Chapter 291 Independence -20
Chapter 291 Independence -20
As the ice melted, Gashiel's form was revealed.
Even frozen, she had been beautiful, but in person she now drew a genuine exclamation of admiration.
Her waist-length hair, platinum blonde and silvery, scattered a gorgeous light through the darkness of Gashiel's cell, and just looking at it prompted a sigh.
With refined, perfectly balanced features, even with her eyes closed, she was obviously a tremendous beauty.
And those white wings, neatly folded—wings unique to celestial women—the word "angel" immediately came to mind.
A holy angel.
"Hmph..."
Even with a beautiful angel woman straight out of a religious painting in front of him, Jiha was unmoved, simply grabbing her by the waist.
She would collapse if he let go.
Alex, who had been staring blankly, let out a mortified groan.
"Where do you think you're touching her?! Don't touch her!!"
"You think I'd stop just because you yelled?"
Jiha ignored Alex's shouting entirely and slid his hand over Gashiel's waist.
A slender waist. The fabric was so thin the texture of her skin subtly came through.
"Still not waking up."
Perhaps from being trapped so long, Gashiel hadn't regained consciousness. She would collapse the moment Jiha let go.
'I'll decide what to do with her a little later, for now...'
Jiha wrapped his arm around Gashiel's waist and pulled her against him. The reaction came from right behind him.
"Grraaagh! Urrrghh!!"
Alex was staggering to his feet, clutching his stomach.
The Black Darkness that had been clinging to his arm had vanished.
'Looks like he's done stealing Gashiel's Mana. That power-up's finished.'
Alex must have commandeered her Mana after trapping Gashiel in ice.
Once the ice was thawed, that theft ended automatically.
Gravely wounded and barely able to move, Alex was no longer a match for Jiha.
But Jiha had no intention of stopping here.
He was going to kill him miserably.
"So, what now?"
As if to flaunt it, Jiha gently cradled the unconscious Gashiel in both arms.
Alex's eyes bulged as if they'd pop out, and he forced himself upright.
"Grgh! Guhhh..."
Moving roughly with a hole in his gut sent blood gushing out, splattering heavily. Even with immediate treatment, his life would be hanging by a thread. To fight now would be nothing short of suicide.
But Alex was burning with enough obsession to ignore his own body.
"Oh, good. Hang in there. Really, hang in there. Your beloved big sister's fallen into a bad man's hands, after all. I'll be stripping her bare and dragging her into bed a little later."
As he mocked him, Jiha slid the hand on her waist downward.
Alex's mouth fell open at the sight of a man's rough hand casually stroking Gashiel's backside.
"Grraaarrgghh!!"
A groan of rage. His blood-soaked face, caught in the earlier explosion, twisted hideously. The elegant prince from a few hours ago was nowhere to be seen... but Alex took a step forward by sheer obsession.
Thud! Slurch!!
Alex advanced, burning with a resolve to fight to the death, to drag his enemy down together... but Jiha's Shadow Hand seized his ankle.
"What..."
He tried to shake his foot free and throw it off like before, but it didn't work. He'd only managed earlier because he'd been borrowing Gashiel's Mana. Now, Alex's body was wrecked and his own Mana was completely spent.
"What's this? Can't move? Oh dear, what a shame."
Still mocking him, Jiha gently kneaded Gashiel's backside. Alex, who had been desperately trying to escape the Shadow Hand, gaped.
"Y-You son of a bitch!! Get your hands off my big sister!!"
"The guy who locked her up is spouting that crap?"
Jiha scoffed, but Alex was in no state to hear anything anymore. His face looked ready to sell his own soul if it meant killing Jiha, and he thrashed around desperately.
But the Shadow Hand only held his ankle in silence, its grip slowly intensifying.
"Grgh. Aaaaargh!!"
Alex screamed in agony as the grip compressed his ankle, slowly, very slowly. No matter how pathological the obsession, it couldn't overcome physical pain. The pain might be forgotten for a moment in a spike of passion or an adrenaline rush, but it never lasted long.
'Once I make him taste real helplessness, the hormone high ends too.'
Jiha maintained his sneer on the surface, but inside he kept his cold composure. His current objective was to kill Alex in as miserable a way as possible.
Until now, he'd never really bothered plotting exactly how to finish off a defeated enemy who'd come at him. This one was the exception, partly because he'd made up his mind to do so...
And partly because he could feel Gashiel's body twitching in his arms.
