Chapter 66

66. Exploration Battle (9)

The evening affairs that started somewhat early in the night did not end until well into the dawn, keeping everyone up all night.

During this time, Karla had cried endlessly.

While crying, Karla was mostly beneath Ivan.

Sometimes she would sit, but she never once climbed on top. Most of the time, she lay beneath Ivan, half delirious, half immersed in pleasure, with a little part of her mind worrying about the possibility of conceiving a child.

“What do you think of my skills?”

Karla, trying to steady her violently trembling body and mind, glared at Ivan.

Ivan pressing down on the naked Karla wasn’t the Ivan she knew – at least, the Ivan she knew wouldn’t treat others with such a cold gaze.

“You, you… what are you…”

“If I told you who I am, you wouldn’t understand… Ugh.”

Ivan’s body quivered.

Karla once again felt Ivan’s essence being released inside her. She had given up counting how many times this had happened; while she couldn’t count them, it was certainly more than her two hands could count.

“It’s been quite the suffering being trapped in this brat’s body for so long. The time has been long… Understand?”

“Understand? How could we…”

Karla bit her lip and glared at Ivan.

Whatever or whoever was possessing Ivan’s body certainly had no good intentions.

The act continued, with Karla still lying beneath Ivan, her body swaying with his movements, like an instrument producing only groans.

But Karla’s eyes, despite her flushed face filled with ecstasy, never once left Ivan.

“Now that the master of this continent has returned, rejoice, my dear. You will become my empress.”

“That kind of thing… isn’t welcome at all. Give Ivan back… Ugh…”

“A rather fierce glare you have. It’s appropriate for someone aiming to be the queen of a nation. This young fool does know how to pick his women.”

“Regina would never agree if she heard this.”

Karla continued to release shallow moans while glaring at Ivan.

The thing enveloping Ivan’s body – whoever it was – was clearly no good.

As her body was rocked by Ivan’s continued release of essence, Karla tried her best to clear her mind. Ivan’s necklace was certainly broken. Lucas, that cursed man, had broken it, and at the same time, Ivan’s magic had been disrupted. Then came the vortex, Kiara tracking it, and the returned Ivan…

“That… Necklace…!”

“Yes, correct. Well judged. That necklace had been restraining me. How an ancient god’s artifact ended up in his hands remains a mystery.”

Karla gritted her teeth, resisting the surging pleasure.

This was definitely not the time to succumb to pleasure despite the difficulty.

“What… what is your… purpose…?”

“My purpose?”

Ivan laughed loudly as he looked down at Karla.

His gaze sparkled peculiarly.

The cold eyes contrasted sharply with the act they were engaged in.

“To reclaim my empire. The empire that was originally mine. To take it back into my hands.”

*

Luckily, Karla’s blouse still had a few buttons, so it wasn’t entirely ruined.

Although it seemed like the ecstasy would never end, by the time the eastern sky began to lighten, the affair between Karla and Ivan had come to an end.

After fumbling to close her blouse, slipping into her skirt, and putting her jacket on, Karla managed to compose herself somewhat. But the strange sensation between her legs and the dripping, viscous fluid… Karla wiped and shook it off before glaring at Ivan.

“What are you planning to do?”

“What do I plan? For now, I’ll observe the situation until I fully control this body. It won’t take long. Surely you’re not thinking of stopping me?”

Karla didn’t respond.

But in the brief silence, Karla was thinking rapidly.

‘Can I stop this thing? No, I can’t. It’s impossible.’

Even if both her arms were at full strength, it would be hopeless.

Hadn’t Ivan always been stronger than Karla in the first place?

And this current Ivan – Ivan of the Darkness – was emanating even stronger energy than the original Ivan. It might look similar to Ivan’s power at a glance, but Karla knows Ivan’s aura better than anyone. There’s an alien quality to it.

“Even if I say I’ll stop you, would I be able to?”

“It’s impossible.”

Ivan’s decisive answer irritated Karla, but there was nothing she could do about it.

“And that place… the Abzetti Cave, right? I sense a familiar magic from there. Wasn’t that our destination?”

Ivan pointed toward the mountain’s midsection as the sky started to brighten. The cave entrance became vaguely visible.

“That’s right. That’s where we were headed.”

“Let’s go then.”

Ivan grinned, then stepped closer and firmly grabbed Karla’s waist.

