The blue sky felt strangely bright as one of the floating clouds that was shaped like a blooming flower drifted freely above the alleyway where Elsa was absentmindedly looking up while her upper body was flying away in the air from her lower half, which got separated again a second time today as Kars' greatsword cut through both her kukri knife and body as if they were nothing.
The Bowel Hunter is now a bit regretful that she didn't take Kars' warning seriously and tried to deflect his deceptively casual swipe of that big lump of metal with her knife, and the result was that she couldn't even release any surprise noise when the greatsword bisected her cleanly at her waist in a single swipe.
As the assassin's torso spun through the air for a couple of seconds with her long braid that fortunately survived Kars' swipe, her body finally hit the brick wall with a thud and a blood splash before she slid down and landed in the filth and grime of the alleyway while her lower half remained on the spot where she had been bisected as it flopped down in front of Kars, who looked at Elsa like she was an idiot.
"..." Elsa felt her cheeks burn from his stare. It was indeed such an embarrassing performance that this incident will definitely stay as one of her core memories forever...
Elsa wonders if she could pretend to be dead so Kars might just go away and leave her alone to cringe at what happened while her wound begins to heal rapidly as the new muscle and bone regrow anew with her regeneration magic.
"Heh, look at you, you dumbass..." Kars remarked with a smirk, turning his body with his greatsword now returning back to his shoulder to see the assassin visibly struggling to maintain her nonchalant expression.
To be honest, Kars didn't even use half of his strength when he was swinging his greatsword, but the assassin was already incapacitated with just that equivalent of a jab attack.
"What a letdown..." Kars feels disappointed that he can't have a proper fight to see how strong he is currently, but he just shrugs it off, as he probably got too strong after consuming thousands of souls that empowered him to a level where he could wipe out a mountain with a single all-out attack.
As the sheer gap in their physical prowess is just too great, it's making Elsa's rapid regeneration seem like a way to prolong her suffering in the battle rather than an advantage she could rely on. It was the fact that made the assassin bitterly aware that she was going to have a hard time in this fight... if it still could be called that at this point.
Without waiting for Elsa to completely regenerate her body, Kars extended his free hand and curled his fingers into a grasping motion as a sudden surge of telekinetic force gripped Elsa's body, yanking her away from the wall with such velocity that she let out a surprised gasp as she flew through the air like a plastic bag in the storm until she was slammed into Kars' waiting grip as he caught her by the throat, his fingers digging into her soft skin that was definitely going to leave bruises later.
"Still can do anything else?" Kars asked as he kept her off the ground, holding her at eye level while his amber gaze looked directly into her purple eyes as Elsa just finished regenerating her lower half.
"You shouldn't treat a lady so roughly...!" Elsa tried to lash out with her fist to his face, but he simply ignored it and squeezed her neck harder, cutting off the oxygen to her brain as her fist hit his nose, but it didn't even make him flinch or hurt.
"Ugh..." Elsa's pupils dilated from the crushing pressure on her neck, and eventually even her struggle turned into just a series of pathetic smacks and scratches, doing absolutely nothing to Kars.
"You know where you belong now?" Kars questioned without relaxing his grip, his voice devoid of warmth as he stared into the fading consciousness behind the assassin's eyes.
Then finally he relaxed his grip with a smirk on his lips before she lost consciousness completely as Elsa gasped for air and panted in Kars's hand while her pride took quite a trashing from his action.
"You brute..." She muttered with difficulty while she looked at him with a twisted smile, her purple eyes filled with a mixture of defiance and a newfound fascination since she had never encountered such an opponent that could treat her like helpless prey before. It strangely made her... aroused.
Kars scoffed, not caring for the assassin's word as he turned towards his minions and gestured for them to withdraw while he still kept Elsa in his grip, and just like when they appeared, the homunculi began to disperse like spiderlings.
Kars' gaze then shifted toward Ghislaine and the recovering Saruda before he walked toward them with heavy footsteps that echoed through the alley. The oppressive weight of his presence still persists, but it is not at the level that is uncomfortable anymore.
