Niva very slowly turned her head to her surroundings. At the same time, the fingers on her remaining hand twitched.  

“Do you know where you are?” I asked her. She met my gaze but refused to speak. Or maybe she couldn’t? Were her vocal cords injured as well? [Analysis] didn’t say anything about that, but her mouth was probably sore from her teeth extraction. “I killed Noelia. Remember the gunshot? You stood up, tried to walk, fell, and passed out.” 

Instead of nodding or shaking her head, Niva touched her fidgeting fingers to some of her bandages. She tried to get out of bed, but Sekh stopped her. 

“As part Lizardfolk with summoning magic, it’s possible for you to become a Dragonfolk and summon a draconic spirit. Am I correct?” 

Again, Niva just stared towards my voice. The eyedrops reduced the swelling, redness, and puffiness, but even if the outside looked somewhat better, mono-eye degeneration fucked her optical nerves.   

Upon confirming she wasn’t deaf, I concluded Niva was still disconsolate. “Did Gloria enslave you? She’s the one who handed you off to Noelia, right? As a damage sponge?” 

For as emotionless, still, quiet, and injured as someone like Niva could be, she reacted just enough to know that I hit the mark on the head. When asked if she wanted revenge, Niva finally found it in herself to nod. But did it come from herself? I never expected her to be totally quiet, so I partly wondered if she was in a tremendous amount of shock and believed this all to be a dream. But she wanted revenge, and that brought a bloodthirsty smile to my face.  

“Then you’re not alone in wanted to kill a Holy Lord. Meruria of Cridia fucked my life over.” I thought about explaining an abridged version of my life to her while focusing on my chimerism, yet it would have been futile because she couldn’t see me transfigure. And if she believed this was a dream, I’d just be wasting words. Still, I told her I was one and observed her lacking reaction. “Join me in killing the bastards that caused so much harm to us. In return, I will nurse your wounds. Under my protection, you will know safety, not fright and abuse. Should anyone try to harm you, I’ll destroy them without a second thought. Do you understand me?” 

Niva nodded, though I doubted she understood the meaning behind my words. Maybe she latched on to my offer of safety? Even if she wasn’t all there, that could have struck a chord within her soul. 

I inquired the AI how to apply [Status Cloak], and it told me I needed Niva’s loyalty. Why? I didn’t know, but I thought about how best to go about it since she wasn’t speaking. “Should you wish to pledge your loyalty to the Transcendent Dark Lord, nod your head and receive my blessing.” 

Niva used the very last bit of her strength to complete her end of the bargain. Gray mana materialized above and showered her in its warmth. 

She’s lucid enough to make life-long vows? 

Her name and info appeared under Sekh’s. After a single command to the AI, Niva’s mana was cloaked by the strongest camouflage this world had to offer. Even the power of a Holy Lord couldn’t break through its mask. I doubt anything could, honestly.  

Reminds me of the stealth coatings the United States put on its bombers and fighters. They could be within miles of a radar station, yet they wouldn’t appear on it. If radar like that existed, could [Status Cloak] prevent inanimate objects from showing up? If so, then couldn’t you use it on a warship? There’s a lot I still don’t know about the extent of [Hermes Trismegistus]. 

Sekh looked to me and shared her feelings. Since Niva was going to be her trusted ally, she wondered if she could reveal her past. Second thoughts clouded her determination since she wasn’t sure if Niva was even ‘conscious.’ What she wanted to do was her own choice, and upon telling her that, she opted to stay her tongue for a while longer. 

That was odd, however, since Sekh was indifferent to Niva up until now. Perhaps knowing that she was under my protection changed how she saw her? That made the most sense. But still... 

It’s kinda funny that we both want to tell Niva the truth about us, yet we can’t find the courage to tell Irisa or her parents. Why is that? Why do we hesitate when they already know so much about us? 

After a few seconds, a leather collar with a blank metal charm magically wrapped around Niva’s neck. I demanded answers from the AI, but Tilde was the one who answered from her bed in a sleepy voice.  

