Primordial Villain with a Slave Harem

Chapter 1410  Refusal of Acceptance

Quinlan had his plan already set in stone.

Conquer Iskaris first. Escape the sealed continent by unearthing whatever forced them to stay inside. Then came Thalorind itself. Explore the numerous continents. Meet the factions. Observe, study, and attain new spells, fighting styles, classes, rituals - all that could be attained. He wanted to grow as powerful as possible before he even had to think about these damned concept seeds and laws and goddess business. In Quinlan's head, he was way out of his league when it came to the matter of the divine. He simply had to run away and attain strength at a quick enough pace to grow strong enough to actually do something about both the seeds and the gods before he was consumed by them.

Only once he conquered Thalorind and attained all he could from the mortal world would he revisit the seed and decide how to approach it safely.

That had been the plan.

Then Sel'Ashra had made her move.

The Withered Flame's invasion had been overwhelming. A pressure that slid along the corruption seed like a hand finding a familiar grip. She had not entered his soul realm fully, but she did not need to. The seed was enough. An anchor. A point of contact.

A god of corruption reaching out to him through corruption itself.

Quinlan's fists tightened at the memory.

He had hoped Lilyanna could teach him how to get rid of that connection. How to shield himself properly. How to deny Sel'Ashra any future access before things escalated. He didn't know what would happen if she invaded again, with more information about Rosie and Mimi than she did before.

Now, it was possible she'd come with something he could not respond to, and that scared Quinlan.

That was one of the main reasons he was rushing to hit level 50 and enter the trial - Lilyanna proposed they talk, and Quinlan had high hopes for that interaction.

But that wasn't what happened.

Instead of offering her aid, Lilyanna had clicked her fingers and removed him from the board, tore him away from his mothers and the other primordials.

She kidnapped him.

Quinlan smiled faintly, but there was no humor in those swirling elemental eyes of his.

"As far as I'm concerned, she attacked me, and I'm in great danger."

Mimi glanced up at the sky. "Are… are we doing it? For real?"

"Yes," Quinlan answered without pause. "I refuse to let her do with me as she wants. We're fighting back, Mimi. And against a god, using my spells will be futile. This is the only way to protect myself."

Mimi swallowed, then nodded hard enough that her short hair bounced.

"Okay! We fight back against the hostile goddesses!"

She floated closer to the tree, hands trembling as she placed them against the bark. The tree responded immediately with its surface warming under her touch as lines of light traced outward along its structure. The corruption seed reacted at once, thrashing harder, pressure spiking through the soul realm in violent waves that made the air itself feel dense.

Quinlan moved with it.

His focus narrowed until the rest of the soul realm faded to the edges of his awareness. The seed filled his vision, a mass of compacted influence and hunger lodged beside the elemental seed like a parasite waiting for a heartbeat to latch onto. He could feel how tightly it had been bound, how many layers of restraint Rosie and Mimi had stacked over it over time.

And he could feel how fragile those restraints actually were.

"Mimi," Quinlan said evenly, though his jaw was already set, knowing he was taking a massive gamble. "Slowly. Ease your hold. Don't pull away all at once."

"I know! Be ready, Scary Uncle! This will hurt a lot! You must not submit!"

Just like that, her grip loosened by degrees.

The effect was immediate and violent.

The corruption seed surged, its surface splitting into jagged channels as power bled outward. The soul realm shook, the tree groaning under the sudden strain as dark pressure rolled across the space like a tide breaking loose.

Quinlan's body reacted instantly.

His teeth clenched as heat flooded his chest, sharp and invasive, driving straight through muscle and bone. His breath hitched as his heart stuttered, then slammed back into rhythm with punishing force.

He did not pull away.

He reached for the seed.

The moment his awareness made contact, the concept exploded into him like a parasite finding purchase. The sensation tore through his senses, raw and overwhelming, flooding his nerves with feedback that burned and crushed at the same time. His vision fractured, layers of perception stacking over one another as corrupted influence tried to overwrite his structure.

Pain tore through him hard enough that his veins popped, but he remained quiet.

"Rosie, Mimi… Protect them…" Quinlan whispered through extreme agony. The pair reacted instantly, latching onto the power that came from Mimi's tree. Their influence expanded, wrapping around Ayame, Kitsara, Seraphiel, Vex, and the rest, forming a layered barrier that pushed back against the corrupted backlash of the released seed.

"Yes!" Rosie snapped. "Hold it there!"

The shield groaned but held.

Quinlan barely noticed.

He was too busy fighting for control against the storm he had unleashed.

The power of corruption tore everything in his body apart. It forced itself through every channel it could find, ripping through internal pathways that had never been meant to carry that much conceptual weight. His muscles seized as corrupted energy flooded his physical vessel, tearing at tissue and bone with brutal disregard.

His vision went white, and he felt his body convulsing as if struck by constant, internal stabs aimed at his most important organs. Blood filled his mouth as capillaries ruptured under the strain. But through it all, he refused to make a single sound that the Goddess might hear. He didn't know how the prison barrier or whatever it was worked. He couldn't hear what was going on outside, but maybe the same was not true in reverse.

Thus, through the hardest-fought restraint he'd ever managed, Quinlan remained muted in his overwhelming pain.

Alongside his rising agony, so, too, did his power climb.

He felt it in the way the barrier around him began to warp, but he pulled back before Lilyanna might notice. He felt it in the soul realm as his awareness expanded, corrupted influence spreading through him and bending to his will through sheer force of intent.

But control slipped with every second.