* = Warning
DC = Dark Content
— Several months later, Saint Anubis City, Magus District
It was a bright and beautiful day at House Trillwolf. The estate spanned across a 15-mile radius and was full of lush green scenery, luxurious-looking palaces, governmental buildings, training facilities, courtyards of varying sizes, magical formations, and remarkable features in abundance. House Trillwolf was situated in a fertile basin at the eastern end of an outrageously giant lake. This was Lake Nicaea, and each of the four powers of the grand capital of the Saint Anubis Dynasty, Saint Anubis City, was situated at one of the cardinal points of the lake.
This lake was the city's northernmost point, and this massive area was known as the Magus District. Lake Nicaea was above a large Origin Energy vein full of extremely dense worldly energies. The lake sat across hundreds of thousands of acres and was a couple hundred feet deep, making it a natural treasure for experts pursuing the Universal Truth.
A foreboding white castle loomed in the sky above the lake, its ancient walls encircling an ethereal temple. Walking through its entranceway, two imposing rows of Jackal God statues, ten on either side, created an aura of dread and terror. An invisible bubble of dark energy encased the temple, crackling with power that made the air around it shudder and hiss. A menacing storm cloud on the horizon seemed to mirror the intensity inside.
All who had dared to approach in the past had been ripped apart by the violent forces inside. Deep inside the spacious main hall of this temple, there were three black-cloaked figures whose facial features were shrouded in darkness. They kneeled in front of a council of elders wearing white robes that shone with a blinding golden light inside the hood, making their appearances indiscernible.
They had maintained this posture for nearly a year but didn't dare to move even now. Had these individuals been mortal, they would have been long dead.
The white-robed elders took turns stepping onto a mystical floating platform made of purple light, where several beautiful women were bare, bound, and gagged. Some of these women wore dull expressions as if life and everything in it were meaningless. Others looked frantic and terrified, as if they didn't know how or when they had gotten here. Every time an elder stepped on the platform, they would look into the eyes of a few of the women while a mesmerizing pink glow could be seen under their hoods. The women's eyes would glow the same color before their expressions became submissive and impassioned.
Lustful.
As these elders mercilessly violated these victims, lewd screams and moans bounced off the walls and filled the hall with this lust. Purple and black trails of force were pulled from a girl's body each time they climaxed. These energies were absorbed into the curse array formation on the platform. The looks on their faces were that of sick and twisted pleasure, which would make anyone watching highly uncomfortable. For six straight months, those three figures in black had repeatedly watched the elders seated above violating these captive young women.
The woman would be removed, and more would take their place. The cycle seemed endless.
They remained in a kneeling position for fear of upsetting these savage elders. No one acknowledged or spoke to them until after another hundred rounds of debauchery, in which all the elders present participated at least twice.
None of the three figures draped in black felt any surprise or incredible feelings for what was occurring. They had become numb long ago. The Western and Southern Wards were known as the Voodoo States for ample reason. Such evil was not uncommon in this horrible castle. However, this place sat on a scale that no other force across Pangaea could match or surpass.
"I heard that during my seclusion, the Mistress of the Frozen Night has not only conceived but has had a child with that wretched mutt. The same mutt whose head you promised me more than two star cycles ago.
"A child that the heavens themselves acknowledged after his birth? You tell me if he is not a celestial body, then what on earth is he?
"Do you know how priceless a child born of that delicious delicacy of a Mage is? Do you know how many years you've set my plan back already?
"Do you think the Seamless Aether Physique will last forever? That the vile mongrel below won't exhaust her heavenly neon to satiate his weakling fetish?
"Vera Barong! DO YOU KNOW YOUR WRONGS?"
The robust man in white robes sat at the highest seat, and his voice sounded like icy shards of glass as he spoke. His bald head had two flood dragon tattoos on either side that seemed to writhe in anticipation of a response, and his brown eyes glowed with an unearthly purple light. The white robes were alive with golden-purple snake hieroglyphs made of runic markings that undulated across the fabric like a sinister sea creature.
