Chapter 44: The Tainted Robe and Purifying Touch
*RIP!*
The sharp steel edge of Leo’s dagger sliced through the burning gold cord at Seraphina’s waist.
With a swift, clean pull, Leo cut through the scorched collar of her thick holy mantle.
He grabbed the smoking, acid-dripping fabric with his bare left hand, ripped it away from her body, and hurled it across the aisle.
The bundle of burning cloth slammed into the dark stone corner.
*Sssssssss!*
The acid finished eating through the linen, dissolving the holy robes into a puddle of black, foul-smelling sludge against the floor tiles.
Silence returned to the narrow aisle.
Cold air rushed against Seraphina’s exposed skin.
She sat on the stone floor, her back pressed against the lower shelf of the wooden bookcase.
Without her heavy outer mantle, she was left wearing only her thin, sleeveless white linen undershift.
The semi-sheer fabric clung tightly to her chest and hips.
Her delicate collarbones, slender arms, and pale, smooth legs were fully visible in the dim blue light of the warding runes.
Seraphina’s face flushed bright red.
She crossed her arms over her chest in an instant, desperate reflex, trying to hide her body from Leo’s sight.
"D-Don’t look," Seraphina stammered, her voice shaking with humiliation. "Please... turn around."
Leo did not turn around.
He slid his dark dagger back into the leather sheath at his belt with a quiet click.
He looked down at her with calm, indifferent eyes.
"Stop acting like a child," Leo said flatly. "The acid splattered your legs. If the venom enters your skin, the corruption will poison your core."
Before Seraphina could protest, Leo dropped down onto one knee directly in front of her.
His tall, broad frame blocked out what little light remained in the aisle.
He reached out and caught her left ankle in his right hand.
Seraphina flinched.
His grip was firm, solid, and blisteringly hot.
Leo lifted her bare foot, resting her heel gently on his knee.
"Hold still," Leo ordered.
On the pale skin of her lower shin, just below her knee, three dark droplets of sizzling acid were eating into her flesh.
The skin around the drops was turning red and swollen.
A faint wisp of dark smoke rose from the wound.
Leo did not hesitate.
He raised his thumb, channeling a thin, focused stream of warm mana from his core directly into his fingertips.
His Half-Incubus bloodline responded at once.
The mana was not cold like Church water.
It was thick, sweet, and boiling hot.
Leo pressed his calloused thumb directly against the dark acid burn on her shin.
Seraphina braced herself for agony.
She shut her eyes, gritting her teeth, expecting the touch to sting like fire.
The pain never came.
The moment Leo’s warm skin made direct contact with her bare leg, a sudden, powerful shockwave of heat surged straight up her calf.
It felt like warm, soothing honey pouring over raw nerves.
The acid venom was instantly neutralized by Leo’s dark vitality, dissolving into harmless grey ash under his thumb.
Seraphina’s eyes flew open in shock.
The stinging burn was gone.
In its place was a deep, melting pulse of warmth that traveled from her ankle, up through her inner thigh, and straight into her lower abdomen.
Her stomach tightened with a sudden, aching throb.
A soft, breathy gasp slipped past her lips.
"Ah..."
The sound was small, helpless, and filled with unmistakable pleasure.
Seraphina slapped both hands over her mouth, her eyes widening in horror at herself.
Her entire body began to tremble.
’What was that?’ her mind screamed in panic. ’Why did that feel so good?’
She was a consecrated Saintess Candidate of the Holy Church of Lumina.
She had taken vows of purity before the Grand Altar.
She had spent years learning to reject all physical desires of the flesh.
Yet the simple touch of a notorious bully’s thumb on her bare shin was making her heart race faster than any sacred prayer ever had.
Leo did not let go of her leg.
His long fingers slowly slid up from her ankle, wrapping around the smooth curve of her calf.
His rough, warm palm pressed against her bare skin, checking for any other hidden splatters of acid.
Every inch his hand moved sent fresh ripples of heat through Seraphina’s core.
Her breathing turned ragged.
Beneath her thin linen chemise, her chest rose and fell in quick, shallow gasps.
The tips of her breasts tightened against the light fabric, hardening into visible points in the cold air.
Seraphina looked down at Leo’s broad shoulders.
He was kneeling between her parted knees, his dark hair falling across his forehead as he examined her leg with calm, ruthless focus.
The sweet, rich scent of his Half-Incubus aura rolled off his skin, filling her lungs with every desperate breath she took.
A terrible, crushing wave of holy guilt crashed over her.
’Lord Noel...’ the thought pierced her chest like a needle. ’Lord Noel never touched me like this.’
Two years of walking behind Noel.
Two years of offering him her pure devotion.
Noel had never once looked at her bare skin.
He had never once held her hand to warm her in the cold winter camps.
And now, locked in a dark underground vault, she was shivering with uncontrollable pleasure beneath the hands of the tyrant of House Vance.
High above the stone ceiling of the archive, in the dark maintenance gallery overlooking Sector Three, the shadows shifted.
Behind a concealed iron ventilation grate, a figure stood in the dark.
Hero Candidate Noel Pendelton.
Noel wore his pristine white tunic, but his handsome face was twisted into a strange, manic grin.
In his right hand, Noel held a small, polished seeing crystal.
The crystal glowed with a faint silver light, projecting a clear, magnified view of the narrow aisle down below.
Through the glass, Noel saw everything.
He saw his pure Saintess stripped down to her thin white chemise.
He saw her slender pale legs spread before Leo Vance.
He saw Leo’s large, calloused hand gripping Seraphina’s bare calf, stroking the pale skin while Seraphina arched her neck in breathless, flushed ecstasy.
Noel’s throat went completely dry.
His heart began to hammer against his ribs at a terrifying speed.
A wild, dirty rush of pure masochistic adrenaline flooded his veins.
’Look at her,’ Noel thought, his eyes wide and bloodshot with dark excitement. ’Look at my pure Saintess... shivering for another man.’
The humiliation was overwhelming.
The thought that his own maiden, the holy woman who was supposed to be his future bride, was being touched and stripped by the Academy’s most feared bully sent violent shivers of pleasure down Noel’s spine.
Noel let out a shaky, ragged breath.
He reached down with his left hand, undoing the gold buckle of his trousers.
He gripped his hard, tiny aching shaft through his linen and began to stroke himself with frantic, desperate speed in the dark gallery.
As he watched Leo’s hand slide higher up Seraphina’s bare thigh, a blinding flash of golden light ignited deep within Noel’s chest.
His stagnant mana core, frozen for months, suddenly roared to life.
A massive surge of divine holy mana flooded his veins, expanding his core capacity by leaps and bounds.
The masochistic cuckoldry shock was working.
Down below in the archive aisle, Leo’s hand reached Seraphina’s knee.
His thumb brushed the soft, sensitive skin on the inside of her lower thigh.
Seraphina let out a choked whimper.
Her hands moved on their own, reaching out and clutching Leo’s dark shoulders to keep herself from collapsing backward onto the floor.
"Leo..." Seraphina whispered, tears of shame and overwhelming heat glittering in her sapphire eyes. "What are you doing to me?"
Leo looked up, his dark eyes locking straight onto her trembling face.
A slow, dominant smirk curved his lips.