Her thoughts were nothing more than a fractured mess, she was unable to focus on anything coherent. Memories of her brother’s face flashed before her, mingling with the horrifying realization that she might never avenge him at this rate.
Her nemesis was much stronger than Azura, he was a top-level member of the Ravenshade duchy’s Consortium-equivalent syndicate. Just how damned far was she from getting to that wretched man’s level? What made it even worse was the knowledge that it was not like she could just waltz into his home and demand a duel to the death from him, she had to be strong enough to take his guards and other allies down as well.
How long would it take her to fulfill her mission of revenge at this rate? Would she even finish it before he died of old age? Just thinking of letting him depart this plane of existence in a peaceful manner with family and friends surrounding him in a warm, comforting atmosphere made her want to outright explode with pure hatred.
Her lips moved, though no words came out. Everything was slipping away. She tried to move her arms, to lift her blade, but it was as if her body had turned to lead.
And then, amidst the chaos of her broken mind, a strange, mechanical ding rang out. It wasn’t a sound she heard with her ears – it resonated directly in her mind, cutting through the fog like a blade of clarity.
A message appeared before her, glowing faintly in her field of vision:
[Ding!]
[The Primordial Subjugator wishes to subjugate you! Do you accept or not?]
Her fragmented thoughts immediately coalesced into one sharp memory.
Quinlan.
She recalled his voice, his confident tone as he had explained his strange, otherworldly class to her when he invited her over to his home to have the weirdest conversation of her life.
Quinlan?
Subjugate her?
Her instinctive reaction was immediate rejection. The very thought was abhorrent. She had fought all her life to lead her story as she thought best. To give someone else that kind of power over her… felt like not only a horrible individual mistake but also spitting on her brother’s sacrifice.
But another voice whispered at the edge of her consciousness.
‘He’s the only man in the whole of Thalorind who you can trust.’
Iris clenched her teeth as tears welled in her eyes. Trustworthy…? Could she really believe that?
Quinlan was a mystery to her, an enigma wrapped in layers of power and charisma. But in the short time she had known him, he had never shown cruelty toward her or anyone in his circle. His bond with his allies was deep, something she had observed firsthand.
Yes, he was ruthless, evil even, but never without reason and only to those who were his enemies or just pure human scum. He was not a hopeless sadist who drew joy from the suffering of innocents.
Furthermore… In a way, Damian was his brother as well. The horrible man who killed him took him from Quinlan as well. After all, according to his words, he’d lived through her early life not only as a distant observer but as if he were her.
He felt her deepest emotions which included her extreme love and grief for her brother. He was the only man who could ever understand her endless hatred toward the world.
Avenging Damian was not only her goal… but also Quinlan’s.
Azura’s footsteps grew louder as her shadow fell over Iris as she raised her blade for the final blow.
The message in her mind pulsed, demanding an answer.
Could she risk it? Could she put her trust in him?
A shiver ran through her battered body as she steeled her resolve.
‘…I accept.’
An all too familiar voice sounded in her mind.
<Welcome to the gang, mentally unwell future wife #2. Can you hear me? Reply by thinking of me in your mind to speak to me.>
<Yes…> She replied painedly. Even thinking up the one-worded response caused her to have a splitting headache.
<Good. Make no moves, pretend to be utterly helpless.>
<I don’t have to pretend…>
<I meant that you should continue doing so even once you’re starting to get better. I’m going to share my stats with you, my Vitality should help you regain your bearings. It’s not going to match a proper healing spell, but you should have a fighting chance at least.>
Although Iris couldn’t hear it from the distance separating the two, Quinlan murmured two words under his breath in the lowest possible tone. Furthermore, he even instructed his girls to create diversion sounds together to mask his intoning: “[Overlord’s Magnanimity]”
This was one of the three Primordial Subjugator spells he’d unlocked, alongside Overlord’s Eyes and Sacrifice. Overlord’s Magnanimity allowed him to bolster his forces as long as he was out of combat.
Over the past month, he’d played around with it a lot.
He found that he could select the percentage he was willing to be temporarily taken from him to be sent to the recipient, which was up to 90% of his max stats.
He also found that the percentage he was allowed to transfer depended on the amount of his forces. When he did it to all his slaves at once, only 5% of his current stats were given to each recipient. When 10 or less people were targeted, it would become 10%. Under 5 resulted in a 20% boost.
When it was only 1 person…
He used his Child of Agony class to cause three horrible debuffs on himself and transformed all the pain into Vitality. He had to be careful especially if he was only going to be enjoying 10% of his Vitality.
These debuffs could kill him in a moment, but he was under the constant care of Seraphiel who chanted spell after spell because she was fully informed of the situation. She knew that his life was in her hands, thus she concentrated on conducting the most masterful healing session of her entire life.
Even if someone saw his condition worsen all of a sudden, it could be perfectly explained as aftereffects of his duel with Kael, no eyebrows should be raised. He did get tossed around pretty badly, after all.
[Vitality: 79 -> 139]
[Converting 90% of the entity’s stats…]
[Vitality: 139 -> 14]
[Strength: 68 -> 7]
[Agility: 80 -> 8]
[Magic: 103 -> 10]
[Transferring the converted stats to the recipient at a 50% rate…]
A sudden notification rang in Iris’s head and she somehow immediately felt power surge through her like never before.
[The Primordial Subjugator had decreed to bestow his magnanimity on his subject. Bonus stats gained temporarily for the next 30 minutes:]
[Vitality: 62]
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[Strength: 30]
[Agility: 36]
[Magic: 47]
Iris was utterly flabbergasted by the means that were available to Quinlan, but she told herself that she should probably get used to this. He was not a human, after all, but an immortal existence. She shouldn’t assume that the meager measures used for a mortal would be proper tools to understand him and his scale of means.
It was true that Quinlan lived in a completely different world, but…
He was on her side.