A Peacock Husband of Five Princesses by day, a Noble Assassin by Night

The priest, his face frozen in disbelief, was the first to react. "That's the Zurin's Wheel of Light. How is it possible?" His hands trembled, his mouth dry, unable to comprehend what had just happened.

Meanwhile, Kael could feel his mana reserves boosted to the level of a Supreme Being. He shifted his focus to the demon's heart that had yet to be merged with the young man.

And in that instant, something unexpected happened. The heart flickered, a surge of malevolent energy pulsing from it as if reacting to the wheel.

Kael's grip tightened around the sword. He poured his mana into the fragmented wheel of light along with adding his primordial dark attribute to it, unleashing a beam toward the demon's heart.

"You damn, Moonstone." Jagger angered, was about to move. However, the priest, who had been unnervingly silent, suddenly raised a hand, his expression unreadable.

Jagger hesitated, and the priest's blank stare fixed on Kael turned into a grin. "Activate."

The single word shattered the tension in the air.

Just as the fragmented wheel of light was about to release the concentrated beam of primordial dark energy, in an instant, a massive seal blazed to life, inscribed into the very floor beneath them.

The intricate markings, glowing with an eerie light, pulsed outward, expanding into a wide, circular formation, enveloping the hooded clown mages. Their life force began to absorb into the seal.

All along, Kael thought those markings drawn by the dragon blood were for the sake of ritual but no, he suddenly realized that it was for the sake of creating a trap.

A wave of oppressive energy surged through the chamber.

Kael felt it immediately. His mana—his very life force—was being locked away, true for this time.

His body stiffened. His breath caught in his throat. The wheel of light turned into specks of light, separating into the sword and a pendant, the sword crashing onto the floor while the pendant disappeared into Mia's body.

"Argh…"

His vision blurred as a sudden weight crushed down on him. He could feel the mana inside his body, still there, still burning—but it was caged, sealed away. He tried to move, but his muscles wouldn't respond.

His mind was fully conscious, his thoughts racing, but his body was frozen in place.

For the first time since he had arrived here, Kael felt true panic.

The priest smiled.

"Ah, how perfect," he said, his voice dripping with satisfaction. "You thought you were in control. You thought you could disrupt our plans. Do you think I haven't prepared against a Tier-9 such as yourself, Lord Moonstone? No, I thought of something better."

His dark eyes gleamed as he stepped forward, his gaze locked onto Kael's immobilized form.

"At first, I thought just getting rid of you will be for the best. But then I realized, why waste such a perfect vessel?"

Kael's breathing was shallow. His heart pounded in his chest. "A vessel?"

"It will be you," the priest continued, his voice almost reverent, "who attains the privilege of becoming the host to our Monarch, not this stupid rank-2 Clown lying over here."

Jagger's eyes widened slightly in realization. His lips pressed into a thin line, muttering under his breath. "Moonstone was the vessel? Supreme Pontiff didn't even tell me about it."

Kael could only watch, helpless, as the demon's heart slowly floated towards him, under the priest's control.

Dark tendrils of energy coiled upward from it, swirling unnaturally in the air.

"Once the heart fuses with your body," the priest said, his tone full of grim finality, "you die."

His grin widened.

"And the Monarch will be reborn."

"No. No… No… Not again."

Kael's mind screamed as the dark tendrils of the demon heart reached for him, inching closer, almost tasting victory. His body was trapped—frozen, helpless, unable to move or react.

His breath quickened, but it did nothing to shake off the paralyzing force that gripped him. The seal beneath him was suppressing everything—his strength, his magic, his will.

He was helpless. It was a similar thing he experienced in the past when he faced the Necromancer. Back then, despite all that sexual assault, at the very least, he benefited something from it. But now, he was going to be a vessel to the Monarch of Darkness? Death didn't matter much to an assassin like him but the thought of his body being used to commit atrocities against the entire world shuddered him to the soul.

He can accept anything but that.

"No, I will never hand over my body to a demon. I will destroy you…" He was screaming but those words were stuck in his throat and only resonated in his head.

As if his calls for the plea had been answered, out of nowhere, an explosive presence erupted inside Kael's mind. His senses flared as the familiar black cat spirit responded to his call, its voice echoing in his mind, sharp and commanding.

"Kael, let me help you!"

As soon as those words filled his mind, the shackles on his mana suddenly broke and the primordial dark attribute itself took over his consciousness, his spirit returning to mindscape and becoming a spectator for a few moments.

The tendrils from the demon's heart that tried to take over Kael's heart have been expelled from his body. Kael, now being covered by thick dark energy, stared blankly at the priest.

In the same breath, something else materialized—a presence so familiar, yet distant—his energy clone.

With a pulse of effort, the clone teleported, arriving at Kael's side from a thousand kilometers away.

"Wha…" The priest was taken aback by the sudden change of events. He was forced to halt the ritual, holding the demon's heart a bit tighter.

Kael raised his hand, the sword of Zurin floating above and falling into his hands and the pendant was forcefully summoned from Mia's mindscape. The two weapons collided and instantly returned to their merged form, the fragmented wheel of light.

The Priest's face hardened. "This… it's an elemental possession. Damn it. I underestimated the cat. It released the elemental's will."