Chapter 513
After a long, heated kiss, Shermaine’s clothes were disheveled.
Joshua murmured against her skin, “Sheary, once this is over, can I kill that woman?”
Shermaine shook her head. “No.”
Joshua nipped her earlobe. “She flirted with you.”
“She’s a woman.”
“She swings both ways.”
“Keep her alive. She’s too capable to waste.”
“Fine, then I’ll just cut off one of her hands.”
“Absolutely not.”
Joshua’s displeasure deepened. If not for Shermaine’s orders, he would’ve slit Ivy’s throat the moment she laid hands on Shermaine.
Bisexual men were common, but a woman who did the same? That was rare.
Shermaine didn’t care about Ivy’s preferences, only her skills. If swayed, Ivy could become Jasmine’s ally. After Shermaine and Joshua left, no one could guarantee Shirley wouldn’t betray their pact and target Jasmine. An extra shield was never wasted.
Noticing Joshua’s darkening mood, Shermaine soothed. “If Ivy refuses to yield later, you can kill her then.”
Grudgingly, Joshua relented.
An hour later, Ivy arrived at Breus Palace. Inside the meeting chamber, Judy sat at the center while several royal advisors took their seats on either side of the long table.
One advisor spoke, “What urgent matter brings us here today?”
Judy cut straight to the point. “Two weeks, and still no trace of Boa or Cain Reaper. We need a plan to lure them out.”
Passive waiting would only invite another ambush. Judy couldn’t afford another loss. Thus, every move now demanded precision.
Advisor Matias Allan spoke, “Princess Judy, didn’t you say they came for that little creature?”
The advisors knew Judy had captured something – a small, clever being locked in Sky Prison, the most secure facility in Summerbank.
It wasn’t a mutant, but it was intelligent, capable of breaching even four-dimensional space. Yet despite its value, it remained hostile, refusing to cooperate no matter the threats or bribes.
“Go on,” Judy gestured for Matias to continue.
“We can use it as bait to lure Boa and Cain Reaper out,” Matias said.
“How?”
“Simple. Announce its public execution under the charge of being an omen of disaster. If they are in Summerbank, they will come for it.”
“Good idea, but Boa and Cain Reaper are clever. Catching them won’t be easy.”
Using Apocalypse in the city was risky. Its destructive power was great, and civilian casualties were inevitable. Judy didn’t care about collateral damage, but if she failed to catch them and lost public support, the cost would be unacceptable.
Matias continued, “Princess Judy, I believe he could assist you.”
“Who?” Judy raised an eyebrow, intrigued.
Matias clapped his hands. “Mutant 1013, come in.”
The door opened, and a green-skinned, tailed creature with a human face and beastly body stepped in.
Seeing it, the other advisors frowned.
The mutant, a fusion of human and animal DNA, was one of their decades-long experiments. But genetic rejection remained a problem. When mutants lost control, they became berserk, slaughtering indiscriminately.
Matias said, “Princess Judy, this mutant is the Biological Science Department’s latest breakthrough. His speed and strength surpass any human, more than enough to handle Boa and Cain Reaper.”
One advisor hesitated. “But for decades, we’ve failed to stabilize their fused genes. If he goes berserk, we can’t stop him.”
“Not anymore,” Matias countered. “The experts have developed a serum. Inject it before he rampages, and he’ll calm instantly.”
The advisors exchanged glances. If true, this changed everything.
Unlike Apocalypse, mutants followed orders. They were unpredictable killing machines.
Judy noticed Ivy’s uncharacteristic silence. “Ivy, your thoughts?”
Under Control Soul Insect’s influence, Ivy reacted sluggishly. For a moment, her body tensed as if fighting the parasite’s grip, but resistance was futile. She finally said, “Princess Judy, I believe it’s feasible.”
Judy nodded. “You and Matias will oversee this.”
Matias frowned at Ivy’s shared authority, but he held his tongue. If this succeeded, he would claim the credit.
“Yes,” Matias and Ivy answered in unison.
Upon returning home, Ivy relayed every detail of the meeting to Shermaine.
Shermaine thought, ‘A mutant? The technology in the Kingdom of Xyperia is far more advanced, but the experiment must be brutal.
‘Fusing humans and animals with government backing? How many have died in these labs over the decades?
Now that I know their plan, the next move will be clear. The first to lose composure loses the game.’
“Get me the mutant’s files,” Shermaine ordered.
Ivy turned mechanically, returning moments later with a dossier. Her hand trembled as she extended it, but her will fought the insect’s control.
Shermaine yanked the dossier free. “Stop struggling. The Control Soul Insect obeys me. Unless I kill it, you’ll never break free.”
Though Ivy was under control, she wasn’t completely unconscious. Her fingers twitched. Her face contorted in silent fury. She hated how Shermaine’s cunning matched Judy’s warnings, hated the insect’s violation of her mind.
The next day, all of Summerbank knew that Judy would publicly execute a “monster” in three days. The creature was so dangerous that it devoured entire mountains of aura stones.
Yet when people saw the creature, disbelief spread. Caged in a glass prison, it was adorable, round, and utterly harmless-looking. But the thought of it swallowing a mountain’s aura stones, Xyperia’s vital resource, killed any sympathy.
Dave had woken up deep in the middle of last night. It was starving. Hallucinating, it saw a golden fried chicken. Mouth watering, it lunged, only to smack into the glass.
Pouting, Dave thought, ‘How much longer till Shermaine and Joshua find me?’