Gloria lifted her head up and turned to look deeply into his eyes, searching them for any doubt or false bravado. Then she felt reassured when she saw that he was really serious.
"Alright then. I will believe in you," she said softly, finally accepting his words.
Vogue smiled and leaned down to kiss her forehead tenderly. But then his hand slipped inside her oversized shirt from the top opening, and he began massaging her naked breasts with his warm palm.
Gloria’s face immediately flushed a deep red color. "V-Vogue, I have to leave for work very soon. I can’t be late," she protested weakly, though her body was already responding to his touch.
As though he hadn’t heard her protest at all, Vogue put his second hand inside her shirt as well. He groped both of her breasts like an obsessed pervert who hadn’t seen or touched a woman’s body in a hundred years.
"I promise I’ll be quick this time," Vogue muttered as he turned Gloria’s chair around to face him. He grabbed her by the waist and lifted her up effortlessly.
Gloria immediately wrapped her long legs tightly around his waist and her arms around his neck, clinging to him. But she didn’t immediately lean in to kiss him like he expected. Instead, she just stared deeply into his eyes as though he was the only thing that existed in her entire world. Nothing else mattered in that moment but him.
Vogue recognized that intense gaze immediately. He knew exactly what she was silently asking for, what she needed to hear from him. He smiled gently and gave her the same loving, focused stare back, putting all of his feelings into his eyes.
Immediately, Gloria’s face broke into a wide, brilliant grin like a small child who had just been given their favorite candy. She looked genuinely happy. She bent forward eagerly and leaned in for a passionate kiss—
"Squelch!"
Gloria’s eyes suddenly widened dramatically in complete shock. Her entire body went rigid. She stared down at Vogue without blinking even once, her mouth falling open.
Vogue’s eyebrows furrowed deeply in confusion when he saw her unexpected reaction. He didn’t think he had done anything wrong or strange to cause such a response from her. What was happening?
What he saw in the next moment made his entire mind turn completely blank. Time seemed to slow down.
Bright red blood began dripping slowly down from the corner of Gloria’s soft lips. She opened her mouth as if to speak, as if to say something important to him, but she couldn’t find the strength to force the words out. Her voice had failed her.
Instead, she simply smiled at Vogue with her blood-stained mouth. It was a sad, loving smile. She silently mouthed something that clearly looked like the words ’I love you’ as the light in her eyes began to rapidly fade away into nothing.
Vogue’s entire body began trembling violently at those words. His breathing became heavy!
He noticed something strange and looked down between their pressed-together bodies.
Blood was spewing out of Gloria’s white shirt like a geyser, soaking them both. A massive, sharp blade could be clearly seen skewing through Gloria’s heart. The blade had stabbed completely through her body and into his own chest as well, since their bodies had been glued together in their embrace.
Bur Levi couldn’t feel pain and didn’t notice it.
Vogue seemed as though he couldn’t fully process or comprehend what had just happened.
At that exact moment, a dark shadow suddenly stepped out from directly behind Gloria’s limp body. With a sickening ’shiiick’ sound, the shadow retracted the long blade that was currently impaling both Vogue and Gloria.
The assassin casually wiped the blood off using Gloria’s white shirt, then calmly turned around to leave.
Vogue moved on pure instinct. He gently, carefully placed Gloria’s body down on the chair where she had been sitting just moments before. His hands were shaking. He quickly opened his inventory system and grabbed a precious Lifebean from his storage. He placed it desperately in her mouth, trying to save her. But deep down, he already knew it was completely useless.
Her heart had been utterly destroyed, pierced clean through. There was absolutely no way the Lifebean could regrow a completely destroyed heart from nothing. If such a thing were possible, then the Sun-Fiends in this world would have been completely wiped out long ago. The bean could heal injuries, but it couldn’t bring back the dead.
"Where... Do... You... Think... You’re... Going?" Vogue’s voice came out cold and dead.
His face had become completely expressionless. He stared at Gloria’s lifeless body as though she might suddenly stand up and walk toward him at any moment, smiling and saying this was all just a terrible joke. But it was all in vain. She would never move again.
"Uhn? Oh? You actually didn’t die from that?" The shadow assassin who had just begun merging with the wall using some kind of technique suddenly paused and turned back around, genuinely surprised.
The assassin was wearing a dark, cloak that hid most of his features. Strapped to his back was a massive sword that was almost half a meter thick and easily two full meters tall.
The shadow stared at Vogue with curiosity, watching with interest as the gaping hole in Vogue’s chest began healing rapidly right before his eyes. Within seconds, it was as if the wound had never existed.
The assassin knew for certain that Vogue hadn’t undergone his Trial yet, so he couldn’t have possibly gained any kind of talent ability. He could only attribute this regeneration to either a powerful bloodline or a special physique.
But those don’t normally manifest at such an early age. Vogue was obviously way too young to have developed a true physique yet.
And as for bloodline powers, except for those incredibly rare top 100 bloodlines listed in the official Bloodline Codex, the rest of them don’t manifest their abilities until at least the Stellar Knight realm, not at the Evolver stage.
"What exactly are you, boy?"