A surge of intense pain hit her, and Morimoto Leona's legs gave way. With a 'thud,' she knelt involuntarily onto the cold, hard floor. A massive wave of humiliation overwhelmed her; when had she ever been treated like this?!
"Somebody! Help me!" She screamed desperately, trying to call for help from the outside world while using both hands and feet to crawl toward the door.
However, when her panicked gaze flickered toward the window, she felt as if she had been struck by lightning. She froze instantly, the color draining from her face—outside the window, the entire academy seemed to have been put on pause.
Falling leaves hung suspended in mid-air, running students were frozen in mid-stride, and the wings of birds in the sky were stretched out motionless... everything had solidified into an eerie, static painting. A deathly silence, an absolute stillness, enveloped the outside world; only time within this room continued to flow.
Boundless terror, like a cold tide, instantly submerged her heart.
Trembling, she slowly turned her head back to look at the man who resembled a demon.
On Kanjuro's peerlessly handsome face, an exaggerated and sickly smile bloomed, filled with the appreciation and amusement of a predator watching its prey's fear.
The mental torment was systematically breaking down Morimoto Leona's carefully constructed psychological defenses, bit by bit.
Behind that smile, it felt as if he were connected to some indescribable abyss that shattered one's sanity, emitting a chilling aura that made her soul shudder.
"Are... are you a human or a ghost?" Her voice trembled uncontrollably. Her former arrogance had vanished, leaving only the most primal fear.
"I told you to kneel, don't you understand?"
Kanjuro seemed completely uninterested in her question. He backhanded her with another crisp, powerful slap, the force of it making her ears ring.
Kanjuro's goal was crystal clear—to completely dismantle her inner self and her pathetic pride.
Morimoto Leona's body shook violently, her teeth chattering.
She understood now that she had encountered no ordinary person, but the most bizarre and incomprehensible existence in this world.
The gloomy and sickly aura enveloping him pressed down on her so hard she could barely breathe, and a cold despair spread through her entire body.
Kanjuro said no more. From somewhere, he produced a rough rope and a cold metal dog chain. With practiced movements, he fastened the chain around Morimoto Leona's slender neck, the sound of the lock clicking shut sharp and piercing.
"Come with me, you bitch." He tugged at the chain, his tone like he was calling a pet.
Morimoto Leona subconsciously tried to stand up to follow him, tears of humiliation welling in her eyes.
"I told you to walk. Don't you know how a dog walks? You crawl on the ground!!" Kanjuro frowned, scolding her in a chilling tone.
Morimoto Leona froze. Under the absolute suppression of fear and power, her last shred of courage to resist dissipated.
She could only obey the order, getting down on all fours like a real dog, following Kanjuro humbly and with difficulty as he led her by the chain, crawling across the cold floor.
She didn't know where Kanjuro was taking her, but deep inside, the fortress known as her'self' was crumbling piece by piece, and her psychological defenses were on the verge of total collapse.
Kanjuro led her through the terrifyingly silent hallway to a hidden, gloomy basement entrance.
Pushing open the heavy iron door, a gust of foul air—a mixture of mold, burnt smells, and a faint hint of rust—hit them.
The light in the basement was dim, and the walls were covered in blackened soot marks, clearly having experienced a major fire.
On the floor, there were even some dark brown, long-dried suspicious stains that looked like clotted blood, telling of the ill omens that had occurred here.
Kanjuro dragged Morimoto Leona to the center of the basement and used cold chains to bind her limbs to metal rings already fixed in place, leaving her sprawled and kneeling on the filthy floor in a spread-eagle position.
A cold stone coffin sat on the ground.
"No... let me go! What do you want?!" Morimoto Leona struggled in vain, the chains clattering, but she couldn't move them an inch. Fear and despair were about to consume her.
Kanjuro glanced at the exquisitely made, expensive dress she was wearing, his eyes showing no emotion.
He raised his hand, and with a 'poof,' a cluster of eerie black flames ignited out of thin air at his fingertips. The flames danced without heat, yet emitted a bizarre aura that could incinerate everything.
He flicked his finger, and the black sparks, as if alive, drifted lightly onto Morimoto Leona's clothes.
The dark flames spread silently, greedily licking the magnificent fabric. Wherever they passed, the clothing was eroded by darkness and quickly turned to nothingness, revealing the trembling skin beneath. The cold air instantly enveloped her, bringing waves of shivers.
The entire process was terrifyingly quiet, save for the faint crackling of the flames and Morimoto Leona's rapid, suppressed breathing from extreme fear, echoing hollowly in the deathly silent basement.
What Morimoto Leona found most unbelievable were the black flames swirling around her.