"Hey, you." He called out to the feline woman, who was still leaning over her companion while feeling quite satisfied with the success in the recruitment of two new combatants.
"I'll be expecting you tomorrow at my mansion, and don't worry about formalities; just show up with all your stuff and wait at the gate. Someone will let you in." Kars casually instructed her, and then he didn't even wait for a response from Ghislaine, knowing that the feline woman doesn't have any choice now and can only do as he said as he opened up a portal behind him with a flex of his will before the swirling green vortex cast an eerie green light over the blood-stained alleyway.
"See you soon..." He said as he stepped backward into the shimmering tear in space, bringing the pouting Elsa along by her neck like she was just an object.
As the two of them went inside, the portal immediately snapped shut, leaving the alleyway in a heavy silence and the remnants of the battle, a grisly pile of severed limbs and bodies that the city's rats or the unfortunate city guards would eventually have to clear out.
"Haa..." Ghislaine let out a long, exhausted sigh, her shoulders sagging as the adrenaline finally faded away, leaving only the raw, throbbing pain of her injuries.
"You alright...?" She looked down at Saruda, who was finally beginning to regain movement in his fingertips, his expression one of relief mixed with a deep regret for what just happened.
"Yeah... but... Ghislaine... you shouldn't have traded your freedom for mine..." Saruda wheezed, his voice cracking as the paralysis effect finally dissolved from his muscles. He tried to sit up, but a groan escaped him as he clutched himself from falling back to the ground since his limbs were still numb; his eyes drifted toward the spot where the green portal had already vanished.
In pursuit of his own freedom, ironically, Saruda has caused his friend to sacrifice her freedom to help him. It's making him so guilty that he wants to beg Kars to just take him instead, but that is definitely not going to happen since Kars was very interested in recruiting Ghislaine, so Saruda is just leverage that is no longer useful.
"It's too late now..." Ghislaine turned her gaze away from the man, her mismatched eyes staring blankly at the place where the portal used to be as she slowly sheathed her crimson sword with a metallic click.
"..." She didn't show it, but she was currently feeling the weight of the invisible collar that wasn't physically there, as the realization that she signed her autonomy away in the heat of the moment is a sober one.
She looked down with a complex expression at her trembling hands, the skin still stained mostly with the blood of herself, and felt a strange hollow sensation in her chest. She was a proud warrior with dignity, yet she was now a subordinate to someone she didn't even acknowledge...
÷×÷×÷×÷×÷
Meanwhile, at the training ground next to Kars' forge, Kars stepped out from the portal, and then he tossed Elsa onto the sandpit as the assassin landed on her feet with the nimbleness of a cat, though she stumbled slightly from the suddenness of Kars' action.
"How rude..." She complained as she brushed some dirt off what remained of her clothes and then glanced back at him with a strange expression that changed between genuine annoyance and curiosity.
Kars didn't bother with talking just yet, and instead he reversed-summoned his greatsword back to his armory, leaving the woman to recover her bearing in the silence of the training ground.
Elsa stood there for a moment, her eyes scanning her surroundings curiously as she noticed the open-air forge and the various training equipment arranged neatly next to the spacious sandpit.
"An unusual place to take the prisoner to, isn't it?" She muttered as she covered up her crotch with her right hand while her left was touching her neck, feeling the lingering pressure of Kars' fingers and a strange, warm, ticklish sensation there.
"Oh my, what are your intentions with me, I wonder?" Elsa asked, her voice regaining its playfulness once more. She then began to pace around the sandpit in a leisurely manner, her purple eyes shimmering with an intrigued gaze as she kept glancing at her kidnapper.
"You're quite terribly nonchalant about your situation, huh?" Kars glanced at the Bowel Hunter before he moved towards her with his expression unreadable.
