Outside the window, the thunderstorm broke out with renewed fury, violent gusts and lashing rain slamming against the glass panes with heart-stopping bangs.
The deluge cascaded down like a waterfall, threatening to submerge the entire villa within Saint Creti Monastery.
Water trickled down the glass, pooling into streams along the sill before splashing onto the courtyard dirt, spreading dark, wet stains across the earth.
Amidst the flashing lightning and crashing thunder, no one in the room noticed one thing—
The footsteps that had just approached outside the door.
"Holy crap..."
Iphatia and Almis stood frozen in the doorway, staring dumbfounded at Hyperion and Talia on the bed inside.
"A-Almis, what is going on here?"
Iphatia turned her head, intending to ask Almis.
Only to find that Almis was just as frightened.
"I have no clue."
Almis, the Witch of Ice and Snow, always dignified and composed, was trembling so hard her teeth chattered.
Almis didn't even dare tell Iphatia that the scorpion-tailed demon woman was her daughter, Hyperion, fearing Iphatia wouldn't be able to bear it.
"Hyperion, why are you hitting me?!"
No matter how Talia cried and pleaded, Hyperion acted as if she couldn't hear a thing; she was completely unlike her former self.
"Hyperion?"
Iphatia stiffened in shock.
Wasn't that her daughter's name?
In an instant, everything seemed to click in Iphatia's mind.
The trace of demonic power originating from the same source as her own, the girl's teenage appearance, and the ancestral ducal dagger lying on the floor.
Stars burst before Iphatia's eyes.
"G-Goddess of Fate, what a sin I've committed... I shouldn't have abandoned my child... She's turned into a bad girl..."
Unable to accept this reality, Iphatia crumpled straight to the floor.
"Ipha! Ipha!"
The Witch of Ice and Snow dropped to her knees in haste to check Iphatia's condition.
Fortunately, Iphatia had merely fainted from the shock on top of her lingering fatigue—likely from recovering from a serious illness combined with prolonged sleepless nights. There was no real danger.
Inside the room,
no one had the spare attention to care about what was happening outside the door.
Antanas felt an inexplicable, nagging sense of dissonance.
"Sinora, what's going on?" Antanas nudged Sinora with her elbow and whispered.
"Something is definitely off. If this were in a serialized newspaper story, plenty of readers would scream about out-of-character writing before even thinking it through, completely ignoring viewing etiquette to viciously attack the characters."
Having spent considerable time reading at the front desk of Boss Cat Restaurant, Sinora often encountered such situations, so she drew an analogy for Antanas.
She was long accustomed to people who insisted on treating comedy as serious drama.
"..."
Antanas didn't dare try subduing Little Hyperion just yet. In her second-stage berserk state, Little Hyperion was tremendously powerful; she and Sinora might not be able to take Hyperion down in a single blow.
If they drew Hyperion's aggro onto themselves instead, the fighting would likely shatter the concealment barrier within the house.
Only Sigrid or the Witch of Ice and Snow could take down a delirious Hyperion in one decisive move.
In truth, what Antanas felt most was confusion.
For instance, why hadn't Talia resisted at all?
Did she not want to resist...
Or could she not resist...
Suddenly, another streak of lightning slashed outside the window, and a flash of inspiration struck Antanas's mind, restoring color to her vacant pupils.
Antanas quietly crept toward the side where Talia's head was pressed down.
When Antanas lifted her gaze and met the eyes of the pinned-down Talia on the bed, she finally saw clearly.
A black centipede mark ran across Talia's face, and tears welled in her blue eyes.
*Blue eyes?*
Antanas thought in bewilderment.
*Shouldn't Talia have golden eyes?*
If there was a female demon in the world who looked identical to Talia and could perfectly replace her—
"Lanqi, you f***ing die!!!"
The gray-haired, blue-eyed demon girl desperately tried to turn her head and wail even as she was being spanked.
Yet her head was firmly pinned down, completely unable to lift.
Lanqi had somehow cast some godforsaken spell that locked her life state, making it impossible for her to die even if she wanted to!
"Holy cat!"
Hearing that curse, Boss Cat understood instantly.
Taking advantage of the blinding lightning earlier, Lanqi had forcibly summoned the Poet of Great Love.
Meanwhile, Talia had vanished into thin air.
He had likely used the traditional ancient method [Forbidden Curse Seal] alongside a modified version of the Nuclear Fusion Wolf's art, [Summon Recall], to pull Talia back into the soul space she had long grown accustomed to.
"..."
Lanqi was still shooting glances at Sigrid.
At this point, only Sigrid could restrain the berserk Hyperion.
Sigrid nodded and silently moved toward Hyperion.
She had been stunned at first and hadn't caught Lanqi's drift.
Or rather, she hadn't expected Lanqi to be so utterly shameless as to use the Poet of Great Love as a taunt sponge.
