Lewd System: Every Scream and Moan is EXP

Chapter 325 : Sword Saint Clarice

[Half an hour earlier]

Jax was dashing his way toward the prison tower that the hypnotized guard had guided him to. He spotted the place from a distance and the noises coming from it, the flashes of attack magic lighting up the windows, and the shattered glass raining down from upper floors all confirmed he was heading to the right location.

But before he could march his way in, a figure stepped into his path and that alone was enough to make him slow down.

A gorgeous beauty wearing light armor that fitted her curves so perfectly it looked custom-forged for the sole purpose of making combat look unfair to everyone else in the room.

She wore no helmet, which told him her race immediately — she was an elf, with the kind of face that belonged to a woman in her mid-twenties, though trying to guess an elf’s true age was a completely pointless game.

Their race was blessed with an immortal and unchanging youth that could easily hide centuries of life behind flawless skin.

Before Jax could even launch into his dramatic performance of a panicked loyal guard redirecting her toward the palace chaos, she raised her weapon directly at him.

"Who are you? And what is your goal?"

Jax felt something that was genuinely new to him as her voice alone was sending chills down his spine. And that was something that had never happened before. No matter how massive or overwhelmingly powerful his past enemies had been, Jax had never actually felt fear from someone standing in front of him.

So he knew instantly that she was not someone to be taken lightly.

He tried his act one final time. "I am merely a soldier of His Highness Damian who is spreading the news of the current situa—"

She cut him off without raising her voice. "Drop your act. I am no fool to fall for your words. I can clearly see the power you are carrying and the darkness that clings around you. So answer me honestly. Who are you?"

Jax smiled at that and removed his helmet, letting it drop to the ground. "My my, that is quite rude of you to come up with such hurtful accusations so quickly. ’Darkness’? That is a bit harsh, don’t you think?"

He placed a hand over his chest in mock offense. "I don’t know where you got that conclusion but I am really a saint doing good deeds all over the world. No, in fact across different worlds. Actually across different times of the world. So maybe you mistook my holiness for darkness?"

Clarice, the sword saint of the Heutrian Empire, didn’t blink. "So you prefer the route where I dismantle you first and ask questions later. So be it."

She charged. Jax had a grin spreading across his face as he unsheathed his sword to meet her but his senses screamed a warning that arrived too late because Clarice reached him in no time and was already executing her sword art, Petal Draw.

Jax didn’t even hear her footsteps before she appeared in his space and all he could track were the slashes coming at him from every conceivable angle. The threads of her blade left no opening for him to dodge as multiple sword strikes made it impossible to evade without losing something important.

The only thing he could do was click his tongue and protect his head.

Clarice walked past him after her strikes, spreading the fragrance of cherry blossoms through the air around him like a woman who had just finished a casual evening stroll rather than an assassination attempt.

She stood staring at the opposite side toward the civil war raging between thousands of warriors in the distance. Meanwhile Jax felt each of her slashes registering across his body and soon his stolen steel armor began falling off in pieces because Clarice had precisely aimed for every joint and strap holding it together.

Jax now stood without his armor along with fresh cuts and blood he had earned from the most dangerous woman currently staring at the chaos he had created.

She said without turning back. "So you have already made your move to corrupt the empire."

Then she turned with the same flat eyes that carried nothing except intent. "Let us make this quick. I simply cannot wait to hear what possible reason you have for starting a bloodbath that will consume the lives of millions of soldiers and innocent citizens alike."

Seeing her approach Jax was ready this time with both swords unsheathed and positioned. Her each sudden movement was leaving behind a mirror image of herself, making it nearly impossible to track which one was the real Clarice.

Jax was genuinely frustrated because he had no time for an interference and that too of this caliber.

He needed to check on the two students fighting inside the prison tower and fetch Tempris before sunset to hand her over to the demonic cult, or before that mysterious woman arrived and left without her.

And here he was locked in combat with a being who clearly wasn’t going to go down easily.

Driven by that frustration and the desperate need to end things quickly, Jax unleashed a massive sweeping strike with both blades. His swords cut perfectly through her mirrored afterimages but instead of blood the illusions merely burst into showers of harmless cherry blossom petals that drifted around him like confetti at his own funeral.

Before he could even recover his stance the real Clarice slipped flawlessly past his guard and leaned in close with her breath ghosting against his ear. "Now, let’s talk."

As she glided past him a sudden blinding agony erupted across his gut. He looked down and found a deep and precise slash carved across his abdomen where the exposed flesh was already aggressively changing colors as dark venomous veins spread rapidly from the wound outward.

Jax collapsed to his knees cursing her through gritted teeth as the searing pain overwhelmed everything.

[HP: 1,600 / 80,000]

He choked out through the agony. "What have you done to me?"

She replied while sheathing her sword with a casual flick. "Just a specialized poison. It will soon paralyze your entire body and strip away your conscious senses. It makes extracting information with magic much easier. I know fanatic cultists like you rarely confess their sins willingly."

Jax didn’t know what to do and he didn’t have the time to even come up with a strategy. That was when a very familiar and annoyingly smug voice spoke up inside his skull.

"My my, looks like it is finally my time to shine. Getting humbled so quickly by a little elf, are we, my loudmouthed host?" Echidna was practically vibrating with excitement.

Jax managed through the pain. "Wait, are you saying you can actually help me out of this?"

Echidna scoffed. "Please. A mortal swinging a piece of metal around is child’s play. However since I lack my physical body, the best I can do right now is channel my authority through yours."

Jax snapped back. "Then hurry up and do it before I die listening to you boast. And skip the part where you try to make me beg because we don’t have the time. I will thank you later and officially remove the useless tag from your name."

Echidna huffed. "Alright alright, I know you are running on fumes. I will hurry but listen closely because this is important — flooding your mortal body with my authority carries a very heavy price."

Jax didn’t hesitate. "I don’t care. Just do it."

Echidna sighed with the exasperation of a babysitter who had long given up on reasoning with her charge. "Don’t come crying to me later saying you weren’t warned. Now let us see, how much of my strength should we unlock?"

A pause as she assessed Clarice from behind Jax’s dying eyes.

"Against this little toothpick with a butter knife? Yes, five percent should be more than enough to completely toy with her."

Then her tone shifted into something that carried genuine weight. "Brace your core. My mana is about to flood in and it is going to burn. But you will survive.... Probably."

-x-X-x-

A/N: Quinton_Thrasher, Jared_Zimmer, Leo_Muhammad, Chris_Heil_0135, Outsxder, Nicholas_Nelson_6506, tony_adams_4787, Martijn_Wiersma_1870 and Matthew_Decker_4219 coming in with the golden tickets, genuinely grateful for each one of you 🙏🔥

(👍🏻ᴗ _ᴗ)👍🏻