Without hesitation, he pulled her tightly into his arms and gazed at her face so close that their noses nearly touched.

“What, what is it?”

“You are beautiful. Even back when I ruled the empire, such beauty was rare… to awaken and immediately embrace someone like you could perhaps be called a stroke of luck.”

Pfft.

Ivan gave Karla a light kiss on the lips.

Caught off guard by the sudden kiss, Karla tightly closed her mouth.

“There’s no need to feel so embarrassed, my dear. I’ve found that you’re most beautiful when in anguish, but observing you now, your bashful face is also quite lovely.”

“…Stop saying absurd things.”

“I mean it. But, shall we go? To our destination.”

The moment those words left his mouth, a vortex erupted beneath Ivan’s feet.

Even without uttering a spell, the whirlwind of powerful magic was evident, showing just how much stronger Ivan had become.

As Ivan swiftly ascended with Karla in his arms, she let out a small cry and clung to him, startled by the sudden height.

“You have a cute side, my dear. The sight of the world has changed quite a bit from the era of my rule. Somehow, it looks better now.”

Looking around, Ivan smiled.

Then, clutching Karla even tighter, he kissed her forehead without hesitation.

“To be able to gaze down at this scenery with a wife again is most pleasing.”

“What nonsense about wives…!”

“Inevitably so. Surely, it will come to be. Let’s hurry. We shouldn’t waste time like this.”

Ivan disappeared as soon as he finished speaking.

Surrounded by the whirlwind magic, he swiftly flew toward the cave with Karla firmly in his arms, causing her to close her eyes tight without realizing it. Flying through the air was not something commonly experienced, and to Karla, who had never mastered wind magic, it was an entirely new experience.

Upon entering the Abzetti Cave, Ivan spoke out loud.

“Familiar magic is here. Someone practiced it here, but whoever it was, they’re terribly inexperienced. Leaving traces of magic everywhere… tsk tsk, their skill leaves much to be desired.”

Karla followed silently behind him.

She had many questions and things to say, but she was too tense at the moment to find her voice.

“Watch your step there.”

Karla quickly moved closer to Ivan.

Where her foot would have landed, there was a large puddle of murky water, covered with moss here and there – it looked slippery and treacherous.

“You’re unnatural with your arms, watch your footing. Pain suits you, but not every pain is the same.”

“Who are you calling someone that pain suits?”

“Impressive that you can say that to me. You have more courage than you appear.”

Ivan chuckled.

His laughter echoed throughout the cave, and the sound of bats flapping their wings began coming from deeper inside.

“Come to me, my dear. Let me carry you properly. You’re my woman; you mustn’t get hurt.”

“Stop saying that…”

The fear made resisting the current Ivan difficult.

Though Karla scrunched her face in apparent dissatisfaction, there was nothing else she could say, so she remained silent.

“Let’s go faster.”

Ivan embraced her waist again.

This time, without even a sound of surprise, Karla wrapped her arms around Ivan’s waist as he kicked off the ground with a loud thud and dashed forward.

…

Artifices.

They were there.

Perfect replicas of Venere lined up like human-sized dolls, standing row after row.

“Is this what you’ve come here to find? Such low-level constructs?”

Behind Karla, Ivan voiced his disappointment.

But it was as though Karla didn’t even hear him.

She had pinned her hopes on finding Venere’s construct here in the Abzetti Cave.

Apparently, due to long storage, all the bodies were either rotten or moldy, with none looking fit for use.

“…I pinned my hopes on this.”

Karla let out a long sigh.

Yes – she had held high expectations about this cave.

She had hoped a lot.

The one who had severed her arm was Venere, so perhaps, she thought, Venere’s construct might provide a way to reattach her arm.

However, despite the journey of chance upon chance that brought her here, when she looked at the constructs in front of her, nothing was in any usable condition.

“…Do you need an arm?”

“Of course!”

Fired up at Ivan’s question, Karla shouted.

How could she not have pinned her hopes on this? How long had she harbored such expectations?

To see all her hopes shattered so directly in front of her like this couldn’t help but make Karla agitated.

“Hmph. Such low-quality artifices. However, I can’t have my empress missing an arm, which is unacceptable to me. Well, then, allow me to help you here.”

Karla glanced at Ivan.

Ivan met her eyes.

Ivan’s confident smile felt quite alien to Karla.