The Devil and Alchemy

In the dimly lit office, the devil floated in mid-air, its smoke-like body spreading out and enveloping the entire wooden ceiling. Anyone who walked in at this moment would surely scream in terror, thinking they had seen the legendary winged demon—but they would soon find themselves mistaken.

Because this demon's damage is much lower than that of the Winged Demon.

It turns out that Victor often felt that when King Solomon sealed the devil, he must have also removed its brain.

Unfortunately, the demon's current behavior proves this guess wrong—it doesn't seem to have lost its memory and still possesses complete memories from before it was sealed away, as exemplified by the 'Soul Alchemy' it is now mentioning.

In the world of fairy tales, many creatures strive to transcend themselves in order to possess an immortal soul. Although no one has ever seen what a creature with a truly immortal and perfect soul looks like, one famous person who pursues this goal is Ariel, the mermaid princess from the Stormy Sea in the west.

In her quest for a true soul, she painfully exchanged her voice for legs with Ursula, the sea witch, and went ashore to live and eat with humans. Ursula also decreed that if she did not receive a true love's kiss from a human within three days, she would turn into lifeless foam and disappear into the waves at sunrise.

Unfortunately, that was indeed her fate.

But there are rumors that at the moment Ariel turned into sea foam, she successfully gained an immortal soul.

Inspired by this, countless wizards tried to find alternative paths (surely no one would risk their life to turn themselves into bubbles?). They eventually invented a special kind of alchemy—the very kind the devil had mentioned.

Initially, the Vatican even listed it as a top taboo.

But this ban was lifted not long after, because the Vatican soon discovered that this alchemy was almost no different from simply turning oneself into foam. Ten heretics began to study it, and in the end, they only created ten tombstones.

Why do you think I would do something like that? It's too risky.

Victor said noncommittally, tapping his index finger on the table.

"Everything does this," the devil grinned, revealing a non-existent mouth, and chuckled twice. "As long as there's room for growth, no one will refrain from trying... Otherwise, you wouldn't have tried so hard to escape that completely inhuman soul, and I wouldn't have betrayed King Solomon, only to be ultimately defeated and imprisoned in a bottle."

"...A narrow defeat?" Victor paused for a moment.

No, no, no, you'll definitely be inside the bottle.

His tone said it all—that someone of the devil's caliber could defeat King Solomon would be utterly ridiculous.

The devil's voice suddenly became more exasperated:

"I advise you to watch your words. My magic hasn't faded yet, and you happen to be the one who released me in 303 years; you deserve to be killed by me—"

"Come on, you say that to everyone you meet. I looked through the records of the coastal church last time, and it says that when you came out last time, you said: 'I promised to give gold and silver to whoever let me out, but a hundred years have passed and no one has found me. So another fifty years have passed, and I swear to kill everyone who lets me out.'"

Victor said with a cold expression.

That's right, every time the devil is picked up, it says the same thing, except it changes the time itself.

His statement has zero credibility.

Victor then waved his hand, tossed the gold coins on the table to the devil, and said dismissively:

"Alright, whether I study that alchemy or not is my business. Even if I really wanted to, gathering the materials would take a while. The past, present, and future—the flesh and blood representing all three are indispensable, and I have none of them right now."

"I only called you out for one thing: to investigate the soul inside the gold coin for me. After all, you said last time we met that you would do my bidding if I agreed to throw you back."

"Hehe, it's not that I don't believe you..."

The devil chuckled twice, then suddenly turned and charged towards the door—

As it rushed forward, it added, "But even King Solomon knew that I have never kept my promises!"

As it spoke, its black, mist-like body rapidly seeped into the crack of the office door, even using magical means to try and force open the door that was sealed by the fireplace.

It wanted to escape.

As it made its movement, everything in the room began to shake violently; the table trembled, as did the flame in the lantern and the books in the cabinet.

But Victor showed no surprise at all.

He tossed the gold coin into the bottle the moment the devil finished speaking, then picked up his wand and recited a local spell he had just learned during the summer vacation:

"Grow bigger quickly."

The bottle beside him immediately began to swell wildly, becoming almost as tall as Victor himself, and then, with a cry of "Yugadim Leviosa," it floated into the air. On the other side, the bottle stopper engraved with the symbol of King Solomon underwent the same process, flanking a large swath of black mist on either side.

The next second, like stuffing an omelet, they forcefully squeezed most of that devilish mass back into the bottle—

"Snapped!"

To prevent itself from being pinched off by the cork, the devil transformed into a small yellow bird at the last moment and completely entered the bottle. After it did this, Victor said calmly:

"Shrink quickly."

"Bang!"

The bottle shrank back to its original size, then clattered twice and landed back on the table.

The devil has been put back in.

As Victor watched it, the black mist inside the bottle continued to boil and swirl, clearly unwilling to give up.

Occasionally, faint, soft sounds could be heard coming from inside:

"...No...you clearly said..."

The next moment, Victor's pale fingers pinched the bottle, shook it gently to make sure it was sealed, and then picked it up and placed it a few inches in front of his empty eyes.

He calmly said to the swirling black mist inside:

"As everyone knows, I never keep my promises."

……

Then Victor shoved the bottle back into the drawer under the table. The teapot in front of him seemed to jump angrily for a moment.

The devil's antics just now caused a lot of chaos, and dust even fell from the roof.

This greatly displeased the fastidious teapot, which shook its ceramic belly wildly for a while before irritably finding a small rag in the corner and starting to scrub it everywhere.

With it tidying up, Victor began to stare thoughtfully at the drawer where the devil had disappeared...

Although the devil was dealt with, it wasn't actually wrong.

Alchemy was indeed something he wanted to accomplish, and one of the reasons he came to this world. However, because the alchemy required a lot of materials and was very risky, he was still looking for someone to take the fall for him.

And this candidate seems to be coming to light soon.

Just observe for a while longer.