Chapter 348: Bastions

“Well… I guess that’s it…” Lily said after she watched Rain who was wrapped in bandages like a mummy eat his fruit with some help from Rea. Then followed quickly after he vanished, not forgetting to bow to Lin and Lily before leaving. She was really thankful for their help these past few days. They even promised to meet outside if they got a chance!

“Alex kicked Rain really hard… Thankfully he landed on that tree that absorbed most of the shock for him,” Lin said. “Will he be OK at the next level?”

Lin didn’t like Lily before considering her a love rival, but after spending some time with her here, although she still didn’t like her, she began to really respect her like a big sister who knew everything.

Lily was also a person you really don’t want to mess up with! This girl has something against men having crotches!

“Did you start having feelings for him?” Lily asked with a knowing smile.

“Never! I only like Victor!” Lin quickly clarified. “It is just… Despite his foul mouth, I think he is a decent guy. It would be a shame if he got hurt on the next level…”

“...” Lily sighed. “Don’t worry about him… For the same reason that makes you like him is the reason he will survive this place…” she clarified.

“What? Is there something fishy going on here?” Lin asked as she frowned

“He is a scion… “ Lily shrugged.

“AH! What?” Lin opened her mouth wide. Victor did mention this to her before entering this place, warning her to be wary of Scions. “Damn it!” she said. She almost fell for him!

“Don’t worry about it… By knowing about him being a scion. His effect on you would be greatly diminished… Just make sure to make him hate you the next time you meet!”

“Oh…” Lin nodded. “Why didn’t you or Victor warn me about him before?” she said, sulking.

“We wanted you to experience this strange effect by yourself so that you would be wary the next time such things happen!” Lily said.

“Oh… Then that Rea girl is a scion too?” Lin asked. She felt some strange attraction toward her.

“Yes… And Victor seems to plan to add her to his harem…” Lily spat angrily, totally unaware of her companion’s thoughts.

“Oh… Then is it safe to leave her with Rain?” Lin frowned. “Shouldn’t we have done something against him?”

“Never underestimate a scion’s power…” Lily shook her head with a smile. “And Rain will have other things to worry about very soon…”

“You did something to him, didn’t you ?” Lin asked.

“... Who knows…” Lily shrugged. “Now come on, eat your fruit. Victor is waiting!” she added as she bit on her apple in a hurry. She needed to find Victor quickly, men like him must not be trusted to be left alone without supervision.

Lin frowned, looked at her then quickly followed, eating her own apple.

Moments later both vanished as the system

The world wrapped around them and the next thing They saw was the face of their husband who was smiling as he sat on his signature comfy camping chair while writing on his notebook.

Both of them couldn't help but jump into his embrace without even affirming their surroundings, knocking Victor and his chair to the ground as they borrowed their faces into his chest.

“I missed you two…” he told them as he hugged them back.

“I expected that you… Ouch!” he paused. Lily was biting his arm. “Don’t eat your husband…” he exclaimed.

“BASTARD! WERE YOU MESSING AROUND WITH MY SISTER?” she asked before biting harder. She could smell Tulip’s scent all over his body! There was the scent of another girl too, but Tulip was the one she noticed.

“Ouch…Ouch… TAKE IT EASY!” he exclaimed as he held Lily at bay. “I didn’t expect to meet her here. She was in a very disadvantageous situation, so as any noble young man I had to take advantage of that!” he clarified.

“What advantage?” Lily spat.

“I figured that I would use the opportunity to beat some sense into her and maybe ‘educate’ her out of her stupid pride!” he said as he pushed the now rabid Lily away with the help of Lin.

“Does that include sleeping with her?” Lily asked, squinting her pretty eyes as she looked at him.

“... Education takes many forms…” he said as he jumped to his feet and stepped back.

“Then Let’s see how I educate you….” Lily spat hatefully as she also stood up and prepared to attack him again.

“I also gave her the cure for your mother’s poison…” he added, making Lily pause…

“She will be skeptical…” she said, calming down a little as Lin who was curious looked between the two.

“She just needs to recognize the symptoms… She is a smart girl!” Victor said.

“True… Then I will forgive you for this once..” Lily said, pouting.

“Good… We have better things to do now!” he chuckled, making both of the girls look at their surroundings.

“Where is this anyway?” Lily finally asked, looking around. They were on a large ledge protruding from a solid copper dome near its top. Below it, it oversaw a grand field that had many cages scattered around with people inside of them.

“This is the third level!” Victor said.

