Garden Of Poison-Chapter 280: From one to another

Author’s Note: New books to add to your library now! Both books will be updated from March 1st onward.

1. Beauty and the Immortal: It started with a dig

2. Scarecrow of 1889

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Emily alternated between walking and half-running through the deserted, leafless forest. Her heart thumped as loudly as her footsteps echoed on the ground, and every time she glanced back, it appeared as though the landscape she had just passed through had changed.

"Did the dead man speak the truth about the kitchen door leading to Hell?" Emily pondered to herself.

Suddenly, a looming dark cloud swirled in from a distance, moving towards where Emily was. The sight made her increasingly nervous, as if something wasn’t right, and she broke into a run. But the ominous storm from the realm of the dead didn’t spare her, and it was quick to catch her, enveloping her within its billowing clouds and causing her to scream.

However, in the next moment, the source of the scream vanished from sight, as did the storm, as if it had never been there to begin with, leaving behind a profound stillness.

Emily found herself abruptly dropping harshly onto the ground, making her wince at the impact of the fall. The surface beneath her was smooth, and she squinted, surveying the grey walls that surrounded her.

"Emily," a voice spoke from behind her, prompting Emily to quickly turn her head to catch sight of Nathaniel standing in the room. "This is my tower."

"W—what am I doing here?" Emily asked him with uncertainty. She pushed herself to stand up and searched for an exit, but there was no sign of a door or a window.

"This is to keep you safe," Nathaniel replied in a solemn voice.

For someone who previously didn’t want to see her face or have anything to do with her, Emily found his current behaviour to be more than strange.

"Can you call Raylen or take me to Viktor?" Emily inquired. "What happened to Logan?" she pressed further, because the last thing she remembered, Logan had trapped him in the castle within the in-between realm.

"Before we address that, there are some things we need to speak about. And do," Nathaniel responded, looking straight into Emily’s eyes.

Emily clenched her fists, keeping an eye on him, and asked, "What is it?" In the meantime, she pondered whether anyone would hear her if she were to scream.

"Did you know Viktor is responsible for Layla’s death?" Nathaniel asked her, causing Emily’s eyes that were tracing the grey walls to shift to look at him.

Taken aback by this information, she shook her head and queried, "Are you sure about that?"

"Celeste had visited our home, and the Archdemoness’ scent was all over Layla’s room, where she was resting. How could he have done such a thing?" Nathaniel’s face contoured in anguish, his eyes hardening with a pained expression.

Upon hearing this news, Emily was deeply unhappy and unimpressed by Viktor’s actions. Because Layla had been an innocent woman. Was it because Nathaniel had stolen a potion from Viktor? She said, "It must have been the potion you gave her that killed her."

Nathaniel’s eyes narrowed, and he demanded, "What are you talking about?"

Emily reminded him, "The potion you stole from the Devil. It is rumoured that the potion didn’t contain what it was labelled as."

Nathaniel ran his fingers through his blond hair in evident frustration. He clenched his jaw tightly and expressed in a heavy tone, "Layla was everything to me. She was my soulmate, and I was genuinely happy. But she was taken away from me because of you."

"What?" Emily was stunned at the accusation. "It was your decision that put Layla’s life in harm’s way."

Suddenly, the room echoed with bitter laughter from the Archdemon. Nathaniel appeared to be tormented, as if he were enduring immense suffering from the loss of his soulmate. Emily couldn’t help but notice the dark shadows under his eyes, suggesting that he hadn’t found any rest since Layla’s death.

"The Devil possesses a truly warped sense of justice and punishment," Nathaniel scoffed, his lips twisting further with disdain. "Do you believe he did it solely over a lousy potion? His sense of humour knows no bounds, and he took something from me as compensation for you. You must be laughing at me," he added bitterly.

"I am not," Emily responded promptly. "Layla was my friend, Mr. Lynx. A dear friend of mine."

"And she died because of you..." Nathaniel repeated the accusation without paying actual attention to Emily’s words. When he spoke again, her eyes caught sight of his sharp canines. "It is only fair that I take something precious from him or his son, isn’t it? You are the perfect candidate, Emily. Be it as a Barter Soul, as that demon said, or through me marking you. You were, after all, my soulmate once."

Emily’s face paled, and she warned him, "It would be wise for you to release me from here rather than invite further misery. Do you think Layla would be happy with what you have planned?"

"It doesn’t matter," Nathaniel responded, shaking his head. He remarked, "You don’t understand what loss is."

"I understand more than you realise," Emily replied, her hazel brown eyes darkening slightly. She had witnessed death and had been on the brink of it herself. She raised her hand to stop Nathaniel from approaching her and declared, "Raylen is my soulmate. He is the only one."

"I miss Layla so much. And the void she has left behind has been filled with nothing but pain. You and I were destined to be together." Nathaniel began to walk towards her.

"That was in the past and something you didn’t want. I belong to someone else now," Emily clarified before raising her voice and shouting, "Raylen!"

