As me and Cret were walking back to my master's cave, I had to think about something. Like, why was there a human in these lands? I have lived here for so long, yet in all my years, I have never seen any signs of humanity. Especially one belonging to a supposed empire. So where did they come from?
Also, why were there Shapers acting like bodyguards to her and why did Cret actually betray her? After all, Shapers are very loyal to their masters, be they masters who kill their own people or masters that reward their followers. It is something ingrained into our existence. So why was Cret so willing to betray that human and the Vermillion Empire?
It's best if I just leave these thoughts for when I make it back to the cave.
As we both continued our long walk, I noticed Cret was looking around us. As if he was wary of something?
"Ah, are you perhaps feeling uncomfortable?" I asked him. Cret looked at me for a bit before nodding his head, "ever since we reached this far, my body has been warning me about something. Telling me to run away from here."
I looked at him for a bit before laughing.
"What's so funny?" he said, a bit angered. I guess that is reasonable since I laughed out of nowhere when he said his "instinct" was warning him could be seen as making fun of him. But in truth I'm not making fun of him and instead feel proud of him.
"Oh, don't be mistaken. I'm not laughing because I want to make fun of you, instead I'm glad that your instinct is that strong" I said as I stopped walking. Cret stopped next to me and looked at me. I raised my right hand up and pointed at a cave entrance, hidden by sand, not that far from us. I looked at him before saying, "after all, what you are sensing is my master watching the both of us."
Suddenly a red bolt of lighting shot out of the cave and landed in front of us both. Cret was flung away and I was pushed back, the smoke blocking our view. When the smoke cleared we both could see the appearance of a figure. We saw a humanoid Shaper that stood way taller than both of us combined. It was, without a doubt, double the size of your average Shaper. It had purple skin and had a white colored carapace covering all of its joints and could be seen to spread around its body, making it look like a warrior donning white armor. Its face was that of a human and was that of a females, her hair only supported this as it was white, long, smooth, and reached all the way to her waist. But it was wrapped by some carapace to make it sort of like a topknot hairstyle, making the image of a warrior grow stronger. At her chest was a hollow hole that was filled with a giant ball that seemed to be slowly rotating inside of this hole, each moment it moved small red sparks would come out. Her four yellow eyes, two where her cheek bones are at, looked down at us both.
This powerful warrior stood before the both of us and looked down at us creating a very suffocating aura around us. It was so suffocating that Cret, once he got up and saw her, immediately knelt down. I also knelt down, but not out of fear like him, but out of respect.
"My master," I said, my head looking at the floor. Yes, that giant figure that stood before us and looked at us like we were just toys was my master. The same master that killed my attackers, ripped off my arm, took me in as a subordinate, and brought me to her cave. The very same one that I have been severing so loyalty to for the past years. It's because of my loyalty, that I immediately knew from the fact that my master left her cave to meet us.
That she was very pissed.
I was kicked by her and my connection to my clone was immediately severed. Though it was a clone and I knew I didn't actually die, just the fact that had occurred in a matter of seconds still shook me to my core.
"Abberant, get out here" my master shouted, her voice bouncing off my body. I am so fucked.
I quickly left the cave and rushed to my master outside. Once I saw where she was, I immediately got in front of her and knelt down. On my way there I could see bits of the clone littering the lands. I could also see Cret shivering and his orange figure turning white.
"..."
The both of us knelt there for what felt like hours. Neither of us are saying anything or even trying to make any form of movement.
"Abberant" my master finally said as I felt her heavy gaze land on me. I remember a saying in my human life, if looks could kill then I would be killed a hundred times. Well, if looks could kill, my body would have been torn apart and rebuilt and torn apart once again a thousand times!
"Y-yes, master" I said, trying to sound as polite as possible, fearing a single mistake would lead to my death.
"Who is this right next to you?" she said, her voice holding traces of anger.
"He is Cret, my master, a new subordinate who has sworn loyalty to you and you alone" I said quickly.
"Yes, I heard about the deal YOU made with him" she said, emphasizing on the YOU part. Ah, shit.
"Yet, I did not give my input on him ever becoming my subordinate" she said, walking closer to me, "so tell me, do you believe that you have the same authority that I do."
"N-no, my master, I only believed that his ability and strength would be useful to you" I said, my body shivering as the dreadful feeling coming from her was squishing my body.
