After finally pulling Isabella off the bed, John felt his Spirit plummet to a dangerously low level.
He checked and saw that his Spirit was nearly depleted!
Isabella slowly came to and was startled to see John gasping for breath beside her.
"Why are you here?" she asked.
Just as Isabella attempted to stand, she suddenly felt an unusual sensation and looked down to find herself only in her undergarments.
The wedding dress had been torn to shreds, scattered all around.
Noticing the change in Isabella's expression, John quickly explained, "The wedding dress and the bed had some sort of mind control effect; I had to do this to save you."
Isabella wasn't unreasonable and understood that John wouldn't have taken such drastic measures without urgent cause.
She nodded faintly but still looked at John somewhat uneasily.
"Thank you," she said.
However, being clad only in her underwear was indeed awkward.
She searched around for a while but couldn't find her original clothes, only a few spare wedding dresses.
Given what had just occurred, both of them felt averse to the dresses, unsure if they still carried any mind-controlling properties.
John scratched his head and pulled out a set of spare clothes from his system backpack.
"These might be a bit big for you, but you'll have to make do for now, as there aren't any other clothes available."
Isabella nodded slightly, "Thank you."
She was not fussy and immediately started putting on John's clothes.
Although they were indeed too large, there were needles and thread in the room, and she quickly started making alterations.
John watched in astonishment as Isabella skillfully adjusted the clothes.
"You know how to do this too?"
"Aren't you from House Medici, a noble family? How come their young lady knows these things?"
"Hmm," Isabella responded, not keen on elaborating.
She quickly dressed and tried to put the needles and thread into her ring, only to find it seemed to have malfunctioned.
Seeing this, John quickly relayed everything he knew about their current situation.
Upon hearing about the storage ring's malfunction, Isabella's expression didn't change, but when she learned about the suppression of all their attributes, her expression turned grave.
She closed her eyes as if sensing something, and when she opened them again, her face looked particularly troubled.
"This secret realm... presents a massive challenge for us."
The most alarming part was that it was a dark god secret realm, imbued with the dark god's power, suppressing them.
The villagers' intentions were unclear, and even the wedding dresses had mind-controlling effects—utterly insidious.
Though his own Spirit had significantly depleted earlier, he had recovered a bit after a short rest.
Taking a deep breath, he didn't continue tearing at the dress but instead grabbed Amelia's hand and pulled her forcefully off the bed!
The force of his pull was so great that Amelia's clothes stayed on the bed, and she fell to the floor with a thud, her forehead striking the ground.
John involuntarily winced, despite it not being his own pain.
Amelia quickly awoke, perhaps jolted by the sharp pain or the loss of the mental control.
She blinked in confusion, seeing John and Isabella standing beside her.
She started to speak but then winced, clutching her forehead.
"Ow... why does my head hurt so much? Did those people knock me out and leave me here?"
John's gaze drifted, and he coughed awkwardly, "I'm not sure... uh, maybe you should put on some clothes first?"
He awkwardly changed the subject, and Isabella glanced at him with a faint look of amusement but didn't expose him.
Only then did Amelia realize she was just in her underwear and touched her nose awkwardly.
At that moment, John timely pulled out a set of clothes from his system backpack.
Isabella adeptly adjusted the clothes to fit better.
When Amelia learned they couldn't use their storage rings, she looked at John curiously.
"How did you know to put things in your system backpack ahead of time?"
John was about to explain when he heard Amelia's comment, but then he abruptly held back the words he was about to say.
It seemed others could indeed find fitting explanations for his actions without him having to say anything.
"It's nothing, I just tend to prepare a backup for everything," he replied.
"Let's go. We should regroup with the others."
Logically speaking, the courtyard they had come from was more tightly guarded, while this one seemed more relaxed.
There was also food laid out in the rooms here, but none of them dared to eat it.
No one could be sure whether the food was tampered with or if it had been tainted with the dark god's power.
Before leaving this courtyard, John gathered some items intended for the wedding.
These were foods brought by the villagers, different from what was in the rooms.
They probably wouldn't pose a problem, so he took them just in case they might be useful.
They made their way back to the courtyard where they had been detained, but before entering, John halted.
"What's wrong?" Amelia asked curiously.
John's eyes were fixed intently on the courtyard.
His system's map showed it was densely packed with red dots!