Royal Reboot: Level up, Your Majesty!-Chapter 107: Queen vs. The Parasite

Candle flames trembled, shadows tangling across the wall.

The zipper of Eydis’s lacy, black dress slipped downward, metal teeth parting open. Her dress slipped away until she stood in nothing but midnight-coloured lace.

Astra’s red eyes gleamed as they drank her in. Warm bodies molded to Eydis bare spine; lips coasted along her pulse while nails traced hungry red lines along the inside of her thigh.

For a heartbeat she allowed it, observing the mechanics of desire with cool detachment. One of Astra’s mirrored selves grew impatient and clicked its tongue.

Only then did Eydis tilt her head.

A hand cradled her cheek, angling her toward a kiss. Lust’s tongue beckoned, yet the instant their mouths neared, the mask cracked.

One of Astra’s flawless faces sagged into an oily smear, cheeks folding in, eyes guttering to pits. The figure trembled, then winked out of existence.

“What… what happened?” The naked Astra’s voice thinned with panic. Her jaw dragged outward, stretched by an invisible hook. She clawed at her own skin, fingers slipping through herself, and then she, too, was sucked into a hidden tear in the dreamscape.

Eydis twisted her wrists, and the silken bindings slid free. Ravens burst from her shoulders, orbiting overhead.

“Is that all you require?” they asked in a chorus oddly posh.

She snapped her fingers; the birds folded into nothingness.

Across the bed, Lust stared, pupils blown wide, breath sharp, and for the first time, hesitant.

“How… how did you smuggle shadows into a dream?”

“Sweet of you to believe you were the only parasite invited.”

She inched closer, pressed a palm to Lust’s shoulder, and pinned the Sin flat against the tangled sheets.

“Now, if I recall, you begged for indulgence, and a lesson.”

She caught both of Lust’s wrists in one hand and slid a thigh between its legs. Close enough to provoke, never enough to sate.

Still Lust shivered, hips searching for friction that never arrived. It didn’t even try to escape her grasp.

“Lesson one,” she said. “The body is honest, and the thing riding inside is very, very bad at pretending otherwise.”

Pink heat flooded Lust’s cheeks. “When did you learn such things? I was told you were…” Breath caught. “…untouched.”

“I was told the earth was flat.” Eydis’s grin curved sharper, but behind it, rage simmered, ready to erupt.

How had Lust burrowed so deep into Astra’s mind? Astra the Saintess should not have been easy prey, not for something as base as this Sin. Unless it had grown stronger since Mythshollow, evolved into something worse.

Eydis’s stomach twisted. She needed to find Astra and could not afford delay.

She shoved down the rising revulsion, rolled her thigh hard between Lust’s legs, then peeled away, cruelly abrupt.

Lust gasped, back arched. “Careful. I may keep you after I devour her.” Yet confusion ghosted across crimson eyes, as though the Sin had only just noticed its own quivering need.

Eydis glanced down at her own thigh, then let her gaze climb back up, her smile cutting deeper. “Shocked to find yourself dripping?”

“Shocked?” Lust’s hooded gaze slid to the source of its torment, then roamed up Eydis’s abdomen, lingering on the lace barely concealing her curves.

Its pupil expanded, hunger barely leashed. “No, delighted. See, I’ve always wondered what Pride’s favourite toys taste like.”

“That assumes I’d cave,” Eydis said, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “Honestly, I’m busy suppressing nausea.”

She drove her thigh forward again. A ragged moan escaped as the Sin’s body moved and met nothing but cool air when she withdrew.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“The only grace is that her scent lingers in the cracks. If I hold my breath and lie to myself, I can almost believe it’s really her.”

The growl that followed quivered between menace and plea. “What are you doing to my body?”

“Your body?” Eydis chuckled. She pressed a thumb to Lust’s parted lips, felt the tremor of resistance and the deeper tremor of desire.

“Hitching yourself to Astra let you sip her emotions, but in this dream she holds the throne; you’re just a flea dressing itself in satin.”

“If she’s in control, then why am I still here?” Lust spat.

“Fine. Then explain this.” Eydis bit the side of its neck, and felt the answering quake. “Because your body seems confused.”

Lust’s moan betrayed it.

“You tasted her passion and mistook it for yours,” Eydis said. “Your flaw isn’t desire. It’s what happens when the feast is held an inch away.”

Green fire leaked into crimson, lust and fury strangling each other. “Soon that passion is mine.”

“Then why are we still tangled in these sheets?”

Lust pressed its lips thin.

“You’ve lost your grip, haven’t you? The dorm, the city, the taste of snow... it’s all Astra. You vandalised her dream with a duct-taped banana and dared to call yourself an artist.”

Her golden eyes flashed. “Odd that you handed over the reins so easily.”

Sweet, syrupy laughter rolled out to greet the accusation, the sound bright with genuine delight.

Eydis’s gaze narrowed.

