Lackey's Seducing Survival Odyssey

BOOM!

Nyx and Ashara felt a sudden wave of pressure ripple outward. It wasn't overwhelming, but strong enough to echo through the door that connected Nyx's Realm and the Void Empire.

"I am worried…" Nyx muttered in a pale, almost trembling tone as her eyes lowered. Her hand was still bound by the purplish rope.

Ashara forced a small smile as she moved closer, standing at Nyx's side. "Don't worry. If it's Aether, I am sure he will be fine," she said softly, almost as if she were trying to convince herself as much as Nyx.

Nyx lifted her gaze to Ashara. Even now, even with everything unravelling, Ashara carried more faith in Aether than she herself could muster.

Nyx wanted nothing more than to storm outside and discover what chaos brewed beyond this space.

Her heart ached in fear... because she loved her Empress… and she loved Aether.

She didn't want them to fight.

They were the two lights that had given her purpose, her reason to continue walking through a world that had once felt so empty.

If they clashed… if they truly fought with everything they had… what side should she take?

The question hollowed her out.

Her lips trembled as she bit down on them hard, desperately trying to suppress the storm raging inside her. She worried… she worried so deeply that her whole body quivered with it.

Ashara's eyes flickered toward Nyx. Reluctantly, hesitantly, she opened her mouth. "I-Is it true… that you wanted to take my soul and… and use it for yourself?"

Nyx's cold eyes slid toward her, then slowly, she nodded.

Ashara bit her lips, "Do you… Do you hate me?"

Nyx blinked once, shaking her head, "I have no reason to hate you. Your soul is perfectly what I needed, nothing else," she said in an indifferent tone.

Ashara's throat tightened. She swallowed hard. Nyx hadn't hesitated... Ashara was damn sure that if not for Aether standing between them, Nyx would have already ended her life without a shred of pity.

Ashara thought bitterly. 'Looks like we couldn't be friends with her,' she admitted with a pitiful sigh.

Forcing her heart to retreat, she turned her attention toward Grenthollow.

Grenthollow... The mountain of emerald glow stood proudly. Its surface pulsed with light, steady and eternal, without the slightest sign of breaking or even flickering.

"Is it still working?" Ashara asked as she stepped closer to the glowing giant.

Starla, who had been standing silently while staring at the mountain's top, gave a firm nod.

"Yes. This mountain still functions. It's not like it needs the Empire's power to remain active,"

Then her tone darkened.

"But the connection between this mountain and the Void's Cradle has already been severed… which means the souls who committed sins beyond forgiveness cannot be swallowed by the Cradle anymore. They're trapped here forever." Her finger lifted, pointing toward the base of the stairs…

There... Countless souls crowded together, their pale forms pressed against one another, unable to take even a single step forward. Not moving an inch, they stood like prisoners bound in an unseen cage.

Ashara's eyes widened, "Then… what about the cycle of samsara? I don't see it anywhere here…"

Starla pointed to the top, "It is there… it has always been there. It's just that living cannot see it from here," as her eyes shadowed the purplish whirlpool swirling furiously!

Grenthollow itself and the purplish whirlpool Aether had entered… they were one and the same.

Yet no living eyes could perceive it from any side of the mountain. To them, it was invisible.

Because only the souls... more like the Dead could ever glimpse it.

To the naked eye, it did not exist.

Not everyone could see it.... Not everyone was meant to.

After all, it was Dead, right?

"I see…" Ashara hummed thoughtfully as she stepped closer to the mountain, her eyes narrowing.

Something caught her attention. She tilted her head, pointing. "Wait… isn't that a staircase there?" as she noticed another set of steps, a little farther away from the main one.

But then,

"Wait? Another one?" she gasped in surprise, seeing another one too.

Starla chuckled lightly, shaking her head.

"There are six stairs, girl… what are you even doing?"

Ashara raised her eyebrows high. "Six?" then quickly shifted to confusion. "Why??"

Starla blinked at her, as though she couldn't believe Ashara had asked such a thing.

"Of course—what else for? They're for each Empire's souls."

"Oh…" Ashara's lips parted as she understood, "I see… so people who die in each Empire are brought here accordingly." She tilted her head again; she never thought of it... But then, brows knitting.

"But… why six stairs?"

Starla almost slapped her own forehead. Watching Ashara's puzzled face made her sigh deeply.

"Of course it's for the Six Empires! What else would it be for? Have you even learned basic geography where you live?" she scolded, muttering under her breath about how today's youth seemed so painfully lacking in wisdom.

But then... both Nyx and Ashara froze. Their eyes widened, their lips parting at the same time,

""Six?""

****

Meanwhile,

On the edges of the Empire,

Three figures landed hard on each edge of the Empire's border. Their boots cracked the soil, shockwaves rippling across the ground.

