Selma froze. "I’m sorry, what?"

"His testicles." Luca repeated, as if explaining something simple. "You know. The two balls every man has."

He gestured vaguely downward.

Selma felt a phantom pain in her own groin, a sympathetic ache that even the calm couldn’t completely suppress.

"I honestly thought it’d be funny to replace his eyeballs with testicles."

Luca continued, his voice light and conversational.

"So first, I gouged his eyeballs out with a spoon before cutting off his nether regions and pushing both of his testicles down there."

He looked down at Julius and observed his eyes critically.

"But sadly, his testicles are quite small. They aren’t as big as his eyes. So it seemed like a really loose fit."

He nudged the testicles around like he was trying to fit them inside, which looked utterly disgusting to Selma.

She tore her gaze from the horror of Julius’s face, looking instead at his back, at the moving, writhing mass of maggots in his lungs.

"The worms." She said, her voice trembling despite the calm. "Why are there so many worms in his lungs? Is he rotting? If he’s rotting, why does it smell so sweet in here?"

She sniffed the air. "It smells like pure honey."

Luca’s face lit up with absolute joy. "Oh, I was waiting for you to ask that!"

He quickly reached into the open back, pinched one of the wriggling white maggots between his fingers, and held it out to show her.

"This isn’t a normal maggot. It’s a special worm from my old world."

Selma blinked. "From your world? But didn’t you say you couldn’t bring living things across the world barriers?"

Luca nodded. "That’s what I thought too. But turns out the barrier rules aren’t that strict for tiny things."

"As long as I freeze them down until they’re half-dead, bring them over, and warm them back up, they survive just fine."

He played with the squirming worm in his palm.

"This little guy is called a ’Sweet Rot Worm’."

He continued, his eyes gleaming.

"When I was trying to figure out how to make Julius pay for what he did to our village, I realized the answer was simple: give him a taste of his own medicine."

"He used worms to enslave everyone here for years, so I decided to use worms on him as well."

He handed the maggot to Selma. Because she was so calm, she actually let him drop it into her hand.

It felt like a normal, harmless bug.

"But these worms are special." Luca explained. "Normal maggots only eat dead bodies. These guys are parasites—they only eat living flesh."

"They burrow inside you and slowly eat away all your muscles and organs until there’s nothing left but bone. But they carry the traits of earthworms and honeybees."

Selma was surprised.

"What link does it have to those two creatures? Those two are so useful. How does it have anything to do with this?"

She looked down at the maggot in her palm.

Even though the technology and science hadn’t advanced too much in the elven village, they still knew that bees and earthworms were extremely important in growing fruits and flowers.

Luca took on a scholarly tone.

"Well, just like earthworms burrow through dirt, these maggots tunnel through human flesh, eating as they go."

"But instead of pooping out dirt, they poop out a super-concentrated form of honey that hardens into a honeycomb structure."

Selma stared at him, completely shocked.

"It’s like a bee spitting out honey after collecting pollen." Luca said enthusiastically. "Wherever the worms tunnel, they leave behind a trail of sweet amber honeycombs."

"But here is the most insane part: even though they are eating his organs, the colony works together to keep his body alive."

Selma gasped, almost dropping the maggot. "No way...you’re lying."

"I’m totally serious." Luca said, nodding toward Julius. "Even if they completely eat his liver, his kidneys, or his guts, the worms create a magical connection that replaces those organs."

"They keep his bodily functions running perfectly from the inside. They need him alive because they only like living flesh."

"The second he actually dies, the honey cracks and they lose their food source."

"It’s a beautiful miracle of nature, really."

"You mean." She said slowly. "That underneath his flesh, it’s already—"

Luca nodded before he handed her a scalpel from nearby.

"Go ahead. Cut open his lower back and check. You can see for yourself."

Selma hesitated. "No, I..."

"Go on, Selma! With his body in this state, the skin slices open like soft butter. Just cut a little piece and peel it back."

Under the influence of the calming spell, Selma actually took the knife, stepped up to Julius’s lower back, and made a small slice.

Julius was in so much constant pain that he barely even reacted to the new cut.

She carefully peeled the skin back with the blade, and her jaw dropped.

There was no blood!

Underneath the skin, his body had been completely replaced by rows of perfect, golden honeycombs!

It looked like a solid statue of sweet, glowing amber.

"How...How is this even possible?" She whispered.

"Like I said, the worms are doing all the work to keep him functioning." Luca said in observation.

"But it’s a double-edged sword. Because he’s wide awake, he can feel every single one of those thousands of maggots chewing through his inside flesh every second of the day."

His grin widened, as he took satisfaction in the facts he was saying.

"The pain is so extreme that he screamed his throat out a week ago. He can’t even make loud noises anymore because his vocal cords are totally destroyed."

Selma didn’t know what to think.

On one hand, the biology was fascinating.

On the other hand, the thought of parasites keeping you alive just to slowly eat you from the inside out was completely horrifying.

A tiny hint of nausea started to break through her calm trance.

Then, she noticed something else that looked weird.

Since Julius was hanging completely naked, she could see his rear, which was covered in scars.

But right between his ruined cheeks, there was a strange metal funnel inserted into him.

In that moment, she thought about how the upper part of his body still hadn’t completely turned into amber, while the lower part of his body had completely changed.

