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This starts off with a typical transmigration beginning. Modern girl gets transported into a book she read and wants to go home. The book is a dark tragedy, she's possessed the villainess of the story who kidnaps and then brainwashes the third prince, Magnus, using drugs that shatter his mind and her own unique dream controlling powers to repeatedly give him nightmares to control him. She turns him into her "beast", he no longer remembers his past and thinks he's her property. MC wakes up after Illiana has already done this to Magnus. She decides to give him the antidote for the drugs and put distance between them for a time by doing priest training for 2 years. She knows that he will escape and become Emperor, falling in love with the FL, Cheryl, and making her Empress. She just wants him to be happy and thinks the story must progress for that.
In the 2 year gap, Magnus leaves the cabin he was trapped in to try and find Illiana. To do this he decides to become Emperor and sign a contract with the powerful darkness spirit, Nox, to gain enough power to fulfill his ambitions. He sets out thinking he just wants revenge on Illiana for abandoning him when she left for the priest training. He stumbles upon Cheryl when he escapes and she nurses him to health like expected. Illiana finishes her training and returns to the capital to fulfill her role in the plot, Magnus is supposed to see her at the ball she's been invited to. Magnus invited all the nobles to find Illiana. There's some plot threads added in where it's suggested that Illiana was abused by her father, but there's a weird discrepancy between what it looks like and how he acts towards her. Anyways, Magnus finds her at the ball and more plot threads are revealed that Magnus and Cheryl seem to be working together. She knows he's looking for the woman who kidnapped him. He tears her away from her father against their wills and declares she will be his Empress, she just sort of goes with it after some time because she knows what Illiana did to him. There's some internal struggle for her because she is not Illiana, but knows all that happened. So she's irritated at the unfair treatment, but also understanding and giving in. He wraps her in complete sensory deprivation, she discovers her dream power because of this and meets Raphael and Billy in Raphael's dream. This is how she gets through without breaking. Her and Magnus get closer as time passes. He's adamant he wants revenge, but his actions don't always match. He seems confused.
Illiana is Empress-to-be for awhile, she becomes friends with Cheryl assuming Magnus will end up with her, though Cheryl tells her she's not interested in Magnus and is actually in love with the duke. While she's here she starts looking into the dark land because she thinks it will help her return home. She notices that Illiana's feelings for Magnus seem to be growing stronger in her, she gets very overwhelmed seeing others with Magnus. She starts to feel like she's becoming Illiana. Eventually she starts getting memories back and, turns out, she wasn't abused by her father, she was crazy and self harmed to protest her mother. Illiana was a religious zealot who believed her mother was a demon because the empire is prejudiced against the "dark land". Her parents couldn't get through to her. She became depressed because she thought she is a demon because of her blood and felt she couldn't be saved. She met a priest who accidentally implanted the idea in her head that if she, as a demon, killed a demon, that god would be appreciative of her. So she plans to kill her family. That's how the original story ends how it does. She plans to die with her family to save herself in God's eyes, her family is killed in front of her, but instead of dying like she wants to, Magnus kept her alive in a recreation of the cabin and she dies of starvation in there.
What else was revealed by her regaining her memories? That the modern girl is actually Illiana's reincarnation. She happened to find her own story and her new life experiences made her able to recognize how unfair she was. She questioned why Illiana did that. When she died, the god Regneva took her soul and decided to send her back into her last life to change the story. Regneva took interest in how she'd changed from one life to the next and how her new clarity made her question "Illiana"'s actions. MC falls in love with Magnus herself, but struggles with accepting it, thinking he plans to torture her for revenge.
Illiana's father sends her a letter with a picture of the cabin, letting her know Magnus rebuilt it. She thinks he's still planning to torture her, but he'd changed his mind. Cheryl had been talking with him and made him realize his feelings for Illiana. That it's not just revenge. She runs away with the help of her father and some dark landers via a portal to the dark land made by her mother. Turns out the dark land is just a normal place and the narrative is actually the opposite of reality, they're actually holding the darkness back in Sidus. It's just expanding because of the dark god sealed there. She makes up with her parents there and decides to speak with Magnus once more, she learns that the ending of the original timeline where her parents died was just an illusion her parents created to give her what she wants. Her parents knew she was trying to kill them, but they loved her and pretended to die because she was not able to be reasoned with. Iliana realizes the depths of her parents' love for her. Magnus blazes a trail into the dark land looking for her and ends up waking up the dark god in Sidus. Regneva reveals that Magnus never wanted her to die, even in the original timeline. That he despaired when he found out. She realizes that she misunderstood things. That he did actually love her even then. She uses her dream powers to reach him and break him free and then Regneva takes the dark god away and brings light back to the land. Cheryl and the Duke are in love, he is finally forced to confront his own feelings for her in the chaos. Billy and Raphael are meeting in reality now.