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"Damn it, slut..." the High Priest choked out, his voice rattling in his throat as he spat a mouthful of blood onto the stone steps.
"How... How did you grow so strong?!" He was one of the strongest Master-level professionals in the cult, an A-Rank powerhouse who had spent decades refining his dark mana.
A spoiled, arrogant noblewoman from a small noble family shouldn't have been able to even touch his clothes, let alone bypass his defenses and rip his living heart out of his chest before he could react!
Lady Clara didn't even answer his question.
She just tilted her head back, her sharp, demonic fangs glinting in the crimson light of the altar as a dark, wicked smile spread across her lips.
Standing in her transformed Evil Spirit body, with her flowing crimson hair, pointed ears, and pale, flawless skin, she looked mesmerized by the dripping piece of meat in her clawed right hand.
The human heart was still pulsing wildly, pumping warm blood across her slender fingers.
Slowly, gracefully, she lifted the beating heart straight to her lips.
"It's so good..." Clara whispered, her voice layered with an unnatural, echoing, and seductive double-tone that sent a cold shiver right down Leo's spine in the real world.
Without a second thought, she opened her mouth and sank her sharp fangs deep into the pulsing flesh.
SQUELCH.
The sound of tearing muscle and spurting blood echoed through the cavern.
She took a large bite directly out of the High Priest's heart.
Dark red blood smeared across her chin and dripped down her pale throat, staining the front of her bright silk dress.
She closed her glowing crimson eyes, chewing slowly with an expression of pure, intoxicating ecstasy.
She licked the warm blood from her lips as if she were tasting the most expensive, vintage wine in the world.
"Ah..." Clara moaned softly, a flush of pleasure warming her pale cheeks as she swallowed the piece of heart. "I haven't had a bite of people at your level in a long while... hehee..!"
Watching her close her eyes and moan in blissful satisfaction while eating his own flesh made the High Priest's blood run cold.
But as he looked at her face, at the absolute lack of human emotion, the arrogant posture, and the terrifying killing intent around her, a sudden, chilling realization hit his brain.
This woman wasn't Clara.
"Who are you...?" the High Priest gasped, his voice trembling as he stumbled backward across the stone floor, leaving a thick trail of blood behind him. "You're... you're not that crazy bitch Clara! When did this happen?! When did you take her over?!"
Clara simply giggled, opening her glowing crimson eyes to stare down at him with playful contempt.
She took another slow bite of the heart, chewing happily without bothering to explain a single thing to a dying man.
Knowing that staying on this altar meant his soul would be completely devoured, the High Priest ground his teeth together.
He reached into his blood-stained black robes with his left hand and pulled out a small, cracked crystal covered in glowing silver teleportation runes.
"It seems... I won't be able to summon my Lord this time," the High Priest snarled, his eyes burning with hatred as he crushed the crystal in his fist. "But whoever you might be, you and the whole damn Windrake family will suffer for this!"
As the blinding silver light of the spatial teleportation array began to wrap around his bleeding body, the High Priest made one final, desperate move.
He didn't want to leave empty-handed after losing his secret base and his own heart.
He extended his remaining mana like a violent, invisible claw, reaching straight toward the top of the obsidian altar.
With a brutal yank, his mana grabbed the egg-sized Blood Crystal embedded directly inside the chest of the lifelike Evil God statue!
CRACK!
The dark stone of the statue shattered around the edges as the glowing, crimson blood crystal was forcefully ripped out of its socket.
The crystal flew through the air, slapping straight into the High Priest's waiting hand just as the spatial vortex swallowed him whole.
With a deafening BANG, the High Priest vanished from the platform, leaving behind only a puddle of blood.
However, the rest of the Evil God followers and the few Windrake family nobles standing on the altar were not so lucky...
With the Blood Crystal ripped out of the statue and the High Priest gone, the violent energy holding the sacrificial ritual together instantly collapsed.
And they were left trapped in the room with an extremely powerful Evil Spirit wearing Clara's skin.
In the shimmering projection, Alex and Leo watched as Clara finished swallowing the last piece of the heart.
She tossed the empty, dripping arteries onto the stone floor, wiped her bloody chin with the back of her hand, and turned her glowing crimson eyes toward the terrified cultists and nobles.
