Volume 1
Chapter 1: The Witch in the Dungeon
“Mmm…”
The sound of a woman’s breath.
Why was her chest so heavy, so soft, yet also seemingly constricted by ropes, feeling both the roughness and the confinement of the ropes at the same time?
Yalan Diye felt it hard to bear, waking from the darkness. But this torment was, inexplicably, not entirely unbearable.
She saw that her surroundings were a cold, dark dungeon. Combined with her feelings, she realized she was bound and shackled to a heavy, massive crucifix. Not far away, hanging chains emitted a chilling, eerie glow.
She immediately lowered her head to check her condition, only to see that she was wearing a white pleated woman’s dress. The high prominence of her chest almost completely obscured her original intention to observe her male body.
The gasp brought on by horror tightened the ropes around her even more.
She couldn’t see her face, but what she saw when she looked down, combined with the sensation of her own body and the feeling of being pressed against a rigid wooden frame behind her, allowed her to vaguely estimate her physique.
Why was it so soft? Why did the sensation of contact with external objects feel so different, as if her body had become more beautiful by accepting these forces?
This body seemed to be immersed in the mercy of air and darkness, completely different from Diye’s usual sense of self-existence.
“Woman…”
Twenty-plus years of devout faith and absolute abstinence immediately brought a heavy sense of guilt and a burning sensation in her cheeks.
She had dedicated herself to the Holy Lord, to the Gods. As a Temple Knight who was absolutely forbidden from contact with women, she now… found herself transformed into a woman?
Moreover, she seemed to be dressed in a heretical attire.
She realized she had been captured, but had no idea how it happened. Before she even tried to struggle free, she first bowed her head in repentance. Perhaps she didn’t know what wrong she had done, but merely experiencing the sensation of a female body as a Temple Knight was a grave sin in itself, wasn’t it?
“Hehehehe… truly antiquated, stubborn. Do you care more about God’s opinion of you than your own predicament? Yalan Yedi, the strongest Temple Knight of the Empire, or rather, formerly the strongest.” From somewhere, a female voice, seemingly capable of enchanting and absorbing even darkness, drifted in.
“Who!?” The sensation of the female body and the guilt affected Diye’s judgment, so it took a few seconds for her to realize the voice sounded familiar.
“Winners are always forgetful, aren’t they? But hatred is etched into the soul.”
In the dark mid-air, a woman with long, jet-black hair without bangs, a face and figure that would satisfy all male desires in the world, indeed wearing extremely revealing black narrow lace that best stimulated desire, but with two demon horns on her head, was twisting her waist. Her fair, round, beautiful legs were crossed as she floated in the air, slowly drifting towards Diye.
“Cerise!” Diye blurted out, instinctively filled with hostility and disgust. However, that voice was soft and feminine, tinged with a hint of resentment. Remembering that she was tightly bound and seen by Cerise in a woman’s form, a wave of shame and strong resistance washed over Diye. Why was this happening? If only she hadn’t turned into a woman!
Succubus Cerise, one of the seven great demons who led the demon race in the last holy-demon war years ago. She had been defeated by herself, injured, and fled. Why was Cerise here?
Diye immediately realized it. She glared at Cerise, but her current expression looked more like shameful resentment. The heroic spirit of the empire, once so unparalleled, was no longer in her brows.
“It’s you!? You imprisoned me here, you turned me into this!? What exactly do you want to do?” Diye questioned in a voice that even she found shameful, but she had to ask.
How could the most powerful Temple Knight of the Empire, the strongest man of the new generation of humanity, turn into a woman? Diye had never heard of such a thing, but if it was Cerise, the Succubus Queen, it was very likely she used means beyond imagination.
How did she succeed?
“Why didn’t you kill me? You want revenge, you should have had the chance!” Diye asked what seemed like meaningless questions, only to probe for information, while secretly exerting her strength, trying to break free.
The ropes were too tight, seemingly imbued with magic. The more she struggled, the tighter they constricted her, making it difficult to breathe and exert force. She despairingly realized that her strength seemed much weaker than before. Why were her muscles so soft, so powerless! Although this strength was still far beyond that of an ordinary knight, Cerise’s torture device was by no means common.
