When the plot-skips players into the game world

Chapter 532: Chapter 416 Charm of Deadlock Chapter 532: Chapter 416 Charm of Deadlock Aiwass took the elevator from the top floor of the Lohar Society’s headquarters and left, but he didn’t leave the Lohar Society directly; instead, he went to the seventeenth floor.

That was the floor where Lawyer York Hermes’s office was located.

He had been dead for a while, but the office had not been transferred by the Lohar Society immediately.

On one hand, this was because more than half of the Lohar Society’s upper echelon was already behind bars, leaving the rest too scared to make any big moves; on the other hand, it was because the Supervisory Court had placed a Prohibition using Law Magic here.

Aiwass didn’t hesitate to lift the Prohibition.

The crow on his shoulder flew down on its own to peck the door lock.

Thus, the door opened by itself, and they went straight in.

The long-unopened room was filled with the ancient scent of dust.

The surroundings were almost unchanged from the past.

Only those green plants that Lawyer York had taken good care of were by now mostly dead.

The beautiful green parrot in the birdcage had long since died; its starved corpse had not decayed or started to stink but had become shriveled and dried up.

And the tank full of goldfish corpses had turned the water murky.

Only the group photos hanging on the walls remained unchanged from before.

The photos captured the vigor of Lawyer York’s past.

Even though he had been dead for many days, disgraced both personally and professionally, he still smiled as radiantly and happily as ever in the pictures.

“Heh…”

Aiwass looked up at those photos and suddenly chuckled softly, as if mocking something.

The crow on his shoulder disappeared silently like a shadow.

She transformed into the Night Fiend’s form, one hand resting on the back of the chair behind the desk.

Wings like shadows spread out behind the Night Fiend, the dust in the entire room scattered by the whirlwind that arose without cause.

The corpses in the fish tank and birdcage all disintegrated, disappeared.

Turbid flows were stirred up in the fish tank.

The faces in those photos also became blank after a gust of black wind blew over them.

When Aiwass turned his head back, she had already changed back into the crow, sitting quietly inside the birdcage.

Only the chair she had pulled out from behind the desk was slowly spinning.

“…Making yourself at home, I see.”

Aiwass smiled and comfortably took a seat in the chair the Night Fiend had pulled out for him.

He took a deep breath and said quietly, “Please bring me a candle, Vinesse.”

The crow opened the birdcage on its own and flew out, heading to the cabinet on the side.

While Aiwass sat in the spot that once belonged to Lawyer York, he gently touched the wound on his collarbone that went deep to the bone.

The severe pain made him gasp.

The flesh from his collarbone to his shoulder blade had been peeled and pecked away, and one could see the bones with the naked eye.

Aiwass’s blood had long soaked through his upper garments; his sensitive nerves were shrieking and screaming in agony, and the veins on his forehead jumped violently from the pain.

It was only because Aiwass had already reached the third Energy Level on the Path of Devotion… had it been anyone else with such a grave injury, they wouldn’t be able to walk around as if nothing happened.

If left untreated, they would simply die from excessive blood loss.

But for Aiwass, such an injury was no longer fatal.

Just walking these few steps, the bleeding had already stopped and the wound was no longer worsening.

By the time he got up tomorrow, it would be mostly healed.

However, to regrow so much lost flesh out of thin air, that might take a few more days.

Yet Aiwass still had to meet with Isabel soon.

Therefore, Aiwass needed to use the Rite of Fire to speed up his recovery.

After lighting the candle brought over by the crow, Aiwass stretched his hand toward the flame and closed his eyes.

His neck wound hissed with white smoke as it healed at a visibly rapid pace, with missing flesh growing back — the flesh, nerves, and blood vessels were extruding like tentacles, assembling onto each other.

Like building a house, they quickly set in place and fully recovered.

And Aiwass, immersed in the sanctuary of the fire, reviewed his actions this time.

—He had been a bit too confident this time.

Perhaps it was because, in the last promotion ceremony, Aiwass had actively broken free from Beyard’s “Beguile” …

This led him to somewhat underestimate the prowess of the Succubus, Emma.

Another reason was that he still had the Night Fiend with him.

Although Aiwass tried hard to control the Night Fiend from attacking the opponent…

Should Aiwass truly be in danger, Vinesse would certainly take action to save him.

And this made Aiwass’s guard drop a little.

As a result, Aiwass was controlled at the first encounter.

