He saw nothing. Felt nothing. As far as he could tell, nothing had changed.

But the looks on their faces...

Bella was still staring at him like he'd just sprouted a second head. Her tail was puffed up to twice its normal size, trembling violently.

And Kaida—

Kaida looked like she'd seen a ghost.

"You didn't see it?" she whispered.

"See 'what'?"

Before she could answer, the purple light 'pulsed' one final time—bright enough to make all three of them shield their eyes—and then it was gone.

The magic circle vanished. The glowing runes faded. The oppressive energy that had been pressing down on them lifted like a weight removed from their chests.

Silence.

For a long moment, nobody moved.

And then Bella gasped.

"The wall..."

They all turned.

Where solid stone had been moments before, there was now an opening. A doorway carved into the rock, perfectly rectangular, revealing a passage beyond.

Dark fog rolled out from the opening, thick and black, spilling across the ground like liquid shadow. It moved 'wrong'—against gravity, against logic—creeping toward them with almost deliberate intent.

And beyond the fog...

Light.

Faint, but unmistakable. Firelight? Daylight? Viktor couldn't tell. But it was there. A path. An 'exit'.

"Did that just..." Kaida's voice trailed off.

Bella, still hugging her chest with both arms—but this time just out of shock, not because she was naked—blinked rapidly. Her clothes were clinging to her, but everything was covered. Her voice came out small, uncertain. "N-nothing happened... right?"

Viktor let out a sharp laugh despite himself. "Of course nothing happened."

The words left his mouth before he could think better of them. Some part of him—the part that had survived eleven years in a death world through sheer stubborn denial—just couldn't accept what he'd seen. Or what 'they'd' seen.

He took a step toward the newly revealed doorway—

And froze.

Something was forming around his left wrist.

Purple light, coalescing into solid matter. Links of chain, glowing and ethereal, wrapping around his skin in tight coils.

"What the—"

Kaida gasped. Viktor's head snapped toward her.

She was staring at her own left wrist, where an identical chain was materializing. The purple light pulsed in rhythm with his—like a heartbeat—and then the two chains 'connected'.

A length of glowing purple chain, roughly two meters long, linking Viktor's left hand to Kaida's left hand.

Both of them stared.

"What are you doing?!" Kaida yelped, yanking her arm back instinctively.

The chain pulled taut—but didn't break. Instead, it yanked Viktor forward, nearly making him stumble.

"Like hell 'I' know!" Viktor shot back, pulling his own arm to test the chain's strength. It held firm, solid as steel despite its ethereal glow. "It's your cursed mouth that said 'nothing happened'!"

"MY MOUTH?!"

And then—

A voice echoed through the cavern.

Deep. Ancient. 'Wrong'.

Not spoken aloud, but resonating directly in their minds, vibrating through their bones.

''"THIS IS THE FIRST OF THE SEVENTH FRAGMENTS LEFT BEHIND."''

All three of them froze.

''"WITH THE ARRIVAL OF THE INCARNATION, THE FRAGMENT IS BEING FREED."''

Viktor's blood ran cold. Incarnation? Him?

''"AND AS PER THE REMNANT POWER OF ATTORNEY..."''

'Attor... Attorney?' The demon from his dream said the same thing when gave him his tail. The power he'd accepted without understanding what it meant.

''"THIS GROUND, TREATED AS SACRED BETHROTHAL SITE, HATH WITNESSED AND ACCEPTED THE PHYSICAL INTIMACY BETWEEN THE HONORED ONE AND HIS WOMAN."''

Kaida's face went white.

''"THE BOND IS RECOGNIZED. THE CHAIN IS FORGED. TO SEVER THIS BINDING..."''

A pause. Heavy. Oppressive.

''"CONSUMMATE."''

The voice faded, leaving only ringing silence in its wake.

Bella's mouth opened. Closed. Opened again. "What... what just happened?"

Kaida's eye twitched violently. Her entire face was red—not from embarrassment this time, but from sheer, unbridled 'rage'. "What. 'What'. WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!"

Viktor blinked, his mind racing. Physical intimacy. Bethrothal ritual. Remnant power of Attor.

And then it clicked.

