Absolute Depravity: Reincarnated with a lustful System-Chapter 248 - To Burn And To Freeze Over

Vanishing like the mist, Asmodia swept through the air before reforming her body far away from the new guardian. Looking right at it, her face contorted into a look of disgust. With countless muddy tentacles and bright red eyes scattered throughout its slimy body, Asmodia felt like throwing up.

"Atlas really needs some lessons on creation if this is what he came up with trying to replicate Lulu," she muttered to herself.

"As-Asmodia!" Screamed the keeper of time.

Slithering towards her polished tiles underneath into a mess of slimy slob. Disgusted once again, Asmodia pinched her nose shut and turned her head away from the monster.

"Goliathan!" Holding her hand towards the oncoming monster, she opened up a portal to the otherworld under its feet. "Get this monstrosity out of my sight!"

Before the monster could even fall into the ground, a burning hand of a giant grabbed the slug from within. Squeezing it tight, Goliathan, the tormentor, made the guardian squeal like a defeated dog. After its body went limp from being squeezed so tight, the keeper of time was pulled into the otherworld.

"Let the others have a limb or two as well!" Hollering at Goliathan to share the food, Asmodia closed the portal with a snap of her fingers.

Turning around, she scanned her surroundings once again to figure out where to start. However, as time went on and she couldn't be sure where the book with the future of the current timeline was, she scattered herself into enough clones to check every single book in her sight in that infinite hallway.

"B-seven shelve cleared nothing," looking down at the original from above the stairs, a clone of her informed Asmodia.

"F-two fifty shelve cleared, nothing," informed another from the far end of the library.

One after the others the clones scanned each and everybody while Asmodia kept walking deeper into the hallways and expanding the area that needed to be researched. With no end in sight, her patience was running out. On a usual day, she would've found the book by now, but for whatever reason, the book with the current timeline was nowhere to be found.

"Where the hell is it?!" She grumbled.

Looking back from over her shoulders, she couldn't see the entrance she'd come from anymore as both ends of the infinite hallway were now covered with deep fog.

"Looking for something?" A familiar voice called from behind.

Turning to the voice she saw a glimpse of a yukata fluttering through the air.

"Peeking into the future, wouldn't that be cheating? Not to mention blasphemy to the creator," the crude manly voice was one that she could easily figure out whom it belonged to.

"Inferno, how the hell did you get here?" She asked, looking all around her to spy him out. "You being here is no short of blasphemy either!"

Complaining to her brother, she finally noticed him sitting at a desk between two shelves on her right. Holding the book she was looking for in his hands, he lit it up in flames without saying a single more word.

"Don't!" Trying to take the book, she attempted to grab it with her invisible hands, but Inferno put up a burning aura around him that either burned everything or pushed them back from the pressure.

"I don't like cheaters, I thought you'd know it," he muttered, the shelves and books around him all burning to charr.

"You idiot, we need that to get rid of Atlas!" Asmodia complained, but Inferno was not at all bothered.

"Is that why the creator wiped your memories so you could just walk in here and read all possible pasts and futures?" Getting out of the chair, he began walking towards her. "You may be family, but the creator is our god, just like Atlas is to the people of this world. And to defy his command and snoop through, that's just an insult."

Making the burning aura disappear, he stood beside her and placed his hand on her shoulder. Glancing sideways at her brother, Asmodia had her teeth clenched tight as the only source of her supreme knowledge had now been turned to dust.

"Now back home, and help that puppet of yours to at least last a few minutes before he dies," with a smirk, he stared down at Asmodia for a while before walking through a dark portal that was obviously opened by Reya.

'Idiots…' Closing her eyes shut, Asmodia tried to collect her thoughts before heading back to the Curatos castle.

"I guess, it all relies on whatever plan Haruki has now," he muttered before jumping into an otherworld portal.

***

"Are you sure this will work?" A bit skeptical of Haruki's plan, Margarette couldn't help but ask.

"We'll have to see, won't we?" His hands clutched tight on the sapphire brooch, Haruki finally decided to use it for an ability he'd been holding back on. "If this really belongs to a dragon then it should be enough to put me physically on toe to toe with Inferno."

Out in the open garden, Haruki looked around at his companions anxiously waiting for him to go through with what he had in mind. Taking a deep breath, he relaxed his shoulder before finally channeling mana into his palm.

