"She's finally sleeping." Iota said as he gently placed Spring on the floor and then got up, approaching the Director to raise a finger and place it before his lip, "You can drop the act now, Director."
"Growl…ugh, Iota. Spare me, will you?" The signs of insanity vanished as the Director began to sob, pleading for mercy, "I know what I did wrong. Please, forgive me. I just wanted power, was it wrong?"
"Ehh?" Iota expressed disgust at the Director's pleas as he waved his hand, "I honestly am not bothered by whether or not you wanted to become a Devil."
"T-Then why?" The Director shouted, indignant at his current state, "Why do you continue to torment me?"
"I'm not tormenting you though?" Iota tilted his head in confusion as he pointed at the nails, "I'm just keeping you safe here. Don't want you running out on me, you know."
"I'll cooperate! I'll do whatever you want me to do. Please release me." The Director said. But the more he spoke, the weaker he got.
"You shouldn't die yet." Iota took out the cold box from his bag titled 'Gin' and poured some of the blood into the Director's mouth, sensing his complexion become better immediately. The torn patches of his skin began to regenerate in response; he also became a tad younger.
Iota then ignored the Director's ramblings for a while as he went to one corner of the room and pressed a block with familiarity, shocking the Director who screamed, "H-How do you know about that secret room?"
"From where do you think I got the information to search and target the Devil-Worshiping Cults?" Iota retorted as he read through the Director's diary, focusing on the recent jottings.
"Y-You were the one targeting them around the country?" The Director was terrified, "But how? Even the mere projections of Devils summoned to this world hold unstoppable power. But then, how are you able to destroy them?"
"W-Wait," He muttered in realisation, "Is that how Spring remained safe until now? Yes, that makes sense. Otherwise, the sheer aura her Stigma emits is enough to be felt even from hundreds of kilometres away for a Devil Worshipper."
"There exists a set of set of rules a Devil must follow to send a projection of itself to our world." Iota muttered calmly, "Using the same rules, even a mortal like me can destroy those projections. As long as it's not the Devil itself that appears, I can handle a mere projection on my own."
The Director despaired at the reveal, going insane as everything he zealously worshipped until now had been overthrown by Iota. He had been preparing for almost twenty years to become a Devil.
All materials had been gathered. The children at the orphanage were nurtured to be perfect for the ritual. And he performed it accurately based on the knowledge he had accumulated. But in the end, he still failed.
His present state was just a knock-off Devil without even a fraction of one's power. He was just slightly more powerful than a normal human, but nothing that a bullet to the head cannot fix.
As if he had expected, the moment the Director finished the ritual, Iota barged into the place and somehow managed to pin him to the wall. The failed ritual made him too weak to resist as the Director remained in such a state for a few days already, weak and exhausted by now.
"Ohh, I didn't know about this fact. That's interesting." The Director's thoughts came to a halt at Iota's exclaim.
"No, wait! Don't burn it! No!" The Director screamed in horror when Iota suddenly torched the diary and all the materials the Director had collected in his study. They contained research materials that he had scoured throughout the country and collected all his life.
"They are all in here." Iota tapped his head, "I have a photographic memory, you see. I never told you before, huh."
"Anyway," Iota dusted his hands once everyone had been burnt clean, "I had been visiting your study in secret daily over the years to go through your notes. Thanks to you, I was able to prepare better."
"Prepare?" The Director felt fear, "Prepare for what? Wait, you have been coming to my study all along? Then…"
He stared at Iota with an incredulous gaze, "You must have known that I was planning to sacrifice everyone at the orphanage in the ritual. Even knowing that, you didn't stop me. Why?"
"Who the hell are you?"
"Haven't you seen the news, Director? I'm pretty famous throughout our country." Iota smiled wryly, "I'm that serial killer…what was the name they gave me again…Ceiling Leech or something?"
"Y-You…you're that…" Words failed to escape the Director's mouth as he stared at Iota as if he was seeing him for the first time, realising that in all their years together, he didn't even know anything about the other party.
"Besides, why would I stop you when I wanted you to become this?" At the Director's face paling further, Iota grinned, "A Devil cannot exist in this world. That's why, even if you were to perform the ritual correctly, you wouldn't succeed. This information was in one of the records you had procured. But I purposefully erased that."
"W-Why did you do that? No, don't come close!" The Director's body wriggled in an effort to escape as he saw Iota walk closer and closer. "Nooo!"
Iota forcefully yanked the Director and slammed him into the ground, proceeding to pin him there and use his blood to draw a magic circle. Upon staring at the circle, the Director expressed horror, "W-What the heck are you creating? Are you a Devil? A human does not have the knowledge to attempt something like this!"
"Yeah, yeah, continue to blabber, will you?" Iota rolled his eyes as he gently patted Spring, "Her family had to suffer the curse for many centuries now. Do you seriously believe they wouldn't have made any preparations to avoid being consumed by the Devil?"
Iota finished drawing the circle as he held Spring in a princess carry and stared at the face of the Director under his foot, "The only way to break this curse is to transmigrate into the world where these Devils exist and kill the one responsible for her family's fate."
"Y-You," The Director was stunned at first before revealing a mocking smile as his mouth parted wide enough to display more than 32 teeth, "I never expected a Serial Killer to be the caring kind."
"Such an irony…"
Bam!
Iota stomped on the Director's head, causing it to splatter as immediately, the magic circle activated. Mysterious chains wrapped around Iota and Spring. The Director's body disintegrated into pure energy that fuelled the magic circle and turned their bodies ethereal.
Iota held Spring's wrist where the skull pattern existed, watching it begin to surface once again as the chains pulled them into the magic circle. With that, they vanished from this world.
Onto a frightening Realm.