Contract in Black

Chapter 4:The Sovereign's Vow & Rebirth

The sanctuary went completely dead silent after she vanished. Leonis just knelt there in the middle of the smoking crater, his chest heaving under his heavy armor as he stared blankly at the exact empty space where his wife had been standing just a second ago. The sudden, overwhelming grief completely broke his mind. He looked down at the loudly crying baby squirming on the stone floor and felt this incredibly dangerous, dark impulse wash over him. He was so consumed by raw rage and pain that he actually wanted to just walk away, leave the child there, and go unleash an absolute war to destroy the entire universe, foolishly blaming the newborn for taking Roselia away from him. But the exact second he turned his back to walk away, the baby suddenly stopped crying. He froze, and when he slowly looked back over his shoulder, tiny Sapphire was reaching her warm, fragile little hands right out toward his pitch-black armor, completely fearless of his terrifying dark aura. That single, quiet movement completely shattered his cold heart into pieces. Standing there in the ruins, Leonis realized this innocent little girl wasn't the cause of his pain; she was the absolute last piece of Roselia left in the entire world, the only physical proof of their eternal love. He dropped his sword, carefully scooped her up into his massive arms, and swore a silent vow that he would preserve, protect, and raise her no matter what the heavens threw at them. 4 Ten long years passed like that inside the Netherworld, with Leonis completely locking his kingdom down and raising Sapphire in total isolation from the rest of the realms. He watched her grow every single day, and honestly, her hybrid powers were getting completely out of hand. Because of her dual royal lineage, she could casually control both brilliant holy light and destructive dark hellfire, a beautiful but terrifying combination that made even his top demonic generals nervous to be around her. Leonis completely changed during those years, dropping his ruthless tyrant act whenever he was around her, learning how to be gentle just to keep his daughter smiling. But time flows completely weird across the cosmic boundaries, and while it had only been ten peaceful years for Leonis raising his kid in Hell, five hundred long years had already flown by in the mortal world.

Down on Earth, five hundred years of human history had completely wiped away any memory of the ancient gods, but inside a tiny, broken-down house on the edge of a poor mortal town, that past came rushing back in a single second. A ten-year-old human girl named Selia suddenly sat up in her small bed, gasping for air and clutching her chest as her soul practically burned. It was completely insane, but all her previous memories as the beautiful Goddess Roselia were suddenly totally intact, flooding her mind with visions of her grand wedding, the tragic birth, and the husband she had to leave behind. She looked down at her tiny, weak human hands, but instead of panicking, a confident smile spread across her face. "Leonis, I am finally back," she whispered into the dark room, her determination burning brighter than any regular human soul ever could. But actually trying to find him in this weak, modern era turned out to be an absolute nightmare. For weeks, Selia dragged her small ten-year-old body through the crowded, dusty mortal streets, completely ignoring how tired she was as she walked up to random strangers, merchants, and tough mercenaries, bluntly asking them how she could get in touch with the King of Hell. The reactions she got were honestly hilarious but totally frustrating. The exact second the words left her mouth, big burly fighters would turn completely pale, getting visible chills down their spines before running away from a literal child like she was carrying a plague. Everyone in town thought she was completely out of her mind for even speaking that forbidden title out loud, whispering behind her back about the crazy orphan girl who wanted to meet the devil. But Selia had this unbelievable tenacity that didn't care about human fear or common sense. She kept pushing forward through the towns, completely unfazed by the mocking stares and the terrifying rumors, driven entirely by the deep love she still held for her family. She knew Leonis was out there somewhere in the dark, probably drowning in his own loneliness, and she wasn't about to let a little thing like being 5 reborn as a poor human kid stop her from getting back to him. After realizing the regular mortals were completely useless and too chicken to give her answers, she decided she had to take matters into her own hands. She spent days secretly gathering materials to draw a crude, hidden summoning circle on the floor of her room, preparing to break the laws of physics just to force a direct contract with the abyss.

The moment Selia finished drawing the last lines of the crude summoning circle, she poured every ounce of her remaining spiritual energy right into the center. The air inside her tiny, cramped bedroom turned completely freezing cold in a split second, and this massive column of thick, pitch-black smoke ripped right through the old floorboards, shaking the entire house. When the smoke finally cleared, Leonis stood there in his full, terrifying sovereign glory, holding his dark sword and expecting to face some legendary dark mage who had somehow forced open the gates of Hell. Instead, he looked down and saw a tiny, broke ten-year-old girl staring right back up at him with a completely fearless expression. The legendary King of Hell was so paralyzed with shock that his brain literally short-circuited, trying to comprehend how a little kid could be summoning him, let alone looking at him like she owned him. "Leonis, it's really me, you i***t," she said, her voice dropping into that exact same bold, confident tone he had missed for five hundred years. Before he could even open his mouth, she started rattling off every single private detail from their past life, proving that her memories of the obsidian palace, their grand wedding, and the name Sapphire were completely intact. The realization hit Leonis like a physical blow to the chest, and he completely dropped his dark aura, falling straight to his knees to pull her into a tight, desperate embrace. Ten years of agonizing loneliness in Hell had felt like an eternity, but she was finally back in his arms. He held her close, tears actually blurring his eyes as he immediately started telling her all about Sapphire, bragging about how their daughter had grown up looking just like her but was born with an insane hybrid mix of both holy light and dark hellfire powers. He was ready to grab her right then and carry her straight back to his dark kingdom, but Selia immediately put her foot down and ruined his grand exit. She looked up at him with that same stubborn, superior gaze from their past life, bluntly insisting that she couldn't just disappear because she actually had a living human family in this era that took her in and cared for her. Leonis completely froze, looking totally defeated. He was a cosmic ruler who commanded legions of monsters, but in front of his wife, he didn't stand a single chance. It was that classic husband-wife dynamic where the wife is always the real boss, no matter what. He absolutely hated humans and usually avoided them like the plague, but if he wanted to take Selia back to where she belonged, he had no choice but to follow her rules. 6 He had to swallow his massive pride, drop the terrifying supreme tyrant act, and actually walk side-byside with a ten-year-old girl toward her family's front door. They walked up to the small, run-down house together, and Leonis felt more genuinely nervous than he did when he fought the gods of heaven. He stood on the porch, took a deep breath, and raised his heavy fist to knock loudly on the wooden door to face her mortal father. The terrifying King of Hell was literally about to ask a poor, stubborn human man for his young daughter's hand in marriage, completely unaware of how the human was going to react to a giant god of death standing on his lawn.