After making sure that the blood purification pill was real, Macil had one thought in mind. It was time to save Meril!

Although he was feeling a little worried about what his sisters were plotting, he knew that his best course of action was to win the bet, so after leaving the Alchemists guild, he quickly took ‘Victor’ and hurried toward the Central Keep of Sun City. It was where the prison was located.

Thankfully he didn’t meet anyone dangerous along the road, and Victor who was acting as docile as a real elven horse didn’t arouse any suspicion.

After reaching the keep, the nervous Macil who was inspected again by golden guards was allowed in.

He wanted to ask Victor how he was pulling this out of his act so perfectly, but fearing that someone was watching him he did nothing until they reached a large black-colored giant hollowed tree that had a black gold door with the world's ‘PRISON’ painted on it.

“STOP!” one guard in black armor said rudely. “STATE YOUR PURPOSE!”

“I am here to see Meril, as her master, I have the right to meet her!” Macil said coldly as he flashed his token. Nowadays even the guards began disrespecting him. All thanks to his sisters smearing his reputation!

“NOTED… YOU CAN COME IN, BUT THE HORSE MUST STAY OUT!” the guard said.

“I know…” Macil said as he dragged Victor to the side. “I told you…” he whispered as he began tying Victor to a pole. “Sorry, I have to do this….”

“HEEEEEEEEE HAW….” Victor responded with a nod.

“Good…” Macil said as he turned back and began to head toward the prison guard. “TAKE CARE OF MY HORSE! IF ANYTHING WRONG WERE TO HAPPEN TO IT, YOU WILL BE HELD RESPONSIBLE!” he ordered coldly as he walked inside.

…

Christopher struggled to get out of chuckles, and so did his Justice Ring friends, but they could never do that as the traitor Mona pushed them to the ground after grabbing them from the car.

They were in the backyard of a very familiar grand mansion in the suburb of RingCloud City. This place was the ‘correction facility’ where they usually handed off the criminals who had superpowers to the custodians. Here the criminals were rehabilitated and the monsters were disposed of under the supervision of the government!

“Are those the ones you told me about?” Custodian Johnson asked, looking at Christopher and the others without recognizing them. How could he? That mean girl with an eyepatch made them drink some strange liquid that changed their faces and deprived them of their voice!

“Yes, they are…” Mona said. Some guilt in her voice.

Christopher struggled to send signals to the custodian, but failed, due to the ropes securing his body and the gag in his mouth.

“We have a lively one here… Don’t worry kid, we will make sure to reeducate you well!” the custodian said as he ruffled Chritopher’s hair like a father would do to his naughty son.

“Please take care of them… We found them stealing from a bank…” Mona sighed.

“Don’t worry, as long as they don't completely turn into monsters, they can be helped!… Where are your friends anyway? Why are you alone?”

“They were badly injured… One of those guys can shoot lasers!” she said. “Look, even my calling device was broken by them!” she said, showing the custodian her broken belt buckle.

“Oh… You need to replace that!” he said with a frown.

“Yeah… It was hit by this bitch!” Mona said, pointing to Opal with an apologetic look.

“Don’t worry… I will send you a new one in two days… The headquarters is having some troubles lately after an intruder planted a virus that crippled our database…” he sighed, taking the buckle and giving it to his assistant.

“Oh… Is that why there were no new missions lately?” she asked.

“Yeah… Take care now…” custodian John said, sending her off.

“I understand… Then I will leave those guys in your care…” she said turning around, getting back into her truck, before driving away without sparing them another glance.

Christopher glared angrily at her as she drove away!

That traitor bitch! Working for an evil organization! He heard them speak of their plan to infiltrate this place and steal everything! Those bastards must be planning to release the criminals here!

He needed to alert the custodians!

“Mmmmm…” he began to make noise. Once the custodians begin to investigate this, everything will be cleared! That bitch Mona will be…

Bammm!

Something hit him.

