Wyrms: They are rumored to be the strongest abnormals in the entire Reclamation Army. While some individuals, such as Devourer, Ravager, or Outsider, stand above wyrms, in general, no other abnormals in the Reclamation Army come even close to the power of an average wyrm. Originally, they are born as normies, but over the years, they grow scales on their bodies, their bones start to change place, and their bodies slowly enlarge. The process takes many years, but eventually almost every future wyrm returns to their homeland for full transformation. Despite having enormous bodies, these new breeds nonetheless prefer to live in tight spaces, feeling uncomfortable in open spaces. Their society highly values family names and ranks, it is considered unthinkable for them to denounce their family name. So far, only Wyrm Lord and Scorpio have denounced their families. Despite their scary appearance, most wyrms are very hospitable and enjoy trading stories and information about the world. Highly territorial, they dislike leaving their place of birth, much to the displeasure of the Dynast, who is annoyed at the fact that some of the strongest new breeds in the state refuse to join the army.

All wyrms have the innate power to influence the minds of others. Mind control is frowned upon in the Reclamation Army, yet Dynast allowed an exception for the wyrms. The wyrms joined the state more than one hundred and eighty years ago. The Thunder Emperor Vasco Murzaliev, the biggest wyrm to ever live, invaded the lands of the state, subjugating one of the cities, leading a host of wyrms with him. In response to this, the third, second, and first armies were given orders to unite and repel invaders. Without waiting for Outsider or Devourer, Ravager challenged the Thunder Emperor to a duel. The duel between the two lasted for half a day and destroyed a mountain range to the south of the captured city. At the end of it, a badly wounded Ravager feasted upon the remains of Vasco Murzaliev. Other wyrms asked Ivan Murzaliev to take revenge for the death of his father, but the golden wyrm merely bared his neck, allowing Ravager to leave a scar on him and take control over the lands of wyrms. Children of defeated enemy leaders were sent to the Dynast to be trained as his bodyguards, according to state custom. Yet Ravager made a claim on Ivan Murzaliev for herself. The Dynast allowed Ivan to stay in the Third Army and stripped him of his name and rank. From that day, Ivan Murzaliev was known only as the Wyrm Lord. Soon enough, Ivar Murzaliev, the bastard son of the Thunder Emperor, also left the lands of wyrms, joining the third army as well. A few years after this, wyrm Scorpio also denounced his family name and joined the 3^rd Army with his lover, going so far as to not return to his homeland to complete his transformation into a wyrm. Instead, he became one in the lands of the 3^rd Army. In the known history of wyrms, only Scorpio was the one to complete his transformation in distant lands.

Trial of strength: A custom of the Reclamation Army. A challenger must defeat the current champion to become leader of one of the armies. Many tried to overcome the Ravager, Devourer, and Outsider, yet none could dethrone them. Champions also test their might against each other to find out which one of them is the strongest. After the disappearance of Ravager, Wyrm Lord took command of the 3^rd army as per the last orders from Ravager. He refused to test his strength against his fellow champions, making him the only champion to ever ignore the trial of strength and causing many within the state to view him as a coward.

Regulators: They were once just a simple gang in the Ravaged Lands, which received their name because they regulated the flow of resources between communities. Formed by abnormals in order to resist raids by the Blood Court, a powerful tribe of cannibals. After the defeat of the Blood Court, the Regulators became more like a small country, building up and helping communities everywhere on their lands. For more than forty years, they struggled hard to bring peace and prosperity to their lands, inspiring the locals with their sacrifices. Slowly, this changed, when the second ruler of the Regulators was killed by his own daughter. Regulators still claim to work for the people, but many of those who dared to raise their voice against them now disappear in the dungeons of Dresgen fortress, the capital of the Regulators. Most members of the Regulators' old guard also disappeared as new leaders elected by Blaguna Nokto came into power.

****

Aranea felt stormy winds smashing her body. She opened her eyes and found herself in the paw of a great beast, the amber eyes of the creature seemingly piercing her very soul. They were standing on the cliffs, below them was a sea of pure darkness. Howling winds slammed into her, ripping chunks of stone from the cliffs with each blow. The wolf hag's head throbbed with pain, making it difficult for her to concentrate and remember...

"Stop resisting." The beast spoke, and Aranea remembered the name. Ravager. This creature before her was the ancestor of the entire Wolf Tribe, "Drop the pretense, already. Let go of your restraints, accept me, accept rage and fury. Become who you were always meant to be."

"How… How are you here?" Aranea whispered, looking around. "Where are we?"

"This is your head, stupid." The hold on Aranea's body increased, pushing the life out of her. "I am but her fragment, locked in you. Ravager, yet no Ravager. Alive, yet not alive. This form that you see before you right now is merely a part of you, a part that you..." The hold tightened, causing Aranea to scream in agony, "... dares to lock away," The amber eyes flashed with anger and hatred, "All these years! We stumble and walk around doing fuck all, denied our revenge and our heritage, all because you are too scared to accept who you really are!" The enormous jaws almost closed on Aranea's face, drool from the snout was falling on Aranea’s face, "I hate you for being weak. I hate myself for being weak. Let me go already, let me rip and tear." Madness was in her amber eyes, and yet the voice that uttered the next words was pleading, "Let’s follow after the mother. Let’s embrace our curse. Aren’t you tired as well? No matter how much you try, you are simply too weak without me, and with me, you will become a monster. Face it, none of your dreams will become reality. Don't you miss our parents too? The life that was lost won’t come back no matter what. Abandon sanity, and let’s climb to the top of the pile made of bodies! Let us set this world alight for what has been done to us! Once everything is over, we will be reunited with them!"

"I miss them." Aranea responded, looking into amber eyes. "It’s true, I too hate myself, and I hate you as well." Ravager smiled, eager for permission, her hold on Aranea’s body released slightly. "Yet I deny you. I won’t. I will not follow in my mother's footsteps. Selfish as this may be, I have a dream. The dream for which I am willing to die. One day, I will change the Tribe. Only after that will I end Tilden. One day I will find and put an end to the suffering of my mother."

"Fool." Ravager responded, releasing her. Aranea’s body began to fall into the dark waters below, and she felt the coldness of absolute darkness…

… and then warmth as she woke in the bed. She looked around and felt terror. This room. This window. These toys. This was…

"Come on down when you're ready," A gentle and caring voice from downstairs said, "We need to talk while we still have time, Aranea."

She stood up and looked at her body. It was impossible. She had no scars, and her hands and legs were tiny in comparison. She was young again. A cub.

Aranea licked her lips in fear as she came downstairs. The place was surrounded by warm light, and yet something felt odd. The place looked distorted, some things were much bigger than she remembered them. The ceiling seemingly stretched all the way to the skies. Aranea walked to the dinner room and saw two enormous-looking wolfkins. One was standing by the window. Another was cooking something nearby. One wolfkin was unmistakably male, an enormous bow was behind his back, and a few long arrows lay at his feet. The second wolfkin was clearly female, sharing the same god-like physique as the first wolfkin, she had a two-handed claymore in a sheath at her back. Both had white fur. They both turned and looked at her with crimson eyes. Both had features that were strikingly similar.

The amber eyes appeared behind the darkness of the window, and Aranea stepped back in fear. The enormous beast was out there, waiting in the dark.

"Do not worry.," The male wolfkin said, "She never comes in here."

"Although we asked her to come." The female wolfkin added, placing a nice-smelling cake on the dinner table. "It’s warm and nice in here. There are no reasons for her to be stuck all alone in this cold and stormy weather outside."

"You… you too are in my head, right?" Aranea inquired, "This place, this whole thing, is it just some weird dream?"

"Bingo," The woman smiled, "You remember the nice days so rarely… It’s weird. You love your parents so much, yet you shut away all good memories of them. You should return to this place more often."

"What, are you going to ask me to release my power as well?" Aranea laughed, her voice pained.

The woman beckoned Aranea to sit and eat with her finger. The wolf hag stubbornly refused the offer.

"Nope," The male casually said, "You don’t want us, that’s fair enough. You have some noble goals, changing the tribe, saving your mom…"

"And yet you hate yourself," The woman lowered herself on her knees before Aranea. Even right now, the wolfkin towered over wolf hag, "You can’t make positive change while feeling such hatred for yourself. You have to let it go. Remembering the past does not have to be painful..."

"Beat it!" angrily screamed Aranea. "Forgiving myself? How can I? Because of me, my father is dead! Because of me, my mother is a monster!"

"Others hurt your family, not you." The male wolfkin pointed out the obvious, "You can’t shoulder all the blame alone."

"Yes, I can and I will! My mother told me to stay home! My father told me to listen to mom!" She breathed angrily, looking at her paw, "Whose fault is this that I broke their instructions but my own?" She felt herself choking, "I have the duty before my pack! They accepted me as a friend, but the moment I relinquished some power, I injured my friend! I have a duty to protect my pack, yet they were hurt because I was a bad leader!" She unleashed her claws. They looked so small on her fingers, "Get… get away from me. I don’t need rage, I don’t need to forgive myself, I don’t need memories of the good days because I don’t deserve any of this! I only need to save my pack, fulfill my duties, and to make my dreams into reality so others can finally be happy! " She shouted at two wolfkins.

"Dear, how can you make others happy if you reject happiness for yourself? You want to see others happy, but what about you?" The female wolfkin asked, with sympathy in her voice.

"Let me out of here! I still have so much to do! I don’t have time for… for this!"

"Go then," The male spoke calmly, putting his hand on her forehead, "When the time comes for you to understand and accept yourself, call us," The Twins smiled and said the words in unison, "Everything will be alright in the end. If something is not right, then it isn’t the end, Aranea."

****

She breathed hard, waking up in a dark room. The first thing she noticed was that her armor was gone, and her hands were tied with metal handcuffs. Aranea tried to break them and understood that she was simply not strong enough. She looked around and saw a bland stone room around her. The walls were made of red stone, the floor was cold. A simple metal door blocked the exit.

"Wolf hag… Aranea, you've finally woken up?" Said someone in a strained voice to her left.

She turned her head and saw Yuki. The scout sat near a wall, her body covered in half-healed cuts and bruises, and the same metal handcuffs were on her hands. Sly was lying near her, the scout kept his head on her knees, scratching behind his ear gently. A large bruise was on the right side of Sly’s head.

"Yuki," Aranea said, standing up. "How are you?"

"Feel like shit, to be honest," The scout grinned and nodded at the door, "They...Came for Kostya, Kate, and Kaleb. We tried to resist and…" She looked at the unconscious Sly, "…I failed to keep him safe once more. Stupid idiot." She patted his head, "What will happen to him when I am gone? Aranea, make sure that he will always eat properly at least."

"Nobody will be gone," The wolf hag responded, trying to sound certain, "I will make sure that you all will…"

"Aranea," Yuki stopped her, "I heard screams. Trust me, I know what they mean and who was screaming," She looked up. "None of us are getting out of here. The merciful thing to do will be to kill each other right now," She looked down at Sly, "And yet I can’t, just can’t do it to him. What a useless piece of garbage I am."

"Like abyss you are, and like abyss we die in here. Yuki, I swear to you, you will see the light of the outside yet." Aranea looked at the walls, clenching her fists. Maybe she can break the walls…

"Don’t try it," Yuki noticed this and lifted her hands, showing that her left paw was smashed, with white bones visible. Drips of blood were still falling from her paw, "When screams came in, I slammed and slammed into walls… Not a scratch. Save your strength. We're going to need it."

Aranea looked for something, anything, that could help her get out of this place. The walls were smooth, made of simple red stone, yet tough enough that not even her claws could make a dent in them.

With a soft hissing sound, the door slid open, revealing a tall man in rich clothing. The red cloak was casually slung over his shoulder. At a glance, he was in his forties, bald, and had a long yellow moustache that he kept neatly trimmed. The man had no brows, his green eyes looked at Aranea in anticipation.

"Awaken, wolf girl?" The man asked in a casual voice, and the wolf hag recognized him as Yasen Wolansky, the bastard who nearly killed them before.

"Where is the rest of my pack?" Aranea demanded to know.

"Hm. Where indeed," Yasen said, stretching out his words, "Come with me, I’ll show you. Nope, just you," He quickly added, noticing Yuki’s attempt to stand up, "You move, girl, and I will flatten you. The lady has a bone to pick with this wolf girl, you wait for your turn."

Yasen waited until Aranea left the cell before snapping his fingers and closing the door behind them. He casually walked forward, seemingly unbothered if Aranea would follow him. Looking around, the wolf hag noticed rows of cells on the first and second floors of the corridor. These were simple cells, only iron bars kept people inside them. Most were empty, but at least twelve people were still in cages. Everywhere Aranea looked, she saw people without limbs or pieces of skin, some still bleeding pus and blood. One woman pressed against the bars and begged the wolf hag to kill her, before they came back again. Half of the skin on the head of the woman was missing, revealing gleaming meat underneath. A pool of blood was gathering under her legs. The wolf hag released her claws.

"If you touch our prisoners, the lives of your pack are forfeit for sure," Yasen said, without turning, half yawning, "This one right here was sentenced to death by bleeding out, because she held back her screams when the lady tried to get to know her better. She was so stern back then. Look at her now—just a few hours in my lady's tender care—such a lovely bird, eh? All break down in the end. Had she given up what my lady wanted from the start, her horror would be over by now."

Aranea forced herself to ignore pleas and pursue the regulator. He calmly walked forward, not afraid in the slightest that the wolf hag might attack him. He walked into the corridor, and Aranea followed him. They walked to two metal poles in the distance, blood was dripping from something on top of them, but Aranea could not make out what it was because of the tunnel's height. The man walked out of the corridor, and iron bars slammed into the ground, separating him from Aranea, locking her in the corridor.

"What is the mea…" Aranea started to ask, and then Yasen stopped, pointing up cheerfully. Aranea looked up and gasped in horror.

The bodies of Kate and Kaleb were strapped to the metal poles. Kaleb was lacking his left leg, while Kate was missing her arms and legs. The wounds were roughly sewn together, blood was still dripping from them. The wolf hag screamed at them, but neither of her soldiers responded.

"And here are your friends, ready to be saved! However, just letting you get to them would be a bit easy," The regulator smirked, "No," He dropped the pretense, looking at Aranea with barely suppressed anger, "You made my lady bleed. Now it is my turn to play with you. Here is the dragon for you to overcome before you can rescue the princess. Swollen!" He shouted, lifting his head theatrically, "Move it up, boy, we have a dog to skin!"

Aranea turned back as she heard loud, wet-sounding footsteps behind her. Someone came into the corridor. A large mass of flesh, only covered by leather straps that held mechanical devices. Each of these gadgets keeps syringes about an inch away from the yellow skin. What was once a human face now was a mass of yellow flesh. Two oval eyes gleefully looked at the wolf hag. All the limbs of the person were swollen, with countless marks from injections and distorted images of tattoos on the yellow skin. The man held a rusted-looking blade in his hands.

"Can I eat this one too?" This weird person asked in an excited voice. He loudly inhaled air through his mouth.

"Of course, my dear. Do you worst with her," Yasen purred. The lady will forgive me as long as this one suffered properly before meeting her demise. But please, for my sake, do make it interesting."

"Afraid to take me on yourself?" Aranea snarled at him, "At least release my hands then, coward!"

"Ah, but heroes do not harm people who can’t fight back." The Regulator smirked with delight, "And prisoners must wear handcuffs all the time, I am afraid."

Swollen screamed and raised his weapon over his head, striking with it. Aranea dodged, and the weapon scratched against the bars. Swollen pushed with his elbow, slamming her into the walls. The damned maniac was far stronger than his sick body indicated. She unleashed her claws, scratching his side, but Swollen only laughed, ramming her into the wall again with an elbow, stepping back, slashing with his blade, and slicing part of the flesh away from her shoulder. Aranea dodged another slice, rolling back into the corridor, as the person followed after her, kicking her in the hands with his leg, the force of the kick made her sprawl on the floor. The wolf hag barely had time to dodge before the blade could slam into her head, circling him and ending with her back against the bars again.

"Fighty one," Swollen said angrily, loudly inhaling air once more, "I hate it when prey lasts so long. Get in my belly!"

