The SSS-rank Guide Doesn't Need Saving

Nykos took her hand into his, bringing it to his chest, where his beating heart was pulsing.

Bump, bump.

It was beating faster, hard enough that she could feel each pulse through his skin like a drumbeat meant only for her. Aisha suspected that the potency of the aphrodisiac was immense for it to affect him this much. A man like Nykos, who commanded shadows and struck fear into hardened warriors, reduced to this — his composure fraying at the edges because of a drug inside a satchel.

”Can you let go of my hand?”

He didn’t. Nykos made a point of it by intertwining their hands, locking her fingers with his before bringing it up to his lips. His grip was warm, almost feverish, and she could feel the faint tremor running beneath his calm exterior.

A light kiss landed on her knuckles.

”Hm?” his voice rumbled in his throat, low and rough, like something was restrained within him. ”Weren’t you offering this hand to help me?”

”What?”

She stared at him, confused, trying to make sense of his words.

A few seconds later, she understood what he had meant by what he had just said.

Her pupils were blown wide, while heat quickly crept into her cheeks and ears, spreading down the line of her throat. Aisha was unaware how alluring she looked with the hint of flush on her face, the way her breath had caught and her body froze. Even Nykos found it irresistible. His control was slipping past quickly like thin threads flowing away from his grasp, unraveling faster.

”That wasn’t what I was talking about!” she said, glaring at him, flustered.

But her glare only made her look even more alluring. Her shy appearance could turn any man’s mind useless.

At this moment, Nykos was starting to believe the wording his subordinates had once shared with him — that even the mightiest warrior falls before a woman’s beauty. He had scoffed at it once, dismissed it as the kind of thing weak men said to excuse their weakness. Now he understood.

If need be, he could kneel on the ground and kiss her feet now if that was what she wanted.

Those lips could whisper the cruelest order and he’d carry it out within a heartbeat.

”Nykos?” Aisha called out to him.

But he didn’t respond, lost in a daze, his gaze fixed somewhere between her eyes and her lips as though he couldn’t decide which to drown in first. It was obviously clear he wasn’t in his right state, courtesy of the aphrodisiac he had ingested earlier. That was to be expected. He hadn’t just smelled it from a distance, catching a faint trace on the air; he held it in his own hand as well, the concentrated scent seeping into his skin.

”You—”

Just as she began to speak, Nykos’s lips traveled from her knuckle to the inside of her wrist, where her pulse fluttered fast and visible beneath.

Then she felt him nipping at her, a gentle testing graze of teeth, before a soft, warm membrane touched her skin.

”!!!”

Aisha couldn’t help but hold her breath. He... did he just lick her?

She tried pulling her hand back, but his grip was stronger than she had expected, despite the softness of his touch.

Dark mists reappeared around them, curling like smoke. They wrapped around her waist and chest, pulling her toward him in a non-threatening manner, more like a tide drawing her in than a cage closing around her. Though if Nykos willed it, he could make them strangle her until her dying last breath.

But she wasn’t worried about that happening. Not when the owner of these shadows was deeply enchanted with her wrist, tracing slow patterns against her skin as though memorizing the shape of her veins.

Nykos was placing tender kisses onto her skin, as though he was worshipping her. Aisha thought about using her guiding ability, running through the possibility in her mind — could she calm this the way she calmed a sentinel’s berserk? But that would have been useless.

Being affected by a drug that arouses and increases someone’s libido was different from a sentinel on the verge of a berserk state or filled with miasma. There was no clean thread of instinct or rage for her to take hold of and redirect. There was no way for her to guide the effects of the drug from his system.

Should I lend him a hand?

Just as she had thought of this, the disobedient lips on her wrist stopped.

At that moment, someone was banging their fist against the door, the sound sharp and jarring against the quiet, heated atmosphere of the room.

”Styx!” A man shouted from outside the door. ”You bastard, come on out of there!”

Aisha turned her gaze toward the direction of the voice, her heart lurching with relief. She had a good suspicion who that man was.

The only person who knew Styx was camping out in this place was Marlon. They both decided to stay in Sweet Bliss after seeing her older brother,.

She had initially thought she’d have to sneak around to find him in one of the rooms in this building, but it was fortunate that he had crawled on his own to her instead. Styx’s death was unfortunate, but she still had to force Marlon to tell her where Zenick was. That much hadn’t changed.

”Another man you had plans to meet?”

The voice came right next to her ear, low and edged with something possessive that sent a shiver down her spine despite herself.

Aisha almost forgot this man had a serious problem with her being in a room with a strange man. As evident by how a few more dark mists, like snakes slithered and moved toward the door at the speed of light.

”Don’t!” She hurriedly stopped him by grabbing the hand beside her head, her fingers tightening around it in urgency ”If you kill him, I might never see my brother again. Please...”

She couldn’t hide the desperation in her voice. Nykos was too powerful for her to stop by force alone, but she hoped he’d listen to her.

Surprisingly, the dark shadows stopped just as they pierced through the door, freezing mid-motion in the air. Marlon was safe and still banging against the door, unaware that his life had just been spared.

”Shall I drag him in?” Nykos suggested. His voice sounded calmer, though his eyes still carried that unfocused, heated gleam.

Aisha nodded, but gave him a suspicious look while wondering if he was truly alright. But there was no need to refuse his help if it could avoid him killing someone. There was not even time for her to worry further about his current state.

Nykos looked at her before he pulled the hand beside her head away, waving it at the door, and more shadows appeared, thicker and more numerous than before. This time, they did not show any intent to kill. Rather, they moved quickly and in sync to unlock the door, open it, and drag the unsuspecting Marlon inside, who was just about to knock again, fist raised mid-motion.

Bang!

The door closed loudly as he was dragged in, limbs wrapped in dark shadows that rendered him completely helpless, his struggles amounting to nothing more than useless twitching. He couldn’t even scream as they covered his mouth and nose and forced his eyelids to stay open.

He could barely breathe from the tiny gaps that this thing wrapped around him had mercifully given him, his chest heaving in shallow, panicked motions.

”What do you want to do with him?” Nykos asked, tilting his head toward her, awaiting instruction like a good servant.

”I need to get answers to my questions from him.”

”Alright.”

Nykos’s reply made Aisha feel slightly uneasy. Especially when he suddenly pulled away from her, the loss of his warmth was more noticeable than she expected. However, his hand didn’t release hers as he brought her toward the table near Marlon, pulled out the chair, and had her sit on it with an odd, careful gentleness.

”It’ll only take a minute. Wait for me, little bird,” he winked.

Wordlessly, he let her hand go and moved to stand before Marlon.

Marlon was already in tears, snot dripping down his nose, and his eyes wide with terror. Then, before she could say anything, the shadows gathered around Marlon, enveloping him as if he had been wrapped inside a spider’s web, turning him into helpless prey delivered straight into a predator’s waiting grasp.

Nykos stood beside her, patient and almost casual, as though what was about to happen was nothing more than routine.

The entire room was filled with an eerie scene, with one person suffering silently under Nykos’s ability, while the air itself seemed to grow heavier.

Watching while she sat there, Aisha could not help but wonder what Nykos’s true ability really was. She had seen it before, and it looked like the power of shadow manipulation. But there seemed to be more to it than simple control over darkness. The smell of blood reached her nose, faint but unmistakable, curling into the air like a warning.

”What are you doing to him?” she asked, her voice quieter than she intended.

Nykos took a second to respond: ”Breaking him apart.”