Chapter 215: The System Wheel and the Divine Punishment

Standing amidst the stillness of the sealed courtyard, where even the dust had stopped moving in the air, Lynx ignored the shivering professors and Kimberly for a brief second.

The courtyard was silent except for ragged sobbing and the crackle of his lingering soul fire chains. He mentally calling up his system interface. The blue screen, invisible to all others, appeared before his eyes, humming.

"How many points do I have. I want to Spin the APS Spin."

[APS POINTS: 10,000,000

APS SPIN - 0 SPINS REMAINING. 10,000 APS POINTS PER SPIN. ]

"Let’s see if my luck has improved," Lynx murmured softly to himself, his voice echoing unnaturally in the dome, each word layered with a faint, divine echo.

He tapped the spin icon. The wheel appeared, a massive, galaxy like wheel of light and spun fast with blinding light, the sound like a thousand bells.

10,000 APS points deducted.

[TRY YOUR LUCK NEXT TIME.]

The cold text flashed.

He spun again. He did not hesitate. His face remained blank.

[TRY YOUR LUCK NEXT TIME.]

He spun a third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth time. Every single time, the wheel flashed blank, consuming his points with robotic coldness.

Nine spins, ninety thousand points gone for nothing.

Lynx just watched, eyes dead.

On the tenth spin, the wheel stuttered. Then Ding!

[PRIMODIAL REGENERATION: Can regenerate any limb, organ, or physical/soul damage of yourself and others instantly. Can even restore recently lost life if soul remains.]

A warm, golden stream of divine energy, thick like liquid sunlight, flooded through Lynx’s veins, settling deep into his soul structure, rewriting it.

His whole body glowed gold intensely for a second, his veins, his eyes. He could feel absolute, limitless restorative power resting at his fingertips, a power that felt opposite to all the destruction he had just wielded.

He could bring back the dead, he could fix any broken bone, and mend any shattered body with a single thought. His hands tingled with a Blessing that itched to be used, or abused.

Lynx closed the system menu, a cold, dangerous smirk touching his lips. Perfect timing. The universe had a sense of humor. He looked at the girls who were injured, bleeding, and then at Kimberly, who was still kneeling. Fuck He Loved His System.

He turned his attention back to Kimberly, who was kneeling in the dirt, her expensive silk dress torn and stained, her teeth chattering so loudly it echoed in the silent courtyard. She was covered in dirt and her dress was torn at the shoulder, her perfect hair ruined.

"Your father is the King of the Void Empire, right?" Lynx asked smoothly, his voice dangerously calm, almost gentle, as he strolled toward her, each step soft now, deliberate. His boots made soft, wet sounds on the bloody stone.

Kimberly whimpered, tears streaming down her pale face, mascara running, as she pressed her forehead against the bloody stone, trying to make herself smaller. She could not look up. Her whole body was shaking so violently her bones clicked.

"P-Please... don’t kill me... my father will... my father will pay you... he is rich... he has mountains of money... please... don’t... I didn’t mean it..."

SWISH!

Lynx didn’t let her finish. He closed the distance in a blur that no eye could follow, grabbed Kimberly firmly by the throat with one hand, and hoisted her up into the air with effortless strength.

Her feet dangled and kicked weakly, her hands clawing at his wrist but finding it like iron.

With his free hand, he delivered a devastating, bone shattering punch straight to her face. It was not a playful hit. It was full power but controlled precisely to not kill, to maximize pain.

CRACK!

The sound was sickening. Kimberly’s nose and cheekbones caved in instantly under the brutal force, blood spraying from her mouth in a high arc, her teeth scattering across the stone like pearls, her jaw dislocating with a pop.

She let out a muffled, agonizing shriek through a mouth full of blood, her face deformed and bloody, unrecognizable.

"Ah, wait," Lynx murmured casually, his eyes gleaming with dark amusement, tilting his head as if he had forgotten something. "I forgot. You need to feel all of it. You need to stay pretty for this. Can’t punish a broken doll if the doll is already broken."

He snapped his fingers. The sound was crisp.

Regeneration.

A warm golden light, beautiful and terrible, washed over Kimberly’s face. In less than a second, her broken nose, crushed cheekbones, shattered jaw, and missing teeth completely mended themselves with soft, wet, popping sounds.

