“What a beautiful morning!” Eve said cheerfully, stretching her arms up and out as she sat up in her sleep pod; Eve appeared to be in a better mood than I’d seen in a few cycles now.

  Last night, Eve continued dominating me in front of Almana, forcing climaxes out of me several times in a row. She’d spent hours doting on me, doing everything in her power to maximize my pleasure, and no matter how I might have resisted, I always gave in eventually.

  Eve hurt Almana a few more times too, whipping her with tentacles or cutting her with claws, but the pain didn’t seem to bother Almana. Instead, she seemed to completely break when Eve shoved a tentacle into Almana’s mouth and forced her to drink my cum. From that point on Almana seemed like a shell, staring off into nothing, remaining silent for the rest of the night.

  Once her point had been made, Eve released all of us, holding onto me affectionately as though it had been a pleasant, romantic evening.

  I tried to say something to Almana, apologizing and offering condolences, though with no idea what I could actually say to make things right. Eve just laughed all the while.

  In the end Almana put her armor back on and left us without a word. I called out once more down the hallway to her, telling her the Predazoans needed to be kept secret for her own safety, and I finally got a response out of her; Almana just laughed bitterly, then left me and Eve alone in the dark.

  I couldn’t think what to say to Eve then either, so I just got dressed and we returned to camp together, Eve assailing me with loving affection the entire time.

  I couldn’t even fully process what happened last night or how I felt about it, and since we had the last day of the mission to deal with, I decided to just put it off for now, to try and ignore it until I could sort my feelings and figure out what the fuck I was going to do about it.

  I just barely sat up when Eve jumped into my lap, wrapping her arms around me, “Good morning darling.” She said sweetly, giving me a deep kiss.

  I didn’t resist and actually reciprocated, and Eve giggled against my lips, taking my submission as a sign everything was fine between us.

  “I had fun last night.” Eve said coyly, batting her eyelashes at me.

  I decided to just ignore the comment and started getting ready for the day.

  The encampment was already being broken down as our team was going to ship out as early as possible. Our commanders already met with Ferro and his team out in the courtyard earlier, and everything was all cleared for them to escort us through the Sesamna sewer system to get into the capital.

  I couldn’t help but wonder how Almana was during the briefing, if she held herself strong, or if she needed to delegate most of her duties to her subordinates now. I also worried whether she would keep Eve’s identity secret too, but considering the meeting with Ferro went off without any problems, I was sure Almana was silent on the matter.

  In just a few minutes our company had broken the camp down completely and was ready to head out, and the soldiers all fell in place in our line same as yesterday, with me and Eve towards the back with the researchers beside us. But now Almana stayed up at the front with our commanders, and it seemed like she purposefully avoided making eye contact with us now—not that I blamed her.

  Ferro and his men were up at the front of the line, three dozen more resistance soldiers to help fill our ranks, all equipped with that same black and red Vyrane battle armor, with advanced weaponry that almost seemed to rival our own; they were clearly kitted out with the best available equipment, which of course would be a necessity for them to survive deep in the heart of enemy territory.

  Ferro was tall for a vyrane, maybe a foot taller than Almana, only a foot shorter than me. He had large horns that went straight up, with dark red hair that was cut short in a classic military style. He wore an eyepatch over one eye with a huge scar visible behind it and was wearing the same battle armor as everyone else with one major exception; Ferro was wearing a long, tattered cape, black with white fur trimming. It looked like it was meant to be ceremonial, probably some ancient family heirloom that had lived in someone’s basement for centuries, but now they were at war it was time to bring it out again. Ferro looked rather distinguished in it—badass really. Honestly, all his men seemed grizzled and hardened, with more accents and scars on their armor than any other vyranes I’d seen so far.

  I know I joked about it before, but these resistance soldiers probably were the best of the best of the best.

  Ferro stood at the front of the line, his troops all behind him, looking over the remaining soldiers of our company as though trying to gauge our worth.

  “I know you had a long, hard road in getting here, and we want to thank you all for your hard work and sacrifice on behalf of the Vyrane people.” Ferro said, his voice like sandpaper rubbing against concrete, it sounded like he could sharpen iron just by speaking to it. “I know we’re closing in on the end here, but the last stretch is going to be the most difficult.” He gestured to one of his men, and he held up a tablet to display a hologram map of the surrounding area, with an excessive amount of red highlights, “I don’t know why, but the separatists all over the city have been moving in since late last night; I’m not sure if someone accidently gave away your position, but it’s almost like they’d been summoned here.”

