Space was brutally torn apart and then sewn back together.
Wendy felt like his internal organs were about to surge up from his throat. Before the dizzying kaleidoscope of light had even faded, the surroundings had already shifted from the chaotic currents of void energy to the familiar night scenery. Astreia still held the Prince locked in her embrace.
And behind them, those three oddly shaped purple-black spheres followed along.
Astreia didn’t even glance at the brilliantly lit Mage Academy below. She simply waved her hand dismissively.
The two “compartments” holding Layana and Aurelia respectively dropped straight toward the Holy Studies Branch like balloons with their strings cut.
The instant before they would have crashed into the roof, the Protective Barrier silently dissolved.
Out of the corner of his eye, Wendy caught one last glimpse of Layana’s face—written all over with reluctance and pleading. Her lips moved, silently calling out her daughter’s name.
Yet, the Witch Queen paid it no mind whatsoever.
In the next instant, she vanished completely into the night sky, taking Wendy and the sole remaining Purple Sphere containing little Lacshanna with her.
Light and shadow shifted once more.
When Wendy’s feet finally touched solid ground again, he found himself back in that familiar Dormitory Room.
The familiar sofa. The familiar bed. The familiar… sense of pressure.
Astreia released him.
Wendy stumbled back two steps, braced himself against the wall, and gasped for air. Before he could even collect himself, Astreia raised her hand and casually pointed upward at the Purple Sphere containing little Lacshanna.
The purple sphere floated up slowly, then, as if pulled by a powerful magnet, silently adhered itself to the exact center of the Room’s Ceiling.
“Ah! Daddy! Let me out!”
“Wicked woman! Let my daddy go!”
The little girl’s shrill, panicked cries came from above, accompanied by the thumping sound of “bang bang bang.”
She was like a little hamster trapped in a glass jar, helplessly kicking her small feet, looking down at the entire room from that perfect bird’s-eye view.
Looking down at everything that was about to unfold next.
Wendy’s heart clenched painfully. A complicated surge of guilt and powerlessness made it nearly impossible to breathe.
Astreia slowly withdrew the Purple-Black Magic Flame that had been burning across her entire body, and the tattered armor dissipated along with it.
As light and shadow shifted, she transformed back into her usual Central Academy uniform skirt.
Wendy swallowed hard.
“A-Astreia…”
He squeezed out a smile uglier than a cry, trying to make his voice sound as natural as possible.
“How about… we take a shower first?”
“Look, out there it was all dust and blood, pretty dirty… It’s better to wash up, right?”
Every second he could stall was a second won!
Astreia merely gazed at him quietly, a playful curve forming on her flawless face.
“Very well, my Prince.”
Unexpectedly, she actually nodded in agreement.
The very next second, Astreia’s words plunged the Prince into an ice cellar.
“Come.”
She extended both arms, her posture graceful.
“Attend to your Queen’s changing.”
Wendy’s heart spasmed violently.
His entire being, from head to toe, began to heat up uncontrollably.
Seeing him frozen in place, Astreia raised an eyebrow slightly.
“What’s the matter? You wish to defy me?”
Her flat tone carried no emotion whatsoever.
Yet it made Wendy feel like he was being stared down by an ancient Dragon—one wrong move and he’d be torn to shreds.
He didn’t dare imagine the price of resistance.
“N-No, I wouldn’t dare…”
Wendy’s trembling hand reached out, his fingertips touching the cold metal zipper at the nape of Astreia’s neck.
Too close.
So close he could clearly smell her faint orchid scent.
So close he could feel, through the thin fabric of her uniform, the explosive, taut muscle lines beneath.
Zzz—
The zipper was slowly pulled downward.
Wendy’s fingertips inevitably brushed across that smooth, delicate back skin several times. Every touch was like a faint electric current shooting through his entire body, sending numbing tingles that made his scalp crawl.
The uniform skirt slackened as the zipper descended. Wendy was forced to focus his gaze on those straight, impossibly long legs wrapped in black silk stockings.
