Chapter 256 – Slaves in the basement

As Noah went deeper into the dark shed he saw the stairs leading to the basement. He stared at them with a raised eyebrow for a moment and then walked forward, going down to the secret basement that Ugy built behind his back.

Stairs led him into the spacious stone hall lit by several candles on the walls that barely lifted the darkness. At the end of that hall, however, there was a space a lot brighter. In that bright spot, Noah saw someone’s figure.

Noah squinted his eyes struggling to see the figure, wary of approaching it carelessly, but a few seconds later his eyes went wide as he realized what he saw. It was Cassandra, or more precisely, her statue.

He approached the lifeless grey figure now seeing it in its entire perverted shape from close up. The statue represented Cassandra in that Gorian submissive posture that she showed to Noah before. Her naked body was chained to the floor with binding her at the hands, ankles and neck. The rest of her body was tightly strangled by the knotted rope in a bdsm pattern that Noah saw in several six digit code stories given out in the comment section. Topping it all, was a soft looking material that covered her eyes, robbing her of her sight. Her face on the statue was frozen with an expression of someone contorting in both agony and extreme pleasure at the same time.

“What the hell were you doing here making such statues, Ugy.” Said Noah aloud.

At his voice the statue trembled and a soft moan left its opened mouth.

Naoh stepped back in surprise, gazing at it in shock. But a few seconds passed and the statue did not move.

However Noah blinked a few times, rubbed his eyes with a strange expression. He could swear that the posture of the statue changed. The angle of her head as if she tried to figure where the sound came from. The angle of her spread legs, the angle of her back. Even her expression. He did not see the statue move but he was sure that it was changing with time, yet he could not catch how it happened.

He took a step closer to the statue and lifted his hand gently placing it on her head and information streamed into his mind. Information about his “DOMINATING” skill. Information he was never aware of before. Or more like he was never told about.

“This fucking bastard.” Muttered Noah and the statue shook as if reacting to his voice and his anger. But it now had an expression of a person expecting something, painted with both fear and desire.

What Noah now realized from this information was that every time he used the skill, it connected to his slave list. Everyone who was added to it, felt his dominating aura. Felt the dominance of their master. Felt connected to him.

Through this connection he could do things to them, give orders, force his will upon them. And that’s the secret that Ugy held hidden.

At first Noah felt that this connection was very similar to the true mate connection made through the bites that Theressa, Priscilla and Brianna left on him. But sensing it further he realized the truth. Not similar, it was a part of that very connection. It’s other side.

Noah did find it strange that everyone around him seemed to be overly worried about the connection Theressa formed with him, yet besides a strange ability to hear spiders talking, his telepathic connection to the girls and overall closeness to them, there was no other ability to it.

Tessa did explain how a true mate bite really worked and why his connection with her posed danger.

In the ritual monsters should have exchanged an equal part of spirit between themselves, making a balanced connection. But with Noah being human it becomes unbalanced, where he receives but does not give. It allows him to wield great power over his mates. It was akin to the Tamers monster enslaving technique. But as Noah never intended to use this power over his mates he never dwelled deep into the reason why he never gained a skill or ability capable of controlling his mates.

But now he knew the reason why his system never gave him that ability.

Ugy once again showed off his never before known to the world ability to recycle skills and overwrite the codes in them. His system took that ability to control the girls through this unbalanced connection and used the code for something else. Something that could potentially gain a lot more than what the Threadweaver family could give.

From the very start Theressa and the girls were not the ones Ugy aimed at. They were strong monsters and the Threadweaver family had the highest noble status, but at that moment they were at their lowest. Almost on the brink of fall. Besides, to grow their family they had to produce monsters, which was very strictly regulated and auditioned by the observers. Ugy deemed that Threadweavers were unsuitable backers to him. He needed someone else, a more capable backer, and Tessa and Cill were just tools to get to that backer. They were the point of approach and a method.

Cassandra. That’s who he aimed at from the beginning.

