Kai knelt over Eevy on the deck of the captured ship.

The night air brushed across them both.

Her breathing was shallow and ragged.

The black veins crawled visibly beneath her pale skin like rivers heading straight for her heart.

She looked fragile in that moment, nothing like the fierce rogue who had spat blood in a knight’s face only minutes earlier.

He gently took her wrists and pinned them above her head, his body settling over hers with careful weight.

He did not do it to trap her but to steady and let her feel that she was not alone in this.

"Hey," he said softly, his voice low and steady.

"Look at me."

Her eyes fluttered open.

They were hazy with pain and fever.

She searched his face, confusion and fear mixing in her gaze.

"I’m going to pull the curse out of you," Kai told her, his thumb brushing lightly over the inside of her wrist.

"But I need you to let me in. All the way. Don’t fight it. Just trust me."

She swallowed hard.

Her chest rose and fell quickly against his.

"I don’t know how to do that."

"You don’t have to know," he whispered.

"Just breathe with me. Let go."

He leaned down until their foreheads touched.

The contact was warm and grounding.

He could feel the energy pulsing under her skin, fighting to spread further.

His own power, Dominant Absorption, stirred in his chest like a living thing.

’She’s scared,’ he thought to himself.

’But she’s still holding on. I won’t let this take her.’

Eevy shifted under his weight, her breath coming out in short gasps.

"The clerics at the capital... they said blood curses cannot be cured. It rots the core. How can you fix it?"

Kai kept his gaze locked on hers.

He needed her to understand the reality of the situation so she would stop guarding her internal magic.

"Because I’m not a cleric, Eevy," Kai explained, his voice a low rumble.

"Holy magic tries to burn away the darkness. It treats the curse like an infection. My magic does not cure things. My magic consumes them."

She blinked, trying to process his words through the fever. "Consumes?"

"My core skill is built around absorption," Kai said, letting his thumbs trace soothing circles over her trapped wrists. "I take power. I take stats, mana, and skills from the people I defeat. Or from the people I claim. Right now, that curse is just raw energy feeding on your core. If I connect our mana pathways, I can devour the poison and filter it through my own system."

Eevy’s eyes widened.

"You will poison yourself."

"I have a resistance skill built just for this," he reassured her, offering a confident smile.

"But there is a catch. It doesn’t know how to be gentle. If I reach inside your mana core to take the curse, I am going to take a piece of your natural power too. Some of your stats will become mine."

She let out a shaky breath.

"You’re stealing my strength."

"I am saving your life," Kai corrected her smoothly.

"I am taking the poison, and a fraction of your agility comes with it as payment. But it only works if you surrender to it. If your mana core fights me, the friction will tear your veins apart. You have to submit and let me dominate your system."

Eevy stared up at him.

She was a rogue who relied entirely on independence and control.

Giving up her agency to a stranger went against every instinct she had. But the burning pain in her chest was growing worse by the second.

Looking into Kai’s calm eyes, she felt a strange sense of safety.

"Take it," she whispered, her voice trembling. "Take whatever you need."

"Good girl," Kai murmured.

Kai closed his eyes and focused. He didn’t force the skill but coaxed it, guiding the warm current of his mana through their connected bodies.

The moment it touched the curse, he felt a sharp, icy pull. It felt like drawing venom from a deep wound.

The black veins beneath her skin began to tremble. Then slowly, reluctantly, they started retreating.

Eevy gasped as her back arched slightly beneath him.

"It hurts," she whispered.

"I know," Kai murmured against her temple.

His free hand slid down to rest over her racing heart.

"But I’ve got you. Just keep breathing. Let it flow into me instead."

He felt the curse moving, drawn out of her and into him.

The sensation was strange and highly intimate.

It felt like sharing the deepest part of herself.

His own mana wrapped around the corruption, neutralising it, absorbing the power and turning it into something he could use.

’This is different from the others,’ he thought to himself.

Eevy’s body relaxed little by little.

The black veins on her neck began to fade, retreating inch by inch. Her breathing grew steadier and deeper.

She looked up at him with wide, wondering eyes. She acted like she couldn’t quite believe what was happening.

"You’re pulling it out," she breathed, her voice full of quiet awe. "I can feel it leaving me."

"Told you to trust me," Kai said, his forehead still pressed to hers.

He kept his touch gentle and his weight steady, letting her feel safe in the middle of something so intense.

The skill worked slowly, as if it understood this wasn’t about conquest but about protection.

A faint blue glow began to shimmer where their skin touched, his chest against hers, his hand over her heart.

The last traces of the curse dissolved, leaving only smooth, unmarked skin behind. Eevy let out a long, shuddering breath. The feverish heat in her body cooled. Her eyes cleared, the haze of pain lifting away until only exhaustion and something softer remained.

[Target Saved: Blood Curse Purged]

[Stats Absorbed: Agility +12, Perception +8]

[New Skill Unlocked: Shadow Step (Minor)]

"You did it," she whispered, her voice cracking with emotion.

Kai lifted his head just enough to look at her properly.

Her face was flushed, her lips slightly parted, and in the starlight, she looked vulnerable and beautiful in a way that made his chest tighten.