  I turned a glare towards Eve, but she refused to meet my gaze as a smirk played on her face. I could almost guarantee when Eve was fucking around last night, she dropped her camouflage at some point, and Beta-09 had sent her puppets to investigate. Thankfully, it was probably only a small window, not long enough for Beta-09 to discover our exact location—otherwise they already would’ve overrun us.

  I tried to see what kind of expression Almana would make at hearing that, but her face was carefully neutral, and she still refused to look my way at all.

  “With that in mind, our options are limited, but we can’t afford to waste anymore time; your job is to get into the capital and end the separatist threat, and our job is to see that we get there. No matter what it takes, we will get you into the capital.” Ferro announced with clear conviction.

  Another vyrane willing to die for their planet and people, all with their hopes riding on our team—on the power of a monster.

  Shit, I couldn’t even imagine what Almana was thinking now, all the horrors she endured at the hands of the enemy Predazoan, and now she knew she was leading another one to the heart of their civilization, all under the idea the only thing that could defeat the monster that had terrorized her planet was another monster—a monster who’d spent all last night torturing her, all because she fell in love with the wrong man.

  Honestly, it wouldn’t surprise me if Almana had already given up hope, but instead she appeared strong before her people, ready to fulfill her duty—to die if it was required of her.

  Dammit, now I was really feeling guilty over what all Eve had done to her—what I allowed to have done to her. I knew I’d fallen in love with a monster, but I guess I didn’t realize how monstrous Eve really was.

  I had no idea what the fuck I was going to do.

  “We’re going to be moving with a purpose now, and if you drag behind you’ll be left behind. If at any point we end up engaging with the enemy, it won’t be the responsibility of the Radiant Clandestine team to stand and fight, it’ll be our job to distract and disengage the enemy while you continue forward; you will not lose any momentum once we leave this academy, no matter what happens or what confronts us, we’ll facilitate the way forward.” Ferro announced to us, then looked back to his men, “To live and die for a free Vyrane!” He declared.

  “To live and die for a free Vyrane!” His soldiers repeated.

  “To live and die for a free Vyrane!” Almana shouted, raising her gun in the air.

  The resistance soldiers we had left raised their guns too, “To live and die for a free Vyrane!” They responded.

  The vyranes all shouted and howled a few more times, sounding like spartan wolves ready to join the hunt—psyching themselves up for a glorious death. The Imperial soldiers joined in with the shouts too, and once everyone had steeled themselves for the impending violence, Ferro turned and led our team out of the library, down the halls of the empty academy, and into the derelict streets of a war-torn world.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  ***

  Ferro wasn’t being performative when he said we wouldn’t lose any momentum once we started; from the moment we left the academy, we broke out into a marching run. Stealth had been completely abandoned as we pushed through the streets. It didn’t take long to cross paths with a group of assimilated soldiers when they popped out of a nearby house, and four of Ferro’s men threw down smoke bombs and repulser barriers to guard our escape as we continued on without even slowly down.

  Four soldiers already down of the three dozen Ferro brought with him, sacrificing themselves without a moment’s hesitation. I looked back to see the soldiers were holding their line well, but there was no way they would last long—no way they would survive. Not only were they outnumbered, but they were outgunned, and tactically at a huge disadvantage. The best they could do was hold up in the barriers to keep the enemy’s attention until we were out of sight, and then once the barriers went down, that would be the end.

  The most horrifying realization was the men weren’t just dying for us, considering the enemy we faced, they were willing to be assimilated all for the sake of the mission, with no idea if that would lead to a fate worse than death.

  ~Hey, what actually happens when a person gets assimilated? Are they just killed and their dead body is puppeteered by the Predazoan who controls them?~ I asked Eve through the inner-ear bone while we marched, and I was surprised I felt a little soreness in my jaw while communicating, as though it was still tender from last night when Eve disabled it.

  ~Yes darling, they are well and truly dead, don’t need to worry about their consciousnesses being trapped within those shells or anything; a Predazoan would have no use for their primitive minds, so there would be no reason to preserve them at all~ Eve confirmed.

  Well, small comfort I knew what happened to those soldiers, but it wasn’t like they knew while they bravely laid down their lives for us.

  We continued down the side streets of the residential district, once again twisting and turning us along some route that had me lost within minutes, probably trying to avoid as much fighting as possible. We crossed over a main road and once we got to a large intersection we were confronted by another large force of assimilated soldiers, so six of Ferro’s men stayed behind, all of them deploying repulser barriers and smoke bombs to guard the way.