Dust rose around them in curling clouds. Each of them rolled their shoulders, cracked their necks, and tilted their heads with the same deliberate ease.

Their eyes glowed faintly in the dim light, and even though they were fucking miles apart, those eyes found one another through the horizon.

They smirked. All three.... at the same time.

And then, they broke into a run—perfectly synchronised, like hunters released into the wild.

Morgana's voice ripped across the skies, shaking like thunder. "He is an invader, trying to take over our Empire!! The Filthy Dragon Emperor! KILL HIM!!"

They boomed across mountains and rivers, echoing inside every corridor, every barracks of the Void Empire.

Soldiers froze mid-step, then roared as one, their hearts igniting with fury. Weapons scraped against armour, trembling hands gripping hilts and spears tighter. The sound of steel, shields, and boots clashed together into a single terrifying harmony.

And then... they moved.

They marched like an avalanche, a tide of bodies and blades... From above, the charge looked endless.

In a matter of seconds... they were marched against him like they had prepared for everything at any moment.

Victor's eyes narrowed, 'Hmm... Not bad' he thought.

"How dare you invade our Empire!!" one soldier screamed, his voice breaking with rage.

"DRAGON EMPEROR!!" another bellowed, spitting the title like venom.

"You will taste the wrath of the Void Empire!!" came the thunder of countless throats.

"ONLY THE EMPRESS CAN RULE THIS PLACE!!" Their chant carried like scripture, like law.

A whistling sound filled the air.

Arrows... hundreds, then thousands... broke through the clouds like a storm of iron rain. Their tips caught the dim light, flashing like falling stars. Then came the fire. Spells ignited above, black fireballs spinning.

But Victor didn't stop... His stride didn't falter.

The corners of his mouth curled into something between mockery and cruelty. With one explosive kick, his body blurred upward. Dirt and stone cracked under his feet as he tore into the sky like a launched spear.

Gasps echoed below. Soldiers lifted their eyes, shields trembling in their hands. He was above them now and.... The last thing they saw before he came down… was his smirk.

He dropped like a hammer.

When he landed....

His foot slammed into the earth, and frost exploded outward in a wave. Tiny sparks of ice shot from the ground like shattered glass. The cold was instant. It clung to skin, sank into lungs, and swallowed breath before soldiers could scream.

BOOOOMMM!

The sound echoed for miles. The ground split open, tearing into white veins of frost. The entire battlefield turned pale in seconds. Soldiers froze mid-motion, their faces still twisted in rage, fear, or determination.... locked forever in the moment of their last breath. Spears clattered from frozen hands. Armour rattled once, then silenced as bodies became sculptures.

They stood as statues of ice, beautiful and terrible, carved perfectly by death itself.

Victor straightened, his chest rising with calm breath. Frost clung to his boots. He lifted his hand, brushing ice dust from his knuckles as though it were dirt unworthy of him.

Then he flicked his wrist.

The air rippled, a deep vibration cutting across the frozen plain.

The statues shattered.

Crack...

PUFFF!!

Glass-like cracks shot through their bodies before they splintered apart, collapsing into shards that scattered across the battlefield.

They died without screams. Without agony. Without even realising they had died.

Just… nothing.

"That's my mercy," Victor muttered coldly.

Then his body blurred again, launching high into the air as Morgana and Mary appeared at the same ground where the massacre had unfolded.

The trio punched at the same time.

A wave of pressure exploded outward, the force howling through the air as the ground itself shattered beneath them.

"Hehehe~"

"Hahah~"

"Heheh!!"

Uneasy giggles, sharp and eerie, tore from their throats at the same time.

In a blur, they switched positions, their movements weaving together as if bound by a single thought.

Their legs whipped out toward Victor.

But Victor leapt.

His hands snapped forward with insane speed, catching their legs mid-air... Then he twisted, slamming them both down with enough force to rattle the bones of the Empire itself.

BOOM!

Mary and Morgana struck the earth hard. The ground split beneath their bodies, debris and dust spraying high. For a heartbeat, they lay there, but Mary was already moving. She spat blood onto the dirt, her expression twisting into something wicked as she forced herself up.

With one vicious stomp, she cracked the ground, propelling herself forward. Her sword raised high, gleaming with crimson light.

She slashed down at him.

Victor crouched low, dodging beneath the blade as an axe of jagged ice formed in his grip and he lashed it across her hand.

Chuck!

Mary's hand split clean away.

But in the same instant, it grew back. Flesh knitting together, bone reforming.

Her wrist trembled once, then flexed as if it had never been cut.... even her long white sleeve back as the blood flowed from her hand forming clothes for her.

Nice technique!

Victor clicked his tongue.

Mary only grinned, wicked and gleeful. "This is exciting~" she purred. Then she snapped her fingers.

