Dark Fate: Book 1 – A New Fate

The next instant, I was no longer in the timeless space, instead returning to the place where I’d been before, in Talia’s apartment, buried to the hilt in her pussy. Only, she was no longer the same. Her curves were a bit more pronounced, her muscles tighter, stronger. With some interest, I used Appraise Value on her.

Battledancer was an interesting class. It was a cousin to the Monk class, which allowed people to channel Qi to strengthen their bodies and their attacks. The Battledancer worked similarly, but instead it was dependent upon the user’s Charisma. Of course, they got an enhanced body, but instead of being more combat-focused like the Monk, the Battledancer could distract and disorient foes who could see them. In some ways, it was also a cousin to the Bard class, though more martially focused than working with performances and magic to bewitch individuals. It figured that a cheerleader would unlock a class like that, given the training she no doubt did.

Of course, she was also back from her Initialization, and, clearly, she was none too pleased with me. With a roar, she struggled, and managed to rip the tape keeping her arms together. She was stronger now, much stronger than she used to be. Strong enough, in fact, that duct tape from before the Apocalypse wasn’t able to bind her any more. Maybe she even picked up the Escape Artist skill, which helped in slipping bonds.

Either way, Talia’s strength wasn’t enough, as mine was far greater. With an ashen-colored hand, I held her down by the back of her neck, her attempts at getting free as useless as a kitten trying to slip out of the grasp of lion. Other than freeing her hands, all she accomplished was ripping the tape from her mouth, which allowed her to start cursing at me, and telling me how she was going to kill me, and all sorts of stuff I couldn’t care less about. However, she was being slightly annoying, and the screaming would likely attract monsters, if it hadn’t already, so I decided it was best to get her to quiet down.

With my free hand, I touched her on the small of her back, where a ‘tramp stamp’ would be, if she had gotten any tattoos before the Apocalypse. I activated my [Slave Brand] ability, and Talia screamed again, but this time in pain and fear instead of rage, as my power burned her skin and her soul, marking one and binding the other. Across her skin, my sigil formed. I kept it simple. An inverted pentagram inscribed on a circle, with a sword thrust downward behind it, and demon wings on either side. This would be my symbol.

In the last timeline, I had used a sword behind a shield, with angel wings around them. That was the symbol I’d carried with me, as we fought against the enemies of the people. For truth and justice and all that rot. I wasn’t that person, not any more, but I couldn’t throw out all my old aesthetics. This new symbol would not be a banner to rally around, but the flag of a conqueror.

And I was a conqueror, that much was already true. Slave Magic under the System was so powerful because it worked with the System itself to bind a victim to their Master’s will. They literally could not disobey an order, even if it meant their death. Their minds were their own, but their will was shackled. It was the ultimate degradation.

Because of this, the System created countermeasures, to prevent the magic from becoming too powerful. Several creature types were wholly immune to Slave Magic, in fact. Oozes, Constructs, Plants, and Undead were all safe from my Brand, though I knew of other ways to achieve similar control over those creatures, if I needed to deal with them. Demons, Angels, and other such creatures required more power to enslave, and so I would have to subdue and dominate them before I could enslave those creatures.

There was also the matter of the slaves themselves. Every slave received a Title from the system, announcing their status, and it could not be hidden, even with items or class abilities. They also had a magical link between them and their Master, which allowed the Master to view their Status, and enforced their orders, but it also presented a weakness. More than one Master had been attacked through rituals working through the link between them and a captured slave. For that reason, only a foolish Master would enslave anyone and everyone he met, and they soon met grisly ends if any of their property got ‘lost’ and they were not quick enough in reclaiming it.

And then there was the whole fact that the various Governments had a few things to say about slavery. Well, they would, up until the point that they stopped existing during the first invasions and monster waves. But those were a few months off. Until then, I would have to keep my number of slaves small, or find someplace where I could set up base where people wouldn’t bother me if I didn’t bother them. And, of course, if anyone touched my property, I’d have to get it back as quickly as possible.

As the Brand finished carving itself into Talia’s body and soul, I spoke firmly, in a commanding tone, “Quit struggling and be silent!” Instantly, Talia’s futile struggles stopped, and she was no longer screaming. Instead, I could see her silently sobbing as she just lay there, bent over her own couch.

That was not all I saw. I’d noticed before, but my skin had taken on an ashy, grey color, and I could see my muscles had become far more defined than I had ever been before the Apocalypse. I doubted those were the only changes. Well, there ought to be a mirror in Talia’s bathroom. That would let me—

Crash!

