Chris had a little sister. The two of them had been raised in an orphanage next to the church. More than likely, not having parents had influenced their personalities as they’d aged. Still, though, they grew up in a peaceful environment without incident.
But one day, Chris discovered that she had an affinity for dark magic—an affinity that was strongly affiliated with demons. Other humans would ostracize anyone who had such an affinity, and Chris was no exception to that rule. From that day on, she was closely observed. Fortunately, her little sister did not develop a similar affinity for dark magic, and so she was still able to live a happy life.
One day, a man who called himself a “Holy Knight” appeared before Chris, who was at that time still a young girl. At first, he tried to subdue her with violence. She had no idea what was going on, but she knew how much his fists hurt each time they came into contact with her body. Her bones cracked and her skin bruised.
Then, he gave Chris an order. If she refused him, he’d hit her again. And because she did refuse, she continued to be the subject of his violence. After a while, it stopped hurting. Infuriated, the man moved on and tried to violate her sexually. Still, Chris refused him.
She didn’t have a particular reason to say no to his request. Rather, it was simply that she no longer had the will to say yes. She had nothing left. She couldn’t bring herself to care about orders, or anything else.
Soon enough, her sense of pain faded, and so did her senses of touch, taste, and smell. All she had left was her hearing. When the man came again on another day, everything was pretty much the same as always. However, this time, he wore an unsettling smile on his face.
“Don’t you care about what will happen to your little sister?” he asked, ruthlessly.
Light returned to Chris’s eyes as she began remembering her little sister. That girl was the last source of her happiness.
Because of this, Chris ended up accepting the man’s order, and began to learn the fundamentals of dark magic. In the beginning, she was beaten whenever she messed up, but since violence didn’t seem to have too much of an effect on her anymore, he “motivated” her with talk of her sister. That made her work as hard as if her life had depended on it.
Thus, Chris was raised to be a summoner. She was then instructed to summon a large horde of monsters when she was told. In other words, she was made to cause the Stampede. And after she did, she’d return to the town and watch as that man was revered as a hero for defending the town.
After that, the church took her in to control her more closely. She realized that the man’s actions had been approved by the church, but she didn’t care about that. After finding out that the church had been keeping close tabs on her sister as well, however, she flew into a fit of rage.
The church then promised Chris that her little sister would be protected so long as she summoned the Stampede every three years. Though essentially a hostage, her little sister was able to live in peace because of Chris’s sacrifice.
The church took Chris away from her sister, and limited contact between the two of them. They weren’t even allowed to see each other. The most they were allowed to do was exchange letters. This correspondence was a light in the swirling pit of darkness that was Chris’s life. Her little sister was a magic prodigy and had been scouted by the Holy Knights...or at least, that was what Chris was told, and what she wanted to believe. All she wanted was for her sister to live a peaceful life.
But just a few days ago, she’d been informed that her sister had died two months prior. She couldn’t understand. All this time, she’d believed that her sister had been taken care of and safe despite her frail constitution. In reality, however, she’d been enduring abuse as the little sister of a filthy user of dark magic. All the letters she’d been exchanging with her sister had actually been written by the church...but they had only been able to keep the act up for so long.
Chris pressed the man who’d forced her into all of this, but he didn’t show the least bit of remorse. If anything, he seemed proud. He even boasted about how her little sister had been the plaything of the church.
At that moment, something inside of Chris changed. Within the emptiness inside her, a black fire began to burn. She wanted them to pay for what they’d done. She wanted revenge. This rage consumed her.
She had finally realized how despicable the church was—that it was a cesspool—and how tragic of a life she’d been living. She knew that her rage was consuming her, but it didn’t matter. The only option left to her was revenge. But she didn’t have any real ways to exact it. In the past ten years, the church had only grown stronger. There wasn’t anything she could do by herself, and there was no chance she could find allies to help her. Besides, she’d never once relied on anyone, so that thought hadn’t even occurred to her in the first place.
