It was precisely at that moment, when another of her lives had ended in another meaningless death, that the Northern Devil was born.
Asil never hesitated again. Not for a second. Not a shadow of doubt. Not a drop of remorse or pity.
She shed rivers of blood as easily as others breathe.
Several dozen bloody reincarnations ago, Asil had discovered something important — other people's blood made her stronger.
It was like a forbidden stimulant that seeped into every cell of her body, making her muscles grow and her mind clear amidst the chaos. The effect was incredible. And it was very easy to become addicted to this feeling — almost impossible to resist.
For a long time, an incredibly long time, Asil held on. She killed only when forced. Only when there was no choice left. Only to survive another life that had been against her from the very start.
She lived like that. Refusing until the very end to become a monster.
But now...
Now, for the first time, she herself wanted to shed rivers of blood. Not out of necessity. Not for protection. But simply because something inside her had clicked and broken forever.
The dark creature that had lived in her head since her very first death had finally taken over. Or, perhaps, Asil had simply stopped resisting it. After all, what difference did it make? The result was the same.
She became what even those who had never seen her face feared.
The next dozens of reincarnations passed in endless bloodshed. Life after life. Murder after murder. Asil honed her skills, and with each rebirth, she became stronger, faster, and more merciless.
And finally, she became the one they called the Northern Devil.
But even amidst this endless succession of bloody reincarnations, even when the world drowned in crimson and she herself no longer remembered how many lives she had consumed — the center of her existence always remained unchanged.
Just one person.
Her wife. Remesis Carter.
For a long time, Asil convinced herself that she hated and despised this woman from the very depths of her soul. And at some point, she truly believed it. She wanted to believe it. Because hatred was simple and understandable.
And yet... even when it would have been so easy — to simply kill her — Asil never raised a hand against her.
It wasn't affection. Not sympathy. Not a pathetic residual tenderness from that first, long-forgotten life.
The reason was far more cruel.
Why should I be the only one living in this hell? Asil thought, looking at Remesis through blood and time. I want this woman to suffer too. Truly. Every day. Every moment. Until the very end.
Death would have been too easy a punishment for her. Too quick and too merciful.
Asil wanted Remesis to live and suffer. For every dawn of hers to begin with despair, and every sunset with emptiness. For her to feel the same things Asil herself had felt for all those hundreds of lives.
That was her revenge.
Hundreds of reincarnations passed by, one after another. During this time, Asil had managed to be an empress, an executioner, and a destroyer of entire dynasties. She had destroyed the Nadal Empire completely — wiped it from the face of the earth as if it had never existed. She had killed kings and gods, traitors and saints, the innocent and the guilty.
But the outcome always remained the same.
Emptiness.
All of it seemed meaningless to her. Because it was.
Her life had turned into one long, endless, nightmarish dream that would never end. With each rebirth, the boundaries of her personality eroded. Her features grew paler. Her feelings grew dimmer.
Until one day, nothing remained inside her but the monster she had become.
Asil had died so many times that she had lost count somewhere after the first thousand. Death was the most common, most mundane thing for her. She had stopped fearing it even before she first bit through her own mother's throat.
But that was precisely why one thing still surprised her.
Her pathetic, insignificant wife, with whom she had lived so many lives, possessed an astonishing ability. She clung to her life.
Tightly. Desperately. Hopelessly.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that Remesis Carter's life was filled only with hopelessness. There was absolutely no glimmer in it — not a spark of hope, not a hint of a happy ending. Only darkness and only pain.
And yet... even so, she always held on. Even to such a pitiful, worthless, crushed life.
She didn't give up. She didn't ask for death, as anyone else in her place would have. Even in the most difficult and desperate times, when the world crashed down on her with all its weight, Remesis refused to die. She fought. To the end. To her last breath.
This was what distinguished her so much from Asil.
They were both abandoned children, rejected by the empire even before they learned to speak. Both knew cold, hunger, and betrayal. And yet, their attitude towards life was radically different.
