Upon arriving at the city of Kayyam, Estelle and Eros successfully rendezvoused with the five advance operatives of the Night Clan. The group of seven navigated a series of transit changes before finally reaching the precise coordinates of the Sin-Domain crack recorded in Irina’s necklace.

  They stood in a desolate, forgotten stretch of forest. Perhaps due to the rift’s presence, the woods were unnervingly silent—not a single beast or bird stirred in the vicinity.

  Eros stared at the rift ahead. It was an irregular, jagged fissure of absolute obsidian, roughly the height of a man, hovering silently about thirty centimeters off the ground. The opening was a dark abyss that seemed to hunger for human souls, and from its depths echoed twisted, incoherent whispers, as if a legion of demons were gathered just beyond the veil.

  Technically speaking, the denizens of a Sin-Domain were far worse than any common demon.

  Estelle produced a crystal orb that pulsed with a steady white radiance. Eros recognized it immediately: the Star Crystal, a relic used by the Night Clan to track fragments of the Ancestral Divine Kingdom. The closer it came to a fragment, the more brilliant its glow.

  Seeing the dazzling light emitting from the orb, a flash of joy crossed Estelle’s face. "The Ancestor’s fragment is indeed inside."

  She then retrieved a tin box from a black leather case carried by one of the operatives, pulling out a brass doorknob. This was a Grade-3 Forbidden Object: The Spirit Gate. Are we using this to breach the domain? Eros wondered.

  As he watched, Estelle pulled seven palm-sized, grotesque ragdolls from a cloth pouch. Noticing her son’s confusion, she explained softly:

  "These are Eerie Dolls, infused with the aura of the clan’s Grade-1 Forbidden Object: The Cursed Effigy."

  "By tying a single strand of our hair to them, we trick the Spirit Gate into identifying the dolls as us. The 'price' for using the Gate will be extracted from these effigies instead of our bodies."

  "Because these dolls are merely corrupted by the aura and haven't become true Forbidden Objects themselves, the link between us is weak. Thus, the backlash they suffer won't synchronize back to us."

  Eros’s eyes lit up. "So these dolls act as lightning rods for the 'price' of any Forbidden Object?"

  If that were true, these items were practically divine tools. However, Estelle shook her head with a hint of regret.

  "Tests show they can only deceive certain Grade-3 objects, and each doll is a single-use item."

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  "I see." Eros felt a twinge of disappointment, but on second thought, if a mass-produced item could bypass the price of any Forbidden Object, it would be utterly broken. Some limitations were only natural.

  After distributing the dolls and securing a strand of Eros’s hair, Estelle pressed the brass doorknob against the obsidian rift. She turned it slowly, and a shimmering, ethereal doorway manifested in the air.

  She let go and nodded to the group. "It’s ready."

  Without hesitation, the five clansmen stepped through the light, their faces a mixture of reverence and excitement. The prospect of recovering a piece of their Ancestor’s glory was intoxicating. Once they were through, Estelle took her son’s hand and led him into the portal.

  Inside the Sin-Domain, the world was a nightmare rendered in physical form: a leaden, suffocating sky, crimson earth, and flora so twisted they defied naming. Not far ahead stood a silhouette that resembled a human figure.

  Just as Eros was about to speak, a sudden, high-pitched hum vibrated through the air.

  In the blink of an eye, the five clansmen vanished. Even Estelle, who had been holding his hand, was gone. Was the return mechanism of the Spirit Gate triggered prematurely?

  Simultaneously, Barbara—who had been dormant—was jolted awake by the vibration. Her voice echoed in his mind, weak and frantic:

  "Transcendent... Run... Back..."

  After those three words, she fell silent again. Sensing the immediate danger, Eros tried to activate the Spirit Gate’s power to retreat, but to his horror, his connection to the artifact had been severed.

  His heart sank. Great. We’ve walked right into the lair of something terrifying. He felt a bitter sting of irony—his "beautiful new life" was about to end before it even truly began.

  With the Gate unusable, Eros turned to bolt in the opposite direction, but his body wouldn't obey. He was paralyzed, lifted off the ground by an unseen force, and dragged toward the silhouette in the distance.

  Well, I’m officially dead, he thought with a long internal sigh.

  As he drew closer, his vision finally pierced the gray-white mist surrounding the figure. When he saw the face, Eros gasped. "Mother?"

  But he quickly realized it wasn't Estelle. The proportions were wrong. This figure was smaller than the Estelle he remembered from his earliest memories. She looked like a child version of his mother. He had heard that certain eldritch horrors could shapeshift into the person one most desired to see.

  Wait... does that mean my subconscious is... a lolicon?

  I repent. I confess. I am a sinner. I deserve to die.

  Also... why is she naked? Does this eldritch entity have no sense of shame? Is this really something I should be looking at?

  Eros tried to use humor to mask his terror as he floated right up to the petite girl. Up close, her skin was a translucent, deathly white. She reached out with a slender, unnervingly cool hand and gripped his shoulder, then leaned in and sank her teeth into his neck.

  Warm blood erupted from the wound, swallowed greedily by the mysterious entity.

  As he felt his life force draining away, Eros realized what she was doing. She was devouring his vitality. Just as he felt he was about to wither into a husk, the phantom image of a lush World Tree manifested behind him.

  In an instant, a tidal wave of life energy surged from the World Tree, refilling Eros’s depleted body to the brim. The healing was so potent and sudden that he almost let out a "vitality burp."

  The cycle repeated—drain and refill, drain and refill. After a few rounds of this, Eros’s only real complaint was that his neck was starting to get sore from being held at such an awkward angle.