A heavy, metallic clang reverberated through the stone floor, followed by the screech of shearing iron. The fortified door was hammered off its hinges.

  Through the haze of the silk blindfold, I flicked my optics into high-intensity infrared. The world became a canvas of heat. I saw the door fly inward, a massive thermal bloom leading the charge. Three distinct outlines rushed the stairs: a towering, broad-shouldered titan radiating a searing crimson of pure adrenaline; a leaner, cooler figure with the sharp, unmistakable silhouette of elven ears; and a small, chaotic blur of heat with a twitching tail and a staff held high.

  Joshua. Alan. Eren.

  Joshua burst into the room first, his heavy plate armor glowing white-hot in my thermal vision. His head snapped toward me. Even through the digital filter, I could see his heat signature spike, a massive surge of blood pressure and fury as he took in the sight of me: paralyzed, bound in leather, and kneeling like an animal at the feet of two spoiled brats.

  The room erupted into a symphony of violence. I watched in infrared as Eren lunged forward with feline grace. Her staff pulsed with a vibrant, rhythmic energy.

  "Mmmgh-hmmm!" I screamed through the rubber gag, the sound muffled but brimming with relief.

  Eren didn't hesitate. She slammed the butt of her staff into the floor, and emerald-green vines of binding magic lanced out from the boards. They coiled around Gibby and Leo like hungry serpents, snapping their limbs together and slamming them both against the far wall before they could even reach for a weapon.

  The blindfold was suddenly ripped away, followed by the gag. I gasped, a string of saliva trailing from my lips as my jaw finally regained its freedom. The cool air of the room hit my face, and for a second, the world was a blur of high-fantasy gold and obsidian tech.

  Alan was over me in an instant. His hands, glowing with a faint, analytical blue light, hovered over the leather armbinder and the steel ankle cuffs. He didn't look at my face; his eyes were fixed on the runic enchantments woven into the leather.

  "Stay still," Alan muttered, his voice tight with a cold, academic anger. "The cuffs are mechanical, but this collar... it’s high-tier suppression magic."

  Across the room, the rescue had turned into a lesson in retribution. Joshua had Leo by the front of his silk robes, lifting the "Golden Brat" off the ground with one hand. With the other, he slammed a gauntleted fist into the ornate gold armor Leo had left on the stand, shattering the expensive metal into useless shards.

  Eren was circling Gibby, her tail lashing with predatory rhythm. She held a length of magical vine like a whip, her eyes narrowed into dangerous slits.

  "You touched her," Eren hissed, her voice a low, feral snarl. She flicked the vine, the tip cracking against Gibby’s cheek and leaving a glowing red welt. "Only I get to do playful things to her. You? You're just garbage."

  "How do we undo this?" Alan shouted over his shoulder, his fingers fumbling with the heavy buckle of the armbinder. "The collar is feeding off her internal energy. If I force it, it might trigger a lethal discharge."

  The two brats just whimpered, Leo’s face a mess of tears and blood as Joshua tightened his grip on both their throats, pinning them against the stone. They remained stubbornly silent, their eyes darting around in terror.

  "Kill them!" I shouted, the command-laden purr of my voice returning with a jagged edge of rage. "Joshua, kill those bastards now!"

  BZZZZT!

  The collar flared with a violent orange light. A surge of electricity tore through my neck, locking my jaw and sending a fresh wave of agony down my spine. I slumped against Alan, my breath hitching in a pained groan.

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  "Hostile intent," Alan cursed, steadying me as the runes on the collar pulsed a warning red. "The collar detects your aggression, Taylor. You have to stay calm, or it'll keep frying your boobs off."

  Joshua’s grip tightened until Leo’s face turned a sickly purple. "Answer him," Joshua growled, his voice like grinding stone. "Or I’ll see how many of your bones I can break before the guards even realize the door is down."

  Leo, gasping for air and trembling so hard his teeth rattled, feebly raised a shaking finger. He pointed toward a nearby lacquered box on a pedestal, a box etched with a single, shimmering silver rune that matched the pattern on the collar.