“You got me,” Lust admitted, still grinning. “But I let it happen. A calculated risk. Nothing thrills me more than watching her unravel… well, nothing except the moment your smug little mask cracks. When she finally breaks…”

It bit down on its lower lip. “…you’ll break with her. Tick, tick, queen.”

Boredom settled over Eydis. Her hand closed on Lust’s throat, the squeeze merciless. The Sin’s pupils flared, ecstasy glazing the fear.

“True,” Eydis agreed, shadows spilling from her fingers. A serpent slid down lace, looping tight around the vulnerable neck.

“Meet Envy.”

“Envy?” Lust choked. “You command Greed, and now Envy? Impossible—”

“Shh.” Her fingers tapped mockingly against Lust’s lips. “Enough flattery. Do you even know Envy’s specialty, apart from posing as exotic carry-on luggage?”

Lust sneered. “That pathetic excuse for a sin—”

Another squeeze, another soft moan.

Envy hissed, “Ouch. Must you say things like that, Your Majesty? I do have an allure to maintain.”

Lust blinked, clearly taken aback.

Eydis gave a faint nod. “They all underestimate you, Envy. But you don’t seduce, you magnify every desire until it splits bone.”

“Exactly,” Envy gloated. “For the record, I have started a few wars of my own. Petty perhaps, but ever so stylish.”

Eydis exhaled, unimpressed, then turned her gaze back to Lust. “Now, tell me, will a Sin break from its own hunger?”

She released Lust’s wrists. It took the opportunity to fling its shadows toward the dream’s borders, only to find the world locked in place.

No exit.

In that stasis Eydis recognised the truth: Astra knew she was dreaming. A lucid dreamer pulled control back one heartbeat at a time.

So Astra might be steering after all. And yet, when Lust spoke of a “calculated risk,” it had sounded less like surrender than strategy, and that puzzle nagged at Eydis.

Lust’s voice broke through her thoughts.

“Bold of you to think a few threats and a teasing thigh can tame me,” Lust rasped through clenched teeth. “A Sin cannot enslave a Sin.”

“Her Majesty’s quite creative with denial,” Envy’s forked tongue flicked the air, tasting the rising hunger. “She never fails to entertain me with the impossible.”

“You’re just a pet—“

The serpent’s venomous fangs sank into soft neck. A tide of craving surged, Lust’s pupils widened until only a thin ring of emerald burned.

“True, Sin cannot bind Sin. But you’re not free, are you?” Her voice dropped. “You were tethered to the API. To escape, a fragment of you clawed into Astra. Now you pay for that desperation.”

Lust bared its teeth. “That fragment can still shatter your little girlfriend, Queen.”

Indifference coated Eydis’s expression, though rage burned deep. “You hitched yourself to Astra to dodge my sigil. Clever, but the hitch is that you answer to her heartbeat… and to mine.”

Lust’s breath snagged. “Lay a hand on me and she feels it too, by that logic.”

Eydis laughed softly. “Don’t confuse parasite for host. Astra is not weakened by Lust, Envy, or Greed. She’s noble. Maybe too noble.”

A grin cracked across Lust’s lips. “You almost sound as if you’re already in…”

Eydis squeezed. The taunt died mid-word.

The bedroom quaked. Dreamstuff warped, then re-knitted itself; even Lust looked visibly thrown.

“Oh, I understand now.” Eydis’s smile softened, almost wistful. “You weren’t masterminding. She cornered you, so you switched tactics and bet she would snap if she stayed lucid. Tell me, what made you so certain it was worth losing control over?”

The snarl that followed said she had struck true.

“Now, where were we? Ah, yes. Imagine pleasure forever stolen an instant before climax.” Eydis’s breath brushed Lust’s ear. “Speak. Where is Astra?”

“You cannot hold me,” it hissed, though power leaked like blood.

Moonlight blinked into existence, snow swirling beyond a wrought-iron window. The bed dropped away, leaving a blank winter void.

Lust collapsed onto the frost-white floor, form stuttering as though Astra clawed for her own face. It finally settled into a sleek black panther, quivering with unmet desire.

“You delight in this,” Eydis observed. “You soaked Natalia in it and tormented Elias.” She kept Astra’s name buried.

Envy’s second bite drew a hoarse whimper. Yearning flooded every muscle. The panther convulsed.

“You’re worse than any Sin,” Lust gasped, retreating on trembling paws.

Eydis advanced, silk conjuring itself over her skin in shimmering strokes. Her gown trailed behind, streaks of purple-black staining the pale dreamscape.

“Took you this long to see?” Her smile was all teeth. “I’m the nightmare that outdreams the dream.”

Her hand rose. Invisible threads cinched the panther’s throat. It groaned, trapped between agony and ravenous desire, Envy’s venom hammering with each frantic heartbeat.

She closed her fist. The panther’s head snapped upward, dangling on air, desperate and shaking.

“S-Stop… please… I will speak.”

“Clever girl,” Eydis purred.

This 𝓬ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.𝒄𝒐𝙢