Chapter 74 - A Step Closer

"My my my! If I had known such wondrous results would come, I would have done this sooner!"

Urusla returned to the dungeon later that night, after getting a report from her underlings that the deed was done, she quickly ran there to check on the results.

She skipped and pranced around Aegis as if doing some sort of ancient ritual, only betraying that thought with her maniacal laughing.

"So how was it, honey? Was your first time memorable?" Urusla teased more, adding a sultry tone to her voice, "Mother made sure to select the ones the best endowed for you."

As expected, absolutely no response came from Aegis, not even an eye twitch out of anger. Although her mental fortitude was commendable, there would still be only a few who could withstand such a blatant violation of their innocence. Sadly, she was not of that few, resulting in her state now.

Aegis stared at the ground below as her head hung low, if her heart wasn't beating with the powerful vitality of a demon one could easily mistake her for a corpse. Her face bore no emotions or thought, life itself became a concept of no importance.

Urusla, on the other hand, was overjoyed. She was now one step closer to her ultimate goal.

"Come now my subjects! There's no need to keep watch anymore!" She said to the demons in the dungeon as she pranced out.

On one of the ventilation openings however, a roc could be seen perched and watching the situation in the dungeon intently. It flew off as soon as Urusla left, headed straight for Tenshu Safe Village.

***

The bird ended it's journey in the main building, landing on Meril's shoulder and relaying what it had learned to her.

"Well?" Lancelot asked, his tone still sullen.

Everyone directly involved in the fight against Urusla was gathered in the throne room, all staring at Meril with anticipation.

She gulped loudly as the anxiety of what she heard enveloped her, but nonetheless she sucked it up and prepared to speak after taking a deep breath.

"I'm sorry, Lancelot. It seems as if Aegis couldn't hold on any longer, her spirit has been broken." Meril said with a downcast expression.

The entire room went silent, only the fluttering of the bird's feathers could be heard. Lancelot rose from his seated position and staggered to a table with a pot of tea.

"How did it happen?" he asked while bracing on the table.

"Ah- I don't think you want to kn-!"

*Slam!~*

"HOW?!" Lancelot yelled, slamming his fist on the table making the pot jump, "I NEED TO KNOW WHAT THAT WITCH DID TO MY DAUGHTER!"

The group looked at Lancelot with surprised expressions. Although his voice showed nothing but unbridled rage, his body trembled as a stream of tears cascaded down his cheeks. He was sad beyond their belief.

"*Haaaa~*" Meril sighed, "She… was raped…"

Lancelot gritted his teeth in agony, they all braced themselves for him to go ballistic in anger but it didn't happen.

"Please leave."

No one even tried to go against his words as they saw that he needed some time alone. As they all filtered out the room, Takumi stayed back and laid his hand on Lancelot's back.

"She won't get away with this. I promise you."

Takumi's consoling seemed to have helped a bit as Lancelot thanked him deeply and in a few more seconds he was left alone in the throne room, alone with his thoughts.

"I swear Urusla… I'll make sure that your life ends miserably." Lancelot mused with a clenched fist.

***

By the time Takumi got out, most of the group was missing, only Misao on her way to the training ground and Meril, walking very slowly.

Meril was staring at the ground trying to hold back the tears when she felt herself come into someone's warm embrace.

"Are you okay?" Takumi asked, gently rubbing her back.

Meril finally looked up and the tears were very close to bursting out, she said nothing except instantly holding onto Takumi in a hug as if asking him to protect her.

"Shhhhh. It's alright, I know that must've been hard for you." Kissing her forehead in a loving manner, Takumi offered his warmth to ease the pain she must've felt.

Growing up, Takumi was properly taught how to love by his family. Being with his sickly mother Yua almost every hour of the day gave him the knowledge on how to love a woman and he applied all that knowledge here.

The hug lasted for a couple minutes before Meril rubbed her head on Takumi's robe, wiping out the tears that had formed in her eyes. She stayed in his arms some more and stared into his eyes, she couldn't help but smile brightly at how he was able to tell that she just needed someone to hold her in this situation.

"Th- Thank you."

With a kiss, Meril was put back into a more desirable mood as she scurried back home.

Takumi then made his way to the training ground for his daily session with Misao. When he arrived, he wasn't greeted with any insults or light attacks as usual, only the psychopath staring at him with narrowed eyes.

"Hey, lover boy. How the fuck did you reach the third scale of the water force already?!" She asked as she took a peek at his cultivation level using a technique she came up with.

Takumi was taken aback by that question and couldn't find an answer when someone reminded him.

"Remember when I said you could raise your cultivation level by having sex with me?" Mizuko asked in his mind, "Well, this is proof of that."

Takumi gasped at this almost broken way of cultivating. He vowed to himself to dual cultivate more often.

"Dual Cultivation? Oooo Nice ring to it." Mizuko commended.

The conversation which didn't even last half a minute left Takumi giggling, which made Misao annoyed by how he was holding out on her so she asked again, this time with a more threatening tone.

"Oho, it's a secret cultivation method my dear. You have to make it worth my while for me to tell you." Takumi teased.

Gritting her teeth, Misao huffed before summoning her scythe. The way she brandished it made Takumi gulp as he thought she would go crazy on him, but thankfully she did no such thing.

"Whatever, let's train."