“Kill you? Hehehehe, for a boy like you, who has long dedicated your life to God, who values honor and faith above all else with unwavering devotion, what kind of revenge would it be to fulfill your glorious name? Killing you wouldn’t overthrow the Empire either.” Cerise’s blood-red eyes, capable of causing all souls to fall, gazed at Diye.
“Look at you now, then think about your miserable life ahead. This experience is much more exciting than killing you.”
Talking more with a succubus would only lead to being seduced. Competing with a succubus in emotional intelligence was arrogant and overestimating oneself!
Diye lowered her head and began to pray softly.
“Oh, Most High, Almighty, All-knowing Holy Lord…”
This method was beyond human capabilities, but she was the ultimate believer in the Holy Lord, the sword of the Gods.
Now, only through prayer, by invoking divine power, could she undo her curse and punish the demon before her!
However…
Diye prayed again and again, with utmost sincerity and dedication, but received no response from God.
“Pfft…” It was suspicious that Cerise didn’t interrupt her, despite knowing the terrifying power of a Temple Knight’s holy light protection. Cerise simply let Diye repeatedly plead for divine protection, until she finally couldn’t help but cover her mouth with her slender, fair fingers and chuckled.
“What’s going on!?” Diye was incredulous. She longed for the holy light of God to cleanse the shame of her female body, even to punish her, but she received no response.
She wasn’t an ordinary believer. She was the strongest Temple Knight of the Empire, possessing divine power bestowed by God, enough to slay great demons. As the sword of the Gods, she had campaigned across the land, until she achieved victory in that decisive battle, personally slaying several great demons.
Of course, that was him.
But now, God didn’t even wish to acknowledge her?
“Did you put my soul into another woman’s body? Or is this an illusion?” Diye tried to deny everything before her, testing keenly.
“What illusion, another woman? This, is your own body.” Cerise floated closer, leaning in towards Diye. A scent that made one’s heart feel so comfortable it could faint wafted over her.
It was the alluring body scent emitted by the succubus.
Her beautiful fingers were like creations of heaven and earth, but their tips were like sharp, dark blades, tracing across Diye’s eyes and then moving downwards. Then, they suddenly squeezed forcefully.
“Ah—!”
Diye involuntarily let out a female scream that could make the gods abandon her.
She immediately forced her lips shut, but when the succubus applied pressure again, she couldn’t help but…
“Ah!…”
Grief, shame, unable to face the enemy’s mocking and seductive gaze, Diye wished she had been reincarnated as a male ostrich instead of a woman. She turned her head away.
“Do you understand? This is undeniably your own body. You are no longer Yalan Yedi, the top knight of the Empire. You are now Diye, a follower of darkness, a human heretic, a witch, Yalan Diye.” Cerise spoke as she pressed closer to Diye. The scent from her full lips made Diye involuntarily tremble.
“You, what did you say?” Diye shivered all over, cold sweat seeping from every part of her body. “What did you just say?”
“I said, you are now a charming little witch, Yalan Diye, with a blush-red face.” She breathed into Diye’s ear.
This acute sensory touch was like a gentle yet cruel judgment on Diye.
“Witch…”
“No, you’re lying… This is impossible… I am not a woman, and I am certainly not a witch!” Unable to receive divine power, Diye secretly used her own strength to unleash the advanced martial art ‘Body Assault Power’. Her frail body’s strength surged, causing the entire torture rack to tremble, but it was still useless.
“It’s no use… You, just face reality.” Cerise’s fingers traced through the darkness. A blood-red magic circle appeared behind her. From the red ripples in the darkness, she drew out a long, slender mirror.
She caressed it with one hand, pushing the mirror to reflect Diye.
In the mirror, under the dim light, Diye was wearing a blue and white gothic corseted long dress. The skirt, shamelessly, was completely split in two in front, its white petal edges like jagged teeth tearing at Diye’s self-esteem.
A pair of fair, full, and slender beautiful legs, with black garter stockings, were directly exposed from the skirt. What a rebellious and heretical outfit!
