Verre's mana burst through the room, that same sickening weight pressing him down once again. Stephen forced his own mana outward, trying to release it into the air, struggling to defend himself.
[MP: 0/99999]
[Mana reserves are depleted]
Stephen instantly fell over, struggling to hold his breath.
Verre's mana was pinning him down, yes. But this was something else, as he tried forcing his mana. A sharp pain coursed through his body, like he was about to throw up his internal organs.
[Mana sickness]
[Expand?]
Stephen barely looked at it, and the text grew larger.
[Mana sickness: A temporary condition triggered when a person forces mana use after their reserves have been depleted. Symptoms include fatigue and nausea. Recovering lost mana naturally removes the effects.]
"Going somewhere?" Verre muttered as she bent forward, still towering over him even with her hands resting on her knees. "Why would you ever want to run away from me?"
"You're kind of creepy, if no one's told you that yet." Stephen forced the words out, his tongue heavy in his mouth.
"No man has ever done such," Verre replied. "And it is quite concerning."
"Again, there's a first time for everything, you know."
Verre smiled, then with a flick of her finger. An element he was all too familiar with, wind magic and it blew him through the room, his body slamming against a wall.
Gila toppled with him, a faint groan escaping as she hit the floor with a thud.
"Stop provoking her, Stephen," the system warned.
"It's a really bad habit, okay," he muttered back.
Verre strode toward him, reaching down and lifting his head so he was forced to meet her gaze.
"What would happen if I kissed you right now?" She asked him. "Would you resist my temptation or would you give in and become a puppet."
"You... should already know the answer to that."
"But I don't believe it, you see," Verre said. "Ever since I came to this world, no man has ever resisted my charms. Not once."
Stephen clamped his mouth shut, forcing himself silent. He'd almost said something that would've definitely earned him another brutal slam into the floor.
"That would make you the first, but why is that? What makes you so special?" She pulled his head closer to hers, her breaths brushing against his lips. "I want to know so badly."
"Stephen, nod for me okay." The system started. "Do you still believe that memory inside your dorm-room to be your favorite?"
Stephen paused for a second, then softly nodded.
"Okay, once she controls you. I'll break her hold as fast as I can, I might not return for a while, but survive... you got that?"
Stephen nodded once more, and she pulled him in.
Her lips tasted like what 'love' would taste like, a rosy sweetness mixed with a sharp, aromatic flavor. They felt like two soft beds, and as Stephen kissed her, he could feel his mind slipping away in real time. Just as it had before.
[Status ailment: Seduced]
"Hm?" Verre pulled away, glancing at Stephen, at the way his body loosened up, then dropped head first into the ground. "That seemed to work."
She looked at him.
"Stand."
Stephen tried pushing himself off the ground, but couldn't. Her wave of mana held him down, noticing this, she retracted her mana and repeated the command.
"Stand."
Stephen stood up straight. Staring into nothingness, his eyes greyed out, his soul displaced in a near endless stream of memories.
"Did Lyna mess up?" Verre stood, then reached toward her ankle, pulling out a small blade and pressing it against his neck.
If he was faking the control, there was no way he wouldn't react to this.
With one hand she dragged it across his neck, but didn't slice. She wouldn't kill him so easily, not until she was done.
"I knew there wasn't a man that could negate my poison." Verre laughed to herself, then glanced at Stephen. "Still, I wished you did. It would've spiced things up at least."
She bent down to set the knife aside, but a sharp gasp broke through the room. It came from Gila, sprawled on the floor, her breaths shallow and ragged.
"She's still alive?" Verre muttered to herself, then glanced back at Stephen, flicking the knife over so the handle faced him.
She gestured with the nudge of her head and Stephen stepped forward, took the blade, then turned back toward Gila's trembling body.
"I would've liked to see you kill that boy you cared for so much," Verre murmured as she closed the distance, her hands sliding around Stephen's neck. "But I suppose this will do."
She leaned closer, her voice dropping.
