“My beautiful lady, may I ask your name now?” The man in a white robe bowed with polished manners and asked softly.

“Since this body’s former name was Selena, you can call me that.” Newly awakened, Selena smiled slightly at Sammugina.

“Then, my dear Selena, may I examine your body?”

Having just used necromancy to rouse her, Sammugina asked with courtesy.

“Go ahead.” Selena lifted both hands lightly and struck a sultry pose, teasing Sammugina.

“Ah, so you really are a Succubus? Paired with this alluring hybrid Ghostkind corpse… what a gorgeous mongrel.” Sammugina murmured, slid a hand along her slender waist, and kissed her warm lips.

The two of them put on a not-for-kids tongue-heavy kiss right in front of me and Yulia, two little kids.

We stared, stunned by the sudden show. The armored man looked used to his companions’ shameless antics.

A moment later, Selena released the white-robed man and showed a pleased, triumphant look. Her lips shimmered with a heady, vulgar perfume of magic. She purred, commanding:

“My captivated prisoner, tell me right now—where am I?”

“How innocent and breakable. Were you trying to use your Succubus charm to command me?” Sammugina laughed, pinned Selena to the wall, and said, “A kiss alone won’t enthrall me. Let me dote on you properly. I’ll check you well—are you demonkind’s Succubus, an Undead Lich, or a soon-to-be-born Corpse Mother?”

“Why didn’t the charm work?” Selena said, swinging her crimson spear to resist.

“So you can fight back. Funny—after you bed me, you could control me completely. What a peculiar Succubus.”

No sooner had Sammugina finished than I felt the magic in the Third Detention Chamber shudder again. Dante and Von Officer appeared out of thin air at the center.

“You dragged me here just to watch you toy with a whore, Sammugina?” Dante roared. His party with the girls upstairs had already been interrupted, which had him seething. Seeing his enemy tease a voluptuous older sister only poured oil on the fire.

In fury, Dante raised his ash-gray greatsword and cleaved the white-robed man in two while he was forcing a kiss on Selena.

Sammugina was cut at the waist. His body split cleanly, blood flooding the floor. He fell and moaned in pain. Dante stood like a wrathful fiend and swept his blade across the halved body, using him as a punching bag. The gust from his sword threatened to shake the entire chamber and rolled toward everyone present.

Von Officer sprang over, shielded me and Yulia, and tried to protect us from the aftermath of Dante’s blade wind.

“What, he split him in one stroke…?” the armored man said, shocked.

“No rush. You’re last, stray dog!”

Consumed by anger, Dante had killed Sammugina in a surprise strike. He turned his blade toward the just-awakened Selena and swung another crushing blow.

Selena hurried to block with her spear, but she was flung away with no chance to counter. Her enticing body twisted midair, slammed into the chamber wall, then hit the floor hard on her back.

“You’ve got a bit of skill, demon whore.” Dante pressed his advantage, intent on finishing her.

He flashed over Selena and brought his greatsword down. She reflexively raised her spear, but it was split in two in an instant. The blade carved across her soft chest; blood stained the purple gauze on her body.

“A mere Succubus is making me swing a third time?”

Dante drew back his sword, then thrust down at the injured Selena, aiming to deliver the final blow.

“How violent, my dear brother.”

An elegant figure rose from the blood pool on the floor. Sammugina’s corpse, which should’ve been dead, had vanished without anyone noticing.

A silver-haired woman appeared, bearing a clear resemblance to Dante. She flicked her hand. Her right eye glowed with eerie light. The space seemed to twist. Dante’s blade, meant for Selena, veered off and smashed into the cell wall.

Just like the legends: the librarian of the Chronicle Hall, the Blood Witch—her left eye can still time, and her right eye can twist space.

The wall stabbed by the greatsword thundered. Dante’s strike seemed to crack the chamber’s barrier. A huge fissure opened in the wall, exposing soldiers readying themselves in the corridor outside.

“One after another, like endless flies. All you do is mess with me. I’ve got a party upstairs waiting!”

“Ah la la, then I won’t hold you up too long. But play with big sister a bit first?”

“I’m truly mad this time. Get ready—I’ll smash that shady library of yours to rubble, you buzzing mosquito.”

Blood Witch Lilith pointed her right hand at Dante and used Sammugina’s blood on the floor to cast blood magic. Blood spread like thorny brambles toward him. Dante raised his sword and charged her, cutting through, shredding the spell along with it.

The blood thorns were destroyed in a blink. Dante’s swing took off Lilith’s raised right hand. Dark red blood sprayed from the wound.

“Ow, ow, ow. Spare me, little brother. Looks like tonight, no matter what, you’re booked solid.”

Blood Witch Lilith glanced toward the chamber’s exterior, as if noticing something. From the fissure Dante had opened, a horn-like blast sounded.

“Is that the warning of a Corpse Eater swarm incursion?” Von Officer said nervously, still shielding me and Yulia.

In the chaos of Dante and Lilith’s fight, the wounded Selena quietly got up. She slipped through the crack and out of the chamber. She breathed the air with longing. “So I am in Posein after all?”

Soldiers outside tried to subdue her. She used Succubus charm. With just her sensual form and hot kisses, she enthralled them all. The soldiers turned their guns and leveled their weapons at Dante.

“Sorry, I’m leaving first.” Selena hefted her red spear, now in two pieces, and fled the underground.

Hindered by the many soldiers rushing him, Dante could only watch her escape.

The armored man seemed ready to give chase, but Lilith raised a fence of blood plasma that blocked him.

“Blood Witch, why did you let that mongrel slip away?” The armored man, who had been quietly watching, grew angry at her interference. He drew his weapon and leveled it at Lilith.

“Because, judging from the story I heard from Sammugina, letting her go will be more fun.”

Lilith smiled, and used magic to turn the blood on the floor into several long spears. They shot at the Shepherd in black armor.

“Evaporate, filthy devil blood!” The armored man swung his sword and used his Word Spirit, parsing the blood spears in an instant.

Dante, meanwhile, barked at the soldiers beguiled by Selena. “With those lecherous faces, you dare call yourselves elite of the Kingdom? If you must rut, don’t do it on duty!”

He raised his iron fist. One punch floored one soldier. He knocked every obstructing trooper down, finally beating his men out of Selena’s charm.

Dante chose to ignore the already-escaped Selena for now. He lifted his greatsword and cleaved toward the standoff between the armored man and the Blood Witch.

Just then, an anomaly hit. An alien mechanical voice sounded in my head, completely out of the blue:

“The pause for the sixty-ninth Offering Rite of Shub-Niggurath has ended. Resumption imminent.”

Uproar rolled in. Even in the deepest underground of the fortress, we could still hear the endless, frantic howls of Corpse Eaters outside.