188 Chains and Gazes

Parc was awoken to the sounds of growling, not of his stomach, that would have been too safe for where he'd decided to go unconscious. His eyes flickered open, met with the elegant blue sky peering in through the canopy of verdant greens above and blinked. Groaning as he forced himself to sit up. As he did so, his hand clasped to his head feeling a strange pounding neither of pain nor discomfort, but of something new. Something had changed after he swallowed that orb.

Blinking away a mist, his head swivelled about, soon jolting to a halt as he met with the crimson eyes of a large ursa major, the same he'd made collapse however long ago. Initially, he felt his hackles go on end but as he saw its head tilt, the fearful feeling subsided and a calmness washed over him.

"You're not going to eat me?" he questioned though its head only tilted the other way. An action he may have found cute were it not for the imposing skull mask and jagged teeth being presented to him upon a maw of abyssian black smoke.

"Right, you're a grimm. Understanding human speech probably isn't a part of your… programming?" they were created so they could be considered programmed, no?

Swivelling his gaze around he found but a few more sets of crimson eyes glowering at him from the shrubbery, beowolves, the werewolf like grimm, and even in the nestlings of the tree were a few shimmering reds. Nevermores he was guessing, the raven like birds. Small ones though, nothing like what team RWBY dealt with during initiation, that one was truly massive.

Strangely, they weren't hostile. No, instead the stood calmly, eyeing him up and down as if recording his form into the logs of their brains. If they even had brains that was.

'I feel like someone else is watching me…' he thought continuing to look around for whoever that could be only to pause and return onto one of the beowolves. 'Salem? Is she watching me through the grimm isn't she?' His lips curled into a grin and he languidly rose to his feet, feeling unusually heavy as he did so. The weight seemingly more on his right than his left.

Narrow in the eye and brow risen, he gazed to his hand, pulled up his sleeve just enough for him to spot it. A milky gold ball nestled on the top of his wrist half buried in his flesh. The point where it connected perfectly blended. Stroking his thumb over the orb, he uncannily trembled and watched as it sunk back into his wrist, allowing his skin to retake the surface but with a hollow circular mark being presented around the exact place the orb had existed in.

'And just like that, I am my own concubine.' he snorted, head shaking.

As he thought that, a huffing noise alerted him to one of the beowolves, the largest of the pack, an alpha stepped out of the shrubbery and took cautious steps towards him and begun to circle him with lumbering steps. Behind it, it would leave a light, swiftly fading cloud of smog and its eyes would never leave Parc nor the ursa major by his side

The ursa major itself moved onto all fours, its large, hand sized claws digging into the soil as it kept the Alpha firmly in view. Ready to pounce should the grimm decide Parc was on its meal chart.

A simple and calm raise of his hand halted the Major and it backed down the next moment, slumping onto its rear end.

In his peripheral vision, a familiar screen had appeared showing an update to his abilities list.

~~~

[Gaze of the Conqueror]

An Ability descended from one with demonic aura. Gazing into the eyes of another with this ability activated will dominate the other. For male subjects, it will cause them to feel under pressure by a higher being. For female subjects, they will feel a powerful yearning for the wielder and will become extremely sensitive and aroused. This effect fades after their lust has been sated by the wielder or after 24 hours.

[Chains of the Dominion]

An ability descended from the holy aura of the Valkyries and another worlds creature. Those wrapped in these chains will become heavily weakened and vulnerable to both physical and mental manipulation. Should the ones wrapped in the chains be stronger, the chains will either break or their effects will become temporary or even ineffective.

~~~

"I have two semblances then?" he pinched his chin and mumbled. "That's a little powerful isn't it? But aren't these basically the same thing? I've got my chains back so I should have my mind control back, so whats the point of having the eyes?" He turned to the alpha beowolf and urged his mind to the point he could feel a burning sensation behind his eyes. This sensation soon grew to encompass the entirety of his orbs but unlike the previous times he felt not pain, but a cruel desire to rule. To dominate. To control.

His grin grew larger and he locked eyes with the alpha, its dilated, its body went languid and slowly it inched closer before dropping before Parc to present its head to him. Waiting for his patting. "Huh," he mumbled descending a hand onto the beowolfs mask, feeling its coarseness against his fingers as well as the remnants of something, something neither grimm nor him, something, no, someone else. "Salem." she was the only one he knew of who had control over the grimm, so sensing her was to be expected, so then why was she fading away?

"Am I… claiming the grimm for myself?" he turned to another, a nevermore and soon it trembled and dove from the branches to land atop his extended arm. It wasn't large, barely the size of Raven's corvid form but still it landed on him like a trained falcon. "Well, I can see Ironwood coming to lock me up in the future if this ever gets out." If he did though, Parc would be ready to give Ironwood and more likely than not, Winter Schnee a run for their money. Literally, Parc couldn't imagine how much fun ripping apart all of those robots was going to be.

Thinking of the future events that would bring about Atlas' peacekeeping invasion of Vale, Parc invariably fell onto one such event. One involving a large dragon, or, wyvern if you wanted to argue semantics. "Oh god, I'm getting a pet dragon. My life just got so much better than it already was. Though," Parc looked to his new pet nevermore and scratched its feathers beneath its neck, making it let out soft vibrating clicks, "I just hope its not female. That's a little too much woman for me to deal with… do grimm even have sexes? Do grimm even have sex? Why am I asking myself this? I do not know. Nor do I want to know."

Waving his warm slightly, he led the nevermore off his arm and to landing on the ursa majors head. His next experiment lead to raising his hand back up, spinning his hand around and summoning back out the orb from his wrist. 'Now, how do I use this?' he urged his mind to the orb but found no reaction, 'aura maybe?' was his second choice and his most effective as upon guiding his aura to filling the pearl, its golden hue took a much vibranter shade and a small portal appeared from which a familiar spear tipped silver link of chains slowly rose into his waiting hand.

"So, this is eating through my aura then?" he could feel a slight draining coming from the chains, like if one poked a hole into a balloon and the water started spurting out. "Won't be a massive problem considering I've got mana potions, so this is perfect. Now… what can these do." a flick of his wrist turned into a whipping of his arm as her sent the chain linked spear cutting through the air towards yet another Grimm. It hadn't the time to think before the chains snaked around its body and clamped tight.

The next seconds brought about confusion as the grimm blinked a few times, glanced to its wrappings and tilted its head. Easily shaking away the chains as they fell from its body.

"Huh," Parc exclaimed, it had worked, he could feel his aura sap into the grimm but it had no effect. Or did it? "Sit," he called to the beowolf only to get a response of narrowed eyes. "Yeah, no, they don't work on grimm. I'll try them on a human later then. Maybe Summer would like that?" he knew Kurome certainly did, not that she needed him mind controlling her when her mind was basically already his to control no matter what. "Hmm… maybe Glynda would be fun to try it out on. Can't imagine she'll be very pleased… Could also go for Cinder and Emerald when I run into them again. Also need to make sure it works on men again. That'll be useful to know." he mused on and on about future experiments.

Soon broken from his thoughts by a reverberating chorus of growls and caws as the grimm grew more addled and ready to attack. He smirked, cracked his neck and wrists, and gripped his chain tighter. "It's been a while since I played with chains. Let's see if I've lost my touch."

With a lick of his lips, an all-out war began within the throngs of the emerald forest, man, and beasts of darkness against the leagues of darkness.