“I don’t know why I got so close to your hometown in this life, far from my kin. But I know Karma is involved, so I will give you the one chance because I believe in fate. One chance, Jaji. That’s how many chances you get to tell me what I need to hear. Is that okay with you?” the Queen of Devils, Empress of Terror, asked.

She slowly bent to reach his direct line of sight with her scarlet red eyes.

Jacob’s heart thumped so strong he could feel it in his ears, so strong he thought he was going deaf. Their story had been beautiful, in certain ways so beautiful he was afraid to compare it to the life he had had before her.

“Here goes nothing, Jaji,” she said with a soft smile, “do you love me now, at this moment? Do you have feelings of love for me that allow you to see a future by my side, even though Helena is here and that beautiful kid warrior will soon be infatuated with you? Do you have a place that will be only mine in your heart?”

Jacob considered the question, which asked him to confront his biggest fear. Was his idealized love for Helena stronger than the love he had shared with Epagogia?

“Even if I look deep down in my heart, the answer can’t be found there; it lies in the future. I might have tricked myself into thinking that I’m much wiser than I actually am: so many things look hazy to me right now. If you want to know whether there’s a place in my heart for you, and only you, right now, I can tell you there will always be one. But I’m not sure my entire heart will all be yours in the future unless we live this hypothetical future together. I have to live beside you, Helena and Juliet before choosing blindly like I would have done in the past. I might love you much more than Helena, Epagogia, but I think you will need to wait to see if these words are true.”

Epagogia threw back her head and laughed.

“Once again, I need to court the hero of humanity!” she then bent toward him, a hair away from his lips, so close he could feel her warm breath on his face. It smelled like sulfur and roses. “And once again, my Jaji-boy, I will have the hero of humanity fall at my feet.”

She kissed him on the cheek and went back to the table with the Inscription Patterns.

“Jaji, my talent in this life is not at the 9th level like the past one,” Epagogia said. “It’s at the 10th level.”

…

After talking about her cultivation, Jacob discovered she was already at the 9th level of the Mantis realm. A step away from the Oriole realm.

“Helena, too, has a 10th level talent, so,” Epagogia mused.

“You know what that means, Eppy,” Jacob had a dark visage.

“You are ensnared in fate’s little game. What’s the saying you humans have? ‘Karma’s a b*tch?’ or something like that? When you came back, you created a ripple, Jaji-boy.”

Jacob grimaced.

“This is going to turn very ugly, isn’t it?” Jacob knew that fate was something terrible when it created these events.

“If I have a 10th level talent and Helena does too, there have to be at least two enemies of yours with a 10th level talent too.”

“Two of the greatest foes I killed had a 10th level talent, Epagogia,” Jacob reminded her.

“Right, the murderous Necromancer and the Champion?”

“Yeah, those two,” Jacob put his face between his hands.

“And you still have a 1st level talent. Aha! Jaji, fate is really screwing with you.”

“We don’t know for sure that my enemies came back with their memories,” Jacob pointed out.

“Well, in our past lives, we both had an incredible knowledge about Karma compared to the average cultivator. So if we both reached the same conclusion, it might actually be the case, don’t you think?”

“Or maybe we just spent too much time studying the same things, that’s why,” Jacob offered.

“Sure, Jaji-boy, no murderous creatures are coming to skin you alive. Don’t worry,” Epagogia said in a sarcastic tone.

“But how Helena does not have the memories from her previous life? And shouldn’t Frank too have a 10th level talent? We were the closest in my previous life," Jacob said.

“Well, first, if you didn’t hear me before, ‘Karma’s a b*tch’. That should explain why Helena doesn’t have her pats memories,” Epagogia sneered. “And Frank? Jaji-boy, you lived much longer than they did. You remember them very fondly, but you only spent a minor part of your life with him. We spent decades together before you decided to get killed like an idiot,” Epagogia shrugged.

“God, why do you have to be right? Don’t I have enough problems? So now there is a time-space-dimensional ripple that brought people back to kill me, people much stronger than me,” Jacob groaned.

“Allegedly,” Epagogia put a hand on his hip, even though she had to bend to do so.

“Now you say ‘allegedly’?” Jacob removed her hand and stared at her. As soon as Epagogia threw him a very languid stare, he immediately started looking at the wall; all of a sudden, the smooth rock had become very interesting.

“You know, Jaji-boy, if we find my people, we will have many more chances to win whatever is going to come our way.”

Jacob nodded toward the woman.

“Yeah,” he mumbled. “Changing topics—”

“Why? Isn’t you possibly dying very soon not motivating you to make some important decisions? But, you know, the comfort of a woman before death is one of the best possible last ‘meals’ a man can have.”

“Changing topic, I said, you taught Francis and his parents some extremely powerful Cultivation Techniques,” Jacob said with an accusatory gaze.

“Oh yeah, don’t worry about that. I had them sign a Soul Contract. If they use their powers to hurt your mankind, devilkind, or all your basic atrocities like rape, their cultivation and soul will shatter in a million pieces, and they will never experience the eternal rest.”

And that’s why you never sign anything with a Devil involved.

Seeing Jacob unresponsive, Epagogia quickly caught up.

“Ohh, sugarplum, you didn’t teach the strongest things because you didn’t want to bind the humans with a Soul Contract! Ah, my little honey pot is still contract-shy even after living among Devils for so long!”

“I think it’s a slippery slope, Epagogia,” Jacob breathed out. They had discussed their people’s favorite practice so many times that he was too tired to have the same argument once again.

“Oh, well, Jaji, my humans will be stronger than yours, then. You won’t mind if I propose them Soul Contracts, right?” she smiled with such an allure that Jacob felt his guts twist and form knots.

“If they want to, I’ll be there informing them of the risk of the loose language Devils use to trick humans,” Jacob smiled toward her.

“Well, you did sign a Soul Contract with me, though,” Epagogia gave him a smile that made him feel like a little mouse in front of the biggest cat ever.

“I was drunk and high on whatever aphrodisiac you had me ingest!” Jacob protested.

“You know, the Soul Contract might have carried over in this life, Jaji-boy. Our souls are always the same, in fact. Care to know if it still works?”