"The regents’ curse," Isolde whispered, her voice dropping into a tone of absolute dread over the bubbling of the hot spring.
She reached out with a trembling finger, hovering it an inch above Seraphina’s wet, bare skin without actually touching it.
"Cassian, I can see the mana structure now.
The regents didn’t just paralyze her to keep her docile."
I knelt closer to the edge of the thermal pool, staring at the center of Seraphina’s pale back.
My physical eyes couldn’t see the magical lines, but my newly formed Abyssal core hummed heavily in my chest, detecting the faint, unnatural frequency radiating from her spine.
"It’s a tether," Isolde breathed, her pale eyes tracking invisible, pulsing lines of magic. "The curse is actively broadcasting a localized mana signal. Someone is using it to track her exact location."
"Alaric’s mages," Seraphina rasped. Her face was pale from the heat and the exhaustion of our escape. "They planted it when my regents handed me over. That is how the Vanguard knights knew exactly where to find us."
If the tether was still broadcasting, it was only a matter of time before Alaric’s surviving hunters found this underground river.
"I am going to break it," I stated bluntly.
I didn’t wait for permission.
I pressed the palm of my scarred left hand directly against the center of Seraphina’s spine.
I pushed my awareness into the heavy, pitch-black Abyssal mana core I had gained from absorbing the demonic fragment.
I forced that dense, corrosive energy down my arm and into my fingertips, driving my mana into her flesh like a physical wedge.
Seraphina gasped, her back arching rigidly against my arm. The Abyssal mana collided violently with the regents’ tracking spell. I didn’t try to untangle the magic; I simply crushed the fragile magical node with overwhelming force.
A sharp, audible crack echoed in the steamy grotto, like stepping on brittle glass.
"The signal is dead," Isolde confirmed, letting out a tense breath.
But the relief didn’t last a single second.
Seraphina let out a sudden, agonizing scream.
Her paralyzed body jerked wildly in the warm water.
The destruction of the tracking tether had completely destabilized the main paralytic curse anchored to her spine.
Without the tether holding it in place, the corrupted black mana rushed downward like a broken dam.
Thick, jagged black veins exploded across her skin, crawling rapidly down her lower back and instantly pooling heavily in her lower abdomen, groin, and inner thighs.
[System Warning.]
[Target: Seraphina Aldric] [Condition: Severe Pelvic Nerve Stagnation. The paralytic curse has flooded the host’s lower extremities. Due to prolonged muscular atrophy, the corrupted mana cannot circulate. It is actively necrotizing the pelvic floor and femoral arteries.]
[Solution: Deep manual stimulation of the pelvic nerve clusters is required to force the corrupted mana out and restart natural blood flow.]
[Failure to act will result in permanent tissue death within ten minutes.]
I swiped the blue window away. The System didn’t deal in polite modesty or courtly manners. It dealt in harsh, biological facts.
"The tether broke the curse’s grip on your spine, but it’s trapped in your pelvis," I told Seraphina, my voice steady over the bubbling water.
"Because your legs are paralyzed, your lower nerves are locked.
The corrupted mana is stagnating.
If I don’t force those pathways open right now, the curse will rot your flesh from the inside out."
Seraphina swallowed hard, her chest heaving as she processed the reality of her own body.
The royal, calculating hostility she had worn like armor since the moment I met her cracked entirely.
She was a warrior princess, trained to command armies, and now she was completely exposed, her life hanging on the most intimate vulnerability imaginable.
She looked up at my face. Her golden eyes were wet with steam and pain, but her voice held a fierce, pragmatic resolve.
"I am your wife," Seraphina said, forcing the words out clearly.
"Even though I do not love you deeply now, because we have just met.
But I do not dislike you either, seeing you save us regardless of the System or your own benefit.
Do what you must."
I nodded once. I didn’t offer empty reassurances.
"I won’t penetrate you," I told her directly, shifting my weight in the shallow water to kneel between her pale legs.
"I won’t claim you fully until you are completely healed and standing on your own two feet.
This is outercourse.
I am going to manually stimulate the nerves to crush the stagnant curse mana and force your blood to circulate."
I placed my calloused hands on her pale thighs and gently pushed them wider apart.
The heat radiating from her lower abdomen was intense, far hotter than the thermal pool itself.
The curse was fighting back, tightening the muscles of her inner thighs into rigid, painful knots.
The black veins pulsed angrily beneath her skin.
I pressed my thumbs into the soft flesh of her inner thighs, applying firm, bruising pressure to force the stagnant blood to move.
Seraphina gasped loudly. Her back arched off the warm stone wall.
"Cassian - !"
"Breathe," I commanded, sliding my hands higher.
The moment my fingertips brushed her vulva, she shuddered violently.
She was already incredibly wet.
Her natural love juices mixed seamlessly with the water of the hot spring, coating her swollen, pale pink folds in a slick glaze.
The paralysis had deadened her limbs, but the curse’s downward flood had left her pelvic nerves hyper-sensitive, raw, and desperate for stimulation to release the lethal pressure.
I pressed the pad of my middle finger directly against her swollen clitoris.
"Ah...!" Seraphina cried out, her head falling back against the limestone.
