, and full of an impossible amount of hope. "You sounded sad. So I came back."
Lloyd leaned into her hand. "I was sad," he admitted. "But I'm better now."
Jasmin looked at him closely. She saw the sweat on his forehead, the pale color of his skin, the way his hands were shaking. She saw the exhaustion that went down to his soul.
"You look tired, Master," she said, her brow furrowing with worry. "Did you skip lunch? You get grumpy when you skip lunch."
Lloyd chuckled, but it turned into a cough. "Something like that. I had to pay a bill."
Jasmin’s eyes widened. Suddenly, knowledge flooded her mind. It wasn't just memories of her past life; it was something new. When Lloyd had poured his potential into her, he hadn't just given her energy. He had given her a piece of himself. He had given her a fragment of the "Major General."
She stiffened. Her spine straightened instinctively. The soft, confused girl vanished for a split second, replaced by a soldier. She looked at her black hands again, but this time she didn't see them as strange. She saw them as armor. She saw them as weapons.
She understood. She knew what he had done. She knew he had traded his godhood to bring her back.
She didn't cry about it. She didn't apologize. That would be an insult to the price he paid.
Chapter : 2060
Jasmin stood up. She moved with a sudden, sharp precision that was pure military discipline. The black diamond armor clinked softly. She looked down at Lloyd, her expression fierce and determined, though her eyes were still shining with that soft, human warmth.
She raised her hand and snapped a perfect salute. It was crisp, sharp, and professional—the salute of a veteran soldier to her commander.
"Reporting for duty, Master," she said. Her voice changed. It echoed slightly, resonating with the unbreakable density of her new body. It sounded like steel striking stone. "The Vanguard has returned. Orders?"
Lloyd looked up at her. She was a paradox. She was the sweet, smiling girl who loved honey-cakes, wrapped in the body of an indestructible war machine, carrying a piece of his own iron will in her soul.
"At ease, soldier," Lloyd whispered, smiling. "Order number one: Help me up. I think my legs stopped working."
Jasmin broke the salute instantly, giggling. "Oh! Right! Sorry!" She reached down and hauled him to his feet as if he weighed nothing. She dusted off his coat, fussing over him just like she used to in the estate laundry room.
"You really made a mess of your coat, Master," she scolded gently. "I don't know if this will wash out."
Above them, the mountain moved.
The Great King Satan shifted. A sound rumbled through the cavern, deep and rhythmic. It took Lloyd a moment to realize what it was.
The Titan was laughing.
"Hah... Hah... Hah..."
The laughter shook the tectonic plates. Dust fell from the darkness above like snow. The magma ocean far below churned in response to the King’s amusement.
"Marvelous," Satan boomed. "Absolutely marvelous. You trade a crown for a shield, and the shield worries about laundry."
The burning sun-eyes of the Titan looked down at the pair—the weakened man and the diamond girl.
"The trade is concluded," Satan declared. "The balance is held. You have paid the toll, Lloyd Ferrum. And you have received your goods."
The Titan raised one massive finger and pointed toward the spiraling tunnel that led back to the surface.
"Go," Satan commanded. "Your world is burning, little ants. And I think you have a war to fight."
He looked at Jasmin.
"Do not break again, little stone," Satan rumbled. "The Archive does not like to give refunds."
Jasmin bowed, awkward but polite. "I won't, Mr. Big Rock Sir. Thank you for keeping my seat warm."
Lloyd leaned on Jasmin’s shoulder. She felt solid. Unbreakable.
"Let's go home, Jasmin," Lloyd said.
"Yes, Master," she beamed, supporting his weight easily. "I bet Miss Mina made something good for dinner. And we have to tell everyone I'm back! They're going to be so surprised!"
They turned and began the long walk back up the ramp, leaving the void and the Titan behind. Lloyd was weaker than he had been when he walked down. He had lost the potential to rule the world as a Sovereign.
But as he looked at the smiling, black-diamond girl walking beside him, chattering about dinner and hairpins, Lloyd Ferrum knew he had made the best deal of his life.
He hadn't bought power. He had bought his family back.
The world smelled like burning oil and old blood.
There was no warning. There were no scouts running ahead to give a report, and no distant smoke signals to tell the Ferrum Estate that war was coming. The enemy simply dropped out of the sky.
High above the ancestral home of House Ferrum, the clouds tore open. Three massive, charcoal-grey drop-ships from the Fire Fly Corporation screamed down through the atmosphere. They didn't bother with landing gear. They hovered over the outer perimeter of the estate, their engines humming with a deep, bone-shaking vibration that rattled the windows of the manor miles away.
From the bellies of these metal beasts, pods shot downward. They slammed into the manicured gardens and the stone courtyards, burying themselves deep in the earth before exploding open.
Out of the smoke came the nightmare.
These weren't the standard Curse Knights or mindless zombies that the North was used to fighting. These were the new breed. They were demons, hulking beasts of red muscle and black bone, but they had been upgraded. Steel plates were bolted directly into their flesh. Their eyes had been replaced with glowing red sensors. Some had jagged, mechanical claws instead of hands; others had heavy cannons grafted onto their shoulders.
It was the perfect fusion of Abyssal magic and corporate technology.