Julius smiled upon seeing Talia and myself and took us to where our merchandise were stored. According to him;
"Sir, I immediately had them placed in the most secure spot in this entire auction house after you bid for them"
It's fine though, as expected everything was going accordingly. I ended up spending a bit more than the estimated amount, but it was inconsequential anyway. After all, what I was gaining would be worth far much more.
Julius opened the door to a luxurious looking vault. Not only did it look truly exquisite, it also looked highly fortified. I sensed divine power from the vault itself so it must have been powered by a relic. How interesting.
I entered the vault and saw the wings on one end, and the shapeshifting slave on the other end, standing and folding his hands. Of course chains were tied to his feet, both hands and his neck. He didn't seem to mind though. The slave looked at me, I stared back. The slave kept looking at me with a glare. How audacious.
Perhaps he needs to be disciplined. Even Talia had enough sense to show fear when she first saw me. Oh yeah, I hadn't shown this foolish slave any of my powers yet. He must take me for a stupid rich person who bought him while being ignorant of his race's notoriety.
"Kneel" I said to the slave.
The slave smiled a mischievous smile which could be somewhat translated to
"Or what?"
"You'd do well to remember your position, filthy mongrel" Julius addressed the slave, upon seeing his reaction to me.
He was frowning.
"You're fortunate that someone bought you at all, considering your race's evil name." Julius added.
The slave shrugged.
"Not like I wanted to be sold in the first place, or even caught for that matter" The slave said nonchalantly.
"What was that? What did you just say?" Julius asked, enraged and unable to understand the shapeshifter's words since he used an ancient tongue.
"That's enough Julius" I raised my hand.
The slave smirked at Julius and gave him a cocky smile, knowing Julius could not do anything against him, sly bastard. I'd have to make him subservient, so that he would know his place.
"Looks like I was right. I'd like to have a word or two, privately, with my slave."
Julius gritted his teeth in annoyance as he left the room, leaving Talia and I.
"First things first. Root, obtain the Fairy Wings in this vault." I said.
Root responded and glowed, shining and sucking the wings within itself. It was more convenient this way, I looked at the slave shape-shifter and he looked really fascinated with my ring root. If I was right, I assumed that he wanted to steal it. How utterly distasteful.
"Looks like I'll have to give you a short education" I said, turning towards him and eventually reaching him since the vault wasn't so big.
He glared at me and gritted his teeth. He continued to glare at me in a way that I found repulsive.
"Your eyes. I don't like them" I said, snapping my finger.
Immediately, his two eyes exploded. His eyeballs popped out of their sockets and blood gushed all over the floor of the vault. The eye jelly, mixed with blood made a very disgusting and noticeable puddle on the clean ground.
"ARGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!" He screamed.
He desperately tried using his chained hands to hold his face and wail even more.
"My eyes! My eyes!!!!" He cried in agony.
Just as fairies needed their wings for their special abilities and a fairy without one was useless, so also shapeshifters required their eyes to change to their targets, which was their specialty.
"Still feeling peachy?" I asked him.
"S-S-Screw you!" He grunted.
He still needed more. His mouth, they said some things I didn't appreciate. I assembled matter using Hex and created a thin sword, immediately lunging at to the slave's mouth and slicing his tongue.
"Gwoughhhhthuhhhh" He groaned. He fell on his knees now. His body was already trembling, that was a good sign.
Now, just one more push should do it.
"Next is. Let's see." I smiled, observing the fool.
He cried out, and from what he was trying to say I could surmise that he was pretty spent.
"Gahhhhmnoughhh" He let out in pain.
How sad it was to see one of the shifting creatures so miserable. Perhaps it was a waste buying him. I expected more.
"Let's see, I should just end this now, you've been a waste of time." I told him, readying to snap my fingers.
"W-Wait!" He said, rushing his words while groaning due to the pain in his eye sockets and mouth.
How clever, he transformed an uninjured part of his body to his mouth. Let's hear what he had to say.
"Y-You can't just do this to me," he complained.
"Why not? You're a slave, or rather, you're now my slave. As your master, I have full control and domination over you. It's that simple." I said to him.
I have to say, this was a pathetic one. I was so sure he would be useful. Was I wrong?"
I raised my hand to snap the little fool into his death.
"I never asked for this. I never asked to be captured and sold. It's all the fault of you humans!" He yelled.
I snapped my fingers, his right hand burst into chunks of flesh and scattered all over the room.
"GAHHHHRGHHHHH" He screamed.
"How utterly pathetic. You have committed three sins today, slave" I told him.
He groaned and grunted while holding his right hand which had gotten destroyed.
"Firstly, you are disobedient. Secondly, you give too many excuses and cast blames. If you're unhappy about something, change it. If you can't, look for someone who can, instead of whining . Finally, you insulted me. How dare you compare me to humans?" I said to him in irritation.
He was now muttering unintelligible words, the pain was getting to him too much, and naturally he would have passed out at this point, but all this was as a result of my influence. He'd feel every single pain without relief, until he properly learned his lesson.
Slowly and suddenly he looked to Talia's direction. She was merely in one corner of the room, observing what was going on in silence.
"H-How can you serve this kind of master? How can you.?" He winced and groaned again.
She remained silent. She could not answer, this entire ordeal probably reminded her of how I rescued her from the soldiers. The blood and all that. It could be trauma or it could be that she feared that if she spoke, she could be next.
Well, she was not wrong! One of the reasons I let her stay to watch this was to show her the reality of things. Yes I went out of my way for her, like buying her wings for a ridiculously high amount of money, but that was merely because she would be more useful to me with it. Same with the other things I've given her. Her clothes, accessories, etc. In the end she was merely a pawn in my game.
And the one thing I liked about Talia was that she was aware of that fact, unlike this bratty shifter.
However, seeing as I'm no waster of resources, I wouldn't just throw this one away. Since I bought him, I might as well just refine and transform him into the image I wanted him to be. However, that didn't excuse his stupidity. He needed to at least die for that.
I summoned a sword by using the surrounding matter and pierced the slave from his face. The sword passed through his skull, past his temple and finally exited it, appearing on the other side.
"Gurghkh" He coughed out blood and fell to the ground as he slowly died.
He groaned and moved around a bit before dying due to loss of too much blood and the extreme pain appearing all at once. He finally breathed his last after some grunting, leaving his dead and lifeless body.
"There's no way you could have survived that," I said to him, though he was already dead.
However.
"HEX #39," I said, "Causality Reversal."
Immediately, the slave began to rise from where he fell to. The blood he lost started reentering his body and within a few seconds, he was fully healed and standing as I met him when I first entered the room.
"Y-You. I, but I died just now. What is happening?" He asked in utter confusion.
"Let's try this again, one more time." I said, ignoring his questions.
He looked at me, but immediately looked away. Good, but that was not all.
"Kneel!" I commanded him.
With his legs shaking, and his pride alongside his ego broken, he knelt before me. Tears rolled down his eyes and his lips trembled. See? It wasn't so hard.
His entire wounds and pain had been reversed by my Hex, but not his mind. He still remembered every pain he had felt, every drop of blood he had lost. And seeing as I was able to return him to his original state, it was always an option to restart the process again from scratch.
At least he had enough sense to do the needful and bow down before his new master.
"Now that's more like it" I smiled wickedly.