A step beyond the furthest boundary
When vision graced itself to his eyes, Kai saw a black, charred, 6 ft long figure slithering towards him.
Its burned scales looked ashy black, and he could see a red hue of lava stuck under the scales, which he guessed were scales because he couldn't distinguish them on the figure anymore. In the middle of the figure, there was a huge bulge as if someone had stuffed a big rock down its throat.
The figure flicked out a forked tongue and tasted the scent of blood, and Kai flashed in the figure's direction, taking out an HP capsule.
-What happened to you, Selene?- Kai hissed, pushing the capsule down her throat.
-What happened to you, master?- Selene hissed, lingering on the brink of death.
The same nature of their questions threw them off guard, and Kai couldn't help but let out a smile, as a red shine engulfed Selene, healing her instantly.
-I was just having fun,- Kai told her, his gaze fumbling around the bulge in her stomach.
-I had to materialize into my actual form to swallow the egg,- Selene hissed back, explaining the cause of her fatal injuries.
'So she was within the lava for a few moments,' Kai thought incredulously. 'Does that mean… she even swallowed a bit of lava?! How is she still alive?!'
To Kai's surprise, Selene complained about nothing. Instead, she cursed, taking deep breaths. -One day, master,- she hissed murderously. -One day I would come back and blast this island from the face of the earth. Humph!-
Kai let her go through the changes in her personality calmly. He could find no other reason for her to act so. He already had an idea, but being a scientist, he had made no solid conclusion without rigorous assessments. It did seem plain enough to him, though. There wasn't one Selene in her body anymore, but three, Kai had concluded. Any more conclusions and findings would need countless experiments and time. All of which have to wait for him to have the luxury of indulging himself in something other than his mission.
Suddenly, her entire body let out a crackling noise, and Kai's eyes widened. He was wondering why the HP capsule hadn't healed her charred external shell when Selene wriggled her way out of it. A pure white serpent slithered out, its white scales rattling, shining like freshly found pearls.
'Shedding?!' Kai almost exclaimed. The last time it had happened, Selene's grade had changed, he remembered. But he could tell nothing like that happened this time. It was just a normal shedding, nothing else.
Kai reached for the burned, flaky reptilian skin when Selene's hiss reached his ears.
-It's useless, master,- she said, calculatingly. -My normal shedding has nothing magical about it.-
'She sounds more mature and detached in this state,' Kai reflected, taking his hand back.
Once more Selene opened her mouth like a maw of a black abyss and pushed the bulge in her stomach outwards. In a few moments, a moist, red-brown egg slid out of her mouth. It looked like fire had solidified as this scaled egg ages ago. The slimy liquid over it evaporated in no time, and no one could tell if the egg was once within her at all.
'What havoc it must have been wreaking inside her?' Kai asked himself, disbelievingly.
He crouched and lifted the egg. It was hot.
[
Side Mission: The Birth of Drogon
Side Mission Status: Success
Side Mission Rewards:
1. 165 Mission Credits
2. +2 Attribute Points
]
[
You have triggered a Side Mission
Main Mission: Three heads of the Targaryen Dragon
Side Mission: Mother of Dragons
Side Mission Summary: Voyage through the narrow sea and reach the free city, Pentos. There you would find the celebrations of a wedding already rumbling the city.
Daenerys Targaryen will be the Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea. You must gift her all the three eggs on or after her wedding day.
Side Mission Objective: Hand over the eggs to Daenerys Targaryen
Side Mission Time Limit: 46 days
Side Mission Hint: Elementary Seamanship
Do you accept the side-mission?
]
Kai nodded, storing the egg in his MRB. Now he had 4 unassigned Attribute Points, but he didn't allocate them to any Attribute. Like before, he had decided to wait for the right timing to assign them to the most needed Attribute according to the situation. Not only would it give him a boost, but it would also catch the enemy by surprise.
It was quite an evil way of thinking and handling things. All the reasons for Kai to like it even more.
Selene reached up to his shoulders, coiling herself around him. She brushed her scales against his neck and face affectionately, and then flicked out her tongue, kissing his chin.
