Deviant: No Longer Human

Gasp!

"Th-Th..." Her voice quivered as she shot Wang Xiao a startled look, disbelief written all over her face.

A flush of shame and embarrassment crept up her cheeks. "You\'re a man!?" Her words rang out in the room, her astonishment growing as she realized she was witnessing a male figure entering the space for the first time.

Wang Xiao, "..."

"..."

"..."

Aurora and Jhenny shared a moment of stunned silence, their eyes wide with surprise.

Sensing the awkward tension, Jhenny swiftly retracted her hands, a nervous chuckle bubbling up. "Oopsie! Looks like the Lord has changed his preferences, ladies! We\'re in the clear," she exclaimed, leading her group out with a carefree sway in her step, laughter trailing behind her.

Elara\'s breath caught in her throat at the sudden turn of events, her eyes widening in shock before she released a trembling sigh, realizing the situation remained unchanged even after a long moment.

"It\'s been quite some time since I\'ve last check humans tenacity," Wang Xiao\'s voice broke the silence abruptly as he directed a piercing gaze up at Elara.

She squirmed under his intense stare, avoiding his eyes as if she played no role in the drama.

_______

Fifteen minutes later!

"Why have you divided them into two groups?" Wang Xiao finally broke the silence, his curiosity getting the better of him as he gazed at the orderly arranged women divided into two distinct blocks. It was clear that beauty wasn\'t the criterion for this division.

Aurora chose to stand deliberately behind him on the left, allowing him the space to take charge and demonstrate his leadership.

Elara positioned herself to the right of Wang Xiao and explained with a stoic demeanor, "Eighth Prince, those on the right have already consumated with Lord Asmodeous, and those on the left have yet to meet him," she announced, her tone chillingly indifferent, as though she were discussing something as mundane as vegetables rather than the fates of these women.

Her words cast a sudden, icy pall over the courtyard. The previously animated chatter among the women ceased abruptly, their eyes—filled with awe, curiosity, skepticism, and fear—now fixed intently on Wang Xiao.

"Prince!?"

"He\'s the Eighth Prince!?"

"Lord Asmodeous is truly dead, then?"

Faces among the crowd turned into canvases of emotion—relief, gratitude, anxiety, and nervousness sketched across their features as the reality of the situation dawned on them.

"Consumated with Asmodeous? Could you elaborate on what you mean by that?" Aurora, unable to contain her confusion and concern, inquired, her gaze piercing through the night towards the women neatly segregated into a square on the right.

Elara\'s voice cut through the tension, "Lord Asmodeous had a... particular appetite. He would usually consume the bodies of women after their very first night. Those you see on the right were deemed... lacking by him, unworthy of such a fate, and thus were spared only to serve."

The information sent a chill down the spine of the crowd, yet Wang Xiao\'s demeanor remained stoic, his eyes methodically scanning the women on the right, who now looked back at him with eyes filled with hope, desperation, and, for some, an unsettling boldness.

\'So these are the ones rejected?\' Wang Xiao mused internally, a trace of amusement flickering through his mind.

Asmodeous\'s criteria for beauty and worth seemed to have been mercilessly stringent.

His thoughts were abruptly shattered by a deafening boom.

"What the—"

"Arghhhh!! REMOVE IT! GET IT OFF ME!"

"UGHhhh!"

"Dear Lord! Mercy!"

"Argh! Please, someone—ahhhh"

Before the shocked gaze of everyone present, the ground beneath the women on the right splintered open, a web of sinister, dark tendrils erupting forth.

Whooosh! Whoosh! Whooosh!

These tendrils coiled around the women with terrifying precision, pulling them down into an abyss as if the earth itself had opened its maw to swallow them whole.

Crack...

The horrifying spectacle completed in mere seconds. Every woman, even those who desperately attempted to flee, was ensnared and dragged into the void.

The stone floor then seamlessly knit itself back together, leaving no trace of the harrowing event, as if the earth had never opened its mouth at all.

Silence descended, a thick, oppressive veil.

The courtyard, once buzzing with whispers and life, now stood as a silent witness to the unfathomable.

"You did it...?" Wang Xiao\'s immediate reaction was to whirl towards Aurora, who stood with a serene smile that unsettled him more than the horror unfolding before their eyes.

Aurora\'s voice was calm, almost soothing in the midst of chaos. "Some used women—you needn\'t dwell on it. It\'s better to be cruel to your enemies before they have the chance to do the same to you."

Wang Xiao\'s gaze hardened as he scrutinized her, the smile unwavering on her face. After a moment, he nodded, seemingly accepting her logic. "That\'s alright, they were expendable anyway." His agreement was cold, his attention shifting back to the women in the left square who had witnessed the scene unfold with evident horror.

Crunch!

Crunch!

Crunch!

The sickining sound of crunching and churning echoed through the courtyard as Aurora, who had been manipulating the earth, nodded in response to Wang Xiao\'s acceptance.

A sickening slurry of blood began seeping from the cracks in the ground where the women on the right had stood, a chilling confirmation of their fate.

The women on the left, now witnessing the carnage, were engulfed in sheer terror.

"L-Lord! Spare us!"

"Mercy!"

One by one, they collapsed to their knees, faces drained of color.

Some had endured Asmodeous\'s cruelty, but the brutality they witnessed now was beyond anything they had imagined.

With Asmodeous, at least death had been swift.

This... this was a terror they could not have anticipated, a cruelty that lingered and echoed in the crunching bones beneath their feet.

Even Elara, standing to the side, felt her stomach churn, her usually impassive demeanor giving way to visible discomfort.

The pale cast to her face and the hand hastily covering her mouth betrayed her nausea, her heightened senses making the scene before her all the more disturbing.

Turning away, she tried to distance herself from the reality before her in the courtyard.

"You, have you summoned everyone here already?" Wang Xiao\'s voice cut through the heavy silence, pulling Elara from her repulsion.