“A wolf…?”

Ray stared at him in dumbfounded silence. She didn’t know why the prince decided to speak in metaphor. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to know.

The prince’s two companions took advantage of the confusion to step past her and stand between the three adventurers and the two Tethers. Their shuffling across the stone path didn’t go unnoticed by the young seraph.

Kelsey’s voice managed to fracture her frozen time. “Why is he starting a fight?” she whispered urgently. Though her voice was barely audible, it sounded like a blaring siren to Ray.

“I don’t know,” Helen replied, matching her volume. “But it’s the prince, of all people. Clearly what he’s doing is the right thing.”

“Is it, though?” Ven challenged. “He just disarmed our party leader!”

“What do you want us to do about it?” Helen snapped. “You might think he is just barely within reach because you heard the stories, but he is not. He is so much further away than that.”

Ray shifted her gaze toward the archer and her eyes widened with surprise. Helen was visibly shaking, her shoulders were hunched, and her entire manner spoke of bitter resignation.

“Every noble knows that Prince Douglas is not as unreachable as the sky. He is the sky above the sky. Even if we wanted to help… well, at least the worst-case scenario is that she’ll respawn when she loses.”

Not ‘if’, but ‘when’...?

Ray hissed as she glared at the gaudy boy holding her dismembered arm, not even bothering to try and hide her fangs anymore. She felt a rhythmic pounding in her chest and an audible drumming in her ears as her heartbeat accelerated. Her arm stopped bleeding and a new limb budded and began to sprout.

Doug smirked as he reversed her arm and grabbed the pointer finger. Turning the finger so that it pointed at Helen, he spoke again in a poorly executed attempt to raise the pitch of his voice to sound more feminine.

“She’s right. Our side should just surrender. We don’t stand a chance!”

Ray felt her anger fizzle somewhat as the prince once again acted outside of her expectations. He almost seemed like a man-child drunk on his power.

Her new arm finished regenerating and she flexed her fingers. The prince noticed and whistled in appreciation before speaking again in his normal voice. “That’s some impressive regeneration!”

“Thanks, I’m pretty fond of it myself…” she replied dryly as she channeled her mana into her legs and prepared to rush forward.

Doug carefully analyzed her posture and the flow of her mana. She saw him make a discrete signal to the knight who came with him and then toss the extra arm to him. The knight caught the limb and returned a firm salute.

With the extra appendage out of the way, the prince raised his mana and drew a diagonal line in the air with his fingers.

Ray’s eyes widened in shock as something slashed across her body, perfectly matching the trajectory of the drawn line. Her torso split in half from her left shoulder to her right hip and the burnt smell of sizzling flesh filled the air as her severed upper body tumbled to the ground. She caught herself with her remaining hand and then the pain hit her.

“Are you done resisting?” Doug asked.

The searing agony was unbearable, and she clenched her teeth as she dug her fingers into the ground. She dragged herself over to her legs, leaving a wide trail of blood and intestines in the dirt. Her organs were regrowing in real time until she reached her destination and laid her torso next to her legs. She used her arm to pull her lower half over and connect them and the two portions started to reattach themselves. Once the pain lowered to a tolerable level, she grabbed her enchanted bag and withdrew a battle hammer.

“Why are you letting her recover? Kill her now!” a familiar boyish voice shouted from the side.

She gripped the battle hammer by the hilt firmly with both hands and pressed the head into the ground to prop herself up. Once she was sitting, she used one hand to pull a massive battle axe from her bag. With a flick of her wrist, she sent it spinning toward the pesky cockroach with a shout. “You’re annoying!”

Not even sparing a glance to see if she hit the perverted warlock, she pushed herself up to her feet as she regained some control over her legs. She let out another groan as the two sections of her spine snapped together and the dull, incomplete pain in her lower body returned in full force.

Prince Doug merely stood by and studied her as she struggled.

The rest of the audience watched in nervous silence. Kelsey clenched her teeth in frustration. Helen looked resigned while Ven’s shoulders were stiff and shaking. His fists were clenched into tight balls and a trickle of blood flowed out from where his nails dug into his palms.

“Why are you after me?” Ray finally responded to the prince. “Is it because I killed Jantzen?”

“I wasn’t expecting you to admit to it so easily…” Doug mused. He waved her question away and shook his head. “You could call that the official reason, but that is certainly not why I am here. Do you really think that someone like me would move because of a guy like that?”

Fair enough. Ray only knew him for a short time and she knew Jantzen was human trash. The prince probably knew that as well.

“Then why…?” she asked.

“I already told you. Right now, I see you as a little lamb, but I want you to prove yourself worthy to become a wolf. You can’t stay a sheep forever, especially in your particular situation. You must become a predator, or you’ll get eaten when they come again.”

