"Huaagh~"

With a wide stretch YuJu gave a tired yawn

"That's all of them but you fella"

Rubbing the grey egg in his hands he was glad everything was traded off, it took a week of nonstop working but it was worth the trip

"Might have been a bit of a waste to give these weapons to normal people, still better than letting them rust without an owner however"

Every weapon he gave was one he got from the Aura Scape, which meant they were all specially designed to suit various aura holders, but those weren't common and he also needed weapons of unknown origin in case Hortus investigated the source so that the mysterious trader and the blackguard leader wouldn't be linked

"There was that woman though, she might make use of that thing"

A week ago he did meet a rare aura holder among the mother daughter pair who bombed his vehicle, the older woman exposed their location with how uncontrollably leaking her wrathful aura was, a perfect fit for the chainsaw sword he once showed to Joco

"Speaking of my ride, I must have missed a ton of camps on the way, what a waste to see if there were any hidden treasures…"

Without the loud noise that attracts all the curious eyes he could only resort to visiting the camps he knew existed beforehand based on memory, which also meant he had been running around non stop for the past week

'A rest is in order, one that doesn't need sleep hopefully'

He thought walking into the den that his little vampires revamped

It still held a silent and suffocating air of gothic nobility but the empty space was no more, instead each flipped floor he passed was filled with cages, empty cages waiting for their new residents

Past all this dungeon like area he arrived at the big hall housing his throne which also saw major changes, unlike before where his seat was the only thing occupying space there were now many tables and chairs, even couches and hanging cages filling the place, his throne towering above them as makeshift slabs formed a stairway lifting it up

"Welcome back Master"

""My Lord""

Mia took the lead in welcoming him by bowing which everyone else followed suit, including a new face next to Ika

"How was your meeting with Sofia"

Getting comfortable on one of the couches instead of his seat he asked

"It was very easy to hoodwink that gullible woman, the excuse that I was out getting the guild founding information was enough to convince her of my disappearance during the crisis, especially when I presented the way, her eyes were lit with so much passion I thought she was about to kiss me"

"What of the gifts?"

"The two blue bone spitting furballs made her quite satisfied, she also didnt question my story about meeting a shadowy trader who gave them for a few items I had on hand, she wasn't thrilled however to have an entity of unknown purpose roaming earth"

"As long as she does not doubt you her worries are irrelevant, keep a tight grip on her and steer her toward leading a bigger guild, the more numbers under her leadership the better"

"Yes Master"

He was about to sip the coffee placed before him but remembered something and casually asked before drinking

"What's the name of the guild?"

"Somia"

"Pffft!"

The reddish coffee was spit out the instant in touched his tongue

"Don't misunderstand Master, Somia means Divine, it's not just a combination of our names"

Mia was quick to clear the misunderstanding, until she saw his eyes glaring at the new woman and not her

"Umm, do you not like my blood coffee my Lord?"

It took YuJu quite a few breath not to answer this stupid question, who put blood in their coffee?! Also didn't this woman just become a vampire, how has she switched so suddenly to blood addiction

"Master, Nee is a little eccentric when it comes to taste"

Mia introduced and spoke up for the new arrival who displeased his taste buds, perhaps in the woman's mind the coffee was indeed good tasting

"Haah, just go fetch me Zero, replace her with Jona, meanwhile I need to have a talk with these two"

He motioned for the vampires, this did not displease Mia since she nodded and took Jona, the most humanoid thrall they had transformed, and went toward the house with great excitement, finally she would see their future residence

A little while after she left Nee presented him with another cup of coffee, one that lacked blood or any sort of weird addition

"My Lord, how do you like it now"

Nee spoke the second he took a sip, he gave her a glance and a quick nod indicating that it was okay

"Do you like the decor of the place as well? I designed it myself, you see I majored in art before the world changed, speaking of the change it was a huge disaster at the start, I kept getting harassed by boys and girls alike, that was however how I got my Mind Enchantress class! It was then easy to play everyone into doing my bidding, I even led a small camp myself until I met mother and she turned me into a vampire, not that it bothers me since now I don't need to mind any wrinkles and can stay up all night without any dark circles, oh and it-"

Instead of a glance YuJu was full on glaring at her to shut up, something that she received far too often before but didn't mind, now however her lips were tightly sealed for fear of her Lord's anger

Once the blabbermouth stopped the useless chatter he was able to finish his coffee with enjoyment, turning to the two thralls after he was done and asking them questions

"Ika, how many thralls could you control as of now"