“And why are we up here and not with the others?” Lin asked as she slowly approached Victor and stood beside him, making her body touch his intimately as she looked at the people down below.

“I took you out of the game!” he smiled and said. “I was able to take control of this entire place thanks to a lucky coincidence!” he said.

“What do you mean?” Lily asked, squinting her eyes as she also hurried to his side. She was still angry, but she also missed him.

“I already told you that this place was not a dungeon…” Victor said. “It is an X-ranked Artifact called the three Rings merging cauldron, and we are inside of it!”

“WHAT?” both of the girls asked as they began to look around.

“What does it do?” Lin said curiously as Victor secretly moved his hand around her back indecently from behind.

“Like the cauldrons that ancient alchemists used, it is for processing materials… It takes people in, then extracts their soul energy, attributes, bodies, and bloodlines before inputting those into someone else…” he explained.

“Then... This place is basically a trap?” Lin asked.

“Exactly!” Victor nodded.

“Who is behind it?” Lily asked as she looked at the players down below.

“Demons… Those rabbits you saw before are all possessed by demons, there are about a thousand of them not counting the hibernating demon souls laying dormant in the blood chamber!” Victor said solemnly.

“Hissss…” Lily gasped. “THIS IS A BASTION?” she exclaimed.

“Exactly!” Victor nodded, “They are collecting players, planning to choose suitable ones, and take over their bodies to reenter the world!” Victor said. “This operation must have been very old, as many of the players here belong to tribes whose raison d'etre is to create better offspring before making them enter the cauldron!”

“Those dark-skinned men?”

“Among others… I counted 5 different groups who all seem to worship a mythical red moon god… They think they are here to prove themselves!” he said. “Most of them are to be used as fuel in the cauldron and fill the blood chamber!”

“Shit…. “ Lily said. “They choose the best ones then cook and eat the rest to make them more powerful!”

“Exactly!”

“No wonder!” she added as she remembered how many of the people who entered the moon dungeon in her past life ended up being very powerful, possessing strong bloodlines and attributes that made them easily overpower others of the same age! They were highly regarded by the powers they world for!

Although they didn’t make any moves until the time Victor returned in time, Most of them rose to hold important positions, so it was only a matter of time!

Those bastards must have been preparing for a second wave of invasion!

“What is a bastion?” Lin, who was listening to their conversation, asked.

“Oh… A bastion is basically a hideout for demons who were stuck into this world after the ancient war…” Lily explained as a big sister would. “There are many of them… Hidden all over the world! Most of the low-level demons are already dead, but their souls live on, waiting for suitable bodies to possess and leave!”

“What ancient war?” Lin asked, wondering how Lily could know of these things. She had never heard of them despite coming from one of the major families.

“... Well… I guess we have time to tell you about this!” Victor said, taking the role of a storyteller. “Long time ago, at a time long forgotten by history, there was an incident that caused a breach to open in this world’s walls. It allowed others from the outside to come in and humans could go out!”

“Oh…”

“At first no one noticed. But with time some Visitors managed to cross here and then carry the news back to their world…. They were the worst kind of creatures you want to encounter… Demons!” he said. “It didn’t take them a lot of time to launch an invasion wanting to enslave the entire world!” Victor said, acting all wise.

“Humans fought back?” Lin asked excitedly.

“Nope… They were nearly wiped out! However, eventually, thanks to the demons beginning to fight each other for dominance, some surviving human groups managed to escape this world and strike some kind of a deal with the other races outside, so that they would send help!” He said. “In the following years, many great warriors entered this world. Not only to destroy the demons who were the enemy of all the other races but to bring in with them the artifacts that enabled humans to become players and fight back! Although the thesis race's intentions were far from pure, the humans had no other choice!”

“They won?” Lin asked.

“Of course not!” Lily said. “The demons were too overpowered as they arrived here first. They seemed to have already anticipated the attack and bonded together to fight it off! And the other races were not that serious, only sending their younglings and some old tech… So after years of struggle, millions of lives, and the destruction of all civilization the war stood at a standstill!” she said.

“Then?”

“Then something that no one thought about happened! The many souls of the dead seemed to have accumulated enough energy for the world to gain a will, becoming a mature world!… When the world opened its eyes for the first time, the first thing it did was close its wounds and then begin to eliminate all foreign elements!” Lily shrugged. “Those guys never knew what hit them! Most of them died as their luck and destiny turned against them. The troublesome ones that the world couldn’t hurt were locked into dungeons!” Lily said then turned to Victor who continued.