'She's not fully awake yet, but she seems to have some consciousness... Well then, let's test the waters.'
Gashiel wasn't stupid. There was no way she didn't know Alex was the one who'd trapped her. He'd show her what Alex had done, let her watch him die, gauge her reaction, and then decide how to handle her.
Bite her and kill her outright? Or keep her alive and use her going forward?
Crackle.
"Aaaarrgghh!!"
As his ankle bones slowly cracked and shattered from the pressure, Alex thrashed, tears streaming. The tightening force was overwhelming—flesh began to tear and blood started flowing.
Crun-nch!
His ankle bones were crushed into splinters.
"Kah. Kah-haaah!!"
Alex shrieked before his body toppled backward. He collapsed to the floor, smacking the back of his head against it, his body trembling uncontrollably.
Flat on his back, staring at the ceiling, Alex foamed at the mouth and couldn't even breathe properly.
"Kk-kuh. Khurg."
Every time his chest heaved, blood pouring from his abdomen slowly soaked the floor.
As a sheltered young master, he had never experienced the agony of his body being literally broken apart.
With Alex dying on his back, Jiha took hold of Gashiel's body and positioned her in front of him. He could feel her body gradually warming, but her eyes remained shut.
"You've done so well. Our little brother."
Clap! Cla-ap!
Hearing applause break the silence, Alex forced his head up—and froze.
There was Gashiel, held in Jiha's arms, eyes still closed, her arms being manipulated, controlled into clapping her own hands.
"You trapped me in ice, stole my Mana, ran around killing a bunch of people, you even schemed to set the world on fire—but still, you're my little brother, so you did it all thinking of me, right? Your big sister knows everything. You did such a good job!"
When Jiha mocked him, even faking a voice for it, Alex thrashed.
"Th-This bastard..."
"Oh, wow, he can even curse! Our little brother. He's grown up so much. Never mind that he's a pathetic fool who can't even get it up properly. Honestly, little brother or not, watching you clumsily jerk yourself off alone in front of me while I was trapped in ice was just creepy. I kind of wish you'd die soon."
Clap! Clap! Clap!
With Gashiel's hands clapping and Jiha whispering from behind her, at a glance, it really did sound like Gashiel herself was speaking.
And more than anything—wasn't some strange man handling her body however he pleased?
"Grraaagh. Urraaagghh!!"
Alex screamed and desperately tried to rise. Every motion made more blood gush from his abdomen, and the shooting, throbbing pain from his shattered ankle was agonizing enough to kill him, but he still couldn't stay still.
His obsession with his sister and his hatred for Jiha overpowered his body's pain, forcing him to move somehow.
"Graaaahhh!"
As Alex planted his hands on the floor and rose with a scream, Jiha was inwardly a little surprised. A sheltered young master he might be, but his obsession with Gashiel was truly formidable.
Grabbing Gashiel's waist, Jiha turned her around so they faced each other, and smiled smugly. Then he gently stroked her hair, her head resting against his chest.
"Keuugh. Urrraaaaghh!!"
Like a wounded boar, Alex limped toward him, panting raggedly. His eyes were bloodshot, his face alight with a determination to kill Jiha even if it meant his own death.
Still stroking Gashiel's hair, Jiha lowered his head. He wrapped both arms around her waist, and softly pressed their lips together.
Chuu-urp.
Gashiel's first kiss, stolen while unconscious, by a man she barely knew.
"You son of a biiiitttch!!!"
Seeing his sister kissing Jiha, Alex screamed and charged. His head had exploded—ankle pain and everything else forgotten, he practically threw his body forward.
Shlunk.
A sword smoothly embedded itself into Alex's charging chest.
"Kugh. Gu-uhhk..."
The force drained from Alex's eyes as he glared at Jiha. A fatal strike exploiting the exact instant his rage erupted. Alex looked down at the sword buried in his chest with an uncomprehending expression.
Jiha's hand was empty; the sword now floated in the open air.
While kissing her, Jiha had wrapped Gashiel in his arms to conceal his actions from Alex, then used Blink. The sword had silently appeared right in front of Alex's chest, but in the dark cell, it was hard to see. Alex, driven mad by rage, had seen only what was in front of him and charged right into the blade, impaling himself.
"Grghh. Urrghh."
