While My Mage Wife Grinds, I Power Up Idly-Chapter 54: Cidi Hypnosis

With the rise of his Evil Power, the female soldier’s vital signs were rapidly declining.

She had already been struck by lightning and subjected to Forest Elf Leia’s torture; the relentless series of Lustful Climaxes was no reward, but a punishment.

Her body kept sending garbled signals to her brain, leaving her mind incapable of dealing with such grievous injuries.

In barely thirty seconds,

the soldier began convulsing violently before collapsing into unconsciousness.

At that moment, Ashu turned to the others bound against the pillars.

"Leia, wake her up."

Having issued the command, he strode over.

The captives looked at Ashu as though he were a demon.

They could not fathom the torment the soldier had endured; all they saw was that when Ashu touched her, she writhed in agony and then passed out.

It must have been excruciating.

Watching this, their resolve cracked.

They had come to rescue their lord—proof of their loyalty. But faced with inhuman torture, joining this cult was clearly the easier choice.

As long as they lived, there remained a chance to save their master.

Thus, when Ashu approached the next intruder, he immediately blurted out, "I—I’ll join! Please don’t hurt me. I’ll do anything to join!"

Ashu regarded the soldier with a faint smile.

"Very well. Welcome to the Cidi faith—but mere words won’t suffice." Silently, he shaped his Magical Essence into a razor-sharp blade.

As Leia released her Vine, he carved the mark of CidiDevotee into the intruder’s chest.

Compared to being struck by lightning or pierced by a Vine, this superficial cut was nothing.

"All right. From now on, you are a CidiDevotee. May Cidi watch over you."

The moment the mark was complete, Leia’s Vine relinquished its grip entirely. Feeling the ripping pain as the foreign object tore away from his Achilles, the intruder let out a howl.

At the same time,

Ashu felt his own CidiEvil Power surge to a new tier.

Instantly, a fresh blessing from Cidi descended upon him.

As before, the blessing manifested as a new skill.

[Cidi Hypnosis: Grants the ability to hypnotically brainwash any marked CidiDevotee, with a chance to seize control of their mind.]

"No wonder this cult is so sinister—this skill is downright unholy!" Ashu thought.

He wasted no time.

Supporting the wounded intruder by the arm, he activated Cidi Hypnosis.

Immediately, the man’s expression went vacant and his eyes glazed over. Ashu sensed an invisible tug-of-war of wills: if Ashu lost, the hypnosis would fail; if he won, the man would become his loyal subordinate.

Already grievously wounded, the intruder’s mental strength had been largely sapped by pain—far too little to resist Ashu’s potent Evil Power.

Before long,

the man succumbed, his mind corroded by that dark force.

"Bishop," he addressed Ashu with reverence.

Ashu nodded, thoroughly satisfied with the man’s loyalty and equally impressed by this diabolical skill.

"I’ll leave it to you. Go and carve the same mark on them."

"Yes."

The two split the work, cutting their time in half.

These individuals’ mental resistance proved weak; aside from the Archmage soldier, each succumbed to hypnosis on the first attempt. She had needed three tries, combined with a double dose of Lustful Climax, before finally subduing her target.

Ashu’s gaze swept over the seven captives—thus the prototype for the new Cidi faith was complete.

However, they were all badly injured; to make use of them, their wounds would need tending first.

Fortunately, the Holy Cultivator Guild maintained a professional healing team.

Ashu withdrew several Gem of Deceit fragments from his robes and distributed them among the seven CidiDevotees—spoils he had pillaged from Midaldas’s chamber.

Once worn, these shards allowed one to move freely within the Church.

"Guard these fragments with your lives—under no circumstances must anyone see them," Ashu warned, then turned toward the stairwell. "Follow me. I’m taking you for Healing now."

Every movement sent waves of agony through bodies struck by lightning and pierced by Vines.

But for the sake of survival, they bore the pain and trailed after Ashu.

Otherwise, in this subterranean prison, they faced nothing but a slow death.

Ashu led the seven swiftly to the Clerics’ chamber.

The thunder had only just subsided and the Clerics had not yet retreated to rest when Ashu rapped firmly on the door.

"Knock, knock, knock."

"Who is it?" came a drowsy voice from within.

"It’s me, Ashu."