“ArgH…..”

“Bastard, know your place!…. Don’t worry, we will make sure you will learn discipline from now on!” the custodian who hit him with a metal cudgel said. He no longer cared to put an act. “Take them to the preparation broom…”

“Mmmm…”

BAM!

Christopher was hit again as two masked giant men walked out from the mansion. They grabbed Christopher and his friends with ease and then brought them inside the mansion that was decorated like an asylum.

They didn’t take them upstairs, but toward an industrial-scale elevator that headed down, into a very dark world!

…

“Meril!” Macil exclaimed as soon as he reached the cell where the pretty dark-haired girl was imprisoned after he ordered the guard there to open the door.

“Young master!” she exclaimed as she stood up and then fell down due to her being shackled to a wall.

He quickly hurried to her side and helped her sit down. Noticing the filthy rags she was dressed in.

“Those idiots! I told them to treat you nicely!” he exclaimed angrily, making the guard outside smirk as he ignored him.

“It was your royal sister who told them to shackle me…” Meril said. “It is only thanks to your warning that it might ruin the experiment that I was not whipped when she ordered it…” she added.

“That bitch…” he flared. “I swear I will…”

“Don’t curse at her young master!” Maril told him quickly as she worriedly looked at the door. “She will use it against you…” she whispered.

“Don’t worry, I have found a solution! We will win the bet and that bitch will lose!” he said, presenting a red-colored pill that he dropped as soon as he took it out of his storage ring. “Shit… Where did it go?” he asked, as he quickly found it rolling on the floor.

“Young master… You must be more careful…” Meril smiled sweetly, her young master was really clumsy, it was as if someone hit his hand making the pill fly away. “What is this?” she asked.

“A bloodline-improving pill!” he declared as he retrieved it.

“Young master…. Were you scammed again?” she sighed. Her young master was a little naive sometimes. If it were not for that, he wouldn’t have fallen into his sister’s trap in the first place!

“No! This time it’s real…” Macil said, “I met someone….” he paused, “I will tell you later, anyway, My master Confirmed it!”

“Oh… Young master… You shouldn’t really trust Master Channas, completely. He was your sister’s master before you know…”

“And he kicked her out because she was too lousy! My master is a very reputable elf, Meril!”

“...” Meril sighed. If the elven princess was lousy, what would that make him? She decided not to think about it.

“Don’t worry, this pill was gotten from a different source…” he said with a reassuring smile.

“Fine… Let’s get on with it…” she sighed. As long as she could save her young master, everything would be fine. He shouldn’t have betted with his sister just for her. She was a lowly human after all… It was not worth it risking his reputation for her.

“First I want you to eat these…” Macil said, slowly taking out a paper bag full of brown things that looked very similar to elven horse's dung.

“Those are?”

“Energy bars… They are full of nutrients, and if we want the bloodline improvement to succeed, you will need to eat them all!” he said, in a strange apologetic voice.

“Oh!” Meril nodded, immediately taking one and inspecting it… It had no smell at all, she hesitated for a moment then put it in her mouth. She was starving as they didn’t give her a lot of food here.

“...”

“...”

“...”

She swallowed as she looked at Macil with sad eyes. “Young master…. If you wanted me to eat shit, you should have just asked… You didn’t need to disguise it as something else…” she said with a sad voice, looking at him with tears in her eyes. It was clear she just swallowed it earlier to follow his command.

She had no idea her young master had degraded to this degree already!

“SHIT? So that’s what it tasted like!” Macil finally figured it out. “It is not shit though! It just tastes as such!” Macil said.

“Young master… Are you sure you were not fooled?” Meril asked. Those things really looked and tasted like pieces of shit.

“I was not fooled, those things were made out of some kind of mushroom… He said you should no longer feel hungry after eating one!” Macil quickly clarified.

“He?” Meril asked, as for some strange reason, she truly no longer felt hungry? Wasn’t this the effect of eating something this disgusting?

