The villain's way to tame the protagonist

The sharp bird claws directly grabbed No. 9's right wrist.

"Snapped"

Anser pinched Fafner's claws with a blank expression: "After not seeing you for a while, you have become even more rude, Fafner."

"let go."

Fafner's deep and hoarse voice came from under the mask. The voice seemed to be twisted and torn apart, and it was surprisingly similar to Number Nine's.

Ansher did not give in at all. The aura of the abyss emanating from him completely overwhelmed the shadow that had been revived like a living thing due to Fafnir's uncontrollable emotions.

The atmosphere of the two fifth-level extraordinary beings wrestling with each other filled the tavern. The faces of most of the adventurers were extremely pale, and the bartender who had a great psychological trauma towards Faust hid under the bar with his head in his hands, trembling.

After a few seconds of stalemate, Fafner finally gave in:

"This is not the place to talk."

It whispered, and after Anser let go of his hand, it turned and walked towards the second floor of the tavern.

Ansher glanced at Marina who was standing behind him, nodded slightly to her, then walked through the silent tavern and went up to the second floor.

When Number Nine reached the second floor, a large shadow passed under her feet, instantly blocking the door, and continued to spread until the entire room was enclosed in pitch-black shadow.

"...Say it."

Fafna lit the candle. Although she was talking to Anser, she was still staring at No. 9: "What's going on?"

"As you can see." Anser found a chair and sat down, looking at No. 9, "I brought someone to see you."

"I asked you what's going on!"

Fafner suddenly roared, the hoarse and distorted roar was very terrifying, and the shadow covering the house kept wriggling and twisting, as if emitting the anger of its owner.

"Miss...Favrna!"

Seeing Ansher being yelled at, No. 9 subconsciously raised his voice and called Fafner. When the latter turned her gaze back to him, he added the word "Miss" softly.

"Mr. Faust... is my benefactor. Please don't be so rude to him."

"you……"

Fafner uttered only this one word stiffly, and then her breath visibly calmed down. She looked at Number Nine, her lips trembling under the mask, and finally she tried her best to soften her tone, trying to reply with a gentle tone that she understood as "OK".

With Anser's advance notice, No. 9 knew why Fafnir was so kind to her.

And this involves the Grand Duke Blood Dust, who intends to turn nine million lives into firewood and has extraordinary attainments in the evil field of biological alchemy, and... the Grand Duke Dragon Language.

The half-dragons in the territory of the Grand Duke of Dragon Language are not the product of the hybridization of dragons and humans. They only appeared after the current Grand Duke of Dragon Language, Olementin, came to power. They have better intelligence and empathy than dragons, and have extraordinary talents that are several times better than normal extraordinary people. They are the most reliable force under Olementin besides dragons.

Their appearance is inseparable from the crazy Grand Duke, Bracher Blooddust, who is obsessed with biological alchemy and regards all his subjects as materials. He even sets up blood banks, bone banks, and organ banks for the materials, making many distinctions.

It was Odumbra's sneak attack on one of the largest blood banks of the Duke of Blooddust that made Bracher extremely furious, forcing her men to take risks and use a suicidal method to attract attention in Strife Castle.

The existence of half-dragons is the masterpiece of Duke Blooddust, but the birth of a masterpiece often means countless wastes.

The last transformation before the birth of the half-dragon was the [Life Tampering Ritual], which was equivalent to success and no longer a waste. It was the fusion of an extremely rare monster called Shadow Crow with humans.

The only successful case is the current Lord of the Crow's Nest, the Silent Reflection, Fafner.

Now, there is another one in front of it.

That’s right, the power that Number Nine obtained came from that cruel and terrifying...crazy ritual that merged humans and monsters into one.

As long as there are precious enough materials, even ordinary people without any extraordinary qualifications can be promoted to extraordinary beings.

The reason why Fafner showed such strong kindness to No. 9 was not because she found a "victim" like herself, but because the dominant consciousness of this body that was neither human nor animal was not human.

Instead, it is a poor Shadow Crow with a strong sense of its own species, and it regards itself as the last Shadow Crow in the world.

It regards Number Nine... as the only one of its kind left in this world.

Number Nine glanced at Anser quietly, and seeing that he didn't say anything, he knew what he should do next.

Faust's words are far less convincing than those of her "fellow tribesman".

"I... I was rescued by Mr. Faust. Before I met him, I was being guarded by Lord Blood Dust."

The girl's hoarse voice was filled with natural confusion: "Earlier... I was captured by Duke Blood Dust, and he... He put me in a container."

[Are you ready? This is not just a simple reshaping of flesh and blood. Your consciousness will be forced to stay awake until the ceremony is over.]

[Yes, Lord Raven]

"I felt... my body was crushed."