"My tower is secluded, far away from any other tower. You will need time to heal once I bite you to reestablish the soul bond," Nathaniel said in a lowered voice, causing Emily’s stomach to sink with dread.

It felt like she couldn’t catch a break at the moment. She thought she had escaped harm by running far away from Logan, only to find herself caught by Nathaniel now. She whispered, "Oh, God." Please save me, she silently implored in her mind. As Nathaniel could overpower her physically, she needed to stall him and create some distance between them. She asked him,

"What were you doing in the realm of the in-between?"

Far away from where Emily was trapped within Nathaniel’s tower, in the very tower where the Devil dwelled, he sat on his throne, gently petting a white cat, when suddenly, one of the demons came running into his courtroom.

"Master! Master!" The demon quickly dropped to his knees, bowing deeply at Viktor’s quiet glare.

"Why are you shouting?" Viktor demanded in a dull voice.

"Someone is summoning God here!" the demon informed him as he nervously fidgeted with his fingers. "And it hasn’t ceased."

Viktor scowled at this and remarked, "It must be one of the new souls who have entered Hell. Not the first time."

The demon shook his head, only to receive a disapproving glare from the Devil. He clarified, "The new souls arrive from the west, but the chanting has been found to be coming from the south."

As if one interruption wasn’t enough, another pair of footsteps thudded on the ground, and soon Viktor’s eyes fell upon his son’s imp.

"Been quite long since I last saw you. You also tried to sneak Alice out of here," Viktor said, raising his hand and readying to snap the imp into a million fiery fragments.

Balor swiftly raised both its hands, each containing a vial, and spoke, "I am here with news, Master Viktor. Master Raylen is here in Hell."

Viktor halted his intention to snap his fingers, and one of his eyebrows arched subtly as he questioned, "Where is he now?"

"Looking for his wife," the imp quoted from Raylen’s earlier statement.

Viktor’s gaze shifted to the demon who had come to him first. He could only guess that it was Emily who was invoking God’s name here, and he doubted it was because of her and his son having sex, given that his son’s tower wasn’t located in that direction. His eyes fell back on the imp’s hands, and he demanded,

"What are those?"

"Master Raylen gave them to me," the imp explained before apprehensively approaching the Devil and releasing the vials, which Viktor promptly seized from the air.

Upon touching one of them, Viktor was pleasantly surprised and murmured, "So you are here. I was wondering where this precious soul went." It was a vial containing Raylen’s mother’s soul. When his eyes shifted to look at the other vial, he stared at it intently.

Back in Nathaniel’s tower, Emily took a couple of steps backwards, wanting to keep her distance from the Archdemon before her.

"I won’t hurt you, Emily. I know I have been terrible to you, but I will make up for it," Nathaniel vowed.

"I am glad you were terrible. If it weren’t for you rejecting me, I would not have come to understand Raylen," Emily responded, and she turned to look behind her when she heard a faint crackling sound.

Suddenly, a circle with a pentagram formed on the spot where Emily stood, and she found herself unable to step out of it. She stared at the Archdemon, locking eyes with him as he said,

"I saw what you were capable of doing to a lowly demon."

Emily was the one to clench her jaw this time, and she started to feel a sense of weakness washing over her. Nathaniel continued, "You asked me what I was doing earlier. I was crossing the realms when I heard your scream, as if you were calling out for my help."

She had heard of people who went mad after losing their soulmates, but what she was witnessing from Nathaniel seemed even more severe than that, Emily thought to herself.

Unlike Logan, Nathaniel was one of the Archdemons of Hell, well-versed in dark magic. As Emily’s strength waned, her legs gave way, causing her to collapse onto the cold ground within mere seconds.

Nathaniel’s incantations continued. He briefly cast a glance towards the concealed door, his hand gently caressing its surface, before pivoting back to his intended victim. The effects of his dark magic had already begun to plunge Emily into a state of disoriented confusion.

Kneeling beside her, Nathaniel grasped her shoulder, and with an eerie calmness, he murmured, "I will make this quick and painless."

Nathaniel’s lips parted, exposing his sharp canines. Cradling her fragile form in his arms, he lowered his head, and in one fluid motion, his canines pierced the delicate skin of her neck.

In the beginning, he felt resistance, unlike when marking Layla’s body, which was softer. However, something felt off to Nathaniel, and he retracted his canines and pulled his head away from her neck to look at her. Instead of the soul bond appearing where he had bitten, cracks began to form and snap before her entire body crumbled to the ground.

Nathaniel was left in shock, unable to comprehend how it happened. He felt a sudden coolness emanating from Emily’s disintegrated fragments, until he realised it was ice.

"I do not know how many times I need to stress that I do not share," Raylen remarked with an undertone of annoyance.

Startled, Nathaniel abruptly turned to face the unexpected presence behind him. Raylen stood there, cradling an exhausted Emily in his arms.