Enveloped by Rhein’s warm palm and lost within his own uncontrollable tears, Lucivita found himself drifting back through countless memories. Yet the nights he had once spent trapped in raw terror suddenly seemed to slowly recede into the distance.
He gave a small nod and obediently used the towel wrapped around his shoulders to wipe away his tears.
Rhein couldn’t help letting out a laugh; it was genuinely difficult to keep a straight face in such a situation. He got up to retrieve a shirt from the wardrobe and handed it to the young female. Standing just a bit above Rhein’s waist, Lucivita could wear the shirt as a tunic that draped down to his mid-thighs.
The black fabric was partially concealed by his cascading silver-white hair. Though the exposed skin across Lucivita’s body remained covered in stark, horrifying scars, Rhein paid them no mind. The guest bedroom lacked any furniture it was entirely crammed with Rhein’s anime figures and collectible models leaving him with no choice but to consign Lucivita to the sofa for the night.
I’ll go pick up some furniture later, Rhein thought, tossing a quilt over to Lucivita before heading back into his own bedroom.
It wasn’t his usual bedtime yet, as Rhein was a dedicated night owl. Reaching for his gaming console on the bed, he switched it to holographic mode and immersed his spiritual consciousness directly into the multiplayer PVP game Future Star.
One aspect Rhein genuinely appreciated about Zerg society was the exceptional quality of their gaming industry. Traditional cartridge games hadn’t phased out; instead, they had grown increasingly refined, and holographic login interfaces were designed with maximum convenience to cater to players of all preferences.
Future Star was a competitive PVP title featuring intense mecha combat and hand-to-hand martial arts. Rhein was a seasoned expert here, boasting an immaculate appearance, cutting-edge equipment, and a sky-high ranking on the leaderboard. To put it simply once he started playing, it was impossible to put down.
Hours slipped by unnoticed. Following the system’s prompt signaling a flawless one-hit kill, his opponent was KO’ed, concluding the match. Rhein exchanged a polite greeting with the other player, logged off, and decided to take a quick shower before turning in for the night.
He carefully picked his way through the living room, though due to the sheer volume of miscellaneous items he kept scattering around, a stumble was never more than a step away. With a resigned sigh, Rhein clicked on a small nightlight. The moment the dim illumination flickered on, he froze: Lucivita was kneeling motionless on the sofa with his head bowed, his fingertips digging deep into the leather upholstery.
Startled, Rhein thought, That sofa wasn’t cheap, is this kid running a fever and feeling so miserable he’s trying to tear the place apart?
Frowning, he walked over and touched the back of his hand to Lucivita’s cheek. It was burning hot to a terrifying degree.
“Little White? The medicine I brought you included fever reducers, didn’t you take them?”
Lucivita lifted his head. His crimson pupils lacked any fixed focus, his small canine teeth appeared uncharacteristically sharp, and thorny patterns were beginning to creep outward from the base of his neck. Rhein jolted in surprise, realizing this went far beyond a standard fever.
When he tried to pull his hand back, Lucivita seized his wrist in a death grip. The young female’s fingernails extended, threatening to pierce the skin. Rhein clicked his tongue; while breaking free wasn’t entirely impossible, using brute force might dislocate the small female’s wrist.
Bending down slightly, Rhein attempted to reason with the rebellious youngster. Clearing his throat, he adopted the gentle, patient tone of a kindergarten teacher addressing a recalcitrant student.
“What’s wrong, little one? Where does it hurt?”
Lucivita bared his teeth and shot him a fierce, menacing glare, resembling less a child and more an unruly high school delinquent defying the dean of students.
Are you really trying to push your luck with me? Rhein thought. Wrapping an arm around Lucivita, he hoisted him up from the sofa, intending to toss the female back to bed and let a tele-doctor handle whatever was wrong.
Just as Rhein prepared to drop him down, he caught sight of the bone-deep scars on Lucivita’s legs. Pausing mid-motion, he shifted his grip to avoid pressing against the injuries. The hesitation lasted a single second and in that exact window, Lucivita lunged forward like a rabid beast, clamping his teeth straight down onto Rhein’s wrist.
Seriously, again? Rhein groaned inwardly. “Little White, you’re not a female Zerg—you’re basically a silver fox hound that loves biting people.”
Being bitten wasn’t a major issue under normal circumstances; at this point, Rhein didn’t care, seeing as Zergs had no need for rabies shots or similar concerns. However, had he not skipped past 058’s mandatory Zerg biology lectures to play video games in secret, he would have realized immediately that he needed to drop Lucivita onto the sofa right this second and lock his bedroom door.
Rhein was a male Zerg. Even though he couldn’t see his own morph-marks right now, it didn’t change the biological reality that he was an S-class male.
Although Lucivita had yet to undergo his secondary transformation, he was undeniably a female, and the spiking fever had violently thrust him into a semi-insectoid state. Under such conditions, bodily fluid exchange between a female and a male would—depending on their respective grades almost certainly trigger a forced acceleration of the rut cycle. Given Lucivita’s age, he shouldn’t have entered a rut yet, meaning what he was experiencing instead was.
A male’s rut cycle was brief occurring once a year, lasting one to two days unlike females, who typically endured at least three days every month. Yet it served as a vital biological instinct guaranteeing the survival of the Zerg species: ferocious, overwhelming, and utterly unstoppable.
When the raw craving surging within his bloodstream crept upward from his wrist to engulf his entire body, Rhein finally understood the gravity of the situation. A flash of 058’s warning rellegated to the dustiest corner of his memory palace suddenly resurfaced.
