Chapter 1

“Listen. Only if you marry the abyss demon Morgana will you survive the world-ending flood.”

My mother’s shrill voice pierced my ears. I snapped my eyes open and sat up on the worn sofa.

In my throat, the sweet, fishy aftertaste of that poisoned monster broth from my last life seemed to churn again.

I stared hard at the fake kindness smeared across her face. Good. My absurdly biased parents, and my precious little brother Leo, had all reincarnated with their memories.

Last life, they gave the fragile Leo to the angel Elyssia, who promised to remain in the human city.

They tossed me to the abyssal she-demon like garbage.

And what happened?

The flood swallowed the entire continent. The angel burned out her divinity, her wings rotted to ash, and my family kicked her into the torrent.

I took them in when they clung to drifting wreckage. They repaid me by lacing my food with poison.

“That weak body of Leo’s deserves the safe life in the Abyss. You can give it to your brother,” my father had snarled, that face burned into my bones even past death.

The doorbell screamed, cutting through my killing intent.

The heavy oak door was shoved open with brute force. A wave of sulfur stench mixed with shadow aura flooded the living room.

Morgana stepped over the threshold in spiked black boots.

Her seductive, cold face was wrapped in dark mist, her dark red slit pupils filled with impatience.

“Where’s the contract? Sign it and come with me to the Abyss floating isle. I’m not wasting time breathing human stink.”

Right behind her came Elyssia, bathed in soft holy radiance.

She tucked away her three pairs of sacred wings, her voice gentle as morning wind.

“May the holy light protect you. I swear to remain in the human city and build an unbreakable refuge for my contractor.”

Her azure eyes swept over us with an angel’s pity.

Before I could speak, my father lunged forward.

Like a starving wolf, he seized the abyss parchment scroll floating in Morgana’s hand.

“Leo. Sign. Now.” He slammed it into my brother’s chest.

My mother, as if tossing trash, flung Elyssia’s softly glowing holy contract to my feet.

“Link, the angel is yours. You’ve always been worthless. Staying in the city ruins and dying on your own suits you.”

Elyssia’s holy face flashed with stunned disbelief.

She clearly couldn’t understand how parents could force a low-survival city contract onto their own child.

“I won’t sign. She reeks like sulfur. She’s violent and could snap anytime.” Leo shoved Morgana’s parchment away in disgust.

The shadow behind Morgana surged. A dangerous hiss rose in her throat.

My mother flinched, then immediately hugged Leo protectively, lowering her voice to coax him.

“Baby, think about the flood. Only the Abyss floating isle can keep you alive.”

“Just endure it. Our whole family will follow you into the abyssal lair and enjoy life.”

At the words “world-ending flood,” the disgust on Leo’s face flipped to terror.

He bit his finger and pressed a trembling bloodprint onto the shadow contract.

Morgana snorted, her eyes flashing with bloodthirsty mockery, like she was sizing up a fat pig that had walked into the slaughterhouse on its own.

The moment the contract sealed, Leo turned and stared at me like I was already dead.

“Link, don’t think you’re taking a single copper from this family.” He lifted his chin in a victor’s posture. “The estate, the underground vault, the coalition credit points. All mine.”

My father echoed him at once, pointing at the door and shouting.

“You’re a discarded piece now. Take that scrap and get out of my house.”

“Not even those old ore-mining tools in the basement. You don’t touch them,” my mother snapped, guarding Leo like I was a thief.

I lowered my eyes to the warm holy contract at my feet.

I almost laughed.

“Your house?” I lifted my boot.

One kick. My military boot shattered the edge of the expensive marble coffee table, stone fragments spraying like bullets.

My father screamed and stumbled back, crashing into a floor vase.

“At twelve, who was it that forced me down into the high-radiation waste mine?”

I stepped closer, cold light in my eyes carving across their frightened faces.

“Ten hours a day digging ore, to trade for rations for all four of us.”

“I slept in a flooded basement for ten years. Didn’t even deserve a proper thermal mattress.”

“And now you want to talk to me about family assets?”

The rage I’d crushed down for two lifetimes froze the air in the room.

My mother’s face went white. She tried to argue, stammering, “That was… what an older brother should—”

“Shut up.” I cut her off, voice hard enough to break her fake kindness.

I bent to pick up the holy contract and bit my finger without hesitation.

The moment my blood touched the parchment, holy light burst and became a warm mark sinking into the back of my hand.

Elyssia’s azure eyes lit. She looked at me, awkward yet solemn.

I seized her soft, cold wrist.

“Let’s go.”

No hesitation. I dragged my angel, gripped the contract, and marched for the door.

“Link. You ungrateful animal. When the flood comes, don’t you kneel and beg us.” My father’s furious curse followed.

I slammed the heavy oak door shut behind me.

The crash severed that disgusting bond from my last life.