Her skin became perfect again, flawless, no scars. Her beauty returned as if nothing had happened.

But the searing memory of the pain remained fresh, raw, and magnified in her nervous system, because Lynx willed it so, sending her into a convulsing shock.

She screamed even louder because she remembered the pain but had no wound to justify it.

"Again, that was beautiful," Lynx whispered, his voice like a lover’s.

Before Kimberly could even draw a breath, before she could understand she was healed, Lynx unleashed his gravity.

He twisted gravity around her limbs with invisible hands. Her arms felt like they weighed tons, her own bones crushing themselves.

Kimberly shrieked a blood curdling scream that echoed against the stone dome, feeling her bones strain and grind under the pressure. She fell to the ground when he let go, unable to stand, her legs giving out.

Across the courtyard, Iris Nightglow covered her mouth, her stomach turning violently as she leaned against a pillar and vomited onto the stone.

She had killed beasts in the academy restricted area of the forest, gutted wyverns, but watching a human being punished with such cold, clinical brutality, such intimate cruelty, was a completely different nightmare. Her face was pale. Layla held her.

"Let’s fix that," Lynx said lazily, not even looking at Iris.

He snapped his fingers again. Regeneration.

Golden light flashed. Kimberly’s body healed again, her bones straightening with clicks, her nerves firing anew. But her mind was breaking more each time.

Each heal did not erase trauma; it compounded it. She was healed only to feel more pain again, to be made whole only to be broken again. She was trapped in a loop of agony and salvation from the same hand.

She opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out, only a hoarse rasp. Then Lynx twisted gravity around her body again.

Singularity Collapse.

A localized crushing field of gravity, the size of a coffin, enveloped Kimberly’s limbs. SNAP! CRACK! CRACK! Both of her arms and legs bent at unnatural, impossible angles under the pressure, bones snapping like dry twigs.

Her scream returned, raw and animal. Then Lynx healed her again instantly, only to make her feel the phantom pain remain, the nerves remembering every break.

"Please... please kill me... just kill me..." she sobbed into the dirt, entirely stripped of her royal pride, her arrogance, and her sanity. Her voice was no longer a princess’s.

She was just a broken girl begging for the mercy of death. Snot and tears covered her perfect, healed face.

"Too easy," Lynx chuckled softly, his voice cold like ice from the void between stars. "Death is what you wanted for them. It’s too easy for you."

He squatted down right beside her ear, his presence blocking all light, invoking Nightmare Touch with a whisper.

He reached directly into her soul, his fingers of shadow reaching into her mind, wiping away every happy memory she had ever possessed, her coronation, her first spell, her father’s praise, and replacing them with a single, eternal, looping image.

Lynx Azarion standing over her in this bloody courtyard, smiling coldly as an inescapable god of death, his eyes glowing blue and silver, saying nothing.

From this moment on, Lynx Azarion wasn’t just someone she feared, he was her waking nightmare, her sleep paralysis, her ultimate, inescapable divinity.

Whenever she closed her eyes, whenever she tried to sleep, whenever she was alone, she would see him. He had branded her soul.

"Lynx... stop."

A soft, trembling voice cut through the heavy silence of the courtyard. The voice was weak, but it carried authority.

Lynx turned his head slightly. Eleanor, supported by Layla and Rhea on either side, was slowly walking toward him.

Her sapphire dress was stained with dust and dried blood, her face pale as snow, and her striking purple eyes filled with a turbulent mix of shock, admiration, and deep, shivering terror.

She was limping, her ankle still tender despite his earlier shield, but she forced herself to walk to him. She was the only one who dared.

"That’s... that’s enough, Lynx," Eleanor whispered, her voice shaking as she looked down at the whimpering, broken wreck of Kimberly Vane lying in the dirt.

Kimberly was curled up, sobbing, her face wet with tears and snot, whispering "no more" over and over like a prayer. "She’s... she’s finished. Her mind is already broken. She is no longer a threat to anyone. Look at her. Look what you’ve done to her. Please."

Lynx looked at Eleanor, and his dark, ancient gaze softened instantly, like a storm clearing, back into his normal, charming demeanor.

The suffocating bloodlust vanished from the air as if it had never existed, and suddenly everyone could breathe again. His eyes became warm blue and silver again, full of light. His face became less devilish handsome and kind again, a boy’s face.