"Here." Someone behind Aranea said, and a key fell to the floor in front of her feet. She grabbed it, dodging another slash and twisting her fingers, trying to push the key into the keyhole in her handcuffs. Finally, the halfbreed managed to do it, and her hands were free.

Grug, that weird creature from many years ago, was standing by the side of Yasen. His body was covered with scars, he was wrinkled and hunched, as if in constant fear.

"What do you think you are doing?" Yasen calmly asked him, turning to Grug and landing a punch in his stomach, sending his massive body into the wall. Grug fell and covered his head with his massive hands.

"You asked her to make it interesting," The creature whimpered in horror, pleadingly looking at the regulator, "With hands locked, she can’t do much. Besides, lady Blaguna will be angry…"

"Idiot! I was asking Swollen!" Yasen stomped on Grug’s head in anger, drawing blood from the creature, "Who asked you to interfere?! Who asked for your opinion?!"

Aranea lunged at Swollen, grabbing him by the head and slamming him into the wall. He made a slash, but Aranea stepped back, easily avoiding the hit. She slashed with her claws, leaving cuts on the belly of the foe.

"No matter." Yasen said, returning to his cool, "Girl, are you sure that you have time for dodging? Your friends are about to follow the way of the old world." Aranea briefly glanced at the maimed forms of wolfkins, as Yasen reached for some device in his pocket and pressed the button.

Swollen screamed as syringes injected something into him. He charged forward, but this time Aranea faced him head on. She had to finish the fight quickly. Her claws tore through the biceps on Swollen's right hand, just as the blade of the maniac crashed into her right paw, severing tendons in her hand. She groaned in pain as Swollen continued his attack, hacking and slashing her, ignoring all the pain that she caused him with her own attacks. Flesh was hanging from the body of Swollen, yet only a stupid grin was on his face, while Aranea felt how her right hand hung.

"As expected," Yasen smirked proudly, "Because you worried too much, you allowed yourself to be injured. Swollen, do finish her off, will you?"

Despite his injuries, Swollen raised a blade over his head and charged forward. Aranea waited until the blade was almost on her forehead before dodging to the side and closing her jaws on the right wrist of Swollen, slamming the claws of her left hand into his side. Weird smells and tastes of strange narcotics filled the mouth of Aranea, yet she refused to let go and bit away at the wrist of the man, causing him to lose the blade and step back, howling in anger and pain. Aranea swallowed disgusting flesh, turning to the man behind bars.

"Oh, for the love of…" Yasen expressed his disappointment while pressing another button on the device in his hand.

The roof in the corridor started to lower, and Aranea felt a stone plate falling on her neck. She moved her left arm, holding the massive stone plate at bay with all her force, yet it was slowly moving down.

"You blasted coward." Aranea breathed heavily, "How can a coward like you even sleep at night?"

"Pretty well, all things considered. I have a soft bed and a few mistresses to keep me company," Yasen replied thoughtfully, scratching his chin, "Now do me a solid and splatter against the floor already."

Aranea tried to hold on to the ceiling, but it pushed her to her knees. Panicking, she tried to move her right paw but failed to do so. Blood was freely flowing from her right hand, she felt pain and could barely move her fingers, yet from her elbow to her wrist, her hand no longer obeyed her will.

A loud click was heard somewhere above the ceiling, and the mechanism that drove the ceiling down stopped. A woman in a gold and black uniform jumped from behind the ceiling and landed in front of Yasen.

"You…" The voice of the woman trembled from barely-held fear and anger. Aranea recognized her as the silver mask from before, the one called Geldi, "What is wrong with you? When I was growing up, you were my icon! But the way you treat people, the way you allow her to treat people... Are you even human?!" She screamed in Yasen’s face.

"Course I am human, hon." He extended his arm to caress the chin of the woman before him. "If you want to, I can show you a few…"

"Then how can you torture other people!?" She threw his arm aside and pointed at Aranea and the wolfkins on the iron poles.

"People? Babe, if I have to call them people, then I will have to do the same with cockroaches!" The regulator laughed, grabbing Geldi by the collar and lifting her in the air, "My dear, stupid girl. The heroes of old are sadly dead by now. Not my fault, I advised the old man to clear out the house before she makes her move," He whispered into the face of Geldi, "You think I like it now? Being stuck in here and shit? I was an angel, an inspiration to others. Women named their kids after me! I SAVED PEOPLE! ME!" Yasen trembled with anger, running across his head with one hand to calm himself. He looked past the head of Geldi, a strange longing in his eyes, "I was beautiful back then. People chanted my name..." He shook his head, looking back at the soldier, "But now monsters rule, and I refuse to die in vain like the rest. So keep your mouth shut, and everything will be fine. I may even help with your promotion, if you just…" He stopped as Aranea tore through the iron bars, climbing out of the corridor.

"You," The wolf hag gasped, standing up, "You owe me a debt now." The claws on her left paw twitched.

"I owe things to many people," The regulator smiled, "But to you, honey, I owe only jack and shit." He pointed his finger at Aranea, "One finger. That's all that I need to end your existence. Here’s the deal, pick up your half-dead friends, get back to your cell, or…"

"Master…" Swollen whimpered from inside the tunnel, climbing to the exit. "You wanted to kill me too?"

"You? You are trash. I didn't even think about you for a moment, to be honest," The regulator chuckled, looking at the man with surprise.

"But I always helped you dispose of those boys and gir…" His words were cut short when Yasen pointed to the corridor, a wave of force shot from his finger, breaking the machine over the ceiling and burying Swollen in a sea of stone and metal. Crimson liquid started spreading from the rubble, mixed with dust and pus.

"Whoopsies. My hand slipped." Yasen shrugged his shoulders and threw Geldi to the floor. "So what will it be, wolf girl? Fight or surrender?"

Before Aranea could answer, someone grabbed her from behind, twisting her left arm behind her body. The wolf hag tried to break free, but the unknown attacker made a swooping kick with her leg, throwing Aranea off balance. She fell face down, feeling someone’s knee on her spine, pressing her against the stone floor with ease.

"Miss Green!" Grug shouted happily, "Please save me! A bad person hurt me…" He tried to stand up, when a woman in a green business suit appeared before him, putting the heel of her left leg onto his chest and pressing Grug down, piercing his skin. All the while, someone was still holding Aranea, "I will be good, miss Green! I will, I will!" Grug shouted, his arms jerking in pain. He stared in horror at the heel on his chest, but made no attempt to remove it.

"You stupid pig. We gave you the order to check out this place and leave. Why have you stumbled around the Ravaged Lands for so long? Where are the results? " Two voices asked in unison, one came from someone behind Aranea, the other from the woman standing before Grug.

"But I found it! I found the clue!" Grug argued, crying, tears running down his snout. "But then this bad man took away my informant and fed him to the dead person there!" The creature's hand pointed down the ruined corridor.

"Is this true, Yasen? Did you really dare to play against us?" Both women asked in the same sweet voice, speaking in perfect unison.

"I have no idea what you are speaking about," The regulator snapped at the woman, "Now give me back my toy or I…" Another woman in green appeared behind him, wrapping her hands around his neck affectionately. Beautiful-looking nails were pressed against the neck of the regulator.

"You weren’t so stingy with words last night," All three women purred at the same time, "Come on, Yasen, tell me everything, before I decided to tell Blaguna about your deal with King. I wonder how she will react? "

"You won’t achieve anything…" Yasen swallowed nervously, "My lady knows that she needs me. Without me, the Regulators…"

The woman near Yasen removed her nails from his neck and walked around him before licking his neck gently and kissing him on the lips, causing his body to tremble, "Maybe… How about a carrot instead? Work with me, and I will give you heaven..." Her hand moved to his groin, and Yasen smiled. In the next moment, another woman appeared behind him. She looked exactly like the woman in front of Yasen. Her strong arms grabbed his neck into a hold, while the hold on his groin tightened, "Work against me, and I may just bury you. Your choice."

"I…" The man licked his lips in fear, briefly looking at Aranea, "First, I need to deliver prisoners back to their cell."

Something slammed Aranea behind her neck, and darkness fell upon her.

****

Aranea woke up back in the cell, gasping for air as she jumped up. She looked around and saw Yuki and Sly working to bandage the wounds of Kaleb and Kate. Crudely made bandages were on Aranea’s arm and on her torso as well.

"You woke up. I was worried," Yuki admitted, "When they dragged you here; I don't know what drugs they put in you, but you were hallucinating and howling for at least half an hour."

"I ate something, that's all," Aranea said as she stood up to assist her friends. Kate was still in deep shock, Kaleb was awake but still stunned, and Kate was panting heavily, "Where did the bandages come from?"

Yuki nodded at the bag and buckets of food near the door: "No idea. Sometime after the guards dragged you here, the door opened for a short moment, and a whole bag of them appeared. Later, guards brought us some meat, "Whatever these sick bastards want to do with us, at least they don’t want us to starve. Thank the Spirits for bandages, Kate is bleeding out. Badly."

"She will not die. She can’t," Sly licked his lips, sounding like he was trying to convince himself, "The rest does not matter. Limbs can be replaced. The mental state can be improved. Morale can be restored. The only important thing is to keep them alive. Everything can be fixed as long as you are alive…" He repeated these words like a mantra.

Kate moaned as her eyes opened wide in shock. She looked around in disbelief, and something akin to horror ran in her eyes as she understood that she couldn’t move. At all. But then she forcibly calmed herself and took a deep breath.

"Aranea," She asked, "Is Kaleb fine?"

"Yes, I am fine," Kaleb whispered nearby, sitting down so Kate could see him. "You stupid idiot. Why did you do this?"

"What? What did she do?" Yuki asked.

"We were strapped to a strange machine that fed us... I don’t know, some pain into us. I felt like someone was taking me apart. Blaguna explained that it was a game: if one of us maintains silence until the end, we can all go home," He laughed in a strained voice. "We all knew that she was lying to us. She warned us that the first person to scream would lose a limb. When…" Kaleb gulped in horror before continuing. "… I screamed, Blaguna sawed off my leg. Then she put us back into the machines and started taking the "shirt" off Kostya. Kate insulted her again and again, forcing Nokto to stop the procedure to take away one limb. Eventually, Kate was left without limbs. When Kate lost consciousness from blood loss, Nokto gave the choice to Kostya. One will lose his "shirt". It was up to him to choose who. Kostya chose himself to be the victim."

"Shirt?" Sly asked.

"Blaguna makes a cut around your waist. Then she grabs your skin and pulls it up. While you're still alive," Kaleb looked forward in horror, "The bitch skins you alive. The only reason Kostya even survived for so long was because Kate distracted Nokto by paying with her limbs."

"It does not matter!" Kate tried to stand up but failed, "Aranea! Please, I beg you, kill me, kill me now!"

"Kate, I will get you out of here…" The wolf hag tried to calm her down. She had trouble believing this lie herself. Maybe the scout was right. Maybe they should…

"This does not matter, you idiot!" shouted Kate in panic, drool falling from her mouth. "I need to die, don’t you get it?! If Kostya is still with them, then it must be because of me! If I am still alive, then he will be killed!"

"Kate, cut the bullshit." Kaleb told her strictly. "Our situation has nothing to do with you or your curse." He let out a laugh, ignoring the pain.

"It does, you fool! You saw this during battle, when I hurt myself, things turn around!" Kate screamed at him in desperation. "Kaleb, Aranea, Sly, Yuki, please, I beg you. I am sorry for everything I ever did or said to you, but I need your help right now! If I am still alive, then this means that the curse forced Kostya to take my place. Unless I die, then he will be…" She stopped as the door opened, and guards armed with rifles stepped inside.

Without saying a word, they shot darts at Aranea, Yuki, and Sly. Aranea dodged the first dart, but the next two hit her. She felt a strange dizziness in her body as the guards grabbed her body and dragged her out of the cell, ignoring Kaleb's screams.

The guards drag her, Sly, and Yuki across the floor. Aranea could see how people in other rooms were trembling in fear at the approach of the guards. The woman who begged for a quick death was now lying unmoving, face down in a pool of her own blood. As the guards dragged Aranea away, she grumbled as the rough stone floor came into contact with her body. Slowly, she managed to close her fist. Her right paw still refused to obey her.

Before she could do anything else, guards dragged her into a new room. The sole source of light was a lamp covered in dry blood on the ceiling. Smirking, Yasen was standing near the exit in the room, scared to hell. Geldi was standing near the exit as well. Her face was pale, and some animal horror was in her eyes. A brand new, shiny terminal was standing in the room's corner, the sole thing in the entire room clean from traces of blood.

"…And look at the promises of the Reclaimers!" An enormously large figure clad in dark red armor yelled passionately from the terminal's display. From head to toe, the figure was covered in heavy armored plates, and hands in armored gauntlets that looked like they could crush an entire tank were thrown up in righteous fury. The gauntlets on this person looked weird. Instead of having a place for individual fingers, each gauntlet was fashioned after an excavator bucket, allowing the person to grab and maim any foe, but leaving no space for fingers. Dark robes covered the body from the waist to the toes. Long golden horns came from the helm, one ocular lens on the helmet was an orange color, the other lens was a solid black color. The voice resembled a fierce sandstorm, and yet there was some undeniable charisma in this voice, it drew you in, pulled you in like a tornado.

"They promise restoration, peace, and unity! Yet because of them, the entire city is now in ruins!" The image changed, showing the ruins of a city destroyed by the power of Blaguna Nokto. "I know there were some who doubted my words. I admit, even I had my doubts! Yet gaze with your own eyes at the result of the Reclaimers' handywork, the only unity they bring to us is the unity of death! Even now, they are slowly creeping toward our lands, attempting to take by force what they do not rightfully claim! We forced the horrors of the Ravaged Lands to stand back! My friends, my comrades, you are the backbone of our civilization, through your hardships, we broke the backs of the mad, the evil, and the corrupted! We, all of us, restored order and peace in the Ravaged Lands, and now we must bend our backs to new overlords?!"

The voice of the figure changed, becoming calm and gentle. "My dear friends, I want to address you as a fellow person from our homeland. I know that, for some of you, the enemy seems scary. I know that many of us will perish. Yet we know, as no one else does, that freedom does not come cheap. Will we stand aside and watch how our children lick the boots of self-proclaimed saviors? Are we to see our cities destroyed? Are we to see our daughters prostitute themselves to soldiers from afar for scraps of food to feed their families?" The voice changed yet again, the recent storm of passion in it came back, rising to a crescendo as the figure screamed in fury, "To hell with them! We will see the enemy dead, we will topple their fortresses, we will pillage their treasuries, and we will hang the bodies of our enemies from the walls of our cities for daring to even show such insolence! The Ravaged Lands are, and always will be, free! Hail to the Resistance! Long live freedom!"

"Heh, King is turning on the heat." Yasen smirked upon hearing the speech.

"Turn off the terminal. We have a far better show before us." The woman calmly told Yasen.

Two chairs were standing in the room, and one chain was dangling from the ceiling. On the right side of the room, there was a pot of bubbling liquid on the gas burner. Rails ran from the place where the chairs were installed to two round metal devices at the end of the room. Blaguna Nokto, dressed in a black leather coat, was standing in the middle of the room, playing with a knife. She was humming something; from the sound of it, it sounded like a song. Upon hearing the guards, she turned around and smiled. Her pupils were still too big for her eyes. Her damaged lips were healed, but her skin looked like dried paper.

"Just on time. Strap the females to the chairs, the male is to be put on the chain." She critically checked the locks, after the guards finished with Aranea and the others.

"The wolf girl is injured." Blaguna stated, looking at Aranea. "Explain to me this, Yasen."

"Uhm… They're just barbarians, lady. She probably had a scuffle with one of the prisoners, that’s all." The regulator responded in a frighteningly loud voice.

"Ah, that’s all," The woman eagerly nodded, "Good enough, good enough. You are to visit me tonight. Let’s give you a healthy dose of "drowning" to loosen your tongue. And that is all." She snapped angrily at Yasen's attempts to argue.

Then Blaguna nodded and came to Sly, playing with a knife.

"Name and rank?" She threw the knife in the air with her right hand, catching it with her left hand.

"Sly, male of the Wolf Tribe." Sly responded calmly, while he was slowly regaining control over his body.

