Incubus Lord: Lust Harem System

Chapter 166: Chapter 166: The Aftermath

Damon’s words hung in the air.

Ariel threw her arms around him.

"You idiot," she whispered into his chest. "You scared me."

"I told you I’d win."

"That wasn’t winning. That was... that was..."

"Lightning?"

She punched his shoulder.

"Don’t joke."

Mio and Mia reached them a moment later. Mio was grinning. Mia was shaking her head.

"You know," Mio said, "when you said you’d handle Kai, I thought you meant a clean fight. Not... whatever that was."

"That was a clean fight, by any reasonable standard," Damon remarked, his voice smooth and untroubled as he stood amidst the lingering ozone of the arena floor.

Mio crossed her arms, her deep purple ponytail swaying with the motion as she tilted her head to the side, her eyes narrowing as she recounted the sheer scale of the display.

"You call that clean? You didn’t just parry him, Damon—you completely erased his ultimate technique from existence."

Damon gave a slight, confident shrug, his luminous golden eyes catching the fading light of the afternoon.

"Yes, I suppose I did."

"With a single stroke of lightning," Mia added, her voice barely a whisper of soft, rhythmic sound.

She was still shivering slightly, not from the cold, but from the raw, overwhelming display of power she had just witnessed from the man who claimed her.

Damon offered a calm, steady nod in her direction.

"Yes, that was the most efficient method of resolution."

Mio stared at him, her usual cheerful expression replaced by a look of bewildered, burgeoning adoration.

She let out a short, incredulous breath, shaking her head.

"You are absolutely ridiculous, you know that? Most cultivators spend lifetimes trying to bridge that gap, and you just dismantled him like he was a practiced sparring partner."

Damon offered a charismatic, magnetic smile that reached deep into his eyes.

"Thank you. I strive for excellence."

Selene appeared behind them.

Her face was unreadable, but her eyes were burning.

Selene stopped just inches away, the air around her temperature dropping perceptibly as her icy aura flared. She stared up at him, her platinum-white hair shimmering like fallen snow in the twilight.

When she spoke, her voice was a sharp, crystalline whisper, stripped of its usual haughty indifference, vibrating instead with a raw, predatory intensity.

"You’ve been holding back, haven’t you? All this time, even when we crossed blades in the restricted training grounds."

Damon met her piercing, arctic gaze head-on, his expression remaining perfectly composed, yet he didn’t offer a single deflection or excuse. He merely tilted his head, his golden eyes glowing with a faint, amused light.

"Yes. Consistently."

Selene’s posture betrayed a flicker of agitation, her shoulders stiffening beneath the elegant fabric of her robes.

The memory of their spar seemed to plague her, the realization of his hidden depths gnawing at her pride as a master of the sword.

"So, every time we sparred—every parry, every thrust, every movement—it was merely a calculated display for my benefit?"

"Yes," he replied calmly, the sincerity of his admission hanging heavy between them.

The elder’s breath hitched, her throat working as she processed the sheer disparity between them. Her hands, calloused from years of gripping the hilt, tightened into resolute fists at her sides.

"You mean to tell me that if you had truly committed to your intent, you could have shattered my defenses and destroyed me in those moments?"

Damon didn’t flinch, his magnetic confidence acting as a silent gravity that pulled the attention of everyone nearby.

"Yes. It would have taken very little effort to end the match entirely."

A heavy silence descended upon the group. Selene stood frozen for a beat, her chest rising and falling in a rhythmic, shallow cadence.

Then, a slow, wild transformation took hold of her features; the porcelain mask of the cold, untouchable elder finally fractured.

She looked up at him with a gaze that was no longer detached, but burning with a hunger for growth and a singular, sharp-edged validation.

"Good," she finally exhaled, the word coming out as a breathless confession.

Damon’s brow arched, a ghost of a smirk playing upon his handsome, sharp-jawed face as he looked down at the woman who had once been so unreachable.

"Good? You find your own defeat to be a benefit?"

"I’d rather learn from someone who can actually teach me something. If you had been weaker than me, this would have been a waste of time."

Damon smiled.

"That’s the right attitude."

Across the arena, Sect Leader Hector descended from the VIP section.

He landed on the platform and raised his hand. The crowd fell silent.

"The Top 8 are decided!"

He gestured, and a massive projection appeared in the air above the arena.

The bracket displayed the remaining competitors:

Top 8 Bracket:

Ariel Aquaria

Lark

Alena Terra

Mio Nightrider

Mia Nightrider

Damon Arcknight

Flare

Seraphina

"The final rounds for the quarter final, semi-finals and the final will take place tomorrow at dawn!"

A murmur rippled through the crowd.

"All matches will be single elimination. The winners of the semi-finals will face each other in the final. The top four will represent the Azure Dragon Sect in the Eastern Continent Tournament!"

Sect Leader Hector paused.

"Rest well. You’ll need it."

He turned and walked away without another word.

The crowd began to disperse.

But no one approached Damon.

Disciples parted around him like water around a stone. They gave him a wide berth, their eyes filled with fear and awe.

Whispers followed him.

"Did you see that lightning?"

"He erased Kai’s ultimate attack!"

"That wasn’t a normal technique. That was something else."

"I heard he’s been hiding his true cultivation."

"Don’t make eye contact. Just keep walking."

Damon ignored them.

He walked with Ariel, Mio, Mia, and Selene toward the mansion.

Neko was waiting at the entrance.

She bounced on her heels when she saw him.

"Master! Master! Did you win?"

"Yes."

"I knew it! I knew you would!"

She launched herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck.

Damon caught her easily.

"Easy."

"But you won! And you used lightning! I could feel it from here!"

"You could?"

"Yes! It was delicious!"

Damon laughed.

"Let’s go inside."