Cucking The Demon King
Chapter 105: Emma’s worry

Chapter 105: Emma’s worry

Liam’s eyes flickered over Jaegel’s stats, and he couldn’t help but feel disappointed.

Aside from his magic power and mana pool, the rest of his stats were terrible.

His strength and agility were barely above average, his stamina was pathetic, and his constitution was laughably weak. It was no wonder he had crumbled under the weight of Liam’s pressure so easily.

But the real kicker?

His charm.

Liam almost did a double take.

’One?’ He thought, his brows raising in surprise.

The man’s charm stat was literally one.

Liam had never seen anything like it before. He doubted even monsters had a charm stat of one.

But considering how ugly and rotten Jaegel looked—his skin pale and sickly, his single large eye twitching nervously, and the long, slimy tongue dangling from his mouth—it wasn’t all that shocking.

Liam exhaled through his nose, closing out the status screen.

Jaegel’s blessing was undoubtedly powerful, but with such weak physical attributes, it was no wonder he was struggling.

His ability allowed him to create and control a Dark Domain, but against someone like Liam—who could completely nullify his advantage—he was basically powerless.

Liam’s gaze slowly drifted downward, landing on Jaegel’s wrist.

A black bracelet coiled tightly around it, pulsing faintly with mana.

’So he uses artifacts to boost his strength,’ Liam thought, narrowing his eyes.

His gaze shifted to Jaegel’s boots.

They, too, were artefacts, glowing with faint magical inscriptions. A quick analysis told Liam their function—they doubled his speed.

’That explains how he was keeping up earlier,’ Liam mused. ’But it’s also draining his mana.’

The thin streams of mana leaking from both the bracelet and the boots confirmed it. These artefacts were powerful, but they came with a cost.

And now that Jaegel’s mana was critically low, they were bleeding him dry.

Liam clicked his tongue in annoyance.

He felt like the heretic’s idea of strengthening himself was stupid, but it wasn’t really his business to begin with.

He shifted his gaze, looking at the darkness still lingering around them. His face twisted into a frown.

"This domain is pointless now," Liam said coldly. "Take it down."

Jaegel shuddered.

His heart pounded, but he didn’t hesitate.

With a trembling breath, he raised his remaining hand and dispelled the domain.

The darkness lurched, then shrank back at an alarming speed. The heavy, suffocating pressure that had filled the space vanished instantly.

What was left—

Liam’s expression darkened.

A filthy, stinking cave stretched before him, barely illuminated by the faint light leaking in through cracks in the stone.

His nose wrinkled.

The overwhelming stench of rotting waste filled the air.

His eyes scanned the space, and he immediately spotted them.

Dark, dried stains of feces clung to the ground, smeared into the dirt like someone had stepped on them repeatedly.

Pools of urine were scattered across the floor, soaking into rags that were tossed carelessly against the walls.

Liam’s face twisted in disgust.

Jaegel lowered his head in shame, only now realizing the absolute filth he was kneeling in.

His knees had sunk into his own excrement.

His face twitched, his stomach twisting in embarrassment.

Liam’s gaze drifted to him, and he stiffened.

Jaegel had another pile of dried feces beneath his other knee.

Liam’s disgust intensified.

This was where Jaegel lived?

He didn’t just hide in this cave.

He slept here.

He ate here.

And yet, he had never bothered to clean a single thing.

The rags hanging from the ceiling were tattered, stiff with filth. The air reeked of decay and waste.

Even the walls had smudges of something unidentifiable, stains that had long since dried and settled into the cracks.

Liam’s frown deepened.

’How disgusting.’ He thought, not expecting the heretic to be even more dirtier than his appearance.

He didn’t even try to hide his revulsion.

His fingers twitched on the hilt of his sword.

For a brief moment, he seriously considered just chopping off Jaegel’s head.

The sheer filth surrounding him made him feel tainted just by standing in the same place.

Jaegel noticed his expression and swallowed hard.

Liam could see the fear flashing in his larger, yellowish eye.

Without needing any one to tell him, Jaegel understood exactly how close he was to dying right now.