Regrettably, it was far too late.
Lucivita instinctively swallowed a mouthful of scorching, fresh blood. A male’s bodily fluids were comparable to a panacea for females let alone consuming a male’s blood directly, an act punishable by exile to the bleak reaches of Grey Ash Star in Zerg society.
Instantly stabilized and leaping past his previous condition, Lucivita stared at the figure before him and recoiled in abject terror.
At that moment, Rhein’s spiritual energy and pheromones slipped entirely past his control, flooding the room with a suffocating, aggressive pressure that enveloped Lucivita. It carried none of the inviting sweetness of syrup; it was far too intense, making Lucivita tremble uncontrollably.
Kneeling on the floor with one hand braced against the arm of the sofa, Rhein felt a surge of blind fury triggered by his own loss of control. Reason commanded him to lock himself away, but raw instinct urged him to hunt for something anything to anchor the raging desire.
He bit down hard on the tip of his tongue. Pain and impulse tangled together, wreaking havoc inside his mouth while every single nerve ending on his skin prickled with a maddened, hyper-sensitive irritation. Gripping his own fingers until his knuckles turned white, he fought desperately to keep from slipping further out of character.
Rhein possessed a stubborn pride rooted deep in his bones. He detested this surrender to primitive urges; it was utterly repulsive.
During his first year in the Zerg world, he had weathered his rut simply by locking himself in his room and playing video games for a day. Yet tonight, because of Lucivita, his body had nearly veered completely off the rails. If time could be rewound, Rhein would never have picked him up.
It was displaced anger, admittedly, but he had no alternative. The overwhelming tide of desire lashed at him like a cruel torture device, flaying everyone present.
With wide, disbelieving eyes, Lucivita stared at the kneeling figure. The very Zerg who had just saved him the one he had only just decided to trust turned out to be a male.
Within Zerg society, males were universally monsters. Sheltered by institutional privilege, they cultivated the seven deadly sins woven directly into their blood: pride, envy, wrath, sloth, greed, gluttony, and lust.
Over countless centuries, countless females had learned a foundational truth written in their own blood:
Bow your head to a male, unless you wish to lose everything you hold dear.
Every source of misery in Lucivita’s life stemmed from males, whose careless words had sealed his tragic existence.
His instincts screamed at him to run to flee as far away as possible.
Setting aside whether Rhein was truly like other males, what an adult male in the throes of a rut would do to a female trapped in the same room was something every three-year-old Zergling knew.
Panicking, Lucivita scrambled backward. Driven by Rhein’s oppressive pheromones, he finally backed into the entryway, pressed his spine against the front door, and frantically fumbled for the doorknob.
At that exact moment, Rhein moved. Pushing himself up, he stumbled past the sofa and collapsed against the edge of the coffee table, snatching up the fruit knife used earlier for peeling apples and driving the blade straight across his wrist.
The minor wound previously inflicted by Lucivita instantly widened, welling with a fresh, crimson stream of blood. With a cold, weary glare, Rhein watched the self-inflicted cut. The physical pain radiating from his skin was sharp, clear, and unyielding. Every scrape of the blade against flesh deepened the agony, serving as a deliberate anchor designed to claw back scraps of rationality from the brink.
With an audible sigh, he spoke without turning around, his tone drained of all recognizable emotion.
“Get out of here, Little White.”
Lucivita froze.
What would an escalating male in a rut do? Every Zerg knew the answer, which made what he was witnessing completely incomprehensible. Rhein was letting him go; he chose to inflict pain upon himself rather than lay a hand on Lucivita.
Lucivita couldn’t untangle the knot of emotions churning in his chest. He felt as though he were standing on the edge of a cliff, expecting to plummet at any second only for the cliff itself to step aside and tell him to go wherever he pleased.
What was the meaning of this?
If such a male truly existed, why hadn’t he crossed paths with Lucivita sooner—back when things were still normal?
Gritting his teeth, Lucivita stood in absolute silence until Rhein, utterly exhausted, finally forced the fury of his body’s desires to subside and drifted into an uneasy sleep slumped against the coffee table.
Stepping forward, Lucivita retrieved the medical kit and quietly set to work tending to the wound.
Though his blood-red vision had yet to fully clear, he could still make out the faint, silver-tinged golden strands of Rhein’s hair gleaming softly in the moonlight, resembling a cluster of dancing stars in the dark.
The night grew quiet. The small figure of Lucivita stood out sharply against the moonlight as he wiped the blood from Rhein’s wrist and tied the bandages into a neat, secure knot.
Next, he hoisted the male upward, taking immense care not to make a sound or wake him, and gently maneuvered him back to the master bedroom for a proper rest.
As Rhein sank deeply into the pillows and fell into a heavy sleep, Lucivita lingered by the bedside. At that moment, ending the male’s life would have been effortless no different from the countless adversaries Lucivita had killed to survive in the past, requiring not even a weapon.
Yet he did not. Hesitating for a beat, he finally mustered the courage and whispered a quiet, trembling phrase.
“Good night… Lin Yin.” His voice was feather-light, like a pale, drifting cloud.
Midway through, he remembered that males were traditionally addressed with the honorific “Lord.”
Stumbling over the unfamiliar phrasing, he corrected himself.
“Good night… Lord Lin Yin. Thank you for saving me.”
Had fate dealt Lucivita a slightly kinder hand, perhaps he would never have been forced down such a wretched path.
Fortunately, destiny despite its twists, turns, and mistaken detours, never truly abandons what belongs to you.