"I mean... it's punishment enough, no? For the emotional torment you put me through." Her tongue traced the side of his face, a shiver rippling down her spine. "I wonder what expression you'll make when it fades... when you realize you killed her."
Verre's eyes almost rolled into the back of her eyes as Stephen crouched, bringing the knife to Gila's neck.
In less than a second he would kill her, Verre could only salivate at the thought. She'd remembered how Gila reacted when she threatened to kill Tello, that could only mean Stephen had some sort of relationship with her.
"I wonder how you'll react~" she bit her lip, her legs quivering as the blade drew blood. "The face you'd make~"
As blood trickled down his arm, and he began to make the slit.
[Status ailment: Removed]
Stephen snapped.
He lunged up, and with his other hand slammed Verre across the face, a powerful strike that sent her barreling through the wall, crashing out of the room and onto the hard ground beyond.
Regardless of Stephen's stance on violence, he never wanted to hurt anyone, not if he could help it. But as he stared at Verre, everything she'd done so far began to compound.
How she'd killed Cass. How she'd tried to harm Tello. And worst of all, how she'd tried to make him hurt Gila.
That, above all, was the greatest crime.
If he had hurt Gila just now. If he had been the one to end her life, not only would Tello had stopped speaking to him, but he wouldn't be able to live with himself, knowing he'd been the one that snatched her away.
He took one step, about to follow the trail leading to Verre before he keeled over, clutching his gut where the system had punched him back to reality.
Scratch going after Verre.
He needed to leave, while he still had the chance.
Stephen glanced over, slung Gila onto his shoulder, and made for the door. All he could hope now was that Darla was close enough to hear his call.
That was the only thing he needed now, he had Gila and Tello was already safe. He just needed to escape, he just needed to—
Stephen felt a presence behind him, arcing over him like a cascading waterfall, about to drown him in one fell swoop.
[Lucked out]
Hara stepped up as Verre's mana unfurled. His arm cut through the air, intersecting the threat.
"That's a pretty terrifying spell you just used," Hara muttered. "If I hadn't stopped you... you would've seriously hurt him there."
"Step out of the way. Now." Verre's tone darkened.
Pleasedon't. Stephen almost said, but didn't. In scenarios like these, reducing yourself to the size of a bug was best. Maybe they'd even forget he was here.
"I'm under strict orders by the king to save his life, unfortunately." Hara continued, "I can't have you giving me extra paperwork."
"Is that so?" Verre muttered, her voice calmer now. "That is true, you're simply doing your job."
"Right?" Hara laughed. "I knew you'd get it."
"Still, he's a special man. He's the only person I've seen who can negate my poison. I need him."
"See, that's where we have a problem. I'd have to return him to the castle first." Hara grit his teeth. "Maybe you can try searching for someone else. I'm sure there's someone out there who doesn't get affected by your poison."
"Is that so," she said again.
"Very much so," Hara replied. "So if you would allow us, I'll go get my associate and the both of us will be out of your hair in a sec—"
[Wind Magic: Imploding Wind]
[Expand?]
Verre raised her hand, aiming straight for Hara's neck. As her fingers curled into a fist, the air in the room surged toward him, collapsing inward with him at its center. About to crush him like a grape beneath a hydraulic press.
But Hara didn't even flinch. He simply swung his arm through the air, as if brushing something aside.
"It's not nice to interrupt someone with a spell by the way." He said, "that could've seriously hurt me."
"You don't say." Verre darted forward, her hands sweeping out. Wind exploded through the room, pushing everything aside, including Stephen, who dug his fingers into the floorboards, trying and failing to hold on.
He was pulled in through the darkness, until he collided with Vivi's suffocating mana pressure, only this time it was tangled with another presence. Lyna most likely.
Just as the winds stopped and he slammed against something, he heard the click of a shotgun. It was right in front of him, and even before he could think about moving.
A shot rang out.
Yet... nothing tore into or past him. No sharp ringing or pain. Instead, he was standing in a room, surrounded by scattered mana signatures and echoes of sound coming from everywhere at once.