Little lamb, wolf, sheep, predator.

This guy was obsessed with animal metaphors! It reminded her of the first time she heard Legion’s voice.

“Both gods and princes! Why are you people so obsessed with animals?!”

Doug furrowed his brow, his perfect mask breaking. He raised an eyebrow with obvious confusion. “What?”

Her regeneration finally finished and Ray barely stopped herself from letting out a sigh of relief. Once the nagging pain was gone, it was significantly easier to focus her mind. She decided to address his ‘reason’ for coming after her.

“I have nothing to prove to you, but you seem really fixated on this.” She raised her battle hammer and pointed it at him. “All I need to show you is that I’m not a sheep, right? In other words, I need to prove that I have ‘power’”

He relaxed and slipped back into his stoic mask. “If that is your answer, then prove it. Show me how you live and die by the sword.”

“Then would you care to receive my attack this time?” Ray asked, the edges of her mouth turning up playfully.

She knew that she was outmatched, but she really wanted to smack the arrogant jerk at least once. One clean hit to the face and she would be satisfied.

The prince waved her forward and she reinforced her limbs once again. Without warning, she kicked off the ground and launched herself forward. She felt his mana surge as he did something but she couldn’t read the effect.

Throwing caution to the wind, she shouted as she swung her weapon down in an overhead blow. Doug lazily raised one hand and intercepted the strike with a finger. Her expression contorted with amazement as she felt a massive counterforce against the head of the hammer. The head exploded into shrapnel that scattered back into her face like a spread shot. Her vision went dark and she stiffened as clear, salty tears mixed with the trails of blood splattered across her face.

Releasing the now useless shaft, she stumbled under the waves of agony. She ignored the pain and forced her body to continue forward while listening for the prince’s heartbeat and the sound of his breath. She sniffed the air, detecting the rich aroma of blood flowing through his veins.

She threw a jab with an enhanced fist and felt an impact. Pressing forward with her momentum, she raised a knee toward where his groin should be. There was a sharp pain in her knee and then a firm hand latched onto her shirt and lifted her into the air. She felt a rush of wind as she was thrown somewhere, but she was lost in the disorienting darkness.

The young seraph crashed and rolled across the ground, powerless to stop the motion without anything to grab ahold of. She finally came to a stop against something rough and furry -- the mountain yeti.

She reached up and started pulling metal fragments out of her face. Once her eyes were clear, her vision returned to a blurry focus as her sight began to heal. She felt something stir beneath her as the yeti woke from the impact.

Ray blinked rapidly while looking around in desperation. A blurry form of Prince Doug was leisurely walking toward her, giving her more time to regenerate.

As the creature shifted, she remembered the conversation she had several minutes ago with her friends. She had decided then to not take the risk of baptizing monsters, but desperate times called for desperate measures. If the gods were so afraid of giving holy power to wild monsters, then maybe that was her ticket out of this situation.

She had one other item she could use to stall for time, as well. Praising herself for her foresight, she staggered to her feet and reached for the bag hanging from her belt. She pulled out Peter’s journal of romantic conquests and held it out to the prince as he arrived in front of her.

“What’s this? A ploy to buy time?” He accepted the journal. “I suppose I’ll pretend to fall for it. I’m genuinely curious about what you thought would catch my attention.”

While the prince was occupied, Ray pulled a small, worn dagger she’d collected from the ruins of the goblin camp out of her enchanted bag. She deftly reversed it and held it out hilt-first to the yeti.

The wild monster observed the dagger curiously. It should know that she was friendly because of the meat she offered earlier, but it probably wouldn’t know what the weapon was. It reached out and palmed the gift.

The pointed edge pierced into its palm and the creature roared as it tossed the blade aside.

Ray leapt after the dagger and caught it. Landing on one knee, she snapped the dagger in half and buried the blade in the dirt.

A sense of holiness enveloped their surroundings.

“Hmmm?” Doug looked up from the journal. “What are you…?”.

“Do you have a name?” Ray asked, cutting off the question.

The yeti grunted as it examined the small cut on its palm. Then it noticed the strange energy filling the air around them.

A powerful, overwhelming urge surged within the beast, demanding to be let loose. The creature did not understand why, it knew only that it needed to open its mouth and let loose. The beast let out a guttural roar.

“RAAAAaahhh!”

“Raah…?” Ray tilted her head quizzically.

With a shrug, she accepted the name and continued with the sacred ordinance.

“Raah. By the power and authority granted unto me, I accept your vow in the name of Legion. Remember this covenant for as long as you live.”

