<h4>Chapter 286: _ Spawns Of The Devil</h4>


    I felt so undeserving and was already pleading my heart to this mission before he even asked. However, one thing was concerning...


    "Why not one of your generals?" I asked. "Youmand an entire hierarchy of demons—why not them?"


    "They do not love her. They only know duty. Fear. Desire. But you—your love is filthy. And that is what the seed needs. A child born of a dark love from a high-level demon and the untouched womb of my daughter." He replied.


    I stood abruptly, my bones stiff from sitting too long on that searing throne. "I am honored, Master—truly. I would die for her. I would burn a thousand Axels for her. But if this was your n all along, then why did you let her marry that idiot? Why did you let him touch her?"


    The devil’s face darkened. The sky above us roared with the sound of cracking stone.


    "You think Axel matters?"


    "I think heplicates things."


    The devil exhaled smoke. "Axel is a worm. A prop. A toy in the box. His only purpose was to serve as a wedge in her spirit."


    I stared at him, still not following. "Then the marriage wasn’t necessary?"


    "Oh, Luis." He chuckled darkly. "You’re still so blind."


    "Then enlighten me."


    He stepped forward. The ground beneath him hissed and cracked.


    "She must hate. She must burn. She must be more than a victim with pretty eyes. I needed her to feel betrayal. To want blood. Do you understand me now?" He provided.


    How does her marrying Axel make her feel betrayal?


    "Not entirely," I admitted.


    "That’s why your task is not only to nt the seed," he exined, his voice sharpening like the edge of a de. "Your job is to win her trust. Get inside her. Not just her body, but her mind. Her soul."


    I swallowed.


    "You must seduce her. Gently. Strategically. Completely. You must be her world."


    I shook my head. "She won’t ept this. She hates darkness. She fears what I am."


    "She will not fear it when it <i>saves</i> her. And you will save her, Luis. You <i>must</i>."


    I didn’t know whether to scream or kneel.


    "You want me to... to seduce her? To make her bear my child for some ancient ritual? What if she refuses?"


    His head tilted, horns scraping the sky. "Then you must make her love you."


    "And if she <i>still</i> refuses?"


    "Luis, your job is to make my visione to pass."


    I nodded slowly, understanding the weight of what he was saying.


    "And then?" I nudged.


    He grinned. The kind of grin nightmares borrow from.


    "Then, you will orchestrate the moment."


    "What moment?"


    "The moment she chooses violence."


    I froze.


    "You must give her the reason. You must make her want to kill Axel—not because you asked her to. Not because I whispered it. But because she burns for it. Because she wants it in her bones."


    M-maría José killing Axel?


    I took a step back, the heat pressing against my skin with sweat trickling down my neck despite theyers I wore.


    "You want her to kill her husband?"


    "I want her to be what she was meant to be."


    I covered my mouth with a trembling hand, staring at the face of my master, the devil, the father of the only woman I had ever loved.


    Everything he had done... every cruelty she had endured... it was all designed to break her heart. To cken it.


    And now, he was asking me to be the match. To seduce her. To impregnate her. To make her trust me. And then hand her the knife. I felt sick.


    But I also felt something else. Alive.


    For the first time in years, I felt like I wasn’t just surviving—I had purpose. I had a mission. I had love. Dark, filthy love. The kind that would ruin her. And I would do it again and again if it meant she would never be afraid again.


    "Will she know what she’s done when it happens?" I asked.


    "She’ll feel it. And she will smile."


    My heart beat hard against my chest. This was the beginning of the end. Or maybe the end of the beginning. Either way, I was ready.


    "Then give me your blessing," I bowed again.


    He reached out, one hand glowing with infernal energy. And when his wed fingers touched my chest, everything exploded into me.


    The pain was instant and blinding, like my soul had been cracked open and poured full of rage. Fire threaded through every nerve. My bones lit up like lightning rods, veins churning with liquid me. I screamed, or maybe I didn’t—I couldn’t hear myself over the roar inside my own skull.


    It felt like I was dying.


    Or bing something that no longer could.


    The Devil’s voice boomed through the roar, calm and assured as if nothing cataclysmic was happening. "This power, Luis, is no mere gift. It is an extension of me."


    My feet left the scorched ground, lifted by some invisible force as mes whirled around us in a vortex of heat and ash.


    "You will be unstoppable," he dered.


    I gasped, arching as the fire cracked my spine and restitched it with obsidian strength. My blood became smoke. My heartbeat became thunder. My skin burned, then healed, then burned again, over and over in an endless cycle of rebirth.


    The Devil’s gaze remained fixed on me, unblinking. "I grant you power on par with my generals. You will walk among them as an equal—but you serve only me."


    I dropped, hitting the scorched floor with a force that would’ve shattered my body minutes ago. But not now. Not anymore.


    I panted, hunched over, trembling as thest of the fire settled into my veins like coiled serpents. My fingers wed into the ash beneath me as I let out a trembling half sob and half growl.


    Then I knelt. For the first time in my life, I truly <i>knelt.</i>