The Most Tragic Evil God in History

"Hahaha! This old man is finally out!"

Jeri laughed.

But as he laughed, a hint of sorrow crept in.

Seven years.

A dignified Demon God like him had been trapped inside a little girl's body for seven whole years! For a Demon God who measured time in millennia, seven years was nothing—but seven years of sleepless, sensationless confinement? That was no different from being in prison.

Every single moment of those seven years, Jeri had wanted to slaughter the brood of descendants who had dared to summon him.

He had to admit, though, that those descendants had perfectly fulfilled his requirements:

—The vessel must possess a beautiful appearance. (✓)

—The vessel must be pure, innocent, and utterly free of wicked thoughts. (✓)

—The vessel must be flawless, with comprehensive and all-encompassing talent. (✓)

—The vessel's character and virtue must be immaculate—kind, gentle, and obedient. (✓)

—The vessel must have heaven-chosen luck. (✓)

Even now, Jeri didn't think his demands were unreasonable.

As a Demon God, was it too much to want a beautiful, perfect vessel that was easy to corrupt?!

If Angell had seen those requirements, he would have thrown them back and said: Of course it's too much. Not a single one of these five demands is clear enough for a normal person to find a target.

—Beautiful? What kind of beautiful? Male? Female? Hair color? Skin color? Race? Eye color? Body type?

—Pure? Pure in what way? Body? Mind? The purest mind is one that thinks nothing at all—like an idiot. You want that?

—Talent? A being with comprehensive, all-encompassing talent—is that even human?

—Character? Good grief, you're asking for a perfect person!

—Luck? If they were really that lucky, would they have been chosen by you?

A client like this, who doesn't even know what they're saying, is both the stupidest and the most troublesome. They're usually the ones who end up saying, "The first one was the best," too!

But the Demon God's descendants had no right to refuse him. They could only find a way to satisfy his conditions for descent.

And somehow, through their efforts, they actually found a suitable candidate.

That was Enlise.

Jeri didn't actually know where his descendants had found this vessel, nor did he care.

It was like how humans don't care how their dinner plate was made when they eat.

As a plate that perfectly met the requirements, Enlise easily accepted the Demon God's power. Unlike other vessels, her body didn't collapse, nor did her mind shatter. Instead, she effortlessly fused with the Demon God's power.

According to the Demon God's script, he would then easily corrupt the girl's mind and body, use her as a medium to project into this Plane, tear open a rift in space, and once again ignite war between the two worlds.

But the Demon God felt like he had been locked in an empty cage!

Monsters fed on human negative emotions, and the Demon God was no exception.

Yet Enlise couldn't provide enough negative emotions.

It wasn't that she had no emotions at all.

As a human child, she was perfectly normal. She could be happy, angry, or scared. But for some reason, she was extremely restrained—even happiness was suppressed once it crossed a certain threshold. It was like an unripe fruit, impossible to swallow.

If the child had been a complete saint, things would have been easier.

The Demon God's power would have dissipated quickly without nourishment, and Jeri could have returned to his original position, waiting for the next summoning.

But the girl had one emotion she couldn't control.

Fear.

The girl was terrified of her guardian, but even more afraid of being abandoned by him. She feared the world, yet couldn't escape from it.

Under normal circumstances, fear would transform into more aggressive anger or resentment—either lashing out at others or harming oneself.

Enlise did neither.

She did feel a tiny bit of resentment toward her previous guardian in extreme situations, but she never elevated it to the point of blaming him as the root of her misfortune. She resented her own helplessness, but she never wallowed in self-pity to the point of wanting to end her life. Only an endless stream of fear was produced.

Her fear was like the sweetest fruit, nourishing the power of the Demon God—but it was also like a chain, binding him firmly inside her body.

For a moment, Jeri even suspected this was a trap aimed at him.

But the Demon God's descendants had no idea about his predicament. They sensed his descent but couldn't understand why he wasn't corrupting the vessel. They could only attribute it to the vessel being too young, not yet grown enough to satisfy the Demon God.

So they decided to let the vessel's guardian raise her until she was ready.

And so the Demon God was locked away for seven years.

Only recently did things start to change.

Something must have happened. The girl's fear had lessened, and her positive emotions had increased. But nearby, there seemed to be an exceptionally rich delicacy. Last time, just a faint trace of its aura had seeped in, causing the Demon God's power to swell several times over.

Jeri felt that the time for his escape was near.

And sure enough, just now, for the first time, he sensed a surge of intense negative emotion deep within the girl's heart.

Jealousy!