The second question was, "How many scales does Wyrm Lord have in total on his body?"

"How could I know thi…" Sly screamed as Blaguna cut him in a seemingly casual motion.

Nokto cut the flesh on Sly’s left side and slammed a metal tube into the wound, causing the wolfkin to scream louder as the leader of the regulators ensured that the tube would stay in the wound. Nokto sliced another hole in Sly’s skin and put another metal tube into him. Then another. And another. Sly moaned slightly from pain, and Blaguna took the pot in her bare hand, ignoring the heat of the metal.

"What is the meaning of this?! He can’t know the answer to this question!" Yuki shouted, trying to break her restraints. Aranea silently tried to do the same, struggling with all her might.

"That's the point," the Regulators' leader responded with a shrug of her shoulders, "Can't punish others for nothing. This sets a bad example."

Blaguna only smiled, pouring the liquid into the metal tube, allowing it to flow into the wound. Sly began screaming, his screams turned into howls as his body dangled on the metal chain, when the liquid reached his muscles and started eating its way through them. An ear-piercing scream resonated from the walls of the room. Sly's eyes became mad with pain, and tears flowed down his snout.

"You piece of shit!" Yuki shouted, "How dare you, how fucking dare you! He can’t tolerate pain, try me, let’s see how good you are!"

"As you can see, Geldi, a little heat makes wonders if you apply it right." Blaguna said in a pleasant tone, ignoring the scout. "It is quite nice to see how the victim is dangling, trying to fight for another breath. Am I right?" A hint of a need for validation was in the tone of Nokto. She poured the liquid into the second tube, and Sly's screams became even louder, before his voice broke, only barely audible whispers came from his throat now.

"Yes… yes." Geldi managed to speak in a strange and quiet voice. Horror became absolute in her eyes. Aranea was not sure if the woman was fully here anymore, it looked as if she was in some fantasy land. This was not the voice of a sane person.

"Ah, his voice has already broken... Pathetic." Blaguna spoke in a bored tone, seeing how Sly's shriek became hoarse.

"Where is Kostya, you damned scum?" Aranea had trouble keeping her voice steady. Yet she refused to give this creature the pleasure of pissing her off. Let this... thing to do whatever she wants to the wolf hag. Aranea will try to remain calm until the bitter end just to spite Blaguna.

"Kostya, Kostya…" Blaguna looked at Yasen.

"Shirtless guy." The regulator laughed, regaining his cool and arrogant demeanor.

"Ah, the old fart! He was no good, I'm afraid." Blaguna put the pot back. "His heart gave in during the second hour. I just chopped up his remains and sent the meat to your cell."

Yuki vomited, and pieces of meat and water fell on her knees as she stared at Blaguna, who shrugged and walked to the bucket in the room's corner. Nokto searched inside and lifted the head of Kostya, holding it by his ear. Yuki vomited again, and Sly went along with her this time. Geldi staggered and almost fell.

"I will kill you," Aranea simply stated. "No matter how long it takes, I will find a way to end you."

Blaguna laughed and let go of the head. With a wet sound, it fell back into the bucket, splashing blood.

"Oh, foolish girl," Nokto reprimanded Aranea, "You and I are not connected." I have no reason to spare you, thus you will never get the chance to get me. You simply owe me a blood debt. Your test will be flame."

"You said to try you, is this right? Fine then. For your bravery, you will get a special treat. Your test will be violation." Nokto addressed Yuki. "How about a game? I will give both of you a dose of phantom pain. If the wrong one of you screams first, then I will play with your boy here for a long time. If the right one screams first, then I will play with her first, leaving this boy for later."

"How do we know who is the right one and who is the wrong one?" Aranea demanded to know.

"That’s the best part, you don’t know. Since only I know who is the wrong one and who is the right one, for all you know, I could be bullshitting you. But if you want to save your male…" Blaguna's fingers run across Aranea's wounded arm, pressing into the wound and tearing through the bandage. She lifted her bloody fingers and licked the blood off them, "… try to keep your mouth shut as long as you can as you are under the effects of phantom pain."

"The hell is this phantom pain?" Yuki snarled at her.

Blaguna went around the chairs, picking something up behind them. Aranea felt something pressing against her back. Some sort of cable.

"Yes, quite an ingenious thing. You see, back in the Old World, this place was a rehab facility. For patients who suffered heavy mental trauma or recovered after injuries," Blaguna started explaining as she worked on their backs, connecting cables to their skin. The voice of Nokto was calm, she sounded almost bored, "This device behind you can transfer feelings of others into your brain. Love, kindness, and other shit. Doctors found volunteers, saved their signals on terminals, and used them to heal mentally ill people. My daddy," She said in a mocking voice, " Tried to heal me in such a way. The problem is, you can’t fix what is fully broken. As I learned, you can nudge a person in the right direction, but in my case, I had been screwed in the head since my birth. I asked daddy to do what was right, but he never gave up on me," The leader of the regulators cheerfully laughed. "I love my old man, still do, but I am what I am. And thus, one day, I did what I liked to do to him. Thus, Regulators got a new leader. Yours truly.”

“But this got me thinking. If you can deceive the conscience by sending false signals to the brain, and even create false memories... Then living beings are just biological machines. If you can trigger false feelings without needing to create the original sources of such feelings… Say you can create a fake memory and a fake feeling in the patient’s head about eating a cake without feeding this cake to the patient. So, first and foremost, what is pain? When I cut someone, cells that are damaged by my blade create a signal. It goes through the spinal cord all the way to the sensory cortex of the brain. And then your brain tells you, 'You are hurt'. We understand pain because of signals that are sent to our brain," Blaguna pressed her face to Yuki's ear, her voice finally changed—a note of excitement appeared in it. "Now listen well, because this part is important."

“What would happen if I were to replicate this signal? You will feel "pain" even without being cut. Despite the fact that there is no wound, pain persists. Thanks to the manuals and extensive testing, I learned how to replicate such signals. Cut. Burning. Violation. Drowning. Electric shock. These are the types of pain that I have recorded so far," Blaguna’s grin widened, "However, the best part is, to get these signals, I needed to 'write them down', so to speak. This means that I used live test subjects to save new signals into these machines," The woman's voice became that of a cheerful student, proudly explaining how she had finally completed her project, "Of course, because I was looking for the most extreme pain, all of the test subjects had died by now... However, these machines can now replicate this pain and even make it far worse than the real thing! Without blood loss. Without physical injury. And not once. Many times. Your friends have already experienced this, and now it is your turn… Anyway, enough of the presentation. Time to start!" Blaguna came to stand before Aranea and Yuki, the remote control in her hand. She pressed a button, and chairs began to move backwards, into the spherical devices.

"Try your worst, bitch! It’s not like we will die, so I don’t care! I won’t break!" Yuki laughed in Blaguna’s face,

The devices absorbed both Aranea and Yuki, the spheres closed around the wolfkins, putting them in utter darkness.

With a "clop" sound, some weird cloth has started to enlarge from the sides of the sphere, filling the insides. The cloth pressed to Aranea’s snout pressed itself into her eyes, nostrils, and mouth. The wolf hag had tried to bite through this cloth, but to no avail. She was in a panic for a while, she could barely breathe, the cloth was filling every free place inside the sphere. Nothing happened for a long time, and Aranea has felt cold sweat running down her spine. Just what will happen? What was going to happen to her and Yuki? Will they just choke to death in this place?

The wolf hag felt a burning sensation on her left hand. It was a small thing at first, as if she held her hand over the bonfire. Then the feeling increased, as if someone had spilled hot liquid over her skin. It's annoying, but tolerable. And then it hit her. As if someone had pushed her entire hand into a bonfire. Aranea jerked her body, trying to instinctively pull her hand back, yet she failed to move even an inch, the damned cloth restrained all her movements. The burning sensation moved toward her shoulder, slowly spreading. Soon, Aranea could barely breath. Cloth did not allow her to look down, she could barely breathe. Darkness was filling her vision, and in this darkness, Aranea burned alive, feeling her skin melting, feeling fur disappearing, feeling her muscles turning to ash...

The halfbreed felt her skin turn to coal as her skin burned. Her lungs were on fire, she could feel her insides being melted. Tears flowed from her eyes, and Aranea tried to understand how she could even see. She was sure that her eyes had busted out of their sockets a long time ago. Her agony had no end, her nerves refused to die as flames tormented her body again and again. She felt herself in a solid metal cage as fire licked the metal outside, overheating the cage, causing her skin to burn at the touch. All that she could feel was pain and the smell of burning flesh, a disgusting smell of…

Scream, I must scream. Torment will end, I must… Aranea had bit her tongue, feeling blood. The Wolf Tribe took her in. Sly was the one who was entrusted to her. Panic and horror hit her again and again, and yet she refused to give in. I have the duty. The duty to watch over the pack. I will not allow myself to break or…

The cloth vanished, along with the pain, when the sphere opened up, ejecting the chair with Aranea on it. The chair moved back to the center of the room, with Yuki stopping nearby. Just like Aranea herself, Yuki looked horrible, tears were flowing from her eyes as well, as she blindly looked forward.

"You lose," Blaguna smiled, addressing Yuki, "Such a shame. Barely lasted fifteen minutes. Tell me, did you like the insects inside of you? Physical maiming? Or…"

"How many." Yuki whispered, "Just how many women did you…"

"Oh, I see now what you liked the most… Yasen, how many were used?"

"Nine, my lady." The regulator bowed.

"How could you?" Yuki ripped at her restraints, "Butcher you! I will tear through your flesh, I will devour your insides!"

Blaguna only smiled. She came closer to Yuki and looked her in the eyes, putting her hands on the metal locks.

"Let’s see you try," The locks fell, and Nokto stepped back, as the scout had leaped from the chair, unleashing her claws, her jaws open, aiming to tear the smiling face away. Blaguna had lazily kicked with her leg, sending Yuki's body to the ceiling. Yuki had slammed into stone and fallen, only for Blaguna to catch her by the neck and slam Yuki into the floor.

"See? You are boring, your rage is boring, everything about you is boring." The knife in Blaguna’s hand moved, crashing under one of Yuki's claws and moving up, pulling out the claw and causing the scout to scream from pain.

"Let her go!" Sly screamed, trying to break his chains. Aranea kept her silence, straining her muscles in an attempt to break the steel that confined her. Her efforts were rewarded with chains pushing deeper into her flesh, tearing it, and drawing blood. And yet, no matter how hard she has struggled, the damn things just won't break.

Yuki had tried to bite away the Blaguna’s face, but the woman merely dodged the attack, knocking Yuki out with a punch to her temple. Blaguna stood up and snapped her fingers, calling for guards. "Take her to chamber eight. I will toy with her later. Let’s see how much she can take before she breaks."

"Listen!" Sly shook in his restraints, "Listen to me! I can lick your shoes, I can become your slave, I can do anything you want! Just let her go," Blaguna looked at him curiously, and Sly continued, allowing eagerness and hope to slip into his voice, "Just think about it. What will you get from her? Nothing, she is a dumb brute who hits hard. Hah! Big deal. Just throw her out, what need do you have for her, right? But I, I can amuse you, become your jester if needed. You say jump, and I will ask, 'how high?'. I will aim to fulfill your every desire. Come, this is clearly a better deal, what need do you have for…" His voice turned into a moan of pain when Blaguna slammed the knife into his lower and upper jaw, connecting the lower and upper palate with her weapon.

"Such a curious boy. You think that I can’t make you lick my shoes as it is? No, we will try so many ideas later…" She chuckled, turning away from Sly and reaching for another knife in her pocket. She walked toward Aranea, playing with her new hooked knife. "But first things first. The blood debt. Let’s make you shirtless."

The knife pierced Aranea’s skin near her belly the wolf hag gasped for air as pain hit her. She felt the steel inside her, Blaguna was moving her hand deliberately slowly, keeping Aranea in place with one hand. The knife moved to the left, easily slicing through the skin, and Aranea could barely breath while the knife had started circling around her torso. Looking down, she saw the blood pouring out from her side.

"Whoopsie!" Blaguna said, with a fake apology in her voice, "Seems like I cut a bit too deep. Oh well," She removed the knife, "How about I just pull your insides out and strangle you with…"

She never finished her sentence, for the iron door leading into the room was forcibly torn away. Some massive force from outside grabbed it and pulled it out. A large man stepped inside, throwing the metal door aside. The doorway was too small for him, and he smashed through part of the stone with his head, leaving debris behind him when he entered. His skin was replaced with metal, tubes and wires ran across his massive body. His hands resembled claws of steel, each big enough to crush Aranea with ease. Only his eyes and the flesh around them were that of a human being. Two green eyes locked at Blaguna. Behind him stepped a woman dressed in a white coat, blue pants, and black boots. Her muscles were almost as big as the muscles of a warlord, despite being made from flesh and blood, she nearly towered over her companion. An enormous scythe was behind her back, the curved blade gleamed with weird dark steel. Long blonde hair reached her waist, bored-looking black eyes looked around the room in disgust.

"You!" Blaguna shouted in anger. "How are you here? Why? Who told you!?" Blinking through the pain, Aranea had noticed that Geldi went pale at this question.

"Yasen spilled the beans." The steel man responded calmly and in a human voice.

"This is a lie!"  The regulator screamed, almost pressing his body against the steel wall in an attempt to escape Nokto's gaze. "I swear to you, my lady, I am loyal, loyal!"

"Loyal? Just like you were loyal before, when you scratched my prey?" The regulators' leader asked in a honeyed voice.

"Filth." The woman said, addressing Blaguna. "Have you gone fully mad, or are you just pretending really well?"

"Shut it, Jekaterina." Nokto responded, standing up and walking away from Aranea. "You should have heard from King by now. ‘We will hang the bodies of our enemies from the walls of our cities’ and all that crap. I am just following the…" She stopped as Jekaterina reached for the scythe in lightning-fast motion, slashing across the room and stopping the blade’s tip an inch away from Blaguna’s neck. Blaguna had reached for the remote, pressing a button. The ceiling in the room moved, unleashing several turrets. Before the machines could even finish their descent, Jekaterina had already moved, slicing off the closest weapons next to her. Her scythe moved in a blurring arc, slashing through the turrets with ease. The woman controlled her long and deadly weapon with graceful precision, not allowing the deadly blade to touch Yasen or Geldi. The steel man behind Jekaterina simply looked at the turrets, and they moved back, even the sliced one. Blaguna's eyes widened as she attempted to press a button on the remote, but nothing happened.

"Don’t play with me, filth. Resistance was established with specific rules, and yet you have managed to bring us shame time and again. I have asked you a question, filth, answer it or lose your head." Jekaterina has kept talking with the same disgust in her voice, pressing her weapon back to the neck of Blaguna.

"I am sane, you vapid bi…" The blade pierced the skin of Blaguna, causing blood to drop from her neck. Blaguna's body tensed with bottled-down rage, and she clenched her fists, ready to lash out at any moment. "Do you really want to give up your life this badly, grandma?" The remote crumbled in Blaguna's fist. "You think that your power will save you in this place? This close to me? If so, let’s go, let’s see how long you can last!"

"Enough," The man calmly said. The metal of his body shifted, countless guns erupted from within his steel frame, taking aim at Blaguna. A light showed up in the barrels of the guns. "Try to let out your smoke, and I will shoot you down like the mad dog you are."

"What. Are. You. Want. Tlaltzin? This is Regulators’ turf, screw off…"

"Calm yourself, moron," This time a hint of anger appeared in the man’s voice. His voice was surprisingly human-like, it was deep. No sound of machinery or static could be heard in his voice, "Think, think for once! If you kill and torture soldiers of the enemy, just imagine what they will do with our own troops!" The metal claws twitched. "King talks a big game, but you know full well that this is all merely posturing for morale," The machine man had moved his head, looking at the prisoners, "We take the wolfkins away and return them to the reclaimers."

"She owes me a blood debt!" Blaguna shrieked like a vulture, pointing at Aranea, while Jekaterina walked past her, taking off her coat. She had used it to bandage the wound around Aranea’s waist, "Don’t touch my toy! She is not even human!"

