My Borderline Supervillain-Slash-Hero System-Chapter 49: The Ritual Under The Three Moons

Shelby sat across from Zane and Erlin inside the cottage.

The room was tense and awkwardly quiet. No one spoke. Zane fidgeted. Erlin glanced sideways, cheeks flushed with color. Shelby simply stared at them, his expression unreadable.

At a glance, he understood exactly what had happened between the two—but he waited, letting the silence press down on them like a weight. Instead of scolding, he reached into his pouch, pulled out a wooden bucket filled with thick black bone marrow paste, and began eating in silence.

After a moment, he passed another bucket toward them.

Zane, face still tinged red, reached in with his fingers and scooped out a dollop. He ate it quietly. Erlin followed his lead.

"It’s... tasty," she said, surprised.

"Yes, it is. Want more?" Shelby asked with a strange kindness.

Erlin nodded.

Shelby smirked, pulled out another full bucket, and passed it to her.

Then his tone turned sharper, eyes flicking toward Zane. "Zane. Anything you want to say to me?"

Zane met his gaze and replied plainly, "No, sir. She’s my wife now. I’m bringing her with me. And... she knows about the Wolf King."

Shelby studied him for a long moment, then let out a short breath.

"Good," he said at last. "If that’s your decision, then we’ll go with it. But just know—if you ever change your stance and try to walk away from it, I’ll find you and knock some sense back into your thick skull."

He stood up, glanced at Erlin, and gave her a respectful nod. "I’ll be back in the morning. Training continues tomorrow. Don’t get too comfortable."

Without another word, he walked out into the night, leaving the door swinging gently behind him.

Zane let out a deep breath. "That was awkward."

Erlin chuckled softly. "Your mentor is nice... in a terrifying, blunt kind of way." ƒree𝑤ebnσvel-com

She dipped her fingers into the bucket and licked off more of the marrow paste with an almost childlike delight. Then she suddenly brightened. "Oh! I just remembered—tonight is the night of the full moons."

Zane raised an eyebrow. "Full moons? You mean all three? I saw them last night too. What’s special about tonight?"

"For every Arthidian bride," she explained, eyes glinting, "there is a tradition to perform the Blooming Dance under the convergence of the three moons. It happens only once in a great while. And today is that night. Would you like to see my dance?"

She tilted her head coyly.

Zane blinked, then smiled. "Sure."

Erlin waved her hand, and with a shimmer of light, the cottage’s strange star-etched roof dissolved into motes of dust—revealing the open night sky above. The air filled with the haunting symphony of crickets and distant beasts, echoing from the forest below.

Above them, the three moons drifted slowly across the sky. One was a deep ocean blue. One, a cold ivory white. And the last glowed a smoky, reddish gray.

"They’re beautiful," Zane whispered. "But I don’t get it. I saw them in the same formation last night."

"It’s different now," Erlin whispered back, snuggling closer beside him. "Watch carefully. They’re moving."

Indeed, they were.

At first, the red moon hovered at the top, the blue one just below it, and the white moon at the bottom. But now, the blue moon was shifting—moving faster, sliding upward toward the red one.

Zane watched, entranced.

Bit by bit, the blue moon drew closer, until it began to pass over the red—layering them, blending their light. As it moved, a strange, silvery aura surrounded the moons, a ripple of magical energy that pulsed in the air around them.

Soon, the white moon would follow, Zane realized. And when all three overlapped, they would form a single glowing celestial body.

"So this is what you mean by full moons... they become one," Zane said quietly, awed.

Erlin nodded, resting her head on his shoulder. "And under that light... the world listens. Magic deepens. Bonds are made eternal."

Zane didn’t respond. He simply looked up at the converging moons, feeling Erlin’s soft warmth beside him. Deep within, something stirred—an instinctive awareness that something profound was unfolding.

A ritual of fate.

A night of unity.

The calm before the storm of trials yet to come.

"It’s happening," Erlin whispered.

Zane watched intently. The blue moon had begun to overtake the red, eclipsing it until only the white and blue moons remained in the sky.

Erlin stood and floated gently into the air, her white drapes flowing like petals in the wind. She called out to him with a smile, "Dear husband, watch me dance under the light of the moons."

Her voice was musical. Her form ethereal.

She twirled and moved gracefully, the silken fabric of her robes catching the moonlight in every motion. Zane watched in awe. This—this moment—he wanted to carve into the deepest part of his memory.

And then she sang.

The melody was foreign to him, in a tongue he did not understand, but it resonated deep in his chest. The dance and the song wove together, glimmering under the intertwining white and blue light from above.

Then something else caught his attention.

The white moon began to accelerate, gradually eclipsing the blue moon. The two lights merged into a brilliant white gleam.

And something within him stirred.

The white tattoo on the back of his right hand—the symbol of the first Book—began to glow faintly. Then brightly. Resonating with the white moon in the sky.

Ding!

System Notification:

[Book 1 — Divine Judgment is activating on its own]

[Absorbing environmental mana...]

[Detected Source: White Moonlight → Sunlight → Atmospheric Filtered → Chaotic Spatial Mana]

[Accumulation Progress: 21%...] 22%...23%...24%...25%....

Zane’s eyes widened. Chaotic Spatial Mana? So other than using the teleportation machine I can also gathered this mana with moonlight.

The System continued to hum softly in the back of his mind. The white tattoo pulsed with energy. He stared at his hand in wonder as the accumulation percentage ticked upward steadily.

Maybe coming to this world really was the right decision.

Erlin danced on, oblivious to what was happening with Zane. She sang and twirled in graceful, sweeping motions—an angel cloaked in moonlight.

The white book’s tattoo continued glowing until the system chimed again.

Ding!

[Accumulation Complete — 100% Chaotic Spatial Mana Stored]

[Book 1 has returned to dormant state]

Zane took a sip of the fruit juice Erlin had given him earlier and leaned back, utterly captivated. Everything—her dance, the energy in the air, the surreal moons—it felt like a dream.

Ten minutes passed before Erlin finally descended from the air, her robes fluttering like petals in the wind. She came to him, cheeks flushed and glowing with soft pride.

"Well? Did you like my dance?"

Zane didn’t hesitate. "Very much. It was... unforgettable."

She giggled and sat beside him again. "That was the first ritual. The second is about to begin."

Zane’s eyes widened. "There’s more?"

She nodded, her eyes reflecting the heavens. "The second ritual begins when the final eclipse begins. This dance is... different."

Together, they watched the shifting celestial spectacle above.

The blue moon moved once more, gradually revealing the grayish-red moon that had been hiding behind it. Now, all three were visible again—white leading, blue in the middle, red at the rear—drifting close together like celestial siblings.

Then, as they waited, the blue moon sped up again and eclipsed the white moon completely.

Erlin stood again, the energy in her body shifting, her posture changing.

And then the second dance began.

This time, it wasn’t angelic or serene. It was fierce, bold, primal.

Her motions were sharper, wilder—seductive and powerful. The white robes, now swaying with a devilish rhythm, matched her every move. Her earlier melody had been like a lullaby of peace; this was a battle cry. A song of power. Of challenge.

Zane whispered to himself, entranced, "Earlier she danced like an angel... now, she dances like a she-devil. But she’s even more captivating this way."

And he realized—just maybe—that the people of this world saw the three moons not just as celestial objects, but as symbols. White for purity. Blue for balance. Red for chaos.

The red moon now crept over the blue, finishing the final eclipse. The sky was bathed in blood-red light.

"Wow..." Zane murmured, eyes wide. "It’s... dangerously beautiful."

And then the System rang again. Also visual notification kept flashing in front of his vision.

Ding!

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