Once Bruce entered the bathroom, he locked the door behind him.
With one man and two women in the manor, he had better protect himself first. Who said men couldn't be assaulted?
Danvers's ravenous behavior just now had given Bruce quite a scare.
Earlier, in the study, Bruce had seen a news story: Shocking! Twelve-year-old boy walking home at night subjected to this by a forty-three-year-old granny!
Bruce desperately wanted to mock that headline, but he couldn't resist reading the article. It was exactly what he had imagined. Poor boy. At the same time, he couldn't help reflecting that different worlds still had certain things in common.
Although Danvers was a beautiful woman, not some granny, none of that was the point. She was his cousin-a blood relative!
Yet the Rune Kingdom had no explicit restrictions on marriage between close relatives. Some aristocratic circles even encouraged it. As long as the couple weren't siblings, they could marry. There was also all that insane talk about pure blood.
Standing before the mirror, Bruce patted his cheeks and shook the unrealistic thoughts out of his head.
Bruce took off his shirt.
The bathroom had a full-length mirror, perfect for admiring his physique.
Walking over to the bathtub, Bruce tested the water with his hand. It was still hot, and the tub was filled to the brim. When he sat down, water spilled over, flowing down the smooth sides onto the tiled floor.
What he failed to notice was that the water on the tiles seemed to come alive. It spread around the bathtub, forming thin lines that continually intertwined, as though drawing a picture.
Taking a bath was wonderfully comfortable. The soothing warmth seeped into Bruce's bones as he lay in the tub, savoring it.
Time slipped by, and the water on the floor seemed to finish its drawing. It formed a huge circular pattern around the bathtub where Bruce lay bathing. The curtain beside the tub stirred faintly in the breeze.
"So cold..."
Bruce opened his eyes. He felt the heat draining from his body. The bathwater held no warmth at all, and a chill poured into him from every direction.
"What's going on?"
Bruce struggled to get up, but the tub's surface was slippery, and he couldn't find anything to grab. His entire body sank straight into the water, as though he had fallen into a bottomless sea. There was nothing beneath him. Above the surface, he could see the bathroom ceiling. The surface was only inches away.
He tried to swim upward, but something seemed to be pressing down on his head, holding him back.
The bathroom lights flickered.
Bruce immediately thought of supernatural forces.
"Breakthrough!"
"This is the Drowned Hatred Diagram. It drags the cursed victim down to drown alongside the dead, but this is only a minor manifestation of the curse, not a powerful one. In your current situation, your only chance of survival is to struggle. Remember, struggle! Struggle with everything you have!"
Breakthrough's advice didn't seem particularly useful, but Bruce understood that it had already given him a way out. He had to struggle with all his strength, not give in to fear and despair!
If there was hope of survival, he would do everything he could to stay alive.
Water flooded his mouth and nose. Breathing had become agonizingly difficult.
Bruce refused to give in and kept struggling.
Crack!
Bruce heard a sharp sound beside his ear, as though something had shattered. Then the force pressing down on his head vanished abruptly. His hands found the bottom of the tub, and he immediately sat up, finally able to gulp down air.
Bruce coughed violently, spitting out mouthful after mouthful of water. With difficulty, he climbed out of the bathtub and sat on the cold floor.
The water was still warm. Bruce ran a hand through his hair and wiped the water from his face, a trace of lingering panic in his eyes.
Back in her room, Jessica sat on the bed with the Vengeful Spirit Doll in her arms. A small lamp was lit in the room,
but it illuminated only a tiny patch beside the head of the bed. She huddled entirely in the shadows, silently seeming to wait for something. Suddenly, the Vengeful Spirit Doll began shaking violently and let out a faint, tearing scream.
Startled, Jessica hurriedly lifted the Vengeful Spirit Doll in her hands.
"What's wrong with you?"
"My curse has been broken..."
The Vengeful Spirit Doll stared fixedly at Jessica, its face hideous and terrifying.
"We're in trouble."
"His spirituality is very strong. He might be an Extraordinary."
As the Vengeful Spirit Doll spoke, one of its eyes fell out. It landed on the bed and rolled across it onto the floor, yet it continued staring fixedly at Jessica.
"Little Jessica, this doll won't be able to house me much longer. I need something else. Lend me your body and make a contract with me. You've seen for yourself over these years that I won't hurt you. Trust me."
Jessica remained silent.
"If you make a contract with me, you'll be able to wield my power too. Isn't that what you've always dreamed of? Instead of relying on me, you can truly obtain power of your own."
The Vengeful Spirit Doll continued trying to entice Jessica.
Jessica sank into thought.
Several years ago, she had stumbled upon a passage of scripture that could summon mysterious Spirit Bodies. She had secretly prepared materials for an offering and attempted the summoning. After many attempts, she had finally succeeded in summoning a Spirit Body and sealing it inside a doll.
Her contact with it over the years had also taught her what kind of Spirit Body she had summoned: a vengeful spirit from Absanik, the Fawcett who was now at her side.
Absanik had been a town in the Rune Kingdom two hundred years ago. A sudden flood had submerged it, erasing it from the map forever. The lives lost in that disaster had given rise to many vengeful spirits of the drowned.
The one she had summoned was among them.
This vengeful spirit specialized in certain curses. She had tried them several times. Some attempts had failed, others had succeeded. Overall, the results were quite good, including the sudden deaths of her parents.
Yes, she had killed her own parents. Jessica felt no guilt or remorse about it. On the contrary, she saw it as a symbol of boundless freedom. No one would control her anymore. She had had enough of her parents' lectures.
She could kill anyone she found displeasing.
Once this so-called cousin Bruce arrived at Wayne Manor, he would surely restrict her just as her parents had. Her sister had even said he would throw them out, so he had to die too. She was absolutely free and needed no one to control her. Besides, she didn't like Bruce.
But it seemed this vengeful spirit couldn't deal with Bruce.
"You're useless."
Jessica had never heard of Extraordinaries, but she knew this vengeful spirit was no longer useful. She tossed the Vengeful Spirit Doll aside, throwing it into a corner like a piece of rubbish.
"I have another set of materials. I'll perform another summoning and summon a stronger Spirit Body. It'll help me get rid of Bruce."
Jessica got out of bed and walked toward the door.
"Wait, Jessica! No, don't do this! I can try again. I was only joking just now. You haven't smiled in so long, Jessica."
No matter how the Vengeful Spirit Doll called out, Jessica ignored it. She walked out and pulled the door shut behind her.
"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!"
The Vengeful Spirit Doll shouted from the corner. Despite its fury, there was a note of helplessness in its voice.
Sealed inside the doll, it could barely move. It also realized that it had been too impatient just now, making Jessica wary of it again. But it truly did need Jessica's body.
The sudden appearance of others of its kind, along with Bruce and his spirituality, had made it impatient enough to lose its composure.
But Jessica was its real headache. It knew all too well what this little girl could do. If she continued summoning Spirit Bodies, another powerful rival would soon appear.
Then it would never get its hands on that treasure in Wayne Manor.
Worse still, Jessica's summoning would inevitably cause a disturbance. The Nighthawks of the Goddess of the Night Church were very likely to appear, and its situation would become extremely dangerous.
It had already exhausted its Spirituality Power.
"No, I have to do something, or I'll be annihilated here."
The Vengeful Spirit Doll spun anxiously in the corner.