He carefully savored the feeling of being controlled by Charm.

…how should I put it?

It’s like a naive little boy experiencing his first love, bouncing with eagerness to fulfill all the wishes of his beloved.

Just making eye contact is enough to feel joy, and the moment when their bodies touch, feeling the warmth, he becomes utterly infatuated.

Whenever she seemed troubled, Aiwass subconsciously shifted his stance to “thinking for her sake”.

Even when the Night Fiend tried to attack her several times, he stopped it because he was worried about her safety.

He could hear Vinesse’s anxious clamoring in the back of his mind, but he merely comforted her without concern— even explaining that everything was normal.

“Is this the effect of the Love Elixir…”

Aiwass murmured softly, feeling alarmed, “The Path of Love…

is truly frightening.”

Fortunately, Vinesse’s attacks briefly awakened him.

The pain in that instant brought Aiwass back to his senses for a moment.

Although Emma quickly tried to charm Aiwass again, by then he had gradually realized what was happening.

He then assigned Vinesse a task, to attack him again and start consuming his flesh if he ever fell back into that state of “hearing but not listening”.

Later, when Emma held Aiwass’s hand, he immediately felt his heart softening.

—He even attempted to cancel the task he had just set.

He kept resisting the charm with sheer willpower, but under Emma’s soft whispers, Aiwass’s consciousness once again gradually slipped into the abyss.

Perhaps because he maintained physical contact with Emma, the mental control this time was even deeper than before.

Even when Vinesse attacked Aiwass again, he could not immediately snap back to reality as he did before.

So Vinesse proceeded to carry out the task Aiwass had set, attacking ferociously and feasting on his flesh.

During this time, Aiwass, who had been frequently using the Shepherd’s Nurturing every day, had almost formed a habit.

The charmed state only made Aiwass not want to oppose Emma, wanting to obey her commands and requests…

but it did not distort Aiwass’s other logical courses of action and habits.@@novelbin@@

After Vinesse expressed a sense of hunger, Aiwass instinctively tried to feed her.

Just as a nursing mother instinctively wants to breastfeed upon hearing her child’s cry.

—And the moment Aiwass entered the state of “compassion and sacrifice” of Nurturing Skill, the charm was suddenly lifted.

Partly, it was because the Nurturing Skill had overridden Emma’s Charm of Radiance; another part, it was because Emma was now under Aiwass’s control as well.

As a Lifedrain child of the moon and also a Demon Incarnation, she couldn’t resist the allure of Aiwass’s Nurturing Skill.

From this perspective, Aiwass even charmed her in return—similar to the technique used to tame the Shadow Demon previously.

In other words, even though Emma’s inner demon had yet to breach her body, she was already deemed a demon by the Nurturing Skill.

The Nurturing Skill is effective against all Phantom Demons, especially those on the Path of Transcendence.

Or rather, because both her demonic soul and the body of the Son of the Moon craved Aiwass’s flesh, her internally ravenous hunger had already overshadowed the Mark of Sin representing lust of a Succubus.

To break control with control…

This might also be considered a nullification of control.

Although Aiwass hadn’t completed the nurturing on her, the moment Emma showed a craving for Aiwass’s flesh, she became Aiwass’s “child”.

Just as the imprint of Emma lingered in Aiwass’s mind—whenever he closed his eyes now, thinking of Emma, that pink eye would flash through his mind, he still couldn’t bring himself to harm her.

And as long as Emma couldn’t completely forget her immensely swollen hunger when looking at Aiwass, she couldn’t wholeheartedly charm Aiwass either.

In this “deadlock” situation, the one who had the initiative to break the stalemate was none other than Aiwass.

Because he could at any time voluntarily enter the state of Nurturing Skill, paralyzing Emma’s innate Succubus abilities.

Despite that also meaning that Aiwass was likewise under his own control, and was rapidly losing life…

but he still had Vinesse guarding him.

—Even so, Aiwass remained extremely wary of Emma.

Although she was just a Succubus…

her strength and danger were far from the first.

Yet she was the first boss Aiwass encountered after awakening his past life’s memory, whom he opposed without knowing any information, and the only one who could actually kill Aiwass.

“Wait a moment…”

Aiwass’s expression froze slightly.

He suddenly realized something was amiss.

…From yesterday to today.

Wasn’t everything he had gone through a bit too coincidental?