The voice jolted awake, and bare feet hurried across the floor to open the door. The one who emerged was an elderly, long-bald Cleric dressed in simple white garb. Bowing respectfully, he said, "Bishop Ashu, what are your orders?"

Ashu glanced at the seven behind him and said, "During that last storm, some citizens were injured. Please, administer Healing to them."

The Cleric immediately nodded. "It is my duty. Leave them to me."

A humble Cleric summoned all his wakefulness—ambition for advancement stirring in his mind. If he performed well, perhaps this "luminous saint" of a Bishop would notice and promote him.

Unfazed by the intruders’ penetrating wounds, the Cleric began to chant the sacred words, summoning a milky white aura of Healing power.

Light shimmered in his palm before spreading like an oily film over each patient. Under its touch, the lightning scars and Vine lacerations began to close and mend at incredible speed.

"That storm just now was the fiercest I’ve seen in my lifetime," the Cleric chattily remarked as he worked. "These people got lucky. Anyone else struck by lightning would’ve been reduced to carbon."

Finishing his healing, he added flattery: "Once again, it falls to you, Lord Bishop, to watch over the citizens even in the dead of night. Had they arrived any later, they might not have survived."

Ashu ignored the flattery and asked directly, "How long until they recover?"

"My Bishop, these injuries are severe. They should be fully healed by tomorrow morning," the Cleric replied.

"Very well. Then I’ll leave them in your care."

Having dismissed the seven wounded, Ashu returned to the loft above, where he and Anna revisited their Lust.

When dawn broke the next day, he had finished his morning routine, and the Cleric had worked through the night to complete the Healing on all seven.

Ashu led them down to the secret base— the underground chamber.

"Now that you’re CidiDevotees, your first mission is to intercept and destroy a Legion," Ashu announced. "You know what to do."

The seven exchanged glances. Though under hypnosis they were bound to the Cidi faith, their original memories remained intact: they knew of Vikrant’s betrayal and were aware of the direction in which the Legion had retreated.

"Yes, Bishop," they answered in unison.

"You will have the protection of the god Cidi." Though this "protection" was little more than formal rhetoric for new Devotees, the thoroughly brainwashed seven felt a surge of fervor at the promise. frёeweɓηovel.coɱ

"For Cidi!" "For Cidi!" "For Cidi!"

Ashu’s gaze fell upon the Archmage soldier. "Tell me your name."

"Audrey, my Bishop."

"Excellent, Audrey. I appoint you squad leader for this operation. This is a long-term mission: your priority is to eliminate the Legion’s commander, then wipe out the entire Legion. Remember, Cidi permits any methods you see fit. Complete this task, and Cidi’s blessing will be yours," Ashu urged.

Though the new Devotees had no real understanding of what such a blessing entailed, the very notion of it filled them with zeal.

Audrey responded at once, "We will not fail! I will kill Vikrant myself, then slaughter every last one of them!"

To this, Ashu simply commanded, "Move out."

Fully healed, the seven ascended the steps, slipped quietly out of the Church, and raced toward the border at full speed.

Not long after their departure...

Representatives of the Kyle family came to pay a visit.

As a Bishop of the Holy Cultivator Guild’s local Chapter, Ashu’s days were always full. It wasn’t work that required constant agonizing over strategy, but there was never a dull moment.

Hosting the Kyle family’s delegation was simply another item on his agenda.

He met them beneath the towering Divine Statue in the main hall of the Church. The visitor was the Kyle family’s own law enforcer.

Now that he was able to move about again, the enforcer couldn’t sit still. At first light, he’d already been out surveying the streets of Riven.

His inspection revealed that the town’s buildings suffered minimal damage—almost nothing of consequence. What troubled him, however, was the dense clusters of corpses scattered along the thoroughfares, awakening his professional instincts.

"Ashu Bishop, I believe I must ask for your assistance in this matter," the enforcer said as he strode through the Church’s great doors and up the central aisle.

"My friend," Ashu replied, "I am already aware of the situation. We shall pray for the departed."

"No—no, that’s not it, Ashu. Please, hear me out." The urgency in his steps left the enforcer winded; he paused to catch his breath before continuing. "Not a single townsfolk was lost in Riven, yet there are ninetytwo bodies lining the streets, gathered together as if they were mid-ceremony. You must have heard about last night’s storm—it was sudden, and the lightning struck with uncanny precision. I have reason to suspect it wasn’t a natural tempest, but the result of some ritual performed by those people."