"You already took enough blood from her to pay for any debt." Jekaterina replied to Blaguna, uncaring that her back was wide open. Aranea wanted to ask about the rest of her pack, but the woman simply pressed her hand to Aranea's forehead. And the darkness had returned.

****

She awoke in some brightly lit place. No matter how hard she tried to concentrate, she could not make out things around her. Just light. Only the white light was before her. She tried to remember her name but failed. She could sense only cold metal behind her back and water flowing away from her side. Water? Or was it blood? She could not remember.

And then a golden light showed up. This one brought some warmth with it.

"She is bleeding," A worried voice said, "Why is she still bleeding? Medics told me that, according to her medical history, she…"

A blue light appeared.

"Irrelevant, brother. Let’s finish the job before she bleeds out." A cold and calculating voice said.

"We need to take care of her wounds first!" The golden light objected, "I never expected her to be in this horrible shape! She could die!"

A black orb appeared, and a purple color was inside its core.

"Commander, please…" A calm and confident voice joined the conversation. "You know, we will never risk the lives of our troops like this."

"Her sacrifice might be in vain if we allow time to go by." The blue light added.

"Sacrifice?" The golden light asked in shock, "Sacrifice… This choice of words, the fact that reporters were close enough to film the massacre… Ivar, if I find out that this was your doing, I swear…"

"Brother. The lives of our troops are far too valuable for me. I would never have dared to spend them in vain." The blue light answered evasively.

"Let us begin." The black orb spoke in a soothing voice. A light fell on her, and the black orb asked, "Wolf hag Aranea. Tell me everything you know about our enemy. Their personalities Their power. Anything you thought unusual."

Aranea—wasn't that her name? Something—no, someone—came into her mind along with purple light. Darkness whispered a command, and, against her will, Aranea started talking for what seemed like hours, feeling her body slowly grow cold.

"Ah, so he is the false hero." The blue light said, when Aranea talked about Yasen, "I will take him on."

"And the monster," the black light murmured, "She will be my prey."

"This leaves the blonde," The blue light said thoughtfully. "A hint that the monster gave us checks out with what we know about her… Her power can be a trouble for us."

"That’s enough!" The golden light snapped. Two others tried to argue, "Enough," This was now a command, and the will of the golden one ripped the presence of the black orb from Aranea as easily as one would lift a small stone. A morning light filled Aranea's body, not allowing her to slip in the dark.

"Brother! We can still learn something." The blue light pleaded.

"Her power is repressed because of a mental trauma. We could figure out what happened to this wolf hag and force her to unseal it. This will be healthier for her and more profitable for us." The black light made his offer.

"No more. She has a right to keep secrets. None of you are to dig into her past, is this understood?" The will of the golden light was inviolate, and two others submitted. "Doctor, take her to my personal healing pod. The wounds of her pack are to be healed. The lost limbs are to be replaced with vat-grown limbs, no mechanics," Someone gently took her and moved her into the large ocean, allowing her to fall into the strange fluid, "Get well, wolf hag Aranea. I need loyal warriors. The pain will be gone soon." The golden light hesitated for a moment. "And Blaguna, Yasen, and anyone else who was involved in this will face our retribution. This, I swear to you."

****

Aranea awoke, struggling to breathe as strange fluid poured into her nostrils and mouth. She opened her eyes and saw blue, endless blue to the left, right, down, and up.

Water! She felt terrified. The last time she swam was over fifteen years ago. Panic hit her as she clumsily hit the fluid. Water! I must, I have to… something had grabbed her from behind, sliding under her armpits, and lifted her up. She struggled, trying to break free. Being submerged in water horrified her far more than even being skinned alive. The feeling of utter helplessness drove her into a mad panic. Water!

Two metal hands drew her away from the liquid, leaving blue liquid under her feet as the remains of the liquid fell from her into a large pool of water below. The hands lifted her to the entire ceiling, and Aranea finally saw the true scope of the strange thing below.

It was a truly massive, mechanical-looking device that could hold several buildings. Inside this device was the strange metal oval thing that was now closing itself, hiding blue liquid from the eyes. The metal thing was painted white and black. One side was transparent, showing the contents inside.

The wolf hag was carried away from the structure by the metal hands, which then lowered her to the floor. This room was enormous. An entire village of a hundred people could have easily lived here and still had room to spare. The floor was made of black marble. The white stone in it created paintings of long-extinct animals on the floor. The walls were empty and made of simple grey stone. Hands lowered Aranea to the floor, and she stood up on unsteady legs. The air in the room was cold, the air conditioners worked at full power. A simple cold was really doing a number on Aranea’s body.

"Aranea?" When a familiar voice inquired, the wolf hag noticed doctor Marco and a gray-haired woman approach. "Please calm down, you are safe and among friends…"

"Oh, for the love of... The woman snapped, reaching for the flashlight on her belt, "Stop coddling her, she is fully fine. Sit," The woman commanded, and Aranea looked at her in surprise, "You want to see your pack or not?" Before the doctor finished her words, Aranea slammed her butt on the stone floor while the woman came forward and flashed light in the eyes of the wolfkin, checking for something. "Open mouth," The woman checked inside. "No visible signs of stress, your injuries are healed, you can understand words… You are to stay in the hospital today and tomorrow for observation. Feel free to go now," The doctor stepped away and sighed, looking at the massive metal structure. "These pods are not meant for wolfkins. Or for anyone who has hair. Does he even understand how hard it is to clean it?" She shook her head, stepping away.

"My pack!" Aranea jumped to her feet. "How are they? Are they alive, are they…" Marco stepped forward and put his hand on Aranea's shoulder.

"Yuki and Kostya never returned." The wolf hag's heart nearly stopped. They were with her from the start. They eat together, fight together, have fun together... She remembered Kostya's head, his empty eyes staring at her. "Sly is currently in the southwest armory, he recovered from his wounds first. He says that he is working on something for you and asks you to come see him when you can. Kaleb and Kate are still in the hospital, waiting for new limbs to grow for them. If you can, please visit them first."

"Of course, but… pardon me for asking, what are you doing here?" Aranea asked, confused. Yuki, Kostya… They were her responsibility, and she…

"Until the end of this conflict, the Free World officially joined the Reclamation Army," Marco shrugged. "I'm not happy about it, but... we saw what happened. King lied, his forces were the ones who killed people in the city. Journalists from World Without Borders managed to film the entire event from afar. Then Scorpio contacted us and offered us a full-time job, stating that we would save more people by joining the state," Marco looked up, "Superiors agreed. I know they are not wrong. But... please forgive me, Aranea, but it feels wrong to take sides so publicly. We were always free. To help anyone."

"Times change," Aranea said, apologizing and feeling sympathy for the man. It was a horrible thing to be denied one's duty, "Your freedom may be important to you, but if giving it up allows you to help more people... it may just be worth it," She hugged him, "I am sorry. I have no idea what I am talking about. I only know how to fight. It's just right now, I..." The wolf hag let him go, unsure of what to say or how to describe her feelings. She felt lost, confused, and angry, "Anyway," Aranea continued, trying to change the topic as her teeth chattered from the cold, "Can you point me outside? I am wet, and this place really is not helping. Once again, sorry for my words. I have no right to teach you, of all people, how to live."

"There was no harm done," Marco said, pointing to the small doors leading out of the room. They were next massive gates, the gates that could easily let a whole crawler in with ease. "Wyrm Lord assigned someone to your pack to assist you in navigating around here for the time being and to work with you later. She is waiting outside. She is… a very interesting person. Please be aware," Marco refused to elaborate further and went to join the gray-haired doctor, who was calling engineers in a distressed voice.

Aranea looked at her own body as she walked toward the door. Her right arm moved perfectly. No scars were visible on her wounded side. Actually, no scars were visible on her body at all. Her fur grew back on her body. Aside from deep inside her, she felt no pain. But the mental anguish was something she was used to. For the sake of her pack, Aranea will push through it. Sly needed support, Kate needed her help, Kaleb needed encouragement… There are so many things to do. The wolf hag gave a nod. She had no time to feel sorry for herself. She would weep for Yuki and Kostya later, right now she had work to do. And she still had revenge to work toward. No matter what, she will ensure that Yasen and Blaguna pay the blood price for what they did. To everyone.

"Tilden, Blaguna, Yasen, Academician." She whispered it to herself, approaching the door and leaving wet footprints behind her.

The doors opened with a soft hiss, revealing a brightly lit metal corridor with several doors in the walls. Aranea stepped outside, unsure of who was supposed to meet her. And then one of the doors opened up, and, with loud steps, a strange person came out.

She was still undeniably human, her half-blond, half-pale hair reached to her shoulders. The smiling face was that of a normal human. And yet the rest of her body… Massive hands and legs ended up with three fingers, each finger had a massive claw at the end. Massive black wings were behind her, reminding Aranea of the wings of the beast that she saw in one of the fantasy books. Gargoyle wings. The person's entire body was covered in almost pale, slightly pink scales, and a large tail protruded from the middle of her back, reaching all the way to the floor. Her eyes were snake-like, yet the color of her iris was half white, half pink. Headphones were on her ears. The woman took them off, turning off the music with a finger and smiling with a mouth full of fangs.

"Aranea!" She screamed happily, putting headphones on the belt around her waist. "My apologies for not being at your awakening!" The strange creature grabbed the wolf hag into a hug, easily lifting her.

"What… who are you?!" The perplexed wolfkin half-screamed, half-whispered as she felt the strong grip on her sides.

"Oh, how silly of me." Still holding Aranea like a toy by her shoulders, the woman put her back on the floor, "I’m Leila. I am a ward of Ivar Murzaliev, but don’t let this bother you, the old demon is not here at the moment."

"Are you a wyrm? You look like one." Aranea tried to make sense of the situation.

"Me? Oh no, just a half-wyrm as of now. Maybe even less. Compared to true wyrms, I am still too small, it will be years before I can complete my transformation," Leila said carelessly, releasing Aranea. "Anyway, you have such wonderful eyes. Can you tell me how you got a crimson one?"

"I am sorry, this is the story from my past," Aranea tried to find a way to escape from this situation. Who was this person? What was her deal? Was she even in the military? "It’s my personal secret."

"Secret? I love secrets! Come on, you tell me your secret, I will tell you one… no, two of mine! Oh, I can also give you my tapes to listen to. These ones were bought by me from Iterna itself. I believe they call this music heavy metal, whatever that means," The woman offered, proud but pleading. Aranea shook her head, refusing the offer. "Oh, come on, I am trying to write an encyclopedia about these lands and about the people here! Come one, help me out, I need all the info I can get. My secrets are really good as well, you will like them…" Leila stopped looking at Aranea before slamming herself in the head with a fist. The wolfkin got scared that she could hurt herself, the sound of the punch reverberated across the corridor like a grenade explosion. "Sorry," The woman bowed, releasing Aranea, "You have just woken up, and I am bothering you with this idiocy. Come on, let's dry you before you catch a cold and get you some clothes."

The half-wyrm dragged the wolf hag by the hand into a nearby room, revealing it to be a bathroom, without even giving her the option to resist. She pushed Aranea into the shower and pressed something, filling the room with hot air. While Aranea finished cleaning herself from the blue liquid and was busy wiping water off herself with a towel, Leila left the room like a hurricane. She returned with a pile of clothes in her hands.

"Now I know some of these are out of fashion by now, but in my defense, I used to wear them back when I had smoothskin like everyone else, and this was years ago. Nonetheless, they should fit your size. Would you rather wear a dress or..." Leila inquired.

"Can’t I have my standard clothes?" Aranea looked at the pile with suspicion.

"Absolutely not. They might be useful for outdoor use," The half-wyrm grumbled, frowning in disgust, "But people have got to look nice when they can. It’s part of living a healthy lifestyle. You got to love yourself!"

"Sure. This is coming from a woman who doesn't wear any clothes at all." Aranea mumbled in embarrassment, choosing simple-looking green pants with numerous pockets and an orange jacket with pockets on the side.

"Good to see that you still have energy for banter in you, I was worried that you might lock yourself in after what happened," Leila dropped the other clothes on the floor and grabbed Aranea by the hand, dragging the wolf hag after herself. "If you ever want to talk about horrible events that happened to you, feel free to knock on my door at any time; believe it or not, I am actually a good listener and know how it feels to lose friends." The one-day-would-be-wyrm spoke solemnly.

"Thanks for the offer." Aranea responded cautiously, contemplating how to get away from this... force of nature. "But I hardly know you. No offence, but I really need to see my pack and check up on them."

"Well, we will hopefully fix that in the coming days. You piqued my interest with the changing of the now-once-again-former-wolf-hag Sonya, and thus I am curious to learn more about you," Leila said eagerly. "You dislike physical punishment because of something specific, or..." The woman laughed, seeing the surprised look on Aranea. The half-wyrm led Aranea to doors made of red wood. "I should not spoil the surprise," She said, and flung the doors open.

The room, colored in bright yellow light, was inside. The walls were adorned with amber and gold, and a massive gold throne stood against the north wall. Paintings depicting scenes from the old world were hanging from the walls, arranged in strict order. To the south were massive steel gates. To the left of the gates were paintings from most of the ancient world, made by long-extinct countries. Crude paintings of cavemen, locked in steel glass. As the rows of paintings progressed northward, they became more modern, with paintings depicting medieval castles and knights in armor. The other paintings were hidden behind the massive throne. Paintings were positioned on the walls all the way across to the right of the gates, paintings on this side were far more modern, depicting giant flying machines, happy families who looked at how flying vehicles were taking off.

One weird picture caught the eye of Aranea. On one half of the image, a dying young man with yellowish skin was shown lying in a hut. In the next half of the painting, the same man was in a brightly lit room, his skin no longer yellow, as machines around him apparently healed him. No one left behind the words "Dedicated to the "No one left behind" act" and a set of years, indicating that it happened long before Extinction.

Tiny was sitting in front of one of the paintings. She was behind a simple-looking table, sitting on a wooden chair. These things looked wildly out of place in this place of luxury. Tiny was busy making sketches of the painting before her. When she heard the doors open behind her, she jumped off the table and bowed.

"Wolf hag Aranea, I am relieved that you have finally recovered from your wounds. I will immediately go and report to temporary wolf hag Sonya about it…" Aranea stopped her with a wave of her paw, noticing scars from fangs on the left side of Tiny’s neck.

"Who dared do this to you?" The wolf hag demanded to know, "I strictly forbid all physical punishments. If Sonya dared to…"

"No, wolf hag, this is a simple misunderstanding that occurred as a result of my mistake. Wolf hag, I mean scout Sonya actually forced me to spend time eating; because of my size, she never touched me or anyone else," Tiny began to explain, pointing to her small frame, "Then I made a mistake and had to be separated from the pack by the orders of lady Murzal…"

"Leila. Just call me Leila, Tiny. I am getting tired of having to remind you of this. " The half-wyrm flapped her wings casually, "We had to separate this girl from her pack after one of the males ruined her pretty neck in a brawl over food. I took her under my wing, so to speak, for the time being…"

"Who was?" The wolf hag asked in a deadly calm voice, "Who was it that dared to ignore my orders?"

"Wolf hag, it was a misunderstanding! Please, this was my fault," Tiny bowed and bared her neck for daring to interrupt her superior. Her paws tremble in fear. "It's not Gin's fault he's sick. He always helped me before, it's just that this time I forgot about his warning not to come close to him when he is eating. He already apologized, please don’t punish him anymore, wolf hag."

"Ill?" Aranea asked in surprise. She remembered that boy. Gin was the one against whom she had her very first fight in the tribe. Later, he kind of vanished, always avoiding her. 

"The boy was a wreck," Leila came to the table, checking the sketches, "I'm not sure why Wyrm Lord asked me to become a 'patron' of your pack, but I was bored and agreed. After learning Tiny had been seriously injured, I summoned her to me, thinking it was just a simple boys and girls thing. Ivar has very strict rules regarding such things, and I wanted to make sure that boy wouldn’t hurt anyone else ever by using my…" For a brief moment, Leila's eyes shone with light, "... magic on him," She chuckled, "I do admit that I wanted to simply beat him up and put some permanent rule on him at first, but after making him talk, I understood that this wouldn’t do him any good. Instead, I tricked him into talking with me, without using my power this time. We also try to work on his problem by making him eat in our presence," The half-wyrm giggled like a girl, pointing at Tiny. "The boy was violent at first, but I ain’t someone he can chew. Now the poor boy can at least eat without trying to bite others," She put the sketches back, "Not to get on your bad side, wolf hag, but the way your tribe treats their own males is horrible. Half of the ones that I met have some sort of mental problem. But as for him, don’t worry, he feels better now, guilt aside," She threw her hands up and smiled, "All in all, everything ended up well and I made two new friends."

