A Gunslinger’s System in a World of Magic

In the minutes it took for Vykers to exit the Awakening Room and fetch the prisoners, Maude made the required preparations. Yelena didn't understand them and Maude didn't explain. He seemed far too focused and studious to pay her any mind.

Then, the large door opened and the Prisoners were prodded into the room proper.

"Stop nudging me," Stefan said and while he would have loved to sound angry, his voice just came out sounding defeated. Being locked up in a cell with very dim lighting can have that effect.

What used to be quite a handsome face was far more muted in its attractiveness. Smudged up with dirt.

"You look well," Triss told Yelena in a low voice.

"Triss—" Yelena started to say but wasn't sure what to say.

She was standing here, powerless to do anything to help and dressed in finery while the siblings had spent days in a cell and were now about to be subjugated and forced to serve the Man they tried to rob.

"You don't have to say anything," Triss said, shaking her head,

"It's fine."

The Vykers forced Triss and Stefan forward then until they were standing next to the Pentagram.

"Get them to the middle," Maude said in an impassive voice as he reached out to receive the box the Vyker called Rion had held out to him.

Maude opened the box and smiled,

"You should feel grateful," he said,

"The ingredients to be used in your Mutations have been sourced from powerful Dungeons. Your Evolution will continue for years to come."

"Maude—" Yelena said and stepped forward only for the Vykers to block her path.

"You can't get too close to the Ritual," Rion said in a stern voice.

Maude glanced over Yelena as she tried to push past the Vykers and furrowed his brows,

"You're reacting like this is an execution. I'm about to give meaning to their lives."

"In exchange for controlling them," Yelena pointed out.

Maude shrugged,

"Do you see any of my Vykers complain?"

"Can they?" Yelena asked.

Maude pursed his lips and then, with a tone that made it clear this was the last time he was going to address this topic, he said,

"Their assault on my Manor lost me Vykers. My attempts to retrieve my item from their thieving clutches rewarded me with deaths upon deaths of my Vykers. These two will barely be able to make up for my losses but it's certainly a start.

And they can apologize for their misdeeds by serving me for the rest of their lives."

"Apologize?" Stefan asked, pulling Maude's attention to himself as he and Triss stood in the middle of the Pentagram with their backs to each other,

"I regret nothing so why would I apologize?"

"Stefan," Triss called to him.

"What? It's true," Stefan said.

"Didn't say it wasn't," Triss said and managed a smile before she added,

"Just don't think it's smart to say it, is all."

Stefan scoffed,

"What's he going to do, kill me? That'd be better than having to see his face and say yes to his insane orders for the rest of my life."

Triss looked to give it some thought before she nodded,

"You know what, you're right," she said and then shrugged,

"Either way, this is the last time we can give him a piece of our minds."

"That's enough!" Maude snapped interrupting whatever Stefan was about to say in response.

Maude spread his arms wide and began to chant a long string of spells. His chanting caused his Mana to surge as every bit of magic in the room seemed to come alive. And there was a lot of it.

This room had seen many Vyker-creating rituals for millennia and was thick with its Arcane history.

The Pentagram glowed before chains began to rise from it. The chains were first intangible but with every spell that left Maude's lips, they gained tangibility until they were wrapping around the wrists of both Stefan and Triss. Pinning them to the Pentagram.

"What power do you think you'll get?" Triss asked Stefan as she tried once to pull against the chains.

"You're considering it?" Stefan asked like he couldn't believe his Sister's tangent.

Triss shrugged as best as she could despite the chains,

"I mean, it's going to happen. Nothing we can do about it so might as well wonder, don't you think?

The only bright side to this is no longer being ordinary."

Stefan let out a sigh,

"Never knew you were unsatisfied to be normal," he said.

"Well, not unsatisfied, per se," Triss said, "But I have sometimes wondered how it would feel to be something more…"

"This— Is this about Henry?" Stefan asked.

"What?" Triss asked sounding slightly flustered.

"It is, isn't it?" Stefan said and laughed, "It's because he's special. You were starting to feel left out."

"No—" Triss said but Stefan just laughed again,

"Don't try to deny it. I've seen it," he said.

"Seen what?"

"The look," Stefan said.

"What look?"

"The look you give him," Stefan said and wiggled his brows even though his Sister couldn't see it.

"I don't give him a look," Triss said blushing slightly.

"Come on," Stefan said with his voice dragged out, "You clearly give him a look."

"Ah, whatever," Triss said, giving up on denial, and then she mumbled,

"I wonder where he is now."

"Wherever it is, he's sure to be having a better time than this, right?" Stefan said with his eyes on Maude who didn't seem at all bothered by the conversation happening in front of him and never once broke from his long spell chant.

"Do you think it'll hurt?" Triss asked and then she felt it. The Pentagram siphoned the energy within the ingredients prepared for the Ritual and drove it into her body.

It felt like multiple knives were slicing through her. Her blood burned hot to a boil like she was about to explode and she couldn't help but let out a groan of pain.

"I think that answers your question," Stefan managed to say even as he felt the same.

And then he felt worse.

Although the process started for him and Triss at the same time, his actual Awakening started before hers. The mutation ingredients were charging into him with the energy focused on his heart. Transforming it from just a muscle to pump blood and into a power source for his upcoming Vyker Mutation.

Meanwhile, Yelena was watching on as the siblings groaned in pain when she heard a voice. A voice that sounded more clearly and strongly than any voice she had ever heard in all her years of living. Completely unfamiliar too.

"-First time I visit the Mortal Ream through you, and I witness this imitation Ritual. Haha, must be fated.-"

"Who said that?" Yelena asked loudly as she looked around wildly.

She even looked at the Vykers in front of her but they were all staring at her like she was mad.

"-You think a voice like mine could come from weak beings like them? My, my, Yelena, I'm disappointed.-"

"Who are you?" Yelena asked still looking for the source of the voice even though it was starting to dawn on her that it was coming from her head.

"-Who am I?-" The voice asked like it was musing on the question before it then said in a voice of callous delight,

"-I am the 'generous' Demon who took pity on a young girl fated to die— You.

I am the source of the Immortality you have now lost. Good riddance to that nonsense, by the way…-"

"Wait, Demon?" Yelena repeated the word and then she remembered what she had read on the screens she saw when she woke up in the Black Manor.

"Demon— Hell—" she said with the next word not quite leaving her lips as easily as it should have.

The Demon in Yelena's head seemed to hear what she wanted to say though and chuckled,

"-Yes, Yelena. You are my Spawn.

And I, am your Patron.-"

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