Asil had long since lost all value in her own existence. She was not afraid to die.
And Remesis... Remesis wanted to live. Truly.
Involuntarily, against her will, Asil became interested. She grew curious. For the first time in hundreds of lives, she became genuinely curious.
Why did this woman cling so desperately to her life?
Over time, the feeling of hatred that lived inside Asil began to change. Slowly, imperceptibly, like ice that turns into water without ceasing to be cold.
Or, perhaps, all this time it had not been hatred at all? Perhaps she simply did not want to admit her true feelings?
Answering this question was almost impossible. Asil had lied to herself for too long to now easily distinguish truth from fiction.
In any case, after many reincarnations, she realized something else as well. Something far more alarming.
The more blood she shed, the more often she succumbed to the temptation of her inner demon — the more it consumed her. With each killing, with each drop of another's life she took, the chain around her neck grew tighter.
With each reincarnation, it became harder for Asil to control the darkness inside herself. And it was obvious that one day would come — and she would lose herself completely.
Asil saw no value in her own life. That was the truth. But even now, even after everything she had done, she did not want something to fully take over her body. She did not want to become just a shell, just a vessel for some ancient creature.
By that point, she was already too mired in it. She could not stop shedding blood — like an addict cannot stop taking a dose. It had become her nature. Her essence.
So instead of trying to stop, Asil decided to find another way. A way to break this endless cycle of reincarnations. A way to truly die — finally, irrevocably, and without resurrection.
To die before that creature fully consumed her.
Another hundred lives passed. A hundred murders. A hundred deaths.
And finally, she found the way.
To her own surprise, it turned out to be simple. Even too simple. As if the answer had always been right under her nose, and she had been searching for it at the other end of the world.
Meanwhile, by that time, her own existence was already nearing its end. Asil's personality was almost completely consumed by the demon inside. She felt her thoughts becoming alien, her desires no longer hers, the boundaries between "I" and "that creature" disappearing forever.
And she realized this conclusively at the moment when, one day, opening her eyes, she saw the bloody corpse of Remesis before her.
She had killed her herself.
She didn't remember how. Didn't remember why. But her hands were bloody to the elbows, and on her lips was the sweet taste of honey.
It seemed this was truly the end.
Asil, without a second's hesitation, slit her own throat with the same sword and died in a pool of their mingled blood.
When she opened her eyes, another life of hers began.
But this time, it was to be the last. Asil decided this firmly. She truly wanted to end it here — once and for all.
She had no expectations for this life. No hope. No fear. No curiosity. Only cold, calculated determination to see it through. Just another life that would finally end her meaningless existence.
...But.
"Remesis of the Duke Carter's house greets Your Highness."
Asil froze.
That same girl who, at their first meeting, always trembled like an aspen leaf, always turned pale and averted her eyes — this girl unexpectedly came forward to greet her first.
Asil did not answer. She just watched.
"It is a great honor for me to become Your Highness's spouse," Remesis continued with an absolutely calm smile. "I hope we get along well."
There was not a trace of fear on her face. Not a shadow of the former trembling. Only a quiet, confident gentleness.
Absolutely nothing in common with all the previous lives.
Asil could not say it at that moment — but everything inside her turned upside down.
She was nearly stunned.
For the first time in thousands of reincarnations, for the first time after so many deaths, after so many years of darkness and blood... It seemed that the time which had stopped for her many years ago had suddenly started moving again.
At that moment, something happened that could surprise even her — the woman who had experienced so many regressions that she had lost count.
She almost smirked. For the first time in a long while — with a spark of something alive.
Asil thought there would be absolutely nothing special in this life. Just another routine. Another cycle. Another emptiness.
But it seemed she was wrong.
It seemed that after thousands of reincarnations, this life, on the contrary, promised to be the most interesting.
And for the first time in a long time, Asil Nara Ashelot thought: perhaps it was worth lingering in this world a little?
Just to see what would happen next.