277 JAMMING THE CURSE
Rabama grinned. "I'll take that as a yes."
Before she could react, he pulled her into a kiss. She resisted for a heartbeat… but then, something in her shattered. The walls she had built, the resistance she clung to—it all melted as she kissed him back.
This time, it was real. Without a Kill Curse over her, Hanna could do anything she wants including being in love.
Then, just as suddenly, she shoved him away. "What about your wife?" she demanded.
Rabama barely blinked. "I can have two wives. That's not unusual by Eoloth's standards. Look at Lilleo, he has three."
Lord Kabana, who had been silently watching, finally spoke, his voice heavy with authority. "What about me?"
Hanna froze for a moment, her gaze flickering to him. He was still her legal husband.
Leo, unfazed, leaned back with a grin. "Well, it's possible for a woman to have two husbands or more. I'm not opposed to it."
Hanna shot Kabana a sharp look, her words laced with sarcasm. "Yeah, in your dreams, bald head. I married you for a purpose and that purpose is no longer there."
The tension in the room crackled before Rabama stepped in, pulling her close and silencing the moment with a kiss. This time, Hanna didn't pull away.
No resistance, no hesitation.
She kissed him back, giving in to the emotions she had for Rabama that she had been fighting for far too long.
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[Back to the battle in the Rose Dungeon]
"Traitor!" Dassa screamed again.
Without warning, golden chains erupted from the ground, coiling around Dassa's neck, wrists, and ankles. They shot upward, dragging her into the air.
"Release me!" Dassa howled, thrashing against the chains.
"Not a chance," Hanna retorted, eyes narrowing.
With the Godmother out of the way, the combined shields of the Temple of Hera's assassins shattered. They were left exposed, forced to confront the Hellhounds and Dark Guards that lurked in the dungeon's depths.
Despite their numbers, the assassins were at a disadvantage—inside this domain, the dungeon's magic reinforced its guardians while at the same time suppressing the intruders.
One by one, assassins from the temple began to fall.
"Do you really believe your pitiful guardians and weak magic can stop me?" Dassa sneered, clenching her fists.
The remaining assassins suddenly dropped to the ground, their hearts crushed by the kill curse Dassa had placed upon them.
Godmother activated the assassins' kill curse to sacrifice them.
"Forget it, bitch. The kill curse doesn't work here," Hanna said, her voice calm but firm.
To everyone's shock, the assassins slowly regained their footing. "What's happening? Why hasn't the curse consumed us?" they murmured, confused.
"The dungeon has a counterspell," Hanna explained. "Inside here, the kill curse can't activate."
Leo rewrote the magic in the dungeon. The Kill Curse was in a sense, jammed while inside here.
A ripple of disbelief passed through the group. "So... we're free?" an assassin asked, looking around.
The storm of lightning ceased, and the Hellhounds' growls faded. The Dark Guards halted their attacks. It was a moment of respite and an opportunity for the assassins.
"I'm offering you a choice," Hanna said, raising Rabama's hands high. "You can break free from the Temple of Hera's control. Live your lives as you choose—find freedom, find love, get a good fuck, whatever you want."
At first, there was silence. Then, some assassins began to nod in agreement.
"Why not?" one of them said, a hint of hope in her voice. One by one, others followed suit.
Dassa's rage erupted. "Insolent fools! Traitors!" she screamed. "Do you have any idea who gave you everything? Who nurtured you?"
One assassin, her voice steady, answered, "What you've given us isn't worth the price of our lives. We want to live and be free."
Dassa's eyes narrowed, her jaw clenched in fury. She was isolated now, her forces surrendered.
The battle was lost.
"This will not be the last of me," Dassa hissed. "I'll make sure you regret this." She clenched her fists, preparing to sacrifice herself.
Her heart pulsed with the intent to trigger her kill curse and return her essence to her host, to inform them of this betrayal.
But nothing happened.
"I told you," Hanna's voice was cold, "the kill curse doesn't work here even on you."
Dassa's eyes widened in disbelief. "How can this realm block my magic? No wonder the other shadow minions failed to return. This realm stopped them," she gasped.
The chains pulled tighter, dragging her toward the ground, towards the Jade Throne. But then, in a blinding flash, her heart exploded in a burst of light.
"What—what is happening?" Hanna exclaimed, shock evident in her voice.
A cruel laugh echoed through the chamber.
"You stopped my kill curse, but you couldn't stop my will to die," Dassa's voice rang out. "Lucky, I prepared for this."
Her body disintegrated, her essence splintering and dissipating like smoke in the air. She was gone, her shadow minion was defeated, but her soul escaped the dungeon.
Rabama looked at the remains of the explosion. "Is she dead?" she asked, eyebrow raised.
At that moment, Leo and Yun-Yun appeared, stepping into the chamber with a heavy air of realization.
"Well, this is unexpected," Leo said, a frown creasing his brow. "I didn't expect the shadow minion to escape."
"It's my mistake too," Yun-Yun admitted, shaking her head. "We were overconfident. I didn't anticipate Dassa having a backup plan."
The Godmother was suspicious when her shadow minions failed to return to her even after they failed their missions. She believes something was stopping their return.
So, she crafted a special curse on herself that couldn't be stopped. She would kill herself when she wants to and Leo couldn't stop it.
Rabama's voice was grim. "Now what? What do we do?"
"We need to act fast," Leo said, his voice steady. "The shadow minion will return to the Temple of Hera and once they know what happened here, our plans in Debauchery City are in danger."