I didn’t stop.
I began to rub the sensitive nub in slow, deliberate circles, applying firm, relentless pressure.
I pushed my own stable mana into my fingertips, using the friction to crush the stagnant curse mana trapped inside her nerve endings.
Her flesh was slick and burning hot.
Squelch. Slap.
The wet, obscene sound of my fingers sliding over her slick folds echoed loudly over the bubbling water.
Seraphina’s golden eyes rolled back slightly.
Her royal dignity melted instantly into pure, unfiltered female pleasure and desperate relief.
Her paralyzed hips twitched, bucking weakly upward against my hand of their own accord.
It was the first time her lower body had moved voluntarily since her regents poisoned her spine.
"Cassian... please...!" she whimpered, her hands twitching uselessly at her sides as she surrendered entirely to the sensation.
"You’re doing perfectly, Seraphina," I said, my voice low and steady.
I slipped two fingers just barely inside her tight, gripping entrance.
The heat of her inner walls was staggering.
She clamped down on my fingers instantly, her vaginal muscles spasming wildly as the curse mana began to break apart under the intense physical and magical stimulation.
I pumped my fingers in and out of her shallow entrance while maintaining relentless, grinding pressure on her clitoris with my thumb.
Slap, squelch, jjilgeok.
Across the pool, Isolde Draven clamped her hands over her own mouth to stifle a sharp whimper.
Her face burned red.
The thick steam rolling off the boiling water whited out the cavern, blurring her physical sight, but the cavern’s acoustics amplified every single sound perfectly.
The wet, slapping noises of flesh meeting flesh and the desperate, pleading moans of the proud Princess were driving Isolde crazy.
She squeezed her legs together tightly under the warm water, feeling her own slick juices leaking heavily from her core.
The villainess wanted to cover her ears, but the raw, vulnerable intimacy of my deep voice praising Seraphina kept her completely paralyzed, listening to every second of it.
A heavy, sympathetic heat bloomed in Isolde’s lower belly.
The idea of being handled with that same clinical, possessive dominance sent a dizzying thrill through her body, clashing violently with her noble pride.
"I can’t... Cassian, it is too much...!" Seraphina sobbed, tears of pure ecstasy and relief streaming down her cheeks. The black veins on her thighs began to visibly recede, melting away under the overwhelming rush of endorphins and fresh blood circulation.
"Let it go," I ordered, speeding up the rhythm of my fingers. "Push the curse out."
Seraphina let out a loud, shattering scream.
Her back arched so hard her spine lifted entirely off the stone.
A brilliant flash of golden mana erupted directly from her core, briefly cutting through the dense white steam.
The dormant royal bloodline of Aldemoor, suppressed by trauma and poison for months, flared violently in the dark cavern.
The sheer kinetic force of her uterine climax sent a ripple across the surface of the thermal pool.
She collapsed forward, slumping heavily against my chest. She panted raggedly against my neck, her whole body trembling with violent, continuous aftershocks.
I looked down at her legs. The black curse marks were completely gone. Her flesh was flushed and healthy.
[Target: Seraphina Aldric]
[Action Logged: Extreme Outercourse Therapy - Manually shattering the pelvic curse blockade and restoring lower-body blood flow through deep climax.]
[Evaluating Investment...]
[Grade: S - Flawless Investment.] [Reward Granted: ’Aldemoor Royal Insight’ (Passive Skill) & 500 System Points.]
`[System Alert]`
`[World’s Will Plot Deviation: +10%]`
`[Cause: Heroine Paralysis Blockade Overturned]`
`[Total Plot Deviation: 35%]`
I held her tightly, letting her ride out the overwhelming exhaustion of the climax. I brushed the wet golden blonde hair from her forehead.
"You did it," I told her quietly.
"Cassian..." Seraphina whispered, her voice totally devoid of hostility, replaced entirely by a heavy, devoted exhaustion. She rested her cheek against my scarred shoulder, her breathing slowing into a steady rhythm.
Before I could check my new skill, the water on the far side of the pool splashed violently.
Isolde Draven stood up in the shallows.
The thick steam clung to her wet, bare skin.
Her pale eyes were blown wide, and her chest heaved as she dragged in ragged breaths.
The sympathetic arousal had completely overwhelmed her, but her pride refused to let her submit quietly.
"You arrogant, filthy butcher," Isolde hissed, her voice dripping with absolute venom and contempt. She glared at me through the white fog, her hands clenching into fists at her sides. "Are you quite finished humiliating her like a common whore?"
I didn’t rise to the bait.
I gently rested Seraphina against the wall and stood up, the water dripping from my leather trousers.
I looked at Isolde.
She was trying to project the haughty, untouchable aura of a Duke’s daughter, but her legs were visibly trembling.
"She is alive, and she kept her legs," I stated flatly, walking slowly through the warm water toward Isolde. "Your insults are wasting your breath, Draven. You’re shaking."
"I am shivering from disgust," Isolde snapped, taking a step backward. "Stay away from me. I don’t need your filthy hands - "
She didn’t finish the sentence.
