"What was that?" The tremor took them by surprise. Unable to hold his ground the patrolling spearman fell on his butt.

"Did it start again?" The shield-bearer plunged his shield in the ground, tightened his grip. The nightmare of the past months was still fresh in their mind.

After the attack from the enemy, the strange phenomenon had started. The whole city of Yeomcheon rocked for one whole day, before falling silent. But the tremor in the city centre continued for months.

The city centre of Yeomcheon became off-limits. The Chararch was already in ruins. The broken skeletons of the houses and shops remained standing around the city centre, to show the remnant of its glamorous past.

The main army had already left the city. Those who remained were the part of general Andlat's corps. The general herself was stationed here to protect the entry point of Torria. Whereas Akai, Vorn, and Riyasu, under the command of General of West, had left with 120,000 strong armies.

It was not that the quakes had stopped after that day, but it was neither frequent nor as strong as today.

"Could it be the remaining energy of the crystal?" The young swordsman asked with fearful eyes.

"But…" before he could say the next word, another strong shock swept the land from his leg.

“We should inform the general first.”One of the soldiers ran to report it to the general. In the meantime, more of the patrolling soldiers started to gather.

"When did it start?"

"At the morning there was a small quake, but soon the frequency increased, and it is now stronger than the morning." The guard answered the captain.

Before the captain could ask again, another tremor rocked the whole city. Not too far away one of the two-storied buildings was reduced to rubbles.

"Move away, don't go too…" The captain couldn't complete his sentence before a chasm appeared through the city centre. The crowd was broken into chaos, but the tremors stopped as soon as the chasm appeared.

"There is something. It's moving." A shout grabbed the attention of all those who were present there. But another entity entered the city centre at the same time.

In the presence of General Andlat, everyone was silent. Nobody knew whether it was because of her charisma or her frightening reputation, but none dared to talk. The thing which was crawling out of the chasm concerned them more for the moment.

It was naked, without a string on its body, the view confirmed the gender of the one. His long hair wasn't letting others see his face. The whole body was full of dark spots, nobody could recognize his body colour.

Though the structure looked like a human nobody could be too sure. Something peculiar was coming out his back. He was supporting himself with his four. He tried to stand, but his body couldn’t compile his intention and he was sent on his four again.

Before one could fully observe the thing one brave soldier moved forward without hesitation. He went straight to him, but rather than attacking him, he went and supported him to stand up.

"You have grown. But you should have taken a bath. It's hard to talk" The soldier said.

"That is the first thing you talk about after I came out of the underground after… How many days have I been underground?" The thing asked.

"7 months and 12 days. It's good to see you back, Captain." Chanakya said with a smile on his face.

*********

The evening of the same day

The manor of the previous city lord stood unscratched through the tremors, which rocked the city from time to time. For the time being it acted as the head-quarter of the army.

"Can you do that? That is impossible even for the whole army. Or... perhaps you have found something underground?" Even with Andlat's surprised expression, her voice was still seductive.

"That is not important. What is important is whether the general wants to do it or not?"

Andlat was surprised by the response of Kinoya, who was standing before her. He was talented but also respectful. But the boy in front of her was different.

‘I am not sure but something has changed. The temperament, the attitude even the aura had changed. This…’ Neither fear nor respect was present in his eyes. Arrogance won't be the right word to explain it.

‘What could have happened?’ The general wasn’t too sure about it but, the shard of hesitation that could be felt before now has vanished.

Andlat couldn’t put a reason on his change, however, ‘That is what makes the thing interesting.’

"This is how you talk to your superior?" A deadly cold aura started to leak out from her, the temperature took a nosedive.

The effect was more prominent on Kinoya. It was hard for him to move, even harder to breath. If it was some months ago then he would have submitted without hesitation. But…

Kinoya was forced to channel up his leftover mana though the spell essence. The aura Kinoya excluded was different from the chilling cold aura of Andlat, it was calming, more down to earth, but was strong in its sense.

A flash of surprise appeared in the face of Andlat. The aura was different from the black smoke that the boy used to expel from his body, rather now, he had some weight around him now.

"I have no superior. As long as I remember I was thrown out of the army, in this city. Why do I need to respect you?" Though Kinoya said with a straight face, the pressure on him was becoming unbearable.

The black smoke had depleted a long time ago all he could do now was to channel his mana in the spell essence.

Yet, similar to black smoke, the severe deficiency of mana over the last few months hadn’t filled up. So even though the mana cost is low, it won't be long before his residue mana will be used up.

"If you are not in the military then why are you planning to help us?"

"No matter how they treated me I was born and brought up in the empire. So I want to help it." Kinoya waited for a moment before adding, “Will that be enough?”

Andlat didn’t answer, continued to look at him with a smile on her face. Yet the pressure on him continued to increase.

‘Like anybody would accept such a lame excuse.’ Looking at unconvinced Andlat all Kinoya could do was sigh. “I don’t know.”

