CHAPTER 73: SEDUCTION

"To think that a mortal world could possess such prodigies..." a certain Celestial Fox mused, her nine tails swaying with hypnotic grace as she watched the ongoing fight with great interest.

Her expression shifted several times, her mood souring into anger whenever the man, the one her naughty tail favoured, was hurt.

The fox shook her head, forcing herself to dismiss the thought of ending the little blood demon in a single strike.

Meddling in mortal affairs would attract unwanted scrutiny from the Void, a risk she could not afford now, at least not in her current sealed state.

"No wonder that old man claimed that sending the Labyrinth to a mortal world would be most amusing. I can only imagine the faces of those in the godhoods if they knew their coveted treasure was about to be claimed by a mere mortal. It will be fun, indeed."

She glanced again at her wayward tail... Yuki. A frown creased her brow as she stared at the man.

She was jealous, knowing that one of her tails had received a name while she, the main body, had none.

’Hmph.’

She was also intensely curious about the man with whom Yuki had risked forming a contract.

Unlike the bonds a typical monster forms with a human, a Celestial entity like herself only engages in equal, transactional bonds: a symbiotic pact to acquire what one lacks from the other.

The opposite party in such a contract also gains something of equally profound value. Most often, these pacts were only ever formed once an individual had ascended to godhood.

As a nine-tailed fox, each of her tails possessed a different personality. However, they all mirrored the same core sentiment: pride.

In the millennia they had spent in the primordial expanse, where they were local tyrants that even gods feared, not once had any of them considered the possibility of an equal bond, even when the most capable individuals in existence queued for the honour.

Even after the Great War, when the primordial expanse was sealed shut, they never bothered to use this method to escape their predicament.

That was what intrigued her most—that Yuki had formed a bond with a human she had known for only a few days.

If someone suggested it was because of love at first sight, the Celestial Fox would have laughed herself hoarse.

Yuki was the youngest and most naive among them. Since she had been formed after they were all sealed, she had no experience with mortal interaction, giving her the characteristics of an innocent, curious child.

But she was no fool. She was, after all, a part of a Celestial Nine-Tailed Fox. There was no way she would form a contract with that human without a reason.

What, then, could this mortal possess that she so desperately coveted? The fox wanted to know.

"You won’t answer me, will you?" she sighed, looking at Yuki, who was acting dead.

"Certainly, the man is handsome, talented, and charismatic... but there is little else worthy of our attention. And his trait... I don’t know what to make of it. But... he is strange. Something is shielding him from my probes. How interesting. How about we find out what it is?"

One of her other tails detached from her body as a dark vortex appeared in the room, pulling the appendage within.

"By the way, who has gone this time?"

A wave of panic washed over her as realisation dawned.

"No... NOOOO! Why the fuck did she go out? No, who the fuck allowed her to go out?!"

But once a tail was sent out, she could not recall it unless it was gravely injured and on the verge of death.

"SEDUCTION! COME BACK, YOU HORNY WENCH!"

On one of the floating islands nearest to the central one, a pink, fluffy tail appeared. It quickly morphed into a human shape, from which a woman stepped out.

Her long, rose-pink hair cascaded down her back, each strand seeming to catch and refract the ethereal light of the Sanctum. It moved with a life of its own, swaying gently even in the still air.

She was clad in dark pink robes, the silk clinging to a figure that was the very embodiment of temptation, with curves like sharp-edged mountain peaks.

Her eyes, brimming with heart-shaped pupils, were half-lidded, shimmering with a watery light that seemed to draw in the soul of anyone who dared to meet her gaze.

A lazy, knowing smile played on her full lips, an expression of someone who knew the world’s deepest desires and was utterly bored by them.

This was Seduction.

She stretched languidly, a movement as graceful and captivating as a cat waking from a long slumber.

The chaos erupting on the central island was a distant, annoying noise, a disruption to her peaceful observation.

’Honestly, can’t a girl get a moment’s peace?’ she thought, a delicate frown marring her perfect brow.

Her gaze drifted towards the central plaza, her pink eyes easily piercing the distance to watch the confrontation unfold.

She saw the man her naive little sister, Yuki, had latched onto. The one the main body was so inexplicably curious about.

"Ah, you foolish younger sister. Because of you, my strength is now that of a Tier 1 weakling. Even a piece of rogue debris from that fight might kill me." Her voice was accusing, but her expression was one of excitement.

Her strength, like everyone else who had entered this trial, was capped at the peak of Body Tempering. Normally, this would be an infuriating limitation for a being of her stature.

As she had to adopt the maximum strength of the place she arrived in, her power would start at Tier 1. She would have to improve it like everyone else, if she wanted to, that is.

But Seduction felt no such frustration. A soft, possessive smile returned to her lips as she watched Rhys stand his ground against the blood demon.

"Why should I strive and struggle when I have a husband strong enough to protect me" she mused, the thought as natural to her as breathing.

The concept of a contract, an equal pact, was a foreign one to her. In her world, there was only conquest and possession.

And this man, this interesting, powerful mortal, was hers. Yuki may have found him first, but that simply meant her little sister had good taste.

It did not change the fundamental truth of ownership.

She watched as Rhys and Kaelen exchanged insults, their words dripping with a venom that was almost as entertaining as their power.

The revelation that they were cousins, that the so-called ’trash’ of the Ashton clan was the one who had shaken the Labyrinth to its core, made her giggle.

Mortals and their petty family dramas were always so amusing.

"So," Rhys’s voice carried across the plaza, "the great Ashton clan harboured a demon and named it after a hero, while casting out the hero’s true son. Tell me, ’cousin’, does your father know he was cuckolded by a demon, or was he in on the joke?"

Seduction’s giggle turned into a full, melodious laugh. Oh, she liked this one. He was not just powerful; he was sharp, his tongue as deadly as any blade.

"I wonder how it feels down there. I hope it’s as sharp as it sounds." she bit into her lips.

The battle that erupted was a beautiful, brutal ballet. She watched, her chin resting on her hand, her pink eyes tracking every movement.

She saw the blood tendrils, the Spark Fist, and the clash of two beings who were fundamentally more than human.

The sheer power on display was enough to make the other heirs tremble in their boots, but to Seduction, it was merely a prelude.

"Two heaven grade skills, did heaven grade skills become cabbage even mortals playing with them now?"

Her lazy smile finally vanished when she saw the Ashen Behemoth, the magnificent puppet Rhys had summoned, was destroyed in a single, overwhelming strike by Kaelen.

The blood demon was stronger than she had initially thought. He had been holding back, playing with his food.

Now, the true fight was beginning.

Rhys stood alone, his army of Vindicators having been wiped out in the earlier battle against the Sanctum’s forces. He had not bothered to resummon them.

Seduction understood why. Against an opponent like Kaelen, an army of Knights and Vanguards was meaningless cannon fodder.

This was a duel between monsters, and Rhys, she could sense, wanted to experience this fight personally.

He wanted to test himself against a truly dangerous opponent, to feel the thrill of a battle where his life was genuinely on the line.

"Foolish, but admirable," she murmured, a flicker of genuine interest in her eyes.

The battle was going well; that was, until the demon did something that changed her expression for the first time.

"How could this skill have fallen into the mortal world? No, my husband is in danger."