She also wondered where exactly Luca had actually put these maggots and how they had burrowed into his body.

Her mind made the connection before she could stop it.

"No—" She whispered, looking from the funnel to the transformed flesh. "You didn’t...You couldn’t have..."

Luca followed her gaze and nodded, his expression thoughtful.

"Exactly. The worms don’t enter easily through skin. They need...an opening. A pathway."

He gestured to the funnel. "So I created one. I spread him open. Inserted the funnel. And poured the worms in. Hundreds of them."

Selma felt the calm waver for a moment, a surge of pure, undiluted horror breaking through.

"He screamed." Luca said, his voice distant, remembering. "He begged. ’Kill me,’ he said. ’Please, just kill me.’ But I kept pouring. More and more. Until they were all inside."

He looked at Julius with something that might have been pity.

"And then the real torment began. Because the worms...they don’t kill quickly."

"They burrow slowly, methodically. And he can feel every single one of them."

"Every movement."

"Every bite."

"Every moment of transformation."

Selma finally understood why the village used to hear those nonstop, horrific screams.

The physical torture was bad enough, but having hundreds of bugs eating you from the inside out while you feel every single bite?

It was a level of pain she couldn’t even imagine.

She looked at Luca and realized that making an enemy out of this man was the most dangerous thing anyone could ever do.

He was doing things that would make the devil himself uncomfortable.

But just as Selma was feeling a drop of pity for Julius, Luca suddenly slapped his hand against his forehead.

"Oh my god, I totally forgot!" He exclaimed. "I’ve been a terrible host."

He turned to her. "I forgot to offer you the delicacy I made."

Selma blinked. "Delicacy? What delicacy?"

All she saw was a room full of mutilated body parts.

Luca pointed right at Julius’s open back. "This right here."

He was pointing at the honeycombs formed on the lung tissue, which had crystallized into a golden crust.

Before Selma could even process what he was doing, Luca reached out, pinched a piece of Julius’s lung, and yanked it off.

"Ah—!"

Julius let out a tiny, breathless gasp of pain, but Luca didn’t even notice.

He held up the bite-sized chunk of meat, which was completely coated in thick, brown honey and looked just like a piece of candy.

"Go ahead." Luca said, holding it out to her. "Have a taste."

Selma recoiled instantly. "W-What do you mean have a taste, Luca?! How can I eat that?!"

"Why not?" Luca asked casually. "It’s totally edible. All the honey they produce is completely clean and pure. You can smell how good the room is, right?"

She nodded nervously, her heart starting to beat faster.

"Well, it comes from this." He said, waving the chunk of flesh in front of her face. "It’s honestly delicious."

"Have...have you actually eaten it?" Selma asked, horrified.

"Of course! Watch."

Before she could stop him, Luca popped the piece of Julius’s lung right into his mouth.

He chewed slowly, closing his eyes with a look of pure satisfaction.

"Mmm." He hummed, swallowing it. "Absolutely divine! It’s sweeter than any normal honey you’ll ever find."

Witnessing this, Selma felt her heart completely drop. Her face went entirely pale.

Even if the flesh had technically turned into sugar, Luca was still eating another person’s organ right in front of her, and he was thoroughly enjoying it.

It made her remember the time he had killed Rufus and he had reached into his body and pulled out an organ, wondering out loud if it tasted good because the chickens liked eating elf meat.

Everyone back then had laughed it off, thinking it was just a super dark joke to scare people.

But now, watching him lick his lips...she realized it hadn’t been a joke at all.

Who could have ever guessed that the proud Lord Julius would end up like this—literally being eaten alive as a snack by his worst enemy?

Luca looked at her expression and shrugged.

"Are you sure you don’t want a piece? It’s really good."

Selma shook her head violently. "No, no way! Y-You can have it all."

"Suit yourself." Luca said. Then, his eyes lit up again. "Oh, wait! There’s one more thing I haven’t shown you yet."

Selma felt dizzy. He had already shown her things that defied human sanity.

What could possibly top this?

Luca led her to Julius’s head. "You wouldn’t have seen this." He said, his voice excited. "I sealed it. Contained it. To prevent...contamination."

He pointed to Julius’s forehead.

Now that Selma looked closely, she could see it—a nearly invisible line running around his head, just above his ears.

A surgical line.

Selma’s stomach dropped as she realized what it meant.

Before she could scream, before she could even try to run away, Luca moved.

He grabbed the very top of Julius’s head, right by the remaining strands of hair.

"Open up, Julius." Luca said playfully. "Let’s show Selma what’s on that depraved mind of yours."

With a sharp tug, Luca literally lifted the top of Julius’s skull straight off his head like the lid of a jar.

"Arghhhhh—!" Julius’s body spasmed, his mouth opening in a silent, agonizing scream.

And right there in front of Selma’s wide, unprotected eyes was Julius’s exposed, pink brain!

And moving through it, burrowing through it, were the worms!

Hundreds of them. Maybe thousands!

They moved through Julius’s brain like miners through a honeycombed mountain, eating, transforming, excreting.

His brain was being consumed. Transformed. And he was still alive. Still aware.

That was the final straw.

The horror was too massive, too disgusting, and too overwhelming for any spell to block out.

The artificial peace shattered instantly, and all the terror came rushing back like a tidal wave.