Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

Above Shaai's palace, storm clouds gathered, crackling with lightning.

The winds roared, and the ground trembled with mini-quakes, as though a colossal force stirred beneath.

The elements seemed incited by a supernatural presence, as diverse elemental energies and their respective Attainments materialized in the void, posing a threat to the entire region.

"Hm? What… what is happening?"

A young witch who happened to be in the surroundings stopped her studies on potion-making and asked her fellow witches. Her friends also stopped what they were doing and looked in a particular direction where the unrest was at its peak.

The teacher who presided over this open classroom for young witches looked dignified as she observed the sky before mumbling to herself. "That looks like someone is about to go through their Path-based Ordeal. Looks like a Ranker's Calamity to me."

Just when the veteran witch was about to dismiss her students to vacate the premises, something strange happened. The Ranker's Calamity that was about to strike down on someone suddenly vanished into thin air, as if it didn't exist in the first place.

"Hm? Someone suppressed their Calamity? Are they not ready to face it yet?" the veteran witch asked herself as she looked at the skies. She then shook her head before sighing to herself.

"I remember my Path Ordeal. I would have died if it wasn't for the preparations I made in advance. I guess postponing it is a wise choice. But if they take too long to make up their mind, the opportunity might be robbed away from them."

The veteran witch said to herself before quietly resuming to sit on her chair in the middle of a lush green garden, surrounded by her young witch apprentices.

***

Meanwhile, in Shaai's boudoir.

The owner of the palace was still in her birthday suit. However, it looked like she had sobered up after sensing an impending Calamity, which then vanished into nothing as if what she had sensed was but a figment of her imagination.

It also helped that Shaai had just gotten down from her rollercoaster of emotions, achieving complete satisfaction with her carnal desires. It allowed her to dispel the excessive influence of Lust Mana acting on her body, finally enabling her to form comprehensive and concurrent thoughts.

Shaai sat straight back in her bed before pulling away from Jolly. The latter chuckled but didn't proceed to engage in another round with her. He got up and stood beside the bed, right in front of her, adjusting his hair with one hand and scratching his balls with the other.

"Who— who are you?"

Shaai looked at Jolly and asked in a grim voice. For some reason, she didn't think that the man standing in front of her was the same Jolly she knew. The Jolly she knew would have never looked her in the eyes. Even though he was not someone who was scared of her, Jolly also didn't act like he wasn't afraid of openly confronting her.

However, Jolly, who stood right in front of him, in confidence, with all his naked glory, looked like he was not afraid of the sky falling on him.

Or rather, it looked like he was sure that he could get away with anything he did here.

"The one who wants to spend some more time with you, my dear." Jolly's face broke into a known smile as he looked at Shaai. His light brown eyes had a certain intensity to them that one couldn't copy– that did not exist before.

"You are definitely not Jolly," Shaai's voice turned cold when she looked at Jolly's smug expression. She raised her hands and decided to use her S-Ranked Skills against the man in front of her. Even though he was just a Grandmaster Ranker, for some reason, Shaai didn't feel safe in his presence. There were no physical indications. It was just her womanly instinct that was screaming at her.

In the next moment, however, Shaai's expression changed once again and her face turned ugly. It looked like she couldn't tap into any of her powers. However, that was not the most terrifying part.

Shaai felt she had regressed in her Path. Her mana core had retrograded within the S-Rank, from the peak of the late stage to the beginning of the late stage. Centuries of effort in steadily progressing in her Path seemed robbed away and given to someone else.

"You—what did you do to me?"

Shaai looked at Jolly hatefully, unable to comprehend how a Grandmaster Ranker reversed their roles, making her the victim of this intimate session. The news, if spread within the coven, would label her a failure and jeopardize her position leading Asmodeus' faction.

"Kekeke. You know exactly what I did to you," Jolly spoke with a light smile.

"After all, it was your setup. I just decided to make use of it in my favor," he continued before turning around. Unconcerned about Shaai's potential reaction, he started rummaging through her private room without consent, searching for something.

Shaai's eyes burned with anger. She wanted to get up and attack Eren, but, in addition to being unable to channel her mana, she discovered she couldn't even stand without Eren's consent. It was the same mana-core-based restriction she had intended to use to control Jolly after their session.

Snap!

Eren snapped his fingers and summoned a mass of water around himself, refreshing it before finally opening the drawer. "There it is," he said to himself, taking out a bottle of premium-

looking liquor meant for consumption by high-ranking entities

—very exclusive and allocable only to those backed by a massive organization.

Eren retrieved two chalices from the Inventory and placed them on a small table by the window. He poured the scarlet wine into the glasses and then called out to Shaai.

"Come here. Have this drink and answer a few questions I have, would you, Shaai dear?" he said while promptly sealing the wine bottle.

Being familiar with the best Labh Salem had to offer, he didn't want to dilute its potency by exposing it longer than necessary.