“The only survivors were those who found a place or a way to hide from the world fast enough… This didn’t include just the demons, but the other races too!” Victor said. “In fact, most of the player families' originators belong to those allies who came into those otherworldly races and married some human!”

“AH, WHAT?!” Lin was shocked.

“It is true… They lived their lives inside sealed chambers, not daring to come out!” Lily nodded. “Victor’s ancestor was a half-dragon called Nicholas, while yours was a humanoid Horned Serpent called Matilda…” she added.

“Then this bastion is a demon hideout place?” Lin asked half believing. Her ancestor’s name was lost to history. Her family only knew that it started with an M thanks to an engraved monument.

“Yes!” Victor nodded. “The ones here must have used this cauldron in a hurry to hide… If my guess is correct, every hundred years or so, they open the gates locally to get some demons out to sniff the situation outside and prepare for a new invasion!”

“This time the gate opened globally…” Lily said.

“Yes… Someone must accidentally found their bastion’s location and blew the cover…” Victor said.

“Rain and Rea?”

“Yup…” he nodded. He heard the story through Lin.

“So what is happening now?” Lin asked nervously.

“The second stage is about to finish with only about 20 players left… They should all get killed or pass here in the next hour…”

“Then? This battlefield?”

“Exactly! They will start the massacre here! Like the flame in a cauldron, it is a stage to melt the ingredients. It is made to prepare the contestant to be possessed by making them draw on their souls for power, damaging it!” he said. “The demons you see are already using the cauldron to collect the attributes and blood of the dead ones and collecting it in a chamber below in preparation for the possession that would happen after this stage!” Victor said.

“They plan to enhance the ones they choose to possess by using the others as sacrifices!” Lily explained.

“YUP! They will probably use the blood they collected after that on the survivors to give them a blood bath as a reward and then infiltrate their bodies as they enjoyed the enhancement of their bloodlines!” he added with a smile. “The strongest will probably get to bathe in the grandest blood pond… Scions tend to fall into such traps, especially when you make them work for it!”

“That’s despicable!” Lin said, totally unaware that Victor used this reward trick on Tom before.

“Yup!” Victor nodded shamelessly as Lily glared at him. “After finishing they will send a batch out, to spread the news and prepare for a new batch to come in the next month… They will also send some useless corpses out, to convince the outsiders of the legitimacy of this trial!”

“A full cycle… “ Lily said, realizing how dangerous demons were. The imperial family had no idea about this in Victor’s old timeline!

“Then what to do?” Lin asked.

“Nothing for now! I already said it, we are safe! This entire place is under my control now!”

“You took control of the artifact?” Lily asked.

“Yeah! I fed some of my blood to a rabbit intending to take control of him, but that thing took the blood and dumped it inside the cauldron's blood chamber” he said… “The next thing I knew was that the message asking me if I wanted to take ownership of this cauldron! Maybe I fulfilled some stupid condition or my blood salve skill triggered some bug! Who knows,” he lied.

“WOW!” Lin said.

“That’s convenient…” Lily added, frowning. Despite the fact that his explanation was somewhat plausible, her hunch was telling her that Victor was hiding something. She has known him long enough to realize that. “Are you planning to use the cauldron’s power to consume all the demons?” Lily asked as Lin’s eye sparkled looking at Victor.

“Yes! In fact, I already tried it by making Alex kill some players so the rabbits would eat them, and the moment the rabbits vanished using the cauldron’s teleportation array, I used the Cauldron’s consume feature on them, eating them stealthy without making the other notice… The ones in the forest would think their friends are gone to the blood pool, while the rest would think that they are in the forest!“ He said with a smile. “I already leveled up 2 times thanks to them!”

“Wow…Why aren't you finishing with this then?” Lin asked. “What are you waiting for?”

“Well… “ he chuckled. “It would be regrettable to waste such a perfect opportunity to gain big!”

“You want most of these people down there to die?” Lin asked, raising one eyebrow. She was not disturbed, just curious.

“Not exactly… The ones meant to die are already dead… “ Victor shook his head. “You see, most of the people here had already eaten the fruits, and the more they fight right now the more they will draw on their souls, making their souls weaker and giving the demons a better chance to possess them after the battle is over!” he said.

“You want the demons to possess them?” Lin asked.

“Nope… I am just saying that most of them are in a very susceptible position right now for some brainwashing…” He said with an evil smile. “Also, after taking control of this place I discovered many very interesting things! You guys just need to sit down and watch this emperor work!”

“How long until the show starts?” Lily asked.

“About an hour… an hour and a half maybe…” he said with a wary smile as he felt his wives’ arms wrap around him… They really missed him.