-I found the answer to my doubt, master,- she hissed in a dreamy tone. -I'd wondered how far I could push myself before dying in your service.-
She had indeed, Kai remembered, caressing and running his fingers across her length. This was her thoughtful personality who was speaking now, he concluded. Full of intellectual reasoning and, strangely, most affectionate towards Kai.
-What is the answer, my precious Item?- Kai hissed, a hint of a vile grin lifting the corner of his lips.
She hissed in his ears before melting inside him. -Just a step beyond the furthest boundary.-
And Kai couldn't hold back his outrageous, wicked laugh.
*
*
Evenfall,
Dragonseed Inn
Kai was sitting far in a corner inside the inn, drinking sailor's wine. The smell of booze and salt was the thickest here. The inn's hall was filled with traders, seamen, guards, and serving wenches. All were looking at them hungrily as if in the next moment they would pound on the girls and rip their clothes apart.
None dared to do anything more than leer at them.
Dragonstone was the seat of Lord Stannis Baratheon, and raping was a crime punishable by death here. Now death could scare most of the men from groping the breasts and full hips of the giggling girls, but it wasn't enough for the lowest of the men hidden among the crowd.
The thoughts of being burned alive by the Red Woman, though, were sufficient for the worst and the best men alike.
Kai could still see seamen slipping one or two coins into the girls' hands when no one was looking. Only to those who were willingly accepting them. It wasn't a payment, Kai knew, but a kind of booking. It was their way of ensuring that the girls would keep it moist when they would visit them at night for a quickie. The guards noticed it, but they ignored it, anyway.
Kai took another bitter sip, and pressed his cowl downwards, hiding his face. He wasn't the only one wearing a hooded robe, so he didn't stand out much. Highborn usually wore these cowls for the fear of getting wet. A sign of cowardice, as they used to say on the ship. So other than occasional looks of disgust and spitting remarks, he was left pretty much alone to himself.
It was then a figure walked down the stairs.
Old, back hunched, and hands fumbling to find a hold. Her hair was white, and thin, gray strands on her head were grasping for their dear lives here and there. Her garb bordered rags, and her gaze seemed cloudy. The only thing that stood out, and could only be noticed by the likes of Kai, was the deliberation in her movement.
She was waiting for something. Or for someone.
She was Item-M. And this time, she had taken the appearance of some 60 or 70-years-old helpless woman. Kai needed no proof letter, no hint, and no questions to know that it was his servant he was looking at. The Soul-Blood drop resting in the middle of the forehead, and the feeling that he could snatch her life with one thought, were proofs in themselves.
-/Item-M,/- Kai called out to her. -/Come here./-
The old woman snapped her head as fast as permitted by natural constraints expected of a woman of her age. She smiled. Even from this distance, Kai could feel the bubbling heat of the pure, raw emotions within her. An ecstasy, anxiety, and affection that he had only felt from Selene so far.
'Who wouldn't want weapons like these?' Kai thought, taking pride in his Items. 'I can taste her happiness. All seemed to have gone smoothly, then. Let's see what kind of Item she had got using the bones and tendons of a legendary Pokemon.'
Item-M approached him with as much grace as she could muster, but slowly. She bowed and sat down against him. Just as Kai saw her opening her mouth, and imagined her full breasts and blazing red hair that he'd rather look at than this old hag, another person walked down the stairs.
Only sheer will that he had gained from all the killing and his battle-trained mind kept him from standing up and bringing down heaven's wrath on the middle-aged man he was looking at now.
His back was also hunched by a noticeable amount. He was lean, and his face was full of freckles. As he walked, it felt like a pheasant was darting around, hopping now and then.
It was his eyes that stood out the most, however. Of which, he had only one. A black emotionless gem, embedded into a most ordinary face.
Simon!
If it was before, Kai would have felt nothing more than shock. But now he knew who or what he was looking at.
Simon, a shared identity among a particular group of Contestants known for their eccentricity and secretiveness.
The Faceless Priests of Byagoona!