The Demon's Bride——1000 Days of Temptation

The Demon Realm. The sky here is always gloomy, with the Phoenix of Death screeching as it flies by in the distance, leaving behind waves of death-like ripples. In the center of the endless plain stands a tall, gloomy castle, abruptly rising from the ground. Within a ten-mile radius, no intelligent demon realm creature can be seen. This is the castle of Rothgar, one of the five Archdukes of the Abyss in the Demon Realm. No one dares to approach. Suddenly, the tranquility is broken. A pale purple teleportation array opens above the castle, and two embracing figures appear from within. As soon as the man and woman materialize, dozens of black flame arrows surge towards them from below, with the intent to pierce the newcomers. The horned man's shoulders twitch slightly, and the thin wings on his back suddenly wrap around the two, deflecting all the black flames as they hit the thin membrane of flesh. "Hey, Rothgar, is this how you welcome me?" the man complains, unfurling his wings. A tall figure with huge fleshy wings flies out from the castle. He has long black hair dancing in the wind, curved black horns atop his head, and a handsome yet sinister face beneath them. His face is pale and cold, with narrow eyes squinting in displeasure. His ruby-like eyes are filled with mockery as he sneers, revealing snow-white teeth: "Baran, when have I ever welcomed you?" "Oh come on, we've been friends for thousands of years. Why be so contrary?" Baran doesn't mind Rothgar's attitude and says with a smile, "I'm getting married! I've come personally to deliver the invitation!" He flicks his hand, and an exquisitely crafted invitation falls into Rothgar's hand. Rothgar holds the invitation between two fingers of his right hand, his gaze falling on the woman Baran is embracing. With just one glance, he knows she's a human woman. The human woman has thick golden hair and delicate, beautiful features, but her expression is like that of a timid deer in the forest. She's currently shyly hugging Baran's waist tightly, as if afraid of falling. Rothgar is a demon. In fact, all five Archdukes of the Abyss in the Demon Realm are demons who have crawled up from the depths. And demons are born racists, looking down on other races, especially the physically weak humans, who in their eyes represent dirty, incompetent, and hypocritical beings. Rothgar always mocks Baran whenever they meet, but for thousands of years, he has indeed considered Baran a friend. Now, hearing that he's getting married, and to a human woman no less, he thinks his friend must be joking: "Are you crazy? Human women are too dirty to even touch, and you want to marry one?" "Hey, don't say such things in front of my future wife. Katharine is different; she's a pure and beautiful unicorn. I've fallen in love with her." Baran first stops Rothgar, then looks down at his future wife, lifts her chin, and kisses her tenderly. Katharine's face flushes red as she wraps her arms around Baran's neck, her expression intoxicated. Rothgar frowns deeply, wanting to tell these two eyesores to get lost. Considering his friend's feelings, Baran quickly ends the kiss and looks at Rothgar in a great mood, smiling: "Roth, I used to be addicted to sensory stimulation, thinking it was the best thing in the world. Now I realize that the taste of love is the sweetest. Why don't you come out of your castle and try the wonders of love?" Rothgar snorts coldly: "Love? Your love is for this hypocritical, lowly human creature? Baran, you're a disgrace to demons. I think you'll be ruined by this human woman sooner or later." "Don't say such harsh things, Roth," Baran says, displeased. "There are some humans who are hypocritical and annoying, but there are also little lambs like Katharine." As he speaks, he looks down at Katharine with a tender, affectionate smile. The petite Katharine's blush hasn't faded, and Baran's handsome face is reflected in her emerald green eyes. Rothgar can't stand it anymore. He turns away in disgust and says coldly, "Suit yourself. I won't be attending your wedding." He summons black flames in his hand, instantly burning the invitation to ashes. Before Rothgar can fly back to the castle, Baran says, "Roth, let's make a bet." Rothgar pauses, looking at Baran, his blood-red eyes showing some interest: "What kind of bet?" Baran says, "You look down on human women, thinking they're all vain, right? Before the wedding, you have half a year. If you can get a hundred human women to accept your marriage proposal within half a year, you win. But if you can't do it, you have to come to my wedding." "If I win, you'll kill your love?" Rothgar sneers, though he feels his competitive spirit has been slightly aroused by this ridiculous bet. Katharine shrinks back a little upon hearing Rothgar's words. Baran quickly hugs her to comfort her, glares at Rothgar, and then says, "If you win, I'll give you the Abyss Tree Seed I recently acquired." Rothgar's eyes change. If earlier he was only slightly interested by Baran's words, now he's determined to win. He has been searching for Abyss Tree Seeds for thousands of years and has only found two so far. Baran's seed - he must have it! "Deal," Rothgar's eyes narrow, his lips curling into a smile, "For these six months, you just keep it safe for me." Seeing Rothgar agree, Baran doesn't mind his attitude of already considering the Abyss Tree Seed as his own property. He adds mischievously, "But you can't force them to accept your proposal, and you certainly can't kidnap them to the Demon Realm. You have to be in the human world, using your personal charm to conquer their hearts!" "Mere human women, I don't need to force them," Rothgar agrees without concern. "Then I'll