Isolde let out a sharp cry of pain. Her knees buckled completely. She collapsed forward, splashing heavily into the hot spring.
I lunged forward, grabbing her by the waist and pulling her up before her head went under. Her skin was burning hot against my forearms.
"Let go of me!" Isolde thrashed wildly in my grip, slapping her wet hands against my chest. "Don’t touch me, Voss!"
"Stop fighting me!" I barked, pinning her arms against her sides and hauling her upright.
I looked down at her bare stomach.
Thick, pulsing black lines of shadow mana were violently spider-webbing across her lower abdomen and thighs.
The intense sympathetic arousal she had experienced while listening to Seraphina had rapidly accelerated her own blood flow, causing the unstable shadow curse in her nervous system to flood downward and pool dangerously in her own pelvis.
"Your mana is locked," I told her, my voice hard. "Your arousal dragged the curse residue straight into your core. It’s causing a mana blockage."
Isolde gasped, her face twisting in pure agony as the shadow mana clamped down on her pelvic muscles like a vice. Her haughty defiance shattered instantly under the overwhelming, agonizing pressure in her groin.
She slumped against my chest, her wet black hair sticking to my ruined coat. She looked up at me, her violet eyes swimming with tears of pain and desperate, humiliated need.
"It hurts," Isolde sobbed, her fingernails digging painfully into my shoulders. Her hostility broke, leaving only raw, desperate demand. "My mana is stuck. It burns, Cassian. Touch me. Touch me right now, or I swear to God I will kill you."
"Then stop threatening me and sit down," I ordered, lifting her off her feet and carrying her to the shallow steps on the edge of the pool.
I laid her back against the smooth, wet stone. Isolde didn’t fight me this time. She spread her legs willingly, her chest heaving as she stared up at the cavern ceiling. The black lines of corrupted shadow magic throbbed visibly on her pale inner thighs.
"I hate you," Isolde whimpered, turning her face away in shame as I knelt between her knees. "I hate that I need your hands."
"Save your breath for breathing," I said, placing my hands on her thighs.
I pressed my thumbs hard into the tense muscles. The heat coming from her core was choking. I didn’t hesitate. I slid my fingers upward, brushing past her slick, dark pubic hair, and pressed directly against her dripping, swollen cleft.
"Ahng - !" Isolde arched her back sharply, her hands flying down to grip my wrists. She didn’t push me away; she gripped me tight, anchoring herself to my touch.
I rubbed her sensitive clitoris with firm, punishing friction. The shadow mana trapped in her nerves resisted, sending sharp spasms through her muscles, but I pushed my own stable mana into the contact, forcing the blockage to break.
Squelch. Jjigeok.
"Cassian... ah...!" Isolde’s aristocratic mask dissolved completely into sheer, mindless lust. Her hips bucked violently against my hand.
I slipped two fingers just past the tight ring of her virgin entrance, pressing upward to massage the swollen anterior wall. She was incredibly tight, her inner muscles clenching down on my fingers like a vice.
"You’re doing fine, Isolde," I said quietly, maintaining the relentless pace. "Let the shadow mana flow out. Don’t fight it."
Slap, squelch.
"More...
push harder, you bastard...!" Isolde begged, her vocabulary deteriorating into base, filthy demands.
The refined daughter of a Duke was completely gone, replaced by a desperate woman begging for release.
She spread her thighs wider, offering herself entirely to the punishing rhythm of my fingers.
The black veins on her stomach began to fade, the dark magic bleeding out into the hot spring water as a faint, wispy black mist.
"I’m going to - !" Isolde screamed, her violet eyes rolling back.
She clamped down on my fingers with bone-crushing force.
A shockwave of pure, untainted shadow mana erupted from her body.
Her climax was a violent, physical release of pent-up magic and tension.
She shuddered continuously, crying out my name as the last of the curse residue melted away from her core.
She collapsed back against the stone, her chest rising and falling rapidly.
[Target: Isolde Draven]
[Action Logged: Shadow Core Stabilization - Manually purging corrupted mana buildup through extreme physical release.]
[Evaluating Investment...]
[Grade: S - Flawless Investment.]
[Reward Granted: ’Shadow Weaver’s Affinity’ (Passive Upgrade) & 500 System Points.]
I slowly withdrew my hand and washed it in the hot water. I looked at the two women resting on the edges of the pool, both completely drained and safe.
But as I stood up, the water in the thermal pool began to swirl unnaturally.
The mixture of my Abyssal mana, Seraphina’s royal golden aura, and Isolde’s purged shadow magic didn’t just dissipate into the water. The three dense energies sank directly to the bottom of the pool, intertwining in a tight spiral.
A deep, mechanical grinding sound echoed from the bedrock beneath the water.
The center of the pool’s stone floor began to slide apart, parting smoothly down the middle.
It wasn’t an attack.
The water didn’t drain; instead, a soft, pulsating silver light began to glow from the newly opened fissure.
Slowly, a pristine, untouched stone pedestal rose from the depths of the spring, breaking the surface of the water.
Resting on top of the pedestal was a massive, perfectly smooth black crystal, humming with ancient, dormant power. It waited silently in the steam, reacting only to the combined presence of our mixed mana.