"That's because you clearly didn't want to kill me..." Elsa paused her pacing, her purple eyes locking onto his amber ones as she replied to him with a smirk on her pink lips. She didn't really care about the indignity of being manhandled by him or getting forced to comply, as she had finally found something in this city that interested her... other than guts she could spill, of course.
Elsa also didn't feel the need to play the victim or be a rowdy prisoner either since she had spent most of her life in the shadows of the underworld, where power was the only currency that mattered, and she knew enough about this kind of song and dance that Kars was playing.
"I've spent my life stalking and killing for fun, and despite that, you want to keep me?" she questioned, her voice dropping to a low, sultry tone as she let her hand slide down sensually from her neck, revealing the faint red marks of Kars' grip that he had left behind.
"Want me to serve under you~?" The assassin's expression began to twist into deranged excitement, and Kars wasn't sure if she wanted to kill him or fuck him at the moment.
"Calm your tits, slut." Kars stopped a meter from her, his presence looming over her as he looked down to the woman. He didn't show any emotion on his face, but he felt himself weirdly getting hard. A shameful reaction he wishes he didn't have.
"So you agree to be my minion, is that it?" Kars questioned with his cock and eyebrow rising simultaneously while he tried not to look down at Elsa's lower, naked body.
"Oh my..." Elsa chuckled as she, of course, noticed something going on with him but didn't point that out just yet. She just pushed this back in the corner of her mind as something she could use later, before she suddenly stepped closer to him and looked up at Kars with a challenging glint in her purple eyes.
"You've already decided I'm yours the moment you grab me, haven't you?" she almost whispered while she glanced up at Kars flirtatiously with her breasts almost touching him. "You didn't ask for my consent, and you certainly didn't care about my feelings when you did things to me... so roughly, I might add. I suspect you might have even forced me to call you a master after you broke me in..."
"Heh, watch your mouth..." Kars let out an amused laugh after hearing her trying to provoke him as he grabbed on to her braid like a brute and pulled her towards him by it. "I might get too much into it, you know...?"
÷×÷×÷×÷×÷
"Mmh?!" At the same time inside the manager's office at the Blood Fund, Sophia feels disturbed by a sudden bad feeling while she is reviewing documents behind her desk.
"What's the matter...?" Mei Mei, who is sitting on the couch inside the room together with Sophia, as she is here to discuss logistics stuff, turns to look at her sister with a curious look while putting the teacup down.
"It's probably Kars..." Sophia frowns as she purses her lips while answering. She feels like some bitch is getting close to her hubby again.
"Hehe, such a close bond with your lover, I'm so jealous." Mei Mei giggles as she gives Sophia a teasing smirk while her big sister is grumbling to herself with an embarrassed but also annoyed expression.
"Hmph, you're also one of them..." Sophia ignored her half-sister as she was signing roughly on the paper she was reviewing, which was the report of the Kolosseum's construction progress that is now 80% complete.
÷×÷×÷×÷×÷
"Ahh~" Back to the training ground, Elsa let out a soft, mischievous moan as Kars yanked up her braid, making her raise her face and face him directly. The roughness in his grip didn't frighten her; instead, it acted as a catalyst, igniting a dangerous spark in her purple eyes.
"..." Elsa deliberately pressed her body against Kars; the lack of clothing on her lower half made the scene feel very immoral, and she loved the way he looked at her; it was the scorching gaze of a man desiring a woman. So raw and primal.
"..." Kars also felt the sudden surge of attraction, a powerful pull that matched the violent energy of their encounter in the alleyway. He didn't believe this was love or something gentle, but a pure lust for conquest and dominance.
Kars doesn't let go of her hair as he leans in closer to Elsa's face with their noses touching, his breath mingling with hers as they gaze into each other's eyes.
"What are you waiting for, 'Master'?" Elsa whispered, her words taunting him to do whatever he wanted with her, and she didn't flinch as his grip tightened on her braid, but instead she wrapped her leg around him as the thrill of seduction combined with her impulses was screaming for her to abandon all reason and just bounce on it, crazy style...