Another shot rang out, this time followed by the clang of metal against metal.
Stephen had no idea where he was, but if he had to guess...
"I'm in one of the Infinity Rooms." He pushed himself up, groping through the dark until his palm brushed against the soft padding of a bed. "Yeah. That confirms it."
Another gun shot, this time followed by a breeze that almost knocked him over.
"What are you going to do now?" A voice muttered and Stephen dashed back, his arms instantly coming together in a fighting stance.
He only loosened up when he realized it was the system.
"...Find Gila and hit the exit." Stephen said, "that's still the plan."
"How will you go about it?"
"I have no idea." Stephen scratched his head. If he left the room he'd run straight into Vivi's mana and be paralyzed. If he stayed, and Verre won the fight, that might've been worse.
The system waited for a second, expecting Stephen's usual 'unless," but it never came.
"Wait, you're serious?"
Stephen sank back onto the bed and pulled at his hair. "I'm way too underleveled for this, and because of that Tello got hurt."
"This isn't the time for that, Stephen." the system muttered. "You can moan later. Now crank that noggin and make a plan. You can do it."
"I can't." He rubbed his temples. "No matter how I look at it I'm screwed. I don't know where Gila is, I don't know which rooms they're in, I don't—"
"Umm... who are you talking to?" A voice muttered from the dark and Stephen snapped up, hands coming into a fighting stance again.
Was it a ghost... obviously not. Tello was rubbing off on him too much.
"Who's there?" Stephen asked.
"Wait... I know that voice." The voice replied. "Sex god, is that you?!"
"Absolutely not."
"It is you!"
Stephen exhaled. "Wait... what are you even doing in here?"
"I was with one of the whores, then she left," the man said. "She went to grab... a dildo, since I couldn't please her..."
Stephen coughed. "Yeah."
"And she never came back. Then, right as I wanted to leave I heard an explosion, so I stayed."
"I see." Stephen said. "Well, I'm sorry for dragging you into this—"
Before he finished, the man lunged, clutching Stephen by the waist. "Please Sex god, I don't want to die! Not here, my friends will laugh if my corpse is found here. I'll never live it down!"
"You won't be living to begin with." Stephen muttered, then felt something gooey and wrong brush his clothes. He looked down.
"What's your name, please?" he asked.
"Baer..."
"Are you wearing clothes, Baer?"
"No, I'm not—"
Before Baer could even finish his sentence, Stephen was already back at the bed, furiously looking for anything with enough grit to scrub off whatever had just touched his clothes.
If he wasn't in a predicament where conserving his strength mattered, he might've punched Baer in the gut too.
"But... how do we get out of here?" Baer muttered, his voice trembling. "I keep hearing those shotgun blasts, and the fact you're hiding here too means it's not yours."
"Yeah... we're trapped for now." Stephen clenched his fist. "If only I had enough mana to cover myself, I could escape this."
"I have mana," Baer said quickly.
"That's great and all, but I need someone who can actually use it." Stephen glanced to the hallway.
"I can do that too." Baer replied. "I'm quite adept at mana control even though I haven't learned any spells."
"Wait..." Stephen's eyes lit up. "You're saying you could enter that hallway and not want to vomit?"
"Yeah, by mana layering you can stop the effects of any outside mana on your body... it's one of the first things my instructor taught me," Baer replied. "Why, is there anything you need?"
Stephen smiled faintly, his fists clenching by his sides.
"I'm guessing that 'unless' moment is here," the system muttered.
"Might be," Stephen said under his breath. "Baer, how would you feel if I said we could both get out of this situation in one fell swoop?"
"I'd do anything in my power to help you, then."
"Good." Stephen nodded. "Alright, first things first. I'm going to need you to step out into that hallway, and look for someone."
"I can do that... but like you already know... I'm kind of naked right now," Baer muttered. "I threw my clothes out in the hallway, rushing to get in here..."
"Don't worry, Baer." Stephen grinned. "I need you to be naked for this."