"Where do you think you're going?" Clara asked, her lips curling into a sadistic grin.
She disappeared from where she stood.
What followed in Leo's mana projection was a one-sided, merciless slaughter.
Clara moved like a crimson blur, tearing through the black-robed priests and the screaming Windrake nobles and their followers with her bare claws.
She slashed throats, ripped limbs from sockets, and greedily drained the fresh blood and souls from their bodies to nourish her own evil spirit body.
The projection flickered wildly, the ghostly blue light turning unstable as the simulated carnage reached its peak.
"Gah...!" Leo suddenly gasped in the real world, dropping to his knees on the altar.
He clutched his head, his nose bleeding slightly as his Mana Echoes talent reached its absolute limit.
The three-dimensional blue figures shattered into tiny particles of light and dissolved into the damp air, leaving the dark cavern completely silent once again.
Alex stood over Leo, his jaw clenched tight as he looked up from the piles of real, rotting corpses around their feet to the half-broken demon statue at the top of the altar.
"So that's what happened," Alex whispered, his high-pitched, melodic voice edged with cold anger. "Luckily, I didn't rush in mindlessly… or else I would have been…"
He really didn't know what would happen to him, but he sure knew nothing good would happen.
He quickly helped Leo back to his feet. "It seems when that old bastard ripped the Blood Crystal out of the statue to escape, he destabilized the spatial rift right above it."
He looked up at the jagged, mirror-like crack hovering over the demon statue.
"Boss..." Leo groaned, wiping the blood from his nose as he looked up at the crackling spatial rift in terror. "If Clara slaughtered everyone here... where are Liria and her sister? I didn't see their dead bodies on the altar!"
"They're alive," Alex said decisively, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword. "I think she must have kept them alive… I can only let them suffer for a bit longer until I can save them."
Although he was scared of how powerful Clara had become, he was not hopeless.
Alex looked back at his Source Power that was still increasing slowly; he smiled softly.
However, it was the space crack before him that made him want to turn around and run away as fast as his body could carry him.
But he couldn't.
If that crack broke wide open, a full-scale Void Rift outbreak would erupt right in the middle of Iron Creek City.
Worse still, if a horde of high-level monsters spilled out into the streets, it wouldn't take long for them to reach the residential district where Uncle John and Elena lived.
He couldn't just walk away and let a massacre happen.
Alex turned his head, his short black hair brushing against his neck as he looked down at Leo.
"Leo," Alex said, his voice dropping into a cool, commanding tone layered with his natural hypnotic resonance to cut through the boy's panic. "Stand up. I need you to leave right now."
Leo blinked, looking up with wide, terrified eyes. "B-Boss? What about you?! You can't stay down here! You can't sacrifice yourself!"
"Asshole, why would I sacrifice myself? But I need to handle this before it gets out of control," Alex cursed softly.
He reached out with a pale, slender hand and placed it on Loe's shoulder. "Listen to me carefully. Run back up and find Abu…"
"The frost mana I left on him should be wearing off by now. Use the ownership deeds we just won to claim him."
"Take him out with you, with him around you.. Nobody will dare stop you; I'll meet you guys tomorrow… Come on, get out of here."
Leo swallowed hard, looking from the crackling spatial rift above the statue back to Alex's face.
Even dressed in a sexy form-fitting white silk shirt with his blazer tied around his waist like a skirt, Alex looked completely calm, radiating a cold, untouchable authority that made it impossible to argue.
"I understand, Boss," Leo said, his voice thickening with loyalty. "Please... don't get yourself killed down here!"
Without wasting another second, Leo turned around and sprinted across the narrow, blood-slicked stone bridge as fast as his legs could carry him, disappearing into the dark corridor leading back to the surface.
"Hehee… don't even think about it!" Just as he was about to call the Empress, her voice suddenly sounded in his mind.
"I am not your servant, darling. I do not grant favors for free," she giggled, her voice dropping into a dark, seductive purr. "If you want me to lend you the power to seal that rift and save your precious little city…"
"What are you willing to give me in return? Are you finally ready to stop fighting your own instincts and let me have a little fun with our body?"