“Ahhh—!!!”
A piercing, utterly inhuman shriek, sharp enough to split the air, erupted like an invisible shockwave, blasting through the entire room!
The pain and resentment packed into that sound made even Wendy’s heart skip a beat.
And it was that very shriek, like a bucket of ice water poured over his head, that violently wrenched him from the endless dominion and drowning oblivion.
The Prince snapped his head up, his gaze shooting past those black silk-clad jade feet, staring at the ceiling!
A deeply displeased clicking of the tongue came from the bed.
“Tch.”
Astreia’s lazy, indulgent posture vanished in an instant. She slowly sat up straight, and the toes that had been tilting up Wendy’s chin withdrew.
In those Magic Eyes burning with Purple Flame, the previous teasing had already been replaced by fury.
So close.
So close—that little kitten’s will was about to be utterly crushed, becoming her most perfect plaything.
And then, of all times…
Astreia coldly spat out three words, just as she raised a hand to teach that inconsiderate little thing on the ceiling a lesson.
“So noisy.”
But then, the very next second.
Her face, twisted with annoyance, abruptly shifted to shock.
“Uh… a-ra-ra…”
A hair-raising, bizarre sound of bones being forcibly stretched and wrenched out of place echoed clearly from that purple-black sphere!
A little girl, only seven or eight years old, was growing at a rate that completely defied the laws of physics, expanding wildly!
Under Wendy’s horrified gaze, inside the sphere of light, that girl’s body was growing with a speed that utterly violated the rules of physics.
Her limbs elongated, her frame stretched tall, and her skin, amidst the chaotic interweaving of Seven-Colored Light and purple-black radiance, gradually lost every trace of color, turning a near-transparent, sickly white.
In just one second!
Only one second!
BANG!!!
The cage shattered.
Not torn open by hand this time, nor burst apart by sacrificed power.
The Purple-Black Barrier that had once contained two top-tier Deans dissolved like a fragile soap bubble the instant it contacted that newborn form, silently dissipating into motes of energy light.
Astreia’s Domain.
Completely ineffective against her!
The light faded.
Floating silently on the ceiling was no longer the silver-haired little girl who would cry, throw tantrums, and call for her father.
Instead, there was a tall, elegantly curved adult woman.
A head of snow-white hair, moving without wind, like splashed moonlight.
A sheer black veil, even sparser than the one Astreia wore, barely covering her most critical areas, casting that corpse-pale, bloodless body into a sickly, twisted sort of allure.
What made Wendy’s scalp crawl the most were her eyes.
Those once rainbow-hued, unique pupils—now, all their color had faded completely.
All that remained was a deathly stillness, a silver deeper and more profound than the Abyss.
She and Astreia were remarkably alike.
They weren’t the eyes of the living.
They were the pupils of a vengeful spirit.
Just as tall, just as powerful, just as exuding a suffocating aura of darkness.
But if Astreia was a burning Demon King, full of vitality and the will to dominate.
Then Laxana, in this moment, was cold—nothing but a dead soul driven solely by the instinct to annihilate all living things.
They were like two sides of the same coin, each other’s most perfect Mirror Image.
The temperature of the entire room plummeted.
Astreia slowly rose from the bed, and her tantalizing black Succubus attire was instantly replaced by a majestic, ferocious set of Demon Flame Armor, wreathed in rising Purple-Black Magic Flame.
She looked at that familiar yet foreign figure in midair, curving her lips into her usual mocking arc, just about to speak and tear apart her pitiful posture with her customary venom.
“I thought it was something impress—”
Before she could finish.
Another anomaly erupted!
Laxana, floating in midair, gave Astreia no chance to complete her sentence. The moment Astreia opened her mouth, Laxana vanished into thin air!
Not teleportation!
It was faster than teleportation, far more bizarre—as if she had been literally “deleted” from one spot in space and “pasted” into another!
“Hisss!!!”
Wendy felt a bone-piercing chill sweep past his side!
A dead, frigid cold that carried no warmth, as if his very Soul would freeze solid.
He didn’t even have time to turn his head.
Laxana’s figure had already appeared by the bed like a phantom, lunging straight at the just-risen Astreia!
So fast!
Faster than eyes or nerves could possibly react!
But Astreia’s reaction was equally blinding!
Facing this sudden assault, she didn’t show a trace of panic. Purple-Black Magic Flame erupted in her palm, her five fingers hooked into claws, shooting out like lightning toward Laxana’s snow-white throat!
That claw was enough to tear space itself!
Yet!
What happened next caused Wendy’s brain to completely shut down, and made even Astreia’s always-blazing Magic Eyes flash with disbelief.
Her hand…
Passed through.
It passed through Laxana’s seemingly solid body without the slightest resistance.
Like grabbing at empty air without substance.
Physical attacks—completely ineffective!
This was the first time since her awakening that Astreia had encountered a bizarre existence she couldn’t comprehend or fight on the pure level of Power!
Laxana’s icy body had already fully pierced through Astreia’s defenses, overlapping with the Witch Queen’s form.
It was that tenth-of-a-second lapse.
Wendy, sitting on the Carpet in utter bewilderment, turned his head.
Laxana stopped.
She turned her head, those dead, Silver Pupils fixed on Wendy, still kneeling on the ground.
In Wendy’s suddenly constricted pupils, Laxana’s corpse-pale face blossomed into a morbid, wicked smile.
That smile was clearly speaking to him.
“Watch closely, how I… snatch you back from this wicked woman.”
The next second.
She reached out both hands, and as if scooping something from water, plunged them directly into Astreia’s body!
“!”
Astreia stiffened, lowering her head, staring in disbelief at the pale hands emerging from her own chest.
Those hands were churning violently inside her!
Searching for something!
“You… are… courting… death!”
An unprecedented humiliation and fury distorted Astreia’s very voice.
Torrential Demon Flame erupted from within her, attempting to incinerate this “filth” that had invaded her body!
But it was useless!
The Demon Flame passed through like a phantom, utterly unable to harm Laxana!
Finally.
Laxana seemed to find what she was searching for.
Her sinister smile grew even more radiant.
“Found it…”
Under Wendy’s gaze, Laxana’s hands wrenched outward with force!
And then, amid Astreia’s face, twisted in shock and rage, a silent thought echoed in Wendy’s mind.
“No!!!”
Astreia let out the first genuinely terrified scream in her entire existence!
An indescribable, constantly writhing and shifting… Shadow, as if formed from countless fragmented memories and silver-gray energy, was violently ripped out of Astreia’s body by Laxana’s bare hands!