[Hermes Trismegistus] came with a ‘hidden’ effect that wasn’t really needed until now. When someone pledged their loyalty to the Transcendent Dark Lord, two things happened. One: they’d go back to Lv. 1. Two: they’d keep their acquired skills and stockpiled SP. Sekh was Lv. 1 when she professed her loyalty, so nothing really happened. Niva was Lv. 1, so that effect wasn’t needed. With this method, however, you could only be reduced to Lv. 1 once. De-leveling in this world was possible in a few different ways, but it was very rare and expensive to the point where most people didn’t know it existed. And that included some Holy and Dark Lords.  

The effects of this loyalty system combined with [Tyranny Control] to create the ‘best’ of both worlds. And by that, I meant it turned it into something even more highly configurable. The SP sharing effect was transferred to the loyalty system, but everything else about that dastardly skill was elective.  

The enslavement effect and the items representing the slave, like the collar, seal tattoo, bracelet, and necklace, were optional. In fact, if Irisa pledged her loyalty to me, I could have Sekh give her a tattoo of a dolphin. Then if she disliked it, I could remove the non-binding seal or replace it with a monkey holding a banana. 

It’s like an infinite tattoo I can replace repeatedly. That’s kinda cool. 

Niva’s collar did not mean she was my slave. She would never be mine unless I explicitly allowed it. Even then, its merger with this ‘loyalty’ system meant the slavery effect would not be permanent and unbreakable unless I wanted it. And since I never saw a reason to make it take on that aspect, I listened to Tilde and gave command over those two effects to Niva to further prove my words. If she acknowledged this fact, I didn’t know. And I wouldn’t know until she spoke. 

Yes, she had the power to declare herself a slave. Yes, it was better than retaining that ability because she might believe I would dangle that threat in front of her unless she did what I wanted. If I could reverse the effect and grant Sekh’s freedom, I’d do it quicker than I could breathe. 

“Our liege isn't the kind of person to require a collar. If you can understand me, focus on the feeling around your neck and try to vanish it,” Sekh said. A few weak blinks later, the symbol of oppression disappeared around her frail neck and never returned.  

Perhaps the stress of it all was too much for Niva. Her eye slowly closed as she started to slam back into her bed, but Sekh slowed her fall and gently guided her head to the pillow. Even if she wasn’t exactly conscious, her mind surely spiraled in a thousand directions. Remaining perfectly still, I had the AI make sure she was alive while pulling the blanket up to her chest. Joining Sekh in bed, I went to sleep with my shorts and shirt in case an emergency arose. Since we had Niva with us, the chances of one skyrocketed. 

With Sekh and I sharing the same pillow, we gazed into the other’s eyes until sleepiness saw fit to steal us from the world of consciousness.  

---

When my abuse started, I was constantly jolted awake in fear and fright. These were called night terrors, and they were literally beaten out of me by those calling themselves my parents and sister. Making just one small peep at night was enough to leave me with a black eye, and it only ramped up from there. 

Considering my past and comparing it to Niva, it was only logical that she’d eventually find herself being cursed by the awful terrors of the night emanating from her life. As such, the chances of her waking up the whole house with a bloodcurdling scream were not zero. 

The piercing cry was so sharp and loud that my sensitive hearing could not emerge unscathed. I jettisoned myself out of bed and hurried to get dressed. Niva was lying flat on her back, yet she thrashed around enough to throw her blanket to the floor. It looked like she was trying to fight someone off. When I rushed to her bed, my bare touch was enough to make her jerk uncontrollably to the point where she fell off the bed and smacked her bruised head against the hard floor. 

Sekh arrived at my side, and she folded her ears down to try to block out some of the noise. She pointed to the bed, where various stains of brown, crimson, and yellow infected our eyes while damning smells sought fit to wreak havoc upon our noses.  

“Niva...” I whispered while jumping over the bed and crouching down. I did my best to be gentle, yet my voice only enhanced her hysterical outburst. Her mouth unnaturally opened wide and let loose a screeching collection of screams, shouts, and vague noises while blood trickled down her lips. “Niva! It’s me!” I said, reaching out to grab her remaining hand. She shook like she expected me to beat the shit out of her, and her nubby arm tried to fight me off. She smashed it into the floor and cried out in pain, but it didn’t slow her down. 