“A friend… You will meet him later… Now eat the rest!”

“...”

“Sorry… You really need to eat them…”

“... I had no idea that the young master had such weird hobbies…” she said as she took one and began to eat it. She was clearly joking, but it didn’t make eating all those any easier.

Macil sighed watching her struggle. For some strange reason, the sight of her teary blaming eyes made him feel that he should bully her more. NO! Never! He was not a sadist elf!

“Finished…” Meril finally said.

“Good, now take this!” he said, giving her the pill.

Meril nodded, hesitating for a moment before looking at Macil.

“What?”

“Young master, if anything wrong were to happen to me… Don’t confront your sister… “ Meril said seriously, her intuition was telling her that this might also be a trap.

“Don’t worry…” he said, squeezing his fist. “Just take it already, and let us win the bet and slap the face of that bitch!”

“JUST PROMISE!”

“Fine…”

“...” Meril sighed and put the pill in her mouth then sat in a meditative pose.

Macil watched nervously by her side.

At first, Meril was ok. Just frowning a bit.

Moments later it was as if she was having a fever, as sweet began to drip from her face and hair… Her hair strangely began to turn from black to purple… Just like Victor’s!
Macil gasped! The pill was real!

“AHHHHHHHHHHHH………..”

Suddenly as if possessed, Meril began to scream in pain as she stood up

Macil hurried to her side, but moments later he was pushed by a wave of energy, the iron chains shaking her to the wall shattered, and Merail began to float in mid-air with a strange dark energy field extending all around her.

Macil tried to hurry and grab her, but he was pushed back again as all the clothes on her body burned, revealing an exquisite body.

Macil wanted to look away, but his neck refused to turn. She was that beautiful.

“KYYYYYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA…….”

She screamed, sending the entranced Macil back once more with a shock, making him hit the walls and making the cell shake.

Macil gasped as he hurried to his feet and looked at her.

Her eyes were no longer closed. They were wide open and shining as red as blood.

She looked at him…

From the depth of his heart, he felt it... Fear… Terror... Dread... For the first time in his elven life, he truly knew what those words meant.

He shivered as if an apex predator was eyeing him.

Every cell in his body told him to run away…

He didn’t… He just looked back at her. No matter what. She was his Meril!

He didn’t know how long it took…

But he kept persisting, ignoring the blood that seeped out of his mouth, nose, and ears. He knew that he was getting injured badly, but he couldn't run away.

If he left now, someone might interrupt her! He had to be here, in case the guards came…

He had to protect her!

Macil was really about to pass out when the oppressive energy finally subsided allowing him to relax and steady his footing.

Slowly, Meril’s eyes returned to normal.

“We did it…” she said as she looked at him. He couldn’t hear it because his ear had long been damaged, but he could read her sweet lips as she smiled at him.

She collapsed to the ground moments later.

Macil didn’t hesitate as he ran to check on her. Putting her head gently on his lap as he checked her breath. She was alive. He could feel her heart beating strongly as he covered her body gently with his cape.

She was alive, just collapsed out of exhaustion.

Macil sighed in relief as he took a high-grade healing pill and then relaxed.

What was that? He wondered as his internal organs began to heal up. What was that pressure he felt earlier? What was that dark energy? The way her eyes looked earlier seemed familiar.

He got the answer to his question moments later when his ears healed and he could finally hear it.

WAAAAAAAAA WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

It was a very unique sound of a siren ringing from outside of the prison…

This siren was only activated under one condition. The holy artifact had detected a demon inside of the city! And that guy was not located yet!

No wonder the guards didn’t come to disturb him… They had no time to care for him as they must have hurried to follow the protocol.

Wait….

Realizing something, Macil nervously looked at Meril who was now clutching onto him in her sleep… The way his body reacted earlier… That overbearing glare….

“Hssssss….”

Could it be that Meril was the demon?