Deviant: No Longer Human

"Wh—Cough, cough!" Seraphine sputtered, wine spilling over her lips and cascading down her front, staining her skin and clothes in a rivulet of red. Wang Xiao\'s gaze remained fixed on her, his face a mask of stoic inquiry, as she struggled for air.

"Could you not broach such topics without warning?" Seraphine gasped out, her cheeks burning with a flush from the alcohol and her sudden fit, her eyes darting away in a mix of anger and embarrassment.

Wang Xiao simply shrugged, "I was merely curious."

Seraphine found herself at a loss for words, her frustration growing.

Her mind raced, unable to untangle his line of questioning. With a deep, resigned sigh, she sought solace in the wine, its bitter taste a sharp contrast to her swirling thoughts.

"I\'ll take that as a yes," Wang Xiao murmured, almost to himself, as he turned his gaze back to the dwindling daylight.

The evening had crept in, the sun\'s last embrace painting the sky in strokes of orange and purple, the world bathed in the soft glow of twilight.

Beside him, the continuous sound of Seraphine gulping down wine, bottle after bottle, filled the air.

Wang Xiao could only describe her actions as a dance with death.

It seemed she had already accepted her fate, each sip of wine a deliberate step towards the end she had seemingly resigned herself to.

In an ideal world, had Josephine possessed the cunning and guile of her mother, Seraphine could have masterfully orchestrated the young woman as a pawn to sway Wang Xiao, weaving a maze of manipulation that might have tipped the scales in their favor.

Yet, witnessing the unguarded, lovesick expression painting Josephine\'s face, Seraphine reluctantly abandoned such schemes.

The realization struck her with the force of a cold wave; her daughter\'s innocent heart was an unforeseen chink in their armor, not the weapon she had hoped for.

Now, with her aspirations crumbling around her, Seraphine\'s strategy shifted towards isolation of her foes.

By pairing Josephine with Wang Xiao, she aimed to simplify the battlefield, focusing her efforts on a singular, formidable adversary—Guardian Asmodeous.

Of course, the initial plan to deliver Josephine into Asmodeous\'s clutches, a ploy designed to secure an alliance or perhaps a powerful bargaining chip, crumbled to dust the moment Wang Xiao decimated his ranks.

The chessboard had been upended, and Seraphine found herself scrambling for a new strategy.

This entire endeavor was a gamble from the start. Seraphine had envisioned not just safeguarding her daughter but also securing Wang Xiao as an ally.

Together, they would mount a defense against Asmodeous, and their nation would rise, like a phoenix, from the ashes, stronger and more glorious than ever before.

She had dreamt of a future where their combined might would forge a realm unrivaled in power and prosperity.

Yet, as the layers of her strategy peeled away, revealing the fragility at its core, Seraphine confronted a harsh truth.

The gamble, a dizzying leap into the abyss of political intrigue and familial bonds, was flawed from inception.

The harsh light of reality laid bare the stark improbability of victory in such a gamble, illuminating the oversight that would be her undoing.

She had failed to anticipate that Josephine, her daughter, rather than being the linchpin of their survival, would become their most weakest point.

"You are cold, but I find it rather... Entertaining," Wang Xiao murmured, more to himself than to anyone else. Yet, his words, deliberate and pointed, floated through the air, reaching Seraphine\'s ears like a mocking serenade, a deliberate provocation.

"Are you mocking me?" she shot back, her eyes narrowing into slits, a predator sizing up its unwitting prey.

Wang Xiao, undeterred and ignoring her ire completely, retorted, "You\'re the one making a mockery of yourself, not I."

Seraphine was momentarily struck silent, her usual quick wit failing her. But then, a sly, cunning grin crept across her face, transforming her silence into a weapon of its own. "And how, pray tell, would you feel if the tables were turned and someone made you the butt of their joke?" she countered, her voice dripping with mock curiosity, a challenge hanging between them like a drawn sword.

Wang Xiao didn\'t miss a beat, his confidence unshaken. "They wouldn\'t dare. Unless, of course, they\'re as inebriated as you are now. But sobering up would quickly remind them of the greatness before them," he declared, his smile broadening into a smug, triumphant display, as if he had already won an unseen battle between them.

Seraphine is rendered speechless once more, her retort dying on her lips.

"Your smile—it looks like an—" Seraphine\'s comeback is cut short, her brewing frown frozen as her eyes suddenly widen in shock.

!!!

Splash!!

As Wang Xiao\'s grip tightened, Seraphine\'s world abruptly plunged into silence but for the muffled gurgle of water enveloping her.

The shock of cold water against her skin was immediate, a stark, numbing contrast to the heated exchange moments before.

Glub, glub, glub—her desperate attempts to speak were nothing more than bubbles racing to the pool\'s surface, her words lost in a watery abyss.

Panic spiraled within her, a fierce thrumming in her chest, as she struggled against Wang Xiao\'s iron hold.

\'I-I can\'t... breathe...\' Her mind screamed in silence, a cacophony of thoughts clashing with the primal urge to survive. \'This can\'t be how I...—\'

Suddenly, the pressure vanished. Air! Seraphine\'s head broke the surface, and she inhaled sharply, a gasping intake that was part relief, part painful reintroduction to the world of the living.

Cough, cough—her body convulsed, rejecting the water she\'d swallowed.

"Why?" she choked out, her voice a raspy whisper, as she glared at Wang Xiao through water-streaked lashes.

Wang Xiao\'s response was cool, detached. "Consider that a lesson," he stated, the calm in his voice a stark contrast to the storm he\'d just unleashed.

As Seraphine fought to regain her composure, her mind was a whirlwind of fury and confusion. \'A lesson? For what?\' Her thoughts were a tangled mess, her usual cunning clouded by the shock of betrayal and the physical ordeal.

"Lesson learned," she finally said, her tone laced with a bitter edge. Despite the ordeal, her spirit remained unbroken, her resolve hardening like steel. \'I will not forget this disgrace, Wang Xiao. And you will regret teaching me such a \'lesson\'.\'

As the last drips of water fell from her, the pool\'s surface once again calm, the undercurrents of their relationship had irrevocably shifted.