Even if her wounds were reopening all over her body, draining what little HP she had left, that didn’t stop her.  

“Niva!” I said with a bit more force. I touched her remaining hand, then enclosed it around both of mine. “Remember last night! You're under my protection now, so you won’t be met with fear, fright, or pain, not from me or anyone else. Your freedom isn’t a dream anymore. It’s real.” 

Her screams died, but they were replaced with unintelligible cries while her eye frantically looked everywhere in front of her. Yet it wasn’t until Ichiha and Kokan barged through the door out of pure concern that Niva tried to beat me away while scrambling with her bleeding stumps. In her mind, they were potential abusers, but I held her hand tightly and endured her pathetic bashes. “They’re good people,” I told her. “They know I’m a chimera. They accept and look after me. If you’ll let them, they’ll do the same for you.” Then I leaned in close and whispered something personal. “You aren’t alone in what you endured. I’ve been...in your position before.” I don’t know how much she took my words, but she stopped loudly screaming and settled for a whimper and a cry. 

I knew a few sprinkles of pleasantries wouldn’t remove the disgust of long-term abuse. It took weeks before I felt comfortable around Irisa and her parents, but it could be even longer for Niva.  

“Come with me, sweetie. We’ll get you cleaned up and bandaged,” Ichiha said with a hand over her heart. I did one last look with [Analysis] and informed Kokan that the fractured ribs had gotten a little bit worse. Her thrashing about didn’t result in a punctured lung, yet there was a lot of agitation. He nodded and prepared some medicine while Ichiha lifted Niva with the absolute gentleness of a fallen leaf. As she exited the room, she told us to wrap the sheets and take them outside for her to wash later.  

We did as she asked and joined Kokan and Irisa at the breakfast table. Irisa was obviously concerned and asked a thousand questions, and we answered them while helping with the medicine and bandage-making. “From what you said, I’d wager she was in extreme shock. It’s possible she thought she was dead. It’s equally as likely she believes herself trapped in a cage of her mind. Only she knows the truth. Unfortunately, she isn’t able. Another concerning thing was how Niva shook off the pain she was feeling. From personal experience, breathing with fractured ribs and smashing something with a wounded hand wasn’t like walking through a winter wonderland. 

Kokan hypothesized that it was a byproduct of the pain reliever he’d given her the day before, but it could also come from the potions she was forced to chug. It could have killed her pain receptors. 

The conversation turned to prosthetic limbs, and while I wanted to make some, I wasn’t confident in my ability. Firstly, I did not have a computer to program the sensor chips designed to help the wearer keep balance. Secondly, I didn’t know how to program in the first place. Thirdly, reinforced carbon plating probably didn’t exist here. And flexible joints? That kind of manufacturing was too detailed and advanced for someone of my skill level. 

Kokan knew nothing of what I said, then explained that prosthetics here weren’t as advanced as the ones in my country.’ Bone, metal, and wood were the standard here. But we did talk about how to connect the prosthetic to the limb. “The ones from my country came in three parts. A soft sleeve that goes over the nub to protect it, a socket that goes over the sleeve that connects to the nub, and you connect the prosthetic itself to the socket. Turning it locks it into place.” 

“Yep! That sounds about right,” Tilde said, adding to the conversation. 

A few minutes later, the door to Ichiha’s room opened. She walked out with a clean Niva dressed in one of Kokan’s oversized shirts, yet her face was pale. Her mouth was slightly agape as blood dripped down the corners of her lips. Kokan fulfilled his role. He laid her flat on the couch, lifted her shirt, and got to work. After examining her chest, he asked Sekh to weave a large compression bandage. She knew what that was and worked diligently to create it while he sprinkled and applied some leftover medicine. Meanwhile, I carefully used those eye drops. Kokan spoke like a doctor and explained what and why he was doing to make it as comfortable as possible. 

He gently propped her mouth open and looked at her gums. They were just barely bleeding, which was acceptable. He checked her ears next and complimented his wife on her technique when she scrubbed behind them. 

