051 THE END?
Magical chains shot up from the ground, wrapping around Madame la Rosa, binding her tightly.
"Who are these mages?" she hissed, struggling against her bonds.
"Mercenary mages. We hired them from the Black Market," Leo replied smugly.
"These mages are powerful. How can you even afford them?" Madame la Rosa asked, her voice shaking with fear.
"Oh, I promised them the body of a powerful peak of Svad tier Demoness, enough ingredients to brew plenty of magic potion. Don't worry, they won't kill you right away. They'll keep you around as a… sex slave, for a while, while they harvest your body parts. Ingredients need to be fresh," Leo said with a sinister and wicked smile.
"You're not fighting fair!" she screamed.
"Really?" Leo shrugged, smirking. "I think it's fair."
"I will kill you all of you", Madame la Rosa screamed.
She was not finished yet.
"There is still something that I haven't shown you", Madame la Rosa cried as her head tilted to the sky.
Suddenly, dark essence surged from Madame la Rosa's mouth, rising swiftly to the sky. The dark tendrils merged with the stars, and the night seemed to fall into the garden.
Moments later, massive cages descended, crashing down and unleashing powerful, snarling hellhounds—her final guardians.
"Of all the places, we didn't think to look up in that fucking sky," Leo muttered, frustrated.
"These aren't just prisoners," Dassa said, her eyes wide. "They're her fucking pets."
"No," Madame la Rosa corrected with a wicked smile, "they are my faithful servants—my Hellhounds."
The hellhounds were mindless but fiercely loyal. They turned toward the mercenary mages, teeth bared, eyes blazing. They charged, mercilessly tearing into the mages. Despite layers of protective spells, the hellhounds' sheer power and agility overwhelmed them.
"The mages are falling," Dassa said, worry seeping into her voice.
As the mages fell, Madame la Rosa's chains began to weaken. Without the mages' spells to maintain the binding array, her restraints were fading.
"Soon, my darlings will finish you all," she laughed.
Dassa turned to Leo, desperation clear in her eyes. "What do we do now?"
"We've used everything we had," Yun-Yun replied grimly. "The mercenaries were our last chance."
"Come on, Leo, think of something!" Dassa urged.
"Run?" Leo offered, though he knew escape was impossible.
"It's far too late for that!" Madame la Rosa cackled as a dozen hellhounds encircled them, snarling.
The mages were dead—every last one of the strongest mercenaries Gomora City had sent. They'd managed to bring down several of the hellhounds, but not enough. Now, only Leo, Dassa, and Yun-Yun remained against the Rose Demon and her army of unholy guradians.
"Damn it," Dassa whispered. "This is game over."
Leo turned to Yun-Yun. "Can you do something, anything?"
Her face softened, but she shook her head. "My seal binds me—I can't intervene directly. But you have skills beyond magic, Leo. Use them."
Leo thought fast.
He could make small tweaks to the magic of this world using his control panel, but it was limited to minor changes.
"I can do… something small," he said, unsure.
"A miracle is what you'll need," Madame la Rosa sneered, watching as the hellhounds closed in.
Without another word, Leo sat on the ground, opening his control panel and frantically typing out a desperate plan.
"A little encouragement wouldn't hurt," he joked, trying to keep his calm despite the danger.
Dassa rolled her eyes. "We don't have time for fucking shit."
She leaped forward, her dagger flashing in the dark as she drove it into a hellhound's side. The beast yelped, collapsing with a deep gash—only for the wound to knit back together almost instantly.
She moved to strike again, but another hellhound lunged, its massive jaws snapping inches from her face. She slashed and dodged, but for every one she struck down, two more pressed in, relentless and unyielding.
Yun-Yun stepped behind Leo, resting her hands on his shoulders, her touch steady and reassuring. It wasn't an act of lust but a moment of solidarity, a quiet connection in the face of doom.
"Is this the end? I never thought it would end this way," she murmured, her voice calm. "But if this is my fate… I'll face it with you."
"Yun-Yun," Leo said, glancing at her as chaos raged around them, there was only one thought remaining, "you could let me break your curse to save us."
Her gaze faltered.
Yun-Yun's magic was sealed, locked away behind an enchantment that could only be shattered by breaking her chastity—a curse she'd long borne. The magic within her was contained by a powerful sphere of curse. Once released she was the strongest mage in the world.
Fuck Breaks Sphere.
"There are consequences to that choice—ones far worse than our death. There's so much about me that you don't know, and I don't know how to explain it to you," Yun-Yun added, her voice filled with regret.
Leo gave her a quiet, reassuring smile.
"It doesn't matter. Dying with you here… is a good death."
Leo's Lust counter didn't increase with Yun-Yun's touch, but her presence comforted him. This was the first time he felt so close to somebody other than his family.
With renewed focus, he returned to his control panel, racing against time as the hellhounds closed in, hoping his next move might somehow turn the tide.
A surge of rage erupted in Dassa as she let out a scream, launching herself at the hellhounds in a frenzied assault.
Her strikes were furious and wild, her blade slashing and tearing. The hellhounds fell back, snarling and wounded, but they healed too fast, rising again as she dropped to her knees, exhausted.
"Is this fucking it?" she asked herself, her mind racing, all filled with burning wrath.
Images and regrets flitted by Dassa's mind—dreams unfinished, vengeance left undone, friends left to fend for themselves. And as she sank into despair, she realized, almost bitterly, that Leo was the last thing on her mind.
Suddenly, Leo stood up, his coding complete.
He raised something high and waved it at the hellhounds—it was Madame la Rosa's Rose scepter.