004 The Queen

        Evelyn has seen mages, elves, dragons, giants, and goblins in this other world, but not demons. Demons are a collective term for all the foul and unclean demons of the Abyss that grow in the Old Realm, cut off from all time and space, and are the offspring of the Old Gods. Thousands of years ago, the Old Gods were overthrown by the New Gods and banished to the Old Realm, and it is the New God system that the off-world continent Evelyn is on believes in.

　　Simply put, the Old Realm is a giant prison set up by the New Gods, and all creatures that rebel against the New Gods are exiled to the Old Realm, where all creatures are collectively known as Demons and believe in the Old Gods, who were also exiled to the Old Realm.

　　For thousands of years, only one archmage managed to enter the Old Realm and return, writing a series of books that combined his personal experiences as a reference for the study of demons. However, most people considered his books to be whimsical fantasy novels, because the experience of "I'm a weak magician, but I'm being pursued by a beautiful chimera, what should I do?" is too ridiculous! And no one has ever seen a demon with their own eyes.

　　Therefore, in this other world, demons are some kind of fantasy creatures that have never appeared and only exist in religious myths and legends that have been handed down for a long time.

　　Of course, there are people who believe in the existence of demons, and when something like a missing person or a god recluse happens, most of them will blame it on demons.

　　Evelyn kept her eyes open and read all the reports about demons, and at the same time a little doubt arose in her mind: how would a demon take a human captive?

　　Soon, Evelyn knew the answer.

　　"Lord of all living things, Father of all things, Guardian of humanity, Judge of virtue ......"

　　"Merciful, generous, compassionate, fair and just, doing Your will as if honoring Your virtues, praising Your benevolence from generation to generation ......"

　　"......%&$#&#)&......#@! @#......"

　　Inside the sanctuary, just halfway through the prayer, a series of strange utterances came from the High Priest's lips, sometimes shrill and sometimes low, a sound that was definitely not humanly possible, and Evelyn saw the knot in his throat roll up and down, and two tumor-like things bulging wildly on either side of his neck.

　　Evelyn, who was closest to him, bore the brunt of it, her mind buzzing, her consciousness slipping away, her eyes filled with the magnificent light reflected from the stained glass windows, and she stood on the floor as if she were standing on an ever-flowing tidal wave.

　　Her legs were weak and drained, and she tried to let the tide beneath her feet hold her up and send her away, but someone helped her anyway - a pair of hands reached out to her, squeezing her shoulders, gripping her arms, wrapping around her calves.

　　Evelyn was dizzy, and it was as if a hundred and a thousand and a million tiny fireworks exploded and exploded and exploded in her vision, and in a trance her soul spun and separated from her physical body and floated above her head, and in the spinning she saw the misery in the sanctuary - the worshippers who'd come to pray went berserk at the sound, beating each other, tearing each other apart until they were transformed from living persons into corpses.

　　She felt no fear at all, and even felt a confused joy, ah, joy-

　　She was lifted up by countless hands and placed on a pile of corpses. Twenty-seven hearts and other organs were arranged in a circle around her, and if Evelyn was still conscious, she should have known that they belonged to those who had disappeared.

　　But for the moment, Evelyn was in a trance-like daze, staring up at the ceiling of the sanctuary, which was painted with God's messengers. The messengers waved at her, trying to summon her and her soul.

　　"¥%*()&##$@......"

　　The voice continued.

　　A black swamp appeared below the pile of corpses, and both the corpses and Evelyn lying on top of them slowly sank into the swamp, sinking deeper and deeper.

　　At the last moment of being submerged in the black swamp, Evelyn still blurredly reached out her hand to hold those white-winged messengers of God...

　　*

　　Evelyn finally awoke from her slumber, her eyes snapping open, sitting up and gasping for air.

　　When she reacted, she was no longer in the sanctuary of the temple, but in an empty, palace-like hall-like place.

　　Below her was a black magical formation, each pattern aligned with her body.

　　Evelyn looked around in confusion and realized that someone was standing right next to her.

        It is not correct to say that it is a "human being" ....... Although the slender body of the other party is covered by a long black robe, and his face is also covered by a hood, a goat-like right horn is exposed outside the hood, and there is also a silver ring attached to it.

　　The other hand reached out as if to pull her up from the ground.

　　The entire palm was on the narrow side, along with the five fingers, and the black nails were hooked, more like animal claws than fingers. His skin was white, paper white, with a black line on the back of each finger, the black lines intertwining on the back of the hand to form a pattern like an eye, then spreading upward until it disappeared under the robes that covered the arm.

　　Seeing Evelyn's delayed reaction, the other party said in the common language of the continent with a strange pronunciation, "I am afraid, Queen.

　　Evelyn, who had just been scared, found his pronunciation quite funny, "...... Thank you, that's much better.

　　Other person:"?"

　　"What kind of place is this? Why are you calling me Queen?"

　　Evelyn asked as she raised her hands, carefully avoiding the other party's black hooked sharp claws, and gently closed both hands around his palms. As soon as they touched, Evelyn felt that the other's white skin was not soft, but like a hard layer of white steel, cold and hard.

　　"And who are you?" Evelyn held his hand and opened her glassy eyes.

　　Curious, she asked, "Since you call me Queen, are you also my King?"