The Demon God did not let this opportunity slip. It broke free from the shackles of the Blank Cage, finally able to see this world through the girl's eyes, hear this world through the girl's ears, and feel this world through the girl's touch!

Of course, it could not yet fully control the girl's body, but that was only a matter of time.

Human desire had no lower limit.

As long as it could actually influence this girl, it could corrupt this vessel into a lump of flesh.

Just like now, the girl's jealousy was still churning.

The Demon God immediately amplified this emotion.

"Yes! That's it! Go on, hate! Go on, be jealous!" the Demon God laughed loudly.

Enlise could not hear the mad laughter of that abnormal thing. Her mind was occupied by only two questions: "What merit does that child have to catch Mr. Angell's eye?" and "Can't I do it? Am I not as good as him?"

Thinking like this, Enlise could no longer hold back and turned to walk outside.

By the time her classmates reacted, Enlise's figure had already disappeared.

*

"Mr. Angell, I heard you're planning to take on a disciple?"

After leaving the Third Floor of the shop, Enlise went straight upstairs to find Angell.

Angell was curled up in a pile of books in his bedroom, studying a fashion magazine from Xiesse. At the question, he frowned. "Disciple? Why would I take on something so troublesome?"

He couldn't even be bothered to keep a pet.

It was lucky that Mithril and Enlise were low-maintenance enough, or Angell would have had to hire a dedicated poop-scooper and a child psychologist.

Little Enlise, however, was not as easygoing as usual. She pressed on relentlessly. "But I heard you gave Mr. Bolo a patent fee and even delivered it to his door yourself!"

"That does ring a bell." But the order should be reversed.

It was more like he went to his door to settle accounts, found that the Brat had actually stumbled onto something good, and so gave him the patent fee.

Enlise knew nothing of these twists and turns. She only pressed further. "So, Mr. Angell, you really do admire him? Then can I know what he did to earn your admiration?!"

...Why did this feel like being caught cheating?

Even someone as dense as Angell finally noticed the little girl's mood was off.

But noticing didn't help.

Angell was never the sensitive type who could solve a little girl's troubles.

"You want to know what he did that I admired?" Angell confirmed. "Sure!"

With that, Angell dragged a box out from under the table.

This package had arrived only a couple of days ago; the postmark was still fresh.

Angell opened the package and pulled out a few books: Recorder Maintenance for Beginners, Principles and Repair of Recorders, Small Radio Stations and Networking Applications, Wireless Fun: Radio Communication, Magnetic Materials, Magnetic Physics.

Angell handed these books to Enlise. "If you understand these, you can probably figure out the principle behind that Mass-Produced Magic... Ah, no, you'll need a few more."

Without waiting for Enlise, who was fumbling to take the books, Angell turned and pulled a few more magic theory books from his pile—brick-thick ones.

He piled these on top of the stack in Enlise's hands.

The whole stack was now taller than Enlise.

And since Angell hadn't stacked them neatly, the whole thing was teetering.

Enlise held the books with both hands, with no place to put her previous wand, so she had to hang it on her arm.

Dazed by the books, she could only ask blankly, "If I understand all this, I can do what Mr. Bolo did?"

"You can do it better," Angell said. "After all, that Brat just wanted to play a game. He didn't even know what he'd invented! If I can get a clearer principle, it'll be a huge help to me!"

"I understand!" Hearing this, Enlise's eyes lit up.

Whatever the child understood, she then hugged the stack of books—taller and heavier than she was—and wobbled out of Angell's room.

Luckily, her room wasn't far from Angell's.

Soon, the sound of a door opening, a crash, and a pile of books collapsing came from the direction of Enlise's bedroom.

Angell didn't go to help.

Enlise wasn't the kind of child who needed an adult's help after a little tumble.

Instead, a voice came from Angell's shadow:

"Are you just going to let her leave like that, meow?" A pair of Heterochromatic Eyes emerged from Angell's shadow. "The smell on that kid seems a bit off."

"Not yet. Enlise is more stable than I thought. Forcing a hand would only make things worse." The Black Robe answered the Black Cat's question like a riddle.

Angell was focused on something else. "Compared to that, I just noticed—does that wand have a transmission-type magic on it?"

"It does have that function, meow. These Pseudo-Wands were prepared for the celebration, so the performance needed to be uniform. A transmission magic was added... Speaking of which, you really just sold them off without a thorough check?" The Black Cat stared at Angell in disbelief, once again amazed at the Planner's lack of standards.

"I checked every single one! Made sure they weren't harmful!" Angell defended himself.