"Yes I heard of his 50/50 ability. Yet I don't see any good use for it, at most he could survive a single attack from a territory Lord, IF, he was lucky enough" she picked me up by my head and made me look at her, eye to eye. Her four eyes looking at my two eyes was so uncomfortable that I wished I could die, "but I don't need luck, what I need is certainty."
She then tossed me aside and looked at Cret. His body turned fully white once he felt my master's gaze. She picked him up by his head as well and looked at his eyes, "tell me one good reason why I should allow you to be my subordinate and why I shouldn't crush your head right here and now."
Cret's eyes widened and I could physically see him using every ounce of his brain to come with reason, "I have information about the Vermillion Empire!"
"Ah, yes, the Vermillion Empire. I heard about them from your little scrimmage against Abberant, but if I'm to be honest" her grip tightened more, "I don't really care about them, so try again."
Cret almost made his hands wrap around my master's arm, but stopped when he noticed me shaking my head, telling him not to. If there was one thing my master hated, it was people she didn't know attempting to touch her. Especially enemies.
"I can work as a sparring partner!"
"I already have Abberant's clones, so I don't need a walking corpse to train with me, last chance" she tightened her grip once more. I could see blood slowly drip from Cret's skull and bits of skull coming out.
"I-I-I" Cret tried to say something, but seemed to not be able to.
"If you have nothing to say, then those will be your final words" my master said before she was about to crush his skull.
"I AM A HALF BREED" Cret shouted.
Silence filled the air and nothing moved for several seconds.
"Gah" suddenly my master dropped, causing him to groan out in pain and grab onto his head. She looked down at him, her eyes no longer holding the gaze of a hunter, but now of a curious animal.
"Explain," she said.
"Y-yes!" Cret quickly said, "As you might have heard, I come from the Vermillion Kingdom, but what you might not know is that the Vermillion Kingdom is not a part of this world and instead originates from another world."
... HUH??!! Another world! Was that true! I mean, sure my past life was of another world, but I don't remember much of it. So its still shocking to hear this!
"Ah, so you mean that this so-called Vermillion Kingdom used the pillars to come to this world" my master said. Pillars? Come to our world? This is the first time I'm hearing of this! Wait, how long did master know about this?!
"Yes! In the Vermillion Kingdom's world, creatures known as Humans are the dominant species and there have originally been no traces of Shapers to have ever existed in that world, that was until recently" Cret said.
"What do you mean by recently" my master said, her eyes squinting.
"I don't know the exact date, but supposedly the Vermillion Kingdom discovered a band of small islands on their west coast and began to explore it. During their exploration they discovered on the very last island a strange Pillar, supposedly they experimented with it and discovered that it would allow them to come to this world. And so-"
"I don't need a history lesson, so tell me the short version" my master quickly said, her eyes looking a bit confused and lost. That is my master, strong and murderous, but in the end a stone head.
"I was made not the same way as Shapers are naturally made. For the creation of me and my brethren they use either bodies of dead or alive Shapers and insert their pieces into pods that are filled with various kinds of liquids. Due to this process, we Half Breeds can only hold half the original strength of a true Shaper" Cret said as he looked down at the sandy floor.
"... Abberant" my master called out to me, causing me to get up and straighten myself, "how much of your original strength does your clone have?"
"Each clone holds up to 75% of my original strength my master" I quickly said as I looked at her gaze. Her gaze seemed to be questioning something.
!!!
My eyes widened as I quickly realized why she had asked that.
"It seems you also realized it as well," my master said as she looked at Crest, "you only had half the strength of a true Shaper, yet were able to put up a good fight against Abberant who was using 75% of his original strength."
Cret quickly looked at me with a face of shock. He probably realized that in our little bloody fight, that I was never using my true strength. So it's a fair reaction.
"Abbernat, I'm giving you a mission" my master said, my body got serious and my gaze hardened. My master never gives missions unless it was either something serious or crucial. And seeing the context of Cret, it one hundred percent involves him.
"I'm tasking you with the mission of taking Cret to the Birthing and using your ability to aid him in becoming a true Shaper, can you do that" my master said as she looked at me.
"Yes my master!" I said with utmost spirit and loyalty.
"Good, then you are to leave immediately, travel using your main body to ensure this mission's success is guaranteed" she said before she turned into red lighting and returned back to the cave. The suffocating aura leaving with her.
Cret slowly got up and I relaxed. I looked at Cret and Cret looked at me.
We both realized that we both fucked ourselves and each other.