A Safe Return

By the port of the Atlantic city, Leo stepped down from the ferry with a young lady following closely behind him. Several days had passed since the ritual, and the boy had fully inherited the family and fulfilled most of his tasks. Now that the curses had been broken, the women of the Halfmoon could freely leave the island. However, due to the recent disaster at the harbor town, they had to stay behind at the moment to handle the aftermath. As for the boy's mother, she was still in a coma from the brutal domination.

It was expected for the tragedy of the island to make it onto the next headline, as numerous tourists and residents had lost their lives that night. Fortunately, the media forged plausible reasons under the discretion of the government to cover up the incident; it seemed like the rest of the bureaucracy did not want to meddle with the island's affair.

"Erm... young master, I will take my leave here." Rika was about to bow down before Leo stopped her by holding her shoulder.

"No need for such formality, we are classmates and I see you as a friend." He gently spoke.

Leo did not want Rika to act as his servant, even though he thoroughly dominated her body and soul to the point that she wouldn't hesitate to strip and serve him right on the spot. For the young lady, seeing the boy as her master already became a second nature; it was difficult to treat him as anything else after everything that happened on the island.

"Plus, are you really going to keep calling me that in front of so many people?" He already noticed curious eyes gazing their way; imagine being called a young master in class, it will cause an uproar.

The slight tease made the young maiden blushed in red; yet surprisingly, she mustered her courage and stole a kiss on his cheek instead. The boy remained dumbfounded for a brief moment before the corner of his lips turned into a small grin, and silently, he watched the girl hurried off to catch the bus.

Savoring the lasting tenderness on his cheek, Leo wandered to the train station alone while swiping his phone. At one point, his body froze and cold sweat dripped down from his head; he forgot something quite important because of all the strange turn of events in the past few days. Putting away his phone, the boy let out a sigh and got on the train.

Recollecting his thought, he pulled up the sleeve of his shirt and examined the almost invisible runic markings on his wrist. They were part of seals to help maintain the ever-growing power within him and extended to his crotch. Leo noticed the more he tried to channel his enormous reserve of Anima, the faster a certain irreversible change occurs on his body. The ritual might have temporarily relieved him from the excess energy; however, absorbing the women's curse in the process only sped up the transformation.

The change frightened him; it made him feel less human every second passed. He had to fight the strange feeling of something unknown trying to influence his mind, and there was also the impending threat of his inner instinct taking control over his body. So he decided, unless necessary, he will not undo his binding and minimize the use of Anima. Hence, other victims that were driven mad by the curse would have to wait until the boy felt ready.

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By the time he arrived back in town, it was late into the afternoon. The boy walked into the lobby of his apartment, unaware of the subtle dark energies festering below the ground. He got into the elevator and pressed on the floor number; but before the door closed, a woman with long black hair and bangs covering portions of her face rushed inside.

The age of the woman was unknown, but from her fair skin and the voluptuous body, she was certainly brimming with the charm of a mature and ripe lady. A figure attractive enough for Leo to sneak a couple glances at her glamor.

"Ma'am, which floor are you going?" Leo politely asked.

Without uttering a word, the woman raised a hand gesture of four.

There was only silence as the elevator pulled up. For some reason, it was going a lot slower than usual. Was it because he gained some weight coming back from the island? Leo embarrassingly thought. After all, the two bulky pendulums down there did indeed hang heavier than before.

Several long minutes had passed; when the elevator reached its destination, there was a slight tremor and a quick flash of lights. Then, suddenly, the door that opened half way heavily shut down on its own and the whole elevator began to free fall. Everything happened almost in an instant, it did not feel like the elevator had fallen far. There were loud grinding sounds of metal until it eventually reached a crash, knocking the boy and the woman onto the floor.

While Leo laid on the ground from losing his balance, the woman was sitting on his chest with the rest of her round hips covered by a thin layer of dress displaying proudly above his face. Accidentally, her hands were grabbing his two titanium orbs and her forehead was almost buried in his crotch. Like a gentleman, the boy was cushioning the woman's ample body from the crash.

The suspense within the flickering lights lasted seemingly like an eternity. However, when the elevator door ominously opened on its own, she hastily got up and ran off into the dark, leaving an unknown strand of wet stain on his shirt.

"Wait! Where are you going?" Leo slowly got up from the ground with great confusion.

The door of the elevator opened up to a wide corridor shrouded in darkness, the walls and the surrounding ambient was rotten in reddish rust. An odd feeling of familiarity washed over him, yet the boy had absolutely no recollection of this place. He could sense something sinister lurking in the dark.