be waiting for your good news!" Baran smiles and opens a teleportation array, giving Rothgar one last meaningful look before happily teleporting away with Katharine. After the light of the teleportation array fades, Katharine quietly asks Baran, "What if he wins?" Her voice is soft and gentle, like silk sliding across skin, making Baran's heartstrings quiver. This is why he doesn't allow her to speak in front of others; such a voice is for his ears only. Baran eagerly hugs her and flies back to their bedroom. Distracted, he says carelessly, "He's bound to lose. With that foul mouth of his, unable to say a single kind word, which woman would marry him?" "But..." "Shh, don't talk about him anymore. I might get jealous. Say my name, baby." "...Ba-Baran..." Meanwhile, Rothgar returns to the castle, retracts his thin wings, and walks through the empty, cold corridors to the basement of the castle. Rothgar is well aware that Baran offered the Abyss Tree Seed as a stake for two reasons: firstly, Baran doesn't care about the Abyss Tree Seed as much as he does, and secondly, Baran believes he's bound to lose. As a friend of thousands of years, Baran has said more than once that even if Rothgar truly fell in love with a lady, he wouldn't be able to pursue her because he can't say nice things. His mouth alone could turn a woman's love into hatred. But even his good friend Baran doesn't know that when Rothgar uses his innate ability "Possession," it comes with the effect of gaining part of the target's memories. Each Archduke of the Abyss has an innate ability, a gift from the Abyss when they crawled out of it. Rothgar's innate ability "Possession" allows him to etherealize his body and reside in intelligent creatures in a soul-like form, perfectly controlling their bodies. This is the part Baran knows. What Baran doesn't know is that Rothgar can also randomly gain part of the target's memories. Therefore, the bet with Baran seems simple to Rothgar. He just needs to find a playboy and use his memories to win the hearts of human women. Human women are vain and greedy; he's sure to win this bet. There is no direct passage between the Demon Realm and the human world. The environments of both sides are toxic to each other's creatures. Only a few individuals from certain races can survive in the other realm relying solely on themselves or using external objects or secret techniques. Even so, their strength would be weakened. Rothgar often goes to the human world to search for clues to break the Abyss Curse on him - the price of the Abyss's gift. There's a pre-set inter-realm teleportation array in the basement of his castle. He stands in the center of the teleportation array, lightly flicking his finger downwards. A black flame hits the center of the array, instantly filling the entire array. After a flash of purple light, he appears in a forest ten miles away from a city in the human world. The characteristic light of the spell quickly dissipates. Rothgar frowns; every time he comes to the human world, it makes him very uncomfortable. Even though he's an Archduke of the Abyss and can resist the toxic effects of the human world environment, it's not without impact. At this moment, his strength is suppressed to less than half of what it usually is. There are human voices coming from the diagonal front, mixed with screams and raucous laughter. As Rothgar hasn't made any attempt to conceal himself, they notice him when he approaches. "Who are you!" Rothgar doesn't even glance their way, continuing on his path. A woman's voice screams, "Save me, please save me!" "Shut up!" The sound of a slap follows, then a rough male voice shouts, "I'm talking to you! Stop right there! Damn! Brothers, get him, don't let him get away!" Several men pick up the weapons they had thrown aside and charge towards Rothgar. Because it's a bit dark in the forest, and tree branches had obscured half of Rothgar's figure earlier, it's not until they surround him that the men realize he's not human, but a... goat-horned... "Demon! It's a demon!" The men cry out in terror, turning to run, but it's too late. Rothgar raises his hand and flicks it lightly. Black flames appear out of thin air, and as soon as they touch the bodies of the men, they spread like wildfire, instantly engulfing them in roaring black flames, reducing them to ashes in seconds. Rothgar doesn't even break his stride. Only the woman who witnessed this horrifying scene is left, shivering in fear, hugging herself and silently weeping, not daring to make a sound, desperately praying to the Goddess of Light in her heart. Having narrowly escaped death, she quickly decides to treat everything she saw today as a nightmare, not telling anyone. Rothgar soon finds a suitable possession target: Parrish Wilson, the son of the lord of nearby Blue Stone City, who is returning to the city in a luxurious four-horse carriage. Parrish Wilson is not a mage, his mental strength is weak, and besides him, there's only the coachman driving the carriage and his male servant, all weak ordinary humans. Rothgar easily succeeds in "possessing" him. This body is young and handsome, capable of getting at least ten human women to accept his marriage proposal within a day. Rothgar's possession doesn't kill the original owner of the body. The original owner's soul is forced to curl up into a ball and fall into a deep sleep, leaving the body for Rothgar to control. The carriage slowly enters Blue Stone City. Rothgar opens the window and coldly looks outside. These lowly, incompetent, weak humans are still as disgusting as ever. The carriage suddenly comes to an abrupt stop. The coachman angrily shouts, "You lowborn! How dare you block Young Master Parrish's carriage! Do you want to be hanged?"