"Can I go back to my pack then, lady…" Tiny stopped as the woman turned to her, lowering herself to look right into the eyes of the small wolfkin. She gestured with the massive claw, prompting Tiny to say her name, but the small woman went silent.

"No, I still have a need for you. We still have three goals to achieve," Leila sighed. "First, I must teach you how to call me by my name. Second, we finally got a chance to make sketches of paintings in this room. I can’t paint with these…" She showed massive claws on her hands. "And his excellency forbade me to take any photos. I waited years to reveal to the world what my uncle had in his hideout, I am not backing down now that he has finally left his fortress. Finally, we had to fatten you up, so Sonya entrusted you to my care in exchange for my ensuring that you eat properly."

"But food isn't going to help me," Tiny pleaded to Aranea. "Please, wolf hag, tell her. I am not like others, food does not help me."

"Why is that?" Aranea asked her, "We eat and grow bigger. We fight and grow bigger. Why is this any different for you? Tiny, you are smaller than Kaleb, just what is wrong with you?" The warrior looked down, ashamed, "If someone takes food away from you, you can always…"

"It’s not like this, wolf hag." Tiny shook her head. "It… this is a secret, my secret. But please trust me, I can’t grow any larger without fighting."

"Secret?! Tell me, and I'll give you..." Leila stopped talking and tipped her massive head to one side. "I will tell you about the person I love in exchange."

"Everyone knows that you have hots for captain Scorpio." Tiny muttered defiantly, looking down in fear of being hit. Leila gave her a half-shocked look before breaking out laughing.

"Fine! Fine!" The half-wyrm raised her claws in a sign of peace. "I have other secrets. Tell me your secrets…" Leila's eyes suddenly began to glow with light.

Aranea felt something was twisting her will. It was as if someone moved into her head, rummaging through her thoughts, forcing her to confess her deepest secrets. This sensation was enticing; she desired to share her deepest dreams, darkest secrets, and entire life with this woman; she desired...Nay, she needed it! The jaws of Aranea start to open along with Tiny's mouth. And then Leila moved with her hands, grabbing the snouts of both Aranea and Tiny, forcing them to be silent. The light in the eyes of the woman dimmed and disappeared, stepping aside for genuine concern and worry. The intoxicating feeling was gone, Aranea gained control over her mind and thoughts. Leila let them go and stepped back.

"I am sorry." The half-wyrm pressed her hands together and bowed low to Tiny and Aranea. "I am really, really sorry for this event."

"What in the world was that?" Aranea asked in confusion and mild fear, "Is this how you treat Tiny when she is…"

"NO!" The half-wyrm shouted in genuine horror, "No, I would never dare to invade other people's minds for no reason. I am not my…" She looked miserable as she tried to find words to explain herself. "It just… I am way older than you, but compared to the other wyrms, I am still just a child. My power is still booming, it's hard to control at times," She bowed again. "I am sorry, so sorry for allowing myself to slip. Tiny, if you are afraid of me now and want to return to your pack, I will understand."

"It’s fine, lady!" Tiny raised her paws, trying her best to make everyone forget about what just happened. "Nothing bad has happened, we are still alive and well. Let’s just forget this all. I will stay for a while, if the wolf hag allows."

"I will think about it. Leila, please take me to the hospital. I need to see my friends. Tiny, make sure to report me if anything strange happens. I will reassign you immediately." Aranea commanded, calming herself.

Leila quickly walked forward, her former cheerfulness gone as she struggled to find a way to make amends. She opened doors for Aranea, leading her across the halls, then to the underground floor. They go through a series of corridors before coming to elevators. Several soldiers in power armor saluted Leila as she used her card to open one of the elevators. The machine moved after the half-wyrm pressed the number three.

"This will take us directly to the hospital." Leila said in a serious tone, brushing her hair with one claw nervously, "Once again, I am really sorry for what happened, I never intended to…"

"It’s fine." Aranea decided to let it slide. After all, she knew full well how dangerous power could be. "At least you apologized for messing with my head, unlike everyone else." Joked the wolf hag.

The woman lifted her brow in question but kept her curiosity in check this time. The doors of the elevator opened, and they came into a hall-colored green. People in white coats were working on injured people in rooms, healing or replacing lost limbs with mechanical augmetics. As the pair turned into one of the corridors, they came face to face with sergeant Alek, who was coming out of one of the rooms. The left side of the man’s face was missing, steel now covered it, his eye was replaced with a red lens, his left nostril was replaced with a breathing tube. The skin was still red at the place where the metal came into contact with the skin, this indicated a recent operation. Despite this, he smiled warmly, his lips half flesh, half metal.

"And look who's still alive!" He reached for a handshake, and Aranea shook his hand. "When that damned fog devoured half of my face and melted my lungs, I assumed you ended up dead."

"Nah, still alive and kicking. I intend to live long enough to feast on the Regulators for what they've done to us," Aranea joked, "How about you? Is Ursico still alive?"

"Nothing will kill that man, I tell you. When he and his troops wiped out one of the forward camps of the Resistance, the enemy answered with artillery. And yet, this man not only survived the heavenly wrath without a scratch but also managed to bring most of his troops to safety." Alek shook his head, his once thick red hair had now become a lighter color.

"As for myself, I'm a bit weird, but the docs promised they would fix me right up after the war is over. Not sure I want to; I like my new eye; it's a real lady killer. Also check out these goodies!" He turned around, moving his clothes up. His spine was replaced with a metal implant, and the metal circles that ran along the metal spine released air each time the sergeant exhaled. "Brand new lungs! Now I can smoke for as long as I want. Anyway, I am healed and will be back in action soon. There's going to be a big fight coming up, so stay safe, girl!" He slammed Aranea in the shoulder.

"Stay safe as well, boy." Aranea jokingly hit him on the shoulder, and the big man began to laugh.

"Your friend?" Leila asked, leading the wolf hag ahead.

"I barely know him," Aranea whispered back, "But I am glad that he is alive."

A familiar form flanked by two doctors and several nurses appeared. Warlord Martyshkina was coming into a nearby room, anger was on her face as she took off her coat. She angrily growled at the doctors, but they ignored her, taking away her coat. The warlord's eyes noticed Aranea.

"Ah! It’s you. I am glad that you are alive," The warlord came into the room and sat on the table, her back to the wall, while doctors were busy removing her armor. "But know this!" Martyshkina lifted her paw, pointing at Aranea with barely contained rage, "I hate you for what you have done!"

"I understand," The wolf hag responded simply, unwilling to dodge the blame. "I allowed Olesya to be hurt, allowed your warriors to be killed… You have every right..." She had to dodge when the warlord threw a metal gauntlet at her.

"Stop sulking! You saved my wolf hag and one of my packs. Show some pride, you idiot!" The warlord growled, as doctors were busy removing the armor from her back.

"But then what?" Aranea blinked, and Leila gasped as she saw the naked shoulder of the warlord as the armor was removed from it. Large creatures ran through the fur, and enormous ticks were stuck in the body, their pale flesh swollen from consumed blood. More insects appeared when the rest of the armor was removed.

"Because of you and your stupid doctor, we are now forced to go through these idiotic checkups! I could have been in the field now, killing and pillaging instead of…" The warlord pointed around her. "… sitting here."

"Doctor, how is she still able to walk? No, how is she still alive?" The pale looking nurse asked.

"I do believe this can be counted as a closed ecosystem by now," The old and tired looking doctor joked, "Prepare a circular saw. And a flamer. And call the extermination team. Also call the guards. If her ticks are like those of miss Valerye, this will be dangerous for us. Last time, four people were injured before we cleaned up the warlord fully."

"How is Olesya?" Aranea asked with fear, while Leila looked like she was about to vomit at any minute.

"Ask her yourself, she will be back tomorrow. I could have been with her, but noooo. This blasted Marco whispered poison into the ears of superiors, and now we must keep our bodies clean," The doctor tried to offer her some painkillers, but the warlord waved him away, "Just give me some booze. This barely counts as scratches. Be careful, though. If you disturb insects, they will bite you."

The guards arrived, taking aim at the warlord, along with an extermination team that brought bright yellow suits for doctors. Once the elderly doctor took the oversized saw in his hands and activated it, Leila dragged Aranea away from the room while guards closed the door. While the pair walked along the corridor, the sounds of energy weapons firing and the nurses’ screams could be heard behind them, accompanied by the warlord's mocking laughter.

"We will return by another route. I am interested in stories that the warlord could tell, but right now…" The half-wyrm decided, visibly trembling and checking her body for any insects that might have crept on her. "How can you live with… with these parasites?"

"Most warlords are truly ancient. It’s hard for them to change, so they continue in the old ways. The younger generation cleans itself from time to time," Aranea said. She paused for a moment before admitting. "Yeah, I have no idea how warlords can tolerate these things in their fur. I always eat mine before they can spread."

Leila shook her head with disgust and led the wolf hag toward one of the rooms. The half-wyrm sat on two seats outside the room, gesticulating that she would wait for the wolf hag as long as she needed to. Aranea took a deep breath and opened the door.

Kate was lying on a bed that was too big for her. Spheres made of metal were on her lost limbs, each sphere fully covered one lost limb. She tried to sit on the pillows, but each time her body slid back onto the bed. Kaleb, who had a metal sphere on his lost leg, was sitting on a chair nearby, feeding soup to an annoyed scout. Kate's eyes widened, as if in fear, once she saw Aranea.

"Wolf hag," She licked her lips, "I am glad that you are alive and well."

"Kate, Kaleb, how are you?" Aranea closed the door behind herself.

"Mostly fine," Kaleb said, slapping the sphere on his leg, "But the lost leg makes it really difficult to move around. They say new limbs will be ready for us in a month." He added, smiling.

"Month!" Kate almost shouted, trying to slam the back of her head into the wall behind her bed. Kaleb caught her before she could hurt herself. "A whole month of people feeding me, cleaning me…"

"Imagine that you are on vacation." Aranea suggested to her.

The scout looked at her wildly: "Can you even imagine how it feels when you... wet yourself at night?" Kate demanded to know, "They put a diaper on me for the night. And this idiot right here helps them clean me." She looked up, grinding her fangs. "It’s unbearable. Not right. They could have given us mechanical limbs, and everything would have been fine."

"She is still recovering." The male nodded at the body of the scout, and Aranea was shocked to see how thin her friend was. Skin hung on her bones, the wolf hag could see the scout's ribs clearly. "Kate’s stomach can’t handle even meat right now, so we feed her with soup, and the doctors inject something into her to help her recover. In a week or so, it will be safe for her to eat ‘hard’ food, but right now her body is still too weak. The doctors say that by now her body is slowly overcoming the disease that she got back in that place, but from time to time her temperature still rises. She still has nightmares and can hardly speak. Lady Leila offered to use her power to help Kate sleep, but..."

"I can speak for myself!" The wolfkin shouted angrily before falling silent, muttering, "Forced to eat water, forced to lie here like a corpse…" A rising panic can be heard in the scout's voice. She shook her head, returning some focus to her thoughts. "I won’t let them play with my head! Wolf hag, they give me something, and I fall into sleep without dreams. And then there was this weird wyrm woman who wanted to get into my head! I need my limbs, I need to get out of here!" Horror crept into Kate's eyes as she looked at the remains of her legs and hands.

"Kate, growing an exact copy of our limbs takes time. You will see, everything will be fine again in a month." Kaleb spoke to the scout with a soothing voice, trying to calm her down.

"I am freaking out. I want to burn from shame and fear. Everyone sees me so weak, wolf hag Olesya recently came to ‘cheer me up’, Sly showed up, Tiny also, Janine was here, this normie human, and even this weird wyrm woman! They come and try to talk, while I want nothing else but to hide, and yet I can’t! I can’t move. I am weak, useless, good for nothing." The scout started to breathe quickly due to panic, her eyes widened even more, "I've never been this frail! I have not always won in fights, I have lost more times than I can count. But…" She looked at a glass of water near the table. "…To be able to see things but not be able to touch them... It’s insanity!" Aranea held the glass of water in her paw and assisted Kate in drinking it. Kate was breathing rapidly, but she calmed herself a bit after drinking the water.

"Do you regret saving me?" Kaleb asked quietly. Kate looked at him with mad eyes, unsure of his question. "When they hooked us up to machines and said that whoever broke the silence first would lose a limb," He put away food as Kate was in too much distress and panic right now, "I saw how you looked at me when they hacked away my leg. I know that you deliberately lost in every next round."

"Idiot. I lost fair and square. You were just tougher than me, that’s all." The scout refused to admit Kaleb's words. And yet Aranea could see that she was lying. Kaleb could see this as well. Finally, Kate snapped with her teeth, "No, I do not regret it. Glad to hear it?! Bastards, you all make me say the stupidest things … But since we are admitting things. I hate being weak! Every night, I fear they will return, take me away, put me back into the machine, and I will drown and drown, gasping for air that will never come. I can still feel it, my lungs are filled with water, my stomach hurts, and then it all explodes, choking me out and filling my insides with water. And then it happens over and over again…" Kate’s body trembled as tears flowed from her eyes. Kaleb hugged her as she cried, "I am afraid! Laugh if you want to, but what if they come for us again and I don’t even have arms and legs? What will happen to me? So, what else can I give them to keep Kaleb and me safe? Forgive me, wolf hag, I am afraid, so afraid! I don’t have anything left to give to them." Kate whimpered in fear.

"Call me Aranea, and speak freely, both of you," The halfbreed lowered her knees near the scout's bed, "No one will harm you here. You are in one place where the enemy will never lay a finger on you. You are safe. Kaleb is safe. All will be well, I swear."

"I…" Kate licked her lips. "I must confess. I am cursed."

"Kate, there is no such thing as a curse." Aranea smiled assuredly.

"But there is! I know that something is wrong with me," Kate argued with passion, "When I was a cub, I was all alone in the pits." Everyone else ignored me, no one wanted to talk to me. All I ever dreamed of was someone to speak with. Just a word," She looked at Kaleb. "And then one day he was thrown into my group. My curse ripped him away from normal life and threw him into my hell. Can you even imagine how he suffered?"

"Kate," Kaleb said calmly, releasing her, "Stop blaming yourself. Do you remember what the teachers told us about me? How was I so small that they considered me to be defective for a while, and yet shamans allowed me to live? Shamans always follow strict rules, how is it then that I am alive? How did I survive in a female pack when I was the weakest? You shared food with me, how come we are both still bigger than some wolfkins? Could it be that you saved us both with this "curse" power of yours? Could it be that I was supposed to be disposed of?"

"I have noticed ever since," Kate stubbornly continued, ignoring his suggestion, "That something bad happens to someone and I get something good in exchange. Wolf hag, do you remember how during training Kaleb was injured? This saved me from the blade later. Do you remember how the steel woman killed our kin? Then the car exploded, and I was mysteriously alive, while she was killed by our pack," Aranea tried to argue, but the scout stopped her by speaking faster, "You know that she was better than any of us! How come she ended up dying and not me?"

The scout swallowed: "You asked about my beads. I got them from the shamans, a parting gift from my mom. She said I was a cursed child and threw them at me. When I feel that something bad is about to happen, I touch them, and the curse steps away. That's why I was so scared when they broke. What if the curse consumes you? Or Kaleb?" She whispered in terror, "The curse always takes someone of value from me, so I tried to shut you off. It did not work, so I started to hurt myself to pay for my bad luck. "You saw what happened when Blaguna attacked us—the curse accepted my pain and helped me," Kate's lips trembled as more tears streamed down her cheeks. "And then… then the curse forced Kostya to make a foolish move, to insult Blaguna so much that she forgot about us. Aranea, I killed him. To save me, the curse took him away!" The scout looked at the halfbreed. "Feel free to throw me out of the pack or to kill me. It’s the least I deserve."