Those long legs he had held in his arms countless times, brimming with Power and beauty, were now displayed before him utterly defenseless.
Damn it. I’m going to get a nosebleed.
Damn it. I’m going to get a nosebleed…
Just as Wendy’s mind was in complete chaos, right before he was about to undo the last piece of fabric on her—
The scene before him suddenly shifted.
The half-removed uniform on Astreia’s body instantly dissolved and vanished in a rising cloud of purple-black smoke.
In the blink of an eye.
A brand-new outfit—one that made Wendy’s breath halt—appeared on her.
It was a one-piece garment made of extremely thin purple-black gossamer, its fabric so sparse it could barely cover her vital areas, unsparingly accentuating her breathtaking, impossibly curved figure.
The ultimate in sensuality, yet carrying an unapproachable, Holy sense of abstinence.
A Witch.
No—a Succubus.
At this moment, she was the very embodiment of the Succubus who had stepped out from the Abyss, luring others into Descent!
And even more lethal—her legs.
A pair of black thigh-high stockings wrapped from her upper thighs all the way down to her ankles, yet they were designed as toe stockings, leaving her flawless arches and delicate little toes completely exposed.
A pair of simple Black High Heels stretched the lines of her legs to the absolute extreme.
Astreia completely ignored Wendy’s dumbfounded expression. She walked straight to the bed and lay down on her side in a languid pose.
She propped herself up, elegantly crossing and raising those long legs that could drive any man insane. Her gaze pierced through the air and landed on Wendy.
Her red lips parted slightly, releasing two words.
That look was filled with the teasing amusement of a cat toying with a mouse.
“Come here. Lick!”
Boom!
“Come here. Lick!”
Wendy’s brain exploded into a blank white void.
All the blood in his body froze in an instant, then boiled in the next. His entire frame trembled violently beyond control.
Just as his reason and Dignity were about to be utterly crushed, a shrill cry came from the Ceiling!
“Go away! Go away! Don’t touch my daddy! You wicked woman!”
The purple sphere rattled violently against the Ceiling. Little Lacshanna, like an enraged little kitten, slammed her tiny body madly against the barrier.
However.
Astreia paid the commotion overhead no attention whatsoever. Her gaze didn’t even shift a fraction—still locked on Wendy.
“Hehe~”
She merely smiled, that smile carrying absolute contempt for everything.
The slender toe clad in the Black Toe Stockings gave a delicate little crook in Wendy’s direction.
Instantly.
Wendy felt an invisible force—weighty as a mountain—press down brutally on his spine.
Forcing him to bend over. To bow down.
His legs began to disobey him.
One step.
Another step.
Mechanically and sluggishly, he shuffled toward the Queen awaiting his submission at the bedside.
“My body! Move!”
Wendy’s heart was roaring madly, screaming, rebelling.
But before the Witch Queen’s absolute dominion, all his will was pale and powerless.
His body had betrayed him.
Closer and closer.
He smelled the orchid scent radiating ever more intensely from the Witch.
He saw those flawless feet, even more alluring beneath the black silk.
Finally, he reached the bedside.
Under the pressure of that invisible force, his knees gave way, and he knelt humiliatingly on the Carpet.
He lowered his head, his lips uncontrollably inching closer to that icy yet silky black toe.
Just one second before contact.
Astreia let out a satisfied low laugh.
“Hehe…”
She lightly lifted her foot, stopping Wendy’s next move.
“No, My Little Kitten.”
The Witch Queen used the tip of her toe to tilt Wendy’s chin up, forcing him to raise his head and meet those eyes brimming with Beguilement.
“That would be letting you off too easy.”
Her lazy, slightly husky words scraped against Wendy’s eardrums like feathers.
“Since you wish to plead for that little thing…”
“Then use the method you’re best at to please me.”
“Let me see just how much your resolve to sacrifice yourself for her… is really worth.”