In the depths of Gobini's lair, the prisoners trapped in the suspended cells awoke as a powerful shock rippled through the metal structures, causing them to scream in pain.
Despite the screams, Gobini did not tremble as he placed runes around a stone altar, the center of which perfectly matched the golden crystal he held in his hands.
"Now, the most important..." Gobini lifted the crystal, bringing it into place with hands trembling with excitement.
However, his hands stopped at the last second, and hearing the heavy door of that room open with a loud bang, he turned back quickly, his eyes taking on a frightened expression as they met the murderous, intent-filled eyes of a bloodied man.
"Who are you? What have you done with my daughter?" He asked as he cautiously stepped back, his hand going down to the hilt of the short sword he carried at his waist.
Ethan heard those words, and his eyes swept over the ugly man, the crystal he carried, and the prisoners suffering just above Gobini before finally settling on Victoria.
There were bloodstains on her mouth and on her dress; her shoulders were shaking, and her eyes were watering as she looked at Ethan with a mixture of surprise and relief.
In her mind, her life was already over, and she would never see Ethan again, her only hope for a happy future.
But now, even though the aura emanating from Ethan's body would be frightening to anyone else, it was warm and cozy to her, like an unholy force trying to destroy everything in the world but her.
[Victoria's corruption has greatly increased and has reached the limit of the initial stage; breaking through this limit will guarantee great rewards.]
A message from the system reached Ethan, but he only glanced at it before walking over to Victoria, ignoring everything around him.
"Are you all right? Sorry, I'm late. I had a few inconveniences." Ethan spoke in a sweet voice as he wiped the blood from Victoria's mouth, his eyes shining with a powerful murderous intent that met the woman like the eyes of a loving husband.
"I'm fine... It's not my blood." Victoria replied as she looked away from Ethan, her heart beating fast and seemingly completely oblivious to their current situation.
Hearing these words, Ethan laughed as he noticed a severed finger on the ground, not far from where Victoria was trapped.
He easily freed her from her prison and brought his lips close to hers.
Unfortunately, the couple couldn't enjoy each other's presence for long, and soon there was a bang followed by an angry voice.
"So you had a fucking lover? You cheap whore! Now I understand why you were so resistant." Gobini held the crystal firmly in his hand before pressing it against the stone altar pedestal.
In the next second, a golden energy took over the room, and the screams of the prisoners stopped completely.
"Ethan, you have to stop him, now!" Victoria shouted, her eyes wide, as she finally snapped out of her daze and remembered their current situation and Gobini's plans.
In the next second, Ethan stormed off, grabbing his sword. He didn't know what Gobini was up to, but he felt the power of that energy and knew that this crystal must hold some terrible secret to interest someone like David Stormerga.
[You have completed the mission: An Undercover Human Trafficking Operation; your rewards are ready to be redeemed anytime.]
[System: A new mission is available!
{An Unholy Ritual
Description: After breaking into Gobini's lair, you learn of an unholy ritual to gain powers beyond your comprehension; stop the ritual before it's too late!
Difficulty: B
Rewards: 10,000 corruption store points, 1x random item}.
Unfortunately, it was already too late, and when he got within ten meters of Gobini, a colossal pressure fell on him, interrupting his run and making him struggle to stay on his feet.
"What the fuck?" Ethan clenched his teeth as he tried to move, his mana being pushed back into his heart and his body seeming to lose more and more strength by the second.
With difficulty, he raised his head, his eyes hateful as he looked at Gobini and felt the energy around him.
It was strange yet familiar, as if the Seraphar energy in his body reacted to this energy with disgust and contempt, as if the power of an old enemy he had never met was falling upon him.
"Are you her lover? The brat who fucked her behind Stuart's back? That damned cuckold and that disgusting whore, I should have fucked her when I had the chance." Gobini pointed in Ethan's direction, and an even stronger energy fell on Ethan, whose knees almost buckled.
"Fuck you, you dirty little thing." Ethan grunted with difficulty as he tried to stay awake under the enormous pressure.
Not far from him and out of Gobini's field of vision, Victoria was experiencing something similar, though on a completely different scale than Ethan; her breathing was heavy, and she felt as if her body was about to be crushed by that golden energy.
