Lara heard a voice, a voice she hoped she would never hear again. It was him, it was Zack... And his name, his voice, his presence brought back memories she wished were forgotten forever.

Many years before, in her small and forgotten village....

"What happened?" Lara asked in a gentle tone.

In front of her stood her childhood friend: a small boy with beautiful green eyes filled with tears. The boy had a bruise on his cheek, another on his knee, and his clothes were completely dirty.

At the time, Lara was only 13 years old and still lived in the Rimefang Village, and she had just been selected as the sacred virgin. And that would also be her last year in that place, though she didn’t know it yet.

Still visibly shaken by what had happened, the boy hesitated to answer the question. Perhaps he didn’t want to involve his friend in his problems.

Everyone knew that Lara had a strong sense of justice and always did everything she could to help those around her. Perhaps he feared that involving her would only get her hurt.

"Zey," she called the boy by the affectionate nickname she had given him, "you know you can trust me. Tell me what happened. Did someone hit you?"

Zey finally gave in, and after taking a deep breath, he began to explain what had happened that morning. According to him, it all started when he was on his way to his lessons, but accidentally bumped into one of the older boys from the Ice-Wolf clan.

It wasn’t the first time he had trouble with the seniors. For some reason, they enjoyed picking on Zey, labeling him as a coward. People hated him because of his system nature. And, of course, the boy, still too weak, could do little to defend himself from it.

But that day had been worse. Zey couldn’t hold back his tears as he explained that his precious sketchbook had been taken from him. Apparently, the older boys thought his drawings were funny and pathetic.

"They... they were going to destroy my sketchbook, so I..." he said through tears. As he recalled it, wanting to protect what was most precious to him, the boy did something completely out of character: he fought back.

Zey knew that retaliating would only make things worse, making those guys even angrier at him, but he couldn’t help it; he simply couldn’t take it anymore, and that was the last straw.

"Those cowards," Lara growled upon hearing the story, anger flashing in her eyes. "Do you know where they are now? Why didn’t you tell me about this sooner? I would’ve dealt with them long ago if I had known."

The boy didn’t answer most of her questions, but he still guided his protector to the place where he knew the boys would be.

It was an abandoned and forgotten warehouse in the poorest part of the village limits. Many youths liked to use that place to engage in activities they couldn’t do in the middle of the settlement.

Without thinking much, the young and reckless Lara stormed forward, kicking the door open with force.

Back then, she could use the full potential of her system, which made her incredibly powerful. It was hard to imagine anyone could defeat her, not even the older students.

Fueled by a burning desire to protect those around her, she confronted the arrogant and cowardly men. She simply couldn’t forgive someone who preyed on the weak to feel better about themselves. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

The girl’s confidence was well-founded, and with her overwhelming strength, she managed to take on three older boys on her own. It could have been a story with a happy ending, where the poor victim of bullying was saved.

That is, if there had been a victim.

And that was when Zey, in the way he had always loved, stabbed the girl in the back. Then, he used his powers to destabilize her mind.

Lara was special because she was the Goddess’s Vassal.

She actually had Elyndra protection. And the power of being her vassal, fueled entirely by her unyielding faith and her strict vow as a sacred virgin to the Goddess, made her almost invincible.

But it had one weakness: if her mind was broken, if she had doubts, she wouldn’t be able to use her full power.

And, when the very person she sought to protect betrayed her, offering her purity to be defiled by monsters, Lara’s spirit shattered. She felt the Goddess’s light vanish from her soul, and from that moment on, it seemed her true power would never return.

Wounded, she still tried to fight back, but the numerical disadvantage and the bleeding gradually overpowered her. To make matters worse, even more seniors joined the horrifying scene.

As promised, Zey handed over the voluptuous young woman to the clan’s future leaders. Her striking curves and status as a sacred virgin made her a target. And by doing that, Zey secured his place in their elite ranks of the ice wolf clan,

The others drew closer, forming a scene of terror.

Lara managed to kick one of them away, screaming desperately for help, her cries echoing with fear and a deep trauma being carved into her soul.

Again, those disgusting hands touched her, but it was at that moment she was saved. Luckily, a powerful warrior was passing by and heard her screams.

The young men were arrested, and...

At that moment, Lara felt a sharp pain in her head, as though her memories were about to be rewritten.

The only reason she didn’t break that day was that, in the last moment, she had been saved. Knowing this, Zack knew exactly what needed to be done to break that woman properly.

After she was forced to live through an unimaginable nightmare in her mind, her ego would finally be shattered. And with that, the boy could use his abilities to mold the woman’s mind however he pleased.

She would become a loyal puppet, his gift to Gut. With this, the boy would grow even closer to the ice wolf clan and guarantee his future. He would never again be looked down on or bullied.

Zack watched the fight unfold from the shadows with a cold, calculating smile. He had known from the start that Gut was an arrogant fool. He fully expected the evaluator to be pushed to the brink by Lara’s raw power.

That was always part of his plan. Zack would swoop in at the last second, playing the loyal savior to secure Gut’s absolute trust.

And in the near future, it would be incredibly easy to usurp him and take his position. After all, the man was completely incompetent, at best. Gut was nothing more than a glorified breeding bull.

Waiting for the perfect opening, Zack finally made his move.

Just as Lara was about to deliver the final blow, he struck. The dagger sank deep into her back, forcing her to the ground. As she collapsed, coughing up blood, Zack stepped over her.

He reached down, placing his cold hand firmly on the back of her head. Channeling his unique skills, he began to forcefully invade her consciousness, intent on breaking her mind completely.

Zack wanted to plunge her back into the darkest depths of that abandoned warehouse, letting the nightmare play out to the very end until her ego was permanently shattered.

But the moment his mana pierced her mind and Lara snapped out of her hypnotic trance, her body trembled with power.

"Fuck..." Zack murmured, realizing something was wrong.

He reacted instantly, lunging forward with his blade to kill her quickly, before she could fully recover. It would be safer to finish her now than risk awakening her full power.

But a certain little fairy threw herself between them, blocking his strike and buying her a few precious seconds, before ’dying’ once again.

Shin had a bad feeling that things might go wrong, so he sent his fairy ahead to buy some time. Soon after, he rushed into the scene himself.

His grip around the sword hilt tightened, and the spikes surged, sucking his blood ferociously. The blade shimmered happily, hoping for a battle.

"Agh!" Shin gasped as the pain coursed through his body. The more power he borrowed from the Obsidian Decapitator, the stronger the toll was on his body.

Still, he made a clean cut, forcing Zack to step away, taken by surprise by the sudden attack.

Then Shin grabbed Lara, who had fallen on the ground. He pulled her body closer, pressing her against him, while scanning his surroundings.

He noticed the dog girl was shining, but he had no idea what the reason behind it could be. And, aside from that, he knew very little about the situation.

With Lilel temporarily dead, he also couldn’t ask her for information.

Still, he focused his attention on his enemies, dodging an ice attack coming from Gut. At the same time, he parried Zack’s dagger, as both of them advanced to kill him.

Shin was strong, insanely strong for a mere newcomer, but how could he face two combatants who had been born and raised inside the tower?