Chapter 17: Len gets a Pet
"Master Zol, as you can see, there are still reasonable customers, willing to pay a fair price." the bald lady provoked the pallean passive-aggressively.
"Stop. I will pay the full price, so hand her over." Master Zol stopped the bald lady before she could do something like sell the girl to someone else.
With a big smile, Tavess turned to Len who was still standing close to the glass box.
"I'm sorry dear customer, but the girl is not for sale anymore. Maybe I can interest you in one of our other exhibits?"
Len looked at them stunned.
"When did I mention buying her?" he mumbled confusedly.
The hands that had not left the polycarbonate surface made a quick movement and the was a short, loud scraping noise. Several pieces of the glass-like box fell to the ground after being easily cut apart by the ghoul's claws.
Zol, Tavess, the guard and the disciples of the Order of Pall looked at the scene dumbfounded. Unlike Len, they knew what material this was. Necrite Crystal Glass was known for its incredible resistance to physical damage and could even reflect blaster fire.
Seeing it cut just like that send the crowd into a short stupor.
"I said, I'm taking her. I didn't ask for your opinion." he corrected their rude misunderstanding.
Pressing herself into the opposite corner of the box, the frightened girl looked at her "savior" with terrified eyes. The next moment, everything was filled with the sound of blaster fire. She twitched every time the ear-piercing blaster sounds rang.
In horror, she watched the figure in front of her get decimated by laser fire. Burning his clothes, scorching his skin, penetrating his body, the picture red shot of light disfiguring a still standing corpse in a matter of second burned itself into the girl's memory.
Slumped at the side of the glass box, everyone vigilantly observed the monster. Most of the body was burned crisp and the mutilated corpse was still steaming. Of the head, everything above the jaws had vanished, but those suddenly moves.
"Ouch. That really hurt. I should have evaded this one, instead of taking it out of curiosity." the corpse mumbled as the frayed edges of wounds turned into something almost liquid and wriggled to close themself.
How could he survive something like this? How did immortality work? it had been one of the major points of his research over the past hundreds of years. The ghoul was able to state with confidence, that he still had little idea of how exactly it worked.
He just knew, that there was something more than just his body, that made him Len.
It was proven by the scope of his own abilities. Centuries ago, Len had already suspected that, despite needing human flesh as fuel, his abilities were not restricted to humans. It was proven to him when he managed to access the memories of the bean-shaped alien.
Many of his abilities influenced more than just the body. Something all beings had in common. To prove this point, he had kept experimenting. Besides perfecting his vampire serum and abilities, he had also researched the slime fungus.
The fungus had not really helped with finding out what exactly he was looking for, but it was the reason he was confident to survive almost anything.
Len had managed to absorb the slime fungus' abilities for a form of rapid regeneration. It was different from the rapid healing that came with his original power as a ghoul or a vampire. Thanks to this ability he did not fear any damage.
In theory, he did not even fear being blasted into space. He could go into a self-induced stasis during travel through the void, just like the fungus. however, he was not crazy enough to test it.
Under the shocked eye, the ghoul quickly started regenerating back to full health. In a matter of moments, a naked man with a pair of terrifying claws stood before them.
"My face is up here. Stop staring at my crown jewels." Len commented indignantly.
Prompted by his comment, they looked up. With a look at his face, their free will was gone.
"What is this-?"
"Urgh, this again."
Only a few, like Tavess and Master Zol, managed to barely resist the ghoul's hypnotic gaze. Most of the disciples and guards, however, came directly under his control.
"Shoot them." the naked evil gave his orders. Master, Boss, and colleagues were killed by Disciples, Subordinates, and colleagues. he had not specified who to shoot, so everyone shoot everyone, except for themself.
"Stop."
The floor was suddenly strewn with corpses and only 5 people survived. Two of them were guards and three were disciples from the order of Pall. Len could only sigh as he looked into their empty eyes.
This was the drawback of direct subordination. This skill was simply too strong, turning the victim into stupid and mindless puppets. it was different from good brainwashing, which gave him intelligent subordinates with absolute loyalty.
This one was quick and dirty, but he had to be very specific with his order. Brainwashed vassals would have understood to only shoot the people unaffected, not to simply shoot anyone on sight.
The little girl was already traumatized once by Len's death, now seeing such a massacre... Len couldn't blame her if she became a cripple.
Ignoring the girl, the other exhibits that had watched everything, were just as shocked and terrified of what just happened. Looking around, he found the lackey Len brought, shot dead during the attack on him.
"What do you little tidbits think of an occupational change?" the offered the cattle a way out.
Originally he just wanted to take the calf, but suddenly the whole her was unprotected and technically ownerless. He saw no reason to hold back.
His gaze was enough for the products to know, that staying in their little boxes was not an option. it was following the creepy man or death.
"You two, go look for other guards and repeat what I'm telling you now," he instructed the two guards before turning to tose from the Order of Pall.
"You guys, get rid of those dump robes and wear some of the guard uniforms," he commanded the three disciples to change. Once they had exchanged their robes for some bloody uniforms, Len made them arrange the corpses until the two guards returned with reinforcements.
As he explained to them what happened as a "witness", he brainwashed them to get some useful allies in this place. Otherwise, it would have been hard to deal with the aftermath.
The rest was quite easy. They got rid of any camera footage and Len ordered the brainwashed guard to spread a simple fabricated story. The order of Pall had invaded The Gallery for unknown reasons.
It came to a skirmish and they stole a bunch of products before escaping. With the dead on both sides littering the floor, this was much more believable, than some supernatural monster killing both sides and running off with a bunch of slaves.
His only regret was, that he had to leave the corpses behind, to make the story believable. The only corpse he took was that of the pallean Zol.
"Master, we found this among the corpses." one of the brainwashed guards approached him before they left.
"What is this?" he asked and looked at the smooth silver device in the guard's hand.
"It should be the control device for their ship, Master." the guard explained.
Len took the control device with a smile. Another ship had found its way into his hands.
"Come here." Len finally pulled his booty from her glass box.
The blue woman was close to tears, but unlike what he expected, she looked at his face with big clear eyes. He could see her fear, he could smell her panic, but she seemed in regard to what she had just witnessed, she seemed almost calm.
He bowed forward and looked into her sapphire eyes. he could have used his powers at this point, but what was the fun in that? Instead, he talked to her with a terribly trustworthy and seductive voice.
"Do not worry. Believe when I tell you, that your death is he last thing I want. I promise you will neither die nor suffer. You even might find happiness in following me. All I ask of you is obedience."
For a long moment, she stared at him. it was as if time had frozen until she finally nodded.
The ghoul released her hand and she followed him and the other slaves as they made their escape.
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