My wife Marked Me as the Lowest Outcast, but I Returned as the Abyss King

The cold dagger plunged into my left chest without warning, twisting hard!

With a piercing shriek of tearing metal, the "Beast Whisperer" badge pinned to my chest—the emblem of the Gray family's supreme honor—was carved out along with my flesh and skin. The golden wolf-crest insignia shattered into fragments and, mixed with warm blood, fell into the bottomless Black Abyss behind me.

Then a scroll of marriage covenant sealed with pure gold wax was torn in half before my face.

The shredded paper bearing the Gray family crest was slapped against my face.

"Three years."

My wife, Elise, tapped my cheek with the dagger still wet with my blood. There was no trace of warmth in her eyes—only undisguised disgust. "Three years of marriage, and you can't even tame a single hound on the family lands. The Storm Kingdom has no use for a cripple without an ounce of beast-spirit affinity. And the Gray family has even less use for trash that tarnishes its name!"

A gale, reeking of the abyss's rotting miasma, surged upward. I was bound to an execution pillar forged of black gold, blood dripping from my chin.

I didn't struggle. I didn't beg the way she'd expected.

I just stared into her eyes.

My gaze was utterly calm. Three years ago, on this very cliff, I had shielded this main city from a beast tide with a body covered in wounds, earning her "gracious" marriage alliance. For three years, I'd hidden my strength and healed my injuries—and today, her long-planned scheme of erosion had finally come to its end.

That unnerving calm made Elise's fingers tighten around the dagger; she unconsciously stepped half a step back.

"Father, since she says you don't deserve it, let's brand that into your bones."

A mocking voice cut in from the side. My nominal adopted son, Zack, carried a blazing charcoal brazier onto the execution platform. He grabbed my chin and, with his right hand, pulled a red-hot branding iron from the embers!

At its tip was a massive letter: "F."

The shameful mark of the lowest of outcasts, from the abyss's deepest depths.

Without a moment's hesitation, Zack pressed the glowing iron—like a hammer—onto my right chest!

"Tchhhhhh—!!!"

Skin and flesh were instantly seared through by the horrifying heat; the stench of charred meat exploded. This was the highest-grade bone-eroding curse mark—the moment it burned in, thousands of poisoned needles of curse force tore through my damaged flesh and straight into my neural network. Once branded, the victim would suffer the agonizing pain of being flayed and drawn every month.

The excruciating pain turned my vision briefly red.

But I clamped my bloodied teeth shut. I burst the capillaries in my mouth, forcing not a single gasp of air through my teeth. I looked into Zack's eyes the way one watches a clown performing a show full of holes.

The moment the iron left my charred flesh—

Zack's right hand dropped suddenly, pressing with an extremely subtle movement against my abdomen.

Hum!

A strange, icy sensation pierced through the searing pain. In my peripheral vision, I caught a faint glow on Zack's index finger—an ancient ring of dim light.

The Ring of Fate Plunder!

The fog in my mind cleared in an instant.

Tearing up the marriage covenant was a cover! Destroying the badge was humiliation! The brutal F-brand was even a distraction, meant to bury my perception under unbearable agony!

What they were truly after today was to forcibly rip out the absolute trump card hidden in the deepest layer of my bloodline—"Beast-Spirit Affinity"!

That immense suction, like an invisible beast, gnawed at my origin through the ring. I could feel the dormant spiritual connection within me being uprooted, channeled through the ring and flooding into Zack's meridians.

"Thank you for your gift, 'Father.' I'll use it to replace you and become the new ruler of this territory." Zack lowered his voice to a whisper only I could hear, declaring his victory. Then he withdrew his hand quickly, assuming the posture of a smug heir.

The last trace of power within me was drained completely.

With the affinity severed, at this very moment, even the bone-eating rats that thrived in the abyss's harshest environment were beyond my perception. I had lost all control over beasts.

A ruthless scheme. A merciless move.

But they thought they'd stolen everything, not knowing where the boundary of my bloodline truly lay.

Zack stepped back. Two fully armed guards stepped forward, raising specially made black-steel shears and positioning them on either side of the load-bearing chains binding my arms.

Elise cast one last glance at the rolling black miasma below the cliff. Her gaze was colder than the abyss.

"Cut them. Garbage belongs where garbage goes."

CRACK—!!!

The load-bearing chains were severed at the root!

The weightlessness of a fall hit instantly! The abyss opened like a gaping maw, dragging me over the cliff's edge. The speed of my descent tore through the air; the light vanished in less than a second, swallowed by absolute darkness.

BAM!

First impact!

My back slammed into a protruding rock edge. The sharp crack of bone echoed within my body—three ribs snapped cleanly, their jagged ends piercing through muscle and membrane.

Blood surged from my throat.

BAM!!

Second impact followed! My left arm was crushed against a blade-like rock face, the joint tearing at an impossible angle. Then my right arm—as I instinctively shielded my head and neck—was ground to a pulp by the rough, savage rock.

Loss of strength. Internal bleeding. Multiple compound fractures.

In this lightless realm of despair, even a low-level howling wolf would be shattered to pieces upon falling. And I had been drained of every supernatural defense.

BOOM—!!!

A dull, devastating crash.

I slammed into the mud and scattered bones at the bottom of the abyss. My organs felt like they'd been crushed by a ten-thousand-ton hammer; thick blood poured uncontrollably from my forehead, chest, and broken limbs, soaking the cold black earth beneath me.

Darkness. Silence. Perception severed.

The pain at my nerve endings had long exceeded the limits of human endurance; my brain was screaming for me to shut down.

They wanted me to die here?

Never.

My broken arms lay limp in the bloody mire, my right fingertips brushing against a rock face as hard as iron.

That will—the will of the Gray family's first heir, the Storm Kingdom's once-greatest conqueror—exploded in that moment!

Ignoring the agony of my shattered wrists, relying on the residual instinct in my muscles, I curled my fingers, bit by bit.

My nails scraped toward the crevices in the rock.

Dig in. PUSH!

Keep awake!

The piercing pain of crushed fingertips exploded; my nails bent back under the immense pressure! My white finger bones, ground without mercy against the rock, cracked and shattered inch by inch!

But this soul-rending pain became the most violent stimulant, anchoring my slipping consciousness to the present.

Up there, under broad daylight, they were carving up my throne.

Down here, in the abyss's lightless depths, I swallowed the mud mixed with my own blood.

I tilted my head back. With eyes that could see nothing, I stared into the endless darkness above. A bloodstained grin spread across my face.

Silent. Roaring.

Everything they owed me—I would tear back, bite by bite.