Chapter 186: Chapter 184

Unlike a normal enslavement, I'd purposefully done so in a roundabout way as I needed Gabriel's soul to be free of the influence from the crests that were now on her body. Rather than forcing unconditional obedience, it would be more apt to say that she was a puppet, her body would follow the orders of Kalista, even while her soul remained completely aware and knowing that her actions were against her will.

There were a few reasons I had chosen this route instead of the simpler standard enslavement. The first and foremost being that I wanted to humiliate Gabriel. I had long since gone past any chance of reconciliation with the Archangel, and I was certain that such a haughty and prim being would be at the very least enraged by the acts her Avatar was going to be forced to perform, especially, since as I understood it, it was basically as if she went through the experience herself, rather than a separate entity.

For the most part, I simply let Kalista have her way with Gabriel, usually while I watched, an expression of scorn on my face as I flung the occasional ridicule towards Gabriel. Sometimes, however, I would order them to perform degrading acts, something I felt Kalista was a bit too much into, but since she was doing it of her own free will I didn't mention anything. Things of course started off small and simple, such as having them kiss feet, but I eventually moved on to more bold and indecent acts, even going so far as to have them act like dogs as I walked them through the city. Since I couldn't have Gabriel be seen, and I wasn't about to tarnish the name of the Eldur house, I made sure to control the light to prevent them from being seen, but since I gathered plenty of attention myself, it wasn't as if they could tell the difference.

This treatment continued for quite some time until things in the duchy began to settle and the restoration and aid efforts finished being necessary, and it was at this point that I moved to the final stages of my plans. Marian passed the responsibility of the house to her eldest son, officially making him the duke of the house, and I finally delivered my punishment to Alcrem. I had thought long and hard about what I was to do with him, and in the end, despite my contempt for the man, I didn't actually hate him, and could understand why he had done the things he had. That said, I wasn't going to forgive him, but neither was his punishment to be extremely severe, though it was cruel. The harshest part was his disfigurement, a necessary step to allow him to provide support to his son.

Beyond simply maiming him beyond recognition, I also carved several curses into his flesh, most of which were to simply prevent him from mentioning who he really was, or what his actual relationship to the Eldur house was. However, there was one that was the essence of his punishment, though perhaps some might see it as a gift. So long as the Eldur house was strong and a pillar of the kingdom, he would remain disfigured and cursed, however, should the house fall as a direct result of his actions henceforth, he would be freed.

Alcrem's entire existence up until this point had been ensuring the continuation and strength of the Eldur house, and now he was given a chance to further that goal, however, doing so would force him to be a disfigured and scorned figure, unable to reap any of the benefits. However, should he abandon the goal he'd worked on his whole life, he could be free, but then, what would be the point if the only thing he'd ever cherished had been ruined by his own hand?

I didn't really care what route he chose, I didn't plan on sticking around for too much longer, and while I wasn't fond of him, I didn't harbor any ill intent towards the house itself, so I did set up a stock of my blood that could be used to grant the future generations, a small fraction of the power of a phoenix. Of course, besides myself and my lovers, no one else knew that the blood also carried a curse, nothing detrimental, just a safeguard to prevent any issues in the future. Those Gifted with my blood would essentially revere me, and since it was an effect that would be present since birth, it would only feel natural and would prevent any dissent against me from any of the descendants of the Eldur house in the future.

With the majority of the things I desired to have resolved done, there were only a few more things that needed to be done, one of which was the final ritual between Kalista and Gabriel. I needed to sever Gabriel's connection to her Archangel self, something that was easier said than done, but I had already thought of a method, one that would allow me to gather information from her as well.

I readied the area before having Kalista and Gabriel come back to the now empty cavern. What I was about to do was something a bit more intricate than the brute force method I was able to perform on myself, and as such I had to have Ellie help me. I was still disappointed that she had yet to fully come around to allowing me to corrupt her, but I was slowly whittling her resistance down, though I could only hope that I was able to do so before she died.

I had prepared three altars, side by side, on the outer two lay Kalista and Gabriel, while the center one was empty. Ellie and I were almost like mirror images of each other as we performed the same movements, slitting the wrists of the two women laying on the altars, their blood flowing into the grooved stone that would complete the magic circle. Various words spilled from our mouths as we rhythmically chanted, channeling mana and Heresy and Life magic to manipulate the soul and bodies of the two dying women.

Ellie had it easier as she was dealing with only Kalista's soul, which was to be kept completely intact, while I was working with Gabriel who needed to be selectively trimmed before the ritual continued. Thankfully I had become more experienced with the manipulation of souls since my encounter with the Shadow Phoenix Ril's soul and I was almost certain that I hadn't made a mistake. With only the smallest of nods, I indicated to Ellie that we should proceed, our chanting becoming louder as our bodies swayed with dancelike movements to augment the ritual.

Soon our voices and movements reached their climax, and the two shapeless souls began to drift together, over the central altar, as the two lifeless bodies melted, their liquid flowing onto the center altar forming a single humanoid shape as the two souls mingled into a single entity, before descending and giving the only vague humanoid liquid a solid image as it quickly became a woman.

Once the ritual finished, Ellie and I practically slumped to the floor, both in relief and due to the exhaustion caused by such an unorthodox ritual. While the book given to me by Ellie had many strange rituals in it, this one was one of my own creation. I had of course referenced the book several times during the creation, and I'd done several test runs on small creatures and monsters, but until just now, there had been no guarantee that it would work, and even now, I didn't know if it had done as I wished, I could only hope that when the woman who was a fusion of Gabriel and Kalista awoke that she would be more Kalista than Gabriel. I had trimmed Gabriel's soul for that very purpose, and had even infused a small portion of my own soul, but I could only wait and see if things had gone as I wished.

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