Across the opulent banquet hall, Victoria navigated the sea of Sancta Lodo's elite, her red-soled heels clicking rhythmically as she made a beeline for the shadowy balcony where Caspian stood alone.
She had just watched her fiancé, Tyler, get dragged around by Chloe's multi-billion dollar bait like a drooling lapdog. Tyler's greedy, desperate flailing disgusted her, but it also provided her with the perfect opening.
"Mr. Vane, isn't it?" Victoria purred, stopping just a fraction too close to him.
She wore a plunging, midnight-black evening gown that left very little to the imagination. The intoxicating blend of her expensive, custom perfume and the undeniable, pheromonal confidence of a high-society apex predator was enough to melt the rationale of any normal man.
She offered him a flute of bubbling, golden champagne, her eyes glinting with raw, unfiltered seduction. "It seems Chloe, that little ice block, doesn't know how to properly entertain a VIP guest. Try this. Perhaps you'll find that Sancta Lodo has far more... passionate hostesses to offer."
Caspian tilted his head slightly. His abyssal purple eyes dropped, sweeping over the golden liquid.
To mortal eyes, it was a glass of vintage Dom Pérignon. But through the absolute vision of The Omega Exchange, Caspian saw the truth. Boiling within the golden bubbles were sickening, pink tendrils of corrupted Aether.
Ever since the Aetheric energy began returning to this world, the Temple had hoarded the recipe for this High-Grade Spiritual Aphrodisiac. A single drop would strip a high-tier Awakened warrior of their sanity, reducing them to a mindless, rutting beast slaved to their primal urges.
Looking at the woman shamelessly flaunting her cleavage before him, a flash of absolute, glacial murder crossed Caspian's eyes.
A phantom pain lanced through his chest.
He remembered his previous life. In the previous eon, it was the "Red Tea"—a woman bred by the highest echelons of the hidden factions—who had used this exact same facade. She had offered her body, her absolute devotion, and in the deepest, most vulnerable throes of their physical union, she had driven the spike of imbalance into his Genesis Core. She had forced his destructive laws to go completely berserk, obliterating the entire civilization.
Did you really think the same parlor trick would work twice? Caspian thought, his internal monologue dripping with a terrifying, cosmic malice.
He didn't expose her. He kept one hand tucked casually in the pocket of his bespoke trousers, a cruel, knowing smirk playing on his lips. "A bit of special 'spice' in the vintage? The fiancée of the Thorne dynasty uses hunting bait that is far cheaper than I imagined."
Victoria's flawless smile froze instantly. Her heart skipped a beat.
He saw through it? Impossible! The High Priest personally brewed this!
Just as panic began to set in and her instincts screamed at her to retreat, Caspian reached out and elegantly took the poisoned flute from her hand. As he did, his long, pale fingers deliberately grazed the sensitive skin of her knuckles. The chilling, dangerous touch sent a violent shiver down Victoria's spine, causing a treacherous, pooling warmth to involuntarily flood between her thighs.
"However," Caspian murmured, his voice a dark, high-dimensional frequency, "I do prefer aggressive prey."
Before Victoria could process the terrifying weight of his words, the crystal chandeliers above them dimmed. A spotlight snapped onto the velvet-draped stage at the front of the hall. The core event of the Gala—the underground Aether auction—had begun.
A High Priest of the Temple, draped in immaculate white robes embroidered with golden crosses, stepped to the podium with a sickeningly pious smile.
"Esteemed board members of Sacred Heart University, titans of Sancta Lodo," the Priest announced. "In this grand era of Aura Recovery, our first holy relic tonight is the 'Vial of Extended Dawn,' blessed personally by the Archbishop..."
A quiet click sounded in Caspian's earpiece. Elena's cold, mechanical voice filtered through. As his branded Shadow Priestess, her tone dripped with absolute contempt for the mortals below.
"Master, the dark web layer analysis is complete. These so-called holy relics are embedded with microscopic parasitic arrays. The Temple is selling these to high-tier Awakened elites, using them to siphon their lifeforce and feed it directly to the underground blood-sacrifice transit station. These idiots are paying billions for their own death warrants."
Listening to Elena's report, Caspian felt the monolithic vault of The Omega Exchange vibrate within his soul. It was the resonance of encountering a corrupted, stolen origin.
The gods they worship day and night are nothing but parasites feeding off the scraps of my Rebirth laws, Caspian thought, looking at the Priest as if examining a dead insect. My Exchange is the true abyss. Everything returns to the One. And they will pay me back with interest.
The auction quickly reached a fever pitch.
The Priest carefully lifted a velvet tray, presenting a platinum necklace that radiated a faint, pure white light.
"Tonight's grand finale: The Archangel's Guardian Pendant! It grants immunity to all earthly diseases, purges all heresy, and bathes the wearer's soul in eternal holy light! Bidding starts at one hundred million dollars!"
"ONE BILLION!"
A ragged, furious roar echoed through the hall.
Tyler Thorne stormed back into the ballroom. He was sweating profusely, his eyes bloodshot with pure, unadulterated jealousy. He had just escaped Chloe's humiliating business trap, only to return and find his fiancée practically pressing her breasts against the mysterious transfer student!
