The sickly looking, terribly skinny girl that looked like she would break in half under the slightest breeze, with thin, shoulder-length reddish hair, wearing a full set of pajamas that was hanging on her like on a scarecrow...
It was the younger version of Fillia Envy, the girl who tried to steal Cranberry's magic using a unique skill of hers.
All of which happened in the previous playthrough, but it made no difference to the blue undead.
The memory of the system-intended villainess digging her fingernails into his Cranberry's face and emitting the bright green light was so fresh in the blue undead's mind that it could all have happened just yesterday, even though the events he remembered were bound to the story event set to happen in three more years in the future.
*crash*
"Z-Zombie?! Nooo! Don't look at me!"
The fourteen-year-old Fillia cried out in horror, dropping the jug with water, and covering her face with both arms as the shards of broken glass flew through the floor.
Her reaction made one thing clear – she wasn't just using the skill of the heir or the avatar to take Fig's life signature for herself – from the very beginning, since the moment that Zombie first arrived at the Pride's mansion – she was Fig.
No.
Correction.
Fig never existed in the first place.
It was all Fillia...!
...poor girl...
…she thought that the worst thing that could happen to her was Zombie seeing her true form...
Meanwhile the blue undead...
"YOU LITTLE PIECE OF FILTH!"
Gowled in scalding fury and launched himself at the daughter of the avatar of envy with such outstanding speed that it should honestly count as teleportation.
"GUH-HUAGH!"
Before anything could make any sort of sense for her, Fillia was pinned against the door by the throat, and her legs were too far above the floor to give her any sort of support.
"Apologize...! Apologize to her...!"
Zombie trembled from some weird mixture of wrath and wild, sadistic joy.
At the same time, his eyes began glowing with pale-blue light as he activated the heartthrob skill in a cruel attempt to twist the shock and fear of the real future villainess against her and make it so she wouldn't want to break free.
"Wh-why are you...!"
Despite all that the girl grabbed onto his wrist, gasped, trying to break free.
"..."
That was not the expected reaction.
This was someone that actively tried to hurt his Cranberry from the first playthrough, Zombie did not want a reasonable reaction.
He wanted to see fear.
He wanted to see the despair.
Not a clear-minded 'why'.
Hence, his body began glowing violet as he activated overpower, and focused on Fillia's magic attack skill and instantly got three times the value of it added on top of his own.
He took a step back and threw the girl on the ground, just to instantly push her down and sit on her stomach, pinning her down.
He grabbed both of her hands with his right hand and pressed them above her head before she could even gasp for air.
"I said – APOLOGIZE."
Zombie focus to make sure that all of his additional MAT will be properly channeled into the lust-based skill, as he leaned down and glared right into the confused eyes of the young lady of the Envy family.
"!!!!!!"
Fillia flinched and stopped resisting.
"I-I'm sorry..."
She said in a dreamy voice as her face turn bright red from the blush.
At the same time...
/Proficiency level reached
The condition has been met
(Overpower the MDF of a friendly character using the power of lust to break their mind and pull them down the road of lustful debauchery.)
Skill rank up
Heartthrob (level 3) >>> Mindbreak (level 1)
A message he had never seen before showed up - this one even listed the condition that had to be and was met in order for the rank up to happen, which honestly was something rather new and interesting - though it wasn't that odd considering that Zombie never before had to go through the process of acquiring and ranking up the sin-based skill from tier 1.
"Ah... isn't that perfect... miss friendly character...?"
Zombie's smile could not be described in any other way than evil and demonic.
He let go of Fillia's arms and grabbed her face with both his hand, just as the other Fillia did to his Cranberry during the night of the hungry wolves of the first playthrough, and leaned down so much that the two of them almost kissed.
He could feel the girl trapped under him trembling from the anticipation – but despite just leveling up the lust-based skill to its tier 2 equivalent, the blue undead was not fueled by lust at all.
Mindbreak simply sounded like the right punishment for the sins of Fillia from the first playthrough.
...although the original one did receive a rather suitable punishment already...
Well...
Zombie never tried to act like he wasn't a hypocrite...
"Hey... do you mind going completely crazy...?"
The blue undead smiled so wide that it looked like his face split in half,
"...!"
In response to that, Fillia's eyes widened and her whole body shook uncontrollably.
She reached out and wrapped her arms around Zombie's neck, while her face melted with a lustful expression.
But... as Zombie kept the terrifying skill active and Fillia's eyes were slowly rolling into her skull, flashing with whites, Zombie felt as if something tapped his head and...
|...cheater...|
A cold deeply disappointed voice whispered into his ear...!
CRANBERRY!
HIS CRANBERRY!
ZOMBIE COULD RECOGNIZE HER VOICE NO MATTER THE TIME OR PLACE!
"!!!!!!"
Without a moment of hesitation, the blue undead broke the eye contact and deactivated his skills, pushed himself away from the sickly-looking girl, and stood up, turning around towards where the owner of the voice should be!
"...?"
Zombie blinked a few times and looked around the empty room with confusion.
"Cranberry...?"
He called out.
"Cranberry!"
He furrowed his brows and took a step forward, leaning down as if expecting to see the first playthrough Cranberry hiding under the desk or maybe the bed...
..of course, it was all futile...
"...Cran... ...berry..."
He gasped and slumped down to his knees.
"UG-khe! Khe! Khe!"
While the blue undead was breaking down, the effects of his mindbreak skill slowly subsided and Fillia somehow returned to her senses and instantly started coughing as if her body only then remembered that she was getting choked and couldn't breathe.