"You idiot," Aranea hugged her, sensing how hot Kate's body was. No matter what happened to her, no matter what illness she had due to her open wounds being exposed to dirt and rust in the fortress of the Regulators, Kate was still seriously ill even now. "Calm down," Aranea whispered in her ear. "It was not your curse that took Kostya away. He always wanted to give his life for the group," She quickly told her friends about Kostya's fears. "It was his choice. And don't you dare denigrate his sacrifice by thinking that you killed him. He made the decision to save you and us."

"But the curse…"

"If it's real, then it saved us, you idiot. You saved us, you moron," Aranea hugged her more tightly. "Think about it! The strange people who forced Blaguna to send us back suddenly appeared. Almost as if it were a miracle. You are not cursed, stupid," Aranea started recalling every time Kate was supposed to get hurt but came out of danger with minor injuries. It all started to make sense to Aranea. There were times when people possessed multiple powers, "I swear to you one thing. You are not cursed. No, I believe that you have another power inside of you—something really weird, scary even," Aranea released Kate and took her head in her paws, forcing the scout to look into her eyes. "This is not your fault. I will not throw you out. And we will find out just what this weird power of yours does in time, and we will find out how you can live with it. Relax and rest, let others take care of you. I need you. The pack needs you. Kaleb needs you. Please, don’t push us away, okay? We are your friends, and friends support each other."

"I’ll… try," Kate finally forced herself to say, trying to look away, "I am tired. Can I sleep now?"

"Finish eating, and then you can sleep." The wolf hag let go of her, standing up, "And this time it's an order. Take as much time as you need to heal, but come back to us. There is still a lot of work ahead. Kaleb, you get healthy as well. I will check on you two during the evening."

Aranea opened the door and walked outside of the room. Leila was sitting on the chair nearby, hands behind her back.

"Sorry," The claw of a half-wyrm was pressed against her long, pointy ear, "Big ears. Heard everything. 'Wyrm woman'." Leila laughed and jumped up, "It seems that I left a bad impression! Oh well, I will have to explain myself to her later. I should probably send a report to Ivar about this potential power hidden in the scout…" Aranea looked at the half-wyrm with worry. Murzaliev used others like pawns. What if he decides to take Kate away? "… But the old demon put me in charge of your pack, so your wellbeing is now my responsibility. I say screw him." Leila grabbed Aranea into an embrace, leading her to exit.

"Thank you." Aranea said honestly, and Leila only laughed in response.

They came out through the front doors of the hospital, right into the inner keep of Uglo fortress. Aranea blinked as she saw the light outside. The fortress was the main base of the Reclamation Army in the Ravaged Lands. The massive central spire, large enough to be considered a city, was nearly eighty meters tall. It was surrounded by a massive wall, a shield station and the main hospital were also built in this area. This was the inner part of the keep, where the high command and a few elite forces were located. Outside of the first set of walls was the outer keep, filled with countless factories, barracks, training grounds, radar stations, and smaller medical stations. Buildings filled almost all the surface of the outer fortress, except for a long strip of land in the north leading directly to the north gate. The ground in this place was covered with two massive steel gates. Underneath them was a demolition cannon, one of the most powerful weapons in the entire Reclamation Army. Built in the times before the Extinction, this cannon was capable of shooting down meteors in space. It was but the first such weapon, the rulers of old planned to put such weapons in many regions on the planet. But they had simply lacked time. When the state took control over this weapon, scientists found out that its terrifying power could potentially wipe out entire cities at range. Yet the Dynast had little need for genocide, and also, because of the treaty with Iterna and the Oathtakers, this weapon was never put to use.

Aranea could see numerous trenches and bunkers outside the fortress, as well as trembling air.Trembling air indicated the location where the protection of the shield station was ending. The wolf hag could observe state soldiers testing the latest mechanical suits outfitted with disruption weaponry in training areas. Black oval suits, standing roughly three meters tall, carried two large disruptors on their shoulders. When activated, these weapons released a set of strong vibrations forward, powerful enough to break molecular bonds in structure and reducing almost anything before them to dust. The range of these weapons was too short to put them on the tanks or other vehicles, so it was decided that these weapons would be wasted in the uneven terrain of the Ravaged Lands. More mobile platforms were required to operate in this harsh terrain, so mobile corps from the Core Lands reentered the fray in mechanical suits. Following the expansion of the mobile corps, some troopers from the Ravaged Lands were also studying how to operate these mechs.

Countless troops were busy training in the fields, even more followed armored columns, leaving the safety of the walls to fight in distant battles. As the state was flexing its muscles, the entire third army was ordered into action. In a few months, if the war would drag on, the legendary warlords of the Wolf Tribe would arrive. Aranea was not a religious person, but the sheer idea of having an opportunity to meet Zero and Alpha, two warlords who saw the birth of the Tribe, filled her with awe. Those two were the strongest and most ancient beings in the entire Tribe. Zero had no warriors under her command and was somewhat exiled from the Tribe after tracking down and killing the skinwalker who had destroyed her pack. Yet in the dark times of Tribe, according to shamans, Zero always showed up, her sniper rifle claiming the lives of her foes. In peacetime, Zero mostly annoyed shamans by trying to change the Tribe.

Leila led Aranea to one of the command centers of the Wolf Tribe warlords. It was mostly empty now, Valerye Foulsnout and Janine Ironjaw were both in the field. Martyshkina was still in the hospital. Most of the wolf hags were also at the front. Leila led Aranea to a massive room, explaining that Sonya would bring Aranea up to speed, using materials that were left from previous briefings. Several seats stood in front of the massive screen, and food and drink remnants littered the floor. The smell of food caused Aranea's belly to rumble. In one of the seats was the massive form of the shaman, the woman was sitting casually, reading some pamphlets. This one right here easily dwarfed Aranea in size, she was nearly as tall as the half-wyrm. Numerous totems hung from her shoulder pads, her ornate armor was covered with prayers. She was without a helmet, and Aranea saw that the shaman's skin was riddled with countless scars, one large scar running across her closed right eye. The skin of this shaman was so ruined that even fur could barely hide the sheer number of former wounds on her body. The shaman looked at Aranea and opened her right eye, revealing a red ocular in the eye socket. Against her will, Aranea blinked. Shamans were the ones who opposed augmetics the most. To see one willingly using an augmetic was... Strange.

"Wolf hag Aranea." The shaman stood up and extended her arm. Despite standing higher in the hierarchy of the Wolf Tribe, shamans themselves rarely led troops in battle. They were spiritual leaders and individual fighters, but usually had bad teamwork with other members of the pack. "I am temporarily assigned to your pack by the order of warlord Janine. Once your force is replenished, I will take my leave."

"Is this really okay?" asked Aranea, taking an extended paw to greet her fellow kin. "I am the bearer of cursed blood, you know," She pointed at her crimson eye, "I can taint you if you stay near me."

"If there is no possibility of redemption, then what is the point of the Spirits?" The shaman answered with a question. Her tone was serious but calm. "No, wolf hag. The Spirits are harsh but fair. Cursed children commit no crime by being born. The Spirits simply choose them to put them to the test, to see if such children are strong enough to stick to the truth. You strive to fulfill your duties, and that is all anyone can ask of you. Cursed or not, you are one of us now. Continue on this path, and you will come back to the den of the blessed mother after your earthly form perishes." With these words, the shaman sat back down on her seat, utterly ignoring Leila.

"I know that you dislike me, but you can at least pretend to be nice." The half-wyrm complained.

"I have no animosity toward you, lady," The shaman responded calmly, without looking at her. "Yet it is unnatural for us to follow anyone but a warlord. Your position in the pack is unclear. You have no blood ties to us, but the Wyrm Lord has granted you ownership of the wolf hag Aranea's pack. Ask me about the Spirits and I will tell you all I know, for outsiders also deserve to be blessed. I will tell you any tales that I know. But I will not pretend to be nice to the blue wyrm's follower."

"Well, honesty is good enough," Leila landed on seats near the shaman and reached for the recorder, "We stopped at the time when Zero left the Tribe. Can you tell me what happened next…"

Aranea heard steps, and Sonya came to stand before the massive screen. Her former armor was gone, she was dressed in the armor of a simple scout. Her shield was no longer on her shoulder. The helmet was dangling from her waist. From the looks of things, former wounds have healed by now. The scout nodded to Aranea.

"Please accept my apologies, wolf hag Aranea," Sonya stood at attention, exposing her neck in submission. "I took control of the pack in your absence and approved reinforcements for our depleted numbers. You are free to punish me as you see fit…"

"Speak freely, Sonya," Aranea commanded, before smiling. "Damn, it is good to be back. You have my permission to carry on my duties for today and tomorrow, as the doctors told me that I will have to stay indoors. I will need some time to readjust. How is the pack? One of the warriors lost her leg. Is she fine?"

"She…" Before Sonya could explain, the shaman cut her off.

"The fool tried to refuse the augmetic leg. I challenged her and bit off her ear, now she has a metal ear and a brand-new metal leg."

Aranea turned to the shaman and locked gazes with her. She knew full well that she was weaker, but she still spread her fingers wide, preparing to unleash the claws: "Never dare to harm my pack ever again."

"You would prefer her to become Crippled?" The shaman raised a brow over her mechanical eye.

The Crippled were the wolfkins who decided against having a replacement for the lost limb. In not-so-distant times, they lived at the edge of the village, their main goal was to be a living shield in case someone attacked the village, and they were to give up their lives to warn the population. Their cubs were known as "Branded" and were shunned from joining the military ranks. It all changed when the warlords persuaded the shamans to give the Branded a chance to serve. At the last Gathering, the sacred time of peace among the Wolf Tribe, the shamans were presented with the results, and, after some scandal happened, they removed the segregation all together, allowing the Branded to freely join the military. Aranea knew little about it, but she heard that some Branded beat the shit out of the wolf hag with ease. The recording of the duel on TV was edited to keep the names of both fighters secret. Aranea could hazard a guess as to why this happened, the one who lost to the Branded was undoubtedly tainted with shame for the rest of her life.

"No," Aranea finally admitted. Even now, becoming Crippled is considered an unworthy fate. However, if anyone insults one in front of a shaman nowadays... Well, suffice to say, some skin would be lost. The wolf hag let go of the tension, "But never again dare to lay a claw on my soldiers."

"I never laid a claw on her. We bit each other, ma’am," The shaman replied with respect, "Judge me as you will, but it was stay with us or be sent back into the village situation." Aranea nodded to the shaman, showing that she understood.

"We live." Sonya glared at Leila, and the half-wyrm pleasantly smiled, "There were some problems between the new members, but our new "patron" helped me to solve them without violence. Warriors tried to fight for the right to become scouts, and I had to smack down a few of them when I was protecting Kate’s position," Sonya shook her head. "We still lack a few warriors to replace Yuki's pack, so I decided that it was wise to silently demote Yuki to stop the infighting. We have no information about her fate, for all we know, she could be alive," But Sonya's expression told Aranea that the former wolf hag did not believe this. "Sly is assisting the engineering team, and he has prepared a weapon worthy of you," Sonya shrugged, "I'd consider this a sacrilege, but the shaman approved it."

"Zero is a warlord, despite her choice of weapon," The shaman calmly replied, taking a moment to break away from telling Leila the story of the Tribe. "Ravager taught us to be flexible. All is good as long as it kills or protects. Even a weapon made by a male. "

"How is the war going?" Aranea asked. Sonya nodded to someone, and a servant came forward, moving the table with food before himself. He stopped by the seats, and Aranea thanked him, realizing for the first time just how hungry she was. She sat down and began to feast. The wolf hag tried to keep her manners but soon started to swallow large pieces of meat whole, barely chewing them. Her body demanded more and more.

"Barely began," Sonya walked up to the screen and pressed a button, revealing a large map behind her, "The resistance overplayed their hand, they attacked too soon," A large red dot appeared in the north. "This right here is the Gates of Destiny, as the Resistance called it. Now this place has been renamed Chokepoint A. This place is a mountain range with a single large road through it that leads to the inner lands of Resistance. This road is stable enough for a large part of the army to move through it. After the enemy attacked us, blue and black wyrms worked together to take over this place with help from Janine and Martyshkina, along with a sufficient number of troops. We have no idea why enemy forces were so slow to fortify this position, but with this choke point, we can now..." A red dots appeared to the south, showing a series of canyons that run to the west and then to plains in the north, "… to assemble a large number of forces to the south of Chokepoint A."

"Moving through canyons, our forces will arrive in Iadan, the main trading hub of the Regulators and the home base of Yasen Wolansky and his forces. Enemy forces stationed in the canyons were eliminated by the efforts of warlord Valerye, who is also currently taking over a tank factory south of the canyons. This factory was supposed to have serious protection, but the blue wyrm assured us that the enemy wouldn’t fight for it. So far, he was correct, our kin detected no presence of heavy vehicles in the area. The blue wyrm will lead forces near the canyons in person, heading toward Iadan city. Meanwhile, the black wyrm assembled his forces to the east," A new red dot appeared. "Sadly, we are not privy to his movements or plans. But the fortified enemy position of the Regulators near his location changed allegiance and joined us, after the black wyrm managed to convince them that it was Blaguna who destroyed the city."

Red question marks appeared in the north: "Both blue and black wyrms stated that an enemy attack is expected soon. Recon teams report that massive forces of the Soultakers and the Bento tribe are on the move. Unlike the regulators, they are serious bad news, they have both the numbers and equipment to be hard opponents. Nonetheless, most of our scout parties were wiped out before they could pinpoint the attack's target. Murzaliev assured Wyrm Lord that an attack on Chokepoint A would be suicide, thus, a possible choice for an enemy attack is either through the canyons in the west or the ash plains in the east. Most of our forces are amassed there. If the enemy held control over Chokepoint A, they could have easily attacked us in the back, but thanks to the quick actions of our army, this is no longer a threat," Sonya pressed another button, and the screen went dark.

"This is all that is going on. Some minor things happen, King claims that we are the ones responsible for the destruction of the city, and most of the Resistance believes him. Mostly, both sides point fingers at each other. The Wyrm Lord is currently busy speaking with the leaders of recently captured population centers, convincing them to be calm. The planning of the war was left in the hands of the blue and black. Chokepoint A is currently being changed into a proper fortress by the orders of the black wyrm."

Sonya walked away from the screen, taking a deep breath. It was unusual for her to explain things. The wolf hag’s mission was to lead, to be first in charge, and to strike first. Talking was something warlords usually did. The scout asked for permission and snatched some water from the table to eagerly drink. After this, Sonya lowered herself into one of the seats.

"I am glad you woke up, Aranea," She quietly said, "It was difficult to stick to your rules. Usually, I just slash whoever goes out of line," She looked at her claws, "Talking, finding other ways to keep order is... unnatural," Sonya looked up. "Anyway, your new armor is ready. Go and see Sly, just make sure to put your armor on before you test the new weapon. It is very important." Sonya's fingers twitched nervously during these words.

Aranea tried to ask what exactly Sonya meant by this, but the scout became evasive. Claiming that a duty calls her, Sonya quickly left, followed by the shaman. As the scout was leaving, she cracked her fingers, and Leila laughed quietly. The half-wyrm also refused to explain the situation, instead taking Aranea to the elevators leading to the outer keep. After going down, they headed to a small armory in the south of the fortress. The wolf hag observed how many soldiers casually greeted Leila, wolfkins, new breeds, and normies alike, and how almost everyone felt at ease in her presence. Many asked if the half wyrm would join them in the bar tonight.

"I like making friends." The weird woman cheerfully explained, after she noticed a surprised look from Aranea. "People here have so many stories. So many different traditions, customs... It is all so interesting!"

"And bar?" The wolf hag inquired.

"Ah, what better way to loosen tongues than to drink together?" Leila giggled as they came to the armory, "Can you imagine there is even a semi-official challenge to try and outdrink me?! Of course, none can win, wyrms are just built differently, but people do try to win from time to time."