Alex tried to pull the sword out with trembling hands, but his arms had no strength. Half the blade was buried deep, making it difficult... and on top of that, his vision was fading from the blood loss in his abdomen. If he pulled it out now, he'd hemorrhage instantly.
He was dying. In truth, he didn't have the strength left to pull it out anyway.
"Kuughhhh..."
Stay still and he dies, pull it out and he dies. Alex realized he was about to die.
And right before his eyes, the sister he was so obsessively fixated on was cradled in another man's arms, her lips being sucked. As if taunting him, Jiha smiled at Alex while parting Gashiel's lips with his own and lightly bit them.
Unconscious, Gashiel couldn't resist anything Jiha did. Her only reaction was a slow-rising blush spreading across her porcelain-white skin.
"Kh. Uuurghh!!"
As he watched, the dying Alex desperately reached out a hand, heaving a tormented breath. But the distance was far too great. Leaning forward while stretching out his arm only drove the sword deeper into him.
With blood dripping steadily down, Alex groaned in pain but still couldn't stop himself from reaching out.
"D-Don't touch..."
At Alex's agonized dying groan, Jiha sneered, and caught Gashiel's chin in his fingers. As if to show him, he vulgarly ran his tongue over the pure woman's lips... and slid his hand down.
Traveling down her elegant nape, the hand moved toward her chest and then softly squeezed. The fullness filled his palm with immediate satisfaction; breasts that would stir any man's lust.
He kneaded the breast, too large for one hand to fully grasp, in a circular motion.
As though mapping out exactly from where to where, and in what shape it swelled, Jiha's palm delicately confirmed the contours, lifting it from beneath.
Eyes rolling back wildly, Alex screamed out a bloody cry.
"Don't touch her!!! Th-That's..."
Jiha ignored him and savored Gashiel's voluptuous breasts with both hands. As he kneaded the satisfyingly touchable mounds over her clothes, he naturally began to grind his erect cock against Gashiel's lower belly.
The erection, hard enough to feel like it would tear through his pants, prodded Gashiel's lower belly playfully. Gripping Gashiel's backside firmly in both hands, Jiha thrust his hips forward and back in large motions, stimulating her abdomen with his manhood.
Press. Press. Press.
There was nothing restrained about the way he moved his hips, coveting a woman.
As if a bit of cloth was no obstacle at all, his hardness boldly jabbed and pressed near her navel. Beneath his pants, his upright shaft slipped subtly below her belly button, then moved in a slow circle. It was a lewd motion, the male searching for the hidden female, signaling the act to come.
Both were still clothed, which somehow made the sight even more provocatively explicit.
Jiha's manhood had located the deepest place of the beautiful angel.
"Ah..."
As the stimulation that began at her lips traveled to her chest and finally teased her secret place, a sweet sound escaped Gashiel's lips. A vivid blush floated up on her pale face. Alex despaired and screamed.
"Ah, no!!!"
Uncaring of his own state, Alex stretched out his hand with all his might.
Shlunnnk.
Leaning his upper body forward as he reached out, the sword fully buried itself into him. A searing pain shot all the way to the crown of his head. As his body went still, Alex looked down to see the entire sword, hilt and all, rooted into his chest.
Perfect self-impalement.
Blood poured out freely, streaming down to his ankles.
"Kkuh. Guhh..."
Bloody foam rose in his throat. Even obsession had reached its limit.
Thud.
Alex's head slumped, and then he was still.
Dead.
"Hmph..."
Jiha pulled his lips from Gashiel's, eyes narrowing.
That wrapped up most of tonight's events.
'Lowchen must have fled. Doesn't matter, I'll run into him eventually doing business. I can deal with him then.'
Now he had to settle the night's aftermath, then declare independence tomorrow morning.
As Jiha thought that, a faint moan escaped Gashiel.
"Mmmn..."
Her closed eyelids trembled. A sign she'd wake soon. Jiha thought for a moment.
After the fierce battles against Lowchen, Alex, and the chimera, Jiha's Mana was almost completely depleted. He had no reserves left to fight another strong opponent.
'Will she just let this slide?'
If Gashiel immediately attacked him to avenge her brother, it would be dangerous. Attacking Jiha after he'd rescued her was irrational... but the brother was a madman, so who's to say the sister wasn't a madwoman too? Moreover, Alex had just died at Jiha's hands.
Jiha opened his mouth and lowered his head toward the angel's nape. Biting her was the simple solution. His opponent would be neutralized, and he would recover.
A simple way to resolve it.