Johan and Lenore were exploring a recently found ruin, accompanied by a couple of priests. There were indications that it might contain artifacts directly bestowed by the Goddess of Light herself, so the temple had sent a party of high ranking clergy to investigate.

It was a fairly boring mission, but since Lenore had agreed to participate in his plan after they finished, Johan was in a reasonable mood.

They were searching a room fairly deep into the complex when Lenore heard the sound of something moving rapidly through the air, followed by a priest screaming.

Father Jeremy was clutching his hand and bleeding profusely. From across the room, Johan had thrown a dagger into the center of his palm.

"Why did you do that?" Lenore was upset, but also somewhat confused.

"He was reaching for a lever," Johan said, readying another dagger, "Who the fuck sees a lever in an abandoned ruin and decides to pull it without any warning? Explain yourself, or the next one goes through your head."

"I-I don't know. I just blacked out, and the next thing I knew, it turned out like this."

Normally, healing such a wound would not be too difficult for a priest of his caliber, but Johan had loaded the dagger with his mana, interfering with the restorative magic.

The priest was still gasping in pain when, as if upset that nobody had pulled it, the lever started to move by itself and the floor dropped.

Johan reinforced his body with mana and hit the ground first, then caught Lenore. They were both extremely injured from the fall, but the healing power of the high priestess wasn't to be underestimated and Johan was no slouch either. As long as they didn't die instantly, they'd probably be fine. Their flesh knit itself back together at an incredible rate.

Unfortunately, the other priests had been reduced to something resembling meat stew. It looked to be beyond even Lenore's abilities. She seemed quite distressed, but Johan dragged her forward to avoid being crushed under the collapsing ceiling.

Then, they were in a room, and a strange magic manifested itself, targeting their bodies.

A mysterious voice explained their situation.

This was ridiculous. They had to engage in intercourse within the next five hours or they'd die?

It didn't really bother Johan, but it did seem somewhat absurd.

Lenore on the other hand, looked positively horrified. Her already pale skin somehow went even whiter.

"Don't do it," she said, glaring with all the threat she could muster, "I'd rather die!"

Johan was already walking towards her.

Despite the number of people he'd wantonly murdered, he'd never raped anyone before.

But whatever was in the air was messing with his sex drive, Lenore was beautiful, and she was too useful to him alive.

"You have a way of getting out of this, don't you? I don't care what the risk to me is. If necessary, leave by yourself."

Lenore wasn't wrong. His mana might have been in disarray and his emotions were a mess, but his rational facilities were perfectly functional. And even though his mana was extremely disordered, it wasn't impossible to control. They still had all their equipment. If push came to shove, he had a few ideas.

It would've been dangerous and difficult, however. There was a much easier way.

It was probably a plot of some sort, but Johan didn't care about anyone other than himself and Solomon.

Lenore tried to activate the circlet on his head. In her current state, even that was beyond her.

"I can't just let my employer die, now, can I?" Johan advanced on her.

Without mana, Lenore didn't stand a chance against the much larger and stronger man.

As he did the deed, in his mind, the face of the priestess changed into the face of another woman, long dead.

Her features weren't smooth and delicate, but she had bold, fiery eyes and the body of one who had spent a lot of time in the wind and rain.

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He barely even noticed the priestess praying to her goddess, her pleas going unanswered.

Then it was over and the memory was gone. The high priestess was crying silently.

"Don't tell anyone what happened here." She said, forcing herself to look at him. She told herself that she was the high priestess. For her, weakness was a thing of shame.

"I'm not one for gossip, so don't bother about it."

A few moments passed in silence.

"Do you feel that?" Lenore asked.

Johan nodded.

It had been extremely subtle, but while they were distracted, something strange had happened to the space around them.

Pretending everything was fine, Lenore started to help Johan make observations on the change in environment.

She was the high priestess. She couldn't change the past, so life must go on.

Johan was a key figure for this realm's future. Even if he was the worst of scum, she had to work with him.

She knew he had hurt so many people already, and she had pretended not to notice. If she were willing to sacrifice all of them but not herself, she'd just be another corrupt, power-hungry dictator.

For the good of the church, she had to overlook this as well.

Yet deep down, she couldn't entirely supress a feeling of resentment towards her goddess. For a high priestess, it was an unforgivable blasphemy.