Fighting the urge to just give in and give up, she looked around and noticed that the golden energy was slowly, gradually converging in the center of the room.
"Nghnn..." Victoria let out a girlish moan as she bit down on her own lips, her teeth digging into her flesh as a stream of blood poured from her mouth.
Using the pain to keep herself awake, she crawled around the corners of the room until she reached Gobini's back, where he found a rusty old sword without a hilt lying on the floor.
She grabbed the sword by the blade, her delicate hands tearing from the grip, but she held on with all her strength as she dragged herself up to Gobini, who was standing on a platform, his eyes focused on Ethan.
I have to be strong if I want to be happy...' She repeated to herself several times as she dragged her body along the sword, her weak flesh unable to resist and tearing under the force of the energy.
When she finally reached the top of the altar, her body had turned completely red, and all she could do was make one last thrust forward, her blade hitting Gobini's back.
"I don't know what you've done to my daughter, but you will suffer for it." Gobini roared as he tightened the energy on Ethan, but his voice soon faded, replaced by a pitiful scream.
His eyes held a mixture of terror, pain, and surprise as his body collapsed forward, and he felt the energy slipping from his control, a control he tried to regain but failed as Ethan's blade struck his neck, killing him instantly.
"Victoria!" Ethan yelled as he jumped towards Victoria, trying to get her out of the center of the energy as quickly as possible, but it was too late.
All the energy converged on Victoria's body, and Ethan was thrown backwards, stopping only when his back hit the wall of the room.
He struggled to his feet and saw his lover's body covered in the golden energy, his eyes taking on an even more intense blood red hue, and he threw himself forward once more, trying to get her out of there at all costs, but a warning from the system brought him back to his senses.
[Do not go near her! Stopping the ritual now would be terrible for her, and this energy is not necessarily a bad thing, maybe even a blessing in disguise."]
Listening to the system, Ethan paused and looked at Victoria reluctantly before finally halting his steps and walking away.
At the epicenter of it all, Victoria's mutilated body was slowly being reshaped by the golden energy that swirled like the whirlpool created by an open drain, converging on the center and being voraciously absorbed by Victoria's body.
The prisoners directly above the formation had long since been reduced to corpses, and even their skin, bones, and flesh had already been completely consumed by the formation, leaving nothing but their clothes behind.
"The energy is diminishing." Ethan muttered as he felt the intensity of the energy around him diminish rapidly, and Victoria's body, which was floating a few meters above the ground, began to slowly descend.
Realizing this, Ethan moved in large strides, closing the distance between himself and Victoria in a few seconds before catching her in his arms, preventing her from hitting the ground.
At the same moment, the golden energy dissipated completely, finally revealing Victoria's naked body to Ethan.
She had changed considerably, to say the least. All the scars on her body had been erased, and although she still retained her voluptuous figure with huge breasts, the fat deposits on her abdomen had been completely erased, revealing a perfect, slightly toned stomach.
In fact, even her skin had changed considerably; the small signs of age and imperfections that she had tried to hide with makeup had completely disappeared, revealing a youthful figure whose appeal went beyond her absurd proportions.
Suddenly, Victoria's beautiful eyes opened, and a gentle smile took over her beautiful face as she raised her hand, touching Ethan's bloodied face and pinching it lightly, as if trying to figure out if she was dreaming or not.
"Thank you for letting me be happy." Victoria's voice trailed off, and Ethan felt the woman's sweet touch drift away as her beautiful green eyes closed.
"Victoria? Are you all right?" Ethan's eyes widened, and he shook the woman's body, trying to wake her but hearing no response.
Slowly, he could feel her breathing getting weaker and weaker, and the little energy she had flowing through her body was fading away.
"System, what the hell is going on?" Ethan asked, a little desperation in his eyes as he felt he was losing her.
[That golden energy was probably from a bloodline transfer formation; Victoria's body is simply too weak to withstand the bloodline she received, and without any energy to fight the corrosion, she'll die].
"Damn, is there anything we can do? Something in the system memory."
[Not with your current power].
"Shit! Shit! Shit!" Ethan ran through hundreds of possibilities in his head, but all he could think about was David.
Gritting his teeth, he grabbed the talisman he had received from the powerful Lord of Stormerga and infused it with his energy.