  It seemed like all of Ferro’s men had repulser barriers, and that was the strategy to protect us; block the enemy from chasing after us while obscuring their view with the smoke. It seemed like a simple idea but was wildly effective.

  We left the residential area and moved onto a small downtown area, looking like a quaint village that had been ravaged by a severe firestorm. Ferro directed us through some alleyway, forcing us over some downed, warped fence.

  As we all climbed over in turn, a laser blast rang out that narrowly missed one of our power armor soldiers, but before they could even engage, two more of Ferro’s soldiers stepped up and deployed their barriers and smoke.

  “Go!” The soldier shouted, then focused all their attention on the enemy.

  Our line hurried over the fence, and when it came to our group, Kianna could barely make it over.

  “I swear, I’m never going to make it!” She wailed, completely out of breath, just barely catching herself from falling on the ground.

  Before she could right herself, I lifted Kianna onto my shoulder with the classic firefighter’s carry, causing her to let out a little squeak.

  Eve turned to glare at me, obviously upset I was being so familiar with another woman, but after what she did to us last night, I deserved this much; I wasn’t about to let another friend suffer, not when I could do something to help.

  Eve didn’t say anything, but I could hear her grumble and growl low in her throat, letting it be known she was clearly unhappy with my actions.

  I would accept her displeasure for now, and I was sure more would be in store once I confronted her over yesterday, but for now, I needed to focus on helping Kianna and getting us to safety.

  “Adam, thank you, I don’t know—” Kianna started.

  I cut her off with a frustrated sigh, “Just shut up and try not to wiggle around.” I insisted.

  Really, with my enhanced strength, carrying Kianna was nothing—I could’ve easily carried all the researchers if I needed, but the others were doing okay since they had much longer legs than little Kianna.

  We continued through the alley and out of the downtown area, and I could see Ferro was leading us towards some industrial district—or the remains of one. It looked like there was some factory with massive pipes leading into the ground—a water treatment plant I would guess.

  Out in the open there was no place to hide when a large force of assimilated soldiers started rushing for us from a nearby building. To confront them, one of Ferro’s soldiers stepped forward and threw down a repulser barrier and a smoke bomb to cover us from the side, followed by another soldier, then another and another. We continued down the line of ready soldiers until eight of them had deployed their barriers to give us a secure pathway to move through.

  Kianna was facing forward while I carried her on my shoulder, bracing herself on my neck and arm, holding on for dear life while we ran through the city, stifling her shouts every time something scared her.

  “Do you really think we’re going to make it Adam?” Kianna asked desperately.

  “A lot of sacrifices for nothing if we don’t.” I said grimly, picking up speed to stay close with the line.

  We safely made it into the industrial district and headed right for the water treatment plant that was surprisingly intact compared to the buildings around us. We rushed through the parking lot, weaving around the vehicles left behind, and when we made it to the main building, two of Ferro’s soldiers opened the double doors for us and waited for everyone to get through before locking the doors behind us and planting explosives in the hallway.

  It seemed like this was clearly going to be a one-way trip, destroying the way forward so the assimilated soldiers wouldn’t be able to follow us.

  Despite the fact we were inside, Ferro didn’t slow his pace at all, and we continued with our running march through the building. The front area was all just office space, hastily abandoned without much damage I could see. As we moved through the office, more of Ferro’s men put down explosives, framing every doorway even if it wasn’t part of the path we were taking.

  It made me wonder if this really was the last-ditch effort, if they were abandoning this way into the capital with the idea we were their only chance in ending this conflict. I wondered then if it was hope or desperation that put this plan into action.

  Probably both.

  We moved past the office areas and went through some large metal doors into the treatment plant part of the complex; all massive pumps, pipes, tanks and tubes, it was all much more sophisticated and futuristic compared to what would be on Earth—not like I had any idea how a water treatment plant worked on Earth though.

  I thought we were all free and clear when a massive explosion destroyed a huge tank in front of us, unleashing hundreds or thousands of gallons of water onto the floor. I looked up to see a dozen assimilated soldiers on some catwalk a hundred feet in the air, with laser rifles and plasma cannons all aimed at us.

  “Everyone keep going, we’re almost there!” Ferro announced, pushing our line forward while his men fell back to protect us.