Why didn't you help me?

After many hours, Lenore felt a subtle shift in space.

Then her mana was operational again. His was too.

A passage had opened up, leading outside the ruins.

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After a few days of preparation, we set off for our mission.

It was dangerous territory, of course. We were beset on all sides by vicious beasts of various kinds.

After all, if it were easy, it wouldn't attract such a high ranking group to complete it.

But the Blood Wolves were deserving of their title of national elites. They smoothly cooperated with each other to efficiently detect and remove any threats.

As we got nearer to our destination, a set of energy-rich caverns near the border, the trees became shorter and the foliage more dense.

The tall conifers gave way to a species that was gnarled and twisted, with small, eye-shaped leaves. Around the trees, a dark mist hung in the air.

We continued forward and the mist thickened. Soon, we were surrounded by a sea of blackness.

I was walking next to the elf. She had given her name as Loraine.

Over the past few days, I had spent a fair amount of time with her. This was mostly to keep an eye on her, of course, but she was not a bad traveling companion.

Copsi seemed angrier with me the more time I spent with Loraine. However, it wasn't her place to decide who I talked to. I pretended to not notice while internally raising my guard in case she did something unreasonable.

Even with torches, it was becoming hard to see more than two feet away.

"Some people think that Blackharrow trees like to grow in blackmist swamps, but it's really the other way around," Loraine said. I guess she had noticed my curiosity.

"How does that work?"

"It's a way of monopolizing resources. Blackharrow trees are very good at absorbing particular wavelengths of energy—ones invisible to the human eye—so they spread this mist that blocks most of the other wavelengths. It comes from tiny holes in their leaves."

She plucked a leaf from a nearby tree and held it under the torchlight to show me the glands on its underside.

"So plants that rely on other wavelengths starve and can't grow?"

"Exactly. The more Blackharrow trees in an area, the harder it is for any other plant to survive. Only the species adapted to living in the black mist can thrive, which is what eventually turns Blackharrow groves into blackmist swamps."

I nodded. It made sense. Although, to my knowledge, there weren't any trees that created black mist back on Earth, there were many that followed similar principles, such as making the soil around them acidic.

Neat survival strategy or not, however, the darkness created was quite troublesome.

I heard the sound of falling paws, impossibly light.

Something was approaching. Many somethings, if my observations were accurate.

"Prepare for battle!" Copsi shouted.

It was difficult to get into our normal formation considering the visibility, which was even worse than that at night, and the dense foliage. The fog had a scattering effect on mana as well, further compounding the difficulty of sensing accurately.

We formed a rough pair of concentric circles, the warriors around the mages and archers. In confusing situations, simplicity is valuable.

I stood near Loraine. I didn't want to advertise my skills in physical combat.

The more your enemies know about you, the less likely they'll fail an assassination attempt.

The monsters emerged from the darkness.

They were sleek, impossibly black, and strangely proportioned, with four slender legs that beautifully flowed into their fluid bodies.

The way they moved made them seem not to have joints, although careful observation revealed that their limbs only bent in a few locations. Their heads appeared featureless.

It was as though the mist had congealed and given itself form.

Before we had noticed them, they had already surrounded us, and now they stalked forward as one. Nearly silent feet fell on soft, dead ground.

Suddenly, one of their heads split open at the chin and it screeched violently. On various non-vital areas of the creatures' bodies, eye-shaped patches of skin simultaneously glowed red. As if the screech were a signal, they all sprung forward, their heads splitting open, and attacked our warriors.

Razor sharp claws tore at shields of energy. Swords sliced through limbs made of darkness.

The creatures bled black from their injuries, and the blood seemed to diffuse back into the mist.

I aimed another burst of fire in front of our warriors.

Was it my imagination, or were there more of the creatures attacking the area around Loraine and me?

It wasn't my imagination.

"We need backup!" I shouted.

It was hard to maneuver efficiently in the dark, and other people were pressed enough as it was. Quickly, before reinforcements had a chance to help us, a small group of the creatures broke through our flank with a concentrated attack.

The largest one, the one who had first signaled the start of the attack, grabbed Loraine and disappeared into the mist.

Dodging through the lines of living darkness, I followed. As I gave chase, I felt Copsi watching me.