"If you say so, Eleanor," Lynx replied smoothly, standing up and dusting off his coat cuffs as if he had just finished gardening.

His coat had not a single drop of blood on it, not a speck of dust. "For you, I’ll stop. You are too kind for this world. That’s why I have to be cruel for you."

He looked down at Kimberly, who was curled into a fetal position, shivering uncontrollably, completely unable to lift her head or look even an inch above Lynx’s boots. She was whispering "no no no" over and over, rocking.

"Listen to me carefully, princess," Lynx’s voice dropped into a calm, ice cold whisper that etched itself permanently into Kimberly’s brain, deeper than any scar. It was not a request.

It was a command that went into her soul and locked itself there, a geas. "You won’t tell a single soul about what happened here tonight. You will invent a very nice, very believable excuse for your father and the Void faculty about why your professors and peak guards mysteriously vanished.

You will say they left on a secret mission to the border to hunt high tier beasts. You will say they left you here to train alone. You will smile when you say it. Am I understood?"

Kimberly nodded frantically, pressing her face harder against the bloody stone, sobbing hysterically, her whole body shaking with relief that the pain had stopped.

"I-I understand! I won’t say anything! I swear on my life! On my mother’s soul! I will lie! I will tell them they left! Please... please spare me... I will do anything you say... just don’t... don’t come back..."

"Good girl," Lynx smiled, his smile bright, charming, the smile that made girls faint. He patted her head gently like she was a dog who had finally learned a trick. "You learn fast when you want to live. Keep that attitude."

He turned around, walking over to Eleanor and her squad, his demeanor shifting completely.

He placed a gentle, reassuring hand on Eleanor’s waist, feeling her body tremble slightly under his touch, then steady.

He then looked at Layla, Iris, Rhea, and Nadia, who were staring at him as if he were an ungodly monster wearing human skin, but also with deep awe and attraction and a fear that made their knees weak.

They were scared and amazed at the same time, their hearts confused.

"You girls okay?" Lynx asked softly, his voice warm and caring, full of genuine concern, as if he had not just erased two near Transcendents from existence.

His hand glowed with that same golden light, warm and inviting. "Let me fix you. I’m sorry you had to get hurt because I was playing around."

"W-We’re fine," Nadia swallowed hard, her dark skin still pale as she forced her trembling legs to support her weight.

Her voice was hoarse from screaming earlier. "You... you’re genuinely insane, Azarion. You killed them like insects. Those two very strong creatures like they were nothing. Who... what are you?"

"Just taking care of trash," Lynx grinned, winking.

He snapped his fingers and used his new Regeneration blessing on them, but this time it was different, gentle, loving.

He raised his hand and golden light burst out like a sunrise over the mountains, warm, encompassing, smelling faintly of honey and sunlight.

Warm golden light washed over Eleanor, Layla, Iris, Rhea, and Nadia. In seconds, their cracked ribs healed with soft popping sounds, their bruises faded like ink washed away, their cuts closed without a scar, their blood was cleaned from their skin and dresses, their mana circuits refilled to overflowing.

They gasped as pain vanished and strength returned, greater than before. They felt perfect again, even better than before, their skin glowing, their eyes bright. Their mana felt full, purer.

"You healed us instantly... all of us at once..." Iris whispered, touching her side where terrible pain had been before, where she was sure a rib had punctured a lung.

Now there was nothing. Her skin was perfect, smooth. "This is divine healing... this is beyond S or SS Rank... this is... a miracle blessing... how... what..."

Eleanor touched her own side, her eyes wide, her purple eyes reflecting the gold. "I feel no pain... no pain at all... Lynx... what did you just unlock? This is a miracle... you could heal an entire army..."

He did not answer with words.

SWOOSH!

In less than a blink, the six of them vanished entirely from the blood soaked courtyard, leaving behind the whimpering, psychologically shattered princess of the Void Empire all alone in the dark, lying in the ruins with dead guards around her, forever changed.

A second later, they materialized safely inside the luxurious, warm living suite of the 7-star hotel back in the Aether sector. The suite smelled like flowers and warm wood.

The fireplace was crackling, casting dancing shadows. A table with untouched tea still steamed. The heavy wooden door clicked shut behind them.

"Now, ladies... what should I do with you?"