She grabbed the yeti’s hand and forcefully placed the hilt in its palm. As she released the sign of the covenant, she let out a surprised yelp. A mysterious force seemed to latch onto her mana and drew a pathway between her and the monster.

Ray desperately tried to close the pathway as her mana began to flow through the connection. Her stolen mana shifted until it resembled holy mana as it began to rage throughout the yeti’s body, forcing it to evolve into a higher state.

A wave of fatigue rolled through her and she staggered, barely catching herself on a nearby tree.

“What in Dallin’s name did you just do?!” Doug uttered, his face twisted into a display of absolute repulsion and horror.

The yeti howled as the energy raged through its body. It tossed the dagger hilt aside and claws extended from its fingers as it swung its arms about wildly.

Ray looked on with nervousness while five of the six humans all bore matching expressions of repugnance. She felt a pang in her heart when she saw Kelsey looking at her with betrayal in her eyes. Helen wouldn’t even meet her gaze. As usual, Ven’s expression was hidden, but his quivering had stopped and he squared his shoulders while he stared at the yeti.

She might have imagined it, but it almost seemed as if he was more pleased than disappointed.

The holy mana raging throughout the yeti’s body split into two parts, the greater part moving for the creature’s brain while the lesser part settled near its heart.

As the mana settled into its new place and the yeti began to calm down, Ray carefully reached out and stroked the dirt-stained white fur. It was coarse and tough like small strands of rope. She felt another type of connection forming between them. Though she couldn’t tell what it was thinking, she could feel a little bit of what it was feeling. The monster was groggy and confused, and also hungry. It smelled the abundant fresh blood that was now spread across the nearby trees, rocks, and dirt.

“I don’t even know where to start asking questions…” she heard Helen mutter.

The knight and the secretary lady both nodded in agreement. The two of them continued their silent vigil, but their expressions showed a mixture of curiosity and revulsion. Even so, they seemed resolved to continue remaining uninvolved unless the prince ordered otherwise.

Kelsey looked back and forth between Ray and the mountain yeti and gagged. She turned away and stumbled back toward the camp. Helen covered her mouth and followed after her.

Peter was the only one who actually heaved out his insides. The bile covered the axe protruding from the tree next to him and Ray made a mental note to get a new axe.

She returned her attention to the final witness.

“I’m going to give you only one chance to justify this heresy. If you fail to satisfy me, I will end you,” Doug spat out. He didn’t even bother to hide his emotions as pure rage twisted his face.

She pointed at the journal in his hand. “You’re talking about that, right?”

Doug tossed the journal into the air and snapped his fingers. It immediately burnt to ashes and crumbled away in the wind.

“Oh, I am certainly pissed about that, too. Why would you assume that I would want to read such depravity?”

Ray motioned toward the cowering warlock-in-training.

“That was me asking for permission to do whatever I want to that guy,” she explained.

Doug shifted his furious glare toward Peter briefly and then nodded his permission.

“Granted. We’ll discuss the other heresy afterward.”

Ray revealed her fangs as she stalked toward the boy. As she observed his heaving, terrified frame, a question occurred to her. “How did you respawn so quickly? It hasn’t been five days since I last killed you.”

“If people die too often in a short period, the time between respawns gets shorter.” Doug supplied from behind her.

“I see…”

Turning to the yeti that was now looking around, Ray pointed at Peter and issued a command. “Raah, weapon.” Then she pointed at Doug. “Raah, smash.”

Peter would make a good toy for her newest pet.

The ground rumbled slightly as the mountain yeti approached and looked down at the weak boy. Then it did something unexpected: it spoke.

“Master, what do?” the yeti rumbled in broken Ancient.

Ray raised an eyebrow but otherwise took it in stride and pointed at Peter again. “New weapon.”

“Wea...pon?”

She nodded and then motioned toward Doug who was studying the mountain yeti with wide-eyed interest. “Grab and smash!” she ordered.

The yeti peered at her for a moment but repeating the word ‘smash’ cleared up all of its confusion. It palmed the cowering boy and dangled him in front of its face by his legs. It reached up with its other hand and flicked him in the head. Blood gushed from the boy’s nose and a few teeth splintered.

“Bad smash, will break,” the yeti announced.

“That’s okay!” Ray beamed.

The mountain yeti began to shuffle toward Prince Doug.

Peter groaned as he swayed from side to side. He retched, spewing bile across the budding flowers peeking through the muddy mountainside.

“That yeti is speaking…!” Ven muttered in amazement. “It has intelligence!”

Prince Doug merely watched as the mountain yeti shuffled closer.

“Lydia,” he called back to his secretary. “Pull forward the target date by three years. This is going to go much faster than expected.”