"Phew..."
Seeing Sigrid successfully circle behind Hyperion, Lanqi gradually let out a breath.
He had done his best.
The moment he realized Hyperion's condition was abnormal, he had taken desperate precautions.
Fortunately, he had the Poet of Great Love to serve as a Tier 1 substitute for Talia that could not be destroyed by battle.
She drew Hyperion's aggro,
keeping Hyperion focused entirely on spanking the Poet of Great Love.
Otherwise, subduing Little Hyperion in her Melogas-infused state wouldn't have been nearly so simple.
This ultimate trick was originally meant for the Poet of Great Love to sacrifice her life for Talia—commonly known as castling in chess—yet he had ended up playing it right now.
"Lanqi, f*** your whole—!"
The Poet of Great Love wept and screamed.
Earlier, her back had been turned toward Hyperion when she was grabbed, and the moment she was caught, her head was slammed onto the bed, so nobody noticed the change in eye color.
Never in her entire life had she suffered such humiliation.
"Lanqi, thank you for saving me..."
Talia was also shivering inside Lanqi's soul space.
If Lanqi hadn't protected her, she would be the one under frenzied Little Hyperion's hands right now.
Even though her affection for Lanqi ticked up once again, filling her with immense guilt and remorse, she genuinely felt that she couldn't manage without this man.
He was simply too reliable.
"..."
The corner of Antanas's eye twitched.
More than half a year ago, ever since she figured out the relationship between Lanqi and Lanfu, she had felt what Lanqi did to Lanfu in Herrom Prison was outrageous.
It was only after Lanfu took revenge on Lanqi once that the two finally cleared the air.
And now Lanqi had done it again.
Although Lanqi was thinking entirely for Talia's sake, unhesitatingly gambling Lanfu's life in the process—which Antanas found somewhat endearing to ship—she didn't dare imagine what Lanfu would do to him next time.
At the door, once the Witch of Ice and Snow saw that the gray-haired demon girl was not Talia, her original worry turned into cold apathy.
So it was that obnoxious gray-haired summon.
Back in the Northern Continent, she had found the Poet of Great Love profoundly annoying.
To this day, the Witch of Ice and Snow hadn't forgotten that the Poet of Great Love had told her to her face that she was flat as a chopping board.
After a moment's thought, the Witch of Ice and Snow decided to let bygones be bygones.
No matter what, this summon looked far too pitiful right now: unable to fight back, unable to flee, and unable to die.
"Sigrid."
The Witch of Ice and Snow raised her gaze to signal Sigrid for cooperation, silently mouthing words.
Sigrid immediately sent back a friendly response.
Even if they didn't understand why they had run into each other on the Southern Continent, they were already friends who exchanged gifts in the Northern Continent, not ones to bear enmity purely over factional affiliations. Even the Samsara Jade Sigrid used to pray for romance was merchandise of the Church of the Goddess of Fate gifted to her by the Witch of Ice and Snow.
Sigrid crept soundlessly behind Hyperion, firmly grasping her slender shoulders in a vice-like grip. At that very instant, Almis struck with howling frost and snow, encasing half of Hyperion's body in ice.
"You! You!!"
The whites of Hyperion's eyes had long turned pitch-black, filled with slaughterous intent identical to Melogas's, and her target immediately switched to them.
Compared to Sigrid and Almis, Hyperion was still far too weak.
Moreover, she possessed raw power now but little combat sanity.
Accompanied by invisible ripples of mana, the Witch of Ice and Snow pressed her fair fingertip against the center of Hyperion's brow.
[Cleansing Mind Divine Incantation] spread outward in invisible ripples, halting Hyperion's vicious gaze and raging aura, gradually subduing them.
Her mind clouded, her pupils began to lose focus, and the toxins coursing through her body subsided. She slumped back and was caught in Almis's embrace.
After a long time,
the rain outside continued to drift and sway.
"Thank you both. We really needed you here today."
Lanqi felt the lighting in the room finally stabilize.
The house had likely been struck by lightning earlier, causing the mana-circuit power supply to flicker erratically.
The moment he noticed something was wrong with Hyperion, he had already prepared a fallback contingency.
He just hadn't expected Hyperion to go quite so unhinged.
Lanqi dismissed the Poet of Great Love's summoning and lifted the [Black Sun Tyrant Perpetual Punishment Edict] cast on her.
This was supposed to have been a perfect combat technique—a [Ninja Art: Substitution Technique] that could catch an enemy completely off guard—yet it had ended up being used in such a ridiculous farce.
Released back into the room, Talia looked at Lanqi beside her with lingering fear, hesitating to speak.
"Lanqi, maybe... don't use that substitution technique again in the future..."
Talia felt doing so damaged one's karma.
She couldn't imagine what sin Lanfu had committed to end up saddled with a summoner like Lanqi.
"Lanfu didn't seem to mind."
