The core members could only reluctantly slink over through the portal, lamenting the fact that the time had not been enough to do all the things they had wanted outside the game. Once the last one of them had gone through, Draco closed the portal and blocked Gremory who had been about to follow them.
"And where do you think you're going, Little Miss?" Draco asked with a slight hint of amusement.
Having been caught, Gremory whistled innocently and twiddled her fingers together. "Well... I've heard so much about this game on TV... and seeing you be so serious about it, I'm kinda curious."
Draco shook his head. "That's great and I promise I'll let you play... but not now. Right now, the Morningstar Lineage needs familiar faces to help them settle down."
Understanding what he was saying, Gremory was incredibly resistant. "I don't want to work! You promised!"
Draco felt a headache coming on. Having spent all her life confined to a bed, Gremory was similar to Shuangtian but also the opposite.
Draco's wife was calm and unruffled by the world because she understood how she came to be confined to that bed, through the cruelty of her family. Aside from her feelings towards Pangu's Soul Avatar, Austin, Draco, Eva and especially her son Lucitian, she would not find much reason to live or love this world.
Gremory had been bedridden but that had not left her completely isolated from the outside world. As such, she had been able to taste but not swallow, causing endless desire and greed for the world to build in her heart.
She was the type of person who would happily lie in a pile of feces while everyone else was being slaughtered around her just so she could live one more day and experience life, even if in duress.
Draco understood her way of thinking and knew that suppressing her too much was therefore a bad idea. While he was still contemplating how to handle the situation with her, Eva delivered a sharp blow by casually commenting on the matter.
"Now you see how I feel with Sublime."
Draco's lips twitched while Shuangtian let out a chuckle. Draco placed a hand on Gremory's head and then messed her hair up while squeezing her scalp slightly, bringing his face closer.
"Fine, then don't work. Still, I need you to remain with your parents and my folks until they are done."
Gremory was about to retort, but Draco forced her to look into his eyes and spoke firmly. "I am not taking no for an answer."
She was silent for a split second before her eyes became red. She pushed away Draco's hands and turned away, walking briskly while tears flowed down her face.
"You're the worst! I hate you!"
Draco watched her leave with a calm look, yet the hand over his heart revealed the critical damage he took. Eva and Shuangtian shared a look, smiled and accompanied Draco through a portal that led to the Purgatory Group. They ended up at the special area where they and their two babies had set up their special pods.
The first thing Eva and Shuangtian did was to check up on them. Seeing that they were fine, they were satisfied and joined Draco in entering their pods to reconnect with the world of Boundless.
The moment they spawned, the Evil Trio discovered that the small church area Draco had built to start his development had been utterly razed to the ground. The area was pockmarked with the effects of various transcendent skills and Laws, which had transformed the landscape from a once beautiful place to a place that belonged into an apocalyptic setting.
Before Draco even had time to figure out what happened, he felt an explosion of two powers beside him, belonging to Eva and Shuangtian. The two beauties' towering auras reached into the sky and even caused the air to tremble, one colored white and the other colored brown.
His lips twitched as he looked left and right to see that both women were trembling with near limitless fury and killing intent, their eyes bloodshot. They looked like arrows being pulled taut on a bow, ready to burst forward at the slightest provocation.
Draco understood that this was because they had left Lucitian and Lucitera with their Clones of Law as well as the rest of the Morningstar Clan within Boundless to establish this church area while they been away to handle Draco's family issues in reality.
More precisely, these three beings had the form of the Evil Trio, but lacked the essence. They were the Clones of Law, created from a consumable Draco had acquired from the Divine Trial that allowed them to have body doubles with the full extent of their in-game power including stats, skills and Laws, but not their memories, bloodlines, control or tradeskills.
As such, when they had been attacked, the Clones of Law immediately manifested this barrier to protect the group and did not budge since, allowing these monsters to raze their shield continuously in futility while the rest of the family speechlessly stayed within.
The Clones of Law were too simple-minded and rigid, not listening to anything the other wives said since their controllers were not here and their last directive had been to 'protect the family' which did not translate to 'vanquish all enemies'.
This was why, despite the situation, neither the Morningstar women nor the children were panicked or worried, just curious and amused. Even moreso, they could have long left to enter the Morningstar World if they wanted, but then they would be leaving these clones behind which they were sure was valuable.
Lucitian and Lucitera were the most curious, with Lucitera walking up to the barrier and inspecting the two ratmen that were mostly humanoid. While one of them operated some sort of device to strike the shield continuously to try and break it, the other was leaning on a wall while tossing a dagger about.
Noticing Lucitera who had almost pressed her face against the barrier watch them with curiosity, Ratingo seemed amused and had a wicked thought.
He showed Lucitera his dagger and asked. "Hey there little girl, I'm sure you can understand me, right? Do you want this dagger to play with?"
Lucitera's eyes lit up in excitement and she nodded rapidly. Seeing this, Ratingo's eyes curled with maliciousness as he chuckled and then suddenly threw the dagger at a speed so fast that the eye could barely follow.
"Here, you can have it!" He shouted playfully as the dagger struck the barrier right where Lucitera stood, causing the little girl to yelp and fall backwards, connecting her tail bone with the hard floor.
"Ahahaha! What a retarded little shit! She actually thought I would give it to her?" Ratingo couldn't help but break into raucous laughter, guffawing the entire time.
His partner who was working hard couldn't help but purse his lips. "Ratingo, there is no need to be uncouth. Just be quiet or come and help me for once."
"Ratigal, don't you dare talk to me that way. I'm goddamn bored and hungry, so I will do what I want. It's not my fault that scaring this little shit is the most entertaining thing to do here." Ratingo cut his laughter and spoke with folded arms.
"Whatever." Ratigal responded with frustration.
"Hmm?" At this time, Ratingo noticed that Lucitera had gotten up and was glaring at him with hatred. Her cute little face was full of unprecedented malice as a lack aura began to manifest around her body, which left Ratingo even more amused.
He walked closer to the barrier and bend down towards Lucitera. "Awww, did I make you angry? I'm sorry for throwing it like that the first time, but it's because of this barrier that I had to do so. Why don't you step out of the barrier and come and take it from Uncle Ratingo... pfff, hahaha!!"
He couldn't even hold back his laughter from his own act, almost rolling on the floor from glee while Ratigal frowned once more and was about to berate Ratingo again.
It was at this moment that Lucitera, from the other side of the barrier, spoke her first sentence in this world.
"Your soul... will suffer... torment..." she said slowly and stutteringly, not used to talking.
Before both Ratmen could react, a blue outline appeared around Lucitera which also emerged around Ratingo. Immediately, Ratingo's body was lifted into the air and then began to twist and turn in awkward angles like a piece of clothing being squeezed of water.
However, what came out were mashed organs and crushed, twisted bones that were misshapen due to how awkwardly they were broken up.
"AARRGGGHHHHHH!!! AIIEEEEE!!"
Ratingo's agonized screams resounded throughout the dungeon, causing goosebumps to rise on the skin of all onlookers.