Once inside the building, Karina reverted to her human self. Elena immediately rushed to her side with a fresh set of clothes. Once dressed, she didn’t idle around and immediately carried Joan downstairs.

Behind her, Carmila also carried Rina into floor B2, the second basement, which Aiden had modified as a holding cell long ago.

Meanwhile, Milarel was back to her usual self and immediately bowed before Aiden.

"My lord."

Aiden glanced back at her over his shoulder without breaking stride. Milarel silently followed him as usual.

"You did well out there," he said.

"It wasn’t anything worth mentioning, My Lord," she replied.

Even though she said that, the joy of being praised was clear to everyone. This time, Aiden turned and smiled at her. Then he reached over and pulled her into a hug while patting the back of her head.

"Don’t worry, I’ll thank you properly soon enough," he whispered, gently nibbling her ear. "Besides, your work isn’t finished yet."

"O-Of course, My Lord!" Milarel hastily replied before heading to B2 as well.

Aiden knew if he were to ask Joan about her secret of creating evolvers, she would never tell him. No matter how much he tortured her.

However, there was a way to break her. Once she was broken, she wouldn’t be able to keep any secrets. And Milarel was crucial for that.

He was about to follow the girls into the basement, but before that, Elena walked up to him.

"What is it?" he asked.

"The corpses outside would bring unnecessary attention from the monsters—"

"Just move them to B1," Aiden cut her off. "If it’s about the ones we captured, just tie them up and put them in the courtyard. I’ll think of something for them later. Also, prepare a team for tomorrow. You’ll depart to get what little these people have hidden in their base."

With that, he left the scene without sparing Elena another glance. Naturally, he didn’t notice her pouting either.

"...what do they have that I don’t!"

"Boobs. Big, massive, gravity-defying honkers," Marcus remarked, stepping out of the elevator. "Now stop sulking and get to work. I’ll have the guys help you out shortly."

***

Sometime later, in the pitch black basement level 2...

Joan groaned as she woke up. The first thing she felt was the cold floor under her knees. She blinked her eyes repeatedly as her thudding head reminded her of what had happened earlier.

She wasn’t outside any longer, but inside a damp space. Everything hit her at once. Carmila, Karina, and Aiden... even though she had seen them all for the first time, she couldn’t help but remember similar existences from the Otherworld, especially Aiden.

"...demon."

Just thinking about him nauseated her. She shook her head and looked ahead. Only then did she see Rina hanging upside down in front of her. Much like herself, her wrists and ankles had been bound with chains.

However, she was in visibly worse condition than Joan. The vampire had done a number on her. It was to the point where Joan wondered if Rina was even alive.

Joan knew she had to get out of there. If what she felt was true and the Overlord was actually in this new world, then she had to eliminate him as soon as possible.

The thought brought her some strength to fight back. But even though she pulled at the restraints with all her might, none of the restraints budged even an inch.

Frustrated, she looked around the room for anything that she could use to free herself. That’s when she saw something that surprised her.

Someone was standing at the far end of the wall. Someone familiar.

"...is that you, Mila?"

Mila didn’t answer, just stood there, staring at her.

"Mila... can you help me out of—"

Joan stopped, finally registering the disparity between her, Rina, and Mila. While the two of them were restrained, Mila wasn’t. A strange thought took root in her heart, but she didn’t want to believe it.

"What is going on?" she asked, her voice no longer in her control. "Why aren’t you bound? Talk to me! What happened while I was out?"

Instead of telling her anything, Mila turned her head sideways. Joan followed the direction of her gaze and saw a door there. Right then, Aiden walked in with all the calmness of a victor.

Yet, he didn’t spare Joan or Rina a single glance, instead, he smiled at Mila. Then, right before her eyes, he walked up to her, slid his arm around her shoulder, and pulled her in.

"Y-You! Whatever you want to do, do it to me! Not her!" Joan yelled, but neither Mila nor Aiden paid her any attention as he leaned in.

Right before her, he kissed Mila as if she had always belonged to him. Joan’s mind went blank at the sight. She wanted to yell at them to stop, yet she just kept watching them silently.

Some part of her was still waiting for an explanation that would make this make sense. She thought Mila was like her, who hated men like Aiden. But if that was the case, then why wasn’t she protesting as his lips devoured hers?

Joan pleaded to the god she had stopped believing in. Praying that it was all a hallucination brought upon by the wound Karina inflicted upon her head. However, the god didn’t change the truth that was unfolding before her.

"Mila..." she groaned as her heart was torn through.

As if reacting to her misery, Mila’s arms wrapped around the back of Aiden’s head, her fingers pressing into his hair, pulling him closer, and she kissed him back even more brutally than Aiden had.

Joan saw it all and finally stopped praying. It was all real. Mila... never was hers to begin with, yet she felt an unbearable pain in her heart like nothing she had felt before.

As Joan kept staring at Mila, everything made sense. How Aiden crushed them so effortlessly. How he knew whom to eliminate first... it was all Mila’s doing.

She should have hated Mila for her betrayal, yet she couldn’t bring herself to curse her even once.

"...so this is what betrayal feels like."