CHAPTER 359: THE FORBIDDEN CURE

The Forbidden Cure

Mia blinked at him in surprise, her reaction to the sudden declaration. Her lashes quivered, her dark eyes glinting with suspicion.

"Darling... truly? What are you saying?"

Her tone was soft, too softly spoken, but underneath that low quality was something barbed—unstable pleading, shaking with the fearful hope she dared not say.

Leon’s throat functioned. He swallowed, the pulse pounding in his ears. His lips parted, but the words did not get out. Instead, his heart howled.

System... hey, System. Tell me up front. Are you saying the truth? You... you did find a way?

The familiar voice came back, humming through his head like an echo both within and without.

[Yes, bro. Trust me. I found a way.]

Leon’s breath hitched. His gaze darted to Mia, then to her unconscious mother white as a ghost on the bed.

Really? He thought frantically. Then tell me—tell me fast!

[Okay, okay, pay attention, Host.] The System’s voice changed, more intentional now. [You know you’ve unleashed a new physic—Velvet Tyrant Body.]

Leon’s eyebrows furrowed. His mind muttered back, cutting. Yes. I have it. So what?

[Hold up, bro. I’m getting to the point.] The System nearly sounded entertained. [With Velvet Tyrant Body, you’ve acquired yet another passive ability—something I neglected to tell you earlier.]

Leon’s eyes went wide, his voice in his own skull like a growl. What?

[When you acquired this physic, something was altered inside you. Your body shifted at the very core. You became... a walking elixir. The antidote to any disease. Any curse.]

Leon froze. The words clawed at him, twisting through his mind. He blinked blankly, struggling to process.

W–what the hell are you saying? Elixir? What, I’m supposed to be some kind of herb now?

[No, bro. Not a herb.] The System laughed quietly. [I mean it literally—your body has become medicine. Every bit of you: your skin, your blood, your bones, your saliva, your essence. Everything. All of it holds healing properties.]

A lone word tumbled off Leon’s lips, a raw whisper he hadn’t even known escaped.

"...Fuck."

[Yes, bro. Just that. It’s fucking cool.]

Leon pushed a hand to his chest, a shuddering breath catching in his throat as the reality took hold. His whole body had become something impossible, something monstrous and miraculous. A cure that breathed and moved.

But then—something else scratched its way into him. Urgency. One thought burst like lightning.

Mia’s mom...

He clenched his hands into fists. System, I get it. I understand now. So tell me—how do I cure her?

The voice returned, steady but weighted.

[Host. In order to heal her... you must do something in particular.]

Leon’s gaze tightened. Means what?

There was reluctance, even in the System’s mechanical rhythm.

[...You must fuck her.]

Leon stiffened. For one heartbeat, the world in him went completely still. Then his mind burst back, wild.

...What? His lips scarcely moved as he breathed into the emptiness. W–what the hell are you yelping? Are you out of your goddamned mind?

Fury tore its way across his chest, distorting his voice in his mind. You’re implying I... fuck an unconscious woman? Take her that way? You’re crazy? That’s not healing—that’s rape!

His heart beat like thunder. He could almost sense his hands trembling.

But the System’s voice remained infuriatingly smooth.

[Bro. Listen. Try to make sense. Mia’s mother has a blood curse. No drug on this planet—or anywhere else in the universe—can affect it. The only thing that can heal her is you. With your body. There is no other.]

Leon’s teeth gnashed. Don’t feed me this crap. You said my entire body is medicine. Well. Then I’ll donate her my blood, my skin, whatever. Don’t tell me this crap about screwing—

The System interrupted him, harder now.

[Bro. It won’t be that simple. Her body requires the full effect, something that only reaches her wholly. Blood won’t accomplish it. Shards won’t accomplish it. Only through... this.]

Leon’s head spun, shock and anger crashing against each other until he could hardly think. And then—

A yanking at his shirt.

His head snapped down. Mia’s tiny hands were gripping him, shaking him hard. Her black eyes were staring hard into his, wide with desperation, shaking.

"Darling!" Her voice cracked. "Where... where were you? These past two minutes—you were gone! I tried to wake you, but you just... you just sat there lost in thought. What were you thinking about? Did you—did you find some way to cure my mother?"

Leon’s throat constricted. Gradually, he shifted his attention to the bed. Her mother’s frail body there, unconscious. White face drained of hue, parched lips cracked and dry, loveliness dampened but unshattered. Her silence was strangling.

And then his eyes clashed with Mia’s once more. Hope flared there, delicate but determined, as though her very existence held onto his response.

He swallowed harshly. His heart raged with turmoil.

The System provided me with a means. But the price...

It wasn’t that Leon didn’t want to take a woman—he’d done worse, suffered darker. But this? Her mother was unconscious, defenseless. To touch her in such a way would reduce him to nothing more than a monster, a rapist using healing as his fig-leaf excuse. His very soul shrank back.

The System sighed, as if it recognized.

[I know why you hesitate, bro. Don’t worry. There’s another way.]

Leon immobilized. What?

[Kiss her. Just once. Let a little of your saliva get into her. That’ll be enough to rouse her awake—heal her just enough to come back around. Then you tell her everything. If she agrees, then you can go on. If not... you leave.]

Leon glanced at Mia’s mother once more. Even unconscious, she wore a delicate vulnerability, her face set in subtle pain.

He shut his eyes, breathed out through gritted teeth, then reopened them. His eyes locked with Mia’s—her dark eyes glinting with desperation, with hope in him.

He swallowed the rising lump in his throat. "Mia... I—I found a way. But... I don’t know if you’ll agree."

Mia held his hands harder, her voice cracking. "Just tell me, darling. Whatever it is—I’ll agree. I promise."

Leon’s chest rose and fell. He breathed in a harsh gasp. Words caught and splintered on his tongue. At last, he wrested them out.

"I... I... I just need to... fuck your mother. Then she’ll be healed."

The final words spilled out like fragments of glass. His knees gave way and he collapsed, unable to meet her eyes.

Silence slammed into the room.

Then Mia’s lips opened. A solitary voice burst out, loud as a scream.

"Whaaatttttt!?

The noise lingered in the air, quivering and piercing—before silence devoured all once more.