Rise of the Lustful Evil Monarch (Re)

Third Person's POV

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(Author's Warning: Read the next two chapters at your own risk. A little graphic description of gore is present)

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Ethan finally let out a long, shaky breath and muttered with a small smile on his lips,

"…It's good to see you both."

And despite the turmoil that still clung in their minds, both women smiled.

Because at least, for now, they were safe and together.

He then turned to the small caves and started walking toward them.

The Blood Slave silently followed him.

Virelle and Velcy exchanged glances and didn't ask anything from Ethan as they followed him too.

Just as they reached one of the cave entrances, an intense rotting smell filled their noses.

Velcy's cute face scrunched as her fluffy ears flattened, and her white tail instinctively covered her nose, while Virelle simply frowned but didn't react too much.

Ethan, too stiffened at the putrid stench.

His instincts and experience warned him that whatever lay ahead was definitely not normal and he concluded that he should be careful and not underestimate it as a lousy threat.

He tightened his grip on his saber and stepped forward cautiously as he pushed aside the rocks blocking the entrance.

The moment the barrier was breached, a swarm of black flies burst forth from within and screeched inhumanly as they attacked Ethan.

Their bulbous dark green bodies glistened with oily black carapace and those pincers snapped hungrily like rusted scissors as they pounced swarmed towards him.

They left a faint greenish-black gas emanating in their wake from their slick bloated bodies.

"Be careful, Brother Ethan!! They are Corpse Flies! They are poisonous and attack in large numbers—"

Virelle barely had time to finish her warning before the monstrous insects swarmed toward Ethan's face.

But instead of retreating or panicking, Ethan had a small smirk on his face.

Let's see whether my dark magic is more corrosive or your poison is.

A dark glint flickered in his eyes as he exhaled, releasing a stream of black smoke.

And the effect he expected was immediate.

The moment the dark smoke came into contact with the Corpse Flies, a part of the swarm instantly melted into piles of sizzling, green-and-black goo while the remaining flies screeched in panic and scattered in all directions.

Ethan didn't even glance at them before he raised his hand.

A thin chain flickered in the dim cave light, and a green crystalline dagger flashed through the air like emerald lightning and sliced through the remaining flies.

The night was filled with beautiful crystal green arc-shaped flashes and the sound of blades cutting into flesh constantly sounded for a few moments.

Chains rattled as the dagger carved through the insects and their bisected bodies rained down in twitching halves.

The wind from the wind attributed green dagger's rapid movement stirred the stagnant air and dispersed some of the lingering rot. Stay connected through My Virtual Library Empire

Both Virelle and Velcy stared at him in astonishment.

Just how deep does his power run…? Virelle thought as her mind raced.

Despite being with him and also fighting with him for the past two years, she could never run out of new surprises that he occasionally threw out at her.

Though she was absent for seventy percent of the year due to her being a student of the Abyssal Sanctum, she still spent the rest of the months in the years with him.

Even those with a Legendary affinity for darkness can't wield it with such ease. Could it be… an Overlord-grade affinity? But how is that possible?

Isn't that mythical and only rumored to have existed in ancient times?

She was still stuck on the previous scene where he had breathed out his dark smoke and melted the flies into piles of goo.

Velcy on the other hand, stole one last glance at the floor, where the poison of the flies had mixed with Ethan's dark energy.

The very ground corroded and cracked as the two malevolent forces consumed and ate each other while also melting the ground at the same time.

She swallowed hard and turned away.

But what they found inside the cave was far worse than anything they had imagined.

Ethan's steps slowed and his expression darkened as he took in the sight before him.

He had expected something horrific, yet the sheer and grotesque reality of it still sent a sharp wave of disgust curling in his stomach.

A humanoid corpse lay sprawled on the ground.

The flesh had long begun to rot and the putrefaction attracted swarms of white maggots and the corpse flies eggs that squirmed and pulsed beneath the remaining skin.

The stench of decay mixed with the thick, rancid scent of old blood and bile.

His eyes flickered lower, and his jaw tightened.

A pool of yellowish liquid stained the ground near the corpse's legs.

Ethan knew that it was the unmistakable aftermath of whatever unspeakable horrors had been inflicted upon her by those dark goblins.

His gaze shifted upward as it traced the outline of the body. The delicate shape of the hips, the slender fingers curled into stiff, claw-like grips—

It was a woman.

Velcy and Virelle didn't fare as well.

The moment their eyes landed on the mutilated corpse, they doubled over and started retching violently on the floor.

They vomited all the previous food and bile on the floor as their heaving breaths echoed in the cave and mixed with the distant buzzing of lingering flies.

Meanwhile, the Blood Slave remained silent as it stood motionless in the shadows.

When it finally spoke, its rasping voice slithered through the air like a croaked whisper of a frog.

"Pitiful soul… She must have been used as a breeding tool by those wretched creatures.

And when her despair reached its peak, they must have slaughtered her in the midst of a violent birth."

Ethan's stomach twisted and his fingers curled tightly around the hilt of his saber as he closely observed the dead woman.

Her figure lay sprawled on the cave floor with rusted chains still binding her limbs.