The elevator was somehow still in one piece, though it did not respond to any button being pressed on. Leaving his baggage behind, Leo decided to tread into the corridor. The flashlight on his phone could barely stretch a few meters in front of his sight, all he could see was pitch black beyond a certain point.

There were numerous hand tools for construction and building debris laying around the ground. Detecting potential danger, the boy picked up a sturdy hammer and swung it against a brick to test its durability. The poor innocent brick was pulverized to dust and he named the weapon the hammer of justice. With limitation to conjure Anima due to his own seal, he needed to be extra cautious.

Through the dark, the boy wandered aimlessly for an unknown amount of time. If he could recall the memory of a certain night, he would have noticed the interior was composed of sections from a run-down hospital. The signs from the fallen debris indicated the place could have been a conglomerate of large establishments.

With the trusty Warhammer in his hand, Leo finally looked towards his back. His senses had remained keen; there was something following him. He rubbed his fingers for a small spark of fire on a piece of rotten wood and threw it into the dark. Startled by the light of Leo's radiating Anima, a bulk of shadows began to converge.

From the ceiling, a shriveled pale skin figure encompassed in an embryo of dark ooze disgustingly crawled out and dropped down to the ground. And within seconds, its flesh expanded into large bulky muscles and the creature quickly transformed into a large grotesque beast. Revolted by its aesthetics, the boy threw the hammer of justice at its face.

The creature blocked the projectile with one of its limbs and it fractured into pieces. Followed by a painful screech, it ran blood lustingly towards the boy and pushed him against the wall. It was then, right after Leo grabbed the creature by its head and twisted it off from its extremities, the rest of its body was blasted off from a loud gunshot, leaving only the creature's head still in his hands.

Leo tossed the decapitated head to the side and looked towards the origin of the shot. After a beam of light flashed over his face, he heard a familiar voice that was filled with surprise.

"You are... Leo! Why are you here?" Despite the question, the boy could sense joy from her words; it was like a glittering of hope in a desperate situation.

She was the female agent, Jean; the poor woman had a face that was deprived of rest for days. Blisters and light bruises were populated all over her body, portions of her feminine parts were erotically exposed behind the tattered clothes. Jean looked like a female warrior surviving through a valiant battle, which was uniquely charming.

"I would like to find out why I am here as well. I was coming back home and the elevator crashed. Do you know where we are?" Leo was relieved to see a familiar face just the same.

"This place must be a realm artificially forged between reality and what the fanatics called the abyss. I am sure you have heard of the cult before, I fell into their trap and ended up here." The female agent drew intimately closer and helped Leo get up on his feet, not minding portions of her asset touching the boy... not that she had much of an asset anyway. She also noticed that he was slightly taller than before, but it was not surprising considering his appetite.

"So... how do we get out?"

"I wouldn't be here now if I knew." Jean shrugged.

"Right..."

Suddenly, there was another loud shriek coming from afar, and it sent shivering terror to the Jean's body. She reflexively grabbed the boy's hand in panic, but quickly placed it back down with a reddened face. It was rare to see the stern female agent responding like a little girl.

"JEEEAAAN!!!!" Shouting her name, the crude and distorted voice echoed far into the maze-like corridors.

"Shit, that thing is here again." Jean cursed out, which was a rare occasion as well.

"What is that?" Leo questioned.

"It's my former colleague. Now turned into an abomination after death. It's been chasing me for hours and follows me wherever I go." Then the female agent swallows her saliva.

"That thing does not die, it does not bleed and feels no pain. No matter what kind of damage I dealt to its body, they all regenerated at an impossible speed. Quick, find somewhere to hide, don't waste your energy against it." Jean urged the boy while pushing him into a closet in the nearby room; their bodies intermingled within the confined space.

Leo could not see the creature's body; but from its heavy footsteps, it had quite a large stature. Through its endless rage and fury while whacking everything along the corridor, it eventually wandered past their room and steadily disappeared into the darkness.

Moments later…

"That thing is gone..."

"Yeah."

"Boy,"

"What is it?"

"Could you... cover for me while I take a little nap? I really need some rest."

"Of course."

As she said that, Jean fell fast asleep on Leo's chest. The female agent did not mind the heat building up within the tight closet; hours after hours of fighting and hiding on high alert had drained most of her stamina. Tingling sensations were throbbing around her crotch, but the woman now only wanted to rest on the broad and manly chest that gave her the comfort and a sense of safety she never had.