How could he not be careful with something sold to kids?!

If anything happens to even one of them, it'll be a huge problem!

So, not only were the spells embedded in the Magic Wands harmless white magic, but Angell had also added a softening enchantment to each wand—hitting someone with it wouldn't even hurt!

As for the transmission-type magic inside, Angell had actually checked it before. Since the spell itself posed no danger, and removing it would require replacing a magic crystal at great cost, he simply pretended not to notice.

After all, that magic couldn't do much anyway.

But now, with Enlise in that state, things had taken an unexpected turn.

"Is it serious?" Mithril asked worriedly.

"Let's observe for now," Angell said slowly. "Tonight will be the key."

*

Tonight was indeed the key.

Demon God Jeri thought so too.

He had finally escaped the Blank Cage and shared his senses with the girl, but this was only the first step of the Demon God's descent. Next, he had to gradually erode her thoughts, control her body, and take over everything.

And this kind of erosion usually began with dreams.

Dreams are the manifestation of a person's subconscious, a passage to the inner self. By taking over someone's dreams, one could reach the deepest part of their consciousness. That's why this was the most orthodox method of erosion chosen by most Monsters.

The Demon God had been trapped for seven years and didn't want any mishaps.

So he decided on the method with the least chance of surprises.

Thus, that night, when Enlise entered her dreams again, she saw the long-lost Orphanage.

Ever since the last "recruitment" incident, when Enlise had seen the Orphanage collapse in her dream, she had never again had that nightmare that once terrified her to the point of being unable to cry.

Now, returning to the root of her nightmares, Enlise found she could calmly observe the place.

There really wasn't anything here worth fearing.

—The once towering tables and chairs now seemed ordinary in size. The spot decorated with terrifying Monster heads was actually a bulletin board, still hanging with some ancient Hero quests: "Capture thirty Slimes," "Find the growth site of Flame Grass," "High bounty on the Werewolf Leader's chest hair from the third layer of the Abyss (yes, the most handsome one)."

These even looked kind of interesting, offering a glimpse of the traces of adventurers' lives and battles in the adventure stories of the Magic Era.

What was truly terrifying wasn't this place at all—it was the Monster that had exploited it!

Thinking this, Enlise walked to the counter and noticed a guestbook lying on the floor beneath it. She bent down to pick it up.

That was when Enlise saw a pair of legs.

A woman's legs.

Enlise looked up and saw the Hostess standing in front of her with a wooden smile, staring at her with hollow eyes. Her abdomen was also gaping open, blood dripping down from the middle.

Still, Enlise felt no fear.

As if she had expected this to happen, she calmly raised her Magic Wand—Enlise didn't understand why she was holding it, but dreams were illogical like that—and chanted the spell:

"Summon: Attack Receptionist Cat!"

"Meow meow meow!"

With a flash of white light, a swarm of Cats leaped out from the glow and pounced on the Hostess.

The battlefield of Cats was brutal, and Enlise couldn't intervene.

Chaos erupted.

"I'm sorry, spare me!"

The Hostess screamed.

Her voice wasn't the hollow, wooden tone Enlise had heard before—it was a more resonant, androgynous voice.

And with "her" scream, the Hostess's form began to change. She turned into a translucent Alien Creature covered in tentacles, completely losing any human shape.

Even this appearance couldn't stir sympathy in little Enlise, and the Cats showed no mercy to their enemy.

Under the Cats' scratching, the entire scene began to collapse. The Adventurer's Guild hall was torn to shreds for the second time, and liquid poured in from the cracks, flooding the building. Everything around began to decay, like an underwater city from tens of thousands of years later.

But Enlise and the Cats were unaffected by the liquid and could still move, which meant the Cats' attack continued.

The Shapeless Being had been shredded into something like the frayed leg of a dormitory sofa.

"I'm sorry, I won't dare again! I swear! Spare me, boohoo," it cried out. "I'll grant any wish you have! Give you anything you want!"

Enlise wasn't fooled by such flippant promises.

Instead, a Calico Cat jumped onto Enlise's shoulder: "Stop for now, let's hear what it has to say, meow! After all, even if we tear it apart, it's just satisfying—no benefit, meow."

This Calico Cat had been hiding and slacking off since being summoned, but for some reason, it held great influence among the Cats. All the Cats indeed stopped their attack and looked at Enlise.

The mass of Alien Creature also realized its fate depended on Enlise.

It pitifully extended a tentacle, trying to wrap around Enlise's calf, but before it could touch her, a Maine Coon stomped on it and swiped a claw across it.

