"Have a pleasant evening!"
With a lilting laugh, Evelynn released her curse. Her steps glided like lotus petals as her figure shimmered in and out of sight, slipping back toward the darkness where she thrived.
Inside the haze of pink smoke, Duke raised his sleeve to cover his mouth and nose. Without hesitation, he opened his inventory and summoned Gluttony and Pride.
"Catch her!!"
ROAR!!
HOWL!!
Two feral cries, each with its own timbre, split the night. A motorcycle and a sports car shot through the mist, engines snarling, and launched into pursuit of the vanishing demoness.
Whummm!
A savage beam of energy lanced out, disrupting Evelynn's retreat into shadow. Pride's headlights flared, overheating until they burned a blood-red hue.
ROAR!!
Evelynn's face twisted in pain. She had underestimated Duke after all.
She darted into the forest in a blur of shadow, but Pride and Gluttony hounded her relentlessly.
Meanwhile, Duke swung a heavy fist, trying to disperse the lingering pink miasma that clung around him and Vayne. The smoke was strangely alluring, fragrant of nothing, yet seducing the heart like unseen fingers teasing the strings of one's soul.
Even with his nose and mouth covered, Duke felt dizziness not of the body but of the spirit. His vision swam, stained in hues of sultry rose.
"In the game, Evelynn's W is just a debuff, it refunds mana, reduces magic resistance, deepens damage. But in reality, it's nothing like the game. Here, her skill is pure curse."
As his mana surged, the crimson haze before his eyes began to fade. Relief washed over him, his magic resisted Evelynn's enchantment.
"No… wait. Someone else is still caught in it!"
The thought struck just as Vayne stumbled into him, ripping away her night-vision goggles. Her eyes were clouded with desire, her lips flushed crimson as she pressed close, whispering breathlessly against his ear:
"Love me!"
"Vayne, calm down!"
The fire within Duke, which he had just suppressed, roared back to life. He tried to push her away, channeling his mana and forcing it into her body to break the curse.
But in the next instant his eyes widened, his mind going blank as her face filled his vision.
"When can a man… truly stand tall?"
That was his last coherent thought before Vayne pushed him to the ground.
The campfire roared higher, flames wild and unruly. A tent collapsed under their collision, shadows writhing within, two figures tangled together, as if bound to merge into one.
…
Before dawn.
Whummm!!
A scorching laser split the predawn dark. The roar of a draconic beast mingled with the hiss of a giant serpent, steam billowing through the trees.
Gluttony burst forward, blocking Evelynn's escape, while Pride opened its jaws and unleashed a searing ion beam.
Zzzzz!
The beam carved across the earth like a heated blade through butter, leaving a molten scar.
A second later,
BOOM!!
The ground erupted in flame, swallowing Evelynn's form.
"Kh, khh…!"
Coughing violently, her body flickered, unstable. These two mechanical beasts posed a threat unlike anything she had faced in centuries.
Light that pierced everything. Steam that dissolved all. Together, they hemmed her in, leaving no escape. And still, they did not relent.
Like cats toying with a mouse, they harried her mercilessly.
"Vermin!!"
Pride advanced with thunderous steps, eyes blazing red.
"You dared harm Father!"
"You, "
"For that crime… death would not suffice!!"
Another beam seared past, scorching her nearly into dissolution. Yet Pride's control was precise, crippling her without killing. Duke's command had been clear: capture alive.
But alive did not mean unharmed.
"AAAH!!"
Evelynn screamed, rolling desperately aside. Gluttony lunged, jaws slamming into the ground and leaving a crater, nearly tearing her apart again.
Her form unraveled into black smoke. Terror filled her eyes. She could barely hold herself together. A few more moments and she would dissipate into nothingness.
A demon might never truly die, but resurrection after such a collapse required centuries of slumber to re-form. The darkness of dissolution was no less cruel than death itself.
"I surrender!!"
She shrieked, her last strength pouring into the words. Her whips had dissolved, half her body had scattered into smoke, and even maintaining a silhouette was beyond her.
"Denied!"
Gluttony's maw gaped wide, lunging again. Pride only watched coldly, making no move to stop him.
Father had ordered her alive, but to grind her down to the brink of death, that was mercy enough.
Gluttony tore at her, again and again, leaving her on the edge of collapse without granting release.
At last, Evelynn's form shattered fully into vapor, her essence flickering weakly.
Seeing this, Pride stayed Gluttony's hand and turned his gaze on her.
"Worm. Be grateful for Father's mercy."
He raised a hand, summoning a Hex crystal that formed into a sealed prism around Evelynn, locking her within without the faintest crack.
"Be spared from oblivion."
The prison snapped shut, and Pride hoisted it effortlessly onto Gluttony's back.
"Let's return."
He shifted into motorcycle form, leading the way. Gluttony transformed into a car, the prison perched atop, and followed close.
With Duke absent, Pride assumed command. As the eldest of the Seven Deadly Sins, firstborn and most mature, he bore authority over the others, a right Duke himself had granted him.
The first child always receives special favor. That was why Pride stood above the rest.
…
"Mmm…"
When Duke awoke, a cold glint greeted him, an arrow aimed between his eyes.
Vayne stood there, crossbow in hand, a blanket clutched around her body. Her face was shadowed, her gaze venomous. Her teeth ground together, finger tight on the trigger, yet she could not bring herself to release it.
"You…"
Duke smacked his lips dryly, staring down the bolt. "Figures. I've never gotten along with Demacians."
"Get out!!"
Vayne finally lowered the crossbow and instead drove her foot into his chest, booting him out of the tent.
Coughing, Duke fished fresh clothes from his inventory, dressed, then lit a cigar. He sat at the tent's entrance, waiting for her to calm down.
Last night had spiraled wildly out of control.
What should have been a simple hunt between predator and prey had twisted midway, Vayne barging in, and Evelynn leaving them both ensnared.
"Damn it. So that's what Evelynn's W really does in the real world."
Grinding out his cigar, Duke rubbed his face. "I need to properly catalog every champion's abilities in reality, or the next mishap will be far worse."
…
Soon Vayne emerged, fully dressed, night-vision goggles resting on her brow. Her eyes were icy, voice flat.
"Nothing happened last night."
"Not that it matters, I wasn't the one who lost out."
Duke rolled his eyes. He hated dealing with emotions like this.
Leave a man of science to handle relationships? More trouble than nuclear fusion.
Thunk!
An arrow thudded into the table beside him. Vayne's fist clenched, then loosened. She threw her cloak over her shoulder and stalked away.
Duke exhaled into the morning chill.
"Miss Fortune was already enough of a headache… now another one?"
"Life's only getting messier."
He donned his white coat and stepped inside. The bedsheets were torn, the rest a crumpled mess.
That was when the roar of engines split the dawn. Pride burst from the forest, Gluttony close behind, a sealed crystal prison strapped to his roof.
Inside, Evelynn's smoky essence writhed weakly.
"Father, we caught her!"
Pride swept his gaze over the tent's disarray, then set the crystal cage at Duke's feet. Duke frowned at the demoness within, jaw tightening.
She had deceived him, but caused no real loss.
A double-edged blade. He would need to handle her carefully.
For now, he stored the prison in his inventory and turned to his creations, his expression softening.
"You've worked hard."
"Father…" Pride hesitated, glancing at Gluttony. "There's something I must ask. Did you… just give us another stepmother?"
Gluttony looked at Duke with wide, expectant eyes.
"Children shouldn't meddle in adult matters."
Duke sighed, dismissing them back into the inventory. He lit another cigar, gazing at the rising sun.
"Being a man… really is hard."
End of chapter....
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