By the time we finished, she was wrapped up once again like an ancient pharaoh. The compression bandage wrapped around her whole chest. Like its name, it kept it compressed. The downside was that it was hard to breathe, but Kokan wasn’t trained in doing internal surgery on the ribs. Even though that would have helped far more, he didn’t want to risk killing his patient due to his lack of knowledge. 

“You must take it easy. Breathing is going to hurt, but you must endure it. Hopefully, the pain remedy I gave you will kick in quickly.” He looked at me and continued. “She should be going through withdrawals right now. Niva, when was the last time you had a potion?” He turned to his patient, but she refused to move. After putting her shirt back on, she remained silent and still on the couch as if the spark of life and hope had abandoned her for greener pastures. 

I told him she took one when I rescued her, and again, he was confused by the lack of a reaction thus far. His brilliant mind traveled a thousand miles a minute. “Regardless, we’re still in a perilous period.” 

With extreme care, he lifted Niva while being watchful of her stumpy limbs and brought her to a chair at the table. Ichiha had prepared tomato soup. I knew she smelled the food because she looked directly at the bowl, yet neither her injuries nor her mental state prevented her good hand from moving. Her eye wandered around the room instead. Sighing, I started to feed her. Slowly, she opened her mouth the tiniest bit, and I slipped the spoon between her chapped, dried lips.  

“H-Hey, Mila! Easy, it’s still too hot!” Irisa exclaimed, slamming her hands on the table and standing up in a hurry. I blinked and looked at the steam rising from the bowl. 

“Ah, shit! Niva, are you okay?! Spit it out!” I said, looking at her squirming face. Her mouth was slightly agape, and the soup poured like molten blood. I internally slapped myself for doing something stupid, but I didn’t dwell on it anymore. I cleaned her up, then when the soup was at an acceptable temperature, fed her the rest without any issues. 

Ichiha took her to the couch and made her comfortable once breakfast was over, and I spoke with Kokan a little bit more about what to do. “I want to say the signs of healing are there, but you can’t split a boulder with only a single day’s effort. She will need time, and it’s good she’s even moving around. I’m worried for her mind, though. The episode she had this morning, unfortunately, proved my darkest suspicions about her.” 

“If you thought it happened to her, it probably happened,” I said, finishing my cup of water. I told Sekh and Tilde that we were going to the mines to get some iron since I'll probably need a shit ton of it. Failure was going to be synonymous with my name because the chances of me making the prosthetics first try were incredibly slim.  

Sekh and Tilde nodded, and Niva’s eye followed our footsteps as we walked down the stairs. I figured we could complete a few quests to make a little extra money, so we stopped by the guild. That was the plan, but a fancy carriage was parked out front. It shimmered like rubies excavated from the depths of a volcano, with gold and black trimming added to the door and windows. Something so gaudy could only have been owned by someone with outrageous wealth. That was one thing, but four winged horses, each with brightly colored manes, had their harnesses hooked to the shafts. The driver was an elegant-looking woman with a stoic expression. Her dark hair was short and styled, but her fingerless gloves revealed manicured nails sharpened to a point. 

We approached the guild’s door, where two human men stood guard. Their armor was blacker than night, and they wore crimson-tipped winged helmets. The left one carried a blue sword, and the right guard wielded a red spear. The sword-wielding guard put up a hand and explained that the guild was closed for the time being.  

That was fine, but something was off. The woman, horses, and guards made up seven dots on my map.  

But there were eight.  

If the map and radar were to be believed, and they hadn’t been wrong before, someone was standing in front of the door. A quick use of [Analysis] on that mysterious dot revealed the truth.   

It was a Dragonfolk, and they were under the effects of [Essence Deletion], an illusion spell that removed your presence from the world. I couldn’t see him, but I didn’t want him to know I knew where he was, so we left.   

I altered our pre-dungeon destination to a familiar store I loved to plunder. My shopping list consisted of men’s underwear for me—sleeping nude from now on was out of the question because if I had to react to an emergency, I’d prefer to do it with something covering my naughty bits—and a few more herbs. After the AI highlighted the clothes that would fit Niva with waypoints, I stole a few outfits. I was going to do this after returning from the dungeon, but I wanted to get it out of the way. 