Blood... thick, crimson pools from the countless dead, began to ripple. It quivered, then slithered, twisting into serpentine shapes.

Ssshh~

The blood rose into serpents, writhing, hissing, their bodies alive with rage. In an instant, they shot toward Victor.

Victor moved faster. His body blurred, weaving between each serpent as they lunged for him, their jaws snapping shut on empty air. His feet cut through the ground as he prepared to dive down, his breath sharp—

Splash…

Blood surged upward, not as serpents but as a living net. It spread across the ground, splashing upward, swallowing Victor whole in its sticky net.

"Got you~" Mary hissed with a smirk... She moved instantly, her figure blinking forward in a blur before Victor could burn the blood away.

She appeared in front of him. Her foot lashed out, colliding with his stomach.

THUD!!

The impact was brutal. The air behind him exploded into a wave, the shockwave ripping across the battlefield. Victor's body jolted back, but Mary seized his wrist mid-motion, yanking his arm behind him like a prisoner being shackled.

And then...

Splash~

From the broken ground, tendrils of crimson shot upward, wrapping around Victor's body. They twisted like snakes, coiling tightly, layer upon layer until his chest, arms, and legs were bound in a grip that would not loosen.

"Arrhh!!" Victor groaned, his voice rough as his body strained.

He fought, but the blood held firm—its grip unyielding, a thousand hands dragging him down. Mary pressed harder, holding his arm locked behind him, her face inches from his, smiling like a predator savouring her prey.

"MORGANA!!" Mary shouted.

From the haze, Morgana appeared at last.

Her figure was sleek, and in her hands gleamed her twin thin blades. She moved with a scissoring motion, deadly and graceful, her weapons carving the air as she charged straight at Victor.

ssshh!!

The blades glittered with killing intent. They flashed toward his neck.

Victor's eyes widened. The steel grazed his skin, biting cold against his throat.

And then.... hesitation?

For a second.... For a freaking fraction of a heartbeat.

Her hands trembled.

The blade that had already touched his skin, but stopped and pulled back... barely and then,

Chucckkk!

Flesh-cutting sound echoed.

Morgana's breath shook.... Her heart thundered so loud it drowned the world.

She panted, sweat dripping down her temple. The pounding in her chest was all she could hear.

'F-Finally… I did it…!' she muttered in her mind, relief and pain... but as she raised her eyes... she was shocked to see Mary.

Mary stood before her.

Or rather... Mary's body.

Headless.

Blood was still spurting from the severed neck.

Morgana's eyes went wide, the world tilting. 'How…?' Her thoughts screamed.

And then she saw it behind her... Victor.

And in that hand… he held Mary's head by her long golden hair, her face frozen mid-smirk, eyes still glimmering with hunger.

Victor smirked as he lifted Mary's severed head, dangling it by her hair. Her lifeless eyes rolled, and then.... they rotated, snapping back to lock on him.

"Heheheheh~"

She grinned with a freaking cut neck, her severed lips curling in madness.

Fuck!!

Victor should have been horrified, any sane man would have thrown it away—but instead…

"Hehehehehehehe~"

He grinned back, wickedly, his teeth flashing as he pulled the head close to his face, staring directly into her hollow gaze.

His eyes flickered with deep black... Their laughter mingled in the silence, two monsters finding each other.

[+10 AP]

Mary's lips twitched, curling higher. Her smile widened when she saw the madness in Victor's eyes.

Then, like something stitched together by nightmare, her headless body stumbled forward, jerking with mechanical stiffness until the neck re-attached.

A sickening sound... Flesh locking to flesh.

Mary's head snapped back into place. She didn't hesitate.

Her skull lunged forward—

BOOM!!

The headbutt collided with Victor's face. Both staggered back several steps as the ground shook beneath their foot.

Victor spat blood, but his grin only widened.

"That's lame, bitch! I'll show you how a headbutt works!"

He roared as he leapt forward, a little jump enough to create a huge force, and slammed his forehead into hers!

BOOOOMMM!

The wave from the collision rippled outward, shattering stones, cracking the ground in wide lines, dust exploding in violent rings.

Crack!

Something gave way. Bone? Stone?

The sound rattled through the battlefield.

Both of their skulls throbbed, their vision hazed, their minds ringing as though bells were being hammered inside their brains. For a second, everything tilted, smeared by pain.

They staggered, shaking their heads, then looked at each other.

"Hehehe~"

"Hehehehehe~"

Both broke into wicked, insane laughter, blood running down their foreheads, eyes glowing with the same madness.

Meanwhile, Morgana's fists clenched tight at her sides. Her eyes quivered, shaking with something she couldn't name.... fear, fury, desperation.

She bit down hard, then glared at Victor with all the hatred she could summon.

'YOU WILL DIE THIS TIME!!'