Lanqi had heard Lanfu cursing him just now.
But Lanfu hadn't said she couldn't.
"..."
Talia was at a loss for words.
She could only silently make a mental note that she owed Lanqi an unusual favor and would repay him later.
At the door, Iphatia was still completely offline, laid flat on the carpet.
"What happened with you two?"
"You explain your side first."
Leaving aside romantic entanglements, tonight's events were actually straightforward to explain.
Just as everyone prepared to review tonight's chaotic mess,
"Mm..."
Hyperion's eyelashes fluttered slightly, seeming to regain consciousness from her stupor.
Everyone turned warily toward Hyperion in the Witch of Ice and Snow's arms.
"W-What did I just do?"
Hyperion woke to a splitting headache, clutching her forehead.
She remembered that after seeing Lanqi, Talia, and Sigrid, her mind had gradually gone blank, and then after a flash of lightning, she blacked out completely.
So this was what being dead drunk felt like.
Back on the negative sixth floor of Herrom Prison, she had downed several bottles of snowfield liquor and only felt slightly tipsy; this was the first time she had ever felt genuine dread toward alcohol.
Seeing Hyperion return to normal, everyone breathed a sigh of relief for the moment.
"You cannot use the power of the Lord of Blasphemy Melogas so casually anymore," Sinora hurried over, supporting Hyperion, and spoke with lingering dread.
It was fine as long as Hyperion remained emotionally stable, but if she went berserk a second time, she would attain the physical capabilities of an eighth-tier combatant at the cost of losing herself completely, turning into a Melogas version of Little Hyperion.
"Did I lose control?" Hyperion asked in panic.
She indeed recalled that before losing consciousness, her emotions had fluctuated violently. Seeing Lanqi, Talia, and Sigrid seemingly lying in the same bed had made it impossible for her to remain calm.
Now that she thought about it carefully, however, it seemed quite reasonable. Even Boss Cat was in the room; it looked more like Talia and Sigrid had temporarily slipped into Lanqi's room to protect him.
"Uh, it's fine. Nothing was damaged," Antanas gestured for Hyperion to look around the master bedroom. Even the furniture was mostly intact, and no one was hurt.
"That's good, thank goodness." Hyperion let out a massive sigh of relief, feeling achingly sore all over, and grew drowsy once more.
It was already late at night,
and the strain of [Melogas's Blasphemous Regal Authority] on her body was immense.
After overusing it, she would probably need to rest for several days.
"Hyperion, I'm sorry," Talia murmured with her head lowered, kneeling on the bed.
"What do you have to be sorry for?" Hyperion raised heavy eyelids and asked Talia softly.
The only thing she cared about was how happy she was to see Talia again in the Creti Empire.
It was wonderful that she hadn't hurt Talia after losing control.
"You get some rest first. We'll talk slowly tomorrow." Talia felt her eyes sting.
Hyperion was an angel as always, which only made Talia feel even guiltier toward her.
"Good night... Tata..." Hyperion slowly closed her eyes, murmuring as Antanas hoisted her onto her back.
"Everyone should stay on the first floor tonight. There are plenty of guest rooms," Sigrid said, finding it awkward to wander around Lanqi's room in her nightgown under the watchful eyes of so many acquaintances. Exhibiting the poise of the head of the household, she gestured for the other demons to leave together.
She looked back and shot Talia a meaningful glance.
If they were leaving, they were leaving together.
"I'll help you prepare the rooms." Talia climbed down from the bed and followed Sigrid's group out of the bedroom.
Before stepping out, she pulled the door shut for Lanqi.
As the gap slowly closed, only Talia's golden eyes remained—filled with a complicated blend of gratitude, guilt, and emotional turmoil—until she and Lanqi vanished from each other's sight.
Once again, only the sound of rain and thunder outside remained in the room.
In the depths of winter, an indescribable radiance had appeared.
No words and no gestures could ever express the sudden tempest that had battered everyone's hearts just now.
"Meow-ah..."
Boss Cat let out a breath of relief.
The jealous storm had come so fast and vanished just as swiftly, like a sudden tornado.
To think it could still end in a happy family reconciliation!
Upon closer reflection, it made sense.
Or rather, if not for Melogas's corruptive power eroding Hyperion, no such jealous feud would have arisen between Hyperion and Talia in the first place; they had long since reached mutual understanding back in South Vantina.
Sitting on the sofa, Boss Cat watched Lanqi shake his head with a sigh of relief.
As expected, Teacher Lan's calculations remained foolproof.
Though it had looked like total collapse, he still had tricks up his sleeve.
Without anyone making any real sacrifice, the crisis was resolved smoothly.
It seemed that Lanqi's long-looming disaster of romantic entanglements had finally been put to rest.
Yet why did Boss Cat feel that the star of death hovering over Lanqi's head was glowing red enough to bleed?
Chapter 822