Volume 1, Chapter 41 – Bone Joy, Heart Dance

This must be what they called riding a tiger with no way to dismount.

Cold sweat poured from Stella.

She had clearly brought Lainia out here to save her, yet now, under Remedios’ watchful supervision, she was supposed to cast dark cursecraft on her already unfortunate colleague.

What kind of hellish joke was this?

“The key to Heart-Piercing Bone-Gouging lies in intent.”

Remedios did not notice Stella’s stiffness at all. Like a conscientious private tutor, she flipped through the dark magic book in her hands, her tone light and cheerful.

“There’s no need for any complicated chanting. You have to construct an image in your mind of the other person suffering agony worse than death, gather your magical power at your fingertip, then drive it into their nerves like a boning knife. There’s no need to damage the flesh. You only need to amplify the pain signals without limit.”

Remedios closed the book, her aqua-blue eyes turning toward Lainia, who had remained silent all this time.

“For a beginner, it’s difficult to control the output when releasing dark cursecraft barehanded. It’d be a shame if you overloaded the magical power and broke such a precious toy.”

Remedios stepped forward. Her slender finger pointed toward Lainia, a dangerous ghostly blue glimmer flickering at its tip.

“Just to be safe, how about I demonstrate it once first? You can observe from the side and see how true suffering blossoms in her pupils.”

Lainia trembled slightly.

But she was not afraid.

Everything was for the Lord’s trial.

Lainia bit her lower lip and closed her eyes, waiting for the legendary agony said to tear the soul apart to descend upon her.

Absolutely not.

Stella could never allow Remedios to do it.

With Lainia in her current weakened state, a genuine dark cursecraft spell would probably send her straight to meet the Lord with a single touch.

As a Saintess, protecting her colleague was her duty, even here in Lilith School, surrounded by succubi.

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“No need.” Stella suddenly spoke, her voice cold and clear.

She extended a hand and blocked Remedios.

“…Stella?”

Remedios tilted her head in confusion.

“She’s mine. She’s my prey, the slave I tamed. Her first taste of pain, every single tremble of her body, can only belong to me.” Stella turned her head slightly, the corner of her eye sweeping over Remedios. “Not even for a demonstration. Don’t touch what belongs to me.”

Remedios froze for a moment before understanding dawned across her face.

She dispersed her magical power and took half a step back, a trace of apology appearing on her face.

“Sorry. I overstepped.”

Now this was the Stella she knew.

Resolute and cold, abstinent and vicious, unwilling to yield even the smallest thing. A succubus genius with a pathological desire to control everything that belonged to her and zero tolerance for anyone else laying a finger on it.

“Go ahead.” Remedios made an inviting gesture and stepped aside, taking out her quill to record everything. “Let me see your Heart-Piercing Bone-Gouging.”

Stella took a deep breath.

Now that she’d already said all that, she had no choice but to bite the bullet and do it.

But what was she supposed to do?

How could she cast dark cursecraft without hurting Lainia at the same time?

Stella’s gaze fell on her own fingertip while the corner of her eye swept over Lainia’s already dim holy emblem.

Then an idea so bold that it bordered on absurdity emerged in her mind.

If the essence of dark cursecraft was the combination of negative emotions and magical power, then what if, when she drove the spell through her fingertip, its core was actually sacred Holy Light?

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Light and darkness were opposites.

Using Holy Light to drive dark cursecraft should theoretically produce some kind of neutralizing reaction, perhaps even turning it into harmless purification. It was like pouring poison into holy water. Surely the toxicity would be diluted somehow.

She’d gamble on it.

Of course, she had absolutely no basis for this.

But this was obviously her only way out.

Even if she failed, she could excuse it by saying she wasn’t in good condition today. No matter what happened, it was still better than letting Remedios use Heart-Piercing Bone-Gouging on Lainia.

As always, Stella acted with unwavering conviction, treating an outright lie as the one and only truth.

She slowly raised her right hand and extended her index finger, pointing its tip directly at the center of Lainia’s forehead.

‘Lord.’

‘If You can hear me, please bless this spell so that it goes horribly, horribly wrong. It would be best if it simply failed outright.’

Kneeling in the mud, Lainia felt the pressure emanating from that slender finger. She opened her eyes, her amber pupils reflecting Stella’s expressionless face.

At this distance, she could clearly see the indifference deep within the silver-haired girl’s eyes, as well as the point of light gathering at her fingertip.

It was coming.

Lainia held her breath and prepared herself to welcome hell.

“…Heart-Piercing Bone-Gouging.”

Stella spoke the wicked incantation.

At the same time, the Holy Light within her circulated continuously, surging down her arm and into her fingertip. Cheryl’s crimson magical power mixed with the Holy Light, transforming into a bizarre golden-red radiance.

The light shot from her fingertip and struck Lainia.

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There was no heart-rending scream.

Lainia’s body suddenly stiffened.

Then an indescribable sensation surged through her, as though countless feathers were brushing across her entire body…

Itchy?

“Pfft… mmph!”

Lainia tried to grit her teeth and endure it, but the sensation was completely unbearable. Her body uncontrollably sprang up from the ground, her face turning bright red in an instant.

“Haha… no… stop… hahaha!”

Lainia collapsed onto the ground, clutching at the mud with both hands as laughter burst uncontrollably from her lips.

She did not want to laugh. It was blasphemy against the Lord, and losing control like this in front of a succubus was even worse, but she had absolutely no control over herself.

“Hahahaha… stop… please… hahahaha, sob…”

She was laughing, yet large tears kept rolling down her cheeks.

Stella held out her hand blankly.

She had only been gambling, yet it had actually worked, but this…

What exactly was going on here? What happened to neutralization and purification? How had it turned into tickling?

“Hahahahaha… kill me… haha… let me die… hahaha!”

Lainia rolled around on the ground, her maid dress covered in dead leaves. She looked utterly ridiculous, yet utterly miserable at the same time.

She howled with laughter as tears streamed down her face, wearing a twisted expression that made it obvious she desperately wanted to die while being forced to keep laughing.

Remedios was completely dumbfounded.

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The quill slipped from her hand, yet she did not even notice.

She stared at Lainia writhing painfully on the ground while laughing hysterically, then looked at Stella, who remained standing in place with a cold expression.

She had not used conventional torture through pain.

Instead, she had carved out an entirely different path, forcibly twisting pleasure and suffering together. She made the victim suffocate in pleasure and experience the complete collapse of their dignity through laughter they could not stop.

‘Quite perverted… no, quite evil cursecraft.’

“…Genius.”

Remedios murmured, her aqua-blue eyes filled with shock.

“I thought Heart-Piercing Bone-Gouging could only inflict pain. I never imagined that after merely hearing the principles, you’d modify the spell itself… making pain manifest in the form of pleasure.”

Remedios picked up her quill and began recording in her diary.

“Stripping away the right to grieve, forcibly bestowing distorted happiness.”

“This shouldn’t be called Heart-Piercing Bone-Gouging.”

“It should be called… Bone Joy, Heart Dance.”

“Self-developed dark cursecraft… Stella, you really are a genius rarely seen in the Demon Realm even once in several centuries.”

“…Mm.”

Stella looked at Lainia, who was laughing so hard on the ground that she was nearly out of breath, then looked at Remedios’ admiring expression.

By the way, could someone first teach her how to stop that nun from laughing like a lunatic?

…She looked like she was about to suffocate.