The Demon King's Cowardly Vessel 67 Bayfront Coast 9

Something caught Juin's eyes, and he walked to the right corner of the room, where the broken table was. He saw something glimmering on the floorboard underneath the broken table. It was a very small piece of a paper-like material.

Juin pushed the broken table aside and using the sharp end of the wooden stick that he was carrying around, he pried the floorboard up slightly before pulling out the thing that he saw.

"A photo?" Juin thought to himself as he looked at the crumpled photo with its lower right corner torn. "This is not me…" he muttered as he looked at the boy in the photo. The boy had black hair, tanned, and a beautiful smile. It appeared that he was at the beach, and he was holding a fishing rod, as he pointed at something off-camera.

There was nothing wrong with it.

But there, right over his heart, there was a small scar. It was a small one, almost as big as a pinky finger.

Juin glanced back at Lucifer, who was floating behind him. "Your Majesty… This��"

"Don't think about it…" was all that Lucifer said. He could care less about these children, but he knew that it would affect Juin.

Unfortunately, Juin was not that dumb to know the implication behind Lucifer's words. He looked back at the photo with the multiple crumpled lines, and his hands could not stop shaking.

"You don't think that he knew I was the right boy until the very end…" Juin mumbled. "Does that mean he had done this with other boys as well?"

Lucifer did not reply. He merely looked at the young ghosts who had been following them since they stepped into the house. From the moment they stepped into the house, the feeling of being watched partly came from these young ghosts.

Eight ghosts that shared similar features like Juin; black hair and scars over their chests… And based on their sizes, Lucifer could die that they died at different ages… probably from the wounds over their chests.

And the dreadful feeling that Juin felt… That came from the fact that these ghost children died in the house and had been haunting the house because of their grievance.

To avoid scaring Juin, he did not mention about these little harmless ghosts, and he merely released a little of his aura to warn the ghosts to stay away and not to appear before his vessel.

Besides, instead of these little ghosts, he was more concerned about the foreign presence that was still in the house. Until now, the thing had not made itself known.

"Your Majesty!" Juin pressed as he looked at Lucifer with a horrified glance. "Did he do this to other kids too?"

"Just focus on yourself," Lucifer said.

Juin clenched his fists, crumbling the photo in the process. The feeling of disgust and horror washed over him, causing him to shiver slightly, and at the moment, he suddenly looked at the middle of the room.

He remembered waking up in the middle of the room because of a sharp, piercing pain and saw Jim Mack with a bloodied knife standing before him while chanting the same odd chant that woke 12-year-old Juin up from his slumber that night.

Juin clutched his chest, over his scar, as if he felt an intense pain burning through his scar. "He tied me down… and he cut over my scar…" he mumbled as he looked at the middle of the room, and the Sigil of Lucifer flashed past his eyes.

Juin remembered screaming for help, for Ashton to come and save him. If anyone could save him, it would be Ashton; that had always been his belief.

But Ashton did not arrive.

Something else did.

BOOM!

Juin was suddenly hit by something fast and invisible, and his body shot back in the room before making contact with the wall of newspaper clippings.

"Urgh!" Juin groaned in pain upon contact. He had his breath knocked out of him for a few seconds. Something was grabbing his throat, and even though Juin could not see clearly, he could somewhat see the silhouette of a humanoid creature.

Juin could not even utter a word, nor could he focus as he grabbed onto the hand of the invisible being before him. But he could see Lucifer staring at whatever it was in front of him with an annoyed expression.

"Get lost," Lucifer mumbled. His words were targeted at the ghost children who were huddled together in fear. After the ghost children ran off, Lucifer looked at Juin, waiting for his vessel to call upon him.

Juin looked at Lucifer, begging him for him with his eyes, but Lucifer remained unmoving.

"I've been waiting for you for a long time…" A raspy and scabrous voice appeared next to Juin's ear. "I can't believe you would be back…"

Juin glared at the silhouette before him. He had heard this voice before, but where?

The invisible creature before him made a cut in the middle of Juin's shirt, revealing his chest and the scar that had made its reappearance.

"Back then, if not because of that damn kid, I would have gotten your body instead of being stuck here for so long. You are mine now, kid!"

Juin's eyes widened slightly when he heard the words "that damn kid" and only one name popped up in his mind. "Ash… ton…" he said with difficulty. He was close to the truth now, and he was not about to die here.

Juin dropped both his hands, seeming in defeat.

Upon seeing this, Lucifer had a slightly disappointing gaze in his eyes, and he prepared to forcefully take over Juin's body.

But to his surprise…

Juin's left hand did not lie quietly by his side.

The almost out of breath Juin glared at the creature before him. "S-soul… Fire…"

"Oof!" the creature suddenly gasped and looked down. To its horror, it saw that Juin's hand had pierced through its abdomen, and when it glanced behind, it saw fire burning on Juin's hand that was facing up.

Its black blood turned visible as it was burned by the fire.

Out of pain, the creature roared and pushed itself away from Juin, thus dropping Juin onto the floor.

Gasping for breath, Juin glared at the invisible creature that had turned visible now. He was right. The creature was humanoid, but other than its limbs and body shape, nothing else about it was human.

With black soulless sockets as eyes, nonexistent nose, and a mouth that was so wide that it ended at the base of both ears, it looked more like a creature out of a horror movie.

But there was something about him that seemed familiar.

"Jim… Mack?" Juin narrowed his eyes at the creature when he finally recognized where he heard the voice from before.

Chapter end