Two rankers were knocking on death's door.
While the other felt the euphoria of her life.
A red-haired swordsman and a golden-haired spear user were slowly drifting away from the realm of the living. These two rankers were Harja Mel and Darven respectively.
Darven and Harja Mel's bodies were injected with death mana that tried to slow their heartbeats down. They looked at Eren terrifyingly only to receive a cruel gaze from him.
"Endure it. This process will have you knocking on death's door. But you would not die completely..."
Eren pursed his lips before adding another clause to his estimation.
"... I think."
It could be said that Darevn and Harja Mel weren't too happy listening to Eren's "I think."
They came to realize that the butcher was just playing with their lives by experimenting with them. However, they couldn't really do anything against Eren anyway. So they did what he asked them to do– endure.
This time, Eren injected gluttony mana along with wrath mana to create live undead. His experiment with Rondo had given him remarkable results. He wanted to continue creating more lethal, loyal, and usable living dead by improvising on them step by step.
Darven and Harja Mel lost their balance and lay flat on the ground after death mana invaded their bodies and started affecting their souls. Their breathing became slower and their hearts slowed down. They both closed their eyes, causing their consciousness to dive deep into the depths of darkness.
For Nysa– Eren injected her with lust mana through the bubble of Mist of Lust surrounding her.
The butcher's Abilities were evolving with his rank up. He could now enslave the female rankers with the Sin of Lust without having to sleep with them– provided they allowed branding to take place on their souls.
It should be noted that not everybody could level up their Abilities this quickly. Unlocking an Ability was already challenging enough. So rankers would have to spend years on end just seeing a bit of progress in their Abilities.
Eren was an exception to this rule because of his radical bloodline compatibility with Sin Series Abilities. Instead of developing the Abilities like other rankers, the butcher's bloodline made him inherit various facets of the Abilities fully developed by someone else. As if they had always belonged to him in the first place.
Even in the lost era when Sin Series Abilities were a norm, someone who could bear more than two Sin Series Marks was almost unheard of. Furthermore, those who used the Marks or the Blessings had to deal with repercussions before or after their use as well.
Eren was different from other Marks or Blessings users of the past in this case as well. Unlike them, he did not suffer the same consequences. Whatever drawbacks Eren faced from using Sin Series Marks were minuscule. As long as he keeps ranking up, their effects will diminish as well.
***
A girl in light armor was writhing in ecstasy.
She had light blue eyes and light blue hair. She had snowy skin and cute facial features.
This girl was wearing light armor to not hinder her movements. She had a good bust size and a slim figure.
This girl was none other than Nysa Nael. Her ecstatic face revealed she was afflicted with lust mana. It was also evident from the actions she was taking.
Nysa didn't care that she had an audience. She started touching her sensitive zones to relieve herself. She didn't know or understand what was happening to her. She lay flat on her back and let the lust mana take over her as instructed by Eren.
Nysa didn't have to think about much after that. One could say that she was going with the flow.
"Aaaaaaah!"
While Darven and Harja Mel were getting close to death, Nysa started moaning and writhing in pleasure. She looked at Eren with the expression of a thirsty vixen and started tracing the curves of her body with her own hands.
Nysa called Eren to "aid" her with her hand gestures. She called his name with a voice coated in lust. And she was taken on cloud nine again and again until the butcher was able to brand her in this way.
As Darven and Harja Mel approached death repeatedly, they were turning into living undead. While Nysa felt like dying when she reached the climax repeatedly.
One had to say that it was a weird display of two extremes happening at the same time. A dichotomy of life.
***
Eren knew that he would be scrutinized way more than he could afford to if he was known to win all four Sage Legacies for himself. It wasn't something he wished for at any cost. It was important to him that he was able to focus on the Lazarus project in peace. He didn't want the kingdom's prying eyes on him all the time.
Sage Nira's Legacy couldn't really count. Eren could just claim that there was some sort of disturbance created by the infiltrators. This would allow him to find the Sage's Legacy while the vestige of Sage Nira's soul was being targeted by the forces of Layos.
However, Eren was the known winner of Sage Loxley and Sage Ivar's Legacies. He was already in the limelight. He didn't want to add to that by winning Sage Lehan's Legacy as well in people's eyes.
What's more? After getting history lessons from Sage Nira and conversing with Maya, Eren had come to understand that Sage Lehan's Legacy was special in the kingdom's eyes. It treated everything the Sansara Sage created as its own property. So winning his Legacy was bound to make the kingdom more interested in him.
If the butcher's guess was right, then the Sages were the ones who had left their Legacies behind on their own initiative. They asked the kingdom of Edinburgh to find valid challengers for their tests so that they could find their inheritors.
The kingdom had just fulfilled the wishes of its four Grand Dukes and had no real say in things related to Sage Legacies. In fact, it had been delaying the release of four Sage Legacies for a long time. It had maintained an active correspondence with Maya because it wanted to see if it could gain access to Sage Lehan's Legacy.
When it looked like Sage Lehan's Legacy couldn't be obtained through normal means, the kingdom of Edinburgh decided to finally comply with its Grand Dukes' wishes. It organized this event to serve as a motivator for its audience during the turbulent time. Otherwise, the kingdom of Edinburgh would have claimed all of Sansara Sage's Legacy to itself, leaving nothing behind for future generations.
Meaning nobody knew what the Sage Legacies were going to be apart from the fact that they were precious. This was why Eren was so confident about his plan.