We left the eternally busy shop with tired, overworked employees and embarked on a journey to the mines. Along the way, I talked to Tilde and Sekh about the invisible guard. Tilde received information from my map, so she knew he was there. And Sekh did as well, but she discovered him because her instincts told her someone was closely watching her. Tilde said the Dragonfolk had the title [Shadowguard], which meant he specialized in striking from the shadows to protect their liege. Only true masters of stealth and combat could get it through an endeavor that sounded impossible. 

But it was no lie to state that he was a magnificent assassin. The title also boosted his stats and stealth abilities to an unhealthy degree. 

But more importantly, he had the title [Holy Lord’s Guardian], so it didn’t take a genius to figure out why the guild was closed.  

Gloria was inside. She was probably chatting to the guild master about Noelia. That was my guess, at least.  

Since no one was around us, I had the AI display a satellite map of the guild, but my target wasn’t there. She had just left the building and was walking to her carriage with a Dark Elf by her side.  

Gloria wore a long, black dress with an angled split below her waist to show off her long legs. But the top, which had long sleeves and a design to emphasize her medium-sized breasts and healthy amount of cleavage, was attached to the bottom by two black straps. Her sleeves and the rest of her top were accented in a swirly white, probably to show off her nature as a Holy Lord. The same design could be found on a pair of lacy straps clasped around her thighs and her heeled shoes. The hem of her dress seemed to have been dipped in pure, watery mana because it shone a vivid white. Tilde said that was possible, but the chances of finding mana dense enough to be in a liquid state were like encountering a Holy Lord on their dying breath and convincing them to let me kill them so I could assimilate their power. It could also be used to dye hair, which was why Gloria’s wavy hair was as white as a ghost. Her eyes were a dull grey, though. Did she tint her eyes? 

Gloria held the title [Holy Lord of Shadow], and [Shadow Magic] was a thing… But why would a Holy Lord choose to master that? What effects could be gained from using [Holy Infusion] on spells weak to light? It wasn’t like that was all she knew. Gloria was Lv.165 with hundreds, almost thousands, of skills and titles. She was a force to be reckoned with. 

She climbed in her carriage, sat down, and crossed her legs. She rested a hand under her chin, and a sigh escaped her pink lips. The Dark Elf she was with— a woman named Arella Worzai—was…interesting. A pair of curved swords rested on her back. They glowed a deep violet—the same hue as her piercing eyes. Her hair was styled in a ponytail, and it was a faded white, not unlike the Holy Lord she guarded with her life... 

But her gear... Her metal armor brought attention to her large breasts, but it looked like she wore an armored skirt that didn’t even reach her knees? It seemed more for fashion than defense, and it was the same with her heeled boots, which were made from enchanted steel—the same as her gauntlets.  

For some reason, it felt like the armor she wore was her weakest. In a world where steel wasn’t the strongest, why would a Holy Lord’s guard not wear the best? Perhaps she believed in her offensive ability more than her defense? You didn’t need to worry about taking damage if you killed your opponent first. She probably embodies the motto of ‘Strike first. Strike hard. No mercy,’ but I wouldn’t know that unless I saw her fight. 

After investigating further, the AI gave me a brisk rundown on Arella. She was Lv. 89 with over 70 spells and skills at Lv. 10. She held the same title as the Dragonfolk, but for her sub-title, she had [Holy Lord’s Royal Guard]. The closer she was to Gloria, the more powerful Arella became. That made sense, I suppose, but as it stood now, we were decades of progress away from slaughtering them.  

The world was a wide ocean, and I was nothing more than an amoeba. 

But I wasn’t dejected. There was no reason to become depressed. Instead, Tilde, Sekh, and I casually chatted while continuing to the dungeon. It seemed that was Gloria’s next destination because her carriage soon passed us on the right. The two human guards marched beside it, and the driver refused to look at us. Neither did Gloria or Arella, but the Dragonfolk? My map indicated he was on top of the carriage, but I didn’t know if he was sitting or standing.  

We only continued our talks once they were out of range, but I kept a waypoint on the Dragonfolk because I felt better knowing where he was at.