The urge to strip away Fay's spirit ventriloquist ability was storming Haruki's mind with a barrage of strange ideas. From forcing himself onto her, to slashing her throat altogether. His thirst for blood was ever advancing forward. Making matters worse by amplifying his demonic inclinations, the passive ability of sadism was urging him for a bloodbath.
"Fuck…" Haruki mumbled his eyes rolling about hallucinating from the thoughts. Sharing the carriage with only his servants helped him let off a bit of steam by complaining, but at the very end, his thirst for carnage kept being pushed forward. "Asuka, do you not feel it too?"
Trapped in a looping cycle of unease, his feet kept on tapping against the wooden floor. His racing thought, however, didn't stop there and made him sweat so profusely he could've easily fainted had he not been a demon.
"Master, you should rest," Asuka replied, ignoring the question to hide her own angst.
None of the four passengers were in any better condition either. The reason for their unrest wasn't really an enigma, as one look alone at their stats screen would've made things a lot clearer.
"What the hell is going on?" Whispered Margarette huffing deep sighs.
"Y-yeah…" Her eyes glowing a violet urged Riley to give into her succubus form. "It feels so hot, my body is burning up."
Picking up on the hints, Haruki called forward his screen of stats. Scanning down to the curses what he saw made him feel like an idiot for not realizing it sooner.
"We haven't actually gone all the way, so carnal curse has dropped down to level two," being it his first-time hitting level two on the curse, Haruki had never felt such an intense burn inside his heart. "All of you should check yours too."
While Asuka managed to navigate through her stats easily, Margarette and Riley both struggled to understand the level system as they'd been too used to their ranks as humans. What baffled them the most was the decrease in their overall strength after Asuka and Haruki had drained their strength.
"It's two for me too," Margarette revealed.
"Same for me," Riley shortly followed.
"We'll need to take care of that somehow before it starts affecting our souls," from what he could remember from Moriyana's explanation about the curse, once the curse hits level three it starts to gradually corrupt the soul until it turns to ash.
Upon looking back at his skills to figure out what to do, Haruki's eyes fell on the higher-tier familiar summon called the tomentous dungeon, and although he hadn't tested it out yet, right now felt like the perfect time to do so.
"I have an idea," clutching his heart, he took deep breaths to calm himself down. "I'll fill the carriage with our clones and then we can take care of the curse in the dungeon."
Not knowing what Haruki was talking about, the three glanced at each other with confusion resting heavily on their faces. Holding his hand forward, Haruki began pouring mana into his palm to summon the creature.
'It should open an entrance to a living dungeon, but how big will it be? And what exactly can I even do with that place? Will it stay alive forever unless recalled or destroyed just like the clones?' Questions about his new familiar kept piling up inside his head, however, without testing it first-hand none of them could've been answered.
"Familiar summon: Tormentous dun-" before the summoning could finish, the whole carriage reverberated with the shock of being hit by something from above.
"What the hell is that?!" Yelled Margarette, glaring up at the roof.
"S-should I check?" Riley nervously asked, looking right at Haruki.
Grabbing her by the arms, Margarette locked Riley in her clutches. The very idea of sending her out to check on the danger was so frightening to her that Margarette was trying to keep Riley from leaving the carriage at all costs.
"I'm not letting you go!" She yelled, her eyes closed shut in terror.
Unlike the rest of the passengers, Margarette had never been so close to mortal danger. The most fear she had ever experienced was just recently with the bats, and thus her reluctance to Riley plunge herself in harm's way was more than justifiable.
"Oi! Open up!" A knock on the door shrieked the two shocked.
Asuka and Haruki on the other hand let out relieved sighs. Noticing the disparity in their reactions, Riley and Margarette turned to them looking heavily confused by the whole situation. Having pushed off feeding them his memories, Haruki wasn't all that surprised by them not recognizing the familiar voice.
'I have to take them to Moriyana so she can show them my memories, I don't really wanna have to force feed it to both of them, especially Riley.' The only way for him to pass on his memories was through connecting with the two at the deepest ends, however, while he wasn't too opposed to doing it with Margarette, Riley on the other hand was something else entirely.
"It's Doroke, that idiot…" reaching out to the door, Haruki quickly flung it open. "What the hell are you doing up there?"
Holding onto the interior, Haruki leaned outward to get a better look at the dragonkin. His hair flaring in flames, Doroke had his hands folded in a heroic pose as he looked down at the duke.
"Stopin' ya, ahaha!" Laughing with his mouth wide open, he quickly jumped off of the carriage.
"Lord Frost, are you okay?" Kane's voice called up to Haruki from the carriage at the front. Waving his hand, he was approaching the duke's wagon with his entire party in tow.
"What a mess…" getting down to the ground, Haruki turned to Doroke to ask him about his sister.
But before he could utter a single word, a beam of blue light struck right down on Doroke' s head. After blinding everyone for a moment the light slowly began to dissipate, leaving behind the sight of Tiara standing on top of her wailing brother's body.
"Idiot!" She complained.
"I know," Haruki agreed.
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