Skin, bones, muscles, meridians... bit by bit, were squeezed, crushed, and forcibly kneaded into a ball by the terrifying force from all directions.

Even though my entire brain had been crushed, even though it could no longer be considered a living thing and was just a mass of wriggling rotten meat, my consciousness was still clear. The pain that could not be described as "pain" had turned into a feeling of despair engraved in my soul, washing over me every moment... every moment.

“Then…” Number Nine’s voice gradually began to tremble, “Then, something was stuffed in. It was eating me. It was…becoming me.”

I could feel a mass of substance that could not be described in words, violently tearing apart my body which had been shredded into a mass of rotten flesh. It was as if thousands of steel needles were piercing my body from every corner. After the needles pierced my flesh and blood, hundreds of spikes instantly exploded, spreading in my flesh and blood, and taking root in my soul.

thump—

No. 9, who was no longer able to stand, fell to her knees. Fafner, unable to bear watching any longer, stretched out her hand to No. 9, trying to catch her:

"Stop talking about that, kid. That's enough. Stop..."

But Nine gently slapped its hand away.

"Please let me... continue."

"I have to remember why I am alive..."

Under the mask, Number Nine forced a difficult smile, as if he was talking to Fafner, but also as if he was talking to... himself.

"It's eating me, and I'm eating it..."

It replaced certain parts of my soul, replaced certain parts of me that had been crushed into rotten meat. My flesh and blood, everything about me was reshaped more cruelly. This kind of reshaping was more despairing than being crushed into rotten meat, because I could feel the foreign substance growing in my soul and body, and it was occupying more and more space. Did I become it, or... or did it become me?

No...it became me!

It is me, and only me, the one who can have no ulterior motives, who can abandon all unnecessary things, who can give up everything and dedicate everything, cannot be anyone else but me!

It was Marina Lancemalos, it was me, a mediocre and incompetent person, who did my best for Mr. Anser, only this, only this matter... I must not, will never be replaced by any other existence!

I… ate it.

I succeeded.

In the shadowed room, the only sound was Number Nine's muffled breathing.

At this moment, Anser's voice sounded at the right time.

"You know about that meeting not long ago?"

Fafner was still looking at No. 9 with great distress. It seemed that it wanted to go forward to comfort her, but it didn't know how to do it. After about half a minute, waiting for No. 9's condition to gradually improve, it slowly looked at Anser and spoke in a much slower tone:

"A meeting of the bigwigs to solve this disaster? You went?"

"No." Anser held up the side of his face, "I just took this opportunity to rescue her."

Just as Fafnir was about to open her mouth to thank him, the black-haired young man said, "Don't be in a hurry to thank me. Let me make it clear first. I have no interest and no way to protect her."

"…She doesn't need you to protect her. I'll do it."

Anser sneered: "Favna, even I don't have the confidence to protect her, why do you think you can do it?"

Fafna seemed to have sensed something was wrong, and her voice was a little low: "What's going on?"

Mr. Faust briefly informed Fafner of Grand Duke Blood Dust's "Nine Million Plan", and then said calmly: "If this plan succeeds, Grand Duke Blood Dust will be one of the greatest contributors to the killing of Ivora, and his power will definitely be greatly enhanced."

"You can feel it, even though you are still very weak now. She is not a defective product like you. She... is more perfect. Duke Xuechen will not care about her as much as he cares about you."

The materials for the half-dragon's transformation, which reached the pinnacle in the field of biological alchemy, were mostly provided by Grand Duke Dragon Language, while Grand Duke Blood Dust only provided technical support. Later, Grand Duke Dragon Language discovered that the difficulty of this technology was not so high that Grand Duke Blood Dust had to personally handle it, but it was extremely difficult to develop.

And he also realized that Grand Duke Blood Dust had been taking advantage of this opportunity to severely exploit a lot of his resources, so Grand Duke Dragon Language stole the technology and terminated the cooperation.

The two parties who were supposed to form an alliance parted ways unhappily because of this, and because both sides have their own shameful deeds, the current relationship between the two sides is now rather stiff, although not life-and-death.

Because Fafner's transformation was not perfect, Duke Blood Dust did not take it seriously and gave it a chance to escape, but Fafner relied on her own will and ability to climb to the fifth level step by step. After it gained fame and power, Duke Dragon Language semi-protected Fafner in order to disgust Duke Blood Dust, which allowed the Crow's Nest to develop to this day.

Anser's words made Fafnir silent. She could indeed feel that No. 9's condition was more stable than hers. Although she didn't know why Grand Duke Blooddust wanted to restart the fusion transformation of Shadow Crow, but... if it was that madman, he would never let his fellow tribesmen leave like that.

