Lewd System: Every Scream and Moan is EXP

Chapter 240: Chapter 240 : Jax is Cooking something

Cleenah was stunned.

Jax was laughing. Not a chuckle. Not a nervous deflection. Full, unhinged, maniacal laughter that bounced off the dungeon walls and filled every corner of the cursed space.

As if he had heard the funniest joke in the history of existence. As if the woman threatening eternal imprisonment was nothing but a street performer who had fumbled her act.

Cleenah’s smile twitched. ”Looks like you don’t understand the seriousness of the situation here.”

She held up the dark crystal. Letting the cursed light catch every eye in the room.

”You see this stone? This is the only way out of here. The dark mage professor distributed one to each of us before teleporting everyone inside. The plan was simple. Kill the one you’re so fixated on saving, then use the stones to escape.”

She gestured toward the butchered remains of the dark mage woman. ”However, things didn’t quite go as planned.”

Ava stepped forward. ”Commander, we’ve collected all the stones from the dead.”

She held out her palm. Four dark crystals sat neatly in a row.

”One from the dark mage professor. One from her student.” She glanced at the pieces Jax had carved. ”One from Professor Amael. And one from the martial boy who was ultimately defeated by Lilith.”

Cleenah looked at the girls. Gave a nod as if to say bring them. Then turned her attention to the others.

Her eyes met Seris first.

”I’m sorry, Princess. But you have to die here as well.” Her voice carried no apology despite the words. ”Otherwise it would be difficult to craft the story we need to ignite the fire. To wage the war against the demons.”

She tilted her head.

”You will serve as a sacrifice. For the good of the world.”

Seris’s voice cracked. ”How can you do this?”

But before anyone could respond, movement caught their attention.

Jax had started walking.

Cleenah smiled. Readied her stance. Adjusted her grip on the holy sword.

”You really think you can fight me? Just take this away by force?” She raised an eyebrow. ”If so, you’re delusional.”

Jax didn’t answer.

He walked right past her.

Past Ava. Past Celestine. Past the threat and the stones and the holy sword from a distance.

He walked to Lilith. Sat down beside her on the cold stone floor. Looked at the pain twisting across her face.

”You don’t have to worry about anything. Just sit back and let me handle the rest.”

Cleenah’s composure cracked. ”I can’t take this anymore.”

Then a grin spread across her face. Wide. Dangerous.

She dropped the stone to the ground.

All eyes followed it.

”Still taking it lightly?” She raised her foot above the crystal. ”Then let me show you which pit you’ve all fallen into.”

She crushed it beneath her boot.

The crystal shattered. Fragments scattering across the stone floor.

She looked at Ava and extended her hand. Ava handed over the remaining four stones without expression.

Cleenah held the first one up. ”Here goes one life.”

She crushed it.

Held up the second. ”Here goes another life.”

Crushed.

The third. ”And finally.”

She squeezed it between her fingers with a smile that could freeze hellfire.

”Here you all go to hell.”

The stone crumbled.

Then her grin faded.

Because the fragments in her palm didn’t look right. The dark crystals that had pulsed with cursed energy just moments ago now crumbled into ordinary stone. Dull. Grey. Dead. Like common pebbles plucked from a riverbed.

Every stone she had crushed was the same. Worthless. Fake. Illusions wearing the skin of teleportation shards.

Her head turned from face to face. Confusion warping her expression into something genuinely comical. Her eyes were wide. Her mouth hung slightly open.

She looked like someone who had just bet their entire fortune on a rigged game only to discover they had been the mark from the very beginning.

Then her gaze landed on Jax.

He was grinning.

Her voice came out broken. ”What did you do?”

Jax didn’t answer.

Instead, Ava moved. Walking casually toward Jax with a smile that held not a single trace of guilt.

”Jax, isn’t my Phantom Façade skill just top tier?” She said it with the pride of a merchant showing off her finest goods. ”Using it, I’ve tricked so many nobles and merchants out of fortunes you wouldn’t believe.”

Cleenah’s world crumbled.

Then she saw Celestine. Already kneeling beside Jax, one hand glowing with healing light pressed against his wounds. And in her other hand, resting neatly on her palm, sat four dark crystals.

The real ones.

She handed them to Jax without ceremony.

Jax pocketed the shards and looked at Celestine. ”Can you heal her first?”

He pointed to Lilith, who was still trembling on the ground, confused but too exhausted to process anything beyond her own pain.

Celestine shook her head. ”I’m afraid I can’t. My healing skill is based on holy magic. If I use it on her, it would only make things worse.”

Jax nodded. Accepted it without argument.

Cleenah had had enough. Her voice dropped to something low. Dangerous. Barely contained.

”Betrayal.” The word left her mouth like venom. ”What is happening?”

Ava turned to her. That same casual, unbothered expression.