"Mimic Species: Frost Dragon!" A bright light of deep blue began beaming out through his fingers. "Aghhh!"

Having every fiber in his body being transformed, he could feel bones cracking as he was chilled to the very bones. Forced to step back from the sharp aura coming out of his body, each one of his companions were dragged further back away from him.

"Reju-Ah!" Before she could even attempt to heal him, Margarette was shot with a piece of ice flying towards her from Haruki's body.

"I-Is daddy okay?!" Asked Stella, clutching onto Fay's skirt.

"Wouldn't be the first time he's done something reckless…Don't worry," with that, she kept on watching the transformation until the blinding blue light finally died down completely.

Left behind with a layer of ice all over him, Haruki panted for a while before brushing it all off to reveal the dragon scales underneath. His incubus abilities had consumed the brooch to turn him into a dragonkin for as long as his body could handle.

"It worked," Haruki said, looking at Margarette with a smile.

Still panting from the first time changes that'd taken place in his physical form, Haruki stumbled over as he took just one step forward. Rushing closer to him, Asuka pulled back up on his feet.

"Master, if you're not feeling too good then please just undo the transformation," Asuka suggested, however, Haruki still had some stuff to try before turning back into an incubus. 𝙗𝙚𝒅𝒏𝒐𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"I can't, not before I test out the difference in shifting into a dragonkin and actually forcing my body to become one," slipping out of Asuka's grip, Haruki turned to Riley as well as Moriyana. "Help me test everything out."

Nodding back at him, the two agreed without question. With every step he took to simply get from the empty space to the training ground, Haruki could feel his body growing colder and colder. Despite that, instead of feeling frozen from the inside, he felt a jarring calm slowly taking over him.

"Alright," getting to the ground, Haruki stood before the two, ready to take on both Moriyana's magic and Riley's fencing abilities.

"Is Daddy going to be okay?" Stella asked once more as she saw him getting ready for the battle.

This time, however, before Fay could say much, Athena jumped into comfort the growing teen.

"We taught you healing magic recently, right? If Daddy gets hurt, he's relying on you, so be ready to cast the spell," saying that, she playfully ruffled Stella's hair.

Beaming bright at the thought of helping her adoptive father, Stella excitedly jumped up on her feet and nodded at Athena. Witnessing the brief exchange, Haruki turned back to look at the two standing before him. Ready with magic circles, thorny vines, and even an amalgam of illusion spells, Moriyana was more than ready. On the other hand, Riley had her body glowing a dark green glow from the effect of all the buffs she'd used on herself.

"Bring it," Haruki said, starting the fight.

Like a gust of stormy winds, Riley disappeared from the front in an instant, but the flow of leaves behind her let Haruki know where she was going. Feeling her presence right by him, he was just about to turn over to parry her attack, but Moriyana's thorny vines grabbed his legs from underneath him.

"Ha!" In a stabbing motion, Riley tried to hit Haruki with her saber, but the icy scales on his skin broke the tip of his blade. "What?!"

Taking advantage of her shock, Haruki swung his left hand to the side to smack her away, however, making use of wind magic she forced herself out of the trajectory of the attack.

"Fuc-" Stopping herself from swearing, Riley quickly glanced at Stella and shook her head. "I'm gonna use the potion blade sabers!"

Drawing the potion sabers from her hips, Riley quickly loaded them with weak poison to paralyze Haruki if possible.

"Freeze," freezing the vines on the ground, Haruki stomped his feet to make them all shatter like glass.

"Marionette Ballerina!" Not giving him any time to rest, Moriyana for the very first time in her life decided to make use of her mother's pets.

A bit surprised as he felt the presence of an otherworld creature, Haruki turned to look at Moriyana. Flying slightly above the ground, her fingers had a luminous pink string coming out of them. Attached to them on the other end was a humanoid doll with defined features and makeup. Lifting her long dark dress as courtesy, it bowed before Haruki as a colony of bats flew out of her dress.

"Distracted?" Haruki heard Riley whisper from behind.

His eyes widened in shock, as he noticed her about to stab him in the back of his neck with her sabers. In his desperation, Haruki instinctively squeezed his body inward and accidentally created a blade of ice coming off his spine that stabbed Riley through the chest.

"Riley! No!" Screamed Margarette and a wave of gasps escaped everyone's lips.