Lucifer's crimson pupils suddenly contracted.
Time seemed frozen. The wolves surrounding the altar stifled even their instinctive whimpers. They awaited the carnage of the next second, awaiting the King's wrath to tear this reckless "sacrifice" to shreds.
Yet the anticipated fury did not come.
Lucifer merely leaned forward slowly, his presence oppressive. The cold metal tip of his boot crushed the troublesome chain beneath him without a sound, producing only a sharp, grating friction. He drew near to Lin Xi, his face—beautiful as a demon god—now mere inches from hers. His breath, carrying a potent scent mingled with gunpowder and cold snow, nearly brushed her skin.
"Charm?" he repeated in a low, hoarse voice, his tone laced with ice and a dangerous, offended amusement. "A worthless creature who can't even detect pheromones dares to speak of my charm?"
His overwhelming presence pressed down on her shoulders like tangible mountains, attempting to force her to the ground, to break her.
Lin Xi, however, used his force to lean back slightly. The chains on her wrists rattled again with her movement, the sound piercing the dead silence. Far from retreating, she leveraged this seemingly vulnerable posture to raise her unshackled hand. Her fingertips, light as feathers, gently brushed against a cold medal pinned to the chest of his military uniform.
The movement was so swift it seemed an illusion, yet it carried an intimacy utterly incongruous with this masculine form.
"Precisely because there is no pheromone," she met his scrutinizing gaze, her voice growing softer, as if sharing a secret, "I can... feel His Majesty's own oppressive presence all the more clearly." She paused, then added beneath his suddenly piercing gaze, "Like strong liquor poured straight into the soul, leaving one... dizzy and disoriented."
"Insolent!"
A furious roar erupted from nearby—a loyal general under Lucifer's command, unable to tolerate such blasphemy against his king from a mere sacrifice.
Lucifer raised his hand, halting his subordinate's advance.
His gaze remained fixed on Lin Xi's face, churning with conflicting emotions—savagery, scrutiny, and a fleeting, unwelcome stir of recognition at the uncanny precision of her words. This man (or rather, this entity) was deeply unsettling. No fear, no subservience. Those eyes held a near-amused, hooked provocation.
"Flattery," Lucifer sneered coldly, yet the fingers pinching her jaw tightened, forcing her head back to expose the vulnerable curve of her neck—a masculine neck, complete with an Adam's apple. "Who sent you? State your purpose, and I might grant you a swift death."
Lin Xi felt a faint ache in her jawbone, yet she smiled as the system alert echoed in her mind:
[Warning: Mission time remaining: 2 hours 47 minutes.]
"My purpose?" she echoed, her gaze held fast by his, unwavering like a vine twining upward. "Didn't I just tell Your Majesty?" Her eyes drifted, almost imperceptibly, over the crisp collar of his military uniform—where the potent vitality of a top-tier Alpha nearly burst through the fabric.
Lucifer's eyes darkened. He loathed this sense of loss of control, loathed being unsettled by a "male" in such... an indescribable way. But what he found even more unbearable was the brutal impulse stirring within him—the urge to utterly destroy and possess.
He jerked his hand away as if touching filth, only to seize her chain-bound wrist with brutal force, crushing bones with a crack.
"Very well," he sneered coldly. "I shall interrogate you personally."
With that, he yanked the chains without mercy, dragging Lin Xi like a lifeless object from the altar's cold stone floor. He marched straight toward the black throne behind the altar—a symbol of absolute power and utter solitude.
Thud!
Lin Xi was slammed onto the cold, hard floor before the throne by a tremendous force, sharp pain shooting through her knees and elbows. The clang of chains echoed through the empty throne room.
Lucifer's towering figure loomed over her. He did not sit upon the throne but stood before her, eyes lowered in a gaze that felt like a god surveying an ant.
"Now," he drawled, slowly removing his black leather gloves, still carrying the scent of gunpowder, revealing hands with prominent knuckles and raw power, "let's see how long your silver tongue can hold out."
He reached out, as if to seize her throat or tear away her disguise more directly.
But in the split second of his motion, Lin Xi suddenly raised her arm—not to block, but to wrap the cold, heavy chain around his outstretched wrist!
Metal pressed against skin, coldness mingling with heat.
She used his force to lift her head, closing the distance between them until their breaths mingled. She could clearly see her reflection in the crimson depths of his eyes—a face belonging to a young man, yet profoundly altered by her soul's presence.
"Your Majesty," she murmured, her voice low and husky, laced with a reckless, deadly allure as she locked eyes with him, "Are you certain... this is the moment for interrogation?"
Her gaze swept suggestively below the waistband of his military uniform.
[Warning: Mission time remaining: 2 hours 45 minutes.]