Tower: Rebirth of the Absolute Demon-Chapter 54: Ch : The Summoning of Despair

The once-majestic Lionheart castle had been reduced to nothing more than a graveyard of stone and ash.

Piles of rubble stretched as far as the eye could see, the remnants of towering walls now crumbling skeletons barely clinging to form.

Fires burned relentlessly, black smoke rising like pillars into the darkened sky.

The ground, littered with shattered stone and splintered wood, bled red... red with the blood of nobles, soldiers, and servants alike.

It seeped through cracks in the earth as though the land itself mourned the massacre.

Above this ruin, a man floated.

His dark robes billowed ominously in the smoky wind, the jagged hems fluttering like the wings of a crow.

He appeared to be in his late twenties, his face sharp and cruel, twisted with sadistic glee as he gazed upon the destruction he had caused.

His laughter rang through the dead air, a sound so chilling it seemed to echo off the rubble.

"Lionheart, my ass!" the man mocked, his voice venomous.

"These fools couldn’t even withstand the most basic 8th-class magic. And to think..." He laughed again, his crimson lips curling into a sneer.

"...to think we were defeated by them once. How embarrassing."

His taunts filled the air, carried like poison.

Suddenly, a familiar voice broke through. Weak yet fierce.

"Shut the hell up... you bastard..."

The robed figure turned, his laughter dying abruptly. There, amid the smoking ruins, stood Jamie Lionheart.

The sight of him was both tragic and defiant.

His once-golden hair was now soaked in blood, streaked crimson and plastered to his face.

A thick stream of blood ran down from a gash above his eye, leaving a scarlet mark across his vision.

His mouth, too, dripped with blood, and his tattered clothes hung in shreds, exposing the bruised and battered upper half of his body.

Despite the weight of his injuries, Jamie refused to fall.

His left knee pressed against the dirt, his trembling hand gripping his sword to keep himself upright.

The blade shimmered faintly, as though responding to his unyielding will.

His chest heaved with each breath, pain written across every line of his face, but his golden eyes... like the eyes of a lion... still burned with rage.

"How... dare you..." Jamie growled, his voice shaking with fury.

"How dare you come back and kill my people... again!"

A sudden pulse of energy erupted from him.

The air shifted, thickening under the weight of his aura.

It wasn’t the kind of power that could level mountains or break skies... it was the power of a man refusing to die.

The dark-robed magician watched, unimpressed.

He smirked, his glowing red eyes narrowing condescendingly.

"Huh? Even a kitten wants to roar like a lion nowadays." He spread his arms mockingly.

"But you see, kitten... no matter how loud you scream, you’ll never escape my grasp."

With that, the magician raised his hand and swept the hood from his face.

The air grew colder.

Jamie’s eyes widened as the magician’s face was fully revealed.

His features were sharp and angular, but his most defining trait was his eyes... stark, glowing crimson, like twin pools of blood.

One eye, however, was marred.

A long, jagged scar ran diagonally across his face, starting from his brow and cutting through the sclera like a blade’s mark.

A shiver ran down Jamie’s spine.

"You—!" Jamie choked out.

"You’re the one my father killed..."

The magician tilted his head, a sinister grin spreading across his face.

"Well, well..." he said, mockingly clapping his hands.

"Looks like this kitten has a sharp memory, after all."

Jamie tried to push himself to his feet, teeth gritted, veins bulging on his arms.

Blood dripped freely from his wounds, staining the ground below him, but he refused to yield.

"You filthy dark magician..." he spat, his voice trembling with pain and anger.

"Why are you doing this? Did you not get the Holy Grail when you killed my father? What more do you want?!"

The magician’s grin froze for a moment. Then, he lowered his hand, his fingers curling as if savoring some invisible weight.

"Ah, so you know about the Holy Grail..." he mused, his voice soft, almost teasing.

"The heart of your family’s power... the Goddess Aria’s blessing. Yes, I took it... your father’s ’Heart of Lion’."

the Lionheart family, known throughout history as the fiercest warriors of the kingdom, were not just strong by mortal blood.

They were blessed by the Goddess of Light, Aria.

As proof of her divine favor, she had gifted them the Holy Grail of Life... an artifact of immeasurable power.

It resided in the "Heart of Lion," an inheritance passed from one patriarch to the next, binding their bloodline to unyielding strength and honor.

But with the death of Jamie’s father, both the Grail and the Heart had been stolen, ripped from the family’s legacy.

Without it, the once-mighty Lionhearts had been reduced to shadows of their former glory.

Jamie gritted his teeth, his knuckles white around his sword’s hilt.

"You stole our family’s strength. You tore our kingdom apart!"

The magician chuckled darkly.

"And yet, it wasn’t enough."

Before Jamie could react, the magician flicked his hand.

A force like a mountain slammed into Jamie’s chest, hurling him to the ground.

The sword clattered beside him as the earth cracked from the impact.

"Ugh—!" Jamie gasped, blood spraying from his mouth.

The magician loomed closer, his scarred eye gleaming with malice.

"My role is simple, you see. I’m here to summon him... the most powerful demon this world has ever seen. And what better place to do it than here? At the core of the Lionhearts’ remains."

Jamie’s eyes widened in horror.

"You... you can’t...!"

"Oh, but I can..." the magician sneered, his voice laced with cruel amusement.

The magician extended his arm, his sleeve falling back to reveal a pale, almost skeletal hand.

Without warning, he brought his teeth down on his wrist.

A sickening crunch filled the air as his teeth ripped through flesh and veins.

Blood spurted freely, staining the ground in pools of crimson.

Yet, the magician did not flinch.

His face twisted into a grotesque smile as he tore the mangled hand away and cast it to the ground.

Blood dripped from the severed stump as the earth beneath it began to shudder.

Crimson lines shot outward like cracks in glass, weaving intricate patterns into the rubble-strewn ground.

A massive summoning circle began to form, glowing ominously with dark energy.

Jamie struggled to move, his body refusing to obey.

His instincts screamed at him to stop this, to protect his people, to protect his kingdom.

But all he could do was watch as the magician began to chant.

The words were foreign and dark, each syllable like a dagger to the air.

The blood from the severed hand hissed and sizzled, feeding the summoning circle’s hunger.

The ground shook violently, the fires around them flaring unnaturally.

Finally, the magician raised his arms, his voice booming through the ruins.

"Please liberate this world, oh Demon Lord!"

A deafening silence fell. The air itself seemed to freeze.

Jamie’s heart pounded in his chest as the ground beneath the circle split apart.

A blinding red light erupted, reaching toward the sky like a pillar of fire.

The screams of villagers echoed in the distance, blending with the magician’s laughter.

And Jamie... Jamie could do nothing but watch as hope shattered before his very eyes.

*****

~Join the discord if ya want em mass release~

Updat𝓮d from freew𝒆bnovel(.)com