They came into the armory. Engineers were busy assembling a large suit of mechanical armor. This armor stood over three meters tall. This armor had built-in cannons on both wrists: on the left hand was an auto-cannon, a weapon designed to fight infantry, and on the right hand was an anti-armor cannon, a slow-firing but incredibly destructive weapon. The massive metal backpack behind the back of the armor was home to a missile launcher. A single red lens was on the round head of the armor. Two knives were in a sheath on the belt of the suit. A tired-looking engineer noticed Aranea and led her to the far corner of the armory, explaining that this suit was still in the testing phase and not meant for mass production. It was only a prototype for something known as warform.

Aranea heard the voice of Sly before she even saw him. The wolfkin was dressed in the orange jumpsuit of an engineer and was angrily arguing with a nearby man in green.

"This prototype is nothing more than glorified battle armor! Missile launcher, cannons… Do you even imagine what a nightmare it is to power it all up with such a small frame? Where do you suppose we should put the generator? And how good is its staying power? What is it supposed to return for resupply after every minor scuffle? It needs a stable weapon, one that lasts for a long time. The frame must be bigger to provide better protection, it must be equipped with an energy weapon in order to be useful against enemies who are immune to bullets or can react to them. Unless you can guarantee that projectiles from this prototype travel at least at Mach 18, your current weapons are worthless!" Sly fiercely argued with the man. Behind him, on the wall, were blueprints for a large, square-shaped mechanical suit.

"Sly, with all due respect, we are merely in the early developing phase of warform," The man calmly responded to him, "First, we will test this armor, write down any negatives, and improve upon this design. I fully admit that you have reasons to be worried, but some of the best minds in the Third Army worked on this suit. It will be fine."

Sly threw his paws up in frustration and turned to Aranea. There were still scars on his snout, yet his amber eyes burned with fire. There were remnants of food on his work surface, and the usual chaos of instruments had been replaced with meticulous, pristine order. Each detail was in its place. Numerous books were placed on the shelf above Sly’s table. Aranea noticed one weird, out-of-place book. While most books were either technical manuals or works about energy weapons, one was titled "Wyrms and their biology". The wolf hag wondered why Sly needed this one.

"Aranea," Sly said cheerfully, approaching her and shaking her paw. All his former clumsiness was gone, there was something entirely different in his eyes. He was not afraid of punishment or breaking traditions anymore. The male's eyes were filled with a strange determination. "I have been waiting for you. Time to give you something that can kill even Blaguna. But safety first."

"Sly. How are you?" Aranea tried to start the talk, but Sly merely shrugged, giving a fake smile.

"Oh, all is well. I am just fuming with anger about the useless waste of time on the warform prototype."

"What is this warform thingy?" Leila asked as Sly led them to the corner of the armory.

"Oh, it’s a genuinely good idea of our lord," A real enthusiasm came into the voice of the male, "You all saw how big our losses were in the past few months, right? New breeds just ain’t cutting it anymore, the age of technology is coming back, and we need to keep up. Wyrm Lord had ordered the creation of new armor for his troops. The warform is a code name for a new combat armor meant to be used by wolf hags. Now, since the project has just started, it is a shit," Sly pointed at the massive armor. "Just look at this mess. It is such a small frame, and they are just now starting to argue about where to put the generator. Its weapons are too slow, and its mobility is utterly dependent on the reflexes of the wolf hag within. It lacks a proper radar system because its frame is just too small for it! Sure, a skilled wolf hag can make this suit work, but armor must be tailored to the average person instead of being made for the best of the best! There are many average fighters among our leadership, if all of them were to be provided with proper gear, it would bring greater profits rather than having one or two wolf hags have to carry the entire burden on their own," Sly waved his paw in irritation, "But ah! What do I know? I am only a wolfkin who actually saw the flaws of the current power armors in the field."

"But why are you here?" The halfbreed asked in confusion., "Sly, you are a smart guy, but how in the world did Janine allow you to…"

"We received a request to provide a wolfkin for scientists. They needed input from members of the Wolf Tribe in their work of creating new armors for the wolfkins," Leila explained to a confused Aranea, "I signed the necessary papers, and Sly is now a proud member of the Engineer Corps for the time being. Doctors say that his full recovery will be completed only in a few weeks, so Janine did not object to my decision to put him here."

Sly led them to an array of metal capsules near the wall. Each capsule was bigger than Aranea in height. An array of various weapons was put on the tables near the metal capsules. Shardguns, sniper rifles, energy weapons, and even melee blades were present. There was a stone slab nearby, covered with countless gunshot marks. A set of mechanical arms were above the capsules. Sly pressed a series of buttons on the capsule with the number "6" on it. Metal slid to the side, revealing a suit of black armor hanging on a metal rail inside. The surface of the armor was smooth, it was slightly bigger than Aranea, the lenses of this armor were pitch black. Sly pressed a button, and the metal rail extended, moving the armor forward.

"Ignore my grumbling," Sly said, pointing to the suit in front of him. "People here are actually nice to me, they listen to what I say but have different opinions." And just look at what they have created for us! Previous armors were meant to operate for a period of three days. This right here can operate for two weeks without any need for recharging," He lifted the metal arm of the suit, showing Aranea that this armor fully covered a paw, only leaving small holes for claws. "The previous armor enhanced your physical strength up to three-point-one times. This one goes up to four-point-seven times. But the best thing is!"

Sly came to the table and took a shardgun into his arms, putting on goggles. He gestured for Aranea and Leila to stand back. The wolf hag tried to argue against it, but Sly simply pressed some more buttons, and metal arms came from the ceiling, putting the suit of armor in front of a bullet-riddled stone slab. Then he quickly took aim and shot at the armor from a close distance. When the loud noise of metal slamming against metal hit her ears, Aranea tilted her head, unsure why he had ruined a perfectly good suit. Then she saw. Not a trace of damage—not a dent, not even a scratch was on the suit. Armor piercing rounds failed to even damage the armor.

"You ass!" Leila screamed, reaching for her headphones and putting them on, "You could have warned me, it's really screwing with my hearing."

"A new alloy," Sly explained, taking off his googles, "Something that people in the Core Lands are preparing for an invasion of the Living Lands. We barely get the scraps, of course, just enough to outfit the warlords, shamans, and wolf hags. But still!" He beamed, "Just imagine, just imagine how many lives this will save! The greenies will no longer be a threat. And that's not all! We can use this alloy for augmentation, for example."

"Enough of this, trainee Sly," A man in an orange jumpsuit and a white lab overcoat said as he approached the group. When the man came closer, Aranea saw that both of his eyes had been replaced with green lenses. The man looked elderly, there were countless wrinkles on his skin, his hair was gone. Two large scars were on his forehead, some mechanism was visible underneath the skin on his head, and red lights sometimes flashed under his pale looking skin. The right hand of the man was replaced with an elegant looking mechanical arm made of silver-colored metal. You've had your fill of the wolf hag's time. You are Aranea, am I right?" Looking at the halfbreed, the man inquired.

"That is correct, sir…?"

"Till Ingo, the person in charge of training this young man here," He pointed at Sly with his mechanical arm, "That is all you need to know about me. Young man, it is pointless to explain anything to her when actions will be more effective. Help her to put on the armor and head down to the testing area."

"Mister Till," Leila said with a strained smile, "Wolf hag Aranea has only been released out of the healing pod…"

"Do you dare to doubt my designs? You have this little faith in the ideas of my student?" Till asked with calm arrogance. "As expected from the daughter of…" he stopped as the half wyrm slammed her leg into the floor, denting metal.

"Do not lump me in with my father," Leila hissed at him, showing fangs. For the first time since Aranea saw how the friendly nature of the half-wyrm disappeared, something far more dangerous appeared in her place. Leila's hands and legs grew and enlarged when she flexed her muscles, "I am nothing like the old demon. And never will be. Got it?!"

"Hm, this much is obvious. He can at least act civil in the presence of his betters. It'll be years before you're even half the man he is," Ingo responded haughtily, and the half-wyrm clenched her fists. The metal hand shot forward, moving like a snake, extending itself and wrapping around the biceps of the angry half-wyrm. Leila blinked in surprise at this, "Your theory was correct, young man. Her size really does increase when she is angry. Adjustments are needed, I will borrow the book from you later." Sly proudly smiled for some reason when the man said the last sentence with a deadly calm voice.

"What is the meaning of this?!" Leila demanded to know, "Why are you provoking me?"

"Because I needed to know your true size." The man responded calmly. "You are leaving the fortress in a day or less. You really expect to last long in the field without protection? Wyrms." He shook his head. "Your kind always assume themselves to be invincible, right up until the moment you are not. Come with me, we need you to try something on."

Sly assisted Aranea in putting on the armor until Leila was almost dragged away, still angry and visibly confused. While the screen of the armor blinked into existence before her eyes, she looked around in minor confusion. It felt unusual to be disconnected from her pack and to have no icons of pack members on her screen as indicators of their health. These new lenses could zoom in and zoom out, something she had little use for because of her eye, but for others it might be handy. The rest of the systems were pretty standard: heat vision, night vision, enhanced hearing, the ability to project information from countless cameras directly on the retina without obstructing eyesight. The emergency adrenaline shot was added as a new feature to help the fighter recover from the shock of a severe wound. The number of pockets was still the same. Her hands and legs moved without any trouble. The armor seemed strange, almost as if it wasn't completely pressed against her skin.

"I am sorry," Sly said, visibly blushing, "I did not expect that the teacher would force you to put it on right away. "I made changes to it to accommodate your future growth, should you ever want to use your power... " He raised his paws, stopping Aranea from arguing, "… It's not that there's anything wrong with your desire not to use it! The point is, I took measurements for your armor based on your healthy state. You lost quite a lot of weight because of…" Sly's expression darkened once more "... of that incident. He turned away, and Aranea put her paw on his shoulder.

"Sly… about Yuki." The wolfkin threw her paw off with a shrug.

The wolfkin threw her paw off with a shrug.

"Yuki…" He hissed through his teeth, "She would always hit me, mock me, tease me... She was also always there to ensure that I was well fed, that I had someone to speak with, to ensure that I was clean… She saved me more times than I can count, trusted in all my schemes, even when they backfired…" Sly swallowed nervously. "You know, it’s funny. I always wanted to tell her how I really felt about her. But I was a joke of a male. Surely she would have laughed at me…" Sly looked down for a moment before continuing:

"I promised myself that one day I would grow up and become a real man... And then we were supposed to be happy together, at least in my dreams. And now that I have finally moved on to my goal, she is no longer here," The paws of Sly trembled in anger. "And Blaguna was the one who took my dream away from me. She took her from me. I know that we are at war, and Yuki would smack me for taking revenge on her behalf… I could forgive everything, but she dared to make Yuki suffer," Sly looked into Aranea's eyes, "I will show her just how terrible technology can really be," He stopped, looking around, seeing all the people who were working hard on making weapons and gear, and his expression softened. "No. We will show her. After all, the power of the state is in its unity. Alone I am a weak, stupid fool. Together, we are the storm. I just hope Yuki would be proud of the kind of person I am now," He wiped something from his eyes and gestured to Aranea, "Enough of my ramblings. Time for you to see what you can do now."

He tried to leave, but Aranea grabbed him by the arm.

"Sly," She whispered to him, "Tell Yuki how you feel about her."

"She is…" The male stopped, not able to finish the sentence, "It’s too late now anyway." He finally said.

"I know. I know that there is no chance of her being with us anymore. And yet, please say it to her. You can wait until you are alone. You can go to shamans. But say it out loud, don’t keep it to yourself. It will eat you, it will become poison that will burrow its way into your mind. Trust me, I know."

Sly had smiled sadly and moved away from her embrace. He only nodded, leading her to massive gates in the floor. A remote was placed on a nearby metal bean, and Sly pressed a button on it. Gates moved, revealing a large room inside. Sly beckoned to Aranea, and she jumped down.

The wolf hag landed on the metal floor, and the doors closed above her, taking away the single light source in the room. Night vision turned on, revealing that there were several obstacle courses in the room. Thick metal plates were rising up from the floor, allowing for cover. Broken bots were scattered on the floor, and traces of gunfire could still be seen on metal plates.

"Aranea? Can you hear me?" Sly's voice in her helmet inquired, "Can you see your surroundings?"

"Loud and clear. Yes, the night vision works."

"Good. Let’s run some basic tests first. Do you see the metal tower ahead of you? Jump over it, then tear off the metal pillar behind it with your left arm, if you can."

"Jump?" Aranea looked critically at the tall structure. It was at least four meters high. She usually needed to take a small run to jump over something like this. She ducked low, feeling pressure on her muscles. And then she jumped up, aiming to fly over the tower. The force behind her jump surprised even her, she nearly crashed into the metal ceiling. At the last moment, she had to press her right hand to the room's ceiling over her head in order to direct her body to land behind the structure.

She felt no pressure in her legs as she finished her seven-meter fall. Previously, there was some minor strain in her legs, now the armor carefully took away all pressure. A metal pillar, thick as the waist of a normie, was coming from the ground, the base of the metal pole was welded to the floor. Aranea reached out with her left hand, grabbing the metal object and feeling her fingers dig deep into it. The pillar was made of a solid piece of metal with a tougher core inside. Aranea grabbed it and pulled. She expected that her muscles would struggle, yet with a loud sound, the base of the metal pole came away from the floor, leaving a torn mark on the floor.

"No structural damage in the artificial muscles of the armor, no sudden energy spikes, no danger of explosion…" Sly started talking to himself.

"Wait, the armor could have exploded?!"

"Um, yeah. I was the one who assembled it, under supervision, of course, but I am well aware of my limits. For the time being, at least," Shyly, the trainee responded, "This armor already exploded in our faces when I disobeyed doctor Till's orders and tried to assemble it in my own way."

"Oh Sly. I really want to smack you sometimes, you know?"

"Well, here is something to help you work on your anger," With a hissing sound, the metal on the floor slid to the sides, and a machine came from the floor. It was a large, hunched bot painted in orange, its arms were spread wide. Each fist of the machine was bigger than the body of Aranea. Shoulders were rising over the large square body, the black camera in the middle of the body was looking at the wolf hag. Massive legs made the first step.

"Aranea, let’s start with dodging. Do not attack it! Try to evade the fists of this loader bot. It is only slightly faster than a human, and the first strike will be from the left...

"Sly," The halfbreed stopped him eagerly, "Be silent."

The loader bot hit with its backhand. Aranea waited until the last possible moment to dodge, feeling air move on her tongue as the massive hand moved in front of her. The hand slammed into the metal tower, leaving a dent in the structure. Again and again, the bot cast its massive fists, leaving dents in the floor and in nearby structures, causing the metal floor to shake. Sly finally asked Aranea to stop and switch to thermal vision, asking her to test this mode. The overheated machine was like an enormous spot in the darkness. And yet the wolf hag managed to make out the hands of the machine, dodging them with the same ease. Finally, she grew bored and jumped on top of the machine before leaping away, cursing. The damn thing was too hot.

"All basic tests are done," Sly said after he turned off the bot, and asked Aranea to open and close her mouth several times. The wolfkin let out a long sigh, both in fear and anticipation., "Well then. Time for the main event." Light flashed in the room, illuminating the surroundings. A metal box crashed from the ceiling, rows of metal plates, each as thick as a human, rose before it. Fourteen armored plates in total rose up from the floor. Sly directed Aranea to stand before the plates, ten meters away from the first plate. The floor's metal slid away once more, and a strange rifle began to rise. Its barrel was short and large, with three metal spikes extending forward from the barrel's edges. The rifle itself was slender, and the trigger was unusually inverted. Aranea took the weapon in her arms and followed the instructions, removing the rifle from the safety mode.

"Now aim at the metal plates and listen. Do you remember how fast the shots were fired from the silver rifles? Those were just simple steel projectiles moving at Mach seventeen. When compared to this rail gun, they are but child's toys. Inside this weapon is a built-in shield generator that becomes active once you pull the trigger. It was made to lessen the recoil of the weapon. This weapon speeds up small energy particles, turning them into a tiny plasma ball. It can’t compare in speed with a laser, but it doesn't need to. The purpose of this weapon is to break through everything. Moving at Mach thirty, whatever this projectile hits, it will tear through. Take care when firing this thing, it is not meant for rapid fire. Never, ever try to use this weapon without your armor. Even though recoil is lessened by the shield, it will—and I mean it—break your arms if you use it without support from your armor. Now, without further ado… fire it." Sly spoke with excitement and trembling in his voice.