A duchess just like Theressa, a Guardian, a Nosferatu monster, elite among the undead type of monsters. She was no weaker than Archna Queen like Tessa. At the moment her family and political powers was not only at its prime but even kept growing by the day.

As long as there were people desperate to have power but born with crappy systems or people simply desiring the immortality of the vampires, there would always be followers who would do everything for a chance to join her family. Not only among commoners but among highest Nobles.

Yes, there were some rules placed on her that bound her from growing her vampire army, but just giving hope to one day join the family was enough to make people stand in line asking to be of service to her. Even if she did not give them any promise, many mortals would still try to get on her good side, simply hoping she would one day see them in good light and bestow the gift of immortality to them.

Besides Ugy was good at bending rules, he was sure he could bend a few to make her family even more formidable. She was the tool that Ugy wanted the most. Through her he could grow an unseen, secret army of followers, integrating himself into the society of this country and ensuring his safety. Maybe even becoming its ruler one day. The only problem was Noah, who was uncompliant.

The methods Ugy needed for his plan would seem too immoral for such a goody-pants like Noah.

So this has had to be held a secret from him. Had to be done behind his back.

And so Ugy fed Noah bits and pieces to make Noah think that he realized his true plan, leading him by the nose the entire time. Noah shuddered from realizing how far ahead this system of his could scheme.

In his first days of awakening, Ugy, as Noah’s system, gained access to all of Noah's memories dating from the very first day he was born into this world.

From the memory of Noah’s childhood, Ugy saw a memory where his dad secretly explained the world order to Noah’s mother who was not a High-noble woman and did not know humanities top secrets. In the years that they were lovers, while Noah was still small to understand any of it, every evening his father explained almost everything he knew about the monsters, while Noah listened.

He spoke of the system with monsters serving as Guardians and Keepers within the Kingdom. The truth of Labyriths and pseudo cores. He told her everything he knew. Ugy did not share this information with Noah. He tucked it away and formed a plan.

From Noah’s father, he found out that there were two monster families far in the north that shared the same territory, one of which was Nosferatu, the other one was the Arachna family that was declining. This territory was of great concern to the northern Lord and ruler, the Archduke, as the declining family seemed to be a danger, yet the second family firmly protected it.

Noah’s family lived far away so his father did not know much else, but he knew there were two offspring of that Arachna, and that there were several secret inquiries about finding suitable spider monsters in the dungeons of frontier. As one of the frontier Nobles, he inevitably learned of this too and mentioned this to his lover in some conversation.

Later Ugy analyzed all the information he knew of Arachnas and Nosferatus, going so far as even searching the God library, The Record.

That's how he found a method of injecting himself into these two monster families. Use the weakness of one family to get to the other through their tight relationship.

For his next step, Ugy made a deal with one of the nightmares that had a trace of arachna in it, and made it open a connection with its kin far in the north, through which he found its way into their territory.

Through tricks and schemes he forced Tessa to form a true mate bite with Noah.

Then he took that new gained ability and modified it to serve his needs, turning it into mindbreaking and enslaving ability, that he then forced Noah to use on Cassandra.

When Noah and Cassandra had that showdown full of pain in her mansion's toilet, Ugy found a way into the very spirit of Cassandra and bound her to Noah, similar to how true bite marks worked, only this time making full use of the other side of this ability and turning her into a slave. Of course he could not do it without both her and Noah's concession, and he did gain it from both of them back then. In fact, Ugy needed that fight with Cassandra to occur, he needed an excuse for Noah to agree.

The Archduke's and Royal Investigators involvement may have been a risky miscalculation back then, but a fall out with Cassandra was well within Ugy’s plan.

But there was one missing part that Noah did not know up til now.

The way the true mate bite worked. It needed Noah to have a similar “feeling” to the monsters he formed a connection with for it to work. Using Yuko was enough to get this “feeling” as she was Arcachna nightmare. But for Cassandra he needed something of her kin.

A vampire… No. A Nosferatu of equal or even greater status than Cassandra.

But explaining the reason why he needed to release such nightmare would have been a pain in the ass. There was no way, that Noah would not find it strange.