The Alien Creature let out a pained sound.

Damn little brats. If I hadn't been locked up for seven years and was too weak now...

The Alien Creature thought to itself, but obediently asked, "Dear child, what wish do you have? I can make anything come true!"

"Hmm, I don't think there's anything I particularly want, because Mr. Angell has already given me everything in reality," Enlise said, turning instead to look at the cats. "What about you? What do you want?"

"Meow meow meow, Dried Fish!"

"Yeah, Dried Fish meow!"

"Dried Fish for me too!"

The MeowMeows quickly reached a consensus, and the Shapeless Being waved a tentacle, sending Dried Fish swimming through the dreamscape like fish in an ocean floor, fulfilling the cats' wishes.

"A bunch of dumb cats!" Calico said, deftly snatching a few Dried Fish and stuffing them into her mouth, but she glared at her companions with disappointment. "Food in a dream is just a dream! Eating it won't do you any good!"

Saying this, Calico rubbed against Enlise's cheek. "Young Lady, you can't be as dumb as them. If you're going to make a wish, intangible things are better... But, considering I've been working overtime in the middle of the night, can I have tomorrow off, meow?"

"No, you have to get Mr. Black Cat's approval for that!" Enlise said mercilessly.

She wouldn't agree to anything that hurt Mr. Angell's interests!

"Bosses really are all the same," Calico said mournfully, then leaped into the midst of the Dried Fish to binge-eat.

The Alien Creature, however, didn't give up.

On the contrary, it felt like things were getting into a groove.

—Though the guidance of this dream was completely different from what it had hoped for, they'd still reached the wish-making step. Stupid humans could never escape their desires.

Its voice grew even more coaxing. "That's right, lovely child, make a wish! Compared to the empty physical things in this dream, I can give you something far better! Do you want beauty that everyone adores, or charm that makes all kinds of handsome men fall at your feet? Do you want overwhelming power, or omniscient wisdom? I can give you all of these!"

"Really?" Enlise was tempted.

"Of course!"

"Can I take intangible things I get in the dream, like knowledge or memories, out of the dream?"

"Of course!"

"Then I wish for the books Mr. Angell gave me during the day!" Enlise declared.

"?"

With Enlise's wish, a huge pile of books came crashing down, scattering across the broken floor.

Enlise picked them up, pulled out the most basic one from the pile, and held it out toward the Shapeless Being. "I don't really understand the content of this book. Can you explain it to me from the beginning?"

"???"

The Shapeless Being twitched as it stared at the book, momentarily unable to grasp the little girl's thinking. "There's no need for all that trouble. I can just give you incredibly powerful magic directly!"

"I don't need that!" Enlise said. "Having magic alone won't help Mr. Angell! He said today that he needs to understand the principles behind it."

"Then I can pour the logic of all things directly into your memory!" the Alien Creature said. "Making you omniscient and omnipotent is a bit troublesome, but it's not impossible!"

"I don't need that either!" Enlise refused again. "A two-legged bookshelf is useless. Mr. Angell's room is full of books—if he wants to look something up, can't he find it? What he needs is someone like Mr. Bolo, who can invent practical tools to solve real problems!"

"Then I'll give you the Eye of the Prophet, which can foresee and guide everything..."

"I need that even less! I don't have the wisdom to bear the future, nor the courage to carry others' fates! Someone like me is already enough following behind Mr. Angell! I don't need to see all those unnecessary things!"

...Was this girl genuinely stupid, or was she wise beyond her years?

The Alien Creature twitched as it spoke. "You keep saying 'Mr. Angell' this and that. Can't you think about yourself for once?"

"It's precisely because I'm thinking about myself that I feel I should help Mr. Angell achieve his goals!" Enlise said with longing. "The world Mr. Angell sees seems broader and greater than anything I know, so I want to see what the finished product of his wish looks like."

Hopeless. This girl had been completely brainwashed by that Black Robe.

The Alien Creature pressed a tentacle to its forehead and sighed.

After the Alien Creature's repeated dodging, Enlise also noticed its reluctance.

She hugged the Brick-Thick Textbook and looked down at the strange being. "You've said so much—could it be that you actually can't do it?"

Can't do it...

Can't do it?!

"!" The Alien Creature instantly bristled—though it had no fur. "Wh-Who says I can't! If you want to learn, of course I can teach!"

Saying this, the Alien Creature took down the Adventurer's Guild signboard and used it as a blackboard:

"Sit over there! I'm giving you a lesson right now!!!"