“Yes, my lord!” she called back.

She withdrew a notepad from an enchanted bag on her belt and promptly made note of the modification while striking out a few lines of text.

When the mountain yeti was a few steps away, it stomped firmly against the ground and propelled itself forward into a sprint. Peter’s voice echoed across the mountainside as he screamed bloody murder. The yeti bore down on the prince and swung the boy up and over its shoulder. The prince took a step back and avoided the improvised man-mace.

Peter, for his part, blacked out and dangled limply in the yeti’s firm grip.

Lucky guy.

Ray circled to the opposite side of the yeti and approached the prince once more while summoning a longsword from her bag. The yeti smashed Peter in a downward strike which Doug sidestepped. The boy crunched against the ground and splattered blood and several loose teeth into the dirt. Ray came up behind Doug and stabbed her sword toward his knee.

He arced his arm down and slapped away the sword. Then he reached out faster than she could react and flicked her in the forehead.

Her neck twisted back and her body flopped backward toward the ground. She barely caught herself with her elbows as her neck snapped back into place with an audible crunch.

The yeti swung its weapon at the prince and he finally intercepted the man-mace with a swipe of his hand. Peter’s body crumbled around a transparent barrier that appeared between the prince and the monster. The yeti released the ‘smash’ as it broke and was too flimsy to use any further.

Doug shoved Peter’s body to the side with a gesture and then motioned for the yeti to leave. The wild monster disappeared in a flash of light, leaving nothing behind except the bloody remains staining the transparent barrier floating in the air.

Frowning with distaste, the prince flicked his wrist and the corpse disappeared along with every speck of blood, tooth, and bile littering their surroundings.

Then he looked at Ray as she was preparing to launch another strike.

“Be still,” he commanded.

She stopped.

She couldn’t see her restraints or feel even the slightest bit of mana. She simply no longer had the ability to move of her own free will.

‘What the hell is that?!’ she wanted to shout in dismay, but she couldn’t find her voice.

That magic was so unfair!

Turning to face her, Prince Doug grinned. His eyes lit up with some unknown fervor.

Her body reacted on its own and recoiled back. She fell, unable to catch herself, and crumbled to the ground. Her mind protested against her current state but her body refused to acknowledge her demands. Her instincts were screaming at her, urging her to flee.

But she couldn’t move. She couldn’t flee.

She was being forced to recognize how dumb it was to challenge the prince. This person was a monster that should not be touched.

“This always happens,” Doug explained softly as he took a step forward and looked down at her. “When I show just a little bit of my strength, people lose their will to fight.”

The young seraph once again tried to respond, but she barely managed a whimper.

“Did you know that I don’t even have a single rival? There is nobody who is bothered by how strong I am!” Doug declared, his voice rising with a feverish pitch. “When two people are on similar levels, it evokes a rival response. If one side is stronger by some measurable amount, it evokes envy. But if one side is a god while the other is a plebeian, there is no room for rivals or envy. All that’s left is simple worship!”

Lydia clapped from somewhere off to the side. Ray groaned under the heavy pressure weighing her down. The tension in the air was almost palpable.

“Keegan, Lydia!” Doug called back to his two followers.

The two of them squared their shoulders as they waited to receive their orders.

“Escort the other three back to Cairel and motivate them to stay silent about what happened here. I will return shortly.”

“Yessir!” the two saluted.

“What about Ray…?” Ven demanded, shrugging off his fear. His body was trembling as he addressed the prince.

Prince Douglas Rovar grinned as he dismissed the question with a wave. “You don’t need to worry about her. She’ll be coming back to Cairel very soon.”

“But…” Ven started to protest but stopped when a hint of annoyance flickered across the prince’s face.

Doug snapped his fingers and her three companions and his two followers all disappeared, leaving the two of them alone on the mountainside.

Ray panicked as the prince reached down and grabbed her wrist. He lifted her up so that she dangled in front of him and pulled an object out of his enchanted bag.

“I wasn’t going to go this far, but you started baptizing wild monsters. You aren’t giving me many options…” he muttered as he slapped the object against her neck.

She felt a surge of mana invade her body as the object—a collar—cut off her mana from her own internal core.

He then pulled out a note and a dagger and pinned the note to her forehead with the blade. Ray let out a silent, helpless cry at the sudden and unexpected pain. The prince then tossed her aside. A sense of vertigo overtook her as the world spun and twisted.

When her senses settled, she tried to push herself to her feet. Her muscles rebelled and she collapsed to the ground once more. The edges of her vision faded and she felt darkness beckoning. She turned her head to the side and sought to at least discover where she was just before everything went black.

The towering walls of Cairel loomed in the distance across the grassy plain.