So Ugy made another type of deal with the suitable nightmare. Freedom for a part of its power.

Later, when Noah was attacked by the shadows of the church, Ugy began his plan. In fact with Ugy’s calculativeness he wouldn’t miss the possibility that Saintess would send someone after them. And had he wanted to he would point it out to Noah, making them leave as soon as possible and change identity. Instead he simply waited for it to happen.

Later when Noah found out about Yuko, he forbade Ugy from releasing any more nightmares. But by then, Ugy did not need to. He already gained everything he needed in advance. Everything played out just the way he wanted the same moment when Yuko took possession of Noah, and two other nightmares took possession of those shadow women who attacked him.

Yes, Noah released those nightmares by his stupidity, but it was Ugy who had planned it to happen.

“Now if the dog at the door of this basement is the part of Nosferatu nightmare that Ugy made a deal with for this plan, what deal he made with the second nightmare and for what?” Muttered Noah. There was still a scheme he did not know about, that could fire out unexpectedly at him.

Well, it was clear now why Yuko was so pissed. The spidergirl from the story where Yuko came from had a yandere side to her and her nightmare in Noah’s mind clearly inherited the trait. She was possessive and had feelings for Ugy, as he was in a sense the one who brought her into this world.

She thought she played a big role in his plan when of all the nightmares he came to make a deal with her. But turns out she was just a tool. He had some other woman in mind the entire time. Not only that, but he seems to have come here to do things to that woman regularly behind everyone's back.

Speaking of which. What exactly was he doing here with this slave connection to Cassandra?

Noah doubted he would get any info from Ugy. Bastard would find a way to avoid giving up the most crucial information.

Noah felt that he needed to consult with someone smarter than him and capable of seeing through Ugy’s scheme.

“Bet she would not be pleased with it.” Said Noah with a sigh.

No wonder everyone thought Noah was making slaves out of the Threadweaver family, they really were supposed to be with this unbalanced true mate connection.

“The girls, back then, must have thought they would become my possessions.” Thought Noah.

“This was the resolve with which girls made this connection with me. That’s why Tessa struggled inside so much back then, even thinking of killing both me and herself after it was done, to release her daughters from it. Luckily she did not resolve herself to it and decided to trust me. Yet I feel like I failed her trust by allowing Ugy to get his hands on her best friend instead of her daughters and her.”  Noah muttered.

The statue in front of him shivered once again as if reacting to his voice producing another lewd noise.

Noah sighed and put his hand on the statue once again. He closed his eyes and willed the “Dominating” skill to turn off. With this the connection to his slave was lost and the statue stopped vibrating and making noises, becoming completely still and lifeless.

This was the control spot of “Dominating” skill. Uptil now, Noah only had a partial control of it, that’s why information about it was so sparse. Ugy hid the most crucial thing here. Now that he was here he could turn it off easily and the skill complied without trouble.

Noah turned away to walk back but stopped as he saw a small butterfly fly through the dim room before it landed on the floor near the statue. Just as Yuko said there were no living beings here other than those who Noah let in. Everything else was most likely a nightmare.

He looked at the spot where the butterfly landed and took a step back from it.

“Who are you?” Noah asked.

The butterfly did not answer, it took off from the floor once again but instead of flying away it circled in the spot as if attracting his attention to something.

Noah looked at this scene thoughtfully for a few seconds before an idea came to him.

The place where the statue stood seemed to be somehow asymmetric as if it wasn’t on its spot. He looked at the spot under the butterfly and noticed that there was a chain connection spot on the floor just like for Cassandra's statue as if the place was being prepared for a second statue.

As if the butterfly felt that Noah realized what it tried to show, it flew up and disappeared in the darkness.

Creasing his eyebrows Noah bent on his knee and touched the chain link on the floor in the empty space.

Another set of information filled him and he looked at it confused.

“Huh? Why her?” Muttered Noah. “I don’t even know her.” He was right, this was indeed a place prepared for a new slave.