Dreadwolf, Lord of Runes

He turned around to face the female bandits who entered the room with him. "This is the generator room, but according to my technus, this is not where the power came from, correct?"

Aelia was about to step forward and answer him, when Anna rushed ahead instead. The moment Kane mentioned his technus, the hareling shook off any remaining fear, and replaced it with enthusiasm.

"Wait! You mean you're in contact with your technus right now?! How?!" she asked with sparkling eyes full of eager curiosity. She was standing surprisingly close to him now, despite the fear of her own lust. Love for her craft was clearly overriding any other thoughts.

Before Kane could answer, she continued enthusiastically, "Short range communications are supposed to be impossible in an ancient base like this one, because of the walls! But you're not only communicating, they're tracking and guiding you, despite the lack of power! How?!"

Kane pursed his lips with amusement at her enthusiasm, but didn't answer. Instead, he waited a moment in silence, until Anna suddenly seemed to realize something.

She shrunk back a little, and quickly took a step back while poking her fingers together. "U— Uhm… s— sorry," she stammered, aware that he might not appreciate her getting in his face like that.

This caused Kane to chuckle, and extend his hand to caress her head, careful to avoid her ears. "It's alright, Anna," he smiled reassuringly. "I like your enthusiasm."

Feeling his hand on her head caused Anna to stiffen, and her eye to widen. "Wha— what?" she stammered fearfully, because she was sure her lust would break out, and she'd be forced to suppress it again.

But surprisingly, nothing like that happened. Instead, she only felt warm, comforted, and relieved that he wasn't angry at her. Instinctively, she leaned into his hand and moaned softly at his caress. Yet, despite her apparent acceptance, she wasn't any less shocked.

Still poking her fingers together, even while leaning into his touch, she looked up at him with big eyes. "H— How are you doing that?" she muttered softly, referring to the fact his touch wasn't awakening her lust, which it absolutely should have.

A few feet away, the other three bandits were looking at this scene in shock as well. For as long as they'd known Anna, she'd always been deathly afraid to be touched, because she'd always be forced to suppress her lust.

Yet now she clearly wasn't having any issues with it!

Kane smirked slightly as he took back his hand, causing Anna to whine softly. After living a lifetime of never being able to touch someone without having to hold herself back from jumping them, she now instantly wanted more of his stress-free touches.

"We can talk about that later," he told her, while continuing to smirk. "As for your questions regarding my technus, I told you you'd meet her when we turn the power back on. I promise all your questions will be answered then."

He turned back towards the large cylinder and swept his arm across the room, "Which, incidentally, brings me back to my original question. What's up with this room, and why was power for this place being supplied from behind that door over there?"

Anna now looked up at Kane with a hint of worship, quickly earning her the approval of Luna. She appeared lost in thought for a moment, until Kane turned back to her with a questioning gaze.

"U— Uhm…" she stammered shortly, before quickly shaking her head and snapping out of it.

After she did, she smiled a little shyly and explained the problem. "T— That's because behind that door is the emergency power system."

She pointed at the large cylinder and the empty slot underneath it, before continuing, "That thing should be the generator, but it we have no idea how to turn it on, or what is supposed to go into that slot."

That caused Kane to raise a surprised eyebrow, "Surely this isn't the only base of its kind? Do you really know nothing of its design?"

Another voice came from behind him, "There are more of such places, but very few, and all of them have been claimed by the most powerful people or organizations of Primaterra. I'm sure it comes as no surprise that none of us have been inside any of them, and information is sparse."

This time, it was Aelia who spoke up. She walked up to them from behind, while throwing a strange look at a slightly embarrassed Anna.

Kane frowned, "So why the hell do you people still have access to this place?"

Unsurprisingly, Aelia's eyes twitched a little at that harsh but fair assessment. There was no way a group of Core Awakening stage bandits could hold on to something that usually belonged to the Domain Awakening stage.

Still, Aelia quickly let it go, realizing that Kane simply didn't like beating around the bush. So, she sighed and shrugged, "Well… we actually only just found this place." Then, she looked up at him strangely, "Thanks to you, in fact."

Kane raised his eyebrows, "Oh? How do you mean?"

With a wry expression, Aelia explained, "It was the avalanche you were buried under which revealed the entrance. We were originally camped not too far from here, and we came to check out the noise when we discovered this place. It's been about a week since then."

Before she could continue, however, Kane interrupted her with a hint of shock, "Hold on. A week?! We thought we'd been unconscious for a few hours at most!"

Aelia smirked a little, happy to finally get a chance to see her new boss be thrown off balance. "Well, before we found those ancient suppression collars and cages, our main method for keeping the more powerful prisoners under control, was by keeping them sedated with powerful drugs," she explained, gleefully.

Instantly, the corners of Kane's mouth twitched a little. Who knows what would have happened if he hadn't woken up? Although the thing that surprised him most was that it apparently affected Ella as well, something that he quickly asked the elf about.

"I doubt I was affected by the drugs," she answered, sounding sure of herself. "That said, my first moments of waking up in my current state were… disorienting. I guess it's not impossible I actually spend several days to acclimate to my situation, rather than the few hours I thought it was."

Kane had to admit that was probably reasonable. He couldn't imagine what it would be like to be in Ella's situation.

So, he nodded thoughtfully, quickly accepting the new situation, which barely changed anything anyway. But, he did wonder one more thing. "So, does the neuralizer have no capabilities for removing toxins and drugs from my blood?"

Ella coughed a little awkwardly, "Y— Yeah, it does, but you'd need to give me permission to continuously scan your body and treat when necessary."

Kane frowned, "That bond between us is quite restrictive, huh?"

Ella just nodded a little wryly, "At least when it comes to you and your body, yeah."

In response, he sighed and rolled his eyes, "Well, that feels a little redundant. You're already unable to betray, or even disobey, me. So, what's the point? I hereby give you permission to do whatever you like, aside from betraying me, or reading my thoughts. Just help me in whatever way you can, whenever you can."

Ella's metaphorical eyes widened, "W— What?!"