The Lustful Villain: Every Milfs and Gilfs are Mine!-Chapter 189. I Grabbed the Gauntlets, Picked Two Girls, and Outran a Collapsing Retreat.

Chapter 189: 189. I Grabbed the Gauntlets, Picked Two Girls, and Outran a Collapsing Retreat.

They were all present, not preserved or maintained, but simply abandoned, like objects intended to endure through time.

The silence enveloping the scene was almost tangible, as if time itself had chosen to halt in respect. Dust motes floated gracefully in the beams of light, illuminating the beauty of decay and the untold stories that lingered, waiting to be discovered.

The material was the island’s dark volcanic rock, which was shaped into articulated plates that covered the hand and forearm in a way that was both useful and clearly the work of the same careful mind that had designed everything else in this space.

The best lines of Elder Script continued along the top of each gauntlet in the same hand as the writing on the outside of the chest. The intricate designs told stories of ancient battles and the island’s rich history, each symbol meticulously carved to convey meaning.

As the light shifted, the gauntlets seemed to come alive, hinting at the power and protection they were meant to bestow upon their wearers.

Rex looked at the gauntlets and felt the system notification turn on with the same steadiness it had when he first pressed his hand to the seal above.

[ARTIFACT IDENTIFIED: GAUNTLETS OF THE EARTH SOVEREIGN’S VESSEL]

[CLASSIFICATION: DIVINE REMNANT — FIRST GENERATION APOSTLE INSTRUMENT]

[CONDITION: FULLY INTACT]

[FUNCTION: CONDUIT FOR EARTHEN DIVINE AUTHORITY. THE APOSTLE’S DESIGNATION POWER IS STORED WITHIN THE INSTRUMENT. WEARING THE GAUNTLETS ALLOWS THE BEARER TO ACCESS THE EARTHEN APOSTLE’S ACCUMULATED DESIGNATION ABILITY.]

[NOTE: THE EARTH SOVEREIGN IS NO LONGER ACTIVE IN THE DIVINE REGISTRY. THE DESIGNATION IS PATRONLESS. A PATRONLESS DIVINE DESIGNATION ABSORBED BY A BEARER WITH AN EXISTING DIVINE AFFINITY CAN BE INTEGRATED INTO THE BEARER’S EXISTING AUTHORITY STRUCTURE.]

[ADDITIONAL NOTE: BEARER’S EXISTING AUTHORITY — MARK OF LUST AUTHORITY — IS A DIVINE-CLASS DESIGNATION. INTEGRATION IS POSSIBLE. THE EARTH SOVEREIGN’S DESIGNATION WOULD FUNCTION AS A SECONDARY AUTHORITY LAYER RATHER THAN A PRIMARY ONE.]

[PRACTICAL EFFECT: ACCESS TO EARTHEN DIVINE CAPABILITIES WITHOUT A DIVINE PATRON’S LIMITATIONS.]

[ASSESSMENT: TAKING THE GAUNTLETS WILL TRIGGER DUNGEON COLLAPSE SEQUENCE. THE STRUCTURE WAS BUILT TO RELEASE ITS CONTENTS ONCE AND RETURN TO THE EARTH. EXTRACTION WINDOW ESTIMATED AT FOUR TO FIVE MINUTES FROM REMOVAL.]

Rex read through it and held the number in his mind. The total time required is four to five minutes, which includes the return passage back up and out.

He could actually manage that; especially the gauntlet seems like it was whispering right at his ear to just take it and plan with it for the future.

’This gauntlet... really could just completely change my plan to ruin the Apostle’s life in Aethelgard.’ Rex thought. ’I could postpone my plan of becoming The Undead Bringer and use this gauntlet to become a new entity who can harness the power of the earth.’

’Yeah... that’s it. That’s actually a good fucking plan.’

"The gauntlets," Talyra said from next to him.

She was looking at them with the look she saved for things that were obviously important and meant to be taken, not left. "We should take them."

"As evidence," she said, in a way that made it clear that she had remembered that assessment criteria were important. "The committee is going to want proof of what we found in here."

"A first-generation Apostle instrument is—" she stopped and chose a different word than the one she had been going to use, "significant doesn’t really cover it."

Aisella had moved to the other side of the chest and was writing down the entries in a short form like she did in the field.

"I have the inscription written down in my kit." She said, "The structural parts of the chest will be read in the sample material I took from the chamber walls."