He only wished inwardly Liam didn’t execute him on the spot.

Though he usually lived in the cave, it was always within his domain, where he felt invincible.

He couldn’t remember the last time he took it down, and simply released whatever waste he wanted to without caring for the real surroundings of the cave.

He never expected to release the domain in front of another person, talkless of an enemy.

But now that he did, he felt naked, like his disgusting secret was fully exposed to the world.

Liam exhaled sharply, forcing himself to calm down.

He couldn’t kill him, at least not yet.

The heretic was the only one knew where Emma and the other two girls were, and killing him could mean losing them forever.

For now—

He would let him live.

But only until he outlived his usefulness.

Liam’s gaze flickered back to Jaegel. "Did you free the girls from your domain?"

Jaegel nodded quickly, his body still trembling. "Y-Yes! I deactivated all my domains at once. There are no active domains anymore."

Liam narrowed his eyes, scanning the man’s face for any signs of deception. But Jaegel didn’t seem to be lying. He was too terrified to even think about playing games.

Liam exhaled sharply, looking off into the distance.

I’ll have to trust them to protect themselves—at least until I find them.

His jaw tightened.

He didn’t like it. He didn’t like leaving their safety to chance. But there was nothing else he could do right now.

His fingers twitched on the hilt of his sword as he turned his attention back to Jaegel.

"Lead me to them," he ordered, his voice low and sharp.

Jaegel swallowed hard and nodded rapidly. His body shook as he forced himself to stand. His knees nearly buckled, but he pushed forward, leading the way out of the cave.

*

A few minutes ago...

Emma gnashed her teeth, her sharp breaths echoing through the suffocating darkness.

Her eyes darted around, searching desperately for something—anything—but there was nothing. No movement, no sound. Just an endless void.

The darkness stretched in all directions, thick and absolute. It felt like it was alive, pressing down on her, coiling around her like an invisible predator.

Beside her, Uti hovered, its shimmering body flickering like a dying ember.

Even its golden glow—usually so vibrant—was being swallowed whole by the surrounding blackness.

Emma clenched her fists.

’I’m running low on mana...’ She thought, panting uncontrollably.

Her legs wobbled beneath her, exhaustion gnawing at her strength.

She couldn’t tell how much mana she had left, but she was sure it was already below half.

This place—it was draining her.

It was another ability of Jaegel’s dark domain.

She could feel it, sapping away at her mana bit by bit.

Her entire body felt heavier, her breathing more labored.

She had learned something infuriating about this place.

None of the mana absorbed by the domain returned to the heretic.

It wasn’t feeding his strength.

If they did, she could be able to feel them converging at one spot.

They were simply being dispersed into the surroundings, while they would be absorbed back into the air.

It was nothing but pure suppression—an ability designed solely to weaken and exhaust anything caught inside.

Her jaw tightened in frustration.

She was certain the heretic was behind this.

That man she saw in the projection—he had to be the one responsible.

And that thought terrified her.

Not for herself.

But for the others.

’Where could they be?’ She thought.

She hadn’t seen anyone else since she was teleported here.

There was no sight of the other two girls who walked into the cave with her—Cynthia and Lela.

Not even—

Her stomach twisted painfully.

Not even Liam.

Her hands shook at her sides.

Were they... were they dead?

Had they been kidnapped?

Was she the only one left?

Her thoughts raced, panic threatening to consume her whole.

But then, that wasn’t what scared her the most.

What truly made her heart hammer against her ribs—what truly made her fear the worst—

Was the thought of what might have happened to Liam.

The poor guy didn’t even have a blessing, neither did he have any supernatural power to protect himself or fight back.

He doesn’t have a blessing...

There was no way he could survive an enemy like this.

’How is he supposed to—’ Emma’s fists clenched tightly, her breath coming in ragged gasps.

She was the one supposed to protect them, the so called strongest student in the academy.

However, she failed, barely able to do anything.

Unbeknownst to her—

Her assumption about Liam was far from correct.

Suddenly, the darkness around her dispersed, vanishing into thin dark particles.

’What?!’ She thought, her eyes widening in shock.

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