Zephriya had taken the wheel.
There was no one who could peel themselves away from the seduction of the Princess of the Abyss. If that idiot Summer hadn't prevented her from using this skill earlier, there would have been no way for them to be hunted by a weakling bandit leader.
She didn't pull away after the healing was complete. Instead, she settled into the embrace, claiming the space as if she owned it.
Her lips curled upward, not in a smile of gratitude, but in a predatory grin that exposed the sharp canines of a creature used to feasting on the weak.
She pressed herself shamelessly against him. The tattered remains of her silk dress offered no barrier between them.
Judas felt the softness of her restored body, the heavy, deliberate weight of her chest squishing against his armorless torso.
It was a sensation that would have broken the resolve of a lesser man, a tactile assault designed to overwhelm logic with sheer biology.
Judas stiffened, his muscles locking up, but his face remained calm.
"You healed me," Zephriya purred. It was Summer's vocal cords, but the cadence was entirely alien. "You touched me. Such intimacy is binding."
She moved her hands. Slowly, she slid her palms up his chest, mapping every ridge of muscle beneath his shirt with slight pressure.
Her touch burned, trailing fire across his skin.
"You are already mine," she whispered, leaning up until her lips brushed the sensitive skin beneath his ear.
Her breath was hot, smelling not of the iron tang of blood that had permeated the air earlier, but of crushed roses—a heavy, intoxicating scent that seemed to bloom from her pores.
"Accept me as your true wife. The others... they can serve under me."
Her hips shifted, a subtle, grinding motion against his thigh that grew in insistence with every heartbeat.
"Aahh..." She moaned in his ear, continuing the rhythmic movement.
One of her hands slipped behind his back to pull him flush against her, while the other roamed boldly down his abdomen, her fingers tracing the line of his stomach.
The violet glow in her eyes intensified, bleeding out from the iris to consume the whites of her eyes.
She smiled upon noticing the subtle change in his eyes.
It was a high-quality Charm skill, an skill unique to Abyssal royalty designed to enslave the will of any male who looked upon them.
She bit her lower lip, her gaze dropping to his waist as her hand reached for the hem of his shirt.
"Submit," she breathed.
Just as her hand trailed past his navel, moving lower with undeniable intent, Judas moved.
His hand shot out, capturing her wrist in a grip that was not gentle.
Zephriya blinked, the pain making the violet light in her eyes flicker in confusion.
She pulled, but his hand didn't budge. She looked up at him, startled.
'How did my skill not work on you?'
It had toppled kingdoms. It had made high-level Paladins forswear their oaths. Why was he stopping?
"Your seduction," Judas said, his voice low, calm, and terrifyingly steady. "It never works on me."
There was no struggle in his tone. No breathlessness. He sounded almost bored.
He leaned in, intruding on her personal space until their noses were inches apart. He didn't blink. The Charm washing over him was breaking against his mental fortitude like water against a cliff.
"My three wives happen to be far more seductive than you."
Zephriya froze.
Her pupils contracted sharply to pinpricks. For some reason, this rejection hurt more than any injuries.
She pulled back, her heels digging into the dirt as she tried to put distance between them, her expression flashing rapidly between confusion, disbelief, and a rising, volcanic rage.
"How..." She stammered, the regal facade cracking. "How did you know I used seduction on you?"
It was impossible. A human—a reconstruction healer with low intelligence stats—should not have been able to detect the weaving of Abyssal mana, let alone resist it. Unless...
'Summer, whore, is it you?' Zephriya snarled internally. 'Did you warn him?'
The response from the mental space was immediate. Summer sounded amused.
'Not me, Princess. But it seems he is not the type to fall for your cheap traps. He has standards.'
[Affection: -100 -> -90]
Zephriya's brow twitched in frustration. 'You... you dare mock me? Both of you?'
'You are not bad, boy,' Summer's teasing voice echoed again. 'You have a spine. Most men would be drooling on the floor by now.'
[Affection: -90 -> -80]
Zephriya's face flamed.
"So you refuse me," Zephriya said aloud, her voice trembling. She extracted herself fully from his grip, stepping back with stiff, jerky movements. "You will not accept me as your wife? You reject the Princess of the Abyss for... for human women?"
Her tone was caught between fury and insult, high-pitched and incredulous.
Her chest heaved, highlighting the flush that had spread across her skin.
Judas didn't answer immediately. He adjusted his shirt, smoothing out the wrinkles she had made, dusting off his chest as if she had left dirt on him.
Then, he looked at her.
His eyes narrowed slightly as he assessed her from head to toe. The temperature in the clearing seemed to drop ten degrees.
"Do you think that you are in a position to question me?"
Zephriya opened her mouth to retort, to scream about her lineage, but the words died in her throat.
For the first time in her life, the Princess of the Abyss was staggered by dominance oozing from a man. And that, too, from a human man.
Even Summer flinched internally, hiding deeper in the recesses of their shared mind.
Judas took a step forward. Zephriya took a step back.
"It is disgusting to watch someone hijack another woman's body to do indecent things with it. You wear her skin like a costume and try to sell yourself like a cheap tavern wench."
Zephriya recoiled as if he had struck her. Her hands clenched into fists at her sides. "I am royalty! I do not—"
"Royalty?" Judas cut her off. He pointed a finger, not at her face, but lower. At her hips. "You speak of dignity, Princess. But look at you."
Zephriya looked down involuntarily.
The dark silk of her dress, torn and tattered, clung to her. Her lower garments were visibly soaked, the dark fabric stained darker with undeniable dampness.
Her hips, which had been grinding against him moments ago with such fervor, were still trembling slightly.
Summer's body was human. It reacted to stimulation, to the proximity, to the lingering effects of the healing reconstruction that stimulated cell growth and sensitivity.
But it was Zephriya's mind that had driven the arousal, Zephriya's desire that had flooded the system.
Judas smirked.
"From what I see," he said, holding her gaze, "you are the one who was seduced by me. You offered yourself, you threw yourself at me, and your body betrayed you before I even said yes."
Silence descended on the clearing.
Zephriya stood frozen, her face burning so hot she felt like she was standing in a furnace.
She was exposed. The mighty Princess, rejected and visibly aroused by a human who looked at her with disdain.
Her rage exploded.
Her pupils narrowed into thin rings of purple fire, glowing so bright they illuminated the dark forest canopy.
Her aura flared violently.
[Affection: -80 -> -90]
"You... you arrogant human..."
Her voice shook, half-breathless from the lingering physiological arousal she couldn't suppress, half-trembling from a fury that wanted to level the entire forest.
"I will kill you! I will rip your tongue out! I will—"
'Agree with you, boy,' Summer's voice burst into Judas's mind, cutting through Zephriya's external screaming.
The internal voice was bright, cheerful, and filled with malicious delight. 'You embarrassed both of us. Truly pathetic performance, Princess.'
[Affection: -80 -> -70]
Zephriya choked on her own scream. Her face had a betrayed look.
"You traitorous parasite!" she shrieked, clutching her head as she turned her rage inward, momentarily forgetting Judas to battle the voice in her skull.
'How dare you call me a parasite, bitch? You are the real parasite.'
'What? You are lucky to have me in your mind. I am the Princess—'
'You are the bitch who gets wet by trying to seduce. It's better to call you the Princess of Bitches.'
'System. How about we reconsider marrying these two?'
[Agreed.]
Judas couldn't wait to rush back home and hug his three wives to embrace them and complain to them about the bullying he had suffered.