  A dozen of Ferro’s men held the line and deployed their defensive measures to help us escape while everyone left rushed forward with all their might. A couple more tanks exploded around us, sending a few people flying and washing away a few more in a huge torrent of unleashed water. The remainder of our line kept pressing forward, refusing to look back, refusing to back down.

  Ferro led us towards some stairway down into a subbasement, and once we were clear of that another soldier stayed behind laying down a repulser barrier while rigging up explosives all over the doorway.

  We made it to the bottom of the stairs and continued down the empty steel hallway until we got to some huge metal gateway that said it was the maintenance tunnel.

  “Oh fuck, not another tunnel.” Kianna groaned on my shoulder.

  I ignored her complaints and looked back to see the rest of Ferro’s men were rigging up the entire hallway with explosives, ready to totally cave it all in so there would be no chance we could be followed.

  Ferro and one of his soldiers pried open the huge gateway, revealing a dank, dark sewer tunnel before us. Cold, stale air swept past us, and once the doorway was open, Ferro continued down into the tunnel without delay.

  The line rushed forward into the dark, activating our armor lights once we were inside, and Ferro’s soldiers closed the gateway quickly, then secured more explosives around it.

  “The entry tunnel goes on for about 200 yards, once we’re clear of that we’ll enter the main filtration station, and then we’ll collapse the tunnel in on itself.” Ferro announced, moving us all forward once more.

  Same as before, Ferro’s men continued putting down their explosives, framing the entire tunnel with them. We marched through the entry tunnel towards a dim light at the other end, and when we finally made it the 200 yards, we found ourselves in a surpassingly open area, with weak blue strips of lighting framing the top of the walls.

  Once everyone was through, the last soldier in the line put some strange metallic box on the wall, and a moment later it generated a repulser barrier that completely covered the tunnel entryway.

  Then, without further delay, a chain of explosions ripped through the tunnel, continuing out and beyond, and I could even hear and feel the shake as the explosions above ground erupted, and I could see the tunnel completely collapse in on itself, while we were totally protected by the repulser barrier.

  Everyone paused for a few moments, finally able to stop, waiting for the rumbling to cease to make sure we were all safe. After a full minute passed, everyone seemed to breathe as one, letting out huge sighs of relief.

  “Alright people, only one way to go from here. Let’s take a quick breather, then head out down the tunnels.” Ferro announced, resting against the metal railing in the center of everything.

  Eve turned to me, narrowing her eyes at me, “You can let Kianna down now.” She said sharply.

  “Oh, uh, yeah, thanks Adam.” Kianna said timidly, blushing as I put her on the ground beside us.

  I ignored Eve’s glare for now, looking at my surroundings, the dank, concrete tunnels that would finally take us to the Vyrane capital.

  Ferro had sacrificed over two dozen of his men, and we even lost a few of our own on the journey, but we were finally here, the home stretch.

  We were completely trapped now, with no means of escape in the event we were ambushed; the only direction we could go would be forward.

  As Ferro said, only one way to go from here.

  An Administrator has fallen. A Chimera has risen. The System has begun its Ultimatum.

  KiAera clawed her way from prey to Sovereign, forging the first monster sanctuary in a brutal monster-ruled world.

  Music, games, food, and comforts? Her monster lords are baffled by human cultures and have never imagined them, yet KiAera wields them to usher a new era for monsterkind.

  But a sanctuary alone will not suffice. The Sovereigns stir, reality-bending Overlords have taken notice, and whispers of a long-dormant System Ultimatum hint that the world itself is counting on her… and judging her choices.

  To protect her people and uncover the truth behind her improbable survival, KiAera must lead and challenge everything even she thought she knew about power.

  Human → Chimera Sovereign MMORPG System World Evolution & Monster Fusion Monster Sovereign Politics Kingdom-Building & Defense Ful-Ruin Network Mystery A Thousand+ Chimera Forms

  ?? Frequent Hand-Drawn Character Artwork

  Illustrations of major characters, Chimera evolutions, Sovereigns, and Sanctum leaders released alongside major arcs.

  ? READER SIGNAL ARCHIVE ?

  @CrystalOverlord: This escalated from neat monster LitRPG to sovereign-tier epic absurdly fast.

  @SanctumStrategist: Monster lords as subordinates? Side characters that actually matter? I inhaled 40k words in one sitting.

  @UltimatumWitness: This feels like someone smuggled a published series onto Royal Road.

  ? 100,000+ Words in Draft ? Guaranteed Updates