“Huh” Andlat was dumb-founded.

“I don’t know why I want to do it. Maybe I want to take revenge on that white freak. Maybe I just want to fight and move up to the ladder. I am not sure of myself.”

To be precise he was confused. Not sure whether he had wanted to run away or stay into the military.

“I couldn't just run away from my punishment. I want to join the Royal Academy after all. So I thought it would be better to earn merit rather than being a coolie.”

Andlat burst into laughter. "I Like you, boy, I like you more." The pressure on him vanished in a blink, yet the look on her eyes sent a chill down her spine. "I can do what you had told me, but what will I get in return?"

'Chanakya was right. She isn't someone I could control.' Kinoya tried to control his emotion as much as possible. "I may not be a soldier of the empire, but you are a general of the Empire, and what I am doing is for the good of the empire. You still..."

"Cut those crap. If I don't get what I want, you are not getting anything too." She said with a bewitching smile on her face as she came towards Kinoya.

'I didn't think that I shall be so helpless, even with the spiritual essence.' Kinoya understood very well that this wasn't just the difference of power. The woman in front of him was on a whole different level. He was already at his limit, even before she had revealed her full power.

"Then what do you want?" Even Kinoya didn’t realise that his voice was shaking.

"I want you." She said and planted her lips on Kinoya. He resisted for a moment, but…

The resistance made her ecstatic. “See I want to help you. But you are not cooperating.”

The memories of the past flashed through his mind. The pain, hate, wound, and blood, it overwhelmed his mind. The Catwoman, the demon woman, even Munai's face flashed in his eye.

Kinoya wanted to refute but failed. Harder he tried to resist it, the harder it became for him to forget.

“Ok, then let’s just forget what just happened. You can go now.” Andlat turned and left without giving him any chance to refute.

Kinoya had no idea what clicked in him, but his body moved on its own. He grabbed her wrist and planted a kiss on her. A tinge of red appeared on her cheek.

The desire inside her was building to the point that it was hard to control anymore. Her moods wings were becoming more frequent, even her closest abide had started to avoid her.

Yet under the general's order, she couldn't touch any of the soldiers. The slaves she had brought with her or the soldiers of the enemies she had captured were becoming useless.

On top of that, she couldn't leave the city. Now with such a tasty treat in front of her, she was almost losing control over herself. She grabbed his head as her tongue tried to blast away the last bit of resistance.

‘I can’t just run away from the past anymore.’ Even if he reasoned himself still it was hard.

Her tongue was continuing its assault, yet he couldn’t just accept it. But before the resistance could grow stronger, clamming mana invaded his body.

[Status Check: Foreign mana invading host's body]

[Do you want to dispel it?]

The system's mechanical voice didn't affect him anymore. He relaxed, as his lips melted away in her mouth.

It wasn’t just Kinoya who was resisting. The moment he had accepted the dominance, Andlat became more violent.

Her tongue continued its invasion, as her other hand continued to ravish his body. His simple rough cloth didn’t have any ability to defend against her violent attack and was soon torn into pieces.

Her hand moved over his smooth, hairless chest, leaving its marks here and there. The lower it went the more euphoric it had become. Soon it latched onto its most important target.

“Kuuk.” A groan escaped his mouth, and he jumped out of her reach with a little blood on his lip.

Andlat was jubilant. Like a predator her eyes never left him, rather his little brother, “That doesn’t look like a weapon of thirteen years old.”

Kinoya didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He felt shy and wanted to hide yet he didn’t. Accepting his all the gaze he spoke, "I have no prob-blem...” He stumbled before he could complete his sentence.

In front of him, Andlat had removed all the string on her body. She was smiling like a child who had found her favourite toy. And that smile…

The notification in his mind didn’t help at all. He couldn’t take off his eyes of her alluring smile. To top it off the white skin was asking him to touch. The chocolate topped white mass on her chest was asking to get plucked. Even if he resisted, his eye continued to slip down her slender waist to the valley...

“Hehe” She giggled like a child as her eyes locked onto the now energetic member of Kinoya.

Kinoya felt he should resist, yet the feeling was overwhelming. He sucked a deep breath, “Only tonight.”

“That depends on your performance.” Without waiting she threw herself on his teenage body

Kinoya didn't struggle. He let her soft lips savour the taste of dried lips. It took some time for the dance of her tongue to stop.

"Don't worry. But if you try to trick me just remember that the things I could to the enemies also could be done to this army too." Kinoya stepped forward and planted a kiss on her lips.

Andlat felt a chill in her spine, but her desire soon overridden her fear. She dragged Kinoya to the soft bed. The magic light crystal flickered a few times before it stopped. The room plunged into darkness and silence came with it.

But the silence was soon drowned by an ecstatic moan. The guard outside the door could only stand there, ignoring the moaning and the occasional whimpers that continued even after daybreak.