Her hair was a casually layered black medium-length style, with a braid on one side that had a distinct oriental feminine charm, resting on her slender shoulder. Beneath the bangs, her face was etched with sorrow, clearly an angelic face yet bearing an unwilling divine aura of corruption. Those golden eyes, as if tempted by a demon, stared back at her in the dark mirror.
“No, no… I am not… My heart has never wavered, not even now…” Diye somewhat reluctantly encouraged herself. She saw her prominent chest rising and falling. As a Temple Knight who could not lie, she could not deny that she had become a woman, but she would absolutely not admit that she had become a witch, absolutely not!
Witch…
That was the source of human calamity, the instigator of plague, disaster, and deception, and even more, the seducer of sin!
The Age of Exploration established humanity’s dominance in the world as descendants of the Gods. After the last holy-demon war, witches became the greatest internal threat to the human world.
Not only the Imperial military, the Temple Knights, and various feudal lords and noble powers were hunting and punishing witches throughout the realm, but recently, humanity had also established a specialized Witch Hunter Cult. This showed how great the harm witches posed to the human world.
Witches were women abandoned by the gods and disdained by the world!
He, Yedi, the Empire’s First Temple Knight, the man most trusted by God, by His Majesty the Emperor, and by the Holy Grace Church!
How could he become a witch?
“No, this is impossible, Cerise, your seductive and vulgar methods won’t work on me. You might be able to change my body, but you cannot influence my will! I will absolutely not betray my faith, I absolutely cannot be…”
Whoosh—!
Cerise suddenly grabbed a chain in the darkness and pulled it forcefully.
Clang-clatter—
The chains shackling Diye suddenly tightened upwards due to some mechanism.
“Ah!”
Diye’s fair, beautiful legs were violently pulled up, forced to bend backward and rest on her shoulders…
“You, take a good look. Have you become duplicitous after turning into a woman? This is the real you!” Cerise raised a hand to grab Diye’s slender ankle, holding the mirror with the other, facing it towards her.
There, on the slick, snow-white skin of Diye’s inner left thigh, was a beautiful, rose-red secret pattern, seemingly unaware of the world.
At this moment, Diye was stunned…
With her knowledge, she naturally knew what that was.
“The Witch’s Mark, this is a symbol of heresy, a sign of a witch. Little sister, if the Empire knew that their most trusted and revered Supreme Temple Knight had not only turned into a vulgar and seductive woman, but also had a witch’s mark tattooed on her inner thigh, what do you think the people would feel?” Cerise relentlessly shattered Diye’s defenses at every opportunity.
For a moment, Diye’s thoughts seemed to fall into a blank. She couldn’t even hear what Cerise was whispering in her ear. Past memories, little by little, began to surge uncontrollably.
Once, Yedi was a young nobleman from a fallen family who only wanted to live a comfortable life. After his family was destroyed, he was saved by his teacher, who discovered his talent for swordsmanship, and he then embarked on the path of a knight.
At a young age, Yedi had already become the strongest in the Empire, ranked as the First Temple Knight.
After that great war, Yedi chose to retire, giving up high office and generous salary, choosing instead to become an ordinary swordsmanship teacher at the Imperial Holy Academy.
He thought everything would return to peace, away from strife, as he wished.
But who knew… perhaps as Cerise said, things that winners take for granted and easily forget are deeply etched revenge for the losers.
Cerise did not flee to the lower abyss. She returned, and she sought revenge on him.
“How is that possible? Although I retired, I never neglected my skills, and my faith has never wavered. I am not afraid of you! I… ah!” Diye tried to forcefully counterattack, but her attempt turned into a helpless moan under Cerise’s squeeze.
Her voice involuntarily lost its power, “Why… how could you succeed? I am not afraid of you, Cerise, your alluring methods, they, they are useless against me!”
Asking these questions now was not meaningless. She knew her body’s ability to resist the other party’s methods was insufficient, but her fighting spirit in her heart had never given up a single chance.