Desperate to reclaim his dignity in front of the city's elite and his wandering fiancée, the 22-year-old frat-boy heir threw down a bid ten times the asking price.
The hall fell dead silent, followed by a thunderous eruption of applause and gasps.
Panting heavily, Tyler marched onto the stage and snatched the glowing necklace. He turned around, pointing across the massive ballroom, aiming his finger directly at Caspian standing in the shadows.
"True legacy and divine protection cannot be bought, Mr. Vane!" Tyler sneered loudly. "I don't care what hidden nouveau-riche family you crawled out of. In Sancta Lodo, you don't even have the right to look up at the gods!"
Standing nearby, Victoria felt a sudden wave of profound second-hand embarrassment. She instinctively glanced at Caspian.
Caspian smiled. It was the pitiful, mocking smile of a supreme deity watching a dung beetle aggressively wave its antennae from inside a cesspool.
He raised the flute of spiked champagne, and under Victoria's horrified, disbelieving gaze, he downed the aphrodisiac-laced poison as if it were sweet nectar.
As the liquid hit his stomach, it instantly ignited the suppressed [Destruction Toxin] within his fractured Genesis Core. Just like the night of his rebirth, the apocalyptic urge to tear the world apart began to roar through his veins.
He needed a trash can to vent. And the self-righteous 'Red Tea' standing next to him was the perfect [Vessel-Class] disposable tool.
Caspian carelessly dropped the empty crystal glass onto the marble floor. Crash. He stepped out of the shadows, one hand in his pocket, strolling toward the stage as if taking a casual walk through his own garden. He didn't release a massive wave of Aether, yet with every step he took, the air in the grand ballroom grew exponentially heavier. The surrounding billionaires and Awakened elites involuntarily held their breath, parting to create a straight path for him.
"A billion dollars," Caspian stopped six feet from Tyler, his abyssal purple eyes flaring with a terrifying, cosmic light that made the High Priest's soul physically ache. "For a blood-sucking parasite?"
"Blasphemy! How dare you insult the Archbishop's blessing!" the Priest roared, raising his staff, attempting to crush Caspian with the pressure of a Peak Tier-2 holy aura.
Caspian didn't even spare the priest a glance. He merely raised his right hand and effortlessly snapped his long, pale fingers.
Snap.
A microscopic thread of the [Law of Destruction]—undetectable by even the most advanced mortal instruments—struck the holy necklace in Tyler's hand. High-dimensional reality descended. The local laws of physics were forcefully rewritten.
CRACK!
Under the horrified stares of hundreds of elites, board members, and Victoria herself, the "holy white light" of the necklace suddenly erupted into a vile, putrid black smog!
The platinum casing instantly rotted and shattered. A thick, blood-red, spike-covered fleshy worm fell out of the core, hitting the polished marble floor with a sickening splat. It writhed and thrashed frantically, spewing foul-smelling pus.
It was no Archangel's protection. It was a grotesque, mutated leech specifically designed to siphon an Awakened's soul.
"AHHHHH!"
The socialites in the front row shrieked in sheer terror. Tyler's legs gave out entirely. He collapsed into the puddle of foul pus, his face ashen gray. A warm, yellow stain rapidly spread across the crotch of his expensive suit pants as he literally pissed himself in fear.
On the stage, the High Priest looked like a corpse. His staff clattered to the ground. He wanted to run, but under the indescribable, eldritch pressure radiating from Caspian, he couldn't move a single muscle.
The greatest con of Sancta Lodo's high society, a lie the Temple had carefully cultivated for a decade, was crushed by Caspian with a single snap of his fingers, as easily as stepping on a roach.
Tyler was completely ruined, reduced to the ultimate laughingstock of the city.
Across the room, Victoria stared at the tall, dominating silhouette of the man standing before the stage. Her legs were so weak she could barely stand. Looking at her pathetic, piss-soaked fiancé on the floor, and then looking at the man who casually crushed the laws of the gods, the vanity, female rivalry, and primal, biological urge to submit to the strongest male exploded inside her like a volcano!
This is a true god! she thought hysterically. If I can be ravaged by a man like this... who gives a damn about the Thorne family!
Throwing all aristocratic dignity away, Victoria scrambled forward on her heels. She grabbed Caspian's arm, pressing her heavy breasts tightly against his rock-hard bicep. Her eyes were glazed over, her voice trembling with extreme arousal and bottomless greed:
"Mr. Vane... it's entirely too stuffy down here. I have an absolutely private VIP suite on the top floor. Just the two of us..."
Caspian tilted his head down, looking at the breathtakingly beautiful face contorted with lust and greed. The Destruction Toxin in his blood, fueled by the aphrodisiac, was reaching its boiling point. The murderous intent in his eyes twisted perfectly with dark, unadulterated lust.
In my past life, you used fake tenderness to drag me into the abyss, Caspian thought, the Omega Exchange vibrating with cold malice. In this life, I will use you as the lowliest container, and chew you up until there is nothing left but broken bones.
He ruthlessly grabbed Victoria's wrist, his grip tight enough to nearly fracture her delicate bones. He leaned down, his lips brushing against her sensitive ear, his voice echoing like a judgment from the abyss:
"Lead the way, Tyler's fiancée. Let's see exactly how you intend to 'serve' me."