The glass door to the balcony shattered under the impact from a wooden club. Ah, that’s right. Talia had died last time, because the goblin had brained her before she even realized that the world had changed. This time, without any prey to attack on the balcony, it broke inside. So troublesome.

I looked at the squat, green-skinned creature, dressed only in a loincloth that was stained with gods only knew what. It was ugly, as all goblins were, but had a kind of stupid cunning in its eyes.  And those eyes had first locked on the naked elf beneath me, but then they had quickly focused on me, and it stopped moving. I could practically see the smoke coming from its ears as it tried to think. I decided to help it along.

[Blood Bolt]

With a flick of my wrist, a bolt of crimson power flew out. Idly, I noticed that this one spell cost 100 MP. A pittance, compared to my pool of 5100, but for a normal person that would have been a significant chunk of their available power. I barely even noticed as the bolt, empowered by my Charisma, splattered the contents of the goblin’s chest upon what was left of the balcony door.

Hoh, so it counted Talia and I as being in a party, even though we hadn’t used the System to designate a party? Probably because she was my slave, which counted as property. That was interesting.

I pulled out of Talia, and walked over to the goblin’s corpse. At higher tiers, you could gain skills that allowed you to loot your kills from a distance, or even in an area, but I didn’t have that luxury at the moment. Kneeling next to the Goblin, I touched my hand to its corpse, and selected ‘Yes’ when a box asked if I wanted to loot the corpse.

It was one of the idiosyncrasies of the System that no one ever figured out how a monster could have loot that it clearly either did not have in combat, while things that were used might not drop as loot. Many researchers had tried to find the answer, but none so far had ever succeeded. What’s more, if I had picked up a quest to, say, collect Goblin Ears for proof of kills, then the ear would be part of the loot.

Of course, you could skip the System loot, if you wanted to. Generally, the people who did that had skills related to skinning, or dismantling, or something like that, which would allow them to harvest resources from the corpse. Doing that obviously meant that you couldn’t get System loot, but any items you harvested would count as system items (so if you cut off a goblin’s ear while harvesting bones or organs for some reason, you’d still be able to count it for your quest).

Turning back to Talia, I saw that she was standing now. She’d never been fat before, but now, she was lean in all the right places, with just the hint of a six-pack on her belly, while her hips canted at an angle. Her brown eyes were green now, and while her hair was still the same raven color it had been, her ears were long and pointed. She looked good, very good.

I smiled at her, appreciating the view. “Well, Talia, I can see you’ve been changed by the System, but I’d like to see how I’ve changed. And, before you get any ideas, by the System I forbid you from calling for help, trying to escape, or attempting to kill me.” Her mouth flapped open a couple times, as though she were trying to speak. “Oh, you may speak again, but only in a normal speaking voice. And you will address me as Master.”

As I walked to the bathroom, she sputtered, trying to come up with something she could say in a normal voice, when she clearly wanted to scream. Finally, she said, “What happened just now? What was that thing? What is the System? And why, Master? Why did you do this to me?” It was impressive the amount of venom she managed to inject into the word Master.

I looked at myself in the mirror, and I have to admit I was transfixed by what I saw for a moment. My hair had turned black, and grown longer, much longer than it had been. My skin turned an ashen, grey color. Black horns that looked like polished obsidian curled back out of my skull. Leathery demon wings sprouted from my back, probably a ten-foot span if I stretched them out. And yet the rest of my body would be a good stand-in for Adonis, except for below the belt, where I had most certainly been enhanced beyond human measure.

Locking eyes with Talia in the mirror, I said, “The System happened. Apparently, the meteor that took out the dinosaurs knocked magic and the System offline. An idiot just turned it back on, and now the world is going to change. As for what the System is? Just consider it the rules of the universe that we didn’t know existed until now.”

I turned back to face her. “That thing that just broke in was a goblin. If you had been sleeping on the balcony, it would have killed you before you even knew what was happening. In fact, last time it did kill you.”

I held up a hand to stop her question. “Yes, last time. This is not the first time I lived through this day. Last time, you died, and missed several years of hell on Earth, while I fought day after day alongside people that I thought were my friends, trying to be the hero that saved the world. They betrayed me. But, before I died, I was able to turn back time for myself.”

“So, while I was preparing for the Apocalypse to begin, I decided to change my fate. If the hero gets betrayed, then I’ll be a villain instead. And I fucked you because I needed to change the options available to me. I don’t expect you to be happy with this. But you will learn to accept it. Because your best hope for living in this world is me. And I refuse to simply discard my property as though it were nothing.”