They were like living creatures, precisely licking her expensive clothes. The fabric turned into fluttering grey butterflies in the dark firelight, scattering in all directions.
Yet, those flames, which could melt gold and corrode bone, felt only lukewarm when they touched her delicate skin, leaving not a single burn mark.
This level of control over power, refined to the absolute extreme, was far beyond her understanding, bringing a sense of bizarre dread that seeped into her very marrow.
"Now, let the game begin!" Kanjuro reached out and pulled the trembling Morimoto Leona, who was shaking with shock and fear, into his arms.
The next moment, unnameable sounds echoed within the sealed basement—the metallic friction of dragging chains, uncontrollable whimpers and sobs, and Kanjuro's...
To push this 'game' to its limit, Kanjuro once again used the power of the 'gospel of luke' from the dark bible.
He didn't stop time completely; instead, with supreme demonic power, he completely severed and distorted the flow of time in this underground space from the outside world.
Here, the hourglass of time seemed to be shaken violently. Seven days and seven nights passed in the blink of an eye, frantically cycling, compressing, and finally exhausting themselves.
When the distortion effect of time finally subsided, only a moment had passed outside, but inside, it felt as if seven whole days and nights of tribulation had gone by.
Morimoto Leona slumped on the cold floor. Her originally proud and exquisite face was now distorted beyond recognition, her long blonde hair matted with sweat and filth, clinging to her paper-pale cheeks.
Her gaze was vacant, the arrogance and sharpness that once resided in her pupils completely crushed, leaving only a chaotic void.
Her entire body emitted a nauseating stench, foam uncontrollably dripped from the corner of her mouth, and her breath was as weak as a candle in the wind, as if it would go out at any moment.
Yet, right on this brink of collapse, a burst of broken and frenzied laughter erupted from deep within her throat, mixed with whimpers, distorted and hair-raising.
"Master Kanjuro... I love you!! I love you to death... please... don't stop..." Her
voice was hoarse and dry, like an old bellows, yet it carried an unsettling, broken devotion and longing.
Kanjuro looked down at her from above, his lips curling into a cold, mocking arc. "What? Didn't you repeatedly claim to look down on men? Why are you so willing to be used as a dog by me now?"
From body to soul, he peeled back her defenses layer by layer and crushed her pride inch by inch. Even without relying on the deeper mental control powers of the dark bible, Kanjuro had completely destroyed and reconstructed her original mental world through these extreme methods alone.
Her personality had been glued back together in a twisted, sickly way.
"Men... are dogs... are a lowly species..."
She murmured incoherently, looking up at Kanjuro with a fanatical gaze, "But... Master Kanjuro, you are different... you are this world's... the most sacred and supreme existence in this world... I am willing... I am willing to become your most devout, most humble believer..."
Her logic was already a mess, her words jumbled, clearly showing she was no longer of sound mind, but her fanatical worship was beyond words.
Kanjuro let out a laugh, one that carried no warmth. He casually delivered another slap, the crisp sound especially piercing in the silent basement.
"Please! Please hit me harder, Master Kanjuro!!" Instead of pain or anger, Morimoto Leona's face flushed with a sickly crimson as if she had received a reward, begging excitedly, "I am... I am your exclusive slut, Master Kanjuro... belonging only to you..."
Even in Kanjuro's eyes, a very faint trace of surprise flickered.
Had she really been broken to this extent?
With a slight thought, that imperceptible spectral light flashed in his eyes again—the Eye of Truth opened silently, scanning the body that had already completely submitted at his feet.
The feedback was concise and direct: "Morimoto Leona, a slave with obvious personality flaws whose eyes only contain you. To the outside world, she can still maintain a cold and arrogant demeanor, but to you, she is willing to become a captive pet dog."
Kanjuro remained silent for a moment, then stopped looking at her. He neatly straightened his clothes, turned, and pushed open the basement door that isolated this place from the outside world.
Seeing this, Morimoto Leona struggled to crawl up almost instinctively. Ignoring her body's weakness and pain, she obediently picked up the tattered coat from the floor and barely draped it over herself to cover the mess.
Like a most loyal shadow, she followed closely behind him, stumbling yet persistent, her head bowed and eyes lowered—a completely different person from the previously overbearing queen.
"Clean your body," Kanjuro ordered coldly without looking back, as if speaking of a trivial matter that had nothing to do with him. "Also, remember, you and Morimoto Reina, from now on, are both my exclusive... slut assistants. Understand?"
Morimoto Leona immediately bowed, responding with her still hoarse but fanatical and pious voice, which even trembled slightly with excitement:
"Understood! Great Lord Kanjuro!"
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