Chapter 405 New Slave- I Mean, Subordinate, Get!

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Riven slapped him across the face with his huge hand, showing no mercy until the young soldier’s face was swollen and bruised.

"Oooouggh... p-pleashe... forgive me..."

He was begging for mercy, and Riven finally obliged.

"Of course. I’m quite the merciful man."

The soldier nodded as quickly as he could. He wasn’t going to argue about Riven’s idea of mercy. Not now. He just wanted the beating to stop, and if calling this bastard merciful would help, he would gladly do it.

Riven dropped him onto the ground. Before he could scurry away, Riven combined his psychic power with Authority Manifestation to create chains made of Gluttony and Greed.

"G-Gaaagghhh?!"

He had barely managed to get his hands beneath him when the chains caught him. He tried to crawl forward anyway, but they pulled him back before he could get anywhere.

No, no! He had answered the question! What else did this guy want from him?!

The soldier screamed and grabbed the chains, only for them to grow even stronger.

He pulled harder, planting his feet against the ground. Nothing came loose. He changed his grip and tried again, but that only made things worse.

Riven watched him struggle without offering to help.

The soldier finally stopped pulling. He looked up at Riven, then down at the chains, and swallowed. Fighting hadn’t worked. Running hadn’t worked, either.

All he had left was begging.

"P-Please spare... spare meee...!"

The chains fused into the soldier’s very being. Through Authority Manifestation, Riven tapped into the same spell Fenrir had placed on Vladimir. It worked even with the Authority Fenrir had gifted him.

The chains turned deep black. Riven had successfully replicated the spell with his own powers, binding the new recruit to his will.

The soldier reached for the chains again, but there was nothing left for his fingers to grab. He looked down at himself, then at Riven. They were gone, yet he could still feel that something was wrong.

That should have been a good thing, right? No more chains, no more struggling to pull them off.

Then why did Riven look so satisfied?

"W-What the hell was that?! What did you do to me?!"

"Sit."

"Huh?!"

The soldier sat down on the ground like a dog.

His knees bent before he could decide what to do. He tried to straighten them, but his body kept moving until he was sitting in front of Riven.

He stared at his own legs.

What the hell?! He hadn’t wanted to do that!

"Roll over."

"What?!"

The soldier rolled across the ground as well.

Dirt stuck to his clothes as he turned, unable to stop himself. He planted a hand against the ground, trying to interrupt the movement, but even that arm moved to help him finish the roll.

His own body was working against him!

Riven watched without stepping in. He was testing the spell, and so far, the soldier was giving him exactly the results he wanted.

"Leap."

"W-Wait!"

The soldier leaped.

He landed on his feet and tried to stay there, as if standing still could prove he had some control left. But Riven hadn’t told him to move again.

That wasn’t resistance. He was just waiting for the next order.

"Shut up and stop complaining."

"..."

And he did.

He opened his mouth, but the complaint wouldn’t come out. His jaw closed again. He could still think of plenty of things to say, and none of them were polite.

But thinking them was all he could do.

He looked at Riven, furious and frightened. The man hadn’t even needed to repeat himself!

It was unbelievable.

The soldier was... completely under his command!

Riven had only needed a few simple commands to confirm it. The soldier understood what he was being told, and he knew he didn’t want to obey. Neither of those things stopped him.

Well, that made dealing with him a lot easier.

Riven nodded. "What’s your name?"

"L-Lucas...!" the soldier coughed. "Why am I doing everything you ask?! W-Wait, are you a pervert?! I’m not gay! D-Don’t make me do anything weird..."

SLAP!

Riven slapped him across the face before he could finish that thought.

Lucas blinked and stopped trying to explain himself. Apparently, trying to guess what Riven wanted was another good way to get slapped.

He had thought answering a few questions would be enough. Then came the chains, and now this.

Every time he thought he understood the situation, it somehow got worse.

"Don’t spout nonsense like that ever again," Riven said with a sigh. "You’re going to atone for being a piece of shit by helping me destroy Claymore."

"D-Destroy it...?!"

He looked at Riven, waiting for him to say he meant something else. But there was no correction.

Claymore! He wanted Lucas to turn against Claymore!

Lucas tried to find a way to refuse, or at least delay the order. His mouth opened, but he couldn’t make himself say no. Riven was already telling him what to do, and his body was ready to obey.

Unable to disobey, Lucas followed Riven’s orders to take down any forces that resisted and secure the entire area. Eventually, the area was under their control, and all three reactors were blown to pieces.

With all three bosses dead, Riven made his way to the Dungeon Core. The glistening blue core lay inside a hidden cave on the beach, near the coast.

The sound of the sea followed him into the cave. Water had gathered between the rocks, and he stepped around it, watching the blue light reflect across the wet stone. After everything that had happened, the core was almost easy to overlook.

But this was what he had come for. He walked up to the core and touched it.

FLASH!

For a moment, memories of a beautiful sea world appeared in his mind.

It was a world of beaches and islands, where countless treasure hunters sailed the seas in search of treasure and adventure.

And also a world of piracy, consumed by gold and greed.

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