After recovering, Number Nine looked up at Fafner and said in a tired and sad voice:

"I thought I was... the last one."

"They... my friends, one by one, all died."

"?!"

After a moment of stiffness, Fafna immediately appeared in front of No. 9. Its claws grabbed No. 9's shoulders and said anxiously, "Are there any other members of our tribe? Are there any living ones—"

"No more." Anser said indifferently, "I'm sorry, Fafner, Duke Blood Dust has captured some more Shadow Crows from somewhere. Those Shadow Crows are probably... the last Shadow Crows, and they are all dead."

"The one before you is the last of your kind."

——This is of course a lie.

When Anser was fighting the Dragon Speaker Archbus, he also stole the technology that Olementin had stolen from Grand Duke Blooddust, and brought it back to have Flamel improve and upgrade it. It was countless times stronger than the ritual that Grand Duke Blooddust thought was perfect.

It was more stable, more effective, and was not limited to biological transmutation, or the creation of beings that were neither human nor beast, but could even allow monsters to have minds equal to those of humans.

There are indeed shadow crows on the continent, but all of them were captured by Flamel and handed over to Anser, becoming materials in his hands.

And the crow is the highest achievement among them.

——Originally, the dragon was the first choice, but no matter what the dragon clan becomes, as long as there is dragon blood flowing in their bodies, they will obey the Dragon King 100%. Even Hydra cannot distort it. Therefore, when it comes to the alternative of the head of beasts, Anser did not consider the dragon.

He gave the ritual to Shadow Marsh, asking them to use the remaining Shadow Crows to grant some members powerful powers, and Crow chose to use the last Shadow Crow on Number Nine.

So Farna is not actually alone, she has nine other members of her tribe. Ansher had originally planned to recruit and command Farna when the time was right, but unfortunately... now he has to use Farna in another place.

This is the last of your kindred—these words shattered Fafner’s heart.

Its consciousness is not that of a human, but that of a shadow crow. The collective consciousness of beasts is incomprehensible to humans. After being mixed with human sensibility, this consciousness torments Fafner all the time.

Now it is neither a Shadow Crow nor a human. It created the Adventurer's Guild in order to seek a home, and it did find the long-lost peace of mind. But when the only member of its own tribe appeared before it, the loneliness that it had let go of once again swept in like a tide and swallowed it up.

Fortunately... there is still a light.

Even if there is only one, even if there is only one of its kind left, it will be a great comfort to it.

Not only that, the rage in its heart, which was already engraved in its bones, blood, and soul, and its hatred for Duke Blooddust, has reached its limit.

If it hadn't wanted to scare Number Nine, it would have roared hysterically by now.

Fafner suppressed her anger and placed her paw on the top of No. 9's head, stroking it gently. She didn't look at Anser, but her tone was very serious:

"I owe you a favor, Faustus. Just tell me what you want."

"I said before, I can't protect her, and you can't protect her either."

Mr. Faust stood up and walked straight to the door, as if he was planning to leave.

"And it just so happens that I need you to give me something in return that can solve this problem."

"..."

As if she had thought of something, Fafner slowly raised her head, and her dark eyes through the holes in her mask revealed a deep look.

"Odumbra will not stand idly by. She will definitely try to kill Duke Blooddust with the other revolutionary forces. However, the possibility is still very small. But if--"

The black-haired young man standing at the door turned his head and looked at Fafner out of the corner of his eye.

"If you and I were included, even if there was one more Grand Duke at the scene, Bracher Blooddust would definitely die."

Odumbra, the only legion commander in the West, was a one-man army, leading the smallest unit of the revolutionary army. He came and went freely in this chaotic land and experienced countless battles.

Fafna needed the protection of Grand Duke Longyu not because she was no match for Grand Duke Xuechen, but because the Grand Duke's power was not something that an individual could contend with. Her control over the shadow element must be among the top three in the empire, and in terms of assassination, only the masters of the Time Society could rival her.

Plus... the legendary adventurer Faust, who was able to fight the Grand Duke of Dragon Language to a draw three years ago.

Facing such a lineup, Grand Duke Blood Dust was doomed to die. And the most important thing was that no one would doubt Hydra, who had nothing to do with these three people.

"I'll only give you twenty minutes." Anser put his hand on the door handle, and the shadow wrapped around the door automatically retreated. "I won't wait even a second longer."

After saying that, he pushed the door open and left, leaving Fafner and Number Nine alone.

Still stroking Number Nine gently, as if comforting a child, Fafner stared at the closed door with a complicated look in her eyes.

"Kill... that bastard."

"Faust, you really haven't changed at all."

Number Nine's expression slightly changed when she heard this. She looked up at Fafner and spoke in a voice as gentle and harmless as a lamb: