Chapter 207: 199 – Meet Your Betters

Chapter 199 – Meet Your Betters

“This is your last chance to surrender,” the woman offers as she eyes our group.

“I’ll gladly offer you the same option,” I answer as the girls spread out in one of their initial formations.

The mysterious lady cackles at that and shakes her masked head. “This is not how this works, boy. You don’t parlay with the Dragon after strolling into its lair. You beg.”

“Gladly.” I smirk at her, considering my options. “I humbly beg you to rethink your choices before they result in something irreversible. I hate beating up women, you see.”

Unless they are pure evil and unhinged, but she doesn’t need to know that.

“You are a funny guy. Do you think you can stall me long enough for reinforcements to appear? I can squish you all with a swat of my hand at any moment.” She spreads her arms wide and the circuits on her cloak glow stronger. “Really, what did they think when they hired a completely inexperienced newbie company for this escort? Are their finances so bad after banning the very core of slavery? The change must have hit their own businesses really bad then.”

Ah, so it was like this. She and her organisation know jack shit about us. It’s quite possible that we are the reason behind this kidnapping. At least somewhat indirectly. They most likely would have hesitated more if Ross employed one of the usual top companies or assigned more of his own men to the task.

Instead, these suckers saw this as an opportunity.

And, I realise one more thing.

It’s not me who is stalling.

~Go after the cage and make sure Vanessa’s parents are alright,~ I order my loyal spider guard. ~You can take care of anyone who tries anything funny.~

I receive no vocal reply but sense a shift in the air right above me. Hecate listens to my request immediately, stealthily moving towards the men who are trying to escape with the cages. They won’t be able to get too far with her dangling right over their necks. A slight shiver runs down my spine at the too vivid image of a massive horrific spider descending upon one of the Humans and the woman takes it the wrong way.

“Finally realising how much fucked you are?” I can practically feel the smirk in her tone.

“Oh, you have no idea.” A slight snicker escapes me and the girls join me with a giggle.

That throws her off a little as she clearly misses what’s so funny about her statement but we aren’t going to clear that up.

Some commotion behind us catches my attention and everyone glances over their shoulder briefly. Paul and the others make their way into the chamber and instantly notice the villain in this scenario, bracing their weapons for combat.

“Great, we have even more rats in this shithole.” The boss lady groans.

A bunch of her subordinates decide to intervene regardless of her previous order to focus on the captives and she scowls at them. But, she doesn’t berate or shout at them for defying her. She might not be as confident in taking so many of us down as she would like to think she is.

“We can handle her. They moved the VIPs that way. Go after them and let’s meet back here in fifteen minutes,” I say to our friends.

They glance at the way I gesture with my head and Paul nods. Before rushing towards the opening, Shino whispers something to his ear and he lets out a soft sigh, to which she gives him a timid smile. Shaking his head, he starts heading away with the others in tow, save for the petite samurai girl who instead trots up to us.

“I really missed fighting alongside you, Sensei.” Shino blushes faintly as I raise a brow at her. “The poachers hardly count.”

“Where do you think you are going?” the woman shouts at the fleeing group and I shape my artefact into an ominous greatsword.

With a quick thought, I spend one charge of What’s Mine Is Yours to borrow Shino’s Moon-Slashing Arts. Feeling something new bubbling inside me, I let it freely flow through my body as I swing at the boss of the kidnappers.

Instead of a bright crescent, a deep purple arc soars forward, leaving a shadowy trail in the air. It slices through two poor grunts and whizzes right in front of the woman’s nose as she stops herself from turning towards the Heroes. She whips her head my way and glares at me through the holes in her mask.

Before she can curse at me or something, two thumps echo through the hall and both of us focus on the pair of bodies now lying face-first on the stone pavement. It’s the duo that was unlucky to have been on the path of my slash. Curiously, their robes bear no marks of any damage even though I’ve watched the curved projectile fly through their torsos at a slight angle. At the same time, blood starts pooling underneath them in copious amounts.

“That... almost looked like one of my skills, Sensei, but also not,” Shino says with a note of confusion and perhaps excitement in her voice.

All I know is that something happened when I tried activating one of her abilities and it became altered. I didn’t see anything like that the last time I used those besides them being much stronger in my hands than in hers, for obvious reasons.

An extremely rare pop-up appears in my vision and I give it a quick look.

『Mastery of the Voidtouched』

You can channel your Void Affinity through the bond with your Familiar and unleash various techniques and abilities connected to the Void. Until you build a proper Inner Core, your Familiar will serve as your catalyst. Your casting will be limited by their proficiency and magical constitution, as well as their spiritual fatigue.

Huh?

I turn to Diana and the big wolf does have a somewhat smug expression on her face as her tail wags softly, clearly aware that I just did something with her assistance. There are a few more notifications underneath that top one but we aren’t really in a situation where I can sit down and read every new thing so I only note the name All-Consuming Blade Arts Lv. 1 before returning my focus to the battle.

It looks like my union with Diana has finally provided me what I have been lacking to fully embrace the Void Affinity sitting in my status for so damn long already. Plus Shino’s katana arts, most likely. Otherwise, this would have happened earlier, somewhere between me meeting the scary doggo and us getting here.

No matter. Responsibilities first, fun after.

“What did you do to them?” the woman asks in a shout and slams her palms together.

Instantly, even more arrays cover all the surfaces around us and it’s fairly obvious that the negotiations are over. One of the golden circles flashes strongly and an outline of a similar colour surrounds the thugs along with their leader. They rush ahead with valiant cries on their lips, holding their simple weapons tightly.

We are forced to put even more distance between us as a few blue formations present on the ceiling shoot lightning strikes at our positions. The thunderous and crackling barrage isn’t that accurate and none of us has any trouble dodging, but our opponents don’t even have to. The bolts completely avoid them and I realise that it’s most likely thanks to the yellow aura protecting them.

This girl might be incredibly cocky but she isn’t stupid.

Suna raises her staff over her head and traces circles with it while chanting something as Besfi jumps around her to receive the lightning aiming for her friend onto her shield, suffering only faint shivers with each pass of violent electrical current. One would think that her full metal plate armour should be a death sentence, but Sirgia has clearly overdone herself with its insulation and other magical protection.

A white ring materialises above the duo and all the strikes are suddenly drawn to it. A bombardment of lightning focuses on that thin circle, hitting it so fast that it illuminates the hall almost permanently, deafening everyone inside as a side result. Nevertheless, it does its work and the others cash in on that immediately.

My turn is first as I reach out to the woman and call upon Void Chains to end the battle quickly. She senses that something is coming as the small purple gates of swirling smoke appear on the ground and activates another array. My chains fly right through her as her figure blurs and appears in another nearby place. Snickering to herself, she remains elusive until I pause my attempts for now.

Ressia drops to one knee and pulls out four arrows from her quiver. Their tips glow with red streaks and unfold into three-point claws. She releases the first volley, hitting all of the arrays she’s been aiming for, and hastily draws another. Within three almost instantaneous rounds, she skewers the targets right in the middle and they all detonate at the same time.

I turn my attention back to the cannon fodder just as the girls let one of the men get past. Shino is currently slicing some into pieces to my right while Astrea, Yuru, and Oniri are tag-teaming the suckers on the right in a flurry of motion. Not having to worry about anything frying my brain in a single strike, I meet the robed kidnapper with a proper swing.

His first attack is utterly pathetic and I simply cast it aside with a light shrug. He at least doesn’t lack the drive and continues to slice and stab his greatsword at me almost relentlessly, but the robes clearly match the man as it’s abundantly obvious that he isn’t a swordsman. I’m not sure what his Class is but this organisation either doesn’t value its low-rank members or they are shit at managing them.

Noticing that the woman is preparing to activate some more tricks from her long sleeves, I shoulder him and take a horizontal swing as his guard gets pushed into the air. That unusual tingle makes itself apparent once more and I allow it to do whatever it intends to. In a blink, my entire blade is sheathed with a dark purple shadow before it slices through my opponent.

Again, nothing seems amiss with him after receiving a killing blow besides his eyes wide from fear and generally frozen posture. His clothes are all fine even though fucker should be folding in half right now. I give him a kick to quicken his fall and that’s when his upper half is knocked off the bottom half, flopping back under my blow and dragging his body with it, blood starting to taint his robes.

“Bloody hell...” My brows rise in shock and realisation. “Does this shit cut only the body?”

An ice javelin interrupts my discovery and Diana lunges in front of me, catching the projectile in her sharp fangs. She crushes the crystal lance while releasing unamused growls. As more spikes dart from the woman’s cloak, she spins around and swipes her tail over the ground.

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She slaps her hands together and the entire fucking place turns into a rainbow of colours. Hundreds of magical circles shine fiercely at us from all angles. It might look incredibly beautiful and enchanting, but life has taught me many times that pretty things can be deceiving.

And a man recognizes a suicide detonation when he sees one.

Before she gets to ramp up, I flick my wrist her way and summon Void Chains in their purest form. The smoking, dark purple loops wrap themselves around the cone with lots of clunking noise, turning the woman’s figurative prison into a real one.

“Do you really think a couple of chains can—”

I squeeze my fingers into a fist and the spiritual bindings tighten. She pauses when something starts cracking and she realises it’s the barrier around her. A web of fractures quickly spreads over the swirling surface and it all shatters into pieces a moment later. The chains coil around her tightly and the blinding glow slowly fades away as they cut her access to magic.

There is time for games, and there’s time to be serious.

“How did you break my magic?” she screeches furiously. “Fuck. I’ll come to haunt you after my death you fucking bastard!”

“Back off,” I instruct the others with a hasty gesture and lunge forward, crossing the distance between us in a blink.

My fist smashes the mask into pieces, knocking the woman’s head back with her mouth already wide open to most likely break some kind of concealed insta-kill poison container disguised as one of her teeth or something. I grab her face with enough control not to smush it into a mush. She pales as muffled sounds escape her sealed lips and I push all of my focus into my godly, lustful aura.

I haven’t thrown it at anyone without any sort of limits in quite a long time and the full force of my scent hits the leader lady at full power from point blank. Thanks to the fact that she has my hand in her mouth, I bet my sweat and other things get in touch with her tongue too. It doesn’t take too much time before her eyes dilate a bit as she looks me in the face and her heart skips a beat.

A smile appears on my lips as the thumb of the palm that’s holding her mouth shut strokes her smooth skin. “Now, now. There’s no need to go that far, don’t you think? Do you really wish for your story to end here? A powerful master of magical arrays dying a rat’s death in some smelly sewer intersection? Is that how you want to go out?”

She doesn’t respond for a while, just staring at me unmoving, her pace of breathing slowly picking up speed, becoming shallower and hotter by the second. Finally, after a few seconds, she swallows thickly and gives her head a faint shake.

“I thought so.” I chuckle seductively. “It doesn’t seem to me that whatever organisation you are working for values your talents much for them to be ready to discard you so easily. In my honest opinion, that’s an incredible waste. I can’t even imagine forcing my subordinates to commit suicide after they make a little mistake. Rule by coercion and fear is just so inefficient. Instead, it’s much better to motivate your people with rewards, don’t you think?”

She gives me a nod this time, a bit sooner than her previous response.

“You know what? I can recognize true potential when I see it. And you seem like someone with quite the talent. My mercenaries could use someone as experienced as you. They are paid handsomely for their services.” My thumb continues to caress her cheek as she slowly relaxes, no longer clenching her teeth on my hand. “Or maybe I could use you. A versatile personal guard could be a wise idea. You would then have to stay by my side at all times, though. I’m honestly not sure if a lady such as yourself would be willing to make that sacrifice of privacy and personal space.”

She swallows strongly once more before bobbing her head with more energy, her nostrils flaring regularly. My sharpened senses don’t miss how her heart thumps heavily in her chest whenever I intonate my words with a soft emphasis. The scent of her arousal becomes very apparent too.

“But, no matter what I think or would like to do with you, nothing can happen without us talking things out properly like two adults.” I slowly wrap up the charming monologue before she somehow shakes my efforts off or something. “For that, I need you to cooperate. Are you going to be a good girl for me?”

With enough nodding to shake my hand, I slowly withdraw my palm and stealthily wipe it off the side of my outfit. Though, she doesn’t pay the slightest bit of attention to anything else than my face. As for hers, it belongs to a decently normal Human in her forties maybe. It’s hard to judge that accurately in this world.

There is no poison shattering, screaming, or any other unnecessary behaviour so I take it as a good sign. “Let’s start over. What’s your name?”

“They call me Arrie because I’m an Array Master, but...” She bites on her bottom lip hard, peeking at my eyes and away like she is afraid of disappointing me.

“You can’t reveal your real name?” I ask and she nods hesitantly. “As in, literally can’t, not are unwilling to?”

My guess is proven correct as she confirms it with another nod.

“These chains stop all magic.” My finger grazes one of the ominous purple links. “You don’t need to worry about some small fish curses and contracts.”

Hesitant at first, she finally opens her mouth to reply. “Madeline... Madeline Hagsburn...”

I hear a gasp, recognizing it as Catherine’s, and make a mental note to investigate it later.

Her eyes snap shut and her face scrunches in preparation for the worst, but nothing happens. Taking a cautious glance over herself she sighs in true relief.

“I can’t believe that didn’t kill me,” she whispers in astonishment, then her gaze snaps to mine. “Correlson, Grundier, Hanamudo, Asherlick, Bosto—”

“Wait, wait, wait!” I chuckle as she fires out a full barrage of what must be real names of the important people in the organisation that she knows of. “Can I take that as your desire to work with me?”

“Yes, yes, please. I will do anything you may require of me. I’m a very experienced woman. As long as you can destroy the killing curse, I can be anything you want.” She almost pants right in my face.

“Good.” I nod to myself. “Now sleep.”

Her eyelashes flutter as I reach for a simple slumber spell from the Charm Magic subgroup of my available skills and her head soon drops down as she falls unconscious. For this to work, the target has to be charmed first, but otherwise, it’s a rather potent wizardry.

Now that she can no longer try anything funny or accidentally kill herself, I cancel the chains and grab her around the waist, hoisting her onto my shoulder like a pack of potatoes. Turning around, I find everyone staring at me with various expressions. Naturally, most of my girls have flushed cheeks, wagging tails, and rub their thighs together from the blast of my sexual aura, but the men and people like Catherine or Natalie seem rather uncomfortable and wear anxious, perhaps worried expressions.

“What?” I raise a brow at the latter group.

“It’s honestly a bit scary how easy it is for a demigod to brainwash a woman into submission,” the military lady gathers her courage and voices her thoughts.

“That’s actually part of my Class and Titles rather than my divinity, or at least it was before I gained it, but nevertheless, you don’t need to worry that much. I can only use my charms on a very specific category of people while the others are completely unaffected. At least in terms of mentality,” I try to reassure her.

“How so?” Catherine shows a soft frown.

“Sensei can only use his powers this way on the bad guys,” Shino explains. “Anyone who has any kind of positive attitude towards him is immune to what you called brainwashing. So, it’s not like Sensei can walk into a tavern and make a random girl do whatever he wants. I mean, I’m sure he would be able to anyway with how handsome he is, but...”

Shaking my head, I chuckle at the deep flush spreading on her lovely cheeks. “More or less as she said. Only those with ill intentions towards me or others are affected by that side of my power. The neutral ones and those who are more positive will only experience a feeling comparable to a pleasant aphrodisiac with a boost in confidence. It’s confirmed that if you are for example thinking about doing something your anxiety is telling you it might make me look at you weirdly or be put off, this boost helps you gain confidence to push through and enjoy yourself.”

“That’s... rather extraordinary.” Catherine tilts her head curiously.

“Yeah. That’s my Class for you. It only benefits from conscious and willing interactions while giving me some tools to fend off the dangerous ones too.” I shrug nonchalantly. “Basically, I can’t push my full aura onto you and force you to suck my cock if that’s not something you already want. And even if I could, I can’t gain any power from manipulated bonds. Most likely can’t even form them. That’s why this Class has been considered one of the trashiest by the residents of this realm. You rely on the goodwill of others and your personal charm.”

“That’s all fascinating but I think we have places to be.” Kamil grunts on the sidelines.

A wave of chuckles rolls through the chamber as many people nod. So, we wrap this up right away. The remaining grunts lost their will to fight the moment I grabbed their boss, or possibly even earlier when Ailish floated her curvaceous body right in front of their eyes, so we chain them properly and make Diana transfer them to the surface, passing them onto the soldiers.

Then, we navigate the sewers to get back to our mansion. Astrea splits off to take care of the Community, sharing the news with her brethren and starting to work out the rewards we should offer for their help. The duels will of course happen, but I can’t very well leave everyone’s honest efforts unacknowledged. We’ll think of something soon.

We meet a few squads of knights on our way and let them know about the hideout so that they can search it properly and secure more evidence. I send a message to Lianne saying that we have things under control and to prepare to receive her guests soon. They both look alright but should go through a check-up anyway.

Arriving home and climbing up into the lobby, we find a bandaged Vanessa wearing loose sleepwear pacing back and forth while a few of our ladies are fussing over her and begging her to lay down. Noticing our entrance, she rushes to check on her parents before lunging at me with a bear hug and crying her heart out into my chest.

Shino and Natalie get her under control a few minutes later and she insists on going with her parents so we put the three of them into one of our carriages, alongside me, and head for the castle. Wary of any further attempts, we drive straight ahead at a breakneck pace, not wanting to see if there are more explosives planted under the road just waiting for some trigger.

Nothing happens until we reach our destination, where Ross is ready to receive us with lots of soldiers, healers, and servants. We officially pass the family into his hands and agree to speak about the details later. He takes the woman too since I’m not really looking forward to housing a homicidal racist radicalist under the roof of our house, no matter if charmed or not. I let him know to keep her unconscious without me present and we then leave.

Paul’s party decides to return with us after I offer my place as a spot to clean up, patch up, take a bite, relax, and maybe celebrate a successful mission since it’s a day off. The girls are definitely going to prepare a feast for me and there’s no reason they can’t enjoy it too.

A moment of respite before we start processing everything sounds like a good idea.

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