But just then, a sweet whisper from a demon named Neon caressed her ears. “You’re a summoner just like me... Isn’t that nice?”
In exchange for serving the demon king, the demon had granted her great power as a demon sorcerer. To become a demon sorcerer, summoners like her needed to form hypnosis contracts with demons. And all of this, everything she did, was for the sake of her revenge against the church.
But after her swarm of bugs had been defeated, the fires of her revenge were easily snuffed out. She feared this power, one that surpassed the church and even the power of the demons themselves.
Chris opened her eyes to find herself tied up in a tight, dark space. It felt so familiar. She didn’t feel startled by this at all. Strangely, only her legs were tied. She could move her arms and hands freely. Even so, she had a feeling she wouldn’t be able to untie whatever bound her legs. She wanted to laugh at how comfortable she felt in this situation.
There was a plate on the ground with food on it, almost like something that had been left for a pet. As degrading as this felt, it was still better than how she’d been treated at the orphanage. At the very least, the food she’d been provided with seemed to have some semblance to what humans normally ate. Chris wasn’t feeling hungry, though, so she instead elected to stare off into space.
As she did, memories of what had happened slowly began coming back to her. A young man had appeared in front of her and hypnotized her. She also faintly remembered him asking about her past. It had been as though she’d swallowed truth serum—she couldn’t help but answer truthfully.
“You’re not gonna try to escape?” Chris heard a sudden voice from the corner of the room, making her jump a little.
She knew this voice as the one that belonged to the guy who’d sown the seeds of despair within her. Fear spread across her body. She couldn’t even bring herself to respond.
At this, Inori snapped his fingers. Chris didn’t initially understand why he’d done this, but she felt her fear dissipating, to the point where she felt relaxed enough to talk.
“Even if I escaped...what would I do?”
“Take revenge? Or are you done with that?”
“It’s strange. My head was filled with thoughts of revenge, but not anymore. I still loathe the church, but I just don’t have the will to do it any longer.”
Inori scratched his head. “Really? That’s some weak-ass revenge, then.”
“It is. Now, with even that revenge gone, I’m empty. I won’t ever hear my little sister’s voice again. Even her face has become hazy. All this time, I thought the revenge inside me was a fiery blaze, but now I realize it was just kindling that I was desperately trying to keep alive.”
“You know I’m gonna kill you, right?” said Inori. “I don’t see the point in keeping you alive. I’m gonna get what I can out of you and then get rid of you. No objections?”
“Now that fear rules me, I don’t have any desire to live or to exact revenge. I’ve given up.” She sounded very much at peace.
Inori exhaled in disappointment. “Such a waste. I’ve lost interest in you. I even tried looking into your past to stoke the flames more, but it looks like that was all for nothing.”
“Sorry I couldn’t live up to your expectations. Could I ask you to hypnotize me again? I don’t want to think about anything anymore.”
“I was already planning to.” Inori slowly stood and looked at his gauntlet. His left eye glowed. She knew what was coming.
“Actually...could you wait a little?”
“What now? You’re really good at changing your mind, aren’t you?” Inori said sarcastically.
“You said you were going to use me, right? Will it have anything to do with the church?”
“Yeah.”
Hearing this, Chris began to laugh. “Could you use me to kill every last one of them? I don’t care if I’m mentally present for it or not. I’d probably be more useful to you that way, right?”
“Again, I was already planning to. What? Do you have other demands?”
“No—that’s perfect. I’m sure my past self would have been happy with that as well.” She smiled, as if relieved.
“Who cares about your past self?” Inori scoffed. “You’re the one alive right now, so what does your past self matter?”
“I’m sure it doesn’t make any sense to you, but it means a lot to me. I’ve lived a very short, insignificant life, but it feels like it was all worth it, just for this one thing.”
Inori looked into her eyes. “Don’t worry... I’m gonna use you to kill them all.”
“Thank you... I can finally say goodbye to this shitty life.”
And with that, Inori activated his Eye of Sigils.