  ,

  Alan’s fingers danced over the silver purplish runes on the lacquered box, he opened it up to reveal wheat inside, dumping it all out. With a final, sharp click, the heavy leather collar around my neck snapped open. It fell to the plush carpet with a dull thud, the orange glow of the runes flickering out into dead grey.

  The immediate relief was like a physical weight lifting off my chest. I slumped, my muscles finally losing their defensive tension. The armbinder and cuffs followed shortly after as Alan made quick work of the mechanical locks.

  "We need to move," Alan whispered, his eyes darting toward the shattered door. "The moment we leave this room with you, we’re not just adventurers we’re fugitives. We have to disappear back into the sewers before the guards know who we are."

  Joshua stepped forward. Seeing me sway on my feet, weak from the repeated electrical surges that had fried my body, he didn't hesitate. He reached down and scooped me up into a massive princess carry. The contrast was stark: his cold, heavy plate armor against the warm, slick nanoweave of my suit. Despite my 6'1" frame and the weight of my obsidian limbs, he handled me like I weighed nothing. My head came to rest against his shoulder, my platinum hair spilling over his pauldron.

  "Eren, untie them," Joshua grunted, nodding toward the two brats. "They’re pathetic. They won’t be able to follow us anyway."

  Eren gave a disgruntled hiss but flicked her wrist, the magical vines retreating into the floorboards. Leo and Gibby slumped to the floor, gasping and clutching their bruised throats. They looked small, broken, and utterly beneath us.

  We turned to leave, Joshua’s heavy boots thundering toward the stairs. But Leo, driven by a desperate, suicidal shred of aristocratic pride, scrambled toward the divan.

  "You... you filth!" he shrieked. He snatched a decorative hunting knife from the table and lunged, flinging the blade with a frantic, trembling hand.

  I saw it in slow motion. My HUD highlighted the incoming projectile in a flickering amber. I didn't even have to think; the combat subroutines took over. I wrenched my right arm free from Joshua’s hold, the hydraulic hiss of the obsidian limb sharp in the quiet room. My Glock 19 was in my hand before the knife had even crossed half the distance.

  CRACK-BOOM!

  The muzzle flash was a blinding bloom of white in the dim room. The 9mm micro-explosive round caught Leo squarely in the center of his forehead. There was no struggle, no scream. His head didn't just snap back; it evaporated in a spray of crimson and grey matter that painted the silk wallpaper behind him. His body hit the floor like a sack of wet flour. As promised.

  Simultaneously, the knife Leo had thrown struck the center of my chest. The blade didn't pierce; it didn't even leave a scratch. It hit the high-density nanoweave and simply bounced away, clattering harmlessly onto the carpet.

  Gibby let out a high-pitched, curdling scream of pure terror. "GUARDS! MURDER! GUARDS!"

  "Move! Now!" I barked, my voice regaining its seductive but slightly hoarse noise.

  Eren snatched up my Widow’s Kiss from the divan, the massive .50 cal rifle vanishing into a shimmering rift of her dimensional storage as she bolted for the stairs.

  As we descended back into the dark, damp Maw of the sewers, I felt... nothing. No guilt, no horror at the murder of another human. Leo was just another hostile to be neutralized. They were bastards; the world was better off with one less.

  The escape was a blur of foul-smelling darkness and splashing water. We ran blindly through the T-junctions. We were lost.

  "Up there!" Alan pointed to a rusted iron ladder leading to a manhole cover. "It’s our only way out of the sludge."

  Joshua set me down, and I felt the strength returning to my legs as my internal systems recalibrated. I climbed the ladder first, my obsidian fingers digging into the rusted rungs. I heaved the heavy iron disc aside and hauled myself out onto soft, manicured grass.

  The air was sweet with the scent of lilies and evening dew. I stood up, smoothing the slick latex of my suit, and looked around. We were in the center of a sprawling, light-drenched garden. Behind us stood the massive, gothic silhouette of a mansion, its windows glowing with candlelight.

  Eren hopped out of the hole after me, her ears twitching as she looked at the towering stone walls.

  "Uh, guys?" she muttered, her tail going still. "Ain't this still the Earl's mansion?"

  A sudden noise from the mansions balcony of a familiar brat rings out.