She looked at the gauntlets. "The gauntlets are actually the most important piece of physical evidence."

She turned to Rex.

"Well... It’s up to you to decide, Rex," she said, and she didn’t sound like she was being polite.

This recognition came from someone who had witnessed Rex go through two guardian chambers and a divine evaluation, leading her to conclude that his judgment was the most important factor in this situation.

"Get the samples you need and get ready to move quickly," Rex said. "We have four to five minutes before this structure collapses once these samples are taken out of the chest."

Aisella looked at him with the look of someone who had just heard something surprising and was thinking about it instead of questioning it.

"How do you... know that?" she asked.

"System information," Rex said. "Just like I knew the Apostle was here."

A pause. She filed it with the same efficiency she applied to everything.

"I already gather all of the samples," she said. "We’re ready to leave now."

Talyra had her pack strapped down and her bow across her back. She was already at the entrance to the passage, ready to go, like someone who had planned the way out and was waiting for the signal.

"Alright... here goes nothing." Rex put both hands on the chest and pulled the gauntlets out.

The stone’s warmth had been constant in the dungeon, but it changed as soon as the gauntlets were taken off.

It changed from the background pulse Rex had been following since the door was locked to something much more immediate: a deep vibration that started in the floor and moved up through the walls at a frequency that was felt more than it was heard.

The golem’s amber eyes lit up once and then went out completely.

The stone around the chest’s edges started to lose fine mineral dust, and the ceiling made the sound of a lot of mass moving.

"Let’s get the hell out of here now," Rex said.

He didn’t wear the gauntlets. He used his telekinesis to lift them up and free both of his hands.

Then he looked at the two people he had brought here and figured out how to get them out as quickly as possible.

"Hold on," he said, and before either Talyra or Aisella could ask what was happening, he picked them both up.

The telekinesis enveloped Talyra and Aisella in a carrying field that differed from the combat applications Rex had used in the dungeon. While combat telekinesis exerted force in a specific direction, this was more like a cradle—a full-body field that supported their weight from all sides. It allowed them to be moved effortlessly, without the need for any action on their part.

Talyra made a noise that expressed both surprise and a deeper emotion as she reached for something that wasn’t there; the field was holding her completely, so she didn’t need to grab anything.

Yet, the sensation was overwhelming, a blend of exhilaration and vulnerability that coursed through her. She closed her eyes, allowing the field to envelop her further as she contemplated the possibilities that lay within this strange, supportive embrace.

"This is quite a new experience for me..." she said, her face starting to flush.

Aisella’s hands went up automatically, but there was nothing to hold on to, so she slowly brought them back down to her sides as she thought about the field and decided that fighting it was pointless.

"Never do this to us again, Rex... Please!"

"Don’t worry... it’s a one-time thing."

Rex got up and moved.

The way back up through the dungeon wasn’t very wide, but it was wide enough for three people in a telekinetic carrying field that Rex was running very well. He moved quickly through the passage, which was designed to fit his speed, and the gaps were just the right size for him.

The dungeon fell apart in a planned way, with the floor-level cracks spreading out from the inner chambers and the ceiling loss starting at the vault and moving toward the entrance to the passage.

Rex kept an eye on it and sped up.

The floor of the passage started to lose fine mineral dust, and the walls on both sides developed hairline cracks that came before major stone failure. Behind them, the deep vibration had gone from being a background noise to something that was physically present in the air.

Talyra, who was hanging in the field to Rex’s left, looked back once at the closing passage behind them.

"That’s moving faster than anything I’ve seen...!!!" she shouted, and then looked forward and didn’t look back again. "I regret looking back...!"

Aisella was on his right and had her paperwork kit against her chest, holding it there with both arms.

"Fifty-two meters to the upper threshold," she said, with the tone of someone who had decided that the most useful thing she could do right now was supply accurate information. "Based on the current crack propagation, we have a workable margin."

"Workable, yeah, thanks a lot, Aisella." Talyra said.

"I didn’t say comfortable."

Twenty meters from the surface, an earth construct dropped from the ceiling.

It wasn’t one of the guardian-class constructs that came from the lower levels. It was smaller, and it had the unique quality of being built into the dungeon’s structure rather than just being put there.

It was a last-resort measure that kicked in when the collapse sequence was already underway.