Chapter 60: Just Teasing You

“You want me to beg for mercy? Keep dreaming.”

Via refused without hesitation.

How could she possibly beg a spoiled brat like him?

“So you’ve chosen to die here?” Owen narrowed his eyes. “You really have no idea what situation you’re in.”

“I think the one who doesn’t understand the situation… is you.”

Via took out her teleportation crystal.

“Is your brain broken? Every student on this expedition was given a teleportation crystal. The academy already set up the corresponding arrays near the airship. The moment I pour mana in, I’m gone.”

“Oh? There’s something like that?”

Owen put on an exaggerated look of surprise, his tone dripping with sarcasm, as if he had nothing to fear.

“Go ahead and try. You’re not getting away.”

“Fine, I’ll try. Once I’m back, I’ll report you. Let’s see how you explain yourself.”

Via poured mana into the crystal. The teleportation array appeared beneath her feet and began to activate.

She would soon be whisked back to the airship through the spatial channel.

“Alright, come out.”

Owen gave a strange command.

The ground trembled violently.

Behind the young master of the Leites family, an enormous shadow emerged.

It was a four-armed giant ape, like a walking hill. Its eyes glowed with mad crimson light, radiating danger. Thick, foul-smelling drool dripped from a mouth full of fangs, sizzling as it corroded the earth.

Most shocking of all, dark-purple mist swirled around the monster.

A magical beast corrupted by abyssal aura!

ROOOAAAR!!

The four-armed ape leapt high and slammed down, the sheer force cracking the mountain path and sending abyssal aura surging outward, severely disrupting the teleportation array and shattering the spell.

“The array vanished?!” Via’s face showed genuine shock.

“Hahaha! I told you—you’re not escaping!” Owen laughed maniacally. “This is a Gold-rank beast tainted by abyssal aura. You have zero chance of survival!”

Via pulled out her communicator, trying to call for help.

But the signal was completely jammed by the abyssal aura.

“Pointless. In front of the four-armed ape, you’re dead.”

Owen waved his hand. On his wrist was a strange bracelet engraved with a single crimson eye. At his command, the corrupted beast obediently moved to his side.

“You’re controlling a magical beast?” Via’s eyes widened. “That’s demonic behavior!”

“I have to say, the toy that Abyssal Eye gave me is really useful. Controlling a Gold-rank monster this easily… No wonder they’re so obsessed with abyssal aura.”

Owen gazed at the bracelet in rapture.

He had trained desperately, pouring in countless family resources, just to reach Silver-rank.

Yet now, with only a trickle of mana, this artifact linked his mind to the ape and let him command it effortlessly.

“This is true power. Even I can’t help but be tempted.”

“Owen, you’ve lost your mind!”

Via could already see faint traces of abyssal aura coiling around Owen, binding him to the beast.

“I’m perfectly sane! Today, you’ll be the first to test this power. After you’re dead, I’ll just blame the corrupted beast. After all, we’re at the Demon King’s Castle ruins—monsters like this appearing is perfectly normal!”

A strange thrill coursed through Owen.

For some reason, he suddenly craved the sight of human blood and the sound of human screams.

After killing Via… maybe he could hunt a few more classmates?

The people from Abyssal Eye had said human flesh and blood would excite corrupted beasts and make them even stronger.

“The Holy Land will catch you and burn you as a heretic!”

“So what? Shut your mouth! You don’t get to talk here!” Owen roared.

The four-armed ape bellowed, and a wave of abyssal aura crashed toward Via.

“Ugh…”

Via clutched her chest, trembling slightly, her face twisted in apparent agony.

“Yes! Scream louder!!”

Owen savored the scene, feeling utterly vindicated.

At first he had worried that contact with abyssal aura would get him noticed and tried as a heretic—those endings were never pretty.

But his father had told him not to worry.

It turned out the Leites family had secretly been funding the mysterious organization Abyssal Eye for years.

That group wielded enormous hidden influence, operating in the shadows for decades without ever being exposed.

None of that would be possible without powerful backers.

“Humans can’t withstand abyssal aura. I hear once you’re corrupted, you turn into a demonized being?”

“Ugh…” Via could no longer speak.

“To think you carry Lady Sylvia’s blood, descendant of the Perfect Saintess—yet you can’t purify abyssal aura and will be forced to become a demonized being. How utterly ironic!”

Owen was in blissful spirits.

He pointed at Via, brimming with sadistic glee.

“Four-armed ape, break her limbs first. I want to watch her fall step by step into a demonized monster!”

ROAR…

The beast lumbered forward at the command. Its massive frame cast a terrifying shadow that completely engulfed the petite pink-haired girl.

The monster raised a thick, muscular arm and swung down mercilessly.

Via stared in despair at the incoming blow—she seemed powerless to stop it.

But the instant before her arms would have been crushed, the ground rippled like water.

Earth-attuned mana surged, and rock spears erupted from the soil, piercing straight through the ape’s arm.

**ROOOAAAR!!

The four-armed ape howled in pain and staggered back several steps.

“Why can you still move?!”

Owen’s triumphant expression froze. He could hardly believe his eyes.

A Gold-rank beast… injured by Via?

“You thought I’d be afraid of abyssal aura?”

Via raised a finger.

At her will, the abyssal aura did not corrode her—instead, it coiled obediently around her fingertip, amplifying the spell she had just cast.

“Young Master Leites, I was just teasing you~”