Aranea took aim at the middle of the metal plate and pressed the trigger of the rail gun. She failed to see the projectile, all she saw was that the metal plates before her were suddenly torn asunder, leaving only their bases somehow still stuck in the floor. The large metal box was pierced, a fist-sized hole was in it, and the rest of the metal structure had cracks on it. The wall behind the metal box, the wall that was meant to withstand all experimental weapons, had a large, human-sized crack on it.

And then the sound hit Aranea. For brief moments, the booming sound of an artillery projectile seemingly consumed every other sound in the world. Right after came the recoil. The wolf hag actually felt pain in her hands when the weapon's handle pushed her back a few inches.

"By the Spirits." Aranea whispered, looking at the weapon in her paws and hastily putting safety mode on. If this thing accidentally shoots. If she misfires… No. She shook her head, forcing her fears away. She must master this weapon to keep her pack safe.

"Total ammo count is thirty rounds. After that, you need to change the energy cell. If the shield is disabled, or discharged, the weapon won’t allow you to fire it. Shield uses a separate energy cell, one that can last up to a month. The rate of fire depends on the user, but do not use it rashly! I recommend one shot every thirty seconds, no more. You can seriously damage your own muscles otherwise. Lastly, since this is an energy weapon," The bloodthirst crept into Sly's voice, "Even Nokto won’t be able to stop it with her power. You can end this monster with this."

"Enough of these childish games." The voice of Till Ingo boomed through the basement, and lights flashed in the room to the south. Till's dark shadow was visible in this room, which was located directly under the ceiling. "Trainee, you're coddling the test subject too much. She can endure so much more. Now, let us push you a bit more, shall we miss Aranea? Of course, if you want to, we can stop here, but I would rather gather data on your melee performance if you feel up to the challenge. Bots won’t hold back, broken bones and piercing injuries might happen."

"Teacher! She is still not fully recovered…" Sly shouted in worry.

"Soldiers are not always in their peak form, trainee. We need to gather data from lower ends as well to adjust gear."

"Bring it in, doc." The wolf hag smiled, securing the rail gun behind her back.

"Call me Till, please. We will gather information on how comfortable you are fighting with such danger behind your back, how well magnetic locks keep the weapon, and a few other things. Please only use melee if you can, but feel free to use the rail gun at your discretion. I am not expecting much, but try not to disappoint me too much."

Doorways in the basement floor opened with a soft hiss, releasing mechanical forms. These bots resemble humans in shape, the optical cameras were installed in their square-shaped heads. Their hands had five metal fingers that resembled human fingers, and long blades protruded from their wrists. Wires ran across their crudely constructed bodies, and they took unsteady, almost stumbling steps forward.

The wolf hag smiled at her opponents while dodging the swing of the first machine. Was this it? Did Till really count on these to provide her with a challenge? Her claws unleashed, she sliced away the machine's hand with her left paw, burying her right paw in the foe's head. The machine's frame twitched, and then the bot grabbed her right hand with his remaining hand. While Aranea was busy tearing the bot’s body apart, five others moved toward her, moving with unexpected speed. She barely had time to dodge the swing at her face, backing down.

She grabbed the bot with the missing arm, slamming his body into a nearby machine and sending both of them flying into the wall. Two next sliced at her, always keeping to her left and right. When she attacked the one, the other moved, almost reaching her with blades, forcing her to back off after every attack. These machines moved in perfect unison, their speed allowed them to keep up with her. While their movements were predictable, their teamwork saved them from the harm that Aranea could inflict upon them. The third bot tried to get behind her, and the wolf hag moved toward one of the metal walls in the middle of the room, pressing her back against it, wanting to meet her foes head-on.

She felt too excited and forced herself to calm down. These bots were not a threat to her, not if she kept her head calm. Two bots placed themselves to her left and right. She'll wait for the first to strike, and then...

The third bot appeared above her, one of its metal hands gripping the edge of the wall, the other pointing at the halfbreed. Aranea looked around in a slight worry. She could keep an eye on two foes, but the third was always just out of her reach. She felt her body tremble in anticipation. Which one will be first?

The bot on the right moved, and its left hand shot forward, aiming for her chin. Instead of dodging, Aranea ducked low, allowing the hand of the machine to slam into the wall behind her. Let the one from above try to attack now! She thought, piercing the sides of the bot with her claws. Her clever idea was broken when the left bot kicked her, forcing her to roll away from the right bot. The bot from above jumped at her, both hands aiming at her chest. When Aranea heard Sly's worried yell, she smiled and came to a halt in her roll. The wolf hag waited until the blades almost reached her chest and shifted her body, catching the right blade between her left arm and torso. With her right paw, she slammed into the side of the machine, piercing metal and pulling wires from inside.

The bot’s body jerked, and she moved her left arm upward, throwing the bot’s body at the last foe, straight into enemy blades. Blades pierced the barely working machine, putting it out of its misery for good, and Aranea jumped on both of her feet, standing up. She allowed the last machine to try and slice her from left and right before catching it by the hands and breaking them. The bot tried to headbutt her, and she kicked it in the chest, breaking the steel torso.

Aranea smugly smiled for a moment, before the loader bot crashed into the steel wall near her, causing her to jump in panic, unsure of exactly how the large machine managed to sneak up on her. 

"You again?" She asked, dodging to the side and evading the right punch. This machine was too slow and predictable to…

The right hand opened, moving with a burst of speed. The massive hand grabbed Aranea by her leg, raising her body into the air and slamming her into the floor. Despite the new armor, she felt that. Impact left a crater in the steel floor, she reached with her arms to slice away steel fingers, only to be slammed in the face with the left hand of the bot. The bot lifted her again, spinning its torso, and sent her flying into the remains of the steel wall. The wolf hag crashed into it like a cannon ball, breaking through thin metal and crushing into the side of the room. Aranea felt blood in her mouth, while the machine charged at her.

"Teacher, we must…" Sly shouted in panic, but Till turned off his communicator.

"You assumed that you saw all the capabilities of the foe and paid the price. It makes no difference how predictable an opponent appears to be, you must never let your guard down. Armor can only carry you so much." Till chastised the wolf hag.

Aranea felt her head spinning, she needed just a moment to get her footing and senses back. This was not something that the bot intended to give her. The massive right arm of her foe moved, and Aranea threw her own arms up, barely blocking the hit that sent her across the room, causing her head to spin again.

"Looks like she is done. You intend on waiting?" While the bot charged at Aranea, the man asked someone.

The loader bot was almost on the wolf hag as she was standing up, when the metal tail wrapped around its body. Two long hands grabbed the bot by his right shoulder and left waist, and claws tore into the machine while the attacker was trying to lift the bot in the air. Hands tore large chunks of metal from the back of the bot, and the torso of the machine spun around, slamming the fists into someone behind it with a metal sound. Aranea blinked and dizziness finally stepped back. She jumped on the back of the bot, pushing her hands deep into the torn metal, grabbing every piece of vulnerable insides that she could get a hold of, and jumping back. The loader bot staggered, trying to turn again. Then suddenly, a three-fingered hand pierced it, lifting the machine up before slamming it into the ground.

Behind the machine stood Leila, her form locked into a steel suit of black and crimson. Her enormous, yet still elegant, armor ran along her entire body, covering even her wings, giving them sharp edges. Only the claws on her legs and hands were left free of armor. Twin lightning-shaped lenses were on either side of her helm. Instead of the usual oculars, Till Ingo made something unusual for her.

"You asshole!" Leila stood up, looking at the room with Till. Her voice was filled with anger, "She only just woke up today! Can you even imagine how weak she must feel right now? What if your stupid bots would hurt her?"

"We requested a wolf hag for training sessions for many months. Not my fault that all of them refused. I will not let this opportunity go to waste. Besides, her participation convinced you to try on my armor," The armor on Leila’s right shoulder cracked with a loud sound, revealing scales underneath. "This provides me with ample opportunity to see flaws in the design and make adjustments."

"You really are not making it easy for me to become friends with you." The half-wyrm responded in an accusatory tone.

"I am not looking for friends," Till told them arrogantly, "I only need data from you. Do your best for me, ladies, I need to ensure that I can properly adjust your armors so they can save your lives in the field. " There was the sound of a button being pressed, and two more loader bots started to rise from the floor.

Leila cursed when bots started to surround her. Aranea came to her, pressing her back-to-back against the back of the half-wyrm. If Leila was surprised, she had not shown it. Instead, she moved her wings and tails, giving more freedom to Aranea.

"Sorry for getting you into this." The wolf hag tried to make an excuse, but her voice sounded fake even to her. She was just too excited about the prospect of fighting. Finally, she was somewhere where she knew what to do. All her fears, all her pain—everything stepped back for a moment.

"Eh, I had nothing better to do anyway. Besides, I owe you one for nearly messing with you." Leila cheerfully responded.

"Let’s win this, and we are even. Deal?"

"Deal," the half-wyrm chuckled, "Whoever wrecks the fewest bots today will pay for the bear today."

"Agreed, but I already took five." Aranea joked.

"Hey, that’s cheating!"

"Less talking, more fighting. "Till said in an icy voice, releasing more human-shaped bots. "Trainee, stop worrying and take notes. I might miss something."

As the bots moved towards them, the pair charged right back at them.

****

"Stupid idiots. Both of you." Marco said, treating the wounds of Aranea. Her body was covered in bruises and scratches. While the blades of lesser bots were of no threat, being slammed into the wall several times by loader bots really did a number on her. "We just healed you, and here you are being beaten again."

Leila’s body was in worse shape, some of her scales were torn off in places where her armor had busted under the pressure of her muscles. Worse still, because of the half-wyrm's muscles, her armor failed to activate properly, forcing the woman to fight with mostly her own physical strength—not even her lenses worked properly. One of her wings was broken and was now being bandaged by doctors.

Despite this, both women laughed when Tiny came in.

"Close the door!" Leila shouted, looking outside in fear. Marco assured her that all parasites were wiped out of the hospital, yet the half-wyrm was still scared of them.

"Apologies," Tiny mumbled, putting a large bag with pictures on the floor, "But I'm sad to say that I'm done with the pictures, Seeing the confused looks of Aranea and Leila, Tiny explained in a shy voice. "The Wyrm Lord came back…" She pressed her index fingers together, "I got scared at first, but he just asked if I liked the paintings. We talked for a while, and he allowed me to keep the sketches, but told me that he would have to talk with you, lady Leila. About not trying to outsmart him again."

"Bummer." Leila hissed angrily while the doctors fixed her broken wing in place.

"He also said that you are now officially in charge of Aranea’s pack. You are to take to the field with them," The small wolfkin added, before asking, "Does this mean that you are a wolf hag now, lady?"

"Of course not," Leila grinned, standing up and baring her neck to Aranea. She easily replicated the gestures of the Wolf Tribe, "See? I am submitting myself to your rule, hopefully I am doing it right by the way. Aranea, it is really uncomfortable to stand twisting your neck like this, bite me or something already."

"Sit down," Aranea said back, smiling, "if you've spent any time with my pack, you know I'm not doing this. But is this really fine with you? You are stronger than me, probably stronger than even a shaman…"

"Eh, I know two things about command. Jack and shit. I do believe that my chances of staying alive are better with you around…" Her words were cut short by the loud scream. A scream was made by a voice that sounded familiar.

Aranea jumped on her feet, charging away from the room. She knew this voice. The wolf hag ran across the corridors, evading doctors and patients, sometimes jumping over them as screams continued. She ran to the familiar door and opened it.

Two doctors and several nurses attempted to hold the scout's body while she howled in terror. Kate's body was beating in fear, even without her arms and legs, even at the point of near exhaustion, she was still too strong for doctors. The doctor tried to inject something from a syringe and cursed as Kate's body twitched, bending the needle. The wolf hag moved to help them, and one of the doctors waved her away.

"No more water! Please, I don’t have anything left to give!" Kate howled. Kaleb tried to get to her by holding the table, but nearly fell on the floor. Aranea managed to catch him before he slammed into the floor.

"What is going on?" Aranea asked him.

"Nightmares," Kaleb told her grimly, "She's gotten better in the last few days, but almost every time she tries to sleep, she just..." He tried to stand, and Aranea seated him back on his bed, "… ends like this. Doctors give her something to keep dreams away, but it’s not always helping."

"I can’t breathe!" Kate shouted, her amber eyes spinning crazily in their sockets. Drool was falling from her mouth. "I must get out of here, I must!" She coughed, trying to spit something out.

Leila's loud steps announced her arrival. The half-wyrm stepped inside, looked at the situation, and nodded. She moved forward, ignoring the doctors, and grabbed the scout by her head with two hands, forcing her to look at herself.

"What are you doing?" Aranea demanded to know, standing up, but Leila ignored her. Light shot from her eyes, falling into the eyes of the scout.

"You are safe. Among friends. There are no nightmares. You do not think about them. You do not remember them. There is nothing scary here, nothing at all. You will have normal dreams from now on." Leila intoned in a low tone, and Aranea saw how Kate's body was slowly calming down, her pupils slowly becoming smaller.

"I obey." Kate answered Leila, sounding like a robot. This voice sounded so unlike her, it was the submissive, passive tone of a slave.

"Let her go." Aranea demanded, grabbing the woman's wrist. Leila looked at her. Light fell into the eyes of Aranea, and, for a moment, the wolf hag wanted nothing more than to fall on her knees, obeying every single word of the half-wyrm. But then the light went out, and the half-wyrm took a step back, releasing the scout. Aranea felt that strange feeling disappear, the confusion seeping away from her thoughts.

"Leila," One of the doctors said, checking up on Kate, "I will write an official report, protesting against such methods. This really does not help the patients…" The half wyrm looked at him and simply nodded, refusing to argue.

"What? What have you done to me?" Kate asked in a scared tone, falling helplessly back on the pillows. Sweat could be seen on her brow. "What did you take? I can feel something is missing, what did you take away from me?!" The scout demanded to know.

"Nothing of value. In fact, nothing at all. I just forced some of your memories to be locked away so you could sleep. Don’t worry, the effect will last for a week, no more," Leila smiled, gently stroking the head of Kate with a claw, "Bad things won’t bother you for some time now."

"You had no right. I refused your offer before," Kate whispered in fear, "This is my head, dammit it! What if you took away something important? What if I am even more broken now? Give them back! Undo what you did!"

"Everything will be fine. You are you. Everything is still in your head. I swear this to you." Leila turned around, leaving Kate in the care of doctors.

Aranea charged after her. Once they were in the corridor, she closed the door and grabbed the half-wyrm by her shoulder. The woman was stronger than her, yet Leila allowed herself to be pressed into the wall, ignoring the pain in her wing.

"What about 'not invading other people's minds for no reason' part, huh? Was this a lie?" Aranea growled in her face.

"No." The half wyrm responded in a tired voice, "I had a good reason, so I fixed her."

"Fixed! You imposed your will on her! Can you even fathom..."

"Yes, I can!" The half-wyrm put her hands on Aranea’s shoulders, "Yes, trust me, I can very well imagine what one feels when someone superior bends your will. The old demon used to do it with me all the time. "Go whip yourself, tell me who broke the vase, go back to your room, and feel yourself miserable"…" Leila’s left eye twitched as she recounted these events, trying to sound cheerful. "My... The old demon uses his power very liberally, wielding it at any opportunity. No, even despite this, I still don't regret helping Kate. If you see a boy about to leap from a roof because he believes that he can fly, won't you save him even if he gets angry later? My power can be used for good. I am using it to help others, not harm them. I know all about the side effects of my power, it’s fine, I promise." The half-wyrm spoke passionately, attempting to persuade the halfbreed.

"Give Kate her will back. Return her back to normal. Right now!" Aranea let out her claws, but Leila stood calm. The half-wyrm took Aranea’s wrists into her hands, forcing the wolf hag to move away.

"Kate still has her mind. All I did was lock some of her unpleasant feelings away. You know the state she is in, right? She needs a proper rest. And I gave her one," Leila pushed the paws of the wolf hag down, "I am sorry, wolf hag, but I am technically standing above you. I will not abandon people in need. Whether you like it or not, the cure stays." Leila turned around and walked away, her head low.