"Barely the ones I ave my Lord, perhaps I could control another two normal ones or one mutant but that would be my limit"

"How many do you assume your newest sister can control"

"Three normal ones or a mutant, maybe even two mutants if they aren't mad or too evolved"

"Hmm"

That would not suit his plans

"Then I need you to add another thrall to your collection, one that I will evolve, as for your sister"

He turned toward Nee and spoke directly

"You see those cages? I want them filled with thralls, they shall be my experimenting subjects"

"But my Lord the thralls would not listen to me if that was so, I-"

He motioned for her to keep quiet until he fully explained

"If you have too many thralls you would easily lose control over all of them with how disorienting it can be, you don't need to control them however, not all of them, just use the skills you have to lure them into obeying when I need to experiment"

"Wouldn't they break out of the cage when I'm not controlling them though?"

"We would have them slumber with Subrina's concoctions, she can easily mass produce those"

With that out of the way he moved onto the more pressing matters

"Still to achieve a more stable control and to quickly strengthen you I shall be purifying our blood"

The two gulped, Ika's body even seized up at the thought, the thrall's painful thrashing followed by the passionate face scared her, wouldn't her mind be skewed if she suffered such fearsome levels of pain and pleasure?

"Worry not however, your blood will remain of a vampire's, I'll make sure of that"

A red light intertwined between his fingers, slowly forming chains that sent shivers down both their spines, a mixed feeling of fear and excitement welling up in their hearts

"Let's start"

He motioned for Nee first rather than Ika, feeling it was better to start with this newbie blabber mouth first

Kneeling before him Nee saw his hand close in on her head slowly, then felt the chains sink into her body, slowly but surely tightening around her body from every corner possible

"Hnn~"

Suddenly her face fell forward into his hand as her body gave away, depending on his grip to not fall down, a moaning sound coming from her as the once pale face was momentarily flushed red

The change wasn't done there however as she continued to voice out her feelings, the chains seemed to constrict her from the inside, arteries narrowing forcing the blood to rush through the body faster, veins pumping it extra hard into the quickly beating heart that was now surrounded tattooed with weird chains that gripped harder with every beat

"Uhnn, mhmm…"

The process seemed much like a rush of adrenalin to Nee, one that went beyond any normal rush and did not seem to cease at all, even after YuJu finished and laid her head down, got served another cup of coffee by Ika, and a few snacks did the passionate voice of hers die down

"Feeling better?"

Asked YuJu, more than curious to know what the hell happened to her

"..Better….Yah...better"

She replied with gasping breaths, though it seemed the answer wasn't quite right, at least in reference to what was better

Before he could question it however her blabber mouth explained on its own

"A feel as if...every second...every breath and every beat of my heart...your there...arousing my body, feeding my desire….it's heavenly"

The description was a bit too sensational, he guessed she was just describing her point of view since as Mia said, she had eccentric taste

"Rest for now, I will only shackle Ika's bloodline once you show normality, otherwise I will unshackle yours"

"No my Lord! Please, I haven't felt anything like this before, I-"

"Hm?"

She was just about to beg him when she noticed his puzzled and roaming eyes, even Ika who came to support her gasped while looking her somewhat skimpy dress up and down promoting her to do the same

"What?!"

Though barely speaking moments ago she suddenly stood up and stripped her clothes off, staring wide eyed at the red and black tattoos covering her skin

"A mirror!"

She cried, searching for a bit before flipping over one of the reflective glass tables and taking a look at her full body

The chains were made of intertwined black and red, switching sides with each link as they formed a collar around her neck, one that split off from the front into many chains, most going through her cleavage and down the waist, flowing around the thighs along another set of chains seemingly coming down her back, before ending at her soles where all of them once more connected, feeding each other whatever power they seemed to hold

"Hmm, well, it's actually nice, kind of"

Giving a few alluring poses she whispered to herself, the panicky mood left behind

"Especially this spiral, it's really well made"

She spoke cupping her left bosom while tracing the spiraling black and red links all the way up to the tip where they disappeared

"Uhm"

Interrupted by her lord's cough she turned around in her naked form and saw him bored of watching her inspecting herself admiringly

"The sensation from before?"

She stared, unable to understand what he meant before suddenly recalling that she was supposed to be in great pleasure now

"Oh, umm, yah, they are still there just seemingly much less than before, hehe…"

Indeed she was overreacting in her pleasure, this made both YuJu and Ika sigh, on in frustration at this new follower and the other in relief at the lack of great sensation described by he passionate new sister