“Just like you... What are you even talking about!?”

The princess still hadn't realized what that meant. She couldn't imagine the thing on her leg turning her into that kind of evil monster.

“You'll know soon enough.”

She had forced herself to use magic, and that only worsened the corruption on her leg. By now, it had already spread to the top of her thigh.

That was when the princess truly panicked. She couldn't kill her enemy. Her teleportation artifact had already run out earlier. She couldn't win, and she couldn't escape. Did that mean she could only watch as that evil thing devoured her?

“I'll give you anything you want. Can we please talk this out?”

With no other choice, the princess could only beg Selina. She hated the idea of bowing to an evil cult, but if she wanted to live, she had no other option.

“My master wants you, so stop struggling and accept it. At first, you'll be a little scared. But once it enters your body, once every inch of your flesh melts and merges with it, you'll feel a pleasure you've never known before. It'll be like heaven.”

Selina recalled the bliss that had flooded her soul when she was devoured. It was something she could never forget.

“Merge... So this thing really is trying to eat me? You want my power, don't you?”

Only now did the princess finally understand what the thing on her foot meant. She had heard of things like dark puppets before. In the past, the Dark Sorceress liked using darkness to corrupt people and turn them into slaves.

If that was the case... then was that person she met before really a Dark Sorceress?

“No! I absolutely can't become a Dark Sorceress's servant. I have to get this information out!”

“Don't even think about killing yourself. Even if you succeed, that holy substance can revive you. And when that happens, you won't have any power left to resist.”

Worried that the princess might do something extreme, Selina kindly warned her.

“Suicide? I'm not that fragile,” the princess said with a cold laugh. Then she steeled herself. “I'll bet on this!”

She began chanting an obscure, incomprehensible spell. The blizzard around them intensified and blocked the line of sight. Using that cover, the princess summoned a sled.

She stepped onto it, then used the force of the storm to launch herself forward at high speed.

She was trying to escape. But sadly for her, Selina didn't need sight to lock onto her position. As something born of the Dark Sorceress, she could naturally sense other evil matter.

On this endless snowfield, there were no other living creatures at all. That made her perception precise enough to lock onto the princess perfectly.

The instant the princess fled, the Dark Sorceress was already chasing after her on a magic staff.

Ice and snow were the princess's domain, so she could also sense Selina closing in. To shake her off, she burned even more magic to increase her speed.

Her whole body became a blur. She was as fast as a speedboat skimming over the sea. Behind the sled, huge waves of snow billowed into the air.

But even so, she just couldn't shake Selina off.

“Why are you so clingy?! What am I supposed to do now?!”

With pursuit behind her and the corruption worsening on her leg, the princess was on the verge of collapse. In the end, she couldn't hold back her emotions anymore.

“Waaaah——————! Sis!!!!”

The pampered princess finally burst into tears. But crying couldn't solve what was happening in front of her.

Her tears froze into ice crystals in the bitter wind. She had no idea how long she had been running when, at last, the dark corruption passed over her legs. The moment she felt that thing reach her crotch, both her legs suddenly went limp and slipped out of her control. She fell straight off the sled.

“Ahhh!!!!”

Like a skipping stone, she bounced across the snow for a long distance before finally plunging headfirst into it.

“Why make yourself look this miserable? Wouldn't it be better to accept it sooner?”

Selina stopped not far behind the princess. The moment she saw the corruption speeding up, she knew the princess didn't have much magic left to resist.

“Ugh... You're cheating. If you've got any guts, don't use revival!”

The princess crawled out of the snow in a miserable state. That black substance had already wrapped around her lower abdomen and was spreading toward her navel.

She could no longer use magic to seal it away. She couldn't stop any of this now. But even so, the princess still had no intention of giving up.

“No matter what you do to me... I won't... submit!”

Her body had already adapted to the chilling cold brought by the darkness. Now, all the princess could feel was the thing rubbing against her skin.

It writhed over her body. It felt strange, but nothing as terrifying as she had imagined happened. The princess even had the illusion that this was nothing much. Did they really think this thing alone could make her surrender?

But the princess quickly realized she was wrong.

Terribly wrong.

Just as she had guessed before, it invaded through every opening, frantically trying to enter her body.

...

...

“Well? Doesn't it feel amazing?”

Selina stood to the side, watching everything unfold before her. A faint blush rose on her pretty face, and even her breathing had grown quicker.

“Ptooey! Disgusting—so disgusting! Disgusting, ahhh!”

“As a human, you'll never be able to experience this kind of sensation. So slowly... enjoy it, my princess~”

“Enjoy my ass! Go die... already!”

The princess clenched both fists. Her expression looked full of pain, but the truth was exactly as Selina had said. As the cells in her body were assimilated and fused with that thing, she really could feel something no human should be able to experience.

“Still talking tough? As you melt... you'll fall in love with this feeling soon enough.”

“Melt? N-no... you can't... do this! Hurry up and stop!”

The princess pushed herself up with both arms. In her vision, countless black threads crawled over her arms like wriggling little snakes. In the end, they wove together into black leather-like sleeves that wrapped around her skin.

Those things had already spread over her arms, so naturally they had also wrapped around her entire body, everywhere except her head.

There was no more room to spread on the outside. So now it would go deeper and melt this body from within. The evil substance began accelerating its corruption.

“Aah!! You can't... do this!”

That thing writhed and seeped through her body. Every cell was being corrupted by it. Every inch of her nerves was being dissolved. The sensation seemed about to exceed what the princess's mind could endure.

How could she care whether it had already invaded her body or not? All she could do was fight back with every last bit of her rapidly crumbling will.

“Feels amazing, doesn't it?!”

“I-I won't! I won't... submit! I won't submit to you evil... evil monsters, ahhh!”

“Your Highness really is stubborn. But sadly, this is only the foreplay. The real fun hasn't even started yet.”

“What... what do you... mean...”