“Yes, how could the strongest Temple Knight, protected by the gods, be turned into a little woman by me? Why is this? Why don’t you ask the God you believe in?” Cerise stuck out her tongue and licked Diye’s earlobe, causing Diye’s legs to tremble, and the witch’s mark seemed to become even more vivid.
“Indeed, as a boy, you were so strong. So many Holy Knights fell beneath my skirt, but you, you remained unmoved. I will never forget the scars you left on me! But, you also have a fragile, delicate side that no one knows about, don’t you?”
The warmth from Cerise’s lips seemed to dismantle Diye’s mental defenses, but it also gradually made her recall her recent memories…
“Yedi, you, fell in love with her, didn’t you?”
That night, Yedi knelt alone in the old temple behind the desolate mountain of the academy. He didn’t want anyone else to hear him confessing to the Holy Lord there.
The candlelight flickered. He was there, preparing to atone through self-flagellation, to seek the Holy Lord’s forgiveness.
“What was her name again… Qingruo, the female Temple Knight.” Cerise continued to lean in and whisper to Diye, her hand wantonly brushing her cheek.
The self-reproach from his male heart and the burning sensation on her female face combined into a double dose of shame and contradiction, almost tearing Diye’s self-esteem apart.
Yes, he was once unassailable. He had even won the holy-demon war, so why fear a lone succubus?
However, after coming to teach at the Holy Academy, his heart changed because of one person.
That was her.
Qingruo Reid**.
The first genius girl of the younger generation, hailed as the leader of the Empire’s new generation of Temple Knights after Yedi’s retirement.
She was strong, perfect, disciplined. There was something about her that Yedi could not resist.
The incredibly resolute Yedi, unknowingly, became attracted to her during the process of teaching this genius girl.
By the time he realized it, he was already deeply entangled.
“Oh, how romantic, teacher and student, the strongest of the previous generation and the strongest of the present day. Both of you claim to be incredibly pious, loyal, and swore allegiance to the gods as Temple Knights!” Cerise’s voice lingered in Diye’s ears, as if she were simultaneously present everywhere around her.
“Hehehehe, who could you fall in love with? Yet you fell for that female Temple Knight whose will was even stronger than yours, who clearly had a charm no less than mine, yet was chaste and destined for lifelong abstinence. Don’t you think our hair is very similar? You like long black hair, right? Hmm? How about, being with me, big sister? Big sister can be with girls too…”
“Shut up! You, you despicable…”
Diye remembered everything, which made her rebuttal gradually lose its strength.
Ever since he fell in love with his student, Qingruo, his divine power had gradually drained away, and God’s responses became increasingly vague. He blamed himself, struggled, and suffered, confessing to God, but he couldn’t change the wavering in his heart.
That night, he was found vulnerable by the succubus…
When she woke up, she had already become like this.
The former strongest Temple Knight of the Empire, the executor of the Holy Lord’s will, the sword of the Gods!
Now, she had become a witch, abandoned by the gods and despised by the world.
Once the most devout savior, now, she had become a heretic who brought calamity to the human world.
At some unknown point, the chains and ropes loosened.
The cold chains clanged and jingled as the girl, stripped of divine favor, slowly fell under her own weight, weakly kneeling on the cold ground.
Was this the demon’s revenge, or was she to blame?
Even now, she did not fear the succubus, but she could not forgive herself.
The candlelight in the dungeon flickered, illuminating her soft, angelic face.
Underneath her scattered hair, dark shadows swayed, obscuring her once clear eyes.
She gradually lost consciousness…
T/N: Just a note
1. 亚岚夜狄 (Yàlán Yèdí) – Original Male Name (Pre-Transformation)
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亚 (Yà) – Means “second,” “inferior”
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岚 (Lán) – “Mountain mist”
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夜 (Yè) – “Night”
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狄 (Dí) – An archaic term for “barbarians”
2. 雅兰蒂夜 (Yǎlán Dìyè) – Transformed Female Name (Post-Transformation)
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雅 (Yǎ) – “Elegant,” “refined”
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兰 (Lán) – “Orchid”
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蒂 (Dì) – “Stem” or “calyx”, also homophonous to “帝” (dì, “empress”)
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夜 (Yè) – Retained from his old name.
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