”What do you mean? Didn’t we tell you? We don’t follow anyone’s orders. We were only sticking around you because the Saintess told us it would be a good opportunity for—”

She coughed. Loudly. Awkwardly. Her eyes flickering toward Lilith and Seris before snapping back.

”Actually, we wanted to win. But our plans changed after seeing someone today.”

Her voice hardened.

”And to be honest, we would have killed you with our own hands for whatever you plotted. And especially for whatever you threw at our friend Jax.”

Cleenah’s eyes narrowed. ”Friend?”

Ava’s smile turned warm. ”Oh no. Much more than that.”

Something inside Cleenah snapped.

Golden mana erupted from her body. Wrapping around her frame like divine armor. Her presence blazed brighter than the sun itself.

The dungeon walls trembled. The enchanted trees swayed as if bowing before a force of nature.

The power she carried was godlike. As if the heavens themselves were pouring their strength directly into her vessel.

She screamed. ”You traitors! I will kill every last one of you!”

Her glowing sword rose. Sacred light radiating from the blade in waves.

”This sword will eradicate every evil and everyone associated with it!”

Jax smiled. His eyes were on Lilith when he spoke.

”Again, you are wrong.”

His voice was calm. Quiet against the storm of her power.

”You haven’t raised your sword against evil. You’ve raised it for the hatred you carry. And along the way, you became a far greater evil than those you ever hated.”

Cleenah hissed. ”Enough!”

Jax continued without pause. ”I know that in your path of revenge, you’ve laid many innocent lives to rest. Directly and indirectly. And today as well. Because of you, all these people died.”

His voice dropped.

”But the most evil thing you did. The one that would haunt you even after death.”

He reached inside his shirt and ripped through the runic gear. From the chest pocket beneath, he pulled out a runic stone. Small. Unassuming. Glowing faintly.

”Was when you killed Lilith’s mother. And a child.”

He held the stone up.

”I want to see how you break after I show you the truth.”

Cleenah’s jaw clenched. ”Enough of your tricks! I am not falling for a monster like you who killed the innocent here and now blames me!”

She charged.

The pressure she carried was immense. Lilith trembled violently from the holy presence alone, her demonic blood recoiling against the divine authority flooding the dungeon.

Ava attacked first. A holy beam launched directly at Cleenah’s path. It struck her back.

She didn’t stop.

Celestine activated her skill. ”Debuff.”

Cleenah’s muscles weakened. Her speed dropped. Her buffed strength dimmed.

She didn’t care. She pushed forward.

Walls of wood erupted in her path. One after another. Seris, still barely conscious, poured every last drop of magic she had into binding the paladin’s legs with roots and vines that coiled around her ankles.

Cleenah didn’t even look down. She tore through the bindings. Cut through the walls with her glowing sword. Each barrier lasting less than a second against her fury.

And as she broke through the last wall, a guest was waiting for her.

Jax’s sword met hers.

Unbreakable Steel against sacred light. Both blades grinding. Sparks and holy energy scattering in every direction.

But her strength was at its peak. Borrowed from the divine. Far superior to anything Jax could produce in his current state. His body was exhausted. Burned. Broken. Bleeding.

The force of their clash traveled through his arms. His muscles tore. His bones screamed. Every fiber in his body was being shredded by the sheer pressure of holding his ground.

And Cleenah knew it. She was smiling. Watching him crumble beneath her power.

Despite taking Ava’s holy attack on her torso. Despite the debuff weighing her body down. Despite Seris’s roots still clinging to her legs. Despite Celestine pouring continuous healing into Jax from behind.

She was winning.

Until she saw his face.

Blood dripping down his chin. Arms shaking. Body failing.

But he was smirking.

That devilish, infuriating smirk.

And behind him, a projection flickered to life.

Cleenah didn’t step back. But her eyes betrayed her. They shifted to the image forming in the air behind Jax’s shoulder.

It was a first-person perspective. Seen through the eyes of someone very small. The hands visible at the edges of the frame were tiny. Fragile. A child no older than four.

The perspective bobbed up and down with clumsy running. The world around the child was enormous. Adults towered like giants.

Voices echoed through the projection. ”Slow down! You’ll fall!”

Then another voice. Warmer. Closer. ”Lilith, you’ll hurt yourself! And your mama will scold you again!”

The child’s head turned in the projection. Looking up at the woman who had spoken.

And in the sweetest, most innocent voice imaginable, the child replied.

”Don’ wowwy, Aunt Rosaline! I gots a trick to escape it!”

The projection shifted slightly. Just enough to show the woman standing beyond the child’s tiny perspective.

A pregnant woman. Smiling down at the little girl with warmth that could melt winter.

Cleenah’s strength vanished.

Not weakened. Not reduced.

Gone.

Because she recognized that woman. Recognized that face. That smile.

Her mother.