The fall. When he'd landed on Kaida. His mouth on her breast. The suction. The way her nipple had—

Oh.

'Oh no.'

His tail. The tail he'd gotten from that demon. The "Power of Attor" or whatever the hell it was called. It must have left some kind of... residue. Some kind of 'claim' on this place. And when his mouth touched her—when he'd accidentally sucked on her nipple—

The ground had interpreted it as a sacred betrothal.

Viktor turned slowly toward Kaida, whose expression was rapidly cycling through seventeen different emotions, none of them good.

"Now your mouth is not the evil here," Viktor said carefully.

Kaida's eye twitched again.

His tail swayed behind him as he breathed deeply, then met her furious gaze. "It seems... it was 'my' mouth that did this."

Kaida's hands clenched into fists. The chain around her wrist glowed faintly as her muscles tensed, her bare shoulders rising with each angry breath. "Did. 'What'."

Viktor gestured vaguely at the glowing chain between them. "When I... fell. On you. My mouth... may have... claimed you?"

Silence.

Dead, suffocating silence.

And then—

"DID WHAT?!"

Kaida's scream echoed through the entire cavern, loud enough to shake loose more dust from the ceiling. Her face was crimson, veins bulging at her temples, her entire body trembling with barely contained fury. The little skirt-guard on her hips bounced with each furious step as she advanced, making her look like some half-dressed war goddess out of a nightmare.

Viktor winced. "Look, I didn't 'mean' to—"

"YOU SUCKED ON MY BREAST AND NOW WE'RE 'MARRIED'?!"

"I don't think 'married' is the right—"

''WHAT ELSE WOULD YOU CALL IT?!''

Bella, hands clutching the hem of her tunic now instead of her chest, looked between them with wide, terrified eyes. Her tail had wrapped around her waist so tightly it looked painful. "C-consummate means..."

Viktor's tail swished nervously. "Yeah."

"And to break the chain..."

"Yeah."

Kaida's eye twitched so violently it looked like she might actually have a stroke. Her mouth opened. Closed. Opened again.

And then she lunged at him.

"I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL ACTUALLY KILL YOU THIS TIME!"

The chain yanked taut as Viktor scrambled backward, nearly tripping over his own feet. His bare heels slipped on the damp stone, and Kaida's hips jerked forward with the pull, her mini-jeans snapping against her thighs. "Wait—Kaida—let's talk about this—!"

"TALK?! 'TALK'?! YOU WANT TO 'TALK' ABOUT HOW YOUR PERVERTED DEMON MOUTH JUST ENGAGED US?!"

"IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!"

"EVERYTHING WITH YOU IS AN 'ACCIDENT'!"

Bella watched the chaos unfold, her golden eyes reflecting the fading purple glow of the chain. Her voice came out barely above a whisper, lost beneath Kaida's screaming.

"...Consummate..."

Bella's whisper hung in the air like a ghost.

Bella stood there frozen, her tunic plastered to her curves but fully covering her, arms crossed tight more out of nerves than modesty now. Her golden eyes darted between the glowing purple chain yanking Viktor and Kaida around like deranged puppets.

Kaida's screams bounced off the cavern walls, her free hand swinging wild haymakers that Viktor barely dodged, the chain rattling with every tug. The short denim at her hips kept riding up with each movement, flashing the dangerous curve of her ass before snapping back down. "You demon-tainted pervert! I'll rip that tail off and shove it up your—"

"Kaida, calm your tits!" Viktor yelped, ducking another swing, his face a mix of panic and that stupid cocky grin he got when shit hit the fan. "It's not like I planned to suck-start a marriage ritual!"

Their bodies slammed together mid-scuffle—Kaida's bare back hitting Viktor's chest as the chain pulled her off-balance.

She twisted, knee driving up toward his gut, but he twisted just in time, grabbing her chained wrist with his free hand. Her hips crashed into his, her mini-jeans bouncing off his thigh with a soft slap.

For a split second, they were locked face-to-face, heaving breaths mixing, her glare hot enough to melt steel.

Bella's ears twitched. Something twisted in her gut watching them—close, too close, bodies pressed despite the fight.

'Consummate.' The word echoed in her head like a curse. She knew what it meant.

'Sigh... what am I even sad about?'

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