He was staring coldly at the three kneeling figures in black.
Feeling the terrifying gaze of that imposing man in the highest seat, the foremost cloaked individual's body trembled in fear. With a wave of the bald man's hand, the man's cloak was torn to shreds. Lacerations appeared on the revealed body, their blood sliding down miserably, painting the ground burgundy. A young man wearing purple clothes who looked to be thirty years old wore a dark face and kowtowed repeatedly.
"Liege Lord Basalt, I beg for your mercy! Please forgive us! We never imagined the boy Lord of House Trillwolf had already surpassed the Gold Mage Rank!" The young man named Vera Barong continued to kowtow repeatedly while explaining.
At the mention of the term 'us,' the two cloaked figures by his side unconsciously put some more distance between them and him. The same happened when he used the word 'we.' This bastard wanted to pretend this was a shared responsibility.
"We couldn't risk moving out in the open, my liege. Those were your orders! As a leader, I had to make a calculated decision. A level three Trickster should have been more than powerful enough to wipe out half of their forces… much less the level four that we…ah. AH… AHHHHH!" Vera was unable to finish his words.
He grips his chest with both hands, fingernails digging into his skin as he can feel something writhing beneath the surface, a relentless panic that wants to break out. His flesh ripples and writhes as if an invisible intruder wrestles within, struggling for release and threatening to tear him apart.
"Be silent, diluted fool," Lord Basalt's hand slowly rose in the air while emitting a purple glow.
Vera let out a blood-curdling scream as his body contorted and his skin writhed. His muscles quivered and trembled as something unnatural fought against its prison, trying to erupt through his flesh violently. He grips his chest with both hands, fingernails digging into his skin, before a grotesque and giant centipede-like beast bursts from his chest, bringing Vera's organs out with it. The worm was three meters long and the width of a fist.
Amid Vera's terrible screams, Basalt spoke coldly, "Do I need you, a dead wretch, to remind me of my esteemed words? A fourth-level Trickster in the West Ward is crazy. Your ignorance will surely arouse that old monster's ire. For these problems you've presented me, instead of progress, I will slaughter your sons and have my men mount your wives and daughters for the rest of the week. Afterward, they will lay in my private estate before they become food for the vicious beasts I've reared. They seem to quite enjoy the flesh of freshly fucked women…"
"URAHUNGAH! No~! My liege, mercy—PLEASE! Please, please spare my children and wives. I BEG you! I swear to Anubis… ah! Not Anubis, NO! No, no, no, no, no, no. To the heavens! Even to the great Pharaoh Rah above the heavens, I have been nothing but ACK!" Vera struggled to kowtow again, but Lord Basalt wiggled his fingers, controlling the centipede to constrict around Vera Barong's mangled body.
"Silence seems to sound rather different than what you've been doing. You even dared to utter your false god's exalted name," Lord Basalt sneered, visibly upset at hearing the name 'Anubis.' He offered no obedience to the god of death. He no longer wanted to play with this meal. "For this offense, your wives will be sold for their weight in magic fish gills."
"MERCY, MY LORD, PLEASE!" Vera's screams became increasingly frantic as the centipede continued to eat him alive.
He knew this madman would do everything he threatened to do, even if Vera wouldn't be alive to see it.
"Oh, fine, you scrub. I'll sell them all, but not the red-headed one. What's that bitch's name?" Basalt licked his lips as a greedy gleam flashed across his eyes.
"It was Nessa, my lord. The men have grown fond of calling her the lockneck monster," this voice came from one of the white-robed elders sitting to the left of Basalt.
Hearing this, Vera's eyes bulged in abject horror as he hollered in extreme agony and hatred.
His legal wife of 10 years, Anessa, had fallen into the hands of these bastards?
Since when?
For how long?
Even though he had done everything that he was asked to do? Lockneck? LOCKNECK?! This evil son of a bitch! Vera